A Ghost Story Of Windows

MARLEY was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to. Old Marley was as dead as a door-nail. -- A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens

One can not say the same thing about Internet Explorer, for it is alive, and alive and full of incomplete programmatic code.

Once upon a time -- of all the good days in the year, on Christmas Eve -- old Scrooge sat busy in his counting-house. It was cold, bleak, biting weather, and he could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. Every day, people purchase, update, install Microsoft's Internet Explorer, feeling that their computer, their data and their privacy is safe, but unlike poor Marley, this issue is not dead.

Just the other day, Techweb reported that Microsoft has released yet another patch, this one considered "Critical" to patch a whopper of a whole in IE. This time, it's the IFRAME vulnerability. Microsoft wants everyone to update their systems, expect XP Service Pack 2 and Server 2003 users. Oh, yeah if you didn't upgrade to IE 6.x, then you're immune.

"It's humbug still!" said Scrooge. "I won't believe it." Believe it my friends, yet another patch. Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door by which the Ghost had entered. It was double-locked, as he had locked it with his own hands, and the bolts were undisturbed.So, as another year passes into history, can we users anticipate more patches to software which today, our personal lives, our business lives and in many instances our very lives depend on, is bug free? Scrooge might.. for...

He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived upon the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God Bless Us, Every One!