What is going on with Micros**t?

It's a worm.

and an easy fix. download the real patch from microcrap and it's gone.

That may fix part of the problem, but it does not fix the server getting clogged with this junk and the time wasted with downloads if you have dial-up. I hope you can access your ISP's server for your mail and delete the crap there with a webmail-type program the ISP provides. That's what I've been doing, and it not only allows me to strain out this ubiquitous worm, but also all the other useless gunk the spamistas sling at me.

Mark Schynert

When is this going to happen. Before or after the sun goes Supernova :-)

Seriously, when I was getting a hundred of these a day I was told to simply open my web browser, click tools, and click "update windows". Since I have done this I do not get these anymore. Cheers, Max Bryant

MS has notoriously ignored warnings about their products from professionals in the IT field since their incorporation. When they decided to add the "feature" of OS level Macros into MS Word and Office, Long term security types from CERT, Symantec, DARPA and individual security consultants besieged them with papers and research saying why it was a bad idea. Next thing you know, they do it anyway, and the world gets bombarded with Macro viruses.

They don't have to do anything about it. Read the EULA you get with computers software. Most have language distinctly saying the software is given to you "as is" and they can't be held liable for anything that breaks, crashes, or screws up. To be fair, they aren't the only software company with that policy; pretty much all of them do it.

They provide this patching "service" to keep people off of their backs and assuage the consumer( is that someone with tuberculosis??) into thinking they care. Well, if they cared, the software wouldn't need almost daily fixing and would have been better crafted in the first place IMO. I don't expect perfection, and sometimes stuff happens, but I don't relish pumping out large updates to hundreds of workstations almost everyday either.

One answer is to not use MS mail or web browsers in any way shape or form. There are plenty of solid, reliable, FREE software packages for those types of programs on the WWW and Internet. Just have to find them. It's not an "anti-Microsoft" statement; I just don't like their email or web browser products for reasons including security, "feature creep, speed or lack thereof, and usability.

They'll have plenty of customers for many years. Joe Lunchbox is too "time constrained" to go out and find anything better. The management lovelies at MS have so ingrained into the minds of the consumer that they are "it" and have forced their code writers to dumb it down to where monkeys can run their software. In fact, one's typing this message.....

And here's a good starting point for such a search:

Verizon's filters are catching a lot of it but some is still making its way through. I do what Mark does and go back to Verizon's site and trash it there. I also clean out the spam trap daily just to keep the way cleared for worthwhile messages. It's a bother but it could be worse without Verizon's site.

Bill Banaszak, MFE

snag a non microcrap email proggie and lose it all. i use eudora and haven't had a bit.

Personally, I'm getting royally tired of the computer geeks' attitudes and practises. I've had to dump stuff that I preferred to work with because 'X' won't work with 'Y' - anymore. I've lost data because the form it's in is incompatible with what I've been forced to adopt. I can well imagine the chaos that would result if GM decided that their latest locomotives were sold with couplers that worked left-handed because their techies decided that was cooler. How long would it take for freight to roll after the whole car fleet had to be converted. How many small railroads would go out of business because they couldn't afford to change, leaving them disconnected from the rail network? It's arrogant stupidity, IMHO

Bill Banaszak

I agree, but it's not just the 'geeks' in information technology/ electrical engineering/computer science industry(ies); it's businesses in general now. Can you fit a carburetor or fuel injector system from a V-8 Ford block onto/into a V-8 Chevy block? Not very easily, if at all. Can you put a Ford 351 into a Chevy Chassis? Not without cutting something or "applied engineering" you can't.

The sad thing is it doesn't need to be that way. There are technologies out there that alleviate a lot of this nonsense (much better stated as "arrogant stupidity" by you) if people would use them. Your data incompatibility point is easily addressed if the info tech folks would quit bickering and just use a "standard" set of technologies to exchange data between programs. Those technologies have been available and "accepted" for four or five years now, at least. But they won't do it, for whatever reason(s), mostly whining because they think it "costs" too much.

What happened to the attitude that "standards are my/your/our friends"? It obviously was considered at some point; screw driver heads are generally the same, doorknobs are for the most part at the same location of every door and generally the same height, stop signs all look pretty much the same around the world, green means "go" or "okay" and red means "warning" or "stop".

The FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doom) principle seems to be at work now more than ever in the business world.

Yeah, I use Eudora too, but I didn't care for the wasted on-line time downloading sludge attatchments since I'm on dial-up. The webmail approach solves that.

Mark Schynert

In my past 15 years of computer programming in industry, I have discovered one universal truth in the COMMERCIAL software development world:

MARKETING controls the IT BUDGET!! MARKETING decides what gets built and when!!

Almost all software developers would love to write code that works right the first time. However, MARKETING steps in and only budgets barely enough money to get something out the door as soon as possible so as to get to market first!!

Bill Banaszak wrote:

You make some very valid points. But just look at how so called standards vary. HTML is a very good case in point, I get sick and tired of coming across websites that are designed to work only with Microsoft Explorer. The peope who code these websites just don't get it. Their website is their shop window to the world, yet they would rather discriminate against those who choose to use a different browser and even a different operating system than have my custom. Fortunately for me the software that I use is wise to MS tricks and is able to 'spoof' these sites into thinking that I am using MS Explorer.

On the original point of viruses, I really don't know how people get their mail boxes filled with them. One of my email addresses is 'live' on the Internet, yet I have never had it filled with virus laden emails. I also have exceptionally aggressive filters set up, so anything formatted in HTML, MIME gets binned. Even better is that I am able to do server side filtering so I don't even need to download this stuff before checking it. OK it means that I lose emails from some of my friends - but it is up to them to set their email client to post in plain text only.

While this has a lot of truth to it, a LOT of responsible also falls onto the code writers and developers themselves. Throughout my experience almost to the person I can say that computer programmers and developers are at least as sensitive and temperamental as artists. They treat that code as if it were their own kin, better than in some cases. I appreciate pride in workmanship, and expect it because it means the crafter cares. but there are limits, as with most things in life.

It becomes a development burden when people can't see past their own chunk of the development cycle and won't change accordingly. Focus is one thing; abject dedication to one and only one facet of a project is moronic. It happens everywhere though, not just IT; architects, builders, engineers, painters, mechanics, advertising (eeewww!), anywhere where creative endeavor is key component in getting the job done.

Again, I'll agree that external forces create havoc in trying to write good code. Hard to do anything worthwhile when someone promises a customer a trip to the moon and only gives the developers funding for a bb-capable slingshot. But there are enough personal tendencies and "maverick attitudes" amongst developers to add plenty of discord and strife to a given project in addition to the marketing/funding dance..

good solution. always use an online server if you can. i do it for easynews when i want mp3's. their online server hasn't got the 40% overhead that compression forces on uue encoding. that lets me almost stretch the 6 gig's i buy for a month. after that there are four free servers i have leech accounts on. so i manage 8-12 gigs of tunes a month. (i love the recording industry.)

snipped-for-privacy@aol.com wrote: : : Microsoft won't have a single customer left if they don't act soon. : If billyware had to work well, it would have never managed to create a monoply that has abused those monopoly powers. Besides, where have you been? Billy said tiny flaccid was doing something about it - "Trustworthy Computing"!

Think about - if ATM's worked as poorly as Windows, they wouldn't be ubiquitous today.

Bruce

Har-har.

That ranks right up with another poster on this group (although one with a more distinguished reputation) said in 1993 or 4: "Microsoft will be out of business within five years."

Don't hold your breath.

KL