Yup. It hit me. Blaster, that is.

I was running an update of my firewall, and as part of the test to make sure everything is working properly, the firewall shuts itself off for about 1 second. In that 1 second Blaster got in. The firewall – which came back on immediately – said “Do you want to allow msblast.exe to access the internet?” I said “NO!!!!!!”, which effectively removed Blaster’s teeth.

So I now have a GREAT deal of respect for Zone Alarm. I had no idea it was doing such a good job. Getting Blaster the Hell of my PC will be much easier than the many horror stories I have heard have led me to believe. If it can’t access the int0rw3b it can’t do much damage.

On the other hand, I have nothing but contempt for the idjits at Microsoft who allowed the release of this Swiss cheese operating system.

News reports say M$ is spending millions to hunt down the people who write these viruses, while doing little to patch their product unless people complain. This reminds me of a standard sanity test: You walk into a room and see that a faucet is on and a sink is overflowing onto the floor. Do you (a) run to shut off the faucet, or (b) run to grab a mop? Microsoft is (c) running for the person who turned on the faucet.

Getting rid of the person who wrote the virus doesn’t alter the fact that the virus has already been written. The law does not prevent; it punishes.

Dear Microsoft: You are responsible for everyone who releases a virus which affects you software. That fact that it is vulnerable is YOUR FAULT. The fact that you released a product with HUNDREDS OF KNOWN VULNERABILITIES which cost users HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS A YEAR is contemptible beyond redemption.

Dear Microsoft: I use your product, which I paid for, and that makes me your GOD. As your GOD, I command you to, in the next 24 hours, fix everything that is wrong with every one of your products, and do not release a single line of code to the public until everything you do is 100% perfect. Your opinions, wishes, livelihood and health on this matter simply are not important.

And as for all you Mac and *nix users laughing in your sleeves: Shaddap.