Error-type message: "Infomagic is probably on dope" - what gives?

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This just appeared on my screen as a message box in my Microsoft Internet Explorer program as I was scrolling down one of the posts. (It didn't say "error", but it looked like that type of message.) Has anyone seen this? Any thoughts??

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), January 31, 1999

Answers

Brooks,

The same thing happened to me about an hour ago. I wondered how it was done and who did it. Probably one of the new shills.

I'm going to have to go back and try to remember what thread I was reading when it happened.

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), January 31, 1999.


Sounds like someone just embedded a little Java script in their post. It's trivial to create a windows dialog box using Java script and force your browser to bring up such a box.

-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), January 31, 1999.

Arnie,

Is it possible for a virus to be transmitted by using Java?

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), January 31, 1999.


I saw the "Infomagic is probably on dope" message box while I was reading Jelly Bean's thread "Follow the money - nothing else matters".

-- Kevin (mixesmusic@worldnet.att.net), January 31, 1999.

Not a virus per se (at least not yet), but a lot of other obnoxious things can be done (as a visit to most Java-enabled commercial web sites will show). Say, for example, an uncalled for dialog box...

If you are interested in learning more, here's a good place to start

Computer Virus Myths


-- Arnie Rimmer (Arnie_Rimmer@usa.net), January 31, 1999.


I also saw that message. It popped up while I was reading the thread, "$64,000 Question." Maybe someone would like to visit that thread and see it happens to them.

-- shivermetimbers (zerodegrees@brrrrrr.com), January 31, 1999.

Yeah, someone dropped an applet into $64,000 Question thread. An annoying precedent.

-- PNG (png@gol.com), January 31, 1999.

I got the pop up box at the $64,000 question as well. It's odd that someone would go to the trouble to do that. I understand that it's not very difficult to do, but what's the point? Do many of you people out there think that this is part of some organized effort? It's been mentioned on other threads.

-- d (d@dgi.com), January 31, 1999.

The message pops up after Andy's posts and at Mutha Nachu's response. It is my guess that Mutha might have inserted it as he or she is trying to help Andy with HTML.

-- shivermetimbers (zerodegrees@brrrrrr.com), January 31, 1999.

I lucked out, I guess. MS Explorer 3.0 only told me that "A Java-script error has occurred." Maybe viewing the source code there would be useful -- to somebody who knows html.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), February 01, 1999.


I have heard that Java with Microsoft Explorer (not Netscape) can be programmed to create havoc on your hard drive? Since I use Netscape I didn't pay much attention to that, so I don't have newspaper/magazine/URL ref. Is the Jave/Microsoft thing true? Any info?

BTW -- this is definitely true -- Intel's new Pentium III chips each have a unique ID (serial number) burnt into them. This can be used to track your web browsing habits (even if you refuse cookies).

Several internet freedom groups and the ACLU (wonder of wonders!) are objecting to this. Article in Computer Currents magazine. Look for online version of article.
http://www.currents.net/


By Phil Piemonte, Newsbytes

After meeting with Intel [NASDAQ:INTC] officials Thursday, computer privacy advocates announced they have decided to expand their boycott of Intel's new Pentium III chip, which incorporates an unique code that is used to identify an individual user.

After emerging from a two-hour talk with Intel engineers Thursday, boycott organizers said that a software patch Intel announced Monday in an attempt to satisfy the privacy concerns of critics does not eliminate the problem.

The boycott organizers, which include non-profit Washington, DC-based Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), Junkbusters Corp, a for-profit, online privacy consultancy, and Privacy International, a London-based human rights organization, called on Intel to totally disable the feature on the chips, some of which already may have been shipped to PC manufacturers. The group also has approached the Federal Trade Commission to raise the question of a possible recall of those chips.

At issue is the unique Processor Serial Number (PSN) in each new Pentium III chip, which Intel incorporated as a way to identify users in Internet-based applications such as electronic commerce. One hope was that the new PSN would increase the security of these applications and help reduce online fraud, according to Intel.

Critics immediately attacked the new feature, characterizing it as means by which remote Web sites could begin to collect information on a user's online activities to create individual marketing profiles, among other things. While Intel has framed the PSN as a way to protect individuals from fraud by giving them unique online identifiers, privacy advocates said that the PSN would significantly advance the ability of advertisers and marketers to collect and store highly specific information on individuals. According to EPIC, "The records of many different companies could be joined without the user's knowledge or consent to provide an intrusive profile of activity" on a specific Pentium III-equipped computer.

Boycott organizers said that so far, the US has few legal restrictions on the use of information that is collected online, and that any privacy protections afforded individual users by online businesses are voluntary, rather than bound by law.

EPIC Director Marc Rotenberg told Newsbytes he is "optimistic" about the boycott, in part because "Intel backed down part way at the beginning of the week." Also, he pointed out, several other chipmakers, including AMD and Cyrix, have come out and said they will not use PSN-like technology in their offerings.

"They've gotten the message," Rotenberg said.

Rotenberg said that consumer awareness of the problem is growing, and that the group has received "a lot" of activity at a new Web site called http://www.bigbrotherinside.com , which was launched by organizers to address the Intel boycott. "Privacy remains the number-one issue concerning the Internet today," Rotenberg said, adding that boycott organizers also have begun talking to national consumer groups about the effort.

Rotenberg's optimism is not unfounded, if EPIC's short track record on privacy is any measure. EPIC was established in 1994, the same year it organized efforts to oppose broad implementation of the government-sponsored "Clipper Chip" program, which would have given law enforcement officials at the Commerce and Treasury Departments encryption keys that would allow them to access secure encryption hardware used to protect private communication. EPIC and others organized successful opposition to several attempts by the Clinton administration to advance the plan.

Article posted on 02/01/99


 
-- A (s@microsoft_sucks.org), February 01, 1999.


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