Tag: software
Blog admin received this from the broadband telecom company by email and verified it by phone call and visit to the website. You can verify the information yourself by your own methods. (if it’s a hoax, we’ll just file an administrative complaint against the broadband company for spreading it in an official communication)
“We have received information from international agencies that a rampantly spreading DNSChanger malware may infect the computers of internet users globally. If your computer is infected, this malware redirects you to fraudulent websites and DNS servers and can interfere with your online browsing.
“We strongly urge our Broadband subscribers to take the necessary steps to check their computers as soon as possible. If infected, they should remove the virus from their computers immediately. If your computer is infected, you may lose access to the internet by July 9, when U.S. authorities will shut down the temporary servers that continue to allow infected computers to access the internet.
“Checking the status of your computer is easy. Simply click on the US FBIs DNS Changer Working Group, or DCWG, web site at http://www.dcwg.org/, the group working on cleanup resulting from the malware, or click on this link http://www.dns-ok.us/ to find out the status of your computer: green means it is safe; red means it is infected.
“If your computer test results to green, no further action is needed. But, if your test results to red, please visit the ____________ (blog admin’s broadband website) at _________________ ( url of site to check your computer, this links you to www.dns-ok.us ) for a step-by-step instruction on how to recover your computer from this malware.
“We also encourage you to visit our website to read more about this issue.
“We hope this information ensures that you continue to experience seamless internet services.
“ Yours,
“__________(blog admin’s broadband telecom company)”
Blog admin’s note: IN SIMPLER TERMS: Just go type the following in your url bar or click it here:
www.dns-ok.us
This will give you a rectangle (geometric shape) with conical symbols of “people” inside: If the color of the rectangle is green, your computer is not infected. Easy. So it looks like this: 
(image right-clicked from www.dns-ok.us )
If the color of the rectangle is red, your computer is infected.
There’s some literature (explanation) below the rectangle. My computer is not infected.
don’t know what the red rectangle looks like.
[i suppose the FBI got the necessary court orders for this: shutting down access to the internet of some 250,000 infected computers and red-flagging the rest and shutting down their temporary servers (if non-consensual on the part of the servers) by July 9]
DJB has described how the software can be bought from the pirates (the original is very expensive) and said it would cost only P100 and he described in what places they could be bought. Violation of the copyright law has a criminal sanction; selling of the fruits of violations of the copyright law also has a criminal sanction; possession is not yet punished in this country (it is, in other countries including ports of entry), but I think any smart-aleck lawyer can make a case of accessory-to-the-crime for those who possess and benefit or buy and benefit (I’m guessing, no one has filed cases for possession and buying). So…for the record, we don’t buy pirated materials. Endorsing the activity, well, he’s not endorsing, he’s just describing the activity, lemme see, it’s just an academic discussion for the purpose of studying the phenomenon and we are not endorsing any act. -marichu
From DJB: (note from the blog administrator: this is not endorsement of the activity, it is just a description, and is being posted only for purposes of study; I teach media law which includes the Intellectual Property Code, which includes copyright violations).
Dear Marichu,
Believe it or not you can buy Pinnacle nonlinear video editing software, and even better and more expensive stuff from Adobe and Sonic, in completely functional pirated versions in the major malls of Manila (100 pesos can easily buy you $100,000 of such software!)Now you ask, why are there no cheaper versions for the entire of humanity? It’s very simple really. The PIRATES have removed all the incentive for smart young Pinoy programmers for example to create such software. Why? Because you can already buy the best in the world for 100 pesos from the pirates.Take for example the most common software used by all PC’s — the Windows operating system. You can buy every version of Windows XP and even Vista now for 100 pesos or less. That’s been true since Windows 1.0 in 1991. Why would anyone (except Linus Torvald, inventor of Linux) bother to write a competitor to Windows (even if lots of AMA and STI hackers probably could)?The Market Leaders are able to LOCK OUT competition because the Leftists in our society have convinced us we ought to tolerate Piracy as stealing from the Rich Countries and their imperialist multinational software conglolmerates.Smart no? -DJB
