@Hugo OK. Thanks for the info. It's strange how people delete themselves. I don't get why.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That was a joke. I was trying to lead you on.

I've heard about this Facebook site. Nothing positive.

@Cerberus oh. cuz if you were seeing those on facebook, I was gonna recommend you get your computer virus-scanned or re-installed from a known virus-free backup

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 And that was exactly what I was hoping you'd say.

So thanks.

I added the "can't do anything until I reboot" specially for you.

@Cerberus Well, if you tell me you're seeing virus-like activity on a site that doesn't do that sort of thing, it's suspicious. If you said you saw those popups on a torrent-downloading site, pfft, that's normal there.

@Cerberus Here's the Google caches for his please-delete-me webcache.googleusercontent.com/… earlier main webcache.googleusercontent.com/…

and meta webcache.googleusercontent.com/…

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Thank you for explaining my joke to me. By the way, I just read that torrent sites are relatively free of malware, as are porn sites, while mainstream sites pose the greatest risk.

Actually, advertisements pose the greatest risk, and mainstream sites are full of those pesky ad networks.

> Cisco found that online shopping sites are 21 times as likely, and search engines are 27 times as likely, to deliver malicious content than a counterfeit software site. Viewing online advertisements? Advertisements are 182 as times likely to deliver malicious content than pornography.

blogs have the highest amount, I think. or did you tell me that @Cerb

I...don't remember.

User19341 seems to have removed himself from Stack Exchange entirely.

So could be.

newsroom.cisco.com/release/1133334/…

His accounts on SO and Physics no longer exist either.

Odd.

@Cerberus search engines? Like, which search engines? The spammy, malware ones? Because the only engines that matter are bing and google, not in that order.

I haven't read it yet.

I was wondering about that too.

@aediaλ wicked pissah

If you're on bob's discount search, pron and warez (dot com) you mightn't be surprised to find that they serve malware ads or have been hacked to serve up java exploits or something.

Let's Bing it.

You can't use bing like a verb unless you work for Microsoft.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Did you read the quote?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 what if you mean beating your kids, like Bing Crosby?

@Cerberus If I hadn't read the quote, how could I have asked you about the search engines part?

Porn and torrent sites are relatively safe, it says.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I don't believe you. I'm Binging that as we speak.

@Cerberus I wonder. Maybe by separating the site from its ad network that makes crappy sites look better. Nobody gets malware from google ads.

Perhaps some XSS on Google?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 You know, I did my trimonthly virus scan yesterday. Turns out I had 6 "threats"!!

Needless to say, I was scared to death.

Those threats were 6 kinds of tracking cookies in Chrome.

It is a miracle my computer hadn't already exploded.

I don't use Chrome btw.

you don't?

And the virus scanner was Anti-Malwaye Bytes, or something like that.

Then how did they get there?

@cornbreadninja I can't believe I forgot that! Totally tubular, dude.

Well, I use it very, very rarely.

Only when a page doesn't work in FF or IE.

@Cerberus so use it in incognito mode

@aediaλ gear.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Midnight snack?

wow, you go to IE first?

Yes, because I can have an IE tab in Firefox.

@aediaλ If you feed your browser cookies after midnight, it turns into a gremlin

So it's much faster. Chrome takes longer to boot.

@Cerberus ew that's so gross

It always wants to update stuff.

At least I think that's why it is somewhat slow to start.

As in 10 seconds.

Chrome starts instantly for me.

But then I can reboot my whole PC in less than one minute.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Nice, huh?

@Cerberus I used to have a plugin that let me view a page in IE, or in FF, but it would spawn the other browser

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 That's probably because you use it regularly, so it doesn't need to update silly stuff every time you use it.

@Cerberus No, I rarely use it

Yeah, I have a button that spawns Chrome and loads the same page.

But it's not in the same tab as with "IE Tab".

I could load you in IE right now...

I object to that! I am not a web page

As good as.

besides, I use CSS3 features that are not compatible with IE

certainly not the shitty, ancient version of IE you are stuck with

Oh, yeah? We'll see...

@cornbreadninja this meaning? I don't have that in my vocabulary, except with a meaning like "stuff you take with you to use for stuff".

Since I have a modern version of windows, soon I'll have the newest, shiniest shitty version of IE there is!

Yay!

Although, actually, people say IE 10 is / will be not so bad.

@Cerberus yeah actually IE8 was okay and IE9 is not bad. It just isn't as nice as firefox.

So anyway, I mentioned those "threats" wondering what you had to say about the fact that I still didn't have any viruses.

Yeah the Fox is nice.

@Cerberus we both know that a clean bill of health from a virus scanner is no proof that your system hasn't been pwned by Russian spammers or Chinese hackers.

But it is very unlikely.

I had a scare the other day when my computer started showing an error message on every single program load.

Oh, dear.

You must have updated Windows again, huh.

Turns out it was WinCVS (cvsnt). I uninstalled it, then re-installed it with fewer options, and the problem went away.

What is that?

haha, no. Windows updates don't break things for me. I can't recall when a Windows update ever broke something for me.

@Cerberus It's a CVS client. for windows. Hence the clever name.

Actually I don't know what went wrong with it. we've been using it at my work for years.

I just read about a certain Windows update that puts the Windows Presentation Foundation plug-in back in after you delete it, which is a security risk.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Odd.

Oh, and you should probably disable the VLC plug-in too.

Just read about that too.

And Adblock is the best virus protection, says Cisco.

@Cerberus Did they mention what the vector for malware through ads is?

Because malware in ads is supposed to be impossible

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Uhh where did you get that idea? I read about malware from ad networks all the time.

Some advertiser uploads an ad to an ad network, then later changes it to include some exploit, usually Java or Flash.

@Cerberus That's the point: it's a java or flash exploit. It's a bug, not a feature. It's supposed to be impossible.

So if you block flash and java, you don't get malware.

So most malware is java, pdf, flash, or active-x

Supposed by whom? Not by me or what I read.

@Cerberus supposed by the people who designed those systems

they are not supposed to allow malware or pwning

that is not in the list of requirements for those programs

Of course noöne supposes his own system to be vulnerable.

@Cerberus My point is that it is the goal of the people who make those programs that they not be vulnerable.

Alright, I'm off to feed the addictions of throngs of caffeine addicts. You kids play nice.

...

@Mahnax Have fun!

And in fact normally the flaws that are used for exploits are known and patched.

Enable them hard!

Oracle has fucked up lately by not patching java enough.

@Cerberus You too!

Always!

But people who don't update Java should not be surprised when their old installation gets pwned by someone.

They even make pictures of their stupidity

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 None of this makes any sense. Lots of malware is distributed through advertisements. You don't seem to be arguing against that, so I don't know what you're saying, but that is my point.

Haha.

@Cerberus My point is that by design, Java, Flash, etc, are not meant to allow malware distribution. They have many features meant to prevent that. Therefore, malware distribution through those channels is supposed to be impossible.

And the fact is that often, the flaw which allows the malware in was known to the vendor, and FIXED, and the fix distributed, and people did not install it.

Browsers are not meant to allow malware distribution.

Java is not meant to...

Etc. etc.

@Cerberus yes that's what I wrote.

All commonplaces. I don't see how this is relevant to the fact that malware is often distributed through ads.

One of the best ways to block malware is by blocking ads.

It was a simple enough question

And I answered it.

To the best of my abilities.

No you didn't, you went on a rant about how nobody "supposes it to be impossible" or whatever

Usually Java or Flash.

That was what I remembered from what I read.

Anyway, I have the cisco report open now

Great.

Reading it is way less infuriating than asking you what it says

You weren't asking me anything.

Is "Java and Flash" not an answer?

I said it was all I remembered.

You said "You weren't asking me anything"

I did ask you something

and your answer was infuriating

Why?

What was I supposed to answer? I thought "Java and Flash" was what you wanted to hear.

I totally don't understand this entire conversation.

@Cerberus And that's why it's infuriating.

Can you answer this?

@Cerberus The infuriating part wasn't that. It was the "it doesn't make sense for you to say that malware in ads is impossible" which isn't what I was saying.

You seemed really confused at my "supposed to be impossible" statement.

I was confused with respect to its relevance, because it seemed a commonplace, obvious.

So you probably meant something else.

I don't see "how does it work, because it isn't supposed to work" is a confusing, or irrelevant question.

I still have no idea whether or not you are trying to argue that blocking ads doesn't help protect you from viruses.

@Cerberus I haven't advanced any position on that

I would say blocking java, flash, pdf, and active X would be the best virus protection

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I did my best to answer that. You did not challenge my answer or ask about details. You didn't even say you found my answer unsatisfactory at the time. You just went on in another direction.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Blocking PDF?

You mean a PDF plug-in?

@Cerberus well, yes. blocking java plugins, flash plugins, pdf plugins, and active-x plugins.

Do people have PDF plug-ins?

Quick! Someone inform @j.r. that Zooey Deschanel, when presented with a rainy day, has to ask Siri if it's raining.

@Cerberus of course they do. Acrobat reader is/has a plugin.

And I didn't know Active-X worked outside IE.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 But why?

@Cerberus well, it doesn't, normally

Why not just open it in your PDF reader?

@Cerberus for embedding pdfs in web pages... shit, I don't know. ask them.

I don't install adobe reader, haven't in years.

apparently that is what protects me from malware.

> If you’re so meteorologically challenged that, upon hearing the unmistakable crack of a storm while staring out a rain-soaked window, you still need to coquettishly inquire, “Is that rain?” then Siri is totally for you.

From Rob's ultimate link on everything you need to know about Siri.

Video included.

In any case, most people need Flash. It is true that my Noscript blocks Flash outside my whitelist, and it blocks XSS and ABE, but still, who knows whether some clever maleficus won't be able to disguise a Flash attack as coming from an ad domain? I would have to block Flash altogether, which is throwing away the baby with the bath water. So blocking ads seems like a good idea.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Nor I.

@RegDwighт Haha wtf.

That article really is fun, and all the articles linked from there.

I have to admit, though, that I look at my phone to tell me whether it's raining.

I read them all.

I thought so did you.

Did I?

@Cerberus I just block flash all the time, with flashblock, which makes it easy to unblock. And java is just off, 99.99% of people have no legitimate use for the java plugin. And active-x, well, I don't use IE. plus IE is doing a better job of preventing active-x exploits these days. And PDF, well, don't install adobe reader.

Really, instead of blocking ads, people should get upset that the software they trusted to be safe turned out to be shite.

@Cerberus you don't have to admit that because you already did. In this room.

When there's an exploit in IE, everyone goes apeshit at MS. When Java has exploits for years, people scratch their heads and wonder what is happening. And nobody even knows about PDF exploits, it seems.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I used to use Flashblock, but I found the extra click cumbersome. In Youtube playlists, for example.

I have Java turned off too.

I enable it when I need it.

@Cerberus Oh, well, I whitelisted youtube. But youtube isn't a source of malware.

@RegDwighт Oh, dear.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Umm I read about people recommending that everyone disable Java all the time.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Right, it had a whitelist at some point.

Perhaps I should try it again.

@Cerberus it's had a whitelist since forever

Or perhaps the whitelist didn't work correctly?

For some reason it was not satisfactory.

@Cerberus yes, lately that's been recommended, but you dont' hear nearly as much about java exploits as you used to

I hear it all the time.

@Cerberus I've found that some pages dont' work unless you whitelist them. probably they have hidden flash objects you can't click on.

I hear little about IE, or perhaps I don't pay attention to it.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I have to make PDFs, and I'm fine. coughs It's just a cold, I swear.

@Cerberus Yes, lately Java exploits are a problem. But historically, they have not been as big news. Yet clearly they are a popular target.

@Cerberus You don't recall the joke that was IE6? It's part of your default install

Anyway, I have to get going.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Right, another potential cause for malfunction...I already have Noscript, Greasemonkey, Stylish, and Cookie Monster to deal with! I can't take much more. I will just click on "display in IE Tab" all the time.

My anti-malware advice is to not run those four plugins that get exploited. Ads are fine, plugins are dangerous.

Auugh! Don't talk about that version of IE anymore! It still gives me nightmares!

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 But blocking ads can prevent the plug-in exploits from ever reaching your browser.

@aediaλ Aww...

@Cerberus An exploit isn't an exploit if it has nothing to exploit.

It's just noise

like how, for years, my linux box was battered with Code Red and SQLSLammer worms.

A vulnerable plug-in is not vulnerable if it has nothing to be hit by.

Just junk for the apache logs

@Cerberus No, it's still vulnerable if you enable it somewhere and the malware is delivered in non-ad form

But blocking ads at least decreases the risk.

I for one am glad I installed adblockers on my parents' computers.

If I blocked Flash, they would switch to IE.

My mother probably has IE 4 or something.

In any case, I'm wondering why my browser says my Silverlight was last updated in April 2012.

Microsoft's fault?

Perhaps I should disable it anyway.

I only use it on one site, I think, and it has a Flash option (...).

@aediaλ yes'm

@Cerberus see, I don't even have silverlight installed. I think.

I only have it because some sites demand it.

Hmm apparently I have the latest version.

@Cerberus It's probably vulnerable to some exploit or other, but hackers haven't spent enough time smashing it.

anyway, I'm outta here. cya

Bai.

Here's one for @Mr.ShinyandNew安宇:

Incredibox

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Night!

@RegDwighт Annoying.

NOU

And enabling Javascript + reloading the page wasn't even enough.

Also, I said for Mr Shiny. You're not Mr Shiny.

I had to actually close the tab and click on you again!

What's the difference?

@cornbreadninja Cool. I mean gear. I mean... gnarly. I wish that one had stayed in fashion.

@Cerberus for you I've got a different link.

Zebra Awareness Test

@RegDwighт Wait, this was supposed to be a lesson about enabling Javascript, right?

Or were you actually showing him the site?

@Cerberus U GO KLIK UR LINK LIVE LINK FOR MRS HINY IN PIECE

Because all I saw was a ridiculous Javascript warning.

This looks like any random socio-psychological test.

Equally bad.

Well give it a try.

I don't know what to answer.

There are all kinds of combinations.

@Cerberus throw a die.

dies

Doesn't work.

throws rat on roulette wheel

Better.

You were less useful as an owl.

@aediaλ bring it back!

@Cerberus Whatever happened to "maybe"? It's the only honest answer.

@Robusto that's the question before that.

Question number four.

It really ruins the joke if I tell it to you like that.

But I might be a zebra.

That's why the test exists.

@Robusto I know!

@RegDwighт Stupid red dot.

NO U

I clicked it only 128 times, and already it was repeating itself.

NOU

Now where was that panda game?

I'm not a panda.

Was it even posted here? I thought it was on Reddit but I can't find it in my saved list.

Not even a pandaphile.

So it could've been here.

I still don't know.

Whether I'm a zebra.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH for only increasing my uncertainty.

@Cerberus FWIW, I think you're a dog.

Thanks.

Disclaimer: I think you're a dog for smaller values of zebra. For larger values, who knows?

Noo...

By the way, is Slate slow/down for you too?

Hmm now it seems to work again.

I thought you didn't read Slate.

> The study ... purports to demonstrate that the way you lose your virginity “is so salient that it is related to future sexual satisfaction and functioning.”

> The study also judges current sexual satisfaction based on “intimate interactions,” which are defined as “any interaction that lasts 10 minutes or longer in which a person is physically intimate with another person.”

@Robusto I do. Mainly Prudence.

@Robusto This is a high-quality study. It is immediately apparent.

I'd have to think really hard to remember what we did when I first shared a bed with someone.

@Cerberus Twitter is reported to be down.

Oh, dear.

Am I lucky that I don't use it!

Plus there have been reports for several hours of problems with Yahoo! Mail.

Hmm some big hosting company having problems again?

Like that one time with Amazon?

Hostess is having trouble. They're trying to unload Twinkies.

@Robusto Are you playing Reg?

> The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.

Ah, now it is up again.

> But a study published this week in Psychosomatic Medicine uncovered something surprising: Heterosexual men had higher levels of depression than gay and bisexual men.

Ugh.

What is WRONG with psychology?

@Cerberus Of course they do.

Not long ago, I read about a study that said that gays are more likely to off themselves.

Heterosexual men have higher levels of children. There is a well established relationship between having children and being depressed.

One study has to be wrong.

So you say.

@Cerberus Who says? Now you are tying depression to suicide?

Maybe suicide is painless.

That study linked it to depression.

Which is rather obvious...

> The sample size of 87 was relatively small

You don't say.

> the respondents were drawn via online ads and word of mouth

At least they admit this.

> The authors of the study say their findings confirm the importance of disclosure. Hopefully straight men can recognize that they, too, inhabit a closet of sorts, from which they can liberate themselves.

First they invalidate their data, then they go on to provide publishable "hypotheses" about them.

guys,

Hi.

anyone here lives in Australia?'

Nope.

Hi Cerberus, how are you doing tonight?

good?

Good, and you?

yeah, good

I found a funny geeky quote last night

Cool.

@Cerberus Right, but it's a preconception. Have to always follow the data.

baby you are as hot as bottom of my laptop

HaHa Xd

Haha.

Very hot.

yeah it is

"So now I'm going to have to shut you down."

If one study says gay men have a high suicide rate and another says gay men are less depressed than straight men, both could be right. There are various confounding factors.

I think that's not true

most of gay ppl I saw were quite successful in their lifes and they didn't look like they are going to suicide or depressed

@MετάEd But it is far less likely than that the "hypothesis" of one study and/or the other is/are weak. The fact that gay men commit suicide more often, if true, is a huge datum that should carry more weight than a low-quality / small sample.

@Cerberus And I repeat, follow the data. Unless you are doing a formal bayesian analysis when you say "far less likely".

@TemporaryNickName The same applies to most straight people.

yeah

@MετάEd I am following the data. 87 men assembled through advertisements and mouth to mouth?

I don't think this adds much to what we already know from actually talking to people. I like that part of psychology far better.

But "straight men are more often depressed" makes for a nice headline.

Guys, what's the difference between dang it, damn it and crap?

Haha.

Not much.

ok

I saw a lot of girls say "dang it" instead of crap or damn it

I can't think of a situation where you would use one but not the others.

Dang it is probably a bit of a euphemism.

Because "damn it" might possibly be considered disrespectful of certain religions.

Which is silly, but...that's what people are.

ah ok

Just like "jeepers" for "Jesus".

And "oh, golly" for "oh, God".

so instead of saying what the f, people say what the hell because it's a bit of a euphemism

Haha.

Actually, "what the heck" is the euphemism for "what the hell", and "freaking" is a euphemism for "fucking". I guess perhaps "what the hell" is weaker than "what the fuck", so perhaps some people use that euphemistically...but it doesn't really feel euphemistic.

@Cerberus Oh, well if you are going to characterize a study based on a headline.

@MετάEd Is that what I'm doing? No. I am characterising it based on a summary I read in that article. And my negative characterisation is based on the sample and the rather far-reaching conclusions, as I gave them. The headline is my explanation of what is wrong with the system, a cause, so to speak.

I mean, they say some things about the position of straight men that are not absurd, and worth considering; but the statistics only make their musings appear worse, because of the suggested evidence.

@Cerberus I have no way of knowing more than what you say. You are making claims about the study. You seem to be saying you draw the evidence for your claims from a headline and a news article. If that's so, then your logic may be perfect but your conclusions are meaningless.

> gay/bisexual men unexpectedly had lower depressive symptoms (p = .003) and AL levels (p = .043) compared with heterosexual men.

> ... Our novel findings underline the roles disclosure processes have on positive health and well-being for sexual minorities.

Guys

How come you guys know a lot of cool vocabularies like euphemism and etc?

Where do you learn them?

From books?

ok, then how can you use them so easily from situations like above? How did you know where to use those vocabs u read from books?

btw brb

When you encounter a certain word several times in context, you get a feel for how it is used. This happens subconsciously.

So lots of reading helps.