Stanislav Sinyagin schrieb:
From: Martin Ebnoether ventilator@semmel.ch
All that is needed to take Skype down is an automatic windows update of some thousand computers.
Remember last summer? http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20070819
hey Venty, long time no see :)
if you remember, back in 2003-2004 there were viruses which knocked down hundreds of thousands of windows PCs. So what, we're still using that :)
Well, you maybe - I don't ;-) But then, I also didn't use Windows in 2003, either... Nowadays, the viruses don't knock down the Windows-boxes, they just use them as Spam-Zombies or attack-drones or whatever the people that rent them want to use them for.
If the tool serves my needs, I don't really care if it's open source - I'm not going to compile anything on my desktop anyway. And if it collects any marketing stats, so what, everyone is doing that, and we're helping them (Coop Supercard for example).
I don't have any of those, either.
There's nothing bad about companies knowing better what I might buy from them :-)
I think you are oversimplifying and trivializing what these databases can be used for. Nowadays, these giant databases of consumer buying-behavior are probably also used to find potential terrorists. "Who bought box-cutters and what did they buy with them?" "Who bought box-cutters only?" "Who bought the other items alone that the people buying box-cutters and other items bought?"
It's hilarious, but that's how some people actually believe the war against terror can be won.
Also, I think you should do some reading regarding the Skype application. I think that if it wasn't for its widespread use, most AV-programs would consider it "malware". The executable itself is packed and encrypted and actively tries to avoid debugging/reverse-engineering by in-memory debuggers. The communication itself is encrypted with an unknown encryption-method. And of course, yes, no source code is available (for the general public).
I did sign up for an account and used it for a few times - but just because I didn't have time to setup my own Jabber server and experiment with iChat ;-) I've got a _very_ bad feeling using this app - it's just scary.
Rainer