E-cigarettes may be better for your health than normal ones, but spare a thought for your poor computer – electronic cigarettes have become the latest vector for malicious software, according to online reports.

Many e-cigarettes can be charged over USB, either with a special cable, or by plugging the cigarette itself directly into a USB port. That might be a USB port plugged into a wall socket or the port on a computer – but, if so, that means that a cheap e-cigarette from an untrustworthy supplier gains physical access to a device.

A report on social news site Reddit suggests that at least one "vaper" has suffered the downside of trusting their cigarette manufacturer. "One particular executive had a malware infection on his computer from which the source could not be determined," the user writes. "After all traditional means of infection were covered, IT started looking into other possibilities.

"The made in China e-cigarette had malware hardcoded into the charger, and when plugged into a computer's USB port the malware phoned home and infected the system."

Rik Ferguson, a security consultant for Trend Micro, says the story is entirely plausible.
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/nov/21/e-cigarettes-malware-computers

  sneaky lil suckers,  I stay away from those things but know people who use them....yesterday i got the closest ever, my sil was puffing on one.  I caught a wiff and eww, it was thick. Yuck

All the more reason to exercise your freedom and smoke the real deal if you choose to smoke.

Quote from: Dr. Meh on November 22, 2014, 06:54:44 PM
All the more reason to exercise your freedom and smoke the real deal if you choose to smoke.

Smoking snob! I smoke e-cigarettes and find the, just as pleasant as the real thing. Smoking is smoking, who cares about how its actually done.

I smoke pipe tobacco, cigars, and e-cigarettes (the fancy expensive vaporizers, not the cheap gas station junk)

Quote from: Skeptic on November 24, 2014, 04:07:20 PM
Smoking snob! I smoke e-cigarettes and find the, just as pleasant as the real thing. Smoking is smoking, who cares about how its actually done.

I smoke pipe tobacco, cigars, and e-cigarettes (the fancy expensive vaporizers, not the cheap gas station junk)

What's your favorite cigar? I have several, but always seem to go back to Monte's, Trinadad, Habano Colorado to name a few.

Quote from: Skeptic on November 24, 2014, 04:07:20 PM
Smoking snob! I smoke e-cigarettes and find the, just as pleasant as the real thing. Smoking is smoking, who cares about how its actually done.

I smoke pipe tobacco, cigars, and e-cigarettes (the fancy expensive vaporizers, not the cheap gas station junk)

I have a theory that pipes will be making a comeback soon. They're just too cool looking and smell too good not to. It will be much in the same way cigars became more popular a few years ago. I'm surprised the young hipsters who have brought back the beard have yet to adopt the pipe. Probably goes against their liberal agenda too much.

Quote from: Dr. Meh on November 25, 2014, 04:43:57 AM
I have a theory that pipes will be making a comeback soon. They're just too cool looking and smell too good not to. It will be much in the same way cigars became more popular a few years ago. I'm surprised the young hipsters who have brought back the beard have yet to adopt the pipe. Probably goes against their liberal agenda too much.

Cost. a OK cigar starts a $3.00. I spend around $750 to a grand a month for good quality.
But I agree about the pipe, it's cool factor is waiting to be tapped. If some up and coming rapper, or pop star were to light one at a concert, the leftist media would freak, and the kids would be looking for the most unique pipe, with the Sherlock winning out.

Of course, Legislation would follow by taxing pipe tobacco out of the reach of the middle class.

Funny you would note that about pipes, I've been wondering the same thing for the last couple of years.

Last I saw, cigarettes were more than $50/carton and per-gram prices roughly four to five times that of loose tobacco for pipes. When I quit cigarettes ten years ago, I began transition by rolling pipe tobacco (which also lasted about twelve weeks for a pound of tobacco). Even luxury tobacco at $50/lb. is still a 75% savings reduction.

I saved a bare minimum of 65% to 70% of all tobacco costs, overnight. That's enough reason to do it, right there.

Quote from: quiller on November 26, 2014, 07:41:30 AM
Last I saw, cigarettes were more than $50/carton and per-gram prices roughly four to five times that of loose tobacco for pipes. When I quit cigarettes ten years ago, I began transition by rolling pipe tobacco (which also lasted about twelve weeks for a pound of tobacco). Even luxury tobacco at $50/lb. is still a 75% savings reduction.

I saved a bare minimum of 65% to 70% of all tobacco costs, overnight. That's enough reason to do it, right there.

Wow I stopped so long ago, I don't even think about what the cost is running now.   I think it was 25¢ a pack when I stopped.  I just looked and Washington state is now $9.30 or more a pack. 

Quote from: quiller on November 26, 2014, 07:41:30 AM
Last I saw, cigarettes were more than $50/carton and per-gram prices roughly four to five times that of loose tobacco for pipes. When I quit cigarettes ten years ago, I began transition by rolling pipe tobacco (which also lasted about twelve weeks for a pound of tobacco). Even luxury tobacco at $50/lb. is still a 75% savings reduction.

I saved a bare minimum of 65% to 70% of all tobacco costs, overnight. That's enough reason to do it, right there.

Holy shit! $50 a carton? Had I known what the future held, I could have bought 2000 cartons at $2.0 a carton and unloaded them to set for retirement much earlier than I did.
And to think, this is all punitive tax, something, if I'm not mistaken, is unconstitutional.

Quote from: Solar on November 26, 2014, 09:21:35 AM
Holy shit! $50 a carton? Had I known what the future held, I could have bought 2000 cartons at $2.0 a carton and unloaded them to set for retirement much earlier than I did.
And to think, this is all punitive tax, something, if I'm not mistaken, is unconstitutional.

Well, taxes on tobacco aren't passed as punitive measures. They're always described as being intended to fund some grand social good, such as smoking prevention programs or cancer clinics. Of course, the money is usually blown on something else, or just absorbed into a general fund.

This past Oct. 22 was my seven-year quit anniversary, so I don't have to worry about such things any more. 

I've never used an e-cig, so I guess I'm safe from their malware, yes? 

I don't know why the FDA hasn't targeted them (yet). In essence, they're delivery devices for a highly-addictive and potentially toxic drug -- nicotine. Before e-cigs, nicotine use was mainly incidental to tobacco use, but e-cigs put nicotine out there as a mainline drug, something I would have thought would snag government attention, at least for heavy taxation.

I never really started.

I tried smoking pipes and cigars, but didn't really get anything out of it and had better things to do with my money.



Darth

Quote from: Darth Fife on November 26, 2014, 03:30:59 PM
I never really started.

I tried smoking pipes and cigars, but didn't really get anything out of it and had better things to do with my money.



Darth

To this day I can still smell my dad's pipe.

Quote from: Darth Fife on November 26, 2014, 03:30:59 PM
I never really started.

I tried smoking pipes and cigars, but didn't really get anything out of it and had better things to do with my money.



Darth

I don't.

Quote from: walkstall on November 26, 2014, 03:42:44 PM
To this day I can still smell my dad's pipe.

Maybe 25 years ago, I took a temp job working for an environmental company. Most of the time I was assigned to asbestos abatement projects, not as a worker doing the removal, but as a "tech" monitoring the work, and especially the workers' exposure.

Part and parcel of such a job is learning containment procedures, and especially PPE -- personal protective equipment. For low-risk environments, that generally includes a negative-pressure respirator, usually a half-mask. "Negative pressure" means there ain't no pressure on the air coming in -- you have to pull it in through the filters fitted on the mask.

All negative-pressure respirator users have to be fit tested, to make sure the thing fits his/her face properly and makes a good seal. The test usually involves what we used to call a "stink stick," a capsule that contained a volatile chemical that simply couldn't be ignored. It was waved in front of the testee's face to find out if the respirator was sealing properly. If not, the stuff coming out of that stink stick would make you sick instantly.

One day, while preparing for such a test, I was in a room, wearing a half-mask respirator equipped with two HEPA filters, and somebody lit a cigarette. What got through the filters to my nose literally made my mouth water. I wanted to EAT a cigarette on the spot. Those HEPA filters took away all the harshness and bite, and left pure roasted tobacco heaven.