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posted by
mrcoolbp
on Wednesday April 22 2015, @06:19AM
from the dagnabbit-stupid-freaking.... dept.
from the dagnabbit-stupid-freaking.... dept.
A 37-year-old Colorado Springs man was cited for discharging a weapon within city limits after shooting his Dell computer 8 times with a 9mm handgun. The police report said that he "was fed up with fighting his computer for the last several months" and shot it in a back alley behind his home. What was not mentioned is exactly why he was so "fed up" with his computer. Could this senseless and violent tragedy have been avoided if his PC were running Linux instead?
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Colorado Man Ends Battle With Computer by Shooting it 8 Times
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Grelb's Reminder:
Eighty percent of all people consider themselves to be above
average drivers.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday April 22 2015, @10:05AM
I'm quite proud of having almost infinite patience when it comes to dumb users, I always figure "I suck at engine mechanics, nobody is great at everything" and take it slow and easy. I mean for Pete's sake I taught an 83 year old woman who had never used a laptop how to use Netflix and Skype, just take your time and let them ask all the noob questions and go at their own pace...right?
But then I ran into Dan...you see Dan wanted a new computer to run a program...Limewire. I explained to him that Limewire no longer existed, that the feds shut down Limewire years ago, that the network Limewire ran on was filled with viruses and fake files by the movie and record companies, wanna guess what he did next? He bought his new PC, went home, typed "Limewire" into the search engine and when the AV refused to let the trojan dropper with the old Limewire icon run he promptly uninstalled the AV and then ran it...filling his PC with clickjacker bugs and spambots. When he tried to return the PC and I saw what he had done I told him that would be an $85 reinstall fee because he trashed the OS...and he was STILL screaming that I should somehow magically bring Limewire back to life! When I threw him out the shop he was yelling "It says Limewire right there, you make it work!" and I heard later he took his new $400 PC and threw it in a ditch.
Talking to other shop guys and having worked in nearly a dozen over the years I can say when you get a jerkoff like in TFA? You look at the details and it AIN'T the computer, its that assface refuses to accept that computers aren't a magic box that can do the impossible. Even my repeat customers that get infected despite my best efforts, like poor little Velma at the local insurance store, the little thing just refuses to accept people can be dishonest on the net and just because an email or FB message says its from her BFF Kim (who never met a link she wouldn't click on) doesn't magically make it safe nor would her friend send her instructions on how to disable her AV just to look at kitten pics...sent in a password protected zip no less when Kim wouldn't know a zip from a ziplock? They just get sheepish and apologize, usually with this horrified look on their faces like they just cut a giant fart. But even in those cases they don't get angry or blame anybody but themselves and you give them the little "here is what you should watch out for" lecture even if they have heard it a million times.
But when you get clowns like this...sigh. They expect to be able to look at every sleazy topsite and click on every link without getting a single bug, expect to push one button and have every social site they use instantly load up and always be logged in (and NEVER have to change a password, especially when they only use 1 for the entire Internet) while never having to worry about their accounts being hijacked, expect to log into their bank at any time while taking ZERO precautions, often even going so far as to shut down every virus scan the PC tries to do and every update the OS tries to perform as "that just slows me down"....and when they find out computers aren't magic boxes that can do all this with nary a single thought or drop of common sense on their part? Its NOT them whose at fault, its the PC, the AV, the OS, etc.
But I don't care if the PC runs Windows, Linux, or OSX, there is no OS that has been built that can keep an ID10T from pulling a PEBKAC, especially when they treat actually learning WTF they need to do to be safe and have it function correctly as an insult.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by fritsd on Wednesday April 22 2015, @12:08PM
Hairyfeet, I respect that you're trying to do right to your customers, but you have to admit that if one of them gets into trouble with viruses and whatnot because of receiving an e-mail, someone in the production chain is doing something wrong.
And I don't think it's your customer, and I don't think it's you.
Disclaimer: I admit I'm a Linux fan and don't use MS Windows if I can help it.
(Score: 0, Troll) by Hairyfeet on Wednesday April 22 2015, @08:31PM
Sigh, so you believe in "magical thinking" that "If I have product X I'm gonna be safe!" while ignoring the fact that Gentoo had more exploits than IE last year [zdnet.com], or that the Linux kernel had 4 times the vulnerabilities than Windows [betanews.com]. So allow me to show you how to write a Linux in 5 easy steps [geekzone.co.nz] and please pay careful note of the fact that he uses the exact same methods Windows malware uses which you chose to ignore I noticed, like social engineering.
So it didn't have a damned thing to do with email, any service capable of sending an attachment that can be zipped will do just as well, hell most of the ones I see today don't even use any attachments but just post a link to an infected website like the "WTF" malware attack currently going after Steam users INCLUDING those using Linux. If you can trick the user into thinking you are trusted? Well short of doing like iOS and taking the ability to install away from the user the OS will eventually get pwned, and as I just demonstrated Linux is in fact worse than Windows when it comes to vulnerabilities. I would argue its because you have thousands of devs that are all doing their own thing without a single fuck given to other groups (for a recent example see systemd flipping the bird to everybody, including Linus, when it comes to logging by taking protected keywords as its own) and that the devs have been skating by on security by obscurity for so long they have gotten lax, but that is a rant for another day.
In any case you have your proof, more vulnerabilities for more bullshit. This is why if it isn't a web server? Linux isn't even a thought. Oh and it looks like I'm not alone in that as Linux has fallen so far it is now listed as "other" [netmarketshare.com] and if the current trend contionues? Linux MIGHT beat Windows XP in 2028. Its a shame that the malware writers don't look at Linux the way the rest of the world does, that security by obscurity strategy might still work, but Google fucked you when they chose the Linux kernel for Android and ChromeOS. Of course they are about to fuck Linux again [arstechnica.com] by pulling a TiVo and making it proprietary but that is a rant for another day as well.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2015, @10:45PM
Get a load of this goy
(Score: 2) by sjames on Thursday April 23 2015, @08:49AM
To be fair, even the "Honor system virus" can be destructive if the user is dumb enough to do what some random stranger says to do.
(Score: 2) by choose another one on Thursday April 23 2015, @09:08AM
Hairyfeet was talking about trouble from people receiving an email _and_ doing something stupid with the email. This is effectively social engineering, it will get pretty much everyone sooner or later (some much sooner and easier than others), and it is _independent_ of OS/platform.
To truly own machines by just receiving an email you need something like Shellshock with vulnerable MTA/MDA or Ghost - http://www.securityweek.com/critical-ghost-vulnerability-impacts-linux-systems [securityweek.com] - but of course those don't affect Windows, so won't worry Hairyfeet and customers....
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by Hairyfeet on Saturday April 25 2015, @06:31PM
Better watch it friend, you don't guzzle the koolaid and go along with the groupthink you too will be constantly modbombed. I've had half a dozen posts from as long as a week ago "magically" go from +5 to -1 to +4 or 5 over and over AND OVER as my little stalker tries to drive down my karma enough that I can't be seen, and I'm not the only one.
It has been pointed out several times to the admins by multiple people who are currently getting modbombed (talking to a few of those under attack its pretty obvious its a SJW that is also into FOSS) but when you consider that it would take less than 5 minutes to write a script that would highlight the IP of the one(s) doing the modbombing I can only conclude that the admins either do not care or 1 of them is also a modbomber.
So if you suddenly see your posts from a couple days ago magically go -1 (the bomber likes to wait until its off the front page, less likely of having their modbombing undone) well now you know why, if it happens to you welcome to the club.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 22 2015, @01:19PM
I get what you are saying. I have run into many people like that.
I do however have a 'clue' what I am doing.
But however everyone once and awhile. The little suckers just tick me the hell off and the thought has crossed my mind.
I can understand why the guy got frustrated. For your first guy you should have pointed him at something like spotify or pandora... He obviously wanted free music. You failed your customer.
You can setup pretty much any computer to be an appliance. It is just a matter of setting up the rights correctly and keeping up on the patches. Using linux is a popular platform for people to do that because the rights are easy to lock down and not a lot of trojans out there target it.
Get a computer with a flaky memory controller though and it is a sad miserable existence. Sometimes taking it out to the bin and tossing it is the best idea.