Actually no it not - if the bots are sending spam - that MUST be done on port 25 to the target mail server .. if that port is blocked, it cant deliver its payload to other mail recipients.

never realized that, but they love those recursive acronyms at MS. XNA, for example, is "XNA is Not an Acronym"

As much as I hate defending MS, I can't help but doing it here.

A rootkit (and that is one) in a system means that you, being software running on that system, have no chance of detecting it, at least if it has done its homework. For the patcher, those checksums might even have been correct.

It also needn't be manipulated files. Windows, as any OS that has to allow low level drivers, allows you to load non-MS ring0 drivers. Like, say, Linux. It's either that or writing a device driver for every single pesky little controller out there. Do you think MS would do that? Or even do it well?

Now, you don't need drivers for hard drives themselves, but for their controllers. And spyware is quite keen on snuggling up to those controller and "filtering" the calls between them and the OS. Now, those spyware drivers are deemed part of the I/O system (for obvious reasons, they are part of the HD controller drivers as far the OS is concerned). If that driver cannot be loaded because that patch fixes a loophole the spyware used, the OS identifies that as a critical error in the HD controller driver and cannot access the hard drive anymore. BSOD.

The very same would probably happen in Linux, in BSD, in ... whatever Apple's OS is called, I forgot. You have a driver that is deemed critical by the system that fails to load.

If you want to blame anything on MS here, it's probably that this rootkit drivers could be installed in the first place. And I honestly don't know if it's MS to blame or the user. What should MS do if the user clicks "allow" on anything he gets asked? Take away control from the user? I doubt you'd like that.

Amazing honesty.

I have no idea why you get modded Flamebait, maybe because you dared to suggest something that "takes away freedoms".

Bluntly, if anything it might save our freedoms. Because, well, do you think our politicians will not use the rampart spreading infections to spin? "You cannot take care of your computer, therefore we have to limit your ability to install stuff. Only approved applications may run anymore and that way no spyware can infect your machines. And only machines that adhere to this standard may join the internet".

Watch the sheeple cheer. Yay! Finally safe and protected from those evil malware infections!

Someday soon a politician will post what appears to be a benign photo with an embarrassing long/lat location.

This is probably the dumbest thing anyone will say on slashdot today, and I do realize the enormity of such a statement. No SUV is the most popular vehicle on the American road. It's pretty much always a Japanese sedan. It was the Camry for a long time, and now it's the Civic. Unless it's changed again recently. A child seat is an insurance policy. There's not $500,000 available to each child seat buyer if we stop buying child seats. And since a passenger car is cheaper to purchase and operate than an SUV, your comment becomes even more nonsensical.

And yet, a careless dirty finger can give you gingivitis.

You're trolling right? Nobody is this dumb.

And yet, your supposedly similar examples are not at all similar.

Skype can do this without any problems so I'm sure Blizzard can find a way to make it work. I am not sure how Skype does it but there are many ways to solve the problem.

1: Check to see if your public IP address is the same as the IP address of your opponent. If so, assume you are on the same network. Perform a broadcast on the subnet to find the private IP of your opponent.

2: Send your private IP address to the match-making server. Match-making server provides both the private and public IP addresses of your opponents. Use the private IP if your public IPs are the same.

And Skype probably uses another method altogether. The point being - it is not a difficult problem to solve.

Never say die! Never quit while you're ahead!

I never would have guessed the ultimate demise of the RIAA would be themselves.

Projecting an image of the Sun to a screen is way more convenient - many people may watch at the same time.

On the surface, this does not seem like a bad idea. If the drone is just capturing video of what is out in the open for all to see anyway, I don't have a problem with a drone recording it. What is a bit troubling is that we know that some of the military drones have infrared capability - so it would be possible in theory for one of these drones to be equipped with the same capability, allowing it to look directly into buildings and homes.

This made me laugh a little :)