-=> Mocking Steve Bennett to Kurt Wismer <=-
   
 KW> reader that can do this... mail readers are not supposed to perform
 KW> complex automatic functions, they only view mail... there are other
 KW> programs to perform complex automatic functions...
 SB> Ooh...I don't know about that.  I'm sure I could come up with
 SB> one...how about a way of embedding commands so you can do underline, or
 SB> bold?
fonts are not complex automatic functions... you can do underline and
bold in hypertext markup language... you can't write viruses in it
though...
 SB> How about having a simple macro language that plays sound?  Or
why? why reinvent the wheel?... besides, email is not a multi-media
environment AND how do you write viruses with sound?
you can't write viruses in all macro languages, you need a language that
has the capability to open files and modify them... msword macro
language (visual basic for word) has that capability... some proprietary
sound manager macro language would probably not...
 SB> one that contains Java?
that would be a waste of time... it would be easier to just save an
embedded javascript to a file and run a java interpreter on it... why
bother making every little bit of software on your system independantly
java compliant? it's redundant...
 SB> You can send cute messages with animations to
 SB> each other!  Then the program develops, and they see no-one likes Java,
 SB> so they make it so you can have any language...you just attach the
 SB> .exe, and it will run it anyway... 
 SB> It could happen.
there are some mail readers where something like this has already
happened... where running an attached file only requires a single click
of the mouse... it's these sorts of increasingly insecure environments
that make on access scanners (vxd's) necessary...
personally, i still refuse to keep windows on my hard drive...
 SB> I fear this topic is going the way of the "hardware destroying
 SB> viruses" one. :-)
i don't... this is a real security threat, hardware destroying viruses
are not...
... i am behaving myself, this is just like me...
--- Maximus 2.02
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