It seems that vicars in the Church of England have been having some trouble with Norton Anti-Virus mistakingly identifying their sermons as viruses. The reason behind it is that the software the church uses, Visual Liturgy, uses a filename (vlutils.dll), that is also exploited by a virus. If users delete the legitimate file at Norton's prompt, the software becomes useless.
If that wasn't bad enough, the church claims Norton has not given the church special attention in fixing the problem, forcing them to wait just like anyone else (up to 4 weeks) to investiage the problem. Meanwhile, Systemantic (the company that bought out Norton) says they addressed the problem and have already fixed it.
Regardless of whether or not it's fixed, it's still surprising to me to see the religious officals enslaved by the digital age. Is their grasp of their own religious documents so tenuous that they cannot complete a sermon without having to get prompts?
As a humorous side note, it appears that one vicar was so worried about the spyware that he cancelled all of his credit cards. The process took 10 hours.
What would Jesus do.... with that many credit cards?
Made a few corrections based on user comments.
Of course there's always the Mac. Or Linux. Or Solaris. Or BSD.
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Systemantic (the sub corporation that does the anti-virus stuff) says they addressed the problem and have already fixed it.
ReplyDelete"Systemantic"?
I think Symantec is the parent corporation that bought out Norton.
It's not the Vatican. It's the Church of England (in America, the Episcopal church). And Symantec refused to fix the problem.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of whether or not it's fixed, it's still surprising to me to see the religious officals enslaved by the digital age. Is their grasp of their own religious documents so tenuous that they cannot complete a sermon without having to get prompts?
ReplyDeleteHave you simply never noticed the number of people over 30 who can't use or have odd problems pop up with their computers? Or who are, for any matter and in any way, enslaved by the digital age? Last time I checked there was no reason in particular for why religious officials should be above all of that.
I think you missed my point. If older people are so inept, you would expect that they not rely on computers so much. Yet one thing goes wrong and not only can they not fix their own computers (which I certainly don't expect after having to repeatedly fix my parents), but they've apparently forgotten how to pick up a piece of paper and a pencil to write a sermon!
ReplyDeleteNot to pick a fight, but not being able to pick up a piece of paper and a pencil to write a sermon (your previous comment) has nothing to do with not understanding or knowing religious texts well enough to write a sermon (the blog post), so while I do see you making a second point I don't see you explaining your first point.
ReplyDeleteRegardless of whether or not it's fixed, it's still surprising to me to see the religious officals enslaved by the digital age. Is their grasp of their own religious documents so tenuous that they cannot complete a sermon without having to get prompts?
ReplyDeleteHave you simply never noticed the number of people over 30 who can't use or have odd problems pop up with their computers? Or who are, for any matter and in any way, enslaved by the digital age? Last time I checked there was no reason in particular for why religious officials should be above all of that.