fYou said, "All hotfix installers released since XP-SP2 have had an/integrate switch to do just that."
I tried that with two installers I just downloaded, and both had the/integrate switch.
A previous comment said to download the critical updates from here: Microsoft Updates Catalog, using Internet Explorer. Be sure to hunt for "Windows XP SP2". If you choose the logical "Windows XP Professional SP2", you will be offered only a ton of junk.
The system puts the files deep in separate folders. It is necessary to use an application like XXCopy or the File Finder in PowerDesk 4 from Ontrack to move the.EXE files to one folder. XXCopy and the File Finder in PowerDesk 4 are programs you need anyway. I've had problems with later free versions of PowerDesk, so I stay with the free PowerDesk 4.
Rebates are not about shopping carefully. Rebates are about crazy, crazy prices. On the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest rebate and sale day of the year in the U.S., I bought 12 Wireless devices (routers, USB wireless, PCMCIA cards and PCI wireless) for $2.99 each after rebate.
Rebates are about standing at a cash register, asking a sales clerk how much are the packages of 100 brand-name CDs, and being told "free after rebate".
There are 6,000,000,000 people. Twenty percent (20%) have barely enough to eat. A huge number have no access to education. We are, in fact, way ahead of them.
A large percentage are very old, or young.
We may not think of ourselves as intelligent and educated, but we are some of the best, and it is people like ourselves that the world needs if it is to be improved.
That statement is still true even though there may be 100,000,000 people as educated as we are.
I see now how to get critical updates. Skip "Windows XP Professional SP2" in the menu, and go to "Windows XP SP2".
The system puts the files deep in separate folders. It is necessary to use an application like XXCopy or the File Finder in PowerDesk 4 from Ontrack to extract the exe files to one folder.
XXCopy and the File Finder in PowerDesk 4 are programs you need anyway.
I've had problems with later free versions of PowerDesk, so I stay with the free PowerDesk 4.
That site offers me only downloads I obviously would not want, such as a service pack in Chinese. Do you get a different response? It is certainly NOT a catalog. Only one critical update is offered, for example. I'm using IE, of course, since the site is IE specific.
My understanding is that the ISO files don't help you at all. They are huge because they include all languages. Each ISO file includes only the critical updates for ONE month. I know of no way to integrate them into a single CD image containing Windows XP SP2 and all the critical updates.
It is possible to download all the separate critical updates, and run them from a batch file. But that's a hassle; Microsoft does not make that easy. This is another way that Microsoft is adversarial towards customers; they waste the time of some of the best-educated people in the world.
Quote from the Slashdot article: "Even if new features won't get you to upgrade to Vista, you should buy Vista for the security, urged Windows Chief Jim Allchin."
Most people don't know that there is no actual person named Allchin. That is just a nickname for Jabba the Hutt, All Chin.
When he is not assuring that their will be terrible security vulnerabilities in the present version of Windows, so that Microsoft will be able to sell the next version, Mr. "AllChin" Hutt eats cute squeaky live animals.
I want you to know that this comment has the same editorial accuracy for which Slashdot is famous.
Here is an excerpt from a question in the Slashdot story from someone who
claims to be a Microsoft employee and sounds like he is. His complaint exactly
fits my understanding of how Microsoft is managed. Notice that Microsoft VP
Mike Nash pretends to answer the question, but doesn't answer it. That fits
with my assessment, in my parent post, about the real role of Mike Nash.
Hi, Mike,
I have just one question for you. Why do we STILL ship products with
KNOWN security issues?
I'll even tell you how it works in the trenches. Folks build the
product. At the end of it all a "Security Push" gets declared. For two to
three weeks people pretend they care about security by coming up with
potential security issues and assigning DREAD+VR scores to them. Then
management arbitrarily sets the "bar" below which we don't fix potential and
real security issues. This bar is usually very high, sometimes at around 8,
because hardly anyone has time in the schedule to fix all issues found. Now,
DREAD score 8 means that flaw will affect a ton of customers and cost
Microsoft significant litigation. Some of very severe bugs slip under the bar
just because they don't affect more than 10% of customers. Now, even this
exercise is a joke, because most developers don't know what DFD is and how to
put one together.
This wasn't even the most ridiculous part of the exercise. The most
ridiculous part is security "code reviews". It's when feature owners walk into
a room with a huge stack of printouts and pretend they can be reviewed in a
couple of hours they've allocated for this. You can barely glance through this
much code in this much time, 90% of security issues remain unnoticed during
this "code review".
After all is said and done, product is only slightly more secure (SOME
of the most ridiculous things have been fixed), and management gets delusional
saying that product is now Fort Knox secure.
If you ask me, that's abomination, not a proper security process. Are
there any plans to change it?
Use the "F" word: Fraud. Every time an employee quits, it costs the rebate
company a lot to hire and train someone new. Minimum wage people don't like to
think they are helping break the law. Ask the employee how she or he can
justify working for a dishonest company. Tell the employee he or she has the
worst job in the world.
Call the manager of the store where you bought the rebate item. Use
the "F" word again. Managers have a special number. The rebate company will
listen to them. Store managers don't like the word fraud applied to their
store; that could cost them hundreds of thousands, if the word gets around. If
you don't get satisfaction from the store manager, get his or her name and
call the store's main office. The people who work in main offices don't want
fraud calls; and they definitely don't like fraud calls in which the name of a
store manager is mentioned.
Never let them steal from you. If you ever accept that once, they will
know they can do it again. Remember, there are a limited number of rebate
companies, and they keep databases on those who apply for rebates.
Apparently almost all rebate companies are involved in fraud. They try
to concentrate on the customers that will accept excuses. The stores will tell
you they know nothing about the fraud, but that is not true; they know very
well.
Be sure to tell the rebate company that you will file a complaint with
the Better Business Bureau, and with your state's consumer fraud department,
and do it. Tell the store that sold the rebate item the same thing, and do it.
Stay away from stores that hate their customers. My experience with
Best Buy has been very negative.
Stay away from stores that offer big rebates on items that
have defects that aren't obvious.
It has been my experience that Netgear is by far the worst in failing
to send rebates. We have had bad experiences with Netgear equipment being
buggy, too. Maybe there are companies who can only stay in business because
they fail to sent rebates.
Always be kind and gentle with rebate company employees, but very
firm. Remember, the employee is not getting any of the stolen money.
Always keep copies of everything you sent when you apply for a rebate.
The rebate companies will exploit any weakness they find.
Remember, if you let them steal from you once, you will be in the
database as someone who accepts abuse.
I got a Sony rebate 1 1/2 years after it was denied. I would never buy
anything from Sony again, of course, even though I eventually got the rebate.
Generally, companies that are abusive in one way are abusive in others.
Generally, abuse is part of the corporate culture.
The United States is a country that thinks nothing of
killing Iraqis
to prevent a fall in value of the dollar and make money for weapons and oil company investors;
routinely stealing from customers seems mild by comparison.
Adding to my previous comment: I meant that there is no g in join.
About making money: If you can convince businessmen that you are 100% trustworthy, you can make money by providing your software as a service and charging a small amount each month. Business people do not like running their own servers.
That's right. They expect that you give back as many electrons as they give you.
If you found some way of keeping the electrons, your house would begin emitting sparks as the static electricity increased. Anyone who tried to ring your doorbell would be electrocuted. Not a way have friends.
The power company sells you electron pressure, not electrons.
From this page, which uses a rotating quotes system: "A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week." -- General George Patton
Are you wanting to ally yourself with weapons investors and angry people? Sounds like your company is pro-violence, like George W. Bush. I doubt that's your intention. The quotes system is distracting and should be eliminated. The software is fascinating and helpful; there is no need for entertainment. Anyone wanting quotes can Google "quotes".
In the Demo, on January 10, someone entered this: "01:00 AM Seeing what a really long line looks like. There should be a place for event name and a lengthy description." That seems correct to me.
Quote from the license page: "License: CATS is licensed under the CPL (CATS Public License), a derivative of the Mozilla Public License.....details comming soon!" The word "coming" has one m.
On the "Contact us" page: "Minnetonka
MN
USA
55305".
This should be:
Minnetonka, MN 55305
USA
Use the last four digits of your zip code.
Quote from the download page: "Interested in joinging us, contact us!" There is no g in joining.
I'm impressed with your software. If you like, I will act as your editor.
I'm very sensitive to the quality of writing in anything I read. I was surprised that the quality of the OpenBSD entry in Wikipedia was so good. Mostly good writers are good at writing about social things, or good about writing about technical things, but not both. But OpenBSD is a social and technical story, and the writing puts both together in an informative and interesting way.
It's helpful to translate Microsoft's Mike Nash words from the typical
corporate-speak to plain English:
"It's now clear to us that security is a competitive and business
priority."
This is after billions of dollars have been lost every year since
1998.
"Culture is a huge issue as well."
This seems right. Microsoft has a culture in which programmers are
treated as badly as they can be convinced to accept. This internal culture is
the same as Microsoft's external culture, in which customers are also
carefully monitored, and are treated as badly as they can be convinced to
accept.
If you analyze this part of this paragraph, it is possible to read
between the lines and understand what is really happening:
"Four years ago, I used to have to have frequent conversations with
teams who would tell me that they couldn't go through the security review
process because they had competitive pressures or had made a commitment to
partners to ship at a certain time. Today, generally, people get it. It's now
clear to us that security is a competitive and business priority. While I
still see escalations from people who want exceptions, the numbers are pretty
low. A big change from four years ago is that when I say no, I get great
support from above me in the organization."
Even though Microsoft's Mike Nash is a "Vice-President", he actually
has very little power. The people who have the power are treating him the same
way programmers are treated. He says he gets "great support", but mentions
the word "exceptions".
Probably the correct interpretation, in my opinion, is that Microsoft
top managers have wanted Microsoft programmers to be sloppy because then
people will buy more copies of Windows; people will then want fixes to
problems, and, often, people will buy another computer when their present one
become slow because of malware. For more discussion of Microsoft's sloppiness
by me and others, see this Slashdot comment: Why no check of
user code? Sociology.
He says,"It's now clear to us that security is a competitive and
business priority." That's correct. Microsoft has taken advantage of the
ignorance of customers for years, but now the customers are beginning to be
less ignorant, and beginning to see that the security vulnerabilities they
read about are Microsoft vulnerabilities, not Linux or Apple vulnerabilities.
This is a much more serious threat than even the top managers at Microsoft
realize. Microsoft has a bad name among computer professionals now, but the
effects are still to be felt in the future. This is similar to the bad name
that IBM made for itself in PCs. At one time, IBM had 100% of the PC market.
That percentage dropped extremely rapidly when people had an alternative.
He says, "Getting groups to put security high in their list of
priorities was a super hard thing to change at Microsoft. Four years ago,..." In saying this, he is revealing that whatever changes have happened
are very recent, and that the support from above was lukewarm.
He says, "For Windows Vista, the key things that will make it
great..." This has always been the party line, the trick: "The next
version of Windows will be a good one." But my opinion is that it won't. If Microsoft ever
delivers a good operating system, most people will never switch again. Why
would they? Many computers are used in business, where the usage is very
limited. Microsoft top managers know this.
He says,
"For example, we have taken the anti-spyware technology that we
acquired from GIANT Company Software, improved it and integrated it into the
operating system in something called Windows Defender. While the anti-malware
technology will also be available to users who have licensed copies of Windows
2000 and Windows XP,... "
The next ad campaign will try to get you to believe that Bill Gates is poor. There will be an address to which you can send donations. I, for one, will not be donating, however.
You said, "The bin Laden family is HUGE, with a large number of brothers,
of which Osama is a black sheep who has hardly had any contact with
anyone."
I have personal experiences that influence my opinions concerning
this. For several years I would go to a gym at night and work out, perhaps 2
or 3 times a week, for at least an hour and a half and often 3 hours.
I met sons of very wealthy Saudi families at the gym. Working out is
very boring, and people sometimes take a break and talk. Often we would have extensive
conversations. This was long before 9/11/2001. I wasn't involved with a woman
friend at the time, and the Saudis, who had been sent by their families to
study at the university here, were never very well accepted in the U.S.
culture. So, we both had plenty of time to talk. I talked with other gym
regulars, of course, not just Saudis. (I've never known anyone with the name
bin Laden.)
It is true that Osama bin Laden is just one of 53 children of his
father, and the only one who is publicly a terrorist. However at the gym I
developed a sense of how Saudis feel, although they were always polite and,
being Arabs, never stated their feelings in a completely open way.
My sense is that Arabs don't like to see other Arabs killed. The U.S.
government has been in the business of killing, or paying to kill, Arabs for
decades. Remember, that is one of Osama bin Laden's major complaints. (The
other is that he didn't like U.S. government weapons in Saudi Arabia.) Most
U.S. citizens have very little awareness of the violent actions of their
government, I've discovered, and would be surprised to learn how much of their money
has gone to kill Arabs, or help kill Arabs, even long before the first U.S.
government-Iraq war.
I never met a Saudi who was anti-American. Obviously, if
they existed, I probably wouldn't. However, it seemed that Saudis were often
against the habitually violent policies of the U.S. government.
Remember, 15 of the 19 people who attacked on 9/11 were Saudis.
Although the U.S. media often tries to trivialize this fact, those Saudis gave
their lives for their beliefs.
The Bush family believes they are friends with Saudis, particularly
the man who calls himself Prince Bandar, and whom the Bush family calls
"Bandar Bush". For reasons too complicated for a Slashdot comment, it is
extremely unlikely that Bandar likes George W. Bush, or even George H.W. Bush.
In spite of the fact that Bandar acts friendly with the Bush family, and holds
hands with George W. Bush while being filmed by national media, I think that
Bandar is not actually deeply friendly. He is only pretending to be friendly
to advance his own agenda, a tactic that has worked extremely well.
The point of this is that Saudis often have feelings which seem
sensible to them but which may seem unreasonable to U.S. citizens. Several
members of bin Laden's family, not just Osama, gave money to causes that they
considered pro-Arab. Those causes were sometimes anti-U.S. government. In
general, people who seem to know about these things have said that there has
been considerable sympathy inside the bin Laden family for Osama's actions.
I'm resolutely against violence. I'm resolutely against any government
acting in secret. I love the United States intensely. However, I recognize
that many people will agree with the sick logic that says that, if the U.S.
government kills Arabs, Arabs can attack the United States.
My impression is that the Bush family is the most corrupt family every to have political power in the United States. These are people who believe that they are more than 100% right, and that other people don't matter.
It does not surprise me that Jeb Bush's state is involved in voting machine vulnerabilities. Quote from the story "... vendors such as Diebold have too much influence in the administration of elections, a view that resonated with Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, the founder of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition."
I wrote short reviews of books and movies about the corruption, but I only barely touched the surface: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government. Note that, although Michael Moore's manner of expression is sloppy, other authors supported his main points in the movie Fahrenheit 9/11. For example, George W. Bush does hold hands with Saudi leaders, his father was at a meeting with a brother of Osama bin Laden on the day before 9/11, and so on.
Literacy helps when reading those tricky credit card offers. However, no matter how literate a person is, he or she needs BankRate.com.
I find it shocking that some people commenting here believe they can evaluate credit card offers without help. Remember, the credit card companies have hired sleazy $300/hour lawyers to prepare the most sneaky language possible. It's you against an army of low-life credit card company executives.
Somehow people who would never think of stealing a candy bar from a convenience store become completely immoral when they are part of a corporation.
What is more scary is that computer professionals lack literacy, because computer professionals are leaders, somewhat, of the rest of society. A good example of lack of literacy in the community of computer professionals is Slashdot editors. After all these years, they have not learned to spell. They lack sufficient literacy to detect public relations scams, apparently.
In general, I think that people in the U.S. culture are often not skilled at taking care of themselves. They are slow to recognize when they are being abused, for example. They often get hooked into other people's anger, and are therefore easily manipulated by corrupt politicians.
Slashdot Mirror
fYou said, "All hotfix installers released since XP-SP2 have had an /integrate switch to do just that."
/integrate switch.
.EXE files to one folder. XXCopy and the File Finder in PowerDesk 4 are programs you need anyway. I've had problems with later free versions of PowerDesk, so I stay with the free PowerDesk 4.
I tried that with two installers I just downloaded, and both had the
A previous comment said to download the critical updates from here: Microsoft Updates Catalog, using Internet Explorer. Be sure to hunt for "Windows XP SP2". If you choose the logical "Windows XP Professional SP2", you will be offered only a ton of junk.
The system puts the files deep in separate folders. It is necessary to use an application like XXCopy or the File Finder in PowerDesk 4 from Ontrack to move the
There was no way to put the command line switches into a Slashdot comment, so I made a web page: Windows Update Installation Command Line Switches.
I haven't done the integration yet, but it looks promising.
You said you don't live in the United States.
Rebates are not about shopping carefully. Rebates are about crazy, crazy prices. On the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest rebate and sale day of the year in the U.S., I bought 12 Wireless devices (routers, USB wireless, PCMCIA cards and PCI wireless) for $2.99 each after rebate.
Rebates are about standing at a cash register, asking a sales clerk how much are the packages of 100 brand-name CDs, and being told "free after rebate".
The U.S. is a place of crazy extremes. The U.S. government has killed at least 4,000,000 people since the end of the 2nd world war, and yet most Americans consider the U.S. a benevolent country.
There are 6,000,000,000 people. Twenty percent (20%) have barely enough to eat. A huge number have no access to education. We are, in fact, way ahead of them.
A large percentage are very old, or young.
We may not think of ourselves as intelligent and educated, but we are some of the best, and it is people like ourselves that the world needs if it is to be improved.
That statement is still true even though there may be 100,000,000 people as educated as we are.
I see now how to get critical updates. Skip "Windows XP Professional SP2" in the menu, and go to "Windows XP SP2".
The system puts the files deep in separate folders. It is necessary to use an application like XXCopy or the File Finder in PowerDesk 4 from Ontrack to extract the exe files to one folder.
XXCopy and the File Finder in PowerDesk 4 are programs you need anyway.
I've had problems with later free versions of PowerDesk, so I stay with the free PowerDesk 4.
That site offers me only downloads I obviously would not want, such as a service pack in Chinese. Do you get a different response? It is certainly NOT a catalog. Only one critical update is offered, for example. I'm using IE, of course, since the site is IE specific.
My understanding is that the ISO files don't help you at all. They are huge because they include all languages. Each ISO file includes only the critical updates for ONE month. I know of no way to integrate them into a single CD image containing Windows XP SP2 and all the critical updates.
It is possible to download all the separate critical updates, and run them from a batch file. But that's a hassle; Microsoft does not make that easy. This is another way that Microsoft is adversarial towards customers; they waste the time of some of the best-educated people in the world.
Quote from the Slashdot article: "Even if new features won't get you to upgrade to Vista, you should buy Vista for the security, urged Windows Chief Jim Allchin."
Most people don't know that there is no actual person named Allchin. That is just a nickname for Jabba the Hutt, All Chin.
When he is not assuring that their will be terrible security vulnerabilities in the present version of Windows, so that Microsoft will be able to sell the next version, Mr. "AllChin" Hutt eats cute squeaky live animals.
I want you to know that this comment has the same editorial accuracy for which Slashdot is famous.
Something to add to my parent comment -- Facts about Microsoft's interest in security: 206 Days Overdue.
Here is an excerpt from a question in the Slashdot story from someone who claims to be a Microsoft employee and sounds like he is. His complaint exactly fits my understanding of how Microsoft is managed. Notice that Microsoft VP Mike Nash pretends to answer the question, but doesn't answer it. That fits with my assessment, in my parent post, about the real role of Mike Nash.
Hi, Mike,
I have just one question for you. Why do we STILL ship products with KNOWN security issues?
I'll even tell you how it works in the trenches. Folks build the product. At the end of it all a "Security Push" gets declared. For two to three weeks people pretend they care about security by coming up with potential security issues and assigning DREAD+VR scores to them. Then management arbitrarily sets the "bar" below which we don't fix potential and real security issues. This bar is usually very high, sometimes at around 8, because hardly anyone has time in the schedule to fix all issues found. Now, DREAD score 8 means that flaw will affect a ton of customers and cost Microsoft significant litigation. Some of very severe bugs slip under the bar just because they don't affect more than 10% of customers. Now, even this exercise is a joke, because most developers don't know what DFD is and how to put one together.
This wasn't even the most ridiculous part of the exercise. The most ridiculous part is security "code reviews". It's when feature owners walk into a room with a huge stack of printouts and pretend they can be reviewed in a couple of hours they've allocated for this. You can barely glance through this much code in this much time, 90% of security issues remain unnoticed during this "code review".
After all is said and done, product is only slightly more secure (SOME of the most ridiculous things have been fixed), and management gets delusional saying that product is now Fort Knox secure.
If you ask me, that's abomination, not a proper security process. Are there any plans to change it?
Use the "F" word: Fraud. Every time an employee quits, it costs the rebate company a lot to hire and train someone new. Minimum wage people don't like to think they are helping break the law. Ask the employee how she or he can justify working for a dishonest company. Tell the employee he or she has the worst job in the world.
Call the manager of the store where you bought the rebate item. Use the "F" word again. Managers have a special number. The rebate company will listen to them. Store managers don't like the word fraud applied to their store; that could cost them hundreds of thousands, if the word gets around. If you don't get satisfaction from the store manager, get his or her name and call the store's main office. The people who work in main offices don't want fraud calls; and they definitely don't like fraud calls in which the name of a store manager is mentioned.
Never let them steal from you. If you ever accept that once, they will know they can do it again. Remember, there are a limited number of rebate companies, and they keep databases on those who apply for rebates.
Apparently almost all rebate companies are involved in fraud. They try to concentrate on the customers that will accept excuses. The stores will tell you they know nothing about the fraud, but that is not true; they know very well.
Be sure to tell the rebate company that you will file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and with your state's consumer fraud department, and do it. Tell the store that sold the rebate item the same thing, and do it.
Stay away from stores that hate their customers. My experience with Best Buy has been very negative.
Stay away from stores that offer big rebates on items that have defects that aren't obvious.
It has been my experience that Netgear is by far the worst in failing to send rebates. We have had bad experiences with Netgear equipment being buggy, too. Maybe there are companies who can only stay in business because they fail to sent rebates.
Always be kind and gentle with rebate company employees, but very firm. Remember, the employee is not getting any of the stolen money.
Always keep copies of everything you sent when you apply for a rebate. The rebate companies will exploit any weakness they find.
Remember, if you let them steal from you once, you will be in the database as someone who accepts abuse.
I got a Sony rebate 1 1/2 years after it was denied. I would never buy anything from Sony again, of course, even though I eventually got the rebate. Generally, companies that are abusive in one way are abusive in others. Generally, abuse is part of the corporate culture.
The United States is a country that thinks nothing of killing Iraqis to prevent a fall in value of the dollar and make money for weapons and oil company investors; routinely stealing from customers seems mild by comparison.
Adding to my previous comment: I meant that there is no g in join.
About making money: If you can convince businessmen that you are 100% trustworthy, you can make money by providing your software as a service and charging a small amount each month. Business people do not like running their own servers.
That's right. They expect that you give back as many electrons as they give you.
If you found some way of keeping the electrons, your house would begin emitting sparks as the static electricity increased. Anyone who tried to ring your doorbell would be electrocuted. Not a way have friends.
The power company sells you electron pressure, not electrons.
From this page, which uses a rotating quotes system: "A good plan, violently executed now, is better than a perfect plan next week." -- General George Patton
Are you wanting to ally yourself with weapons investors and angry people? Sounds like your company is pro-violence, like George W. Bush. I doubt that's your intention. The quotes system is distracting and should be eliminated. The software is fascinating and helpful; there is no need for entertainment. Anyone wanting quotes can Google "quotes".
In the Demo, on January 10, someone entered this: "01:00 AM Seeing what a really long line looks like. There should be a place for event name and a lengthy description." That seems correct to me.
Quote from the license page: "License: CATS is licensed under the CPL (CATS Public License), a derivative of the Mozilla Public License.....details comming soon!" The word "coming" has one m.
On the "Contact us" page: "Minnetonka
MN
USA
55305".
This should be:
Minnetonka, MN 55305
USA
Use the last four digits of your zip code.
Quote from the download page: "Interested in joinging us, contact us!" There is no g in joining.
I'm impressed with your software. If you like, I will act as your editor.
I'm very sensitive to the quality of writing in anything I read. I was surprised that the quality of the OpenBSD entry in Wikipedia was so good. Mostly good writers are good at writing about social things, or good about writing about technical things, but not both. But OpenBSD is a social and technical story, and the writing puts both together in an informative and interesting way.
There are many things I don't know. Now I do, thanks.
Wow. I wonder who wrote that Wikipedia article on OpenBSD? Whoever it was, he seems amazingly knowledgeable.
It's helpful to translate Microsoft's Mike Nash words from the typical corporate-speak to plain English:
..." In saying this, he is revealing that whatever changes have happened
are very recent, and that the support from above was lukewarm.
... "
"It's now clear to us that security is a competitive and business priority."
This is after billions of dollars have been lost every year since 1998.
"Culture is a huge issue as well."
This seems right. Microsoft has a culture in which programmers are treated as badly as they can be convinced to accept. This internal culture is the same as Microsoft's external culture, in which customers are also carefully monitored, and are treated as badly as they can be convinced to accept.
If you analyze this part of this paragraph, it is possible to read between the lines and understand what is really happening:
"Four years ago, I used to have to have frequent conversations with teams who would tell me that they couldn't go through the security review process because they had competitive pressures or had made a commitment to partners to ship at a certain time. Today, generally, people get it. It's now clear to us that security is a competitive and business priority. While I still see escalations from people who want exceptions, the numbers are pretty low. A big change from four years ago is that when I say no, I get great support from above me in the organization."
Even though Microsoft's Mike Nash is a "Vice-President", he actually has very little power. The people who have the power are treating him the same way programmers are treated. He says he gets "great support", but mentions the word "exceptions".
Probably the correct interpretation, in my opinion, is that Microsoft top managers have wanted Microsoft programmers to be sloppy because then people will buy more copies of Windows; people will then want fixes to problems, and, often, people will buy another computer when their present one become slow because of malware. For more discussion of Microsoft's sloppiness by me and others, see this Slashdot comment: Why no check of user code? Sociology.
He says,"It's now clear to us that security is a competitive and business priority." That's correct. Microsoft has taken advantage of the ignorance of customers for years, but now the customers are beginning to be less ignorant, and beginning to see that the security vulnerabilities they read about are Microsoft vulnerabilities, not Linux or Apple vulnerabilities. This is a much more serious threat than even the top managers at Microsoft realize. Microsoft has a bad name among computer professionals now, but the effects are still to be felt in the future. This is similar to the bad name that IBM made for itself in PCs. At one time, IBM had 100% of the PC market. That percentage dropped extremely rapidly when people had an alternative.
He says, "Getting groups to put security high in their list of priorities was a super hard thing to change at Microsoft. Four years ago,
He says, "For Windows Vista, the key things that will make it great..." This has always been the party line, the trick: "The next version of Windows will be a good one." But my opinion is that it won't. If Microsoft ever delivers a good operating system, most people will never switch again. Why would they? Many computers are used in business, where the usage is very limited. Microsoft top managers know this.
He says,
"For example, we have taken the anti-spyware technology that we acquired from GIANT Company Software, improved it and integrated it into the operating system in something called Windows Defender. While the anti-malware technology will also be available to users who have licensed copies of Windows 2000 and Windows XP,
The user interface of Microsoft's version of th
MySQL error? Editor's error?
I agree with the first paragraph, that's the way to free a stuck spindle.
RLL hard disks! Bad memories.
The next ad campaign will try to get you to believe that Bill Gates is poor. There will be an address to which you can send donations. I, for one, will not be donating, however.
A Brazilian was telling me that Lula, the president of Brazil, is corrupt. I asked him, "How many innocent civilians did Lula kill?
You said, "The bin Laden family is HUGE, with a large number of brothers, of which Osama is a black sheep who has hardly had any contact with anyone."
I have personal experiences that influence my opinions concerning this. For several years I would go to a gym at night and work out, perhaps 2 or 3 times a week, for at least an hour and a half and often 3 hours.
I met sons of very wealthy Saudi families at the gym. Working out is very boring, and people sometimes take a break and talk. Often we would have extensive conversations. This was long before 9/11/2001. I wasn't involved with a woman friend at the time, and the Saudis, who had been sent by their families to study at the university here, were never very well accepted in the U.S. culture. So, we both had plenty of time to talk. I talked with other gym regulars, of course, not just Saudis. (I've never known anyone with the name bin Laden.)
It is true that Osama bin Laden is just one of 53 children of his father, and the only one who is publicly a terrorist. However at the gym I developed a sense of how Saudis feel, although they were always polite and, being Arabs, never stated their feelings in a completely open way.
My sense is that Arabs don't like to see other Arabs killed. The U.S. government has been in the business of killing, or paying to kill, Arabs for decades. Remember, that is one of Osama bin Laden's major complaints. (The other is that he didn't like U.S. government weapons in Saudi Arabia.) Most U.S. citizens have very little awareness of the violent actions of their government, I've discovered, and would be surprised to learn how much of their money has gone to kill Arabs, or help kill Arabs, even long before the first U.S. government-Iraq war.
I never met a Saudi who was anti-American. Obviously, if they existed, I probably wouldn't. However, it seemed that Saudis were often against the habitually violent policies of the U.S. government.
Remember, 15 of the 19 people who attacked on 9/11 were Saudis. Although the U.S. media often tries to trivialize this fact, those Saudis gave their lives for their beliefs.
The Bush family believes they are friends with Saudis, particularly the man who calls himself Prince Bandar, and whom the Bush family calls "Bandar Bush". For reasons too complicated for a Slashdot comment, it is extremely unlikely that Bandar likes George W. Bush, or even George H.W. Bush. In spite of the fact that Bandar acts friendly with the Bush family, and holds hands with George W. Bush while being filmed by national media, I think that Bandar is not actually deeply friendly. He is only pretending to be friendly to advance his own agenda, a tactic that has worked extremely well.
The point of this is that Saudis often have feelings which seem sensible to them but which may seem unreasonable to U.S. citizens. Several members of bin Laden's family, not just Osama, gave money to causes that they considered pro-Arab. Those causes were sometimes anti-U.S. government. In general, people who seem to know about these things have said that there has been considerable sympathy inside the bin Laden family for Osama's actions.
I'm resolutely against violence. I'm resolutely against any government acting in secret. I love the United States intensely. However, I recognize that many people will agree with the sick logic that says that, if the U.S. government kills Arabs, Arabs can attack the United States.
My impression is that the Bush family is the most corrupt family every to have political power in the United States. These are people who believe that they are more than 100% right, and that other people don't matter.
It does not surprise me that Jeb Bush's state is involved in voting machine vulnerabilities. Quote from the story "... vendors such as Diebold have too much influence in the administration of elections, a view that resonated with Lida Rodriguez-Taseff, the founder of the Miami-Dade Election Reform Coalition."
The president of Diebold said he would deliver the votes to Bush. And he did.
I wrote short reviews of books and movies about the corruption, but I only barely touched the surface: Unprecedented Corruption: A guide to conflict of interest in the U.S. government. Note that, although Michael Moore's manner of expression is sloppy, other authors supported his main points in the movie Fahrenheit 9/11. For example, George W. Bush does hold hands with Saudi leaders, his father was at a meeting with a brother of Osama bin Laden on the day before 9/11, and so on.
Literacy helps when reading those tricky credit card offers. However, no matter how literate a person is, he or she needs BankRate.com.
I find it shocking that some people commenting here believe they can evaluate credit card offers without help. Remember, the credit card companies have hired sleazy $300/hour lawyers to prepare the most sneaky language possible. It's you against an army of low-life credit card company executives.
Somehow people who would never think of stealing a candy bar from a convenience store become completely immoral when they are part of a corporation.
This is meant as a respectful comment:
What is more scary is that computer professionals lack literacy, because computer professionals are leaders, somewhat, of the rest of society. A good example of lack of literacy in the community of computer professionals is Slashdot editors. After all these years, they have not learned to spell. They lack sufficient literacy to detect public relations scams, apparently.
In general, I think that people in the U.S. culture are often not skilled at taking care of themselves. They are slow to recognize when they are being abused, for example. They often get hooked into other people's anger, and are therefore easily manipulated by corrupt politicians.