http://www.itwire.com/content/view/16703/1105/
http://research.microsoft.com/~milanv/MSR-TR-2007-82.pdf
This is the sort of idea that usually looks great at 2:00 AM, after a dozen
or so beers. But only an idiot would seriously consider it a viable method
for spreading beneficient information in any controlled, reliable manner.
Yet these people actually sat down and spent countless hours calculating
and detailing how well it would work.
One thing that struck me in particular in this "research" (which boils down
to the simple, widely known fact that, hey, worms can indeed spread fast
and succesfully) is that it contains no self-reflection whatsoever. Not one
paragraph details even the most glaringly obvious drawbacks of the whole
idea. No mention is made of the many ways in which this type of mechanism
can be exploited. Among the countless complex formulas ("squiggle factor")
trying to prove how well it works, there isn't even one calculation showing
how things could go horribly wrong if something goes awry with, for
instance, the replication rate.
Once more, Microsoft seems to demonstrate its utter incompetence in the
field of security, and a total blindness for inherent flaws in their Great
Ideas.
Richard Rasker
--
http://www.linetec.nl/
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