PROBLEM: The deprecated file formats are not secure.
RESPONSE: A responsible citizen at Microsoft realised they would have to
double the cost of Office to make them secure, so they decided to protect
users by disabling the automatic opening of the dangerous old file
formats.
SIDE EFFECT: Some stupid users complained because there was a change.
They
had to take two extra steps to put their computers at risk.
RESULT: Microsoft realised that computer companies make more money from
infected computers than they do from good ones.
Infected computers work badly or not at all, forcing users to buy new
computers with new software and to buy extra software and to buy expensive
consulting services from people who know how to fix these things. Very
profitable business.
Good computers just sit there and work. It can be years before users buy
anything new. Not such profitable business.
OUTCOME: Microsoft forced the responsible citizen to reverse their work
and
put us all back at risk.
MY TAKE: The people who made such a fuss never understood what they were
doing, and they have now put us all at extra risk. All because some
software companies that were not associated with Microsoft were guilty of
sloppy programming.
I think this is one of the stupidest things I have seen in computing for
many years.
Next time someone tries the "wisdom of the crowds" line on me, I will use
this as a perfect rebuttal.
It won't affect me -- I have commercial-grade security systems set up on
this computer, and I know how to tell whether a file is potentially
dangerous or not. This must work, because I have not had a virus for the
past 20 years. Actually: I have never had a virus, but for the past 20
years this has been more to do with good management than sheer good luck.
So: I have nothing to worry about. I don't have to change anything.
This
doesn't affect me. I'm alright, Jack...
The people at risk are the ones that have NOT been employed in
professional
computing for the past 20 or 30 years. The people who do NOT have the
tools
and expertise to discover potentially dangerous files. The people who do
not have the advanced computing knowledge to remove an infection if they
get
it.
The home users. The small business users.
They are the ones who are going to lose the contents of their bank
accounts,
the content of their email, their quotations, their customer lists and
their
investment ****tfolios.
And their computers. Those are the ones that will be out there buying new
computers and new software every six months or so. Because they don't
have
the knowledge to protect their computers, and they're too busy earning a
living to have the time to get that knowledge.
They're the ones that get hurt by this. The "normal users". You know:
the
ones the computer industry should be protecting. Because we promised that
we would. We told them we knew what were were doing; that the customer is
most im****tant; that we have their best interests at heart.
Those are the ones that will get hurt.
That's the real outcome. Are you proud of it? Really?
On 11/07/08 11:22 PM, in article ee9bb16.24@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"WFP"
<WFP> wrote:
> SOLUTION: Upgrade from Office 12.1.0 to Office 12.1.1
>
> PROBLEM: Word for the Mac would not open *.doc files that I received via
email
> (my client is Thunderbird 2.0.0.14) when I double-clicked the
attachment, when
> I saved the attachment and double-clicked the file, or when I saved the
> attachment and dragged it to Word. The only way I could open the file
was with
> File:Open... from within Word, which meant navigating the filesystem to
find
> the file. Aggravating!!! AFter upgrading, however, the problem went
away.
>
> MY TAKE: Microsoft says that it does not want to open deprecated
filetypes,
> which could pose a security risk. This is a weak response, since those
same
> files would be opened directly from within Word. If Microsoft is
actually
> worried about security, it should prevent the security problem from
within
> Word, not by making it more difficult to open files.
>
> FINAL WORD: I do appreciate Microsoft recognizing that this was a
problem with
> Word (not email clients) and fixing it.
--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/
Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:john@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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