Fox News Ties Flame Malware To Angry Birds Because Both Use LUA(techdirt.com)
techdirt.com
Fox News Ties Flame Malware To Angry Birds Because Both Use LUA
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120604/04382119189/this-is-reporting-fox-news-ties-flame-malware-to-angry-birds-because-both-use-lua.shtml
15 comments
Todays's pedantic minute is sponsored by the non-existant SOL comunity.
SOL is an acronym fro Simple Object Language, so you should type it in allcaps and avoid confusing it with the noun :)
SOL is an acronym fro Simple Object Language, so you should type it in allcaps and avoid confusing it with the noun :)
You learn something new every day.
SOL, then, but I'll leave my first post intact in order not to ruin your joke.
The Lua community is also barely existent, BTW.
SOL, then, but I'll leave my first post intact in order not to ruin your joke.
The Lua community is also barely existent, BTW.
And that, folks, is the value of a journalism degree:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_Herridge
> Herridge's salary of $900,000 per year
Wait, never mind. :-/
> Herridge's salary of $900,000 per year
Wait, never mind. :-/
My favorite morsel, of many tasty bites, from the article: "this new weapon is twenty times the size of earlier cyberbombs and far more powerful."
That quote belongs on a t-shirt, but I wouldn't like to wear it while going through an airport.
And they refer to it as 'LUA', even though the About page http://www.lua.org/about.html clearly says to use the noun 'Lua' as the name of the language. First class journalism.
If anyone is interested in real news: http://www.securelist.com/en/blog/208193522/The_Flame_Questi...
Flame is a "virus" with about 20 MB using all sorts of libraries: sqlite3, zlib, Lua, etc. Pure Lua code is relatively small, just 3000 lines.
Flame is a "virus" with about 20 MB using all sorts of libraries: sqlite3, zlib, Lua, etc. Pure Lua code is relatively small, just 3000 lines.
The content of the article really wasn't that bad (mentioning that Angry Birds uses Lua is a perfectly fine way to add some context).
It's just that god awful headline. Fox News is notorious for headlines that have no bearing in reality.
It's just that god awful headline. Fox News is notorious for headlines that have no bearing in reality.
> The content of the article really wasn't that bad
Oh yes it was! Some quotes:
- "this new weapon is twenty times the size of earlier cyberbombs and far more powerful, making it practically an army on its own"
- "Flame is likewise a form of spyware that enters a computer system, though exactly how is unclear."
- "once you know the email address or computer IP address ... they can introduce Flame remotely."
Also phrases like "a code" and "built with gamer code".
Oh yes it was! Some quotes:
- "this new weapon is twenty times the size of earlier cyberbombs and far more powerful, making it practically an army on its own"
- "Flame is likewise a form of spyware that enters a computer system, though exactly how is unclear."
- "once you know the email address or computer IP address ... they can introduce Flame remotely."
Also phrases like "a code" and "built with gamer code".
Ah, well, I meant with regards to Angry Birds.
The rest is par for the course for any news organization covering technology.
The rest is par for the course for any news organization covering technology.
That's totally absurd and would completely destroy their reputation as serious journalists if they had one.
In tomorrow's news, Obama uses cell phones, wears clothes, and drinks water, just like al Qaeda operatives do.
In tomorrow's news, Obama uses cell phones, wears clothes, and drinks water, just like al Qaeda operatives do.
And all those malware written in C? Shame on you Linus.
Linus? He's small potatoes! Intel makes their own C compiler! This is a conspiracy that goes straight to the top!
They couldn't even report the name accurately. It's "Lua" not "LUA".
Linking Angry Birds and terrorism is kind of brilliant.
Next Fox News headline:
"Angry Birds encourages children to launch themselves at buildings. Suicide bombings expected to rise in coming months."
"Angry Birds encourages children to launch themselves at buildings. Suicide bombings expected to rise in coming months."
Did you know that Norway is not a democracy, because police don't carry guns? You heard it first at Fox News!
Morons. You can't really say much more than that.
I think it's reasonable to add that their coverage is universally bad. If you knew a lot a about say Medicine or Law you would find their coverage just as bad on those topics. Worse yet most news organizations are just as bad if not worse.
It's a bit scary to watch a news report or documentary on a subject you know well. One of my favorite clips is the "Computator" from How It's Made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBnQJxCXbFA
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007JOPCP8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBnQJxCXbFA
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B007JOPCP8
Fox News is definitely one of the worst. There was a recent survey saying that watching Fox News makes you less informed, than if you didn't watch any news at all. Hard to believe that watching news would make you less informed, but in this case it's most likely true. In that survey Fox News also scored the lowest (worst).
I wonder if the study found that was true for all TV news. Honestly, people who get their news from any TV shows at all at this point in history aren't really all that informed in general.
Some servers hosting/infected with Flame are running HTML... just like Fox News! I need to sell this information to MSNBC.
[deleted]
Yes, Lua, not LUA, you dimwit journalists (the allcaps version is used in every article about Flame I've read).
Lua is not an acronym, it means "moon" in Portuguese, it is the successor of Sol (sun), a little known data description language.