The Archives of The Evil Empire2000 August
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30 August: Word documents susceptible to "Web bug"
infestation
The Privacy Foundation today published a report demonstrating how Word documents can be planted with "Web bugs" that can pass information about the use of the file back to the author. Web bugs can also be embedded in Excel spreadsheets and PowerPoint slide show files, according to the report, which was authored by Privacy Foundation chief technology officer Richard Smith. "What this means basically is that if an author of a document for whatever reason cares about who is reading it, he can bug it and then monitor it," Smith said. "They can find out the IP address and host name of whoever is reading the document." 16 August: The Blue Sea of Death
The satirical web site As The Apple Turns notes that Federal Computer Week is reporting that the U.S. Navy's "next-generation aircraft carrier" will be run by state-of-the-art onboard computers powered by "a futuristic version of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows operating system. [...] Microsoft Federal Systems will help design the ship's IT architecture based on the company's Windows 2000 platform." What's particularly galling about this bit of news is not so much that US defense will rely on people who shipped Windows 2000 with an admitted 63,000 bugs, nor that Microsoft's products have so many holes that hackers are overwhelmed by the choices. The real problem is the way that the Navy appears to have completely forgotten about the "Smart Ship" incident that took place a mere three years ago, when a bug in Microsoft NT rendered an entire aircraft carrier unusable. 16 August: MS Server Attack Tool Unleashed
A newly released automated Web-based tool can scan Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) for multiple reported IIS vulnerabilities, according to iDEFENSE Intelligence Services. This Web tool can be used to scan unsuspecting systems to identify vulnerabilities prior to an attack. Then, through the successful exploitation of the discovered vulnerabilities, an attacker could gain access to source code possibly containing user names and passwords, locations of MS Access MDB files, or other sensitive information. 10 August: MS kisses free software support goodbye
Microsoft Corp. is ending free 90-day phone support for people who buy the company's Windows and Office software products. Customers calling Microsoft with support questions will receive two no-charge calls. After that, they will be required to pay $35 per phone call. The changes, which take effect in mid-September, underscore a wider industry move by software companies to cut expenses by pushing their customers to use Web-based support. 5 August: Gates: "Linux is just 1960s-era Unix"
After Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO, said last week that Linux was "communism", now Bill Gates gave his opinion on the matter. In an interview with Red Herring magazine, he said: "There's no new features in Linux. Linux is just 1960s-era Unix deployed in a very interesting development model. But when you look at management, user interface, security -- people have to buy things to make it do those things." 4 August: MS tells EU it's always pushed standards, interoperability
Microsoft has responded swiftly to the antitrust action the European Commission launched earlier today, claiming in a statement that it already provides all the information its competitors need in order to have their server software interoperate with Windows. Microsoft's statement, apparently written by Pinochio, claims the company has a long history of actively developing and implementing support for "hundreds of industry standards across its product line," and that it encourages the use of these standards "to ensure interoperability of systems." 4 August: MS doubles prices for enterprise customers
Microsoft has introduced a price increase that will affect customers of its Select enterprise license scheme. According to the Gartner Group, a subtle change in policy will double the cost of Windows where businesses use imaging programs, such as Norton Ghost for convenience. That snares 60 per cent of all enterprises. "Microsoft is benefiting from confusion related to this issue to increase revenue from upgrade licenses... Microsoft has effectively doubled the licensing cost for Windows," says Gartner in a research note. 3 August: Absurd bugs in MS edutainment software
The Register's correspndent Andrew Orlowski notes an alarming number of absurd errors, bugs, or glitches in Microsoft edutainment software; such as clicks on moon maps displaying the corresponding section on Earth and Earth globes spinning in the wrong direction. He says, "Worrying signs are emerging that Microsoft's factual products are becoming as reliably bug-prone as the company's systems and applications software." 1 August: MS WinME 'promotional' deal is a disguised price hike
Yesterday Microsoft revealed the price of the Windows ME upgrade, happily trumpeting that its "promotional" price of $59.95 "makes it affordable for Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition customers to stay current with the latest consumer operating system." However, the "promotional" $59.95 will be for an unspecified but limited period, after which it will "revert" to $109. So if you miss the "limited time" promotion, upgrading from SE to WinME will be five times more expensive than moving from 98 to SE.
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