OFF: Virus alert (genuine)

[Paul Mather]

On Sat, 6 May 2000, JOHN M GRAY wrote:

=> That would be NT,95, Unix, Linux and oh MACs if you want to count them.
=> Sorry I don't have time to rant in detail like you do, I have more important
=> stuff to do.

Obviously, actually *reading* the messages you respond to is not one of
the things you consider important either.

But, despite your assertion you have "more important stuff to do," you
spewed:

=> My email got exactly the response I expected from MS haters.  Reminds me of
=> how MAC users whine at how MS is the dominating OS now.  I'm sure the
=> "better" systems you use will soon take over.  Funny, many computer people I
=> know think Unix, Linux and MAC's are steaming piles.  I'll let them know
=> that based on your expert authority and bigger dick that they are wrong.  I
=> admit MS isn't the best at every thing, just that they pretty good products
=> and stand by my assertion that they don't suck as much as you say, if they
=> did, they wouldn't be where they are now.   They didn't invent many of the
=> products they push, only made them better, but Ford didn't invent the
=> automobile either and they make a pretty good car.   The blanket statement
=> that you make that everything MS puts out sucks shows how closed mind and
=> biased you are.  I
=>  bow to your bigger dick, better OS, (what was the name of your great system
=> again?)and humbly await the time when it takes over the computing world.
=> I'll probably have a long wait.

Go back to school and learn to read.  Better yet, learn to comprehend.
You were the one who tried to impress everyone with your big-time
network administrator credentials.  Ooooh.  Aaaah.  Sorry, try harder.
*I* wasn't the one who cavalierly dismissed the experience of everyone
else, and claimed they just had "sour grapes."  I just made the
misfortune of relating personal and first-hand experience of Micro$oft
products.

I don't waste my time hating Micro$oft.  (Thank you for labelling me a
"M$ Hater."  I guess it's always easier to deal with someone when you
put a label on them.)  It's not worth it.  In fact, I feel sorry for
those I know who have to use Windoze on a daily basis, for they are
always lamenting it.  If you like it, I'm happy for you.  Just don't act
like it's some kind of thought crime to think badly of Micro$oft.  It
isn't (yet?).

I seem to recall it was *you* who kicked over this whole can of worms in
the first place by remonstrating with people on here not to call poor
Billy Gates and his pals in Redmond names, and we should stop being so
awful about poor Micro$oft's current misfortunes.  Tell it to the 6
o'clock news.  Tell them to pretend ILOVEYOU didn't happen, and didn't
disrupt thousands of computers and cause the deletions of many many
files.  (I will pretend that story didn't run in today's paper, too.)
Hey, maybe if we all think hard enough, reality will change around us?

Please show me where I said that "everything MS puts out sucks."  In
fact, I've never used the word "sucks;" I hate that word.  (I believe
"blow chunks" was my chosen phrase.:)  Micro$oft products are, on the
whole, inferior (and in some cases---e.g., Windoze---are grossly so),
but even I am not so stupid as to make a blanket statement that
*everything* they put out is unmitigated pap.  Hey, you don't spend a
ton of money buying up Turing Award winners like cheap whores and not
get anything for your money.  (And the law of averages says that
something good will eventually slip through the net.)

As for your tired logic of "if Micro$oft was bad, it wouldn't be where
it is today," let me remind you that the old adage used to be "Nobody
got fired for buying IBM."  The new adage is "Nobody gets fired for
buying Micro$oft."  It's not because it's the best, but it's because
it's what everyone uses.  Do a bit of reading on evolutionary theory.
Alternatively, consider this: "if Britney Spears made bad music, she
wouldn't be where she is today; I mean, tons of people love her, and she
sells oodles of records, so she must be great."  Whilst I'm sure, on
some level, the music of Britney Spears can be considered "adequate," it
is far from what many would call the state of the art.

Micro$oft is the Britney Spears of computing.

Cheers,

Paul.

PS: The "best" (as you put it) does not always win.  But, as Hawkwind
and BOC fans, we are used to that...

e-mail: paul at gromit.dlib.vt.edu

"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
 deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
        --- Frank Vincent Zappa