Bill Gates, in an op-ed printed in today’s Washington Post, gives tips for avoiding spam such as “Be cautious about giving out your primary e-mail address.”
He never says a single thing about the way Microsoft enables and encourages spam and other viral intrusions with their bloated, insecure software and safe havens like MSN.
On Saturday, I was at my friend Lance’s apartment, and in just a few moments looking at his Windows XP computer, was assaulted by dozens of messages popping up on the screen, mostly containing ads for nubile young women. Was it because of AOL? Were they e-mails? No — they were exploiting something called Messenger, which is a scary thing built into Windows that allows a message to be pushed to your screen. Like most other Microsoft technologies, it was cracked immediately and used by scum to hassle and separate people from their money. Who in the world thought this was a good idea? I can’t even conceive of such a thing being foist upon the Mac users of the world. This is, in my opinion, the equivalent of having those flyers stuck in your front door when you get home, except that the flyers are rarely pornographic and don’t suddenly appear in your face when you’re doing something else.
Bill Gates has a lot of nerve.
