It would be interesting to know whether or not Tony knew that a “J” in a <span style=”font-face: Wingdings”> would only show as an emoticon on Win/IE or not. If he did know, that’s a really ballsy double-joke.

The reason that Microsoft doesn’t release it that way is because end users have no easy way to verify that it is the actual service pack, and not some trojan.
I suppose they also wonder why they should bother. They’ve got the bandwidth, after all.

It would be easy to verify that the downloaded file is the official version, using digital signatures and/or MD5 hashes. I think that the SP2 upgrade is already signed by Microsoft’s secret key. MD5 hashes are also available from sources who have downloaded the file from Microsoft’s servers. (I don’t think they’re available from Microsoft itself, although they could be if Microsoft chose to use a distribution method like this.)

Microsoft doesn’t use BitTorrent to offer upgrades because only 1 out of every 10,000 Windows users knows what BitTorrent is or gives a shit about it.

Amen, Reverend. Using BT to distribute Windows updates would be like asking your Grandma to sign up for a Blogger account instead of writing her recipes on postcards. Most Windows users wouldn’t even be able to tell you what a font is, how could they understand swarm downloads and MD5 hashes? They just don’t care. They have jobs and families and responsibilities instead of blogs and warez and tacky XP themes.

Windows XP Service Pack 2
Vaikka Microsoft ei vielä olekaan julkaissut Service Pack 2:sta kaiken kansan tietoisuuteen, se on kuitenkin imuroitavissa MS:n sivuilta.

Hyvänä lisänä SP2:n saa myös BitTorrentilla osoitteesta http://www.sp2torrent.com/. Ei lienee mikään yllätys, e…