Word macros can now do just about anything, including of course e-mailing your 50 best buddies a list of pornographic web sites and a virus without you even knowing. It could just as easily set a time bomb to wipe your hard drive an hour later. Macros, mail merges, even such wonderful things as styles are overlooked by your average person who just wants to type up a report for their boss. To be fair, Microsoft have now shut the stable door - things are apparently a little bit improved in the next version of Word. But it reminds me a bit of that time my boss dragged the Windows System directory to somewhere else on the hard drive.
Some computer users have way too much power in their hands.
It's like giving everyone who can drive a car the power to effortlessly pull the engine out of the car. Of course, they've caught the alleged Melissa author now. And the rumour is that the virus is named after a stripper he saw in Florida. But perhaps the whole incident will make people a bit more cautious about the attachments they get in their e-mail. A mysterious group of faceless bureaucrats loosely arranged into a group called the Place Names Committee has been busy moving suburban boundaries around Melbourne again.