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Suuure It Was An Accident (5/15/01)
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[Note: After we broadcast this scene, faithful viewer Shannon Hicks informed us that a CNET article reported that the Yahoo! story we mentioned (which has since vanished, by the way) was actually describing the old "Netscape engineers are weenies!" back door that actually showed up on AtAT over a year ago. Go figure. Anyway, enjoy the chaos!]
Lastly, a quickie from the "One More Reason Not To Use Windows" department: a security glitch. Hey, what day would be complete without a healthy dose of Microsoft security issues? But today's is even tastier than usual, because this time it's not about slipshod quality assurance practices or the fundamental Redmond belief that "Bugs Sell Upgrades"; nope, this time it's all about paranoia, Big Brother, and a flat-out abuse of trust. (As if you had any doubt.) What more could a drama addict need?
According to a Yahoo! Small Business article forwarded to us by faithful viewer David "scubus" Freeland, Microsoft recently admitted that its software engineers had deliberately planted a "secret password" in its Internet server software which "could be used to gain illegitimate access to hundreds of thousands of Internet sites worldwide." And since we figure it's really hard to code a backdoor password accidentally ("Whoops! I dropped a stapler on my keyboard and it entered six lines of code that just happens to bypass the entire security module when someone enters 'INEEDAREALJOB'!"), when confronted with the evidence by two "security experts" who uncovered the password, Microsoft had little choice but to own up to the sleaze.
Of course, Microsoft is predictably blaming this situation on rogue employees, since coding backdoor access into its products is "absolutely against [its] policy" (nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more). The company has even kindly explained how to disable the secret password, thus solving the problem for the roughly 0.4% of afflicted customers who might actually read about the issue and take action to fix it. Now that's heart!
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SceneLink (3054)
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 5/15/01 episode: May 15, 2001: Apple Retail is finally here-- times twenty-five. Meanwhile, the company sneakily debuts a new "digital hub" iBook commercial during prime time on Monday evening, and Microsoft is forced to admit that it coded secret access passwords into its Internet server software, thus publicly crossing the line from incompetence into malevolence...
Other scenes from that episode: 3052: Finally, Retail Done Right! (5/15/01) Keep a tight hold on those hats, folks, because the official word is out: Apple retail stores are a-comin' (we knew that already) and they're a-comin' in droves (that's the new part). Oh, sure, we suspected that Apple was going for fairly heavy coverage, but given the fact that the rumored locations thus far have all been trendy, upscale, touristy, and fairly expensive to lease, we kept wondering whether the analysts who expected no more than ten "showcase" stores were right... 3053: iBook. Annoy Different. (5/15/01) While the retail stores themselves were obviously the big story at the press event in McLean, Apple's push into store-ownership wasn't the only thing on the agenda. Steve also announced that the new iBooks are now shipping in volume, and to mark that occasion, Apple has a new 60-second commercial in the vein of the popular "Concert" ad that was all the rage a few weeks back...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
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