Update, update, update...

After receiving dire threats about evil haxx0rs, I was nervous about
putting blackpig (the name seems to be sticking, because noone but me
knows how to spell or say my preferred name, Saagatanasu*) on the
Young Person's Interweb. Xopher was not willing to wait!

Using our combined powers of Credit Card and Typing, together we
purchased Norton Internet Security 2005. After downloading the
installer and running it, blackpig began a fun game called Let's See
How Many Times the User Can Be Bothered Checking for Updates.

There were no less that five (5) update and restart cycles required by
blackpig last night, including one from Microsoft. Whoo! I've become
quite fatalistic about them though. On a Mac, I'm much more willing to
critically evaluate updates (even automatic updates) because I believe
(perhaps erroneously) that I know better. For blackpig, I've become a
slave to the Recommended radio button. Do you want to check for
updates now? OK! Do you want to restart your machine now? OK!

And I don't know if it's because Symantec (makers of Norton Internet
Restarter) were in the middle of an update or what, but the only
reason it stopped at five updates is that I stopped checking. Luckily,
it also stopped asking me to update. But even without being prompted,
I was curious enough (or perverse enough) to want to see the "No
updates are available" message. But somehow that just didn't happen.

It was downloading at least 600k of "Internet Security URLs" each
time. I must investigate how to get it to quit doin' that, because I
don't have the space on disk (or the patience) to download megabytes
of URLs that I suspect are completely useless because there is no
point NIS storing information about sites that I would never visit
because I am not stupid. Even worse, these URLs may be pr0n sites,
which NIS is downloading in case I ever switch "Parental Control" on.
Bwahahaha! As if!

* Saagatanasu is the black winged-dog demon from Yami no Matsuei. He
has an elaborate title (according to one translation he's called the
Demon World's Grand Duke Dragon Cavalry Lord Ashitarote's servant,
Brigade Leader Saagatanasu) and is a representative of an evil empire
sent to earth. His signature move is to convince his victims to kill
themselves.