Flutterby™! : Viruses and snake oil 2000-05-05 17:52:36+00

Viruses and snake oil

2000-05-05 17:52:36+00 by Dan Lyke 2 comments

I feel officially left out. I haven't gotten either the I Love You worm or its siblings. I have, however, gotten a gazillion annoying email messages warning me about them, which has wasted more time than what'd happen if I got the message itself (since my computers run an operating system I'm far less vulnerable to those problems than most), but having just read The Virus Creation Labs I also understand even more clearly that most of the hype is generated by hucksters trying to sell more snake oil.

Since I've only seen one of the new dollar coins in the wild I've been wondering about the isolation of economic systems recently, I think something similar goes on with the 'net: It just happens that the people I tend to interact with aren't the sort of drooling idiots who'd fall for this (Yeah, I know, with hubris like this I'm really tempting fate).

I can forward you a copy of 'ILOVEYOU' tomorrow. BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, being one of the myriad corporations that have come to depend heavily on Microsoft Outlook and Exchange, was dragged to a halt Thursday as the virus propogated. It's amazing how many people actually have the Outlook preview screen setup to automatically execute VB script. That means you can't even delete the email without executing the VB script. And you should see what happens when it hits a mailbox with an automatic out of office reply... Fortunately we had just upgraded our servers (there are five of them for 6000 users) to use clustering and fddi disk subsystems. At least the servers survived. As far as the gold dollar goes, you have to shop at Walmart to get one. Evidently the Fed decided the fastest way to gain adoption of the new dollar is to distribute it via Walmart. The particulars of the new dollar: it's exactly the same size as the Susan B. (so vending machines don't need to be changed). It has a smooth edge like a nickel (which actually mave a difference in how it feels). The gold color makes it easy to see n good lighting, but I've found that in low light areas (like around vending machines and toll booths) the color is almost indistibuishable from the silver color of a quarter. I appreciate the fact that the government put a female North American aborigine on the face but I also think that the minting of a new dollar coin only emphasizes the fact that the dollar is worth about what a quarter was in days gone past. Does anyone know if there are plans to change the $1 bill? I know the $5 and $10 are being replaced later this month. I like the new images better but they really should have used different colors for the different demoninations. I've found that $50s and $20s are very difficult to tell apart. Other counttries use different colors and sizes to differentiate amounts. Why couldn't we have at least printed the denomination in a different color?

Todd sent me a copy, 'though I have to admit I haven't had a chance to look at it yet. I think your experience bears out the line I heard recently about "I'd no more recommend Microsoft products for enterprise solutions than feed lead paint chips to children." Sure, sometimes they seem like the best short term solution, but... On the gold dollar, I'm really wondering if there's such a break between economies that the dollar can circulate for quite a while in the WalMart economy before crossing over into the Marin economy. I have no opinion as to whether it was a good idea to keep most of the annoying design traits of the Susan B. Anthony coin, but change the icon on the currency from someone who made real strides towards equal rights to a traitor who sold out her tribe and married well. Well, no opinion that I'll voice, anyway...