Re: The Psychology of Responding to Crackpots
From: The Ghost In The Machine (ewill_at_aurigae.athghost7038suus.net)
Date: 07/03/04
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Date: Sat, 03 Jul 2004 16:00:11 GMT
In sci.logic, Charlie-Boo
<chvol@aol.com>
wrote
on 3 Jul 2004 04:02:05 -0700
<3df1e59f.0407030302.7c520215@posting.google.com>:
> G. Frege <no_spam@aol.com> wrote
>> On 2 Jul 2004 12:55:54 -0700, chvol@aol.com (Charlie-Boo) wrote: bla
>> bla.
>>
>> http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html
>>
>> :-)))
>>
>>
>> F.
>
> Once again violating federal law against distributing software
> designed to disrupt the functioning of computers. Under the Patriot
> Act, law enforcement officials can demand the identity of offenders
> from the ISP.
>
> The address to write to is groups-abuse@google.com
>
> I believe that the penalty is a function of the number of offenses.
> Would you like to try again, Frege? How many are we up to now, 5 or
> 6? (But I guess I should check the other groups as well, come to
> think of it.)
>
> Charlie Volkstorf
That particular Flash file is not designed to damage your computer,
although it might mess with your mind... :-) (The flashing may
trigger epileptic seizures as well, though I can't say for sure.)
However, there is also an attached Javascript that could
be mildly disruptive. It is designed to open at least
6 windows and move them around the screen, Furthermore,
these windows cannot be closed (as the attempt creates
6 more!) without killing the display subsystem -- on
Linux, Ctrl-Alt-Backspace will kill X; on Windows the
three-fingered salute may be effective as there's no
indication this javascript hides anything nastier than a
self-replicating window.
And the windows move around, as well. It's a somewhat
amusing effect but a limiter on the replication would be nice.
It's not a dangerous hack (a la Nimda), just a rather
silly one -- and the hack disrupts Linux machines as well.
(In fact, mine had to reboot -- but that's because of
a display problem, methinks; my ATI9000 card and the
proprietary drivers aren't all that happy with each other.
Process quotas will probably keep this particular beastie
in line in the future, should I wish to bother. My display
problems, of course, are my own...)
You can probably attempt to contact sners at yahoo.com (the
owner of the AlbinoBlacksheep.com website) whose address
is given on the 'whois' registrant entry. His snailmail
address is available as well (it's in Canada).
A traceroute indicates www.theplanet.com is involved as well.
They are based in Dallas, TX. They are apparently a machine
hosting service -- "rent-a-rack" is the best way I can think
of to put it.
All of this information is publically available (using
traceroute and whois), and one can download copies of the
offending Javascript (*without* activating it) using a
tool such as 'wget':
wget http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/you.html
wget http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/script/you.js
wget http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/flash/open.html
The offending code can then be viewed using an ordinary
text editor. ("Open With" on Windows -- use Notepad
or Wordpad. Linux users can use their favorite text
editor; I happen to like vi). Printouts might be useful
as evidence in court, though one has to be careful here.
Dillo, Amaya, and lynx are also quite safe (no
understanding of Flash, Javascript, or both). If you wish
to browse these links in a Javascript-aware browser such
as IE or mozilla, disable the Javascript first and proceed
dead slow at your own risk. :-)
-- #191, ewill3@earthlink.net It's still legal to go .sigless.
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