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Windows WMF Vulnerability Patched

This just went live a couple minutes ago. Microsoft has released the patch for the WMF vulnerability that has been talked about so much the past week or so. This is a really bad vulnerability, so please install this on as many machines as you have access to... and spread the word.

This is an excerpt from the e-mail that went out to Premiere customers:

Important Information for Thursday 5 January 2006

Microsoft announced that it would release a security update to help protect customers from exploitations of a vulnerability in the Windows Meta File (WMF) area of code in the Windows operating system on Tuesday, January 2, 2006, in response to malicious and criminal attacks on computer users that were discovered last week.

Microsoft will release the update today on Thursday, January 5, 2006, earlier than planned.

Microsoft originally planned to release the update on Tuesday, January 10, 2006 as part of its regular monthly release of security bulletins, once testing for quality and application compatibility was complete.
However, testing has been completed earlier than anticipated and the update is ready for release.

In addition, Microsoft is releasing the update early in response to strong customer sentiment that the release should be made available as soon as possible.

YAY!!! Microsoft FINALLY gets it. Congrats on meeting customer demand.

When Technology is not About Customer

What happens when technology becomes more about egos than it is about what customers want? You have HD-DVD and Blu-Ray. I guess the only thing they could really agree on was to put dashes in their names. News.com has more:

"We are frustrated," said Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson on Friday on the sidelines of a panel discussion at CES, the industry's biggest U.S. trade show. "We are going to wind up with some number of consumers probably buying a format that dies, and we are probably going to wind up having to sell it to them. They are not going to be happy with us."

My personal opinion: HD-DVD will win, because it delivers the #1 feature customers want: legal copies. I asked several Blu-Ray vendors at CES about their support for legal copying, and they said it's nonexistent. This basically says to me that next gen vendors were too busy fighting over egos to notice that we're standing on the sidelines saying "hey guys, this is what we want, build it."

These are situations where capitalism should not have to take its course. There should be one format, to eliminate consumer confusion and save us from wasting money. But it's not about us... it never was. We're not customers to most of these companies, we're just faces to shove movies in front of, as long as we remember that, though we pay money for it, we don't really own it. But instead, the market will have to decide the winner, which will be a protracted war that the loser won't concede easily.

Whichever format wins, the customer loses, and that's sad. With stupid battles like this, it's no wonder "technology" people can't figure out why "normal" people hate us.

new year.....2006