Hi Elliott:
On 14/07/08 3:15 AM, in article 130720081845185086%nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
"Elliott Roper" <nospam@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
> In article <C49E5D33.1729D%john@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>, John McGhie
> <john@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
>> PROBLEM: The deprecated file formats are not secure.
> COMMENT: Disingenuous.
Bull!! Gimme a break... I didn't feel like bogging the forum down with a
treatise on byte-aligned parsing algorithms. The old format makes it
easier
to sneak bad stuff through.
>> 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.
> COMMENT: You always wave those numbers about. Do you have any numerical
> evidence in this case?
Yes.
But I am not going to publish it :-)
>> SIDE EFFECT: Some stupid users complained because there was a change.
They
>> had to take two extra steps to put their computers at risk.
> COMMENT: Not stupid at all, since the action to 'reduce' the 'risk' was
> derisory.
Nup! Brain-dead stupid. Since the action reduced the risk adequately.
>> RESULT: Microsoft realised that computer companies make more money
from
>> infected computers than they do from good ones.
> COMMENT: When did they ever do anything else?
I don't believe they ever did :-)
>> 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.
> COMMENT: That is nowhere near the full story.
Well, no... But we won't live long enough to listen to the full story.
> Microsoft software
> running on PCs ripped the file type off and threw it away with the
> resource fork, because they didn't know any better in the old days.
Really? Have a dig around with a hex editor and see what you see... The
information is still there to this day; they just moved it.
> Some webbish software, being helpful, put one back on. World plus dog
> knows this. Filetype has henceforward become universally deprecated,
> and routinely ignored. 13 years ago Microsoft said they did not like
> their *own* filetype any more. Then did nothing for 13 years.
What did they need to do? "Deprecated" doesn't seem to call for a lot of
action in my book??
> Made an egregious error in Office 2008. Threw hissy fit. World plus dog
> laughed like a drain.
Naaahhh.... The only ones laughing were the ones that didn't understand
:-)
There were two ways they could have responded to this issue: the way they
did, or by removing the input filter for the old file types. I guess
removing the filters the next one on the list.
>> I think this is one of the stupidest things I have seen in computing
for
>> many years.
> COMMENT: You are wrong about what was stupid about this. The problem
> was miniscule. The 'remedy' was laughable.
Well, I don't know how great the problem was. But I rate people walking
off
with my bank account details a little more serious than "miniscule".
I believe the remedy was elegant. Cheap, sufficient, timely, minimally
intrusive. It doesn't get much better than that.
> John's effort to claim that somebody in Microsoft had a fit of
> responsibility instead of the whole Mac BU making a silly mess over a
> storm in a teacup is charming but misplaced loyalty.
Well, my information comes from a guy who was standing real close at the
time. You seem to be plugged in to a higher authority :-)
> He'll get over it.
What's there to get over? None of this affects ME :-)
And your software wasn't THAT bad! I seem to recall its replacement
engendered a lot of sarcastic comments along the lines of "Don't tell me
the
Non-Stop System stopped again?" I don't recall YOUR software ever
stopping.
The drums used to die with depressing regularity: but your code never
stopped (at least, not while I was there...) :-)
Cheers
--
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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