Since Ed enjoys my daily updates:
Day 3 of 50 complete. $210 of $3250, 6.46% raised. Finish: November 1st.

So while everyone's been concerned with the menace of a Windows Automatic Updater that automatically updates itself without telling you (which, as the real techs understand, only happens because people were too ignorant to actually turn OFF the automatic updater), Apple pulls a fast one and has successfully locked out current generation iPods from any music player besides their monopolizing iTunes. (Nikiski was right. iTunes wanted a reboot because it was installing new iPod drivers... Not necessarily with locking out in mind, but with new technology in mind.)

This largely affects Linux users, since iTunes is obviously not available for that platform. This also affects people (of who I am beginning to consider joining) who despise iTunes and want to use another application to synchronize their iPod.

It looks like folks are trying to reverse-engineer this new "feature", which is made possible by some sort of special encrypted lines in a file that's stored on the iPod that nobody has been able to decode yet.

And people tell me Apple is better than Microsoft. No. No... They're really not.

So the world is feigning shock during these last couple of days after learning that Microsoft is automatically updating Windows even when people turn it off... Sadly, everyone's caught up in the age old pastime of railing on Microsoft to actually do some fact checking.

The article being used as "confirmation" for the "rumor" is some idiot from ZDNet. He goes through all the whiny drivel of explaining why Windows is downloading stuff even when told not to. But there's a critical error in his process of explaining. His copy of Windows is NOT set to "Do not automatically update"... It's set to "download and notify", a very, very key fact in this whole charade.

Here's the original rumor from the same guy at ZDNet, and here's the alleged confirmation. He yaks about how some people want to keep Windows at a certain patch level for development purposes and don't want Windows going around updating without knowledge. (Fine, but I have a question. If you don't want updates on a development machine, why are you telling Windows to download the updates and notify you they're ready for installation? You realize you CAN disable automatic updates completely and manually check for updates yourself, right? I would think that's far more controlled than getting notifications.)

In both cases, he lists the files that are being updated "without permission". See how they're all prefixed with the letters "WU"? (Except for the first listed file for XP.) Well, I don't know about you... But that kinda looks like it's a Windows Update component and not a critical system file. In the confirmation article, he shows screenshots of the updater in action! First shot is the Event Viewer... What happens? "The Automatic Updater service entered the running state." Okay, the updater is running. Since you set this to DOWNLOAD AND NOTIFY, this is NOT unusual. It's got to check for updates to download, after all.

Second screenshot: "Installation Successful: Windows successfully installed the following update: Automatic Updates". Okay, so even with download and notify, it installed an update! GASP! What is Microsoft tampering with without our knowledge?! Oh, wait... It's just the automatic updater and no version-whacking critical component? Ooops, my bad.

Third screenshot shows the file properties for "wuapi.dll", which is simply the Windows Update Client API. I think he's trying to show that this was a file that was indeed updated. But, honestly, who cares if the Automatic Updater is updating itself? What, are you developing a program to distribute that... automatically downloads updates? Sounds like you need to focus on a new project, seeing as how Microsoft kinda already has an automatic updater. And if keeping the exact save version of Windows is SO CRITICAL for you? Disable the updater completely! It's just another button on the configuration window!

Microsoft responds to this sudden baseless uproar, and a product team blog post is made to explain exactly why this occurs. Read it. It explains everything and reiterates the fact that if you truly disable automatic updates, then no updates will happen. The thing is, when at any time the WAU is set up to download things... It had to update itself to properly list new patches for you. Microsoft is always tweaking Windows Automatic Updater (WAU), too, and they release new versions! Remember several months ago when Windows XP suddenly had to download a new release of WAU?

Basically, the updater updates itself periodically. Just like any other widely used server/client service! Ever play an old Sierra game with the online updaters? Guess what you downloaded first, before the game? That's right... an updater update. So it could properly detect new updates for you programs!

The way I see it, these Fear-Uncertainty-Doubt spreaders break down into two groups. Insanely private people who are going nuts that Microsoft DARE automatically update the updater service that the people HAVE TURNED ON... And the daft programmers who are going nuts because WAU is somehow screwing up their development platform. (Seriously? If your program, whatever it is, relies so much on the WAU files? You need to fix something, unless it's an alternative to WAU, in which case, nobody needs it, sorry.)

If you people are so upset that Microsoft DARE tamper with your system without your knowledge (when you're too dumb to notice you gave "permission" for Microsoft to "tamper" with your system by selecting the "download and notify" option), then hey! I have an idea...

Turn off Automatic Update! Here! I'll even help you people out:

In Vista, click the pretty little Windows logo button in the lower-left corner of the screen, click on "All-Programs", and in the main list, find and click on "Windows Update". The screen will pop up, where on the side bar you click "Change settings". Look at it VERY CAREFULLY... There! See it? The flashy red shield with an X? That's the "Never check for updates" option. You want that. Click it, go ahead, it won't bite you. Be sure to click OK when you're done or it won't change! There, did you click it? Well! You're done! No more Microsoft spying technology operating without your knowledge!

In XP, click the ugly Start Menu button on the lower-left corner of the screen and click Control Panel. Click "Switch to Classic View", if that shows up in your side bar, to get a long list of things. Near the top of the list is an option called "Automatic Updates". Double-click that. Oh, look! There's that flashy red shield with an X again! You guessed it! You need to click that and press OK.

There. You have now actually disabled Automatic Updates and WAU will no longer keep itself updated to correctly list the updates available to you. Be aware that since it no longer updates the client, you will most likely have to do that next time you connect.

That wasn't so bad, was it?

I mean honestly... the guy on ZDNet is whining his precious over-paid little butt off about WAU keeping itself current when it's on the SECOND most automatic process. The download and notify option... Not even the "Notify, but don't download" option. He said himself it's the "DOWNLOAD and notify", as in... check for updates, download them, and tell me they're ready to install.

This has got to be the overreaction to end all overreactions...