New Yorker article on Bill Gates

[Jonathan Corbet]

The January 10 issue of the New Yorker has an amusing article about the
author's email communications with Bill Gates.  Perhaps most interesting,
from the point of view of this list, is the quote from one of Gates's
messages:

	I am the only person who reads my email so no one has to worry
	about embarrassing themselves or going around people when they send
	a message.  Our email is completely secure...

Neither Gates nor the New Yorker author (John Seabrook) seems aware that
messages from 73124.1524 at compuserve.com to billg at microsoft.com travel in
plaintext over the Internet.  Either that or they aren't admitting to their
use of encryption...:-)  Seabrook's article is about, as much as anything,
a newbie discovering the pleasures of email, so he can be forgiven for not
questioning the above statement.  Gates should know better.  Even if
security within microsoft.com is absolute, which seems unlikely to me.

Actually, the whole article shows a sort of awe of "Bill" that, from my
unix-oriented perspective, I really can not share.  But it's an interesting
read anyway.  The New Yorker is showing a surprising willingness to delve
into interesting parts of our culture these days.

Jonathan Corbet
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Atmospheric Technology Division
corbet at stout.atd.ucar.edu