Re: Crashing Win9x

[as () PSA AT (Alexander Sanda)]

At 20:48 20.03.2000 +0000, Alun Jones wrote:

> This has been a known awkwardness in Windows (and indeed
> anything based on the DOS underpinnings) for some time -
> we've had code that specifically checks for "CON", "PRN"
> or "AUX" for several years now, although one of our
> competitors actually makes a selling point of the idea that
> users can come in and write directly to your printer
> through their FTP server!
>
> Essentially, the word from Microsoft has so far been for
> apps not to create files called CON, PRN, AUX, COM1-4, LPT1-
> 3, or CLOCK$ (sorry if I've missed any).  There are,
> however, a few ways and means to create files of such a
> name, and they've proven traditionally to be a little
> tricky to remove (of the same order of trickery as creating
> a file on Unix with a leading '-' character).

If this is really what MS says than it sounds like a very bad joke.
Excuse me, but what would customers say when they buy a new car and the
sales rep tells them - "ok, fine here it is, but please don't use the 3rd
gear, it will blow up your car and eventually kill you".

This remembers me to a .sig I have seen somewhere:

# If builders built houses the way programmers write programs then the #
# first woodpecker to come along would destroy civilization.           #