Next Microsoft worm arrives

This evening, a funny message headed “From Microsoft Security Department” arrived in my (Mac!) inbox. It had lots of Microsoft-type graphics, plus helpful text. “This is the latest version of security update, the September 2003 Cumulative Update”, it read, “which resolves all known security vulnerabilities affecting MS Internet Explorer, MS Outlook and MS Outlook Express… Install now to maintain the security of your computer from these vulnerabilities, the most serious of which could allow an [sic] malicious user to run executable on your system…”. Etc. etc. At the end, of course, is the executable file that does the damage.

It’s the Swen or Gibe worm. According to the BBC, the worm switches off any anti-virus or firewall software and mails itself to addresses it finds on the victim’s computer. It also installs various files to make sure that it is run every time the computer boots up. “According to e-mail filtering firm, MessageLabs, the first copies originated from Slovakia on 14 September, with some later coming from the Netherlands.”

Two questions: (1) Who would be taken in by this (especially when you see that the actual message source is “grahggimbgmve_ynpekspq@updates_msn.net”? (2) Why can’t the virus writers take the trouble to get their grammar right?

The feebleness of mainstream American media

Paul Krugman is a terrific economist and a great newspaper columnist. His cool, sane perspective on the Bush regime is one of the few bright sparks in the prevailing darkness. Here’s a report on his gig at Harvard the other day:

“Krugman was a riot on Big Media’s docility.  “If Bush said the earth is flat, of course Fox News would say ‘yes, the earth is flat, and anyone who says different is unpatriotic.’  And mainstream media would have stories with the headline: ‘Shape of Earth: Views Differ.’…and would at most report that some Democrats say that it’s round.”  There’s “something deeply dysfunctional,” he observed, with established media facing “something we’ve not seen before, an epidemic of lying about policy.”  Three years of Times columnizing have been “a story of radicalization” for the liberal (but not too liberal) economist who was hired by Howell Raines in 1999 to explain trade policy, globalization and the Internet bubble.   He has become instead the irrepressible child watching the Bush parade, speaking truth to heedless power.”

Blue Screen of Death — the stats

It’s just two years since I stopped using Windows. What do I miss? Viruses, and worms, obviously. But most of all, I haven’t seen a Blue Screen of Death in two years. Instead I have Mac and Linux machines which run without rebooting for weeks, and which never seem to experience the total system failure which is a Windows speciality. In an interesting article, John Dvorak has been doing some calculations based on something Bill Gates said recently about crashes. Quote:

“Gates said that 5 percent of Windows machines crash, on average, twice daily. Put another way, this means that 10 percent of Windows machines crash every day, or any given machine will crash about three times a month. Since Bill is a math junkie, I have to assume this number is real and based on something other than a phone survey…

Now according to StatMarket.com, as of March 2003, Windows XP had 33.41 percent global market share among operating systems. Let’s give Microsoft the benefit of the doubt and make Windows XP’s share an even 35 percent at this point. How many computers are in use? According to the Computer Industry Almanac, there were 603 million worldwide in 2001, and the growth rate seems to be around 10 to 15 percent per year. Let’s be relatively conservative, and add just under 100 million to get a round number of 700 million PCs. With 10 percent of them crashing daily, we have 70 million crashes every 24 hours. “

Now just try this thought experiment: imagine if Ford released cars with this kind of failure rate. And imagine if we changed our consumer legislation to make Microsoft liable for the instability and insecurity of its software. Now that would have an interesting impact on its share price.