Slashdot Mirror
Windows Live OneCare Can Eat Your Email
FutureDomain writes in to point us to a blog sponsored by PC Magazine, reporting about another problem with Windows Live OneCare. Apparently, it sometimes deletes the entire Outlook or Outlook Express .PST mailbox when it finds a virus in one of the messages. The only solution is to tell OneCare to exclude the entire Outlook mailbox. This is the software that came in last in antivirus tests. The trail of tears is ongoing over on the Microsoft forums.
isnt the term 'trail of tears' a bit extreme for some lost email?
And just remember, this is the same development house that the whole world seems to have no problem with the thought of giving root acces to their machines so they can keep them 'safe.'
If those idiots don't screw the world up by their own incompetence first they are going to get Windows Update 0wn3d and allow someone malevolent to wreak even worse havok on the world.
Seriously, I can't understand how any Microsoft product is permitted to be used in any role where failure isn't an option. Finance, military, medical, etc should have imposed a ban a decade ago, forbidding the stuff from even being connected to a network port inside the secure inner firewall. Instead we are installing the stuff into the engine room on our warships, giving it sole control of the propulsion system.
This is insanity on a global scale. A lot of people even seem to understand the danger yet are too afraid to speak up loudly enough to be heard.
Democrat delenda est
Don't just sit there feeling smug! Every now and again, when you have a free moment, delete your mbox file, or the directory where the mail client of your preference stores its data. That'll go a long way towards helping Windows users to stop seeing us as arrogant and aloof and let them know we share their pain.
(And if you're really feeling altruistic, knock up a shell script which turns your machine into a spam-spewing zombie).
Nuke the mailbox from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to put all mail, including not only INBOX but also all extra folders, in a single file?
At least other MUAs usually have a separate file for each folder.
Then, get a good AV package - or better yet, just exercise some fucking common sense and don't open that "Re: Malaca Superfund Stranded" email from "Roberta Plantagenet~=%" that has a "postcard.exe" attachment.
That theme seems to be "The cure is worse than the disease"
Example 1:
Problem- Malware has carte blanche in XP to do damn near anything if it's run from an account with admin privileges.
Solution- UAC in Vista. ("You are moving your mouse cursor. Cancel or allow?")
Solution Sucks Because- UAC is so friggin' annoying with the popups that people will either shut it off or get in the habit of blindly clicking "OK," which means they are likely to give malware carte blanche to do damn near anything.
Example 2:
Problem- Viruses.
Solution- Windows OneCare Antivirus.
Solution Sucks Because- One infected email can cause your whole inbox to go bye-bye.
Great job, guys! The five years it took you to get this stuff perfect was really worth it!
The term "Defective by Design" was specifically invented to describe products containing DRM, where the usability of the product is intentionally compromised in order to protect the profits of a third party.
Yes, Microsoft has a lot of DRMed software, with Vista being the granddaddy of them all, but not everything Microsoft makes is defective by design. And in this particular case, the defect appears to be a bug rather than intentional anyway. So, please, save the "defectivebydesign" tag for situations where it's really warranted. Sure, it may be an amusing term, but when you use it where it doesn't apply, it waters down its meaning for the situation it was intended to be applied to: DRM.
> Quick! Someone post some linux evangelism there!
Yes Linux has a better record. But then so does everyone else. Go ahead, name the operating system with a security record equal or inferior to Windows over the last decade.
*BSD? Nope, even if you exempt OpenBSD *BSD has a far better record than anything Microsoft has released in the past decade. And OpenBSD wears the crown when it comes to security. Usability, scalability and such are legitimate counter concerns though and explain why OpenBSD hasn't conquered the world.
Linux? Regardless of the distribution, if it is a large enough operation to keep up with the torrent of errata teh universe of OpenSource/Free Software generates they have all done better then Microsoft when it comes to timely updates. And with the bonus of the existence of "Enterprise" distributions for a good part of the decade that focus on errata updates that won't have unrelated breakage.
Apple? Their record with OS 8 and OS 9 beat Microsoft and OS X just upped their game.
Sun? HP? IBM? Please.
I'm not saying anyone should be proud of their security history and methodology, all software currently sucks ass. But since we have to use something NOW the question is why is the worst vendor on 90% of the world's machines?
What I'd like to see is a major concerted effort to raise software quality over adding new features. Engage the CS departments in teh universities to have all students audit some code. After all, most operating systems these days allow access to the source. And auditing real code would be a good experience for em. They would see first hand how wretched much of the code actually in use is firsthand. And if legends are writing that stuff they just might listen a bit more when when the prof is badgering about not hotdogging in the belief they are too leet to make those 'idiot' mistakes.
And for the Linux world I'd like to see the major distros come together to take every package not currently at 1.0 and finish em or dump em. Then stabilise the codebase, audit the crap out of it and then freeze them, only accepting bug fixes. And a nice side effect is they would all have the SAME version. The original project can still release new versions but it won't get integrated into a major stable distro until they announce a new feature complete and AUDITED version. Seriously, is there anything else that needs to go into glibc? So why not stabilize it, sudit it and then freeze it? We need a trusted core that we don't have to update several times per year. As computers become central to our civilization we need them to work a lot more than we need shiny new features.
Democrat delenda est
The problem is not that a single email was moved, but that the entire mailbox was quarantined and that the user was not told about it. RTFA.
Precisely. For that matter, considering the target audence the concept of a Log file as notification is not only ineffective but probably offensive to most. Of the people I know who might use this product, every single one of them would have ended up in a shop and paying a lot of money to have a tech figure it out. Or more than likely paying them to re-install Windows and hope it didn't happen again.
Platform advocacy is like choosing a favorite severely developmentally disabled child.