> I guess the only way to be sure is to build the machine code from scratch..
That would be a prerequisite, but by itself, a waste of time. What hardware is that machine code gonna run on? Do you know how much BIOS software is in your box? Do you know it's stored on easily erasable memory? What a temper temptation... you think the spammers and spyware makers can resist? The NSA? Then move to the hardware itself. Any chance of verifying the circuitry with which the CPU's instruction set is implemented? With all the copyright mafia talking about "trusted computing", meaning having a CPU which successfully hides the mafia's secret software, the spooks must be rubbing their hands laughing all the way. Far fetched? Can you verify the CPU executes instructions as the manual says? Historically many cases exist where this isn't the case, but that was accidental. How many million transistors on a chip now? So, where do you start? Volker -- Volker Kuhlmann is list0570 with the domain in header http://volker.dnsalias.net/ Please do not CC list postings to me.
