Thursday, October 18, 2001

NFL Tonight -- 7:58 pm CST, Update by The Master

Looks like A.T. missed the fact there's a game on tonight (Eeyore just noticed it herself) so here's E's pick for tonight: Jaguars.

A.T. Hun comments: Eeek! I had a meeting tonight, but I haven't looked at anything with the game. I'm also going with the Jaguars.

Wednesday, October 17, 2001

M$: It's YOUR Fault -- 7:45 pm CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Microsoft, in lieu of actually doing something about it, is blaming security consultants for "information anarchy". Basically they are saying that the people who report the security holes in M$ software are to blame for worm and virus outbreaks, not M$ themselves for failing to do anything about it. You can read the whole essay on Microsoft's site. Thanks Slashdot.

Editorializing mode on The arrogance of this article astounds me. It's not the fault of code, it's not our fault for making it easier for sysadmins to keep up-to-date. If you find a security hole, keep your mouth shut to everyone and tell us so we can get busy at doing nothing about it. We will cripple admins' ability to keep their sites secure, that's their problem. Blech.

It is clear that Microsoft will not act until they are publicly humiliated. Releasing exploits seems to be the only way to drill through their lead-lined craniums so they finally understand the situation.

The Master comments: The only way to make Microsoft do ANYTHING is to damage their pocketbook. Once someone sues and wins a couple billion out of M$ for an exploit, then M$ will truly invest in securing their O/S. Otherwise, forget it. They'd rather stay busy integrating EVERY SINGLE APP IN EXISTENCE into the Windows environment and destroy any and all of their competition. This is BillG of Microsoft. Prepare to be assimilated.

J.t.Qbe comments: It'd be nice to sue M$ for a few billion, but oops, their licenses exempt Microsoft from responsibility for any problem, ever. Do not pass go, do not collect anything. This is just an official statement of Microsoft's official policy of security through obscurity. Ignore a problem and it'll go away. This the the company which wants you to store your personal information on its servers in the coming .NET world.

Bleh -- 6:34 pm CST, Update by The Master

Got back into BattleTech this week-finally figured out a way to make my mapping software work right, so I've been tinkering with Delphi again trying to get some stuff coded. Windows ME is NOT a development platform. Crashed my box out in about 5 minutes. Whee.

Wizardry 8 Release Date Announced -- 12:05 pm CST, Update by J.t.Qbe

The official press release just came out: Wizardry 8 will be released on November 15. You can read all about it here. For those who have been living in caves, Wizardry is one of the triad of great computer RPG series (Ultima and Might & Magic are the others). I've probably played the Wizardry series least of the 3, but am looking forward to this one. Check out the official site and you'll see why!

Pondering the Imponderable -- 11:17 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

J.t.Qbe and I have been playing some Diablo II online. Yesterday we got Roger Wilco running with it. It took a little fiddling, but it worked! It's much easier just to talk as you go along than to try to type. I had some major flashbacks of college, although we weren't drinking Michelob Dry this time (did we really drink that stuff?).

J.t.Qbe comments: Oh yeah, way too much of that stuff. We didn't know about Salvator in those days, and couldn't've afforded it anyway.

I just gave my Kensington Orbit trackball a good thorough cleaning. It really needed it. About 15 minutes of work with a toothpick and tweezers and it is as good as new. I have no idea why so much lint gets stuck in there. It's not like I'm wearing fuzzy mittens all the time.

Outlook to Prevent Spam? -- 10:25 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

Well, that's what QWest claims after they farmed out their Internet access to MSN. If their customers want to keep getting email, they'd better start using Outlook pronto. Here's a blurb from the FAQ:

Due to the Microsoft anti-spam initiative, customers are restricted to use their mail services. Therefore, POP3 service is only available when using MSN Explorer, Microsoft Outlook, or Microsoft Outlook Express.

1% less spam with 1652% more worms! Great deal! Ahh, monopolistic arrogance. Thanks Slashdot.

NFL Week #5 Final -- 10:03 am CST, Update by A.T. Hun

A last second field goal in the awful Monday night game saved me from my first sub-.500 week. I was 7-7, Eeyore was 8-6. Year to date I am 47-25 (.653), while Eeyore is 40-32 (.556).

The fantasy team I was playing against had both starting Monday night running backs. Thankfully, they just played poorly enough (well, Stephen Davis did anyway) to allow me to squeak out a 67-66 win.

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