However, other updates provide little more than amusement (in between the remote code execution crises). Take KB912475 for example, which was officially published on 2/28/2006:
Australia has changed the regularly scheduled end of Daylight Saving Time in five Australian states from March 2006 to the first Sunday of April 2006 due to the 2006 Commonwealth Games. Install this update to enable your computer to automatically adjust the computer clock on the correct date. After you install this item, you may have to restart your computer.
I’m not sure which issue is more strange, that Australia is trying to cheat time for the games or that you may have to restart your OS when you adjust the clock. I guess the bigger issue becomes whether the time changes will cause any kind of application outages among systems that are not patched in time for the games to begin. Imagine a contestant using an unpatched version of the Windows OS while assuming that the time-change will happen automatically and failing to make it to their event on time.
And speaking of changing the system time, when will Microsoft release a patch that pushes back the IRS filing deadline…?
IBM did a survey, and it was just published here on iTWire. Interesting perspective:
According to the IT executives surveyed, 49% of local businesses now perceive cybercrime to be a greater threat than physical crime to their business. At the same time, the perception is that perpetrators of cybercrime are becoming increasingly sophisticated; 80% of Australian CIOs (84% globally) believe that lone hackers are increasingly being replaced by organised and technically proficient criminal groups.
[…]
When it comes to relative costs, Australian CIOs think that cybercrime has a more detrimental financial impact on their business than physical crime. They are most concerned about the loss of current customers as a result of cybercrime (71%), followed by loss of revenue (68%) and loss of prospective customers (67%). Just 38% of their global peers identified loss of prospective customers as a major concern, possibly reflecting the smaller size of the Australian market and relative importance of each customer.
This is making big news in NZ. Not too sure of the details, but I find it interesting that the media was not allowed to report any details of a rape case for twenty years:
In the High Court at Auckland on Monday, Justice Randerson lifted suppression orders which prevented the media from previously reporting the number and nature of the charges.
The three men face a total of 20 charges relating to a period between 1985 and 1986 when the complainant was 18-years-old.
They are accused of indecent assault, rape and unlawful sexual connection and the charges include two counts of indecent assault using a baton.
We struggle to make our words transform simple paper into something descriptive and meaningful. In fact we struggle to make the screen represent our thoughts through words alone (long live gopher!) and so we resort to posting images.
What if you were forbidden from using inks or dyes; banned from expressing yourself through words or from drawing/painting a picture on paper? Would you learn to transform the paper itself into a physical representation of your thoughts? This could be a whole new way to present complex information to the viewer, without need for anything other than the paper itself (no inks, etc.) …something like this.
Never underestimate the creative ability of the human mind.
