In article ,
"DoN. Nichols" wrote:

On 2008-05-05, Joseph Gwinn wrote:
In article ,
"DoN. Nichols" wrote:

On 2008-05-03, Joseph Gwinn wrote:

[ ... ]

The exception is when the URL is in a quoted message, and so extra quote
mark characters have been inserted.

Or -- when you are using a system which is not configured to do
it, as I am. I *think* that I could configure this newsreader (slrn) to
do it, but I will not.

What's wrong with newsreaders that correctly handle URLs? If one is not
on Windows, there is little danger from URLs.

Little does not translate into *no* danger. :-)

So much of the web wants javascript enabled, or flash, or lots
of other things. I don't trust those, and have them turned off except
for sites which I trust -- and that does not mean that they won't get
cracked and malicious HTML installed.

I like to look at the URL, perhaps run a whois on the domain,
and various other checks before deciding to go to the site. If it is
set up to respond to a click, I could wind up visiting one which I don't
care for because one of my cats hopped into my lap and nudged my hand
thus pressing the mouse button at just the wrong time. (Aside from the
mouse (actually a trackball) falling off the arm of the chair and
bumping the buttons in falling.

So -- the most that a mouse click in my newsreader can do is to
highlight some text and perhaps copy it into the clip buffer. :-) I've
got to bring up another window, and type a command line before I get to
a web site.

Call me paranoid. :-)

Yes. I think that the cost of security provisions have now much
exceeded the cost of cleaning up the occasional problem. Unix and Linux
boxes are pretty much immune to actual attacks seen in the wild.

All computers are vulnerable to attack by a skilled human, so if one is
targeted by name, security is very difficult to achieve. However, if
the threat is automated attack on random computers, avoidance of Windows
pretty much solves the problem.

Said another way, a Mac or Unix/Linux box behind a hardware firewall (or
on dialup) is pretty safe.

Joe Gwinn