Wired.com tracks down the origins of that annoying hoax about AOL, Microsoft, and Intel merging. Quite interesting: it started as a computer science student’s spoof of ‘get rich quick’ schemes.

And for the curious, here’s the history of the hoax that’s referred to in the article.

(via Fark.com)

Whoever came up with the ‘Only The Best’ variation of the CoolWebSearch spyware needs to be shot. (Here’s some info on it from PCHell.com, and here’s the SpywareInfo thread on it.) I’ve been trying to remove this monstrosity from a computer here at the office, and it’s been insanely difficult… partly because it regenerates itself and uses completely random names for its files, and partly because some of the files it generates have names which vaguely resemble those of Windows components.

Compared to this junk, Gator and its ilk seem like knights in shining armor. At least they make it possible to remove their software without going through hoops…

Do yourself a favor, everyone: if you haven’t already done so, please stop using Internet Explorer as your primary browser, and go grab Firefox or Netscape 7.1 instead. You won’t regret it.