Virus alert!!

[sogster]

>VERY IMPORTANT WARNING  Please Be Extremely Careful especially if using  internet  mail such as  Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL and so on. This information arrived  this morning from  Microsoft and Norton.  Please send it to everybody you  know who  accesses  the Internet. You may receive an apparently harmless  email with a Power  Point presentation "Life is beautiful. pps". If you  receive it DO NOT  OPEN THE FILE UNDER  ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, and delete it  immediately. if  you  open this file, a message will appear on your  screen saying: "It  is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful",  subsequently you  will LOSE EVERYTHING IN YOUR PC  and the person who sent it to  you  gain access to your name, e-mail and password.  This  is a new virus which started to circulate on Saturday afternoon. WE  NEED TO DO  EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO STOP THIS VIRUS.  AOL has  already confirmed the  severity, and the  antivirus Software's are not  capable of destroying  it. The virus has been created by a hacker who  calls  himself  "life owner".  PLEASE MAKE A COPY OF THIS EMAIL TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS  and  PASS IT ON IMMEDIATELY
>


Had this sent to me by several friends today!!

Sogster.

[Wanderer]

Unfortunately it's the email messages that are the virus. The virus is a hoax and the damage is done by people sending the original message out to others in their address book.
It only does any damage by taking up bandwidth and has been doing the rounds since around 2002.

Ed

[thermidorthelobster]

See http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/life.is.beautiful.hoax.html for details.

Please everybody, before you forward this type of thing on, spend 20 seconds on Google and see if it's a hoax...

[Wanderer]

It is worth adding that .pps files can contain a virus.

Ed

[Bob696]

and PowerPoint files are .ppt (I think  :oops: )

[thermidorthelobster]

and PowerPoint files are .ppt (I think  :oops: )

PPS is a Powerpoint Show file, ie a self-operating PPT.

[sogster]

Sorry folks, i was only trying to be helpful!!

[thermidorthelobster]

I know - I just get a bit grumpy because I get all these at work all the time...

Best thing is to be sceptical about anything you receive and check before you forward.  Often, all the emails flying around about the problem turn out to be worse than the hoax threat was in the first place.

Our telecomms people at work forwarded round a hoax email about mobile phone hijacking - if anybody should have known better, it's them!  Also, check the wording of these things, as once you know they're a hoax, it's often pretty self-evident from the wording, in hindsight.

David

[muddyweb]

Also, check the wording of these things, as once you know they're a hoax, it's often pretty self-evident from the wording, in hindsight.

The bit about Microsoft sending out a virus notification is normally a good pointer..  generally speaking.. they don't ;-)

[datalas]

Also, check the wording of these things, as once you know they're a hoax, it's often pretty self-evident from the wording, in hindsight.

The bit about Microsoft sending out a virus notification is normally a good pointer..  generally speaking.. they don't ;-)

I don't think there's a generally speaking about it.  ISTR they announced a definitive "we will never send out virus alerts, or product updates via email"

[beattiedh]

The best thing I ever did was to stop using windows and all its inherant security flaws a long time ago.

The next time you upgrade switch to a Mac, nearly zero virus', easy to maintian, look fantastic, last for years.

http://www.apple.com/uk/switch/

How can you argue with design and logic and not being ruled by Gates and his cronies.
http://www.apple.com/uk/imac/

If you do want to ditch the devil and want any help give me a shout.

Dunc!!

A loud and proud Mac Addict.

[muddyweb]

Dear oh dear

[Bob696]

I used to work in a college that used Macs in one room. I NEVER took a class where all 15 machines were working :!:  and what a stupid design where you drag the  CD icon to the trash can in order to eject the CD  :roll:

The PC rooms on the other hand were always working (probably something to do with ease of repair)

[thermidorthelobster]

Yes, but you "used to" work in a college...  It's like saying you once drove a car, but it broke down all the time and you had to use a starter handle.  (OK, some of us still have this...)  I didn't think much of Macs myself 10 years ago, but have you used one recently?

I've been using a Mac with OS X for a month or so now, after using PCs for years (since about 1989 or so), and Amigas before that.

The Mac is stable, reliable, easy to use, secure, and virus-proof.  It's exactly what I was looking for out of a computer.  Now I can get on with using it, instead of having to guff around patching, rebuilding, troubleshooting, rebooting etc like I used to on the PC.  I've not rebooted for ten days!

Apart from fetching the files off it, I've not even turned my PC *on* since I got the Mac.

If anybody's looking at a new computer, for goodness' sake take a look at a Mac!  It's the way forwards!

David

[Bob696]

Yes, but you "used to" work in a college

ermmm ...it was 18 months ago and honestly they were a pile of poo.

The only reason the college had them was because the head of department used to be a 'graphic designer' and by tradition he used them and loved them. The students hated them (they could afford PCs but not over priced dinosours).

The HoD left last summer and when the students came back in september the Macs were gone (given to some outreach incentive or other)

Oh and I had a student with only 1 arm (since birth), he found the 1 button mouse system next to impossable to use.

Macs were designed to look good and everything else came second.

The virus thing is nothing to do with the OS, its just that there are so few people using them now that the hackers dont think them a worthy target

 :P

I have posted this link before but it is still funny and holds a lot of truth
http://members.cox.net/clyqz/macs.html

[thermidorthelobster]

I can only think that people didn't take the time and effort to get used to using them.  I'm baffled as to how PCs can in any way be seen as better.  Remember that until a month ago I hadn't used anything other than a PC for many years.

The mouse button count is a personal thing, but Macs work perfectly with 2 button mice if you prefer them.  (It's just a case of plug and play - no messing around with hardware configuration issues, naturally  8) )

All I can do is re-iterate that I've been using mine for several weeks and find it immeasurably better than a PC.  It's more stable, more reliable, easier to use, doesn't feel like it's obsolete before I got it out the box, has a better User Interface, is more consistent, the hardware is better designed, etc etc.  There's no shortage of software, and it tends to be of higher quality (maybe because crap engineers don't bother writing software for a less popular platform).

I don't disagree with you on the virus thing, but I don't really care about the reasons why :)  I'll still be sitting here typing away whilst you're trying to update your virus definitions before you get blasted :)

Plus I get a warm feeling not putting money into this idiot's pocket:
http://www.ntk.net/ballmer/mirrors.html

[beattiedh]

Having been working with Macs for over 11 years, myself, as an engineer and reseller, I can honestly say that it does not suprise me that the reaction of the college is true.

If this was 18 months ago then they would probably have been using OS9 which has been a gradual development of the original OS 7 from about 1989. This OS was easy to work on but easy to fix but was unreliable and when it crashed you could do nothing but restart. It was as unreliable as Win 95, 98 and ME.

Macs now run on OSX which has BSD Unix and a core engine and is there fore based on a proven core code. XP is still based on the fundaments of DOS and until longhorn (a total rewrite of windows yet again) is released will be.

If you have a Mac that is running the old OS you can install the new one on a machine that is up to 6 yeas old and it will run quite happily, no driver issues, it will see and use all of the bits in the box. Talk about longevity of a product and return of investment.

I even have OSX installed on my iPod and that enables me to plug it into any Mac with firewire (standard for over 5 years) and run that computer from my OS on the iPod. Not a hope in hell of doing that sort of logical workflow on a windows machine.

Please don't get me wrong I think Macs have always been good but now with OSX they are the machine that they always should have been.

We sell windows boxes aswell and they are very good for certain tasks however it has been proven that Macs are normally 20% more expensive but have a 40% longer life span and take, we know because we look after Macs & PC's, only take up 20% of our support calls. We look after approx. 200 Macs and 50 PC's.

Techie rant over. It just annoys me that with the amount of money Gates has he still cannot deliver to his customers (most of the world) a proper secure OS. The only way you can protect your machine is to buy a lot of third party utilities, spyware and protection software. I do not even run a virus software, have not done for 2 years, and I am a Mac engineer.

We look after anumber of Mac departments inside PC corporates and whenver we install the Macs the IT boys (all windoze of course) are very cautious and sceptical. Within six months or so 80% have ditched their PC at home because they can but at work still use a PC beacuse of the coporate infrastructure. A bit suprising but true, these IT boys love macs beacuse of their simplicity and logic.

This should never be an argument, but because one person says they have had a bad experience with a Mac doesn't mean they are all bad. I happens to us all even in 4x4 land. Look at my stranded post in Greenlaning forum.

Still you pays your money you takes your choice. Some have landies some have suzukis some have mistsu's but we all like mud!!

Dunc

[muddyweb]

This should never be an argument, but because one person says they have had a bad experience with a Mac doesn't mean they are all bad.

Couldn't agree more... and the same rules must be applied to Windows Machines.  

I run a Mac (OSX 10),  Windows (XP Pro) and Linux (Mandrake 9.2) machines in my daily life....   do NOT be fooled into thinking that *any* of them are fully secure.

There are security vulnerabilities in all operating systems, the only reason we hear about so many Windows problems is because they are so heavily targeted by people who seem to have a problem with Microsoft making money.

Are MS products perfect ?  Of course not.    But they do have a massive user base, and as such are here to stay.

I am very pro Linux, but I will always use the tool I consider best for any given job.  On my laptop, that means I choose to use XP.  It has better device support, better wireless support and I have never had a system crash or hang.   (My experiences... so don't tell me that they are not true).. for all my servers I use Linux, because I happen to think it is a technically better solution for server systems.

What does upset me are the silly attempts to run Microsoft down..  (M$, Micro$$oft, Windoze, and so on)... because in my opinion, these sort of insults give the impression of a lack of other sane argument.

I had something like 200Mb of Mac updates a couple of weeks back... these were security updates.   I didn't hear anybody complaining about that...  yet strangley, when I had 90Mb of XP updates, people on message boards were saying what a terrible mess Windows is, and how they should have got it right in the first place.

If recent events have shown us anything, as Dunc touched on, is that tolerance and acceptance are more important than anything.  

Sorry... that was only meant to be a quick post ;-)

[beattiedh]

Good point Tim.

These systems are all around to stay and it will always be the a choice the user has to make, for home systems anyway.

Mac used to be a lot worse and is now a true OS that works very well. We use both Macs and PC's. PC for admin Sage etc and Macs for our portables because we are an Apple Reseller and we love them.

But we do sell a number of PC solutons and have no qualms in doing so. Horses for courses.

If you are fed up with Windows them the Mac really is now a proper alternative if all you want is a home machine to do letters, handle photos, e-mail, edit movies, surf, print etc

Any windows only application will not run.

I love Macs but PC's do a good job aswell.

Dunc

[thermidorthelobster]

Any windows only application will not run.

They will with Microsoft Virtual PC software.  In fact, because of the hardware issues I had on my PC, Windows XP runs more stably on my Mac than it ever did on my PC.

However, this is very slow on a G4 processor, so I wouldn't recommend it for anything other than occasional use, although I think it's better on a G5.  But it gets you out of trouble for the odd app.

The only thing I use it for is a panoramic photograph package;  there are equivalents on the Mac but I've not found them as good.  Everything else I run native on the Mac.

David

[Wingnut]

I run SeriesLandRover 3rd Edition on 4StarPetrol. It has to be booted all the time and it crashes everywhere. I'd like to upgrade to 110Defender but CurrentOverdraft and BankManager2004 won't support it   :!: :D  :!:

[beattiedh]

They will with Microsoft Virtual PC software.

Thats quite true however as virtual PC is pretty slow and only runs on a G5 with any real gusto I did not mention it. In fact Mac OS is the only OS on which allows you to run 10 OSes at the same if you so wished.

1) BSD Unix
2) OSX
3) OS9 in classic mode
4) Windows 98,ME,XP, Server 2000, Server 2003, Linux, OS2 all in Virtual PC.

So 10 in all on one machine, nice if you need it.

Incedentally Virtual PC was originally made by a company called Connectix but was purchased from them by Microsoft last year beacuse it was so good. There is even a windows version, which allows you to run mutliple version of windows OSes at the same time, like the Mac version.

Interesting stuff if you like this kind of thing!!

Dunc

[datalas]

In fact Mac OS is the only OS on which allows you to run 10 OSes at the same if you so wished.

Erm... VMWare is the same sort of thing (computer emulation) and runs happily on linux and windows, and probably mac OS for that matter....

[beattiedh]

Hi

Good pint, I know tis product  and it's great stuff but it does not run on Mac OS or allow ou to run MacOS so what I should have said is that it is the only one that allows you to run all the Virtual OSes and Mac OS as well.

Dunc

[datalas]

a friend of mine has recently got MacOSX running under windows... I wonder how he did it... will have to ask

[Topple]

You don't get viruses on Linux or Solaris  :D

upgrade to a proper OS and avoid the pain  :lol:

[muddyweb]

Now, you really don't want a list of all the security vulnerabilities found in Linux for the past 12 months do you ?

[xmob]

Now, you really don't want a list of all the security vulnerabilities found in Linux for the past 12 months do you ?

He he.  This is my specialist subject.   :D

In the last 12 months there has been 63 reported vulnerabilities in the Linux Kernel.

[Topple]

compared to how many (thousands ?) in MS.

P

[muddyweb]

The point was, you said there were none... that's not true.

I just think it's a fallacy to suggest that ANY operating system is fully secure or without bugs..   you need to take precautions and keep your system up to date regardless of what it is.