Looks distinctly spammish.

To be honest, I'm too skittish about malware to visit the link to verify it...I haven't totally secured this box.

>> ^dag:
I don't think that's related. I get that sometimes too. Ad companies- and even our own, non-ad content - use Content Delivery Networks that replicate things like images, flash files and scripts across a network of servers around the globe- with the goal of directing you to the content that is geographically closest to your location. Sometimes those CDN servers have hiccups or down time.
We use a CDN for our images, CSS files and scripts at static1.videosift.com. Advertisers use something similar. Can you tell what content it's stuck on by looking at the status bar at the bottom of the browser?>> ^rougy:
I don't know if this is related or not, but about 8 out of 10 pages that I open on VS will not load all of the way. They'll just hang there and I have to press the stop button before the page will respond to any mouse clicks.
I've noticed that it tends to happen on pages containing some new Flash-type ads that I haven't seen before.



Thanks for the feedback.

I'm using Opera now, so I can't see which element is hanging up, but I'll play around with FF and see if anything shows up.

Comment hidden because you are ignoring dag. (show it anyway)

I don't think that's related. I get that sometimes too. Ad companies- and even our own, non-ad content - use Content Delivery Networks that replicate things like images, flash files and scripts across a network of servers around the globe- with the goal of directing you to the content that is geographically closest to your location. Sometimes those CDN servers have hiccups or down time.

We use a CDN for our images, CSS files and scripts at static1.videosift.com. Advertisers use something similar. Can you tell what content it's stuck on by looking at the status bar at the bottom of the browser?>> ^rougy:
I don't know if this is related or not, but about 8 out of 10 pages that I open on VS will not load all of the way. They'll just hang there and I have to press the stop button before the page will respond to any mouse clicks.
I've noticed that it tends to happen on pages containing some new Flash-type ads that I haven't seen before.

Hey Dag,
I have a hard drive that was infected by malware at statcntr.com on 1-6-2010.
You mentioned you would like a copy of the file.
I'm not sure if I know how to do that, but with some coaching I may be able to get it to you if you are still interested.
The infected hard drive is external to my current pc which shows no sign of the malware infection.

let me know

In reply to this comment by dag:
Well, here's what I know:

I've contacted our ad networks to see if they had any info about it - neither claim any knowledge and say it's not part of their inventory.

I've used my VPN to become US-based and tried about 40 reloads with Chrome- but can't make it happen.

StatCntr.com seems to be triggering on BoingBoing and TweetMeme as well:
http://search.twitter.com/search?q=statcntr.com

Still looking into it- if anybody gets it and manages to snag the source code that is around it- we'd love to have a look.

Thanks

This thing will meet the computing needs of just about all of my relatives. They are average people with average tech knowledge and ability. This is the market that will benefit from the iPad, and will make Apple lots of money.

At first I forgot that Apple is targeting the 'average' market, and almost threw a fit over the lack of a webcam. Then I remembered that the majority of computer users don't actually use webcams. I don't even use a webcam, I was just hoping for as many bells and whistles as possible, without thinking realistically.

The lack of Flash also made me do a doubletake. But after some thought, I realized that Flash is mostly used for three things on the web: video, games, and advertisement. We can scratch the need for advertisement. There are already tons of free games for the iPad. Video is going to be a problem at first, but as HTML5 gains traction it will become a non-issue. I'm not so sure Flash is such a dealbreaker.

No multitasking is a bit of a bummer, but not as bad as many think. On my iPhone, I can listen to music, browse the web, and receive push notifications when I receive an instant message. In a second or two I can go from reading a web page to typing a message to a friend. When I'm done, I can easily get back to my web page. It's by no means multitasking, but it's not terrible.

One overlooked benefit is the security aspect of the iPad. Right now I can think of one "virus" for the iPhone. It only effects jailbroken devices with default root passwords, and is only proof of concept. As it stands right now, the iPad may be one of the safest browsing devices out there. As the resident tech guy, again and again I have helped clean up family computers which were completely trashed due to malware and viruses. I don't see that being a problem with the iPad anytime soon. This gives me piece of mind, helps me rest easier knowing my family isn't at such risk.

Personally, I don't think I'll be getting one because I already have an iPhone and a nice desktop computer. When I go mobile, I'll be getting a nice laptop. However, I can easily see my parents using an iPad. My dad LOVES his iPod Touch, hardly uses his laptop anymore. This will be perfect for the many many people like my parents.

I've not seen it in videosift, but I found this thread by googling 'statctr' after getting the big red malware warning from several different sites, each time citing statctr.com.

Get avast or avg and spybot search and destroy installed. Get malwarebytes and scan with that too. They're all free. I don't know of a good free firewall.

Lol, there shouldn't be the need for police either, but here we are.

>> ^gorillaman:
Title is correct. The problem is our governments aren't interested in protecting us. There shouldn't be any need for antivirus or firewalls, you don't walk around in a helmet in case someone hits you in the head. We should crucify these people and televise it.

Well, they do manage to keep me employed fixing these things. Just about every week I get a machine from a friend that requires attention for the low price of free... at least they hope.

The combination we use these days for free stuff is malwarebytes/super antispyware/avira anti-virus together, and that usually clears up most things.

Personally I have had the misfortune of getting conficker on a laptop, however it is pretty easy to remove (and spot) apart from having the nasty habit of attempting to infect usb flash drives placing a binary autorun.inf on the things.

Unfortunately, this will likely never end as most malware is developed outside the US and its exceptionally easy to hide ones tracks these days with botnets that are traded like commodities.

I often wonder if some of the anti-virus vendors cook up some of this crap since there is the occasional "BEWARE OF (virus/malware)" scare and it always is fronted by companies who want you to buy their software, which likely would not protect you againt most of this crap anyways. There is no software that can fix PEBKAC.

These days I solve "questionable website" problems by visiting them in a VM. You would be amazed at how much you can fuck one up and then when you reboot you snapshot it back to how it was before. VirtualBox is free and *really* good these days and with 1TB disks becoming the norm one can easily afford the 10-20GB of a virtual install of XP.

I've NEVER had to wipe a hard drive due to malware or viruses.

Well, maybe to some people it's worth paying the extra $500, so that for the life of that computer they don't have to worry about ever having to wipe their drive and reinstall their OS, apps, and data because of all the freaking malware that's taken for granted in Windows.

I'm amazed at what some Windows users have to go through, not just computer newbs who unwittingly got viruses on their computers but tech savvy hard-core gamers who built their own PCs and are offline for days because they have to reimage after getting infected.

Um - virus' and trojans have appeared on ipods, music players and other hardware. Visiting hi-jacked websites can also infect you. (at my old work an art reference site was hijacked, giving me an afternoon of scanning and deleting malware...over 100 items in total) Anyone who thinks that anti-virus software is a 'scam' is headed under 'toothpaste is a lie devised by dentists in order to make you spend money'.

Free anti-virus is better than none, but its not as good as most subscription based systems.

Best way to infect someone, hijack a website and run the script. Also jpeg's can and have been known to hide virus' and with the increase in the MAC's user base, it too is starting to come under attack.

If you don't have any anti-virus then you are crippling everyone else, as a zombie pc is used to infect others.
(And no, there is no obvious way of knowing without scanning)
http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/Macintosh_Viruses_and_Mac_Virus_Resources.htm

the 'macs don't get viruses' is a load of bollocks. You are less likely, granted, but not immune.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie_computer

Someone should adress the urgent issue of finger pregnancy amongst internet users. Soon the internets will be full of unwanted little fingers, all prone to crime and clicking on malwares.

>> ^jonny:
used it to send spam to email accounts that they owned.
How would that be illegal if they owned the accounts? Or did you mean they "owned" a list of valid emails derived from usage on their website?

What could I do to improve matters and what other software could I run to ensure I haven't installed malware?
Buy a Mac. You might also find everything else in your computing life getting easier as well.


The illegal behaviour is accessing pcs without permission and is a crime under the Computer Misuse Act. Given the various controversies over faked call-ins, competitions and the Russell/Brand debacle you'd think they would avoid their teatime IT programme buying a freaking botnet.

No to Macs! Mainly because of the cost but I just don't think I could change from Windows now.