SP2 for You, Round 2

The new Windows Service Pack is delayed yet again. 

I'm the unofficial tech support at my job (3-person staff, so someone's gotta do it.)  So I've got to install SP2 on seven computers.  I'm waiting to see it appear, and trying to collect information on what kind of damage it'll do.  Apparently, Microsoft has already identified over 200 applications that will "behave differently" with SP2, mostly because of the firewall it installs.  These are not small programs.  We're talking about anti-virus software, PageMaker, frickin' Excel.  Microsoft Office.  Outlook.  Eek. 

So finally Microsmurf steps up to the plate and produces a major security update, that might make every program we use misbehave.  Thank you, Bill.

On the other hand, there's an editorial on the Register that makes a case for Microsoft.  (I'm sure the writer and the snarks on the Register are as shocked as I am.)  His argument:  for years, MSFT has been lax on security problems, opening massive holes for hackers to drive through.  Now, they've finally prioritized security above everything, above the functionality of their own programs, and here we are, slagging them for it. 

So maybe I'll just stop moaning, like the editorial says.  It would have been nice of they had been on the ball in the first place, so they wouldn't be doing this last-minute fix-everything business.  It's like one of those teen movies where there's a huge party and the house gets trashed, and then in the last ten minutes there's a superfast, super-crazy cleaning frenzy.  And we're supposed to feel better, because didn't they work so hard to fix the damage they did.  Never mind that they put the goldfish in the bathtub.  Never mind that they shoved all of the empty pizza boxes in the closet, and that the hamsters accidentally got vacuumed up.  Hey, they tried, didn't they?  That's gotta count for something.  Those crazy kids. 



7:28:41 AM