I Wanna Devise A Virus
Isn’t it about time someone wrote a web standards virus? It would uninstall older browsers and replace them with Firefox—or worse case, IE 6. Maybe even be so nice as to move the victims bookmarks/favorites and homepage over to the new browser. Really. Think about it. Wouldn’t the people most-likely to be susceptible to viruses also be those most-likely to have an outdated browser? It’d be the first virus that actually saves corporations money (web development firms in particular).
The world wide web needs viral vigilantes to develop this new virus. Who will step forward? Down with the voice-family hack! Upload with weapons of mass standardization!
Unrelated site update
I finally added the Commentary Archives. You’ll want to clear your cache since the addition required changes to external CSS and JS files. As far as I can tell it’s impossible to archive by year with Movable Type so I ended up dumping entry date, filename and title into a PHP array. That way I had more control over the data. Check it.
023 Comments
dude, that would be great. Virus writers, please do this, and then crumble the Windows platform please.
Yes, delete IE and then replace it with Firefox, and maybe some nice pictures of Clear Pepsi
That would be so cool :-)
It’s been tried before, although the aim was slightly different. Usually with every major new virus someone reverse engineers it and changes the payload to a harmless warning telling the users to upgrade/patch. The nearest equivalent that web developers can use is a browser specific warning (diplayed via CSS or Javascript).
i love it! now it has to be done!
You’re evil… I like it ;)
W32ValidXHTML.A On The Loose…
Great one. heh.
…to bring dire straights to your environment.
Finally, someone got the reference. Thank you Kris! +1
one IE css hack to rule them all ie7dev: http://dean.edwards.name/IE7 haven’t seen anybody post on that recently. (or maybe I missed the post) But as far as I see it the IE problem is here to stay. The only way you or microsoft is going to get rid of it is by releasing a free-auto-install-windowz for dommies. perfection is impossible.
Yup, I think you missed that one. The point is that we shouldn’t have to rely on hacks to make what is inarguably the worlds most prominent browser comply with standards.
But you’ve hit the nail on the head, it’s going to take some Big Brother scheme or guerilla ettack to remedy the current situation.
you must be a 3030 fan…
Excuse me, but what is the voice-family hack?
Rico, the
voice-familyhack, also called the box model hack, is typically used to correct IE 5.x PCs incorrect implementation of the box model by serving it one value (or group of values). The correct values are then hidden from IE 5.x by exploiting a parsing error. One thing I’ve noticed is that the “Be nice to Opera rule” is also a “be nice to IE 5.0 rule” which will ignore the rule that immediately follows this hack without it.Matt, I’m more a fan of Dan the Automator (Handsome Boy Modeling School, Lovage, Bombay the Hard Way: One and Two) but Deltron has his moments.
Not too difficult with a bit of social engineering, I would think. I’ve been thinking about this one for a while now :).
1) Check if an old browser is the default browser. If not, just have the virus self-destruct.
2) Have the “virus” pop up a button when the user next launches IE (or Netscape) that reads like “Your copy of IE has expired. IE can automatically install a newer version. Click OK and enter your administrator password when required.”
3) Download FireFox, install an IE theme, auto-import the user’s bookmarks, and uninstall IE.
4) Send a copy of the virus to everyone in their address book.
VICTORY!!!
I knew that rant sounded familiar… this funky homosapien would love to see guerilla tactics fix things when all else just ain’t working: A previous rant of mine (see comment #27) That sort of virus is just homebrewed grassroots megacorp regulation, right?
A bit late, but I actually tried to do something similar a while back. Surgically removing IE, however, is a pain to do, since you have to worry about what version of Window$ they are using.
Didn’t I hear a rumor that there was an ActiveX control for IE being written by one of the FireFox guys that would install the Fox automatically for you?? I don’t think it would take over as the whole system if you ran it but a nice idea to get the browser out there.
Could give a new definition to “Designed for …” sites. Can you imagine a world where the more purist (evil?!?) standards loving web site/blog owners would make you install a browser before viewing the site ;)
I believe we should follow the law.
That said…
DOWN WITH MICROSOFT!
:))
I just wanted to post to say that I fully support this idea.
I also love the song reference and hope this virus crushes corporations with a mild touch, trashes whole computer systems AND reverts them to papyrus.
I had a similar idea about 9 months ago … see here.
I’d be willing to put forth some money to see this happen. Anyone else?
Down with IE, up with Firefox, except that thousands of AOL members, who rely on the AOL browser with all its quirky behaviourisms, will be screwed up by this, based as it is upon the same components of IE 5.x or 6.0.
Then they’ll all come phoning me up for help =p
Shaun,
Are you a fan of Del the Funkee Homosapien, aka Deltron3030?
Attack! Attack! Attack!