Thursday, January 30, 2003

The most evil thing on the Internet I don't agree with this assessment, but it's close. Wired reports on an Internet Explorer toolbar that does drive-by downloads and automatically installs itself on your computer without permission. The developers claims otherwise but several independent sources proved it was fiendishly difficult to remove from your system. The easy solution to this is to ditch Internet Explorer. Why are you still using it? Try Opera or K-Meleon or Mozilla instead. 5:30:24 PM    Oh yeah? [] Don't call us, we'll... oh, never mind You knew this was coming. The telemarketing lobby has now organized opposition to the proposed "Do Not Call" list. Their argument? ...telemarketers say 27 existing state do-not-call lists and a voluntary national list run by the Direct Marketing Association trade group should provide consumers enough protection. Oh, sure. The state lists are a wonderful thing. Texas has had one in effect since July and it has had a dramatic effect on the number of telemarketing calls we've received. But 27 state laws means there are 23 states with no protection. The voluntary list mentioned above is a travesty. "The DMA are plainly going though the motions that they must know will be ineffective simply to placate some of their members," said Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters Corp., a privacy consulting firm. Well that's hopefully the case. "The FTC is singling out this form of advertising now, what will be next?" said DMA President Robert Weintzen in a prepared statement. Spam, we hope. 4:17:05 PM    Oh yeah? []