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It’s
a Small Wurld, After All
To
the Editor:
I’ve
been gritting my teeth, but now I’ve had enough of watching
the local media heap tons of press on the most recent tech
“golden boys”: WURLD Media of Saratoga [“Learning to Share,”
Listen Here, Jan. 20]. WURLD Media writes and distributes
a category of software known as adware, or spyware. Adware
is software installed surrepticiously on your computer to
track your Web movements, and target pop-up ads at your browser.
Spyware is a category of software that not only tracks your
movements on the web, but can capture keystrokes as well.
These two categories of software are a growing concern because
they install and operate silently in the background, often
inviting other partner softwares to install, until the computer
is nearly unusable. WURLD Media’s software is detected and
cleaned by every major adware/spyware removal software. They
have partnered with other predatory software companies to
invade users’ computers, hijack browsers, and I know because
I spend many hours of my workdays removing the software they
install without consent, just to make people’s computers usable
again. They were on the cutting edge of this wave when it
began a few years ago, and they have recently been accused
of developing new technology to redirect Internet sales commissions
to their partners (called “Parasiteware”). Before praising
WURLD Media any further, I would be forewarned that they now
simply have an even larger base of victim PCs to infect with
their latest software. In my opinion, WURLD Media is part
of what’s wrong with the Internet.
Gary
Moon
PC-Help
Lake George
To the Editor:
Share
and share alike I always say. The article “Learning to Share”
by Kirsten Ferguson couldn’t have been said better if I had
said it myself. Hey, I’ll give you what I have if you give
me what you got. It reminds me of an old but reliable way
of getting what you want without growing it yourself. Although
the concern of virus-toting sabotages did cross my mind, that
worry was silenced by the time I got to the bottom of the
article. However, the potential to obtain old and new music,
videos, movies and games via digital download gives me a feeling
of power that I’m sure will be shared by many downloaders.
I mean where else in the world can a person see footage of
World War II and at the same time download whatever music
fits their fancy while playing a game.
I can understand the concern of the recording industry being
hesitant at first to agree to distribute music this way, after
all, they spent millions of dollars producing and marketing
their artists and they only want their money back. But now
that they’ve finally seen the light, however, maybe they’ll
get some of their money back, especially with this peer-to-peer
network. This is what I call being connected.
The possibilities of grabbing the goods with a touch of a
button not only makes us smarter, but it opens up a whole
new world of experience for a very low price. No more wasting
time searching through old dusty library files and reel-to-reel
documentaries. It only goes to show that if the information
superhighway is used correctly, the possibilities are endless.
Just click and drop.
Rhondine
Shine
Albany
Context?
What Context?
To
the Editor:
Suddenly,
drug dealing equates to an MBA in this town complete with
one’s own small business? [“Sharks to Blood,” What a Week,
Jan. 27]. In response to District Attorney David Soares’ comments
about putting artistic drug dealers behind “storefronts,”
I say reimburse all the legitimate MBA students. Although
his comments may have been meant to inspire unfortunate members
of society whose talents have been misdirected, Soares seems
to be missing the point. I agree we must empower Albany’s
youth and direct talent through appropriate channels, but
the DA, purposefully or accidentally, must not imply a desire
to reward drug dealers for blatantly disregarding the law.
Drug dealers choose to circumvent the law, and do not develop
valuable business acumen in doing so. Sure, taking advantage
of the drug trade might be seizing an opportunity in the purest
form of capitalism, but it takes more than the “ability” to
know what you can charge a crack addict to run a legitimate
business. To that end, it’s “too bad” we don’t make better
use of the ability of a sex offender to spot a susceptible
consumer. We should make better use of the ability of bank
robbers to find a willing market. Our prosecutors consistently
serve the community by the harsh and appropriate prosecution
of criminals. The public should not have to be distracted
by undeveloped comments flippantly made by the DA who, I’m
sure, will be able to put his ideas into better form in the
future. Soares should take advantage of programs like NYS
Youth Corps or REHAB for at-risk youth to put his skills to
work.
Victoria
Reinmann
Albany
The
Terminator
To
the Editor:
Getting
off AOL was fairly easy for me. [“AOL Forever,” Jan. 27] When
the phone rep asked me why I wanted to terminate, I simply
told him, “AOL is a major contributor to the Republican Party.
I don’t like my money going to unworthy causes.” Believe it
or not, there followed a brief moment of silence! I was off
message, and his script lay in ashes. The counteroffensive
he eventually mustered was met with my demand for his name,
immediate termination of my service, and a final bill within
15 days.
And lo, all of this was accomplished, even as I have told
it to you.
Joe
Quandt
Troy
On
Acid, It Sounds Like a Moog
To
the Editor:
As a “prog nerd,” I wanted to bring to your attention that
in a recent issue [Night & Day, Jan. 27], you stated that
the Moog synthesizer was used on King Crimson’s “In the Court
of the Crimson King.” The Moog was not used on this track.
The keyboard used was a Mellotron. The Moog can be heard on
other famous tracks such as ELP’s “Lucky Man” and “Tom Sawyer”
by Rush. I also wanted to thank you for running the info about
the Moog film. I attended the film last night and it was great.
Carl
Schultz
Voorheesville
No
More Happy Endings
To
the Editor:
“Letting
it All Go” [Mind, Body & Spirit, Jan. 27]—you got that
part right! You devote a whole “special section” on high-end
massage to blur the difference between the reportage and the
advertisements, and for a fact, there is hardly any difference
to blur.
You scream to high heaven when the ads blur into the op-ed
columns (as they do) in the dailies. You are no different
and you are no better.
For obvious business reasons, you don’t even try to question
the extravagant claims of these businesses to make their customers
(as Ben Franklin would say) healthy and wealthy and wise.
In fact, their customers will, if nothing else, go away rather
less wealthy, because if you’d mentioned their rates, a lot
of readers would be shocked.
Here we have a practice which undoubtedly has a core of real
value time-tested—but which is almost buried under new-age
capitalism. A “massage parlor” is more honest, or rather less
dishonest, and, like any guy, I enjoy a good hand job. Anyway,
better a hand job than a snow job.
Bob
Black
Albany
Metroland
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