Gregory L. Hering wrote:
Dear Rob,
If you already know this, this may sound patronizing, but that's not my
intent...
The article is not about preventing the spread of viruses (unless you
consider Microsoft Corporation a virus).
Yes, and why not.
They are simply complaining about proprietary formats. They are
attempting to 'spit into the wind' by refusing M$ documents and calling them
'secret' (in a somewhat vain attempt at forcing a 'cloak and dagger' motif
on them).
The fact that the compatability of word versionss changes yeary is what I
personaly can't stand.
And if the 'virus' being spread is a Word Macro virus, then converting
it to HTML would (I think) effectively render it harmless since the browser
won't invoke the same macros. Don't quote me on that one; I'm no expert.
Html is a document formatting 'language'. Unless it contains ActiveXScript or
JavaScript it should be harmless.
I also doubt that Bill Gates would laugh at a widespread effort to
refuse his company's formats, even if it was for a 'stupid' reason.
I doubt he even cares, unless millions of people stop using word it won't make
much of a difference to him. Besides M$ could drop off the planet tommorrow
and he would still have enough money to buy his own country for his family to
live in for generations without want for anything.
I would agree the idea of encouraging people to send plain text messages
or HTML messages. It is certainly more portable that Word. Here, here! Go
for it. Microsoft, however, is like spam: you can't ever get rid of it
completely but you can filter it out at your mail server. :-)
I have given up trying to get people to send RTF,CSV{SpreadSheet/DB} or HTML
because most people are just too stupid to figure out how to do it. If the
document isn't usable with AbiWord,Gnumeric or OpenOffice, I just ignore the
message, or reply that I don't use M$ ..., so you will need to provide me with
the information in ... format. If they can't figure out how to do it then they
can call M$ for help.
Greg
---%<...snip...
PS Read the BOFH series for further tricks on dealing with M$ fools.
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