{"id":250,"date":"2001-11-05T16:01:49","date_gmt":"2001-11-06T00:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/?p=250"},"modified":"2019-11-26T07:51:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T15:51:39","slug":"why-is-this-not-a-surprise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/2001\/11\/05\/why-is-this-not-a-surprise\/","title":{"rendered":"Why is this not a surprise?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='__iawmlf-post-loop-links' style='display:none;' data-iawmlf-post-links='[{&quot;id&quot;:16771,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.microsoft.com\\\/windowsxp&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20150602191707\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.microsoft.com\\\/windowsxp\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-14 14:04:35&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-16 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08:56:20&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:403},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:16777,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.wired.com\\\/news\\\/technology\\\/0,1282,48105,00.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20070308144618\\\/http:\\\/\\\/www.wired.com:80\\\/news\\\/technology\\\/0,1282,48105,00.html&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-14 14:04:59&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-16 01:17:59&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-19 11:36:13&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404}],&quot;broken&quot;:true,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-19 11:36:13&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:404},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:16778,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\\\/html\\\/businesstechnology\\\/134362356_microsoft040.html&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\\\/html\\\/businesstechnology\\\/134362356_microsoft040.html&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:null,&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;},{&quot;id&quot;:6280,&quot;href&quot;:&quot;http:\\\/\\\/www.apple.com&quot;,&quot;archived_href&quot;:&quot;https:\\\/\\\/web-wp.archive.org\\\/web\\\/20260308081928\\\/https:\\\/\\\/www.apple.com\\\/&quot;,&quot;redirect_href&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;checks&quot;:[{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-08 23:56:14&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-22 07:54:09&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-28 03:45:08&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-03-31 06:12:28&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-05 19:12:06&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-14 03:00:35&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-18 07:07:52&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200}],&quot;broken&quot;:false,&quot;last_checked&quot;:{&quot;date&quot;:&quot;2026-04-18 07:07:52&quot;,&quot;http_code&quot;:200},&quot;process&quot;:&quot;done&quot;}]'><\/div>\n<p>Looks like everyone&#8217;s (least) favorite monopoly is up to its usual bag of tricks combined with lackluster security again.<\/p>\n<p>As if it&#8217;s not bad enough that <a href=\"http:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/windowsxp\/\" title=\"Microsoft: Windows XP\">Windows XP<\/a> prompts (or maybe browbeats would be a more accurate description) you to sign up for their <a href=\"http:\/\/www.passport.com\/Consumer\/default.asp?lc=1033\" title=\"Microsoft Passport\">Passport<\/a> system at every chance it gets (according to <a href=\"http:\/\/news.cnet.com\/news\/0-1005-200-6886386.html\" title=\"C|Net: Privacy group attacks Windows XP, Passport\">a C|Net article<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/life\/cyber\/tech\/2001-08-15-xp-privacy-complaint.htm\" title=\"USA Today: Groups expand XP privacy complaint\">a USA Today article<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/home.cnet.com\/software\/0-6688749-8-7007240-4.html?tag=st.sw.6688749-8-7007240-2.subdir.6688749-8-7007240-4\" title=\"Windows XP review\">a C|Net review<\/a>, and a bunch more articles and reviews <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/search?hl=en&amp;q=xp+passport+complaints\" title=\"Google search for 'xp passport complaints'\">scattered across the &#8216;net<\/a>), but they&#8217;re now starting to require you to sign up for a passport before you can register hardware (as reported today at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.macintouch.com\/\" title=\"MacInTouch\">MacInTouch<\/a>, prompting a mac user who&#8217;d purchased a Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer to forego registering it). Then, if that wasn&#8217;t enough &#8212; they screw up the security (big surprise, eh?), creating a situation that could have been exploited to steal Passport users&#8217; financial information, according to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/news\/technology\/0,1282,48105,00.html\" title=\"Wired News: Stealing MS Passport's Wallet\">this Wired story<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, analysts looking at the &#8220;deal&#8221; worked out between the Government and Microsoft in the antitrust case pretty much agree that it &#8220;&#8230;is not even a wrist slap. It&#8217;s a love letter&#8230;&#8221; and that &#8220;&#8230;Microsoft will emerge&#8230;stronger, emboldened, and perhaps <a href=\"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/businesstechnology\/134362356_microsoft040.html\" title=\"Seattle Times: Microsoft emerges from antitrust case a different company\">more agressive than it was before.<\/a>&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Good thing I&#8217;m naturally cynical, otherwise I&#8217;d be surprised at all this. Instead, I&#8217;m just disgusted and resigned.<\/p>\n<p>And people wonder why I continue to stick with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.apple.com\/\" title=\"Apple\">Apple<\/a>!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looks like everyone&#8217;s (least) favorite monopoly is up to its usual bag of tricks combined with lackluster security again. Good thing I&#8217;m naturally cynical, otherwise I&#8217;d be surprised at all this. Instead, I&#8217;m just disgusted and resigned.<\/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":[114,65],"class_list":["post-250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tech","tag-microsoft","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250","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=250"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelhans.com\/eclecticism\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}