AOL 9.0 is accused of 'badware behavior'

security.itworld.com ^ | 28 August 2006 | Robert McMillan, IDG News Service, San Francisco Bureau

[Woodman]

"Isn't there any software out there that deals exclusively with removing AOL from a computer?"

"fdisk works remarkably well.. :0)"

ROTFLMAOPIMP, unfortunately I think fdisk is the only solution to an AOL installation. You should browse the registry after and AOhell uninstall, you can spend hours removing hooks and references.

[antiRepublicrat]

Cleaning up after AOL is one of the non-fun things I get to do when my friends complain their computer is acting up.

[Dane]

AOL jumped the shark about 10 years ago, IMHO. It was a nice idea in the days of CompuServe (which it swallowed up), and Prodigy (remember that?). But anyone with a lick of sense ought to know AOL's baaaaaad

My first computer was a Packard Bell 66Mhz 486 with a 420 MB hard drive Circuit City special and it came packaged with Prodigy.

I received an AOL floppy in the mail and signed up, the next day I dropped them and the guy on the phone was an a$$hole and hemmed and hawed about my dropping AOL.

[rw4site]

My sister's grandchild installed three versions of AOL onto her PC without her knowledge. He even installed each version into a separate folder. She is running XP Home and could not remove them.

I was finally able to un install all of them by starting up in "Safe Mode" and using Windows' add and remove feature. I then performed a file search for "aol" and manually deleted most of them. The ones kept were tied to needed programs and I was not sure they weren't needed. Sure sped up her computer.

[Xenalyte]

"We don't think that the disclosure is adequate and there are certain mistakes in the way the software is architected in terms of leaving some programs behind," he said.

"Architect" is a noun. It is not a verb, and applying verb-type endings to it and inserting it in sentences where the verb would go won't make it so.

It's an ugly, nasty coinage and deserves our censure and mockery, as do those who use it.

(/grammar purist mode)

[Toby06]

Stuff can't be architected, but can be engineered. Muahahaha!

[Xenalyte]

I've come to an uneasy truce with engineering as a verb, since I'm not even sure "engineer" was a word until the last century. I think all those words stemmed from the application of "engine" to locomotives, then transferred to the train's captain.

How "engineer" came to be attached to what we now think of as engineers - civil or chemical - is something I don't know and would like to find out.

(Word origins fascinate me.)

[CPOSharky]

AOL disks make nice targets.

[WKB]

Try canceling your service with them.

[ShadowAce]

(Word origins fascinate me.)

"Enthused" still rubs me the wrong way.

[Xenalyte]

As in "he enthused over the new AOL release"? I don't like that much. Ugh.

[r-q-tek86]

I think "engineer" is from a latin word that means "to monkey with"

[garyhope]

Good to know I'm not the only person who doesn't like Adobe and find it annoying.

I don't like sites or companies who use it.

Just tell me what I want to know and quickly thank you.

[COBOL2Java]

[getmeouttaPalmBeachCounty_FL]

Be gentle; I know it's bad for me and my computer. I know. I know. And I hate ("hate"'s a word which I rarely use) aol. It locks up my computer all the time. They're a liberal company, to boot. But I am an intelligent person who feels like aol has implanted something under my skin and separating the two have been impossible for me. I *want* to stop, but there are so many issues. It's like alcohol. It's bad, bad, bad.

There ought to be a 12-step program...

How was aol able to take over my brain? I never saw it coming.

[Toby06]

And Architect is old greek for 'smoker of way too much weed'.

[garyhope]

I thought Compuserve was great, but I guess that was back in the old days of the 80's. It was the era of "hair" bands and guys with eyeliner.

[zeugma]

Kermit! Believe it or not, there is still a Kermit project out there. I noticed it last install I did under Fedora Core 5. I didn't install it, as I have no need for it anymore, but it's good to know that some software never dies.

[ShadowAce]

You may be surprised if I told you that there is a device, currently in widespread use, that people use everyday that still uses protocols like ZMODEM.

Most ATMs today use it to communicate back to the bank.

[zeugma]

(Word origins fascinate me.)

Me too. (hence my nick here)

You might want to check out the OED's Word Of the Day 

Today's entry sucks, but some are incredibly interesting. I love it when they have an entry for really old words. You can trace the history of the word as it evolves.