reesesWeb

I bloody well love Microsoft's solution to this Outlook/Outlook Express bug.

Basically, UUENCODE slaps a header on its data consisting of "begin " like this:

begin 666 astyle_1.13.8.zip

M4$L#!!0 ( ,X[BBH) E^F^C )7S > 87-T>6QE7S$N,3,N."]!

M4T)E875T:69I97(N8W!P[7W]=QLWDN#/H_?R/R#.7DA*I&CYYO8FEN496J83

[...]

end

Apparently, the LookOut MUAs just look for "begin" followed by a space, with a mode, followed by a space, followed by a filename, in email attachments. The mode and filename are optional parms, so "begin" followed by two spaces is a legal construct.

So, what do you think would happen if you put, say, the word "begin" at the beginning of a line in an email to a person using Outlook?

Yup, Outlook would think it was an attachment, be unable to UUDECODE it, and leave it blank.

We all write bugs, so this isn't a big deal in and of itself. The hilarious and ludicrous part is MSFT's solution to the problem:

To workaround this problem:

• Do not start messages with the word "begin" followed by two spaces.
  
• Use only one space between the word "begin" and the following data.
  
• Capitalize the word "begin" so that it is reads "Begin."
  
• Use a different word such as "start" or "commence."
  

I can see it now:

From: Wage Slave

To: Big Boss

Sir,

I'd like to Begin to talk about a salary increase, based on my attention to detail and professional presentation.

Thank you.

Wage

From: Big Boss

To: Wage Slave

Mr. Slave,

If you can't be bothered to capitalize the correct words in a sentence, how can you be expected to help us capitalize on our good name in the industry? Not only are you not going to receive an increase in compensation, a copy of your grammatically incorrect email will be placed in your permanent personnel file.

Love,

Big

With this one bug, and the inane workaround, MSFT will usher in a new dark age, an economic depression, a new era of illiteracy, as children expect to see this quasi-germanic capitalization as acceptable. Capitalonics!

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