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How Critical Are Politically-Correct Fonts?

By Ed Foster, Section Gripes
Posted on Fri Feb 13, 2004 at 01:09:25 PM PDT

We could argue endlessly about the moral propriety of Microsoft's recent release of a ”critical update” that, according to published reports, removes characters resembling swastikas and a Star of David from the Bookshelf Symbol 7 font of Office 2003. As one reader points out, however, there is a much more practical issue here. With IT managers having to deal with the seemingly endless stream of Microsoft updates fixing real security flaws, why would Redmond deem it critical that users remove a few symbols from a font? The reader writes:

What I object to is classifying this as Critical. Will it cause the OS or an application to be unstable? Will the use of this symbol open a back door for a hacker, virus or worm? Not according to the knowledgebase article. If Microsoft had included this as a Windows or Office optional update, I would have no objection. In my opinion, their credibility relative to what is critical is now at ZERO!


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How Critical Are Politically-Correct Fonts? | 3 comments (3 topical) | Post A Comment
Of course it's Critical...[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#1)
by Anonymous User on Thu Feb 19, 2004 at 11:46:41 AM PDT

I never cease to be amazed that peeps still think that Microsoft's primary concern for their customers rather than Microsoft itself. I'd have thought they'd done enough, in and out of court, to make that clear to all. When Microsoft marks something as Critical, it means that they view it as critical to them not you!

[ Reply to This ]


Free Fonts![ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#2)
by Anonymous User on Wed Apr 14, 2004 at 01:12:24 PM PDT

Get politically INCORRECT fonts here... ProFonts

[ Reply to This ]


Stupid Updates[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#3)
by LionJim on Thu May 13, 2004 at 06:44:05 PM PDT

If they are going to make it critical at least wait and bundle it with a security patch. I didn't even know about the characters until I read the update, talk about brining attention to a stupid mistake.
smoke it if you got it www.originalsales.com
[ Reply to This ]


How Critical Are Politically-Correct Fonts? | 3 comments (3 topical) | Post A Comment
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