Sponsor's Message

It seems that the world has finally twigged to the fact that your Internet Explorer web-browser is the cyber equivalent of wearing a pair of pants with "kick me" sewn into the seat.

As this story [ZDNet] reveals, "it has been a long running theme that at almost any given point there is a remotely exploitable bug in Internet Explorer".

What's worse, Bill's henchmen have admitted that it's going to take more than a little while to batten down all the hatches and come up with something that could even remotely be called "secure."

So what's a multi-billionaire to do?

Why not spend an infinitesimal amount of all those billions on buying a licence to distribute a far more secure browser (such as opera) instead of wasting your time trying to patch the endless series of holes that keep appearing in IE?

Yes, it would be an admission of failure -- but you've already admitted that you really don't have what it takes to fix IE in any reasonable timeframe and until you come up with a better/more-secure browser, you're simply compromising the safety and security of many hundreds of millions of Net users. Is that really an ethical thing to do Bill?

Or how about this for another option...

I've been using Mozilla Firebird off and on for a while now. It's certainly not perfect and its propensity to gobble up all the GDI resources without releasing them (requiring regular reboots to restore system-sanity) means it's not going to oust NS4.5 from my desktop anytime soon.

However, perhaps Microsoft ought to look at going back to basics and developing "IE-lite".

This would be a "from scratch, no legacy code" browser that provided just the basic browsing functionality. No fancy bits, no fluff, no bells, no whistles, and -- most importantly -- no gaping security holes!

By developing a much simpler piece of code from scratch, you'd have the ability to ensure that it was properly structured and audited so as to ensure maximum security, while also minimising the time required to get it out the door.

At the same time you could incorporate the changes necessary to avoid infringing the Eolas patent and subsequent request for an injunction.

Microsoft users would then have the choice of using the full-blown and risky IE, or the smaller, lighter and vastly more secure IE-lite.

Nether the option of licensing a competitor's product, nor the prospect of scratch-building an IE-lite would break the bank or take an inordinately long amount of time -- so get to it Billy! Please have some sympathy for of all the poor Net users wearing those funny "Kick Me" trousers whose backsides are getting bruised while you dick around in the meantime.

Lighten Up
If you can place your bruised bottom on a seat long enough, it's time to sit back and enjoy more from the wacky side of the web.

For those who are into mindlessly inane challenges, here's the page for you!. And who said that the Net was compromising our productivity in the workplace??

Now there aren't many pages on the Net that crack me up so much that I do a coffee-spit on the screen but this one did.

Come on folks, the Lighten-up folder is getting empty, send me your favourite links now.

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