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Sorry About That
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Valleywag: An Instruction Manual
Consumerist, Defamer Leaving the Gawker Media Fold
Extremely literal boss demotes editor to columnist
Robert Scoble now reports to my ex-boss
Nick Denton: "Publishers are sleeping their way to extinction"
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Princess Sparkle Pony
10/27/09

In reply to Sorry About That
Ah, so that's what happened. My work computer got heavily infected. What was hilarious was that our dumb IT person said, "Well, you really shouldn't be going to hacker sites here at work." I said, "Hacker sites? What 'hacker sites?'"

He said, "The site you got the malware from: Lifehacker."

Duh. #gawkermedia
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Aaron Altman
10/27/09

In reply to Sorry About That
On the other hand, Vista's working great now. #gawkermedia
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raincoaster
10/27/09

In reply to Sorry About That
Did you at least get their money? #gawkermedia
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Yahweh Took My Prepuce
10/27/09

In reply to Sorry About That
Was this you? My computer was seized by malware yesterday. I assumed, however, that it was from a typically sketchy TV-streaming website. Windows kept popping up, file permissions were being asked (and denied). Out of nowhere, a Windows Ultimate Defender virus tried to trick me into believing it to be a genuine piece of the OS*. A few safe mode/boot-up antivirus runs later, and Microsoft 7 was junked-- I could no longer log in, and the whole OS needed a fresh install.

Here I am now, on my Ubuntu Linux partition, until the day that I feel like re-engaging in that ass-ache of a re-installation process.

*-I don't think I've seen a genuine piece of obvious malware on my computer since those heady days of 2003-- Windows XP/KaZaa/Limewire What a time warp. Thank you, Gawker. #gawkermedia
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Phyllis Nefler promoted this comment

Uncle_Billy_Slumming
10/27/09

In reply to Sorry About That
So... there was phone conversation? Were they talking from a throw-away cellphone? And what do they gain? Just poison Gawker so that people won't want to come hang out here? Anyone look carefully at the behaviour of the malware to see what it was doing? #gawkermedia
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dontread
10/27/09

@Uncle_Billy_Slumming: Yes, I was wondering this too. I suppose most Gawker readers to be broke-ass and can't really imagine how or what malware scammers would hope to gain. #gawkermedia
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Uncle_Billy_Slumming
10/27/09

@dontread: Or maybe just a superslick way of letting the world know that advertising on the site is not prohibitively expensive... #gawkermedia
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SybilDisobedience
10/26/09

In reply to Sorry About That
I was one of the victims! Well, on my work PC, so no harm, no foul. #gawkermedia
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Princess Sparkle Pony
10/27/09

@SybilDisobedience:
Me too. I got two days off out of it! #gawkermedia
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Cynical Media Bitch
10/26/09

In reply to Sorry About That
I am thinking about giving up on journalism and going back into IT, but what keeps me from pulling the trigger is my dread of the viral crap that fools in sales and marketing seem inevitably drawn to, like flies to a carcass. Those people can be dumber than dirt, or as one of my bosses once put it: "C students selling to C students."

And sales execs wonder why there's a demand for ad-blocking software... sheesh. #gawkermedia
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UGAdawg
10/26/09

@Cynical Media Bitch: You might want to stay in journalism, lol. I'm in IT and every once in a while I'm forced to deal with folks that surf where they shouldn't or download some crap without knowing the ramifications. I'm left taking their hard drive out the laptop/tower and running at least three scans on it. My first is with Malwarebytes. The second with Microsoft Forefront. The third is running a chkdsk /r on it. If I'm inclined I'll do a defrag on it and leave it running overnight. It works about 95% of the time If all else fails I whip out my handy dandy Combo fix application and nuke what's left. After doing all this I may be wiped out mentally but look at the incident as job security. #gawkermedia
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Cynical Media Bitch
10/26/09

@UGAdawg: At least what you're describing is pretty much set-it-and-forget-it. What I'm not sure I want to do anymore is to spend two or three days chasing interviews and doing research for a 1000-word article that pays (if anything) 10¢/word, when I know that I'm going to have to wait months for that check to show up in my mailbox. #gawkermedia
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o-line
10/26/09

In reply to Sorry About That
Can you disclose which sites the ads ran on and during what time so I can decide how badly I need to check my work computer and maybe save myself a yelling?
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sympathyforthebasementcat promoted this comment Edited by o-line at 10/26/09 9:02 PM o-line was starred o-line was unstarred

Spy from the Land of Rainpeople
10/26/09

@o-line: I'm not affiliated with Gawker, but: Friday morning-noon Pacific time. Some sort of attack that exploits Adobe PDF plugin. I'm sorry I don't have a details, but my kitchen computer again proved immune. It just reminded me to quit slacking and go to the office.

But I'm still interested about the current veneral disease protocol in big cities of the USA. #gawkermedia
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Spy from the Land of Rainpeople
10/26/09

@Spy from the Land of Rainpeople: OK, I actually went to my kitchen computer and checked. For me it was 9:32am Pacific on Friday. The URL was wbavv.com/docs/bh.pdf. After a quick look it was some sort of Javascript in PDF attack, to which my machine is immune.

Hopefully this info will help some people.

But I still have to bemoan the slippage of the ethics standards in NY. Sometime last century I let some marketing executive share my umbrella and let her dry her clothes is my hotel room. Afterwards she was kind enough to leave me a detailed message on exactly what kind of bloodwork I should run. #gawkermedia
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Kaila Hale-Stern promoted this comment

sympathyforthebasementcat
10/26/09

@o-line: I got it from Jezebel. Twice. Once in the morning, and once in the early afternoon.

I think you would know if you had it though. My computers were pretty much immediately incapacitated. I hope my work can fix the computers and don't have to investigate too much because I'd rather not have them block Gawker network. #gawkermedia
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Sergio Hernandez
10/26/09

In reply to Sorry About That
Any plans to post the audio of James Del and "George"'s phone call?

Because that was the best part.
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Edited by Sergio Hernandez at 10/26/09 8:48 PM Sergio Hernandez was starred Sergio Hernandez was unstarred

ohgee
10/26/09

In reply to Sorry About That
man this thing crippled my office computer. i'm still trying to get rid of it. it won't let me install malwarebytes since i don't have administrative access. #gawkermedia
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Beau Nerd promoted this comment ohgee was starred ohgee was unstarred

Beau Nerd
10/26/09

@ohgee: Fucked my office comp up real good too. I.T. spent the better part of the morning fixing me up, and I caught the third degree something fierce. And the whole time I'm thinking "It couldn't possibly have been a Gawker site..." #gawkermedia
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Motoko Kusanagi
10/26/09

In reply to Sorry About That
Online advertising is such a wasteland.

Everything about it feels dirty, including a page of adblock and flashblock divs. All the time, energy and effort that goes into scrounging a few million bucks profit out of what would have been a massive publishing empire a few years ago.

Also, I will never buy a Suzuki anyway. #gawkermedia
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Nigerian Business Executive
10/26/09

In reply to Sorry About That
Hurray for Adblock Plus! In yer face, phishers and dumb ad sales teams! #gawkermedia
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Cynical Media Bitch promoted this comment

random_play
05/18/09

In reply to Valleywag: An Instruction Manual
Goodbye Owen! Thanks for everything.
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elvenjewel
05/18/09

In reply to Valleywag: An Instruction Manual
Owen, your last post is by far your best. I for one will miss you. Good luck on your new beat.
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forwardmotion
05/17/09

In reply to Valleywag: An Instruction Manual
I would say the LAST thing to love about the silicon valley is its people. Oh, and maybe all the metal poisoning
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