Re: Microsoft vs. Justice Department

[moonwolf@earthling.net]

  ** Reply to note from machan@chapman.edu Sun, 2 Nov 1997 05:46:43 -0500 (EST)
  
  > [From The CHicago Tribune, etc.] Microsoft and Nanny Reno 
  >  
  
  Concerning that article, which couldn't have been more misleading if Microsoft themselves
  wrote it (this is, BTW, exactly what we see in the supposedly impartial technical journals
  all the time), I was reminded of the following quote:
  
  "Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any
  price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe,
  to assure the survival and success of liberty."
  
  -John F. Kennedy
  
  Sometimes the greatest enemy to the survival and success of liberty is masquerading as
  ourselves.  Microsoft is more deadly to our liberty than any foreign nation.
  
  I realize that many focus strictly on Explorer and its integration with the desktop.  But
  this conference is titled "Appraising Microsoft," not "Appraising Explorer."  Microsoft
  wants to control the Internet, the digital financial networks, cable TV\Internet access,
  every program on your computer (check the license agreements you all agreed to when buying
  Microsoft software), and much more.  They want to do this through the use of flawed
  technology that is useless for purposes requiring secure channels -- ActiveX.  With ActiveX
  any semi-knowledgeable hacker with (admittedly) extensive monetary resources,
  including Microsoft itself, can access any individual's computer that is hooked to the
  internet and is using an ActiveX-based browser. Combine this threat with the new
  technologies that are arriving -- object-recognition, face-recognition and voice-recognition
  by computer software -- and there is a definite possibility that Mr.
  Gates has taken George Orwell's novel, 1984, to heart.
  
  Consider that if the President was using Internet Explorer v2, v3 or v4 (without patches) on
  his Oval Office computer, that an experienced hacker could read the contents of his hard
  drive if the browser was surfing public Web sites (specifically, the hacker's). Now, is it
  probable? Let's hope not. Let's hope that the security people around the President, the
  Pentagon, the CIA and such have a better understanding of computer technology than I give
  them credit for. However, my trade journals detail 385 break-ins last year to the Pentagon's
  computer system. Obviously something is amiss.
  
  Am I paranoid?  No.  Simply cautious.  If we don't safeguard against these things then they
  certainly will happen.  If one doesn't bolt the barn door, one can't complain when the
  horse is stolen.
  
  
  --
  Ed
  --
  
  Team OS/2
  MoonWolf Enterprises
  Edward R. Mortimer moonwolf@earthling.net
  The Land of Beyond  http://www.trailerpark.com/moonwalk/moonwolf/index.html
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