Are Blogs Passing Out Spyware?

February 24, 2005, 12:58 pm

Bloggers (and blog-readers) beware: Spyware makers might be targeting you. Many of the Web’s most commonly used blog-publishing tools come with security holes that could be used to disseminate spyware to unprotected machines, warn computer security experts.

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15 Responses to Are Blogs Passing Out Spyware?

janfreeman - October 20, 2011 at 8:31 pm

I wonder if anyone told Miss Adams that she had the traditional naming etiquette wrong. A widow properly continued to use her married name (“Mrs. John Smith”), according to Emily Post. Even if she ditched him, she didn’t get her given name back: “A woman who has divorced her husband retains the legal as well as the
social right to use her husband’s full name, in New York State at least.
Usually she prefers, if her name was Alice Green, to call herself Mrs.
Green Smith; not Mrs. Alice Smith, and on no account Mrs. Alice
Green—unless she wishes to give the impression that she was the guilty
one in the divorce.”

We’ve come a long way, baby.

jffoster - October 20, 2011 at 11:40 pm

We of the deep and mid South were using [miz] for adult women in general long before the slash pines that made the pulp for the paper for “Ms.” Magazine’s first issue were even pine cones.

And while “Ms.”, i.e. the use of it in writing and its spread into Yankeeland [prefix ommitted out of politeness] arguably filled a void, the adoption and spread of _homophobic_ to ” deftly psychologize hostility toward homosexuals as springing from fear of them” may have been “well played” if one thinks civic life is simply a game of oneupmanship. I regard it as a pernicious distortion and misrepresentation aimed at the seizing of an agenda in an attempt to stifle rational conversation and bully a majority into submission to a social~political agenda.

Brian Abel Ragen - October 21, 2011 at 9:28 am

Around St. Louis, at least, things have not gone according to plan. “Ms.” has indeed killed off “Miss,” but it has left “Mrs.” standing. I see survey cards that give the options for titles as “Mr.,” “Mrs.” and “Ms.” Some women evidently like to let the world know that they are married, a preference that strikes an old bachelor like me as harmless, if pointless in most circumstances.

Since in a few years every American will have the right to call her- or himself “Dr.,” this issue will soon be moot and everyone except the physicians will be happy.

aar8413 - October 21, 2011 at 9:48 am

It’s fascinating that Miss Adams believed that an inquiry into one’s marital status was not only to be expected, but was a a sign of courtesy and “intelligence.” Today such an inquiry would be considered impertinent if not downright offensive, and, in the employment context, illegal.

Autre temps, autre meurs indeed.

callmemiss - October 21, 2011 at 10:45 am

What abelragen has observed in St. Louis is true across the country. I always thought “Ms.” became another way of branding single women for this very reason. Like Miss Adams, I treasure my status as a “Miss”: it tells the world that I have navigated it with a) a single income; 2) no safety net should that income go away; and 3) that my success (and failures) are not attributable to anyone else. I even use it as part of my blog’s title.It takes fortitude to be openly a “Miss.”

oldphyrte - October 21, 2011 at 11:53 am

Why do we include sex/gender in the title or address anyway? Why don’t we just address our correspondence to: M. William Shakespeare or M. Jane Austen?

michaeld10 - October 21, 2011 at 1:41 pm

The great Hanna Holborn Gray, former president of the University of Chicago, also detested the honorific “Ms.,” for reasons that I never knew. She insisted always on being called “Mrs. Gray.”

11182967 - October 21, 2011 at 4:08 pm

This may be a good moment to recall that there was a period in 18th C. English society when Mrs. was a common term of reference for both married and unmarried women, especially for actresses. And jffoster is correct about the universal Southern pronunciation of “miz” for both Miss and Mrs., although this lack of distinction often does not carry over to written terms of address. I do recall the delight I took when the USPO assigned MS as the official abbreviation for the Mississippi, although some Mississippians persist in using Miss. when they can. When entering data in Banner we ordinarily select among Dr., Mr. or Ms., but we do have at least one faculty member who bridles at this and insists on being Mrs.–in spite of having been divorced for many years. And all of this, on a rainy Friday afternoon, reminds me of another interesting governmentally-created term with odd gender implications: the senior officer in an ROTC program is offically designated the Professor of Military Science, often referred to by the initials.

Alan Gunn - October 21, 2011 at 7:15 pm

Germany also solves the problem by using “Frau” for all adult women. This usage developed gradually, starting with using “Frau” to address women old enough to be embarrassed about still being unmarried (yeah, really), and women with professional titles like “Doctor” or “Professor” (or, this being Germany, both). After a while I suppose it seemed sensible to just use “Frau” for all adult women.

The Germans’ real problem is that all nouns denoting persons get a suffix (“-in”) if the person in question is female, and this in turn means that all plural nouns denoting persons get either a masculine or a feminine ending. That one won’t be as easy to deal with without major surgery, but I suppose people willing to reform spelling by introducing triple consonants for the sake of “logic” will find a way. For a mildly amusing attempt at a beginning, Google “Binnen I.”

jffoster - October 22, 2011 at 8:34 am

Keep in mind we should that this was holpen in German by the fact that _Frau_ also means ‘lady’ and an ordinary noun it is, as well as a title of address . Moreover, it is quite common to address an older woman as _gnädige Frau_ ‘gracious lady’. Somehow _*gnädiges Fräulein_ doesn’t have the same gracious ring to it.

csmith52175 - October 24, 2011 at 9:13 am

I’d rather be called Ms. than ma’am.

graddirector - October 24, 2011 at 9:40 am

Well, MS makes it easier also to deal with the large number of women who do not take their husbands last name. I am never a Mrs simply because that is my mother-in-law and I do not use my husband’s last name for any purpose, even when in my mom role.

But, actually I should be called Dr. even if the Chronicle is unwilling to give academics that honorific….

oldphyrte - October 24, 2011 at 1:49 pm

Dear Ms. or Mr. aar8413:
You must have read a different letter than I. I saw no “inquiry,” I read a “request” that someone be addresses according to his or her or its preference.

hcfeldman - October 24, 2011 at 6:11 pm

Callmemiss, while I don’t deny you your right to use your preferred honorific, nor to take pride in your accomplishments, I would respectfully point out that “Miss” does not necessarily equal exemplary fortitude. I recently married at the age of 39, bringing to the marriage a house, a respectable amount of savings, and more than two decades of professional experience in a very competitive field. Does the fact that I am now married make those accomplishments any less impressive, or any less attributable to my own skills, than your accomplishments are for you? Does the fact that some people might now prefix my name with “Mrs.” mean they should respect me any less than did when they would have prefixed it with “Miss”?

Furthermore, marriage is not necessarily a benefit for a working woman (or man). Yes, you navigated your life without an extra income, but you also did so without having to support a sick or unemployed spouse, and without having to juggle the twin demands of work and childcare (assuming that your Miss means you are without children, which I acknowledge is a pretty silly assumption to make these days).

Additionally, in this day and age, the mere fact that you are unmarried does not necessarily mean that you might not have had a supportive life partner. Plenty of people live together without the legal blessing of marriage.

Again, I’m not denying you your right to take pride in your accomplishments. I’m just saying that other people accomplish things in various states of wedlock, and they have just as much right to take pride in those accomplishments as you do in yours.

hcfeldman - October 24, 2011 at 6:24 pm

Back when I was a reporter, I used to occasionally get calls from women who were furious to see their name appear as “Ms. Smith” in print because they equated Ms. with Miss. (Yes, we followed old NYT style at the time and used honorifics.) When I explained that we used Ms. as a general honorific for all women, it only seemed to make these adamant Mrs’es angrier.

I never understood that. I’ve always liked the idea of Ms., and am happy that it does seem to be catching on, albeit slowly, because to me it means that we are finally achieving a world in which a woman’s marital status is not the most important thing to know about her. Additionally, as a reporter, having a single female honorific made for one less area where errors could sneak into the copy.

I was Ms. Feldman before my marriage; I am Ms. Erickson now (though I’m too lazy to change my login ID, sorry). Because I frankly don’t see how my marital status is of interest to anyone except myself and my husband (with the possible exception of our very, very relieved mothers).