Cav's Place

Since I was on their forums again recently, to report a weird false positive, I ended up posting the most complete version of my wishlist for the next version of BitDefender, which can easily apply to antivirus software in general. A part of it had to do with proper testing and a solid, stable and efficient code, recognizing that an antivirus is a core system component that can make or break almost as much as the operating system itself and acting like they’re aware of the responsibility for once, but most was about customization, as they’ve been steadily stripping users of the means to control their products for many years now.
Of course, the first job of antivirus software is to stop any malware from infecting the computer it’s installed on, obviously without ending up being seen more or less as malware in itself because of the problems caused or the high amount of system resources used. However, it can also provide knowledgeable users methods of controlling what happens on their computers, and when you combine this with the fact that automated actions may well do more harm than good, it becomes perfectly obvious that the user should be able to fully control and customize every single feature, component and action… Which is why I’m posting a somewhat updated version of that wishlist here, because while the people at BitDefender couldn’t care less about any such requests, others might.

Of course, requesting complete and easy user control doesn’t imply removing automated settings and actions. The people who wouldn’t know what to do if asked and those who simply don’t want to bother with it will still be able to use default settings and all those features that make such software largely act on its own, without questions or even notifications, but let people who know what they want to happen on their computers easily customize and make choices, every single one of them if they want to. As a quick list, this would imply at least the following:
1. Allow the user to select which modules to install and allow settings to be made during installation, applying them on first launch, so any undesired functions will never be activated and the program won’t run in default mode at all if the user doesn’t want that to happen.
2. If any threats are found during the install scan, inform the user of them and either ask what action to take or, at the very least, allow the user to undo the actions taken automatically.
3. Have a clear “prompt” setting for pretty much anything and everything, make the resulting prompts informative, including exactly what was found, where, what the recommended action is and links to further information, if available, and obviously also make the answers highly customizable. I’ll detail this customization of prompts in the next section.
4. If the user desires some automated actions, allow such actions to be customized it great detail.
5. Let the user customize the alerts, individually. Have a list of all the possible events that may be noticed by the software, grouped for ease of access, and allow the user to select whether they want to be notified about each of them and, if so, how.
6. Offer as many details as possible about the system, running processes and their actions, making them easily accessible at all times, specifically in order to aid the user in monitoring and controlling what happens on their computer.
7. When web traffic scanning is active, allow the user to select whether a web page that is, in itself, safe but contains infected external elements should be blocked completely or the block should only apply to said external elements. Also, obviously allow the user to override any such block.
8. Whether or not automated URL scanning is available, what should definitely be available is a context menu option to “scan target”. Quite frankly, if web traffic scanning works as it should and blocks any on-line malware before being read by the browser, neither this option nor the automated one are necessary, but such an optional URL scanning method may have its uses and won’t unnecessarily waste any resources when not desired.
9. If automated URL scanning is available, allow the user to customize the list of sites on which this feature should be enabled, such customization options obviously including the document elements containing the links the user desires to have scanned. It would also be nice to have a setting for scanning short URLs, which the user should also be able to define, regardless of the site they appear on.
10. Allow the creation of generic firewall rules for all local connections. These rules should obviously also have customizable parameters, but would differ from regular firewall rules because they’d apply regardless of the application attempting the connection. Obviously, in case of such a generic rule for local connections, the antivirus software should determine whether the destination points back to the current computer, allowing but not requiring the user to select which addresses and connection methods count as local.

And I said I’ll detail the customization of prompts in the next section, because there are more details to give about this, so here’s what I wish would happen when “prompt” is the selected default action in a number of scenarios not covered by existing rules:
1. If on-access scanning detects a potential threat, it should temporarily block access to the file and ask the user what action to take. The prompt needs to be as informative as possible and allow the user to immediately determine, from the prompt itself, whether the chosen action is to be taken just then or a rule is to be created. Also, if the user chooses to create a rule, they should easily be able to set its scope as well, as in whether it’ll apply to the threat, to the file or even to the entire folder said file is in.
2. If on-demand scanning detects a potential threat, it should log it and ask the user what to do about it when the whole scan process is done. However, a clickable warning should also be displayed in the scan window, allowing any user that is at the computer during the scan process to decide what to do about each detected threat sooner. And, of course, what I said above about being able to easily decide whether to create rules and, if so, specify their scope applies here as well.
3. If behavioral scanning detects a potential threat, the same rules as for on-access scanning apply, with the additional requirement of informing the user of exactly what the program did to trigger the warning. If multiple behavioral analysis modules exist, it should obviously also be specified exactly which one of them is responsible for each prompt.
4. If the firewall detects a connection attempt, it should temporarily block it and ask the user what to do while offering every piece of available information about it, including both the IP address and the URL of the destination if at all possible and whether the program responsible is confirmed safe, as in scanned, signed, verified and whitelisted, or not. The prompt should allow the answer to be customized in detail immediately, as I’ll describe in the next section.

With the firewall being such an important component when it comes to both the protection and the control of always-connected computers, which are currently the large majority, antivirus software developers need to be particularly careful with the customization options offered for this module. As such, here’s what I think should happen when “prompt” is the selected default action when the current connection attempt is not covered by existing firewall rules:
1. Obviously, the first thing is to allow the user to choose whether the answer given should apply just to that connection attempt or a rule is to be created.
2. If the user wishes to create a rule, the prompt should also allow its scope to be defined. The basic levels I can think of right now are loose, applying to any and all future connections made by that program, typical, applying to all future connections made by that program when using the same protocol and, if applicable, being called by the same other program as the current attempt, strict, applying only for future connections with the exact same parameters as the current attempt, and custom.
3. If the user chooses to create a custom rule, the answer, as in whether to allow or block the connection, should just be applied to the current attempt, so it won’t be delayed even longer, and the advanced firewall rule window should be opened, with all the information for a strict rule, taken from the current attempt, filled in. The user must obviously be allowed to freely remove or modify any of the conditions and any further connection attempts made by the program in question should be delayed until the rule is created.
4. Also, for all custom firewall rules, multiple choices should be allowed for each condition, such as port, protocol, destination or program parameters, so the user won’t need to create several rules for the same program if, for example, a single one should apply to connections to several, but not all, possible hosts.

Decided that something’s really wrong with my Windows 7 install, so after fighting with myself over it over the weekend, seeing as I was too afraid of messing this up as well, Monday I installed Vista again on the second HDD, with all the old drivers and the old versions of all programs, to at least get back to what I had and know that I’ll have this to fall back to whenever something goes wrong, and perhaps also when I happen to want to watch something on TV, seeing as the problems my old TV tuner has with Windows 7 are undeniable. Next would be reinstalling Windows 7 and taking it step by step with drivers and newer versions of important software, to see what goes wrong and when and then decide where to go from there, but I don’t see myself doing that while I’m in such a state and don’t see myself getting out of this state unless it’ll work, and possibly not even then, so that’s a big problem.
At the same time, BitDefender seems to have launched an offensive against MiniDuke, the result of which is wrongly flagging many simple executables as variants of it, including my one attempt to make an actual Windows executable while briefly trying to teach myself D, back in 2010. There seem to be other issues around this time as well, with many others complaining on the forums of similar issues with very simple programs written in a variety of programming languages, false outbreak detections or wrongly blacklisted sites, so they certainly broke something in the definitions database while trying to look for variants of this and it sure came at the wrong time for me, one little issue being that, after I had to undelete the file, it obviously no longer has its original date to mark when I gave up on trying to learn that.

Seeing as I was alone these days, I also wanted to put the old IDE HDD into dad’s computer and, while I was there, also scan a few more things for MobyGames, and perhaps also for Goodreads. However, though I kept saying every few hours that I really should get to it, I never even got close to that computer, and the only time I touched the old HDD was when I put it in the box I hold all other computer stuff in before cleaning my room today, so at this point I’m not sure when or even if I’ll manage to get myself to do that.
It should all start to slowly fall into place once I’ll find a starting point and then learn the quirks of Windows 7, as well as those of all the other new programs and versions, but that’ll require trying first. I mean, Vista is very quirky, but I’ve been using it for nearly five years now, and have also been using the other programs for many years, the video driver is still the one from 2009, so I had a very long time to get used to all the issues and know how to mitigate them. For example, avoided a computer freeze just earlier today, after spotting the signs right away and immediately doing what a lot of trial and error taught me has to be done in such moments. But having any new issue, which I won’t know how to deal with, pop up when I’m in such a state will just make me freeze in panic, so I really have no idea what to do…

We are born, we suffer and we die. When or how we die, how and how much we suffer, how much or even if we ever enjoy ourselves, what, if anything, we accomplish, simply has no relevance in the grand scheme of things. And that’s not only true for one person or another, but for all animal life. Worse, since animal life seems to be the final goal of the physical universe, it is ultimately true for everything. Universes appear, stars and galaxies are formed, the remaining materials gather to create planets and other smaller celestial bodies, minerals are formed on some of these bodies, microorganisms colonize a few of them, then plants and, ultimately, animals evolve. Eventually, some of those animal species may develop what we consider intelligence, create civilizations, perhaps even expand to other worlds, but it all has an infinitesimal effect if you think about it. No matter what they do or don’t do, sooner or later they’ll all vanish almost without a trace and without setting the foundations for the next level of development.
I mean, giant stars become supernovas in order to create the materials required to form life-supporting planets, which may end up being breeding grounds for life, which may develop and thrive, leading to civilizations, perhaps spacefaring ones, perhaps even great ones on a galactic scale, whether due to their achievements in and understanding of science, art, philosophy or anything else, but in the end why would it matter even then? Non-living things form, exist and, at times, cease to exist in order for life to have a chance, some microorganisms are vital for plants and animals, plants perform functions, both in life and in death, without which animals wouldn’t exist, but then what? No matter how developed some species become, they’re still animals and, no matter their perceived greatness, they merely live in order to live. Not even the spiritual aspect can change this, because souls, if such things exist, would still exist even without bodies, as that tends to be a defining trait of a soul or any other higher entity.

And then you have us, as a civilization. Nowhere near any sort of greatness, nowhere near any sort of impact outside our own little planet, and generally what impact we have even on this tiny world we happened to evolve on is negative for all but ourselves, and often even for ourselves. And when you and me and so many others are nowhere near mattering even in our own little corner of a solar system… What’s the point?
It is said that we need to create the purpose for our lives because life itself has none, which is definitely true, but why do it? We find reasons to live, goals to achieve, higher callings to heed, merely to justify our survival instinct; we wrap our relationships in greater meanings and spiritual values to justify our herd and breeding instincts, even more so for those of us rational enough to not intend to breed… But life is just life, in any form: A culmination, a realization of an universe refusing to admit that its existence has no point, no purpose, and that it’s been heading towards a dead end all along.

My rushed computer upgrade was essentially done on Tuesday, but I only closed the case this evening, deciding that I’ll wipe the old IDE HDD on dad’s computer, when I’ll install it there. A potential issue was my TV tuner, which doesn’t exactly have Windows 7 drivers, but I was able to use the Vista ones at first, so it’ll be detected, and then Windows Update found what it said was an upgraded driver for it. The image is poor, looking as if it’s captured at half the resolution and then resized, so the level of detail suffers a lot, but for now I guess I’ll keep it like this and look into getting another at a later point, perhaps even next year, as part of the major upgrade which was originally planned for this year.
Otherwise, there do seem to be a few other driver issues as well, since middle clicking on a tab always closes two of them and therefore needs to be avoided, there seems to be a significant performance loss when the video card is required to work for multiple processes at once, rebooting or shutting down seems to take longer than it should and something which I believe shouldn’t happen is happening during those final few seconds, and the system seems to need to “settle” after installing programs, becoming unbearably slow for a while when that happens. But I’ll see how the situation will continue develop, as well as how I’ll manage to get used to Windows 7 overall now, and then decide whether it’s manageable or I need to try something else.

The next order of business should be to see how the games are working, and so far I installed Morrowind and Divinity II: Developer’s Cut. I think I’ll be trying to play something, not just install all and see if they work, but if anything will fail at some point, I can use XP Mode or, if somehow even that causes issues, I can install Vista on the second HDD, with all the old drivers, which I kept.

While for a while I was saying that reading this makes me think less poorly about my own writing, it seemed to improve somewhat in the later parts, though editing issues have been obvious throughout. It’s a very light read, featuring action and scenes that don’t quite stand up to scrutiny, the likely consequences often being brushed aside, but there seems to be little you can actively dislike and it can pull you in somewhat, particularly in the later parts.
It is interesting to see the fresh take on such a well-known story, and the author managed to avoid making a complete mockery of it. Because of what I said above about ignoring consequences and not standing up to scrutiny, I’d still consider it as something of a parody, but the reasons why it gets that third star have to do with some of the later portions and the fact that it can be taken as a somewhat bold, if rather amateurish, reshaping of a myth.

Rating: 3/5