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Can numbers stand on their heads?

Sure they can but then they're just upside down numbers. Ed Bott posted on his personal blog a link to a post by blogger Long Zheng asking (tongue-in-cheek) if the numbers in the report can be turned on their heads? For example, does the fact that 25% of the sites surveyed in the research try to infect connecting systems with malware mean that the other 75% were clean? Well, yes actually. The question then becomes for anyone willing to take those odds, how do you tell before you connect to a site whether it's bad or not? In other words, you have a three in four chance of getting pirated software and a one in four chance of getting attacked. Hmmm, lemme think...

Published Thursday, November 02, 2006 5:24 PM by alexkoc
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Comments

Saturday, November 04, 2006 8:00 PM by mhornyak

# re: Can numbers stand on their heads?

How do you know which sites are safe?  You ask knowledgeable people.  Perhaps you rely on Google's 'malicious site blocker.'

What do you do if you don't know any?  You take your chances.  

It's a similar to the risk drug users face (Note: I am DECIDEDLY NOT ADVOCATING drug use) make before they purchase drugs from a dealer they haven't purchased from before.

I will also allow that this is another area where Windows Genuine Advantage is better: it has a much, much lower risk of falsely disabling your system than the average website pushing cracks.

Friday, December 15, 2006 5:38 PM by zephzoota

# re: Can numbers stand on their heads?

best answer is dont even go looking for a serial number or crack from websites off of google or yahoo. i dont know why people would take a chance of screwing up their system just to get a serial number. yeah what if they lost a serial number to a legit copy of software well i dunno just look harder for it i guess. or atleast backup ur system before you attempt to look at one of those sites.

Wednesday, April 04, 2007 9:41 AM by zxmon21

# re: Can numbers stand on their heads?

This is not a problem if you don't use a dangerous browser like MS Internet Explorer. I've seen a lot of websites try to install stuff while browsing Firefox, but always got questions.

Plus... Have antivirus software installed?

God... How difficult is this?

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