feed your paranoia

I've had a love/hate relationship with computers for years and have always had a conviction that someone else has had access to and control of, my computer .

Guess what ? I was right !
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2015/01/new-drm-boss-same-old-boss

Thanx, peanut. I was wondering about the future of Flash, last year's stories of its demise were premature, now we know.

We're all riding this bus, somebody else is driving. Fortunately, I have a key to the exit door.

Here's one for you: Two weeks after getting my first smartphone, I pulled it out to make a call, only to discover it was running routines on its own, responding to marketing emails and such. I immediately yanked-out the battery, went to the ISP office, and we downloaded the activity/traffic logs.

Somebody (can't reveal) got slapped. ...........Hard.

Don't feed your paranoia.


It starves your demons....

i've frequently caught my PC's running various intensive tasks in the background and despite disabling flash and having anti-virus /malware and using adblock etc it makes no difference.

I regularly go into the Task Manager and turn off various processes but they spring back immediately ! Its a constant battle.

I installed Zone Alarm last year ,the premiere version ££££ It was so resource hungry and completely out of the users control that I uninstalled it a few months later. Guess what!..... Zone alarm had set up a new USER account and given itself all sorts of control over my PC and if I tried to remove, it was so integrated that I would have lost Windows completely .

I had to format the drive and reinstall everything to get rid of it. !

If you cannot trust a leading AVirus Company who can you trust on the net

Your story reminds me of a software ranking scheme I was wanting to advocate long ago. Sorta like the 'maturity level' rating for movies, this would have been an 'intrusiveness level' score.

Some programs are standalone, install completely into one singular area, and don't make changes to the OS parameters. Then, at the other end of the scale, there's software that imbeds its tentacles so deeply into the OS that it affects everything else, and cannot be removed at all.

I've spent a lot of time tweaking my systems the way I want them, and things like this drive me nuts.

Major software/hardware developers struggle with this on a daily basis, as each is competing for system features and resources. This rating/ranking scheme would have at least given consumers and compatability engineering folks a heads-up before committing to install.

Well, this is another of the industry's dirty little secrets, so "hands off!"

The approach I take with this new equipment and software is to realize that I don't really own or control the device. It's actually a 'marketing portal', which I am allowed to use.

So, my 'real' computers are not part of the public net, a self-imposed quarantine. My internet access is restricted to my portables, with the mindset that I'm 'borrowing' them, and they have their own agenda...

TwoManyXS1Bs said:

I've spent a lot of time tweaking my systems the way I want them, and things like this drive me nuts.
.

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that is EXACTLY how I feel about it.

I have also gone to extraordinary lengths over the years to keep control of my PC and limit intrusions but the more I learn the cleverer it seems becomes each new generation of software. I felt I was fighting a losing battle.

My HP Laptop still has 56 ! processes running from all the bloatware it came with. god knows what it all does but I'm sure 2/3rds of it isn't essential

A couple of months ago I decided enough was enough so I built 3x identical Shuttle SN68G2 XPC's with akasa multi media drives that include 2.5" HDD SATA hot swop port for backing up

.XPC 1 (Win7) is for general surfing . It has a SSD drive and everything is backed up and stored externally on 2.5" HDD.

XPC 2 (Win 7)I use for all my AV and still image photo editing and documents etc It has no net connection so I can keep it isolated .

XPC 3 I have installed XP Pro so that I can use some old software like Corel 6 Suite this also has no net connection.

So far this is working well

Good, I was going to suggest 'drive swap ports', but you're already there.

Years ago, my strategy was to build-up a clean/configured OS, then 'image copy' it.
Then go on the 'net, do what I want, let it do what it wants. Unbridled damage.
When done, erase the drive and restore the 'pure' image.

A lotta work, and impractical nowadays...

TwoManyXS1Bs said:

Good, I was going to suggest 'drive swap ports', but you're already there.

Years ago, my strategy was to build-up a clean/configured OS, then 'image copy' it.
Then go on the 'net, do what I want, let it do what it wants. Unbridled damage.
When done, erase the drive and restore the 'pure' image.

A lotta work, and impractical nowadays...

Click to expand...

yes that is the most practical way. I've used Nortons Ghost to clone my drives for the past 10 yrs or so.
It takes such a lot of work and time reinstalling all the necessary programs reconfiguring all your settings in all the software, your browser settings ,bookmarks ,Forum ID's and passwords etc Complete nightmare.

One day someone will design some software that will automate that and continously protect and troubleshoot your computer . Won't that be something

Yeah, that would be great, but terrifyingly complicated. Long ago, the company I worked for developed a rewind software package that would monitor/track/log changes to a hard drive, and perform a kind of backup/restore to a specific date/time.

Extremely complicated, tracking the thousands of intrusive tweaks, then trying to undo them synchronously without crashing/destroying the system. It wasn't a successful product, targeted to the neurotics among us, and soon supplanted by Microsoft's restore feature.

We later offered a 'boot from CD' feature. A somewhat different version of Microsoft's software distribution CD, you would create your ideal OS and copy it to CD. Then, upon boot, the OS would be copied to a virtual drive in memory and run from there.

Sounds great and safe, but to implement software/driver updates would require doing that on a harddrive, then burning another CD. Complicated, more work.

That was over 15 years ago. I'm sure that things have gotten worse, can't keep up with it.
So, I just let them have their way, keep the important stuff isolated. Survival by succumbing...

I just go with a throw it out and start over every few years. My current laptop is on it's last legs whistling past the grave yard. After a recent (physical) crash I sawed off the lid/screen and am using a monitor on the table next to the couch! It blue screens now then but drags itself back from the brink for another few days...
Thanks for reminding me it's time to fire up the usb hard drive and back up the files! Been looking into a drive on the wireless lan with just enough OS to run the file system. But cloud storage is safer in some ways. not sure \i want my "stuff" out on that side of the firewall.
Still deciding if I can stand working off a tablet, wife has gone that way but she doesn't spend (waste) as much time as I do.. Would like to be more connected while on the road. (Don't ask why, it's an addiction.)
My firm belief is that "virus protection" software is the worst computer destroying culprit out there for most of us. Windows defender seems to be pretty innocuous. Yes the idea of a computer as "yours" is not possible anymore. Even if you beat off most of the commercial intrusions, the gummermint is watching over your shoulder, count on it.

Oh; I have been satisfied with "superantispyware also. seems to do just what it should.

we had the same dilemma a while back and decided to get a 10.1" HP Mini 110-3108A netbook each for surfing in the armchair watching TV or in bed or out in our RV etc .

I can also download my photos and do some basic editing and surf whilst out in the field photographing wildlife or on holiday .
They are a perfect solution and very cheap.

Then I use a Shuttle Mini XPC with 22" monitor for heavy duty stuff during the day .

TwoManyXS1Bs said:

We later offered a 'boot from CD' feature. A somewhat different version of Microsoft's software distribution CD, you would create your ideal OS and copy it to CD. Then, upon boot, the OS would be copied to a virtual drive in memory and run from there.

.

Click to expand...

Do you remember the Company back in the 90's that sold memory you could install 10x bootable copies of Windows XP on and run your computer from the memory stick ?

If the OS got sick you'd simply choose another Windows installation at boot up !
I seem to recollect it was Hynix ?

All old hat nowadays of course when you can run your PC from a USB stick

I remember a few years back playing with some of the Linux distros that ran from what they called a "live cd". In a nut shell the OS ran from a cd and was free from manipulation by intrusive software. Now any 3rd party programs would be on a hard drive that would be accessed by the OS so in essence you could still be subject to some unneeded process but the OS itself could be used in a clean state just by putting in a new hard drive or formatting the old drive. The problem I ran into was trying to convince my wife to run it so we (because she was comfortable with M$ operating systems) gave in and stayed with the Microsoft "evil empire". Personally I liked the Ubuntu Linux distro but you have to be comfortable with shell commands and a little coding.

peanut said:

Do you remember the Company back in the 90's that sold memory you could install 10x bootable copies of Windows XP on and run your computer from the memory stick ?

Click to expand...

Ummmm, sorry, no. I was up to my armpits with so many issues that I didn't get much time to play with other toys.
Recall that XP was released after 2000. Spent the day reliving the ptsd of that stressful time, kinda burned-out now...

peanut said:

Do you remember the Company back in the 90's that sold memory you could install 10x bootable copies of Windows XP on and run your computer from the memory stick ?

Click to expand...

I remember that. The idea being your work/digital world would be transportable. Workstations and kiosks would be generic and accept whatever your O/S via USB.
I think that was an ambition of USB storage folks and before nano technology.
Now your phone has more resource and processing power than the whole desktop systems of that era. And are A LOT cheaper.

So on another note is your computer system really the concern? Can you say smart TV?
"They" have been listening and looking for awhile. You can run, but you can't hide.

I was just reading an article about the new vehicles with WIFI and all sorts of technology in them, they are now being hacked. According to this article they are capable of collecting data such as when and where you've been.

Even scarier they have been able to of course remotely unlock, and control various functions such as braking and acceleration, even lock out the steering capabilities.

These features have been selling points for years for vehicles with ON Star or other variations of that service. How many times has something like this been 'sold' to us and in principal is a great idea. But in reality in the background, collecting, recording, and physically endangering us.