You never can be too safe living in the on-line world of today. If you read the ‘tech’ web sites, you are assured to find some article about a new exploit endangering your cyber existence. Even if you don’t follow the tech news, you would pretty much have to live in isolation of the media in order to be unaware of the dangers of the wiley wide web.
Heck, even us Mac users have been perking up and paying attention… over the last year security firms have found spots in OSX where a skillful hacker *could* potentially have caused us some problems. We’ve not seen a virus yet, so it’s not like panic has set in or anything… but one always has to be on guard. Some Mac users even go so far as to install anti-virus software, just in case!
But, while I was perusing some of those ‘tech’ sites this morning, I ran across a totally new approach. Duh! It seems M$’s Windows co-president, Jim Allchin, found a MUCH more simple way to avoid all these problems.
WARNING: Don’t read further if you are not sitting down….
It seems that Jim has actually unleashed his 7-year-old son…. to surf the net…. on a Windows machine…. WITHOUT anti-virus software! GASP!
OK… if you’re still with me… before you go into a state of shock, read on…
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=193700656
“Honestly, he doesn’t have an antivirus system on his machine. His machine is locked down with parental controls, he can’t download things unless it’s to the places that I’ve said that he could do, and I’m feeling totally confident about that,” Allchin said. “That is quite a statement. I couldn’t say that in Windows XP SP2.”
Man, I can’t believe I didn’t think of that. All you have to do is lock down your computer with parental controls, so you can only go to a few known good web locations…. and you’re safe. How amazing is that?! Maybe he should patent the idea.
However, what I find even more amazing is that last sentence. Apparently, to get this safety, you’ll have to buy Vista (oh, and probably a new computer which can run Vista). I guess previous versions of Windows can catch a virus just by thinking about the Internet.
Well folks… there you have it. A simple solution from the great minds at M$. All you have to do is give them a couple hundred bucks…. buy a new computer… and lock down your parental controls for a 7-year-old… and you’re safe.
Oh, I guess the only thing I need to figure out now is how you determine the ‘safe list’ of web sites. Maybe Jim will be distributing this? Or, I guess you can call one of your friends with Mac.
But Jim, I have an even more simple solution…. why not just get a Mac and save yourself several hundred $.
(OK… I promise to write about something besides picking on M$ soon. But, they just make it so easy… ‘like shooting fish in a barrel’ I think the saying goes.)