OMG Bill

created April 04 2007
last updated Sunday August 19 2007

A little while ago I wrote about how I thought some of the statements Mr. Bill Gates had uttered about Apple computers compared to his own appeared to have diverged from reality. I subsequently read some more to make sure I had my facts straight.

I realised that they're were PC viruses out there, not as bad as Windows viruses in that they didn't let someone take over your computer but annoying enough to where, in the worst case it might keep crashing your computer.

That said I really have to resume my original position because recently hackers were found exploiting a weakness that exists in pratically all Windows products even the newest version Vista. Do you realise what I'm saying! Perhaps not so let give you a breakdown of how things often work in the world of Windows vunerabilities

Some programmer finds a hole in Windows, perhaps looking for fame.
He tells everbody about it or sometimes just Microsoft initially
Before any viruses can be made to use the hole in Windows, Microsoft of someone else usually plugs it up by releasing a patch
People who didn't get the patch or didn't install it may then get the virus

The difference now is that what's happening is called a 'zero day attack' or perhaps in this case a 'minus x attack'.

Specifically a 'zero day attack' is when a hole or weakness is found in a program say windows, and before anyone can release a fix for it, people start manipulating the weakness. In this case by the time the hole was found people were already abusing it so seems like it should be named differently.

The point of all this is "Beware Bill" for once your statements might catch up with you.