WATCH OUT

A few days ago, this blog's wife's computer screen suddenly started erupting with pop-up ads, sometimes filling the entire screen. After much hassle, this blog found and finally managed to eliminate an evil bunch of sneaky parasitic turdware called "n-Case," which is put out by a company called 180Solutions. According to this article, 180Solutions thinks it's performing a fine public service. Here' a quote from the "chief executive," Keith Smith:

"I think there are a lot of misconceptions out there. They view us as hijacking a user's computer, adding no value to the consumer and bombarding them with advertising messages. That is absolutely not the case. We are sponsoring content and making the Internet free."

With all due respect to Mr. Smith, he's a lying crapweasel. We have no idea how his company's software leeched its way onto our computer, but it never asked permission, and once it got on there, an excellent description of what it did would be "hijacking a user's computer, adding no value to the consumer and bombarding them with advertising messages."

If you think you might have this problem, you might want to check out a fine -- and free -- program called Ad-Aware.

Comments

[Blogchik]

Babs, Babs, Babs. Your hubby may be a great husband and father, but the product he is foisting on the product is harmful crap. Whether he is great as husband and father is completely irrelevant.

I still go with the "lying crapweasel" assessment. Is that your real email address? Are you sure you want Dave Barry readers to have it? I'm sure they will be happy to tell you their opinion of 180 products or whatever they call their spamming, computer-locking crap.

[Beth]

Bravo, Jessica! Well said!

[mudstuffin]

Just a thought, maybe we could like, send a few files to Bab's email address, you know like maybe really BIG files, just to make sure that's really her email address.

[Freemont Solutino]

Here's my first attempt at bombarding the crapweasels. I notice that when you submit a comment, it takes you back to the same page with all the same fields filled in, to make it easy to submit one scathing message after another.

Dear 180Solutions:

I love you! Everyone with the name "Freemont" loves you! I'm not sure about people with other names, but since everyone I know loves pop-up windows, spyware, and other invasive advertising techniques, I'm sure you're universally well-loved!

You are crapweasels! In case you're confused, that means I love you!

Love,
Freemont Solutino

P.S.: It's spelled "asterisk," not "asterick," you silly crapweasels!

P.P.S.: What's the purpose of having a "Retype Address" field? I don't love that. But I still love you!

[Freemont Solutino]

My favorite so far:

Dear 180Solutions:

Crapweasels! (90,735 times)

Yay!

That amounts to over a megabyte of text. ( :

[Freemont Solutino]

I've grown the number of "Freemont!"s up over half a million now. It takes a long time to submit, but it's worth it! Besides, my operating system handles multiprogramming intelligently, so I can go on with other things while I wait.

[Keith Smith]

The following responses were garned from participant surveys of a recent market analysis on pop-up ads:
"They help improve my hand/eye co-ordination."
"They make me look like I'm multi-tasking."
"In the right browser, they are relatively easy to turn off."
"They introduce me to things I would never ever think of buying!"

[Garret]

Do you guys think Keith Smith probably looks (and acts) exactly like the boss in The Office?

[Freemont Solutino]

It looks like 180solutions.com is down now. Maybe their ASP form couldn't handle submissions that large. Too bad.

[looney girl]

I also use the spy bot from pc world and it works GREAT for me. I was also being attacked by Gator and god knows who all else. As far as I can tell Babs is brainwashed. Perhaps someone should send her pc all this junk and THEN she how she feels about "free speech".

[Leetie]

Thank goodness for Hijack This software... It finally got rid of the "bridge.dll" error message that had been popping up upon boot-up for weeks after ad-aware took care of everything else! Whew!

Garret, absolutely!
"It's all good, right? eh?"

[Gary M]

Both my wife and my compter was hit with this very same adware and both of us did not download anything or agree to anything. This was a pain in the butt to get off our computers too. I found one great spyware remover called Bazooka. Now this is a software that will tell you what you have and step by step on how to remove it. I had to donate after I get this application because out of ad-ware, spybot, spyband and other popular removers, this is hands down the best to remove all spyware. Good luck!

[Eykis (self-annointed DaveBlog paralegal)]

Has anybody heard from Babs -- IF she was a real troll? or just pretending to be one for her crapweasel husband? She's probably sitting there with her martini, her maid, and her nanny, not realizing a revolution against spam is on the horizon. (Bet they even have nannies so they don't have to deal with their children). Diamonds and furs make a good husband, is that the deal, Mrs. Crapweasel? Meanwhile, my husband is out actually trying to save children. That makes sense, your husband irritates people and makes money, my husband saves children and is not a millionare. Have a nice evening and stay out of our computers and our blog.

[Eykis (self-annointed DaveBlog paralegal)]

Has anybody heard from Babs -- IF she was a real troll? or just pretending to be one for her crapweasel husband? She's probably sitting there with her martini, her maid, and her nanny, not realizing a revolution against spam is on the horizon. (Bet they even have nannies so they don't have to deal with their children). Diamonds and furs make a good husband, is that the deal, Mrs. Crapweasel? Meanwhile, my husband is out actually trying to save children. That makes sense, your husband irritates people and makes money, my husband saves children and is not a millionare. Have a nice evening and stay out of our computers and our blog.

[Eykis (self-annointed DaveBlog paralegal)]

See, the crapweasels are causing posts to be placed twice when I only posted once.

[Sharlit]

Uh-huh Keith. Sure. And for those four comments, there were a few million more involving curse words. You can rationalize it all you want, but the fact is you could be doing something far more noble and productive with your life. Is all the money you're supposedly making worth cheesing people off?

And, side note, my Mac has been tremendously reliable. Fiance's PC, not so much. There are good and bad computers in both camps. As a graphic artist, it is the best machine for me. Macs are, at the moment, specialty machines, IMO. That may change, but it's important to keep in mind the pros and cons of each type.

PS off topic - No Pants Day went over very well at work! Tuba Day - not so much.

[eadn]

Eykis, I got yer back and your husband has my respect no end. Sometimes I gotta say it with a period cause my honor is too deep for an exclamation point. Sleep well, and both of you be that which survives....

[Eykis (self-annointed DaveBlog paralegal)]

Eadn, thanks, I feel like I just won the Oscar and failed to thank most of the people I wanted to thank, having just been on the other thread. So, to my fellow Blogmates, female and male, I apologize for not listing you directly, but you know who you are. My computer is still a friggin' mess thanks to crapweasels. It will, however, be fixed by morning, even if I have to stay up all night. My husband will be home late tonight due to dealing with "other people's children", but that's okay, people seek him out to train under him because "he's the best there ever was in juvenile", and he is....he's a good man and a loving person, husband, father and grandfather. The world could use less crapweasels and more humanitarians. Humanitarians don't make a gazillion dollars, they just love humans and have a good heart. On a more humorous note, they also hate lawsuits! See you in class action land, or anything else I can figure out to get rid of crapweasels. This may be a case where everyone wants to "opt out" of the class action and make the crapweasels pay the blackhearts and us millions to settle each case individually. That's always more fun for the humans and costs the crapweasels far more money. Working on a couple of those kinds of cases right now....you know, we could all make about a $1.98 but it would be worth it! Katie

[Eykis (self-annointed DaveBlog paralegal)]

Eykis knows this: how much lawyers charge and how they charge~Rx: get rid of crapweasels by costing them gazillions in legal fees~

[Eykis (The Mom of a College Graduate))]

New Subject, same thread: okay, University Blogmates, my daughter (who's ten times prettier than me and I am dayum adorable) is about to graduate LSU~the deal is: we are about as Irish as its gets....she was born on St. Paddy's day, 1982. I always promised her a trip to Ireland for her college graduation and I actually saved the money to do this. Is this a cool gift or am I a total geek? She really wants to go and I have the vacation time...plus, she's gonna go to law school....hit me with your best shot. Kathleen Anne O'Reilly -- thanks

[Alex]

Travel, especially the kind that a broke college student (or recent graduate) could never afford is always cool, especially when it's in a country associated with excessive alcohol consumption.

[Jackie]

Two things about Ad-Aware:

Make sure you are periodically doing a "deep scan".

Try to keep "Ad-watch" (complementary program) running. It keeps the popups away and keeps (BEST of all) the browser hijackers from changing your homepage!!

[James]

Heres the letter I sent from "Fremont, Fremont"

I'd like to thank you for hijacking a user's computer, adding no value to the consumer and bombarding me with advertising messages. That is absolutely the case. You are sponsoring content and making the Internet free for yourself.

I'm LYING ABOUT BEING THANKFUL YOU STINKING CRAPWEASEL!!!

[marlodianne]

Hey! No one mentioned the beauty that is Opera! It's got so many excellent accessabilty options AND it blocks popups and so much more. :)

I've been using Ad-Aware, Norton, and Zonealarm pro as a very effective net team since about 1996.
About the only thing that could still get me was popups, but then I found Opera, which also has a setting that tosses your cookies every time you exit.

As far as I'm concerned any kind of personally targeted spam (emails, popups, junk mail, telemarketing) should be treated as stalking / haressment by law. But since it's not, the crapweasels should just remember EVERYTHING you do comes back to you somehow. PO enough people and they'll make it their mission to help in the return.

Oh, and Mac lovers...I have to laugh. I have friends who were so excited to get their first Mac. They were downright giddy, raving about how they'll have no crashes, and it will be so easy. I pointed out they'd have no software too :P Well, they've had it for 4 months now, and they can't figure out how to use it. Turns out the box that markets itself as the ultimate in user-friendly turned out to be a snarling incomprehensible mess. I will smirk at this irony even harder every time my pc goes and crashes. At least it works sometimes! ;D

[Allen]

I left my comments ;)