You might want to disregard the paranoid, irrelevant head and tail, but the included article is very good, especially considering the establishment source. Nice headline, for the WSJ. Forwarded message:
Have you heard of problems with the equations that Excel 95 generates when using the trendline analysis function in a chart?
I haven't seen this, but because of all the math stuff on my web, I'm getting both phone calls and a lot of odd math feed back. We think we do have a real carry bit error between the Win 3.x and Win95. Some of the data I've reviewed is pretty scarry. Microsoft lost a lot of their older programmers over the past 3 years. It was literally an Exodis out. Now they have a lot of people that can't read the old code and this is a real mess. They also can't get anyone with much experience to work there. Here in Redmond good people just stay away. I saw this article today in Dow Jones and thought it might shed some light on the security issues. I know what MS's 10 year strategy was from 1990. Steve Ballmer is the one making all the decisions on international markets. It's his baby. When I read this about IBM and Lotus all I could think of was Steve ordering the guys to make something exceptable for their license by the FED so they could gain market share over their competitors. This is just who he is. He doesn't understand the techincal issues and hasn't listened to Gates in years. MS is pretty thick with DC and must pay off lots of people there. That is what they were doing when I worked for their government group. It's weird working with the FED. They are all into their power groups. AND they are very low tech. I swear the FED is scrapping the bottom of the technical pool. The FBI is the worse. ------------------------------------ 1/18/96 IBM Corp. Compromises On Encryption Keys By Thomas E. Weber Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal NEW YORK -- International Business Machines Corp., caving in to intense government pressure, agreed to include a special key that helps investigators tap into data messages in return for permission to export a more-secure version of its Lotus Notes software. The U.S. has prevented software makers from exporting sophisticated encryption technology for fear that terrorists and other criminals would gain access to a snoop-proof communications system. Industry observers said IBM's move marked the first time a supplier agreed to give the government special access to its software's security code. But other companies also are negotiating with the government to find ways around export restrictions. Microsoft Corp., for example, has been seeking industry support for a new scheme that separates encryption technology from application programs so that those products don't need export licenses. Encryption keys have stirred the concern of privacy experts in the past. While IBM's Lotus Development Corp. software unit defended the move as a stopgap compromise until a broader agreement on data security can be reached, Notes creator Ray Ozzie clearly found the controversial plan somewhat distasteful. "We were desperate enough to try to negotiate a short-term, pragmatic solution," Mr. Ozzie said. "But we do not believe this is the right long-term solution." One privacy advocate would agree. "The irreducible fact is that foreign customers are reluctant to rely on security products that have been compromised in some way" by federal intelligence agencies, said Mike Godwin, staff counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Several years ago the government proposed the "Clipper" computer chip that was programmed to let investigators tap into phone calls and data messages transmitted digitally. While that plan died after privacy advocates accused the government of trying to spy on users, the idea of leaving a back door open for government agents has remained alive. Under the Lotus plan, government investigators would still need to employ sophisticated code breaking to read messages sent via Notes software, which lets users at different computers collaborate. Security software encrypts information by using a unique key of software code. The length of a key is measured in computer bits, and longer keys are better -- they're more complex and more difficult for wouldbe spies, not to mention government agents, to unravel. Until now, to obtain an export license for Notes, Lotus has been restricted to an encryption system of 40 bits in its international version. Domestic users have been permitted to use a higher-level, more-secure 64-bit system. The new overseas version of Notes, tagged Release 4, will give foreign users 64-bit security. But to get permission to export the software, Lotus agreed to give the government access to 24 of those bits by using a special 24-bit key supplied by the National Security Agency. (END) DOW JONES NEWS 01-18-96 6 02 A ---------------------------- Gates is the kind of person who will do just what they want if he gets dicked with. He'll have a ranting fit (Gates is a functional autist) about how stupid it is and then he will just get eccentric and say, give them what they want with a grin. He is still a hacker at the core. You understand the problem here. The FED is making them use lower security and then patting them on the back and buying their products for our own government and militery. Gates use to brag that he would crash the fed. I really believe he is still trying. NO ONE hates the FED more than GATES! He was a page in DC at 17 and got a good taste of our government. I've had it with these people too. DC is so discusting. All these attorneys who don't know shit about anything but words and lying... Hey, I updated my web... : ) To day I filed an appearance in court and fired my attorney. I'm still being dicked with here. If I don't look both way when I cross the street, I get busted. This week it was an unwanted touch. I touched someone's shopping bag getting into my car. Next week its an non-contact order by my daughter's guidence counselor. She considers a phone call from me about my daughter's possible college programs a threat! When I got the complaint it was totally nuts. Everything she knows about me is based on gossip. It reads like total hysteria. The way Microsoft has attempted to play me locally is really amazing. I was 40 when this started. Never had a problem before that. So when I say, 'Watch your back!' I mean it. : ) J~ http://www.halcyon.com/redrose/