Tag: Outlook

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Mozilla developer Ben Goodger writes about losing his inbox to the latest virus… despite not using any vulnerable software. Apparently he’s been getting over 10,000 virus-laced messages every day, and with the four-day weekend they built up to the point that Thunderbird wasn’t able to handle the influx. (Imagine having to filter out 770 megabytes of junk every day, and having that build up over several days.)

Sure, the the pre-release Thunderbird still has problems dealing with very large folders, but 770 MB/day? Even Gmail only gives you 1 GB of total storage. I can’t think of any reasonable expectation that any mail client should have to deal with that at today’s level of data richness. Maybe in the future when we’re sending full-motion video on a regular basis, but not when most email is text with maybe some formatting and a couple of small images.

It’s just staggering that, even though the main email worms depend on Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, and Internet Explorer to spread themselves and infect new hosts, they can still damage systems that don’t use those programs!

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By way of Justin Mason and the SpamAssassin mailing list comes this post about writing add-ons for Outlook.

Seth Goodman writes of Outlook’s contact list:

This feature was apparently added for the convenience of virus writers, who it appears were one of the key groups that set the design requirements for this product

Ronald F. Guilmette replies:

So if I want source code for a software tool that can extract addresses from a personal Outlook address book, I guess that I should just go out and hire a virus writer! Hummm. I would have no problem with that. At least this would give them some honest work for a change… keeping them off the streets and out of trouble for a short while.

So now, where does one post a ‘HELP WANTED’ ad for a virus writer?

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Yet another call of “I can’t retrieve email!” Always from Outlook users. If you use Eudora, Netscape – hell, even Outlook Express, you’ll get some sort of error message if it stops working. You can usually solve it by closing the program and starting it up again. But Outlook… Outlook will get into modes where it says it’s connecting, but it will never actually contact the server. Outlook will decide it needs to ask you for your password over and over again. And if you close Outlook, it’s not necessarily gone. Even “Exit and Log Off” doesn’t always do it. No, you have to reboot the %#@! computer. And if you’re lucky, you don’t have to track down the elusive Inbox Repair Tool (which might be in the Start menu. Maybe.)

I swear, if Outlook didn’t have the name Microsoft in front of it, no one would buy it. Maybe the latest version is better, but everything I’ve tried to use or troubleshoot is still just Schedule+ on steroids with email thrown in. Calling Outlook an email program is like calling a big clunky van a race car because you’ve replaced the engine. Outlook Express, for all its rampant security problems, is a much better mail program than its namesake.

Yecch!

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