5 ms·

I'll start with, wow, that's pretty cool and entertaining. As another commenter said, a reminder of the whimsicalness of the 90s internet. sigh, then along cam

I'll start with, wow, that's pretty cool and entertaining. As another commenter said, a reminder of the whimsicalness of the 90s internet. sigh, then along came Comet Cursor to remind us why we can't have nice things: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Cursor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Cursor The "can't have nice things" part comes from the tracking that came along with it. Comet Cursor was a pioneer of what would become the modern web!

tombert 4y ago
My parents were so mad at me when I installed Comet Cursor on the family computer. I was 9 years old, and I think I had grabbed it from a shady site that had modified it to stuff it with additional adware and malware...the computer went really slow after I installed it, but I had a totally badass cursor that looked like it was being electrocuted, so overall I think it was a fair trade.
- WorldMaker 4y ago
  As the above points out, that "shady site" was possibly just the official Comet Cursor website. They themselves were an adware company and a weird, direct bridge from 90s "whimsy" web to modern ad tracking and adware.
- inetsee 4y ago
  "the computer went really slow after I installed it" This version also appears to be using a lot of system resources. Firefox on Linux is idling at about 6% CPU while reading HN. Go to that web site and the usage goes up to 80% to 90%. Come back here and CPU goes back down to 6% or so.
  - mikestew 4y ago
    Interesting, but no repro on macOS/Safari. macOS/Firefox, however, will take up about 50% between the "Firefox" process and a "Firefox isolated web content" process.
  - mcbuilder 4y ago
    This was back in an era when your Windows computer started to feel slow (which inevitably started to happen after a few years) was to take the standard recommendation and reinstall the entire OS. It's so far from the world of an advanced Linux SysOp.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - kadoban 4y ago
    Just to note: CPU percentage isn't that useful these days. CPUs can throttle back their clock speed quite far, so you'll often get numbers that are meaningless that way. Your conclusion is fairly like to be correct though.
- HeckFeck 4y ago
  I recall Cursor Mania which was a similar idea. It bundled Smiley Central which was a necessity to out-smiley your contacts on MSN messenger. It also prefigured emojis. And it almost certainly came with a generous helping of malware. Glory days, nonetheless.
  - unknownaccount 4y ago
    Looks like someone continues paying to renew smileycentral.com and cursormania.com every year, but appears to be doing nothing with it. (NXDomain)
    - HeckFeck 4y ago
      The dream isn't over yet.
- tuyiown 4y ago
  > I had a totally badass cursor that looked like it was being electrocuted, so overall I think it was a fair trade. that phrase managed to bring the 9 years old mindset back in my mind. That was awesome, thanks a lot.
tootie 4y ago
One of the founders of Comet was a friend of a friend. We chatted about it a bit. They really seemed like earnest folks who stumbled on a way to monetize virality in the early days of the internet. There was absolutely no framework for ethics of data collection and even they seemed kinda shocked at how easy it was to do back then. I think once the money was flowing in, it was too hard to stop.
walrus01 4y ago
comet cursor, and bonzi buddy, and all of its ilk the beginning of the presently ongoing shitshow of tracking and privacy violations to earn revenue.
- hackernewds 4y ago
  _daisyyyy_ _daissyyy_
- filmgirlcw 4y ago
  Bonzi Buddy was particularly insidious because it was so close to being useful/fun and instead was just glorified malware. I desperately want a Bonzi Buddy plushie, however. Just for the lolz.
  - HeckFeck 4y ago
    You can buy a Bonzi Buddy NFT from the original authors, which is _somewhat_ the same!
- user3939382 4y ago
  RealPlayer lol
  - teddyh 4y ago
    (buffering)
NelsonMinar 4y ago
Malware like this used to be so common; software that did something useful and then on the side also installed some horrible user-hostile thing. Adware and search hijackers, too. Fortunately that's mostly ended on desktop but it's a constant battle on mobile devices still.
- thrown_22 4y ago
  It just moved to the cloud where you can't uninstall it.
- stjohnswarts 4y ago
  I used to enjoy trying to delete malware (mostly porn advertising) off lab computers in college. There were a couple I could just never get rid of and I checked all over. They were buried deep and had roots throughout the system lol.
- c3534l 4y ago
  Used to? Its the whole business model of social media.
- userbinator 4y ago
  Fortunately that's mostly ended on desktop ...you mean, it's now built into the OS and even harder to remove. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29415031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29415031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28449607 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28449607
  - withinboredom 4y ago
    I'd rather trust my OS company with privacy-related shenanigans than some random company selling it to some other random company.
HeckFeck 4y ago
> The company was criticized for secretly tracking users who installed the software, each of whom was given a unique serial number Doesn't seem too out of the line nowadays, does it? Even Microsoft recommended users uninstall the program. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they had kept their distance from such practices?
- unknownaccount 4y ago
  Nowadays Microsoft lets malware writers run roughshod on their platforms with impunity. (See: the unbanning of the node-ipc supply chain mass-file-deletion virus author)
Rygian 4y ago
Somehow that reminds me of startups like Contentsquare.
dspillett 4y ago
I remember Comet Cursor using drive-by install techniques, back when browser security basically didn't exist, so you would find it installed after visiting certain websites, and there was at least one example of advert iframes setting off the background install. IIRC dilbert.com was an example of a significant site that did this (I stopped visiting for that reason, or something very similar if it wasn't Comet Cursor) either directly or through an advert it carried.

tombert 4y ago

My parents were so mad at me when I installed Comet Cursor on the family computer. I was 9 years old, and I think I had grabbed it from a shady site that had modified it to stuff it with additional adware and malware...the computer went really slow after I installed it, but I had a totally badass cursor that looked like it was being electrocuted, so overall I think it was a fair trade.

WorldMaker 4y ago
As the above points out, that "shady site" was possibly just the official Comet Cursor website. They themselves were an adware company and a weird, direct bridge from 90s "whimsy" web to modern ad tracking and adware.
inetsee 4y ago
"the computer went really slow after I installed it" This version also appears to be using a lot of system resources. Firefox on Linux is idling at about 6% CPU while reading HN. Go to that web site and the usage goes up to 80% to 90%. Come back here and CPU goes back down to 6% or so.
- mikestew 4y ago
  Interesting, but no repro on macOS/Safari. macOS/Firefox, however, will take up about 50% between the "Firefox" process and a "Firefox isolated web content" process.
- mcbuilder 4y ago
  This was back in an era when your Windows computer started to feel slow (which inevitably started to happen after a few years) was to take the standard recommendation and reinstall the entire OS. It's so far from the world of an advanced Linux SysOp.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- kadoban 4y ago
  Just to note: CPU percentage isn't that useful these days. CPUs can throttle back their clock speed quite far, so you'll often get numbers that are meaningless that way. Your conclusion is fairly like to be correct though.
HeckFeck 4y ago
I recall Cursor Mania which was a similar idea. It bundled Smiley Central which was a necessity to out-smiley your contacts on MSN messenger. It also prefigured emojis. And it almost certainly came with a generous helping of malware. Glory days, nonetheless.
- unknownaccount 4y ago
  Looks like someone continues paying to renew smileycentral.com and cursormania.com every year, but appears to be doing nothing with it. (NXDomain)
  - HeckFeck 4y ago
    The dream isn't over yet.
tuyiown 4y ago
> I had a totally badass cursor that looked like it was being electrocuted, so overall I think it was a fair trade. that phrase managed to bring the 9 years old mindset back in my mind. That was awesome, thanks a lot.

tootie 4y ago

One of the founders of Comet was a friend of a friend. We chatted about it a bit. They really seemed like earnest folks who stumbled on a way to monetize virality in the early days of the internet. There was absolutely no framework for ethics of data collection and even they seemed kinda shocked at how easy it was to do back then. I think once the money was flowing in, it was too hard to stop.

walrus01 4y ago

comet cursor, and bonzi buddy, and all of its ilk the beginning of the presently ongoing shitshow of tracking and privacy violations to earn revenue.

hackernewds 4y ago
_daisyyyy_ _daissyyy_
filmgirlcw 4y ago
Bonzi Buddy was particularly insidious because it was so close to being useful/fun and instead was just glorified malware. I desperately want a Bonzi Buddy plushie, however. Just for the lolz.
- HeckFeck 4y ago
  You can buy a Bonzi Buddy NFT from the original authors, which is _somewhat_ the same!
user3939382 4y ago
RealPlayer lol
- teddyh 4y ago
  (buffering)

NelsonMinar 4y ago

Malware like this used to be so common; software that did something useful and then on the side also installed some horrible user-hostile thing. Adware and search hijackers, too. Fortunately that's mostly ended on desktop but it's a constant battle on mobile devices still.

thrown_22 4y ago
It just moved to the cloud where you can't uninstall it.
stjohnswarts 4y ago
I used to enjoy trying to delete malware (mostly porn advertising) off lab computers in college. There were a couple I could just never get rid of and I checked all over. They were buried deep and had roots throughout the system lol.
c3534l 4y ago
Used to? Its the whole business model of social media.
userbinator 4y ago
Fortunately that's mostly ended on desktop ...you mean, it's now built into the OS and even harder to remove. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29415031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29415031 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28449607 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28449607
- withinboredom 4y ago
  I'd rather trust my OS company with privacy-related shenanigans than some random company selling it to some other random company.

HeckFeck 4y ago

> The company was criticized for secretly tracking users who installed the software, each of whom was given a unique serial number Doesn't seem too out of the line nowadays, does it? Even Microsoft recommended users uninstall the program. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they had kept their distance from such practices?

unknownaccount 4y ago
Nowadays Microsoft lets malware writers run roughshod on their platforms with impunity. (See: the unbanning of the node-ipc supply chain mass-file-deletion virus author)

Rygian 4y ago

Somehow that reminds me of startups like Contentsquare.

dspillett 4y ago

I remember Comet Cursor using drive-by install techniques, back when browser security basically didn't exist, so you would find it installed after visiting certain websites, and there was at least one example of advert iframes setting off the background install. IIRC dilbert.com was an example of a significant site that did this (I stopped visiting for that reason, or something very similar if it wasn't Comet Cursor) either directly or through an advert it carried.