Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ns-mx!iowasp!deimos.cis.ksu.edu!rutgers!usc!ucsd!ucbvax!van-bc! From: lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: Self Extracting Archives Message-ID: <1254@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca> Date: 14 Mar 90 21:25:01 GMT Lines: 61 Return-Path: To: van-bc!rnews In , md3b+@andrew.cmu.edu (Matthew Donald Drown) writes: >My editor doesn't allow me quote, so I will paraphrase a message from >Larry Phillips, lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca If it is a bad quote, >then please correct me. >"Every program that you execute is a potential dissaster." > >Hmm, you must have a lot of fun using your computer. Are you the type of >person who when they leave the house sees the fact that every time he >crosses the street, he could be dead? There comes a point when it is not >worth checking everything. Do you check all the files that come on comercial >disks? How about the files on non-standard dos? Do you power down before >you use the machine after, say, playing a game? What about files that are >crunched? How do you deal with those, you can't check them for text that >you want, you must trust them. >If you run your computer in a way were half your time is spent checking >for viruses then what is your hobbie? Checking for viruses? > >(I don't know if it me you were talking about when you said, "I download >and extact more stuff in a week, then you do in 3 months." But lets cut >this stupid stuff out. We don't need "Mine is better then yours" wars. Good one Matt... send it to me in email and then repeat it to the net. Well, here's how I answered you. No, I don't check commercial stuff, and I don't check stuff that has come to me via a route that I trust. Files that are crunched get uncrunched before I'll use them, or if I can't uncrunch them, I turf them. Non-standard Dos? Not sure what you mean. I don't know if I was talking about you or not, but I assure you that my comment about how much I download and extract was not a "Mine is better than yours" sort of statement. It was a statement of probable fact, and was quite germaine to the discussion. I am a sysop on Compuserve, and part of what I do is to download and test files that have been uploaded, before making them public. While much of the testing is to check for copyright violations, non-corrupted files, and to see if the package is complete and will run, I also routinely check for nasty files that contain viruses or trojans. In the time I have been a sysop, I have personally found 2 programs that contained viruses, and one that contained a trojan. In finding these, I have prevented at least some measure of pain to the members of the forum and to anyone they pass files on to, and consider the time to check to be time well spent. Other sysops on our forum have had similar experiences. I do a lot of different things as part of my hobby. I spend a LOT of time helping other Amiga owners, both novice and veteran, directly and indirectly. I also program, write articles, and build hardware. It is precisely because I don't get a lot of self extracting archives that I have time to do what I do, because I don't have to take as many precautions when I can treat the file as data, rather than executable, and have a better chance of detecting the nasty ones, with some automated tools. -larry -- Entomology bugs me. +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+