Version: 2008
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Comments on: Spyware Horror Story: Stowaway pirate

It isn't always easy buying computers abroad. When things go wrong, fixing them might be even harder.

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by hardheidi May 6, 2008 5:51 PM PDT
nmn
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by Motyoj May 6, 2008 6:01 PM PDT
You did the right thing by getting Ubuntu. Microsoft's software is a real mess that's expensive, sluggish, bloated, and a pain in the you know what. Once you get the hang of Linux, you'll never go back to M$.
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by Ord3s May 6, 2008 10:38 PM PDT
Reading the Horrorstories prove more and more, how many people are incompetent of using a computer, or have a computer knowledge, besides of clicking on icons and launching software.

I dont even see the the connection between this article and spyware. Is she implanting that the pirated office 03 came with spyware? Might be, but doenst really make sense as it was running fine in the beginning. The spyware would have already been active than. And not just a year later.

"I run some networked applications, it is on 24-7. About six months into this, Office started to go wrong" -- This is properly the way u got infected. And when i think about your knowledge, i think you mostly running download, torrent, limewire etc (network applictions) 24/7. This for 6 months with and low level it knowledge. No wonder. What happen did happen.

Or perhaps your system is clean. And you just jamed it up to 10mb free space, fragmented registry, etc.

Why bother about the spanish Win. When it really is a legal copy, i wouldnt mind just downloading an english Win, and use my original legal key for instal.

Going to linux is a good choice. But you might have some problems in the beginning. Specially with the command line.

conclusion:
to many n00bs using computers
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by jsyost May 8, 2008 4:47 PM PDT
That person may not be great with a computer, but at least she can spell, type, and use the English language with some proficiency.
by Tiburnation May 19, 2008 11:32 PM PDT
Too many "n00bs using computers"? Grasp the concept of grammar and spelling before you obnoxiously begin to insult those you apparently feel superior to. Your post really just made you look ignorant, not more intelligent than all of us "n00bs".
by jedimasterlego May 7, 2008 3:36 AM PDT
as a U.S.-citizen born in (and currently living overseas in) Panama (the COUNTRY, where the Panama-Canal is, NOT 'Panama City Florida'), I can understand, AND RELATE. I absolutely DESPISE the fact that, here in Panama, technological products, technology-related products, electronics, etc, are EVEN MORE EXPENSIVE than in the States (example: you think $299.00 flat for Bose Quiet-Comfort-2 headphones and $349.00 flat for Bose Quiet-Comfort-3 headphones is "expensive"? Try $349.99 before-adding-a-5%-sales-tax-to-the-price for Bose Quiet-Comfort-2 headphones, and $379.99 before-adding-a-5%-sales-tax-to-the-price for Bose Quiet-Comfort-3 headphones, AND IMAGINE NOT EVEN HAVING THE SENNHEISER PX450 HEADPHONES (as if "they don't exist")!!! want another example? try paying $1599.97 before-adding-a-5%-sales-tax-to-the-price for this laptop (which I happened to buy at a local electronics store here in Panama called Panafoto, the website of it is www.panafoto.com by the way, in January 2004; yes I know, up there in the States, technology was WAY FARTHER AHEAD than the specs I'm about to state): Pentium 4 processor 2.8GHz, 256MB of RAM, 32MB "integrated" video memory ("Intel" graphics), 40GB hard-drive, "B"-standard integrated wireless-network-card, DVD-ROM/CD-RW "combo" drive, parallel port, video port, 56k modem, 10/100 integrated-network-port, touchpad, spanish keyboard, 15" 'standard-aspect-display" (4:3 ratio; yeah, NOT WIDESCREEN) 'XGA'-resolution LCD-screen. Yeah I know, crappy specs (pardon my bad-language please).

Not to mention, that, (ironically enough), despite the fact that there are TONS of needs and uses for English computers, English software, etc, down here in Panama (and now that there are TONS of American, European, and/or English-speaking retirees coming down to Panama to retire), the companies down here (or whoever is actually IN CHARGE of importing stuff to Panama; yeah, EVERYTHING has to be imported. Just imagine the State of Hawaii, except in a MUCH MUCH FAR WORSE situation. Yeah that's it; JUST IMAGINE IT BEING WORSE THAN IN HAWAII) STILL don't bring software, computers, electronics, NOT EVEN CARS WITH THE RESPECTFUL INSTRUCTION-MANUALS, IN ENGLISH.

Hey, I believe that, if you're an American, or a English person, or Scottish, or French, or Australian, or whatever it is you are, you should have a CHOICE in what language you want your software to be. What's more: I remember hearing AGES AGO that the United States, due to the amount of Latin and/or Spanish-speaking people in the country (and yes, I heard this information from friends of mine in the States who I chat with online), U.S. schools were starting to teach Spanish AS A MAIN LANGUAGE also. Do you find that in Panama? HELL NO.

Not to mention, you want to know what types of Internet are available here in Panama for consumers?: Cable-Modem, and "ADSL" (some weird cooky version of "DSL"); take your pick. Those are the only two types of Internet-access available here. There is a company here in Panama now starting to "market" 'WiMax' Internet-service here in Panama, but, you want to know the speeds?: $99.99 before-adding-a-5%-sales-tax-to-the-price for the base-unit, plus prepaid-cards in the following costs and speeds: $10.00 before-adding-a-5%-sales-tax-to-the-price for 256K speed for 7 days; $20.00 before-adding-a-5%-sales-tax-to-the-price for 128K speed for 30 days; $30.00 before-adding-a-5%-sales-tax-to-the-price for 256K speed for 30 days. DO YOU EVEN "CALL" THOSE PATHETIC SPEEDS "WIMAX"??!! I THOUGHT "WIMAX" WAS SUPPOSED TO BE "4G", AND THEREFORE, "4G"-TYPE SPEEDS, NOT something we've been having since JUST AFTER "dialup" was invented!!!! :-O (www.wipet.com is the website, in case anyone is interested in checking it out).

Not to mention, there are companies down here who have EVEN MORE of a "monopoly" than what Microsoft has up there in the States. Take Panama's "#1" (only because they've had a "exclusive-telecommunications-company"-type contract made directly with the president of Panama back in 1997) "Telecommunications" company, Cable & Wireless (yeah, the company from England, who is running the joint in Telecommunications here). Remember when dialup started getting so darn cheap because EVERYONE started using broadband? Well, in Panama's case, "public" ISPs started cropping up that offered "free" "public" dialup Internet; a good thing for everyone, considering that there are call-centers and contact-centers here that pay you wages like $2.50-per-hour BEFORE-TAXES (social-security, income-tax, "education"-tax to help fund Panama's "public" schools; I'll tell you more about the public schools in a bit), and people are like "wow! you work in a call-center?! that's AWESOME!!! $2.50 an hour? YOU'RE SO LUCKY!!!" yes I know. Panama's people are pathetic... Anyways, Cable & Wireless started whining that EVERYONE started using these "public" "free" (because they're, supposedly anyway, "public") ISPs, and they got together and decided "hey, since we're also the LANDLINE-PHONE company of Panama, why don't we [also] just, as the PHONE-company in Panama and not the INTERNET-company, let's just put software that detects who gets online and on what WAY they get online, and let's charge them a PER-MINUTE fee for getting online on dialup, when they use ANY OTHER DIALUP ISP except our own! AND, to make it even better, let's charge them THAT "per-minute"fee-when-they-use-any-other-dialup-ISP-except-our-own EVEN WHEN they have a "UNLIMITED"-type dialup-ISP and THE PHONE-LINE THEY ARE USING (AND PAYING US MONTHLY FOR) is a phone-line with UNLIMITED-LOCAL-MINUTES. and, you know what else? while we're at it, let's do this anyway: even though the judge-in-that-court-of-law-we-went-to-when-we-went-to-court-under-lawsuit-and-the-complaints filed-against-us-for-us-whining-about-the-public-ISPs ordered us (and the ruling decision was) not to "change our landline-telephone" plans in order to make it more beneficial for us, let's do this anyway. I like breaking the law. People in this darn country are too lazy to do anything about it anyway..." (Yes, this is EXACTLY what happened in Panama; no, I'm not kidding nor lying to you. I have no reason to lie).

>>personal note to everyone: and by the way, isn't the before-mentioned thing ILLEGAL?? isn't it ILLEGAL for a telecommunications company, Internet-Service-Provider, basically, ANYONE, to do something like what i just mentioned above???

anyways, with all this stuff in mind, someone should roll up their sleeves and send an email to Bill Gates telling him the issues at hand and telling him to KILL VISTA, RE-NEW AND RESTART WINDOWS XP, AND, start shipping WINDOWS-XP-IN-ENGLISH SOFTWARE IN COUNTRIES WHERE THEY ARE NEEDED, EVEN THOUGH THE COUNTRIES CLAIM "English is not our primary language" and/or "we wouldn't sell that much English operating systems here. It's not cost-effective". my dad and i both studied marketing, so i know what i'm talking about when i say this, BUT THE PEOPLE ARE ABSOLUTELY INSANE IF THEY THINK "it's not cost effective" TO SEND ENGLISH SOFTWARE DOWN HERE. EVERY SINGLE DAY, I SEE AND HEAR PEOPLE WHINING ABOUT THE SAME THING: "no ENGLISH software, no ENGLISH software". and why wouldn't they whine? if you have English-language Windows XP, you can change the language to virtually any language anywhere in the world. if you have SPANISH Windows-XP, YOU'RE STUCK WITH IT AND YOU CAN'T CHANGE IT. NOT TO MENTION, IT'S A HECK OF ALOT MORE CONFUSING TO NAVIGATE, THAN EVEN WINDOWS-XP WAS WHEN WINDOWS-XP-IN-ENGLISH FIRST CAME OUT!!!!!!!!!!! (shocker huh?).
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by NutsAboutTrucks May 8, 2008 5:30 AM PDT
It was your choice to live there, I notice you don't complain about the low cost of living in Panama. Anyway I think vista is an excellent operating system, congrats to Bill Gates and his team. Hope you cool down soon, there are far worse problems in this rotten Planet than the ones you are moaning about. Have a good day.
by ruengdet May 7, 2008 6:00 AM PDT
It is a business. Many programmer coding spy/virus can force you to pay money for them. If you don't they still attack you until you give up. It is a game (business game).

So bored. I don't want to buy computer for anti virus/spyware software. I buy computer for my work/game that made me happy.

DAMN! Got hell.
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by emperordarius May 7, 2008 9:35 PM PDT
I use a pirated version too and have no problem. Actually I have the blue edition, a unique edition designed for office designer (not for sale) and without activation. 100%clean.
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by bbbeavis May 8, 2008 11:42 PM PDT
I pirate software, too. A little work gets you all of the software for free. All I do is fire up my copy unpaid for copy of OpenSuse 10.3 and select from 100's of programs in the repositories. By the way, what does "FOSS" mean?
by emperordarius May 7, 2008 9:40 PM PDT
Pirated don't mean spyware. Half of the progs in my pc are pirated ones. And my computer is clean, since I have an army of anti spywares, anti rootkits and the best antivirus installed. You just have to find the warez in the right places.
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by ScottZhou May 8, 2008 2:39 AM PDT
Everything have reason to be exist. Why Win is so popular? Because it don't need you to type command line to open Office. You just only move you mouse and to click by finger. Linux only good for Server. It's even hard to move mouse and click for most people who have computer. What make me laugh is I have seen few people use double click to open IE or Outlook in Quick Launch tool bar. And they're wondering why 2 same programs start at same time.
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by dan356 May 8, 2008 6:34 PM PDT
Who should of just used openoffice, its like just as good as microsoft office it not better, its totally free.
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by brian1951 May 8, 2008 10:01 PM PDT
While I agree with some of your points, I find your arrogance a little off putting. In life and on the computer, everyone makes mistakes. That's no reason to call them stupid. Computer users are a diverse lot. Everybody can't be expected to have your level of computing knowledge. This is true especially if their focus is something else like being an excellent writer, an artist, musician, or other professional. That's why IT professionals, help desks and magazines like PC Magazine exist. For these people the PC is a tool. They neither have the time, nor the inclination to develop IT skills. They shouldn't have to develop these skills.
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by caladan1810 May 9, 2008 12:21 AM PDT
I'm still at a loss as how to how this even remotely related to Spyware/Malware?

It's seems to me as though someone has pirated copies of Office 2003 installed and it could simply be WGA/OGA checking ot make sure you have legal copies. I have heard where by Microsoft will limit access to certain features if found to be a Non-Authentic copy. But still not spyware/malware. Think this story needs to be filed elsewhere! Perhaps under "how to buy a computer abroad!"
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by ethyrdude May 10, 2008 3:57 AM PDT
I love it when "geeks" try to explain why they don't want to use Linux because they don't want to use command line commands to start their programs. My wife is no geek, and she uses Linux all the time. How? She clicks on icons on the screen to start open office, or firefox or any of a hundred different games. I guess you geeks really are what you say you are (Look up the real meaning of the word - Geek) and not real computer wiz's. As for avoiding pirated software, use open source, it's free, it's downloadable and it's legal! Don't believe all the B$ from the M$ boys (and girls). Linux only for servers - you guys make me laugh, mwahaha!
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by sufyanU May 22, 2008 11:57 PM PDT
I finally found what I'm looking for.
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