Walter Mossberg, eat my shorts

The Wall Street Journal reported today that worms that affect the MacOS have been discovered, and serious security flaws in the Safari web browser have also been uncovered.

So . . . I ever so humbly, and with deep respect for his work, tell Walter Mossberg: HA!

I like Walter's column, I value his opinions, and generally I think he deserves his technical review guru status. But it always drove me nuts when he went on and on about how wonderful Macs are, and how everyone could avoid all these worms and viruses if they just used a Mac. I have nothing against Macs; when I was a scientist I used them all the time, and was dragged kicking and screaming into the Windows world. But it's kinda like vegetarians; it's perfectly all right to be one, but not OK to be obnoxiously smug and self-righteous about being one.

And, I found Walter's recommendation to be downright silly. A lack of viruses and malware was hardly something to brag about . . . it just means the rest of the world doesn't think you're worth hacking. Wasn't it obvious it was merely due to lack of exposure? Can you brag about being immune to avian flu when you live in North America and have never been exposed to it? Surely Walter is smarter than that . . . but perhaps, like many Mac fans, his passionate support also translated into an inability to see or even understand the shortcomings.