Microsoft Fusion 2004 trends

Microsoft’s Fusion trade show last week in Los Angeles was its annual gathering of partners, solutions providers, and independent software vendors. While the mood was generally upbeat, there were some things I saw that didn’t bode well for the company. Here are a few highlights from the show.

Filtered email issues

George Carlin once had a bit about the seven dirty words that couldn’t be said on TV: if only our email systems were as discrete and predictable about the nature of their censorship. Indeed, I can almost guarantee that if I include certain words in this message (such as viag–, -orn, make -oney -ast, or any of Carlin’s seven choice words), many of you won’t ever get this email.

The trouble is that spammers, virus authors (or whatever deriding term you would like to use to call the scum that create these annoyances), and others have become too clever at creating their garbage. And in the ever escalating war of technology, email filtering products have become too good at cutting off legitimate messages, just because they contain the equivalent of Carlin’s list.

You can read the entire essay here.