{"id":1462,"date":"2003-07-17T18:33:09","date_gmt":"2003-07-18T08:33:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/07\/18\/squirrel-monkeys\/"},"modified":"2019-12-06T08:52:18","modified_gmt":"2019-12-06T16:52:18","slug":"squirrel-monkeys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2003\/07\/17\/squirrel-monkeys\/","title":{"rendered":"Squirrel Monkeys"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two pieces of news broke in one day yesterday.<\/p>\n

Item one: “Microsoft acknowledged a critical vulnerability<\/a> Wednesday in nearly all versions of its flagship Windows operating system software…[which] could allow hackers to seize control of a victim’s Windows computer over the Internet, stealing data, deleting files or eavesdropping on e-mails.”<\/p>\n

Item two: “The Homeland Security Department has chosen Microsoft Corp.<\/a> as its preferred supplier of desktop computer and server software, according to a statement issued late Tuesday. …perhaps most important to Homeland Security’s mission to get agencies communicating more easily, Microsoft will provide the standard e-mail software for the entire department.”<\/p>\n

I loved Jeffrey Zeldman’s summary<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n Let’s see what the government might have chosen in its effort to protect American lives from ruthless, technologically sophisticated terrorists:<\/p>\n

\n
UNIX, Linux<\/dt>\n
Inexpensive or free.<\/dd>\n
Requires some user knowledge.<\/dd>\n
Practically invulnerable to attack.<\/dd>\n
Mac OS<\/dt>\n
Costs money.<\/dd>\n
Easy to use.<\/dd>\n
Practically invulnerable to attack.<\/dd>\n
Windows<\/dt>\n
Costs money.<\/dd>\n
Easy to use.<\/dd>\n
Can be hacked by a squirrel monkey, thus is wide open to attack.<\/dd>\n
Produced by a company the Department of Justice found guilty of criminally abusing its monopoly power — a finding that is supposed to result in punishment, not in fat contracts bankrolled by taxpayers.<\/dd>\n<\/dl>\n

To the bureaucratic mind, the choice was obvious.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sounds safe and secure to me.

Let’s see what the government might have chosen in its effort to protect American lives from ruthless, technologically sophisticated terrorists.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2038],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-1462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}