The government of Pakistan has added itself to the ranks of those natians censoring the internet. Scott over at Magic Statistics commented on this turn of events. Western Resistance started the discussion, but here I will take advantage of this opportunity to reveal the most amusing thing that has happened to me while surfing the net.

I was taking a course on Islam from Dr. Vreeland in which he required us to read through the Koran. I decided to use the database compiling feature in Bibleworks so that I could quickly search for phrases that I half-remembered. I only needed an electronic version of the Koran that I could reformat for the BW compiler and that is how my adventure began.

A basic internet search for "Koran" and "Download" got me started, and I soon found that there were several translations into English with different electroninc versions floating around. As I refined my search, I eventually came to the topic of this post: a message from Pakistan Data Management Services.

I found the website for the "Lahore Ahmadiyya Movement for the Propogation of Islam." Normally, I would poke around a bit. Maybe I would click on "First Time Users Click Here For Instructions." This time, however, I was preempted by the appearance of an IE Security Warning asking me, "Do you want to install and run "PDMS Smart Installer Version 1.0.0.6? signed on 1/15/2000 2:53 AM and distributed by Pakistan Data Management Services." This publisher's authenticity was even verified by Verisign Commercial Software Publishers CA.

I did not install this software, and I never returned to visit the site to find out what it was they actually do. I did, however, grab a screenshot. The wildly outrageous notion that I would allow PDMS to install anything on my computer was topped by the checkbox at the bottom of the security warning labeled, "Always trust content from Pakistan Data Management Services."

Now, six years later, I have occasion to wonder, "What would PDMS have done with my computer?"