Slashdot Mirror
The Fine Line Between Security and Usability
SkiifGeek writes to ask, "Where should vendors be required to draw the line when supporting deprecated file formats and technology? In a recent case independent security researcher cocoruder found a critical bug with the JET engine, via the .mdb (Access) file format, he reported it to Microsoft, but Microsoft's response came as a surprise to him — it appears that Microsoft is not inclined to fix a critical arbitrary code execution vulnerability with a data technology that is at the heart of a large number of essential business and hobby applications."
"Microsoft is a company, their goal is profit." [spelling correction]
In my opinion, that is a common mistake. Microsoft's main purpose is abuse, not profit. Microsoft is not a software company that is routinely abusive, it is an abuse company that uses software as a means of delivering abuse. If you look at it that way, Microsoft is excellent at what it does.
That follows the general rule that what happens over a long period of time is what the people involved meant to happen.
Being abusive may or may not make money, but it always causes harm to the abusers. That's why Bill Gates has trouble with depression. It's easy to guess that a chair-throwing monkey boy is not a happy camper, either.
Abuse is why Sandy Weill, formerly of CitiBank, had heart trouble, I think. That's why Dick Cheney, U.S. vice-president has heart trouble. (Whaaaat, you say. Dick Cheney has a heart???)
We seem to live in a society dominated by abusers. The dollar is being inflated so that the U.S. government will have enough money to fight a war, so that oil and weapons investors can get control of the oil supply.