Why ZDNet desperately needs an update
Those kind of things just make me angry. On Windows XP Service Pack 2, you don’t have to do anything to get your computer protected - just let the Automatic Updates do the job. (Well, sort of. You should also get antiviral and firewall protection - you are warned constantly even by Microsoft.)
But David Berlind is complaining about some things he has to read on the Windows Update website. He has complains about their taxonomy. He thinks it’s Microsoft’s fault that caused some ISPs decision to block *.windowsupdate.com. He writes about his worries, about the apprehension he has that his computer is not protected against the newly discovered Windows flaw. After two screens which summarize about one month in the life of a guy without a girlfriend, he learns he was protected against MIDI vulnerability and he didn’t knew.
What if he searched the internet with the keywords “MIDI flaw site:microsoft.com”? He could use even Google’s “I’m feeling lucky” because he will be sent to a page where he can learn lots of thing about computers (what is a MIDI, what is DirectX, how do I know I’m protected etc.). Reading that will allow him earning money writing about something he finally knows.
Why would anybody become a programmer? To get these meaningless critics on your work?
I wonder why has been Microsoft forced to let users disable automatic update. What privacy? Anyone online should apply the latest patches. I’ve seen some opinions that Microsoft probably build the MSBlast virus in order to force people update. Supposedly, illegal Windows copies out there will be disabled by the upgrade. But how would anybody stop such a scenario? You need the updates. As for Berlind, if he doesn’t like Windows Update, he can always try a Linux “kernel update”, whatever that is. Or he can try RedFlag Linux Update.