Posted on IRC just now:

I win. A friend got his XP laptop infected with that bogus ‘Security Tool’ through a Facebook app masquerading as a game, and it used a spoofed Adobe download manager to deliver the payload. I managed to cure the MBR rootkit and isolated the .exe and sent it off to the MS malware center. MS responded this evening saying it was a new (less than 72 hrs old) variant of Win32/Obfuscator.JL with added baggage of Alureon, Hiloti, tidserv and Kryptik.

For the unclued, that’s a keylogger, a rootkit, a zombie and a password snooper.

Particularly nasty combination.

From now on, I’m refusing all application requests on Facebook.  I was refusing most already as being more of a waste of time than anything, but more scarily is that you’re sharing your personal data with these programs, not something anyone should feel comfortable with.

No, they aren’t bashing Apple, they are just abusing them as an easy target for sensational journalism.

That example par excellence of stellar journalistic accomplishment The Melbourne Age, tells us this morning that iPods and iPads are nothing less than the Typhoid Mary of the looming global apocalyptic pandemic. Well, they stop just short of putting it exactly like that, but it’s hard to understand exactly why they’re running an article headlined ‘Apple Store Teeming With Germs’, if not to warn good citizens about the looming plague.

Because they surely wouldn’t be doing it just to bash Apple.

via iPads Will Kill You! « Tetherd Cow Ahead.

CultOfMac has a long and fascinating interview with John Sculley on Steve Jobs and Apple’s success.  Telling for me, in the wake of recent advertising by Microsoft having a complete lack of focus (Windows Phone 7 adverts excepted) was this comment:

But great advertising comes from great clients. The best creative people want to work for the best clients. If you are a client who doesn’t appreciate great work, or a client who won’t take risks and try new stuff, or a client who can’t get excited about the creative, then you’re the wrong kind of client.

Also interesting considering the iPod is how Jobs looked up to Sony, and was given one of the first Walkmans, which he then disassembled.

I saw, out of the corner of my eye in Tweetie, someone had posted some javascript, but paid no attention until literally every tweet a few minutes later was warning people NOT to use the Twitter.com web site to tweet. Turns out if you see a blank tweet there with just a black line, mousing over the line causes you to re-tweet the exploit. Update: There were a few different versions out there apparently.

Here is what one of the exploits looks like in Firefox with NoScript blocking javascript execution:

How the Twitter.com javascript exploit looks with javascript turned off.

Ouch is all I can say.

calvetica.

A seriously fast iPhone calendar that uses the built-in calendar, with full sync etc. Apple could learn a thing or two from these guys.