Shaken Not Stirred!

----Shaken Not Stirred!

FTLComm - Tisdale - October 29, 2000

this is really important
Though you may not have heard much about this story in the press it is important and the significance much more extreme than anything we have yet experienced. I realise that this is an unusual way to begin a story, but I have to tell you right up front, I think this is really important.

passwords
On or about three months ago a piece of e-mail was sent from the home office of Microsoft in Redmond Washington to St. Petersburg in Russia. That message contained some passwords, passwords that allowed person or persons unknown to download from Microsoft its source code for its software.

not fold, mutilate
or staple
When we all moved into the computer age some forty years ago programming was done on IBM and Honeywell machines using hard cardboard stock. Holes were punched into the cardboard cards and fed into a card sorting machine to read the code into the massive vacuum tube powered contraptions. The main thing you had to do was not fold, mutilate or staple those cards. They were providing the early computer with its programming instructions.

source
code
Though it seems we have come a long way from those days progamming code is still the basis for what computers are asked to do. When programmers create that code they include with it, extensive documentation (remarks or REM) that explains what each routine is doing so that other programmers can pick up the thread and fix errors that crop up. The basic and bottom line code that is created is called the "source code" from that the actually running software is created. If you have the source code you have all that there is to know about that software and what it can do.

brutal and aggressive
giant
Microsoft as we all know and have heard from the recent trial in the United States is a brutal and aggressive giant. When it decided to move into the Internet browser market there really was only one working programme that was in use and that was Netscape. To gain a foothold in the market place Microsoft undercut Netscape by simply giving its new browser "Internet Explorer" away free. Netscape had just been purchased by American Online and with the massive financial backing Microsoft possessed it had simply destroyed the only competition in the marketplace. To keep in operation Netscape was deriving income from advertising and it expanded that revenue source and in turn made Netscape free as well. But it took one great step forward it also released its "source code"By handing out the code Netscape made it possible for other software developers to use Netscape and integrate it into their operations..

depend
on it
Now let's get back to Microsoft. As things now stand worldwide 95% of the computers churning away are using Microsoft software. Even our Macintoshes have Word, Excel, and Internet Explorer so we all share this common software. We all depend on it to do the work that in some cases has become totally dependent on computer technology. In essence little Billy Gates company Microsoft is the "game".

an offer he or she couldn't refuse
As the primary software creator in the world Microsoft has had the luxury of dictating pretty much what happens and with their source code they hold the keys to the computing kingdom. Well that was up until someone in their company took an offer he or she couldn't refuse and e-mailed the passwords to obtaining the source code to someone in St. Petersburg.

Y2K
bug
It is pretty easy to get alarmist about a thing of this magnitude but I can not recall any espionage, corporate or political that is as significant as this. Certainly the Rosenbergs paid the ultimate price and were deleted for their part in passing the "not to secret" atomic bomb data to Russia but that information was available elsewhere and was far more a political and ideological spectacle then one of espionage. The main company responsible for most computer operations in the world has been ransacked. It is likely that this could result in long term costs greatly exceeding anything related to the Y2K bug that was visited upon the planet also by Microsoft.

good
thing
When I discussed this with an expert this afternoon he had only heard briefly that there had been some hacking and did not realise that Microsoft's source code had been pinched, presumably by a Russian criminal organisation. I was concerned about the gravity of this matter and the expert laughed. "It's a good thing" he said and went on to explain how he had just purchased some Apple stock at bargain prices. But, that wasn't why he said it was a good thing. He went on to explain that just as Netscape opened up the vault as did Apple with several of its complex and handy dandy operations, Microsoft would have no alternative but to publish to the world the source code so that software companies can protect themselves.

stifled development
It was explained to me that the concentration of power by Microsoft was and has stifled development within the industry and this will move things along and with various companies and agencies able to look after their own security things like the simple worm based "ILOVEYOU" virus could not wander around the world messing things up. Almost every day you will encounter people who have just lost all of the material in the computer because of some nasty virus with Microsoft's source code the programmes and applications in use will diversify and mass contamination and invasion will be drastically reduced.

National Security
But, wouldn't you know it, though this should spell major disaster for Microsoft, its stock actually rose on Friday after this story became known. You might shake your heads about this one but when you realise that since everyone, yes everyone, is affected by damage to Microsoft it was in the stock holders of the worlds best interest to prop up the company they depend upon. It is likely that the United States will treat the whole issue as a matter of National Security and this is the main reason you are see and hearing so little about it in the various media and the press. If you want the best coverage of this story click on Ensign's "news sources" button and check out the Manchester Guardian's extensive list of stories. All of the details from the Brits is somewhat free of American jingoism and they will tell you what they know.

Timothy W. Shire

----Shaken Not Stirred!

FTLComm - Tisdale - October 29, 2000

this is really important	Though you may not have heard much about this story in the press it is important and the significance much more extreme than anything we have yet experienced. I realise that this is an unusual way to begin a story, but I have to tell you right up front, I think this is really important.

passwords	On or about three months ago a piece of e-mail was sent from the home office of Microsoft in Redmond Washington to St. Petersburg in Russia. That message contained some passwords, passwords that allowed person or persons unknown to download from Microsoft its source code for its software.

not fold, mutilate or staple	When we all moved into the computer age some forty years ago programming was done on IBM and Honeywell machines using hard cardboard stock. Holes were punched into the cardboard cards and fed into a card sorting machine to read the code into the massive vacuum tube powered contraptions. The main thing you had to do was not fold, mutilate or staple those cards. They were providing the early computer with its programming instructions.

source code	Though it seems we have come a long way from those days progamming code is still the basis for what computers are asked to do. When programmers create that code they include with it, extensive documentation (remarks or REM) that explains what each routine is doing so that other programmers can pick up the thread and fix errors that crop up. The basic and bottom line code that is created is called the "source code" from that the actually running software is created. If you have the source code you have all that there is to know about that software and what it can do.

brutal and aggressive giant	Microsoft as we all know and have heard from the recent trial in the United States is a brutal and aggressive giant. When it decided to move into the Internet browser market there really was only one working programme that was in use and that was Netscape. To gain a foothold in the market place Microsoft undercut Netscape by simply giving its new browser "Internet Explorer" away free. Netscape had just been purchased by American Online and with the massive financial backing Microsoft possessed it had simply destroyed the only competition in the marketplace. To keep in operation Netscape was deriving income from advertising and it expanded that revenue source and in turn made Netscape free as well. But it took one great step forward it also released its "source code"By handing out the code Netscape made it possible for other software developers to use Netscape and integrate it into their operations..

depend on it	Now let's get back to Microsoft. As things now stand worldwide 95% of the computers churning away are using Microsoft software. Even our Macintoshes have Word, Excel, and Internet Explorer so we all share this common software. We all depend on it to do the work that in some cases has become totally dependent on computer technology. In essence little Billy Gates company Microsoft is the "game".

an offer he or she couldn't refuse	As the primary software creator in the world Microsoft has had the luxury of dictating pretty much what happens and with their source code they hold the keys to the computing kingdom. Well that was up until someone in their company took an offer he or she couldn't refuse and e-mailed the passwords to obtaining the source code to someone in St. Petersburg.

Y2K bug	It is pretty easy to get alarmist about a thing of this magnitude but I can not recall any espionage, corporate or political that is as significant as this. Certainly the Rosenbergs paid the ultimate price and were deleted for their part in passing the "not to secret" atomic bomb data to Russia but that information was available elsewhere and was far more a political and ideological spectacle then one of espionage. The main company responsible for most computer operations in the world has been ransacked. It is likely that this could result in long term costs greatly exceeding anything related to the Y2K bug that was visited upon the planet also by Microsoft.

good thing	When I discussed this with an expert this afternoon he had only heard briefly that there had been some hacking and did not realise that Microsoft's source code had been pinched, presumably by a Russian criminal organisation. I was concerned about the gravity of this matter and the expert laughed. "It's a good thing" he said and went on to explain how he had just purchased some Apple stock at bargain prices. But, that wasn't why he said it was a good thing. He went on to explain that just as Netscape opened up the vault as did Apple with several of its complex and handy dandy operations, Microsoft would have no alternative but to publish to the world the source code so that software companies can protect themselves.

stifled development	It was explained to me that the concentration of power by Microsoft was and has stifled development within the industry and this will move things along and with various companies and agencies able to look after their own security things like the simple worm based "ILOVEYOU" virus could not wander around the world messing things up. Almost every day you will encounter people who have just lost all of the material in the computer because of some nasty virus with Microsoft's source code the programmes and applications in use will diversify and mass contamination and invasion will be drastically reduced.

National Security	But, wouldn't you know it, though this should spell major disaster for Microsoft, its stock actually rose on Friday after this story became known. You might shake your heads about this one but when you realise that since everyone, yes everyone, is affected by damage to Microsoft it was in the stock holders of the worlds best interest to prop up the company they depend upon. It is likely that the United States will treat the whole issue as a matter of National Security and this is the main reason you are see and hearing so little about it in the various media and the press. If you want the best coverage of this story click on Ensign's "news sources" button and check out the Manchester Guardian's extensive list of stories. All of the details from the Brits is somewhat free of American jingoism and they will tell you what they know.

	Timothy W. Shire