A word of caution...
An uninformed public starts with a dimwitted press, and the press follows
mailing lists like this...
On another list, someone had posted a message about a possible bug in a
beta of the next service pack for NT. Note, this is a bug in a beta of
an unreleased product.
I mentioned that the bug resembled efforts in the past of Microsoft
creating incompatibilities in software to hurt the competition, and that
the DOJ might be interested.
The original poster got a few calls from the press asking about it.
It turned out not to be true, but if this story gains momentum and the
press start joining this list. The less reputable might start printing
stories about, "GIMPS: the Great Internet Moocher of PasswordS".
Then it won't be long until Ted Koppel does an expose on GIMPS as a
politically incorrect title for the group, with interviews of the
wheelchair clad protesters outside George's home.
---
William Stuart ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
"Don't rush me sonny. You rush a miracle man you get rotten miracles."
--Miracle Max, "The Princess Bride"
On Thu, 17 Sep 1998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Date: Thu, 17 Sep 1998 11:31:07 -0700
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> From: Jukka Tapani Santala <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: JAPH David Nicol <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Re: Mersenne: The current situation
> In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Return-Receipt-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> MIME-Version: 1.0
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
> X-Mozilla-Status: 0011
>
> On Thu, 17 Sep 1998, JAPH David Nicol wrote:
> > > the GIMPS server
> > > machines, which [the FBI] would be entitled to by many grounds,
> > > weren't confiscated.
> > > Perhaps they just haven't figured it out yet ;)
> > Bring 'em on! That'll teach the TV-news-watching public what
> > a prime number is!
>
> Come on, use some imagination... Obiviously they aren't primes, they're
> super-seekrit phone numbers gathered from the phone-system for the use of
> foreign companies disguised as primes by encryption technology... after
> all, in all prime-sites they say large primes are primarily used for
> advanced cryptography! ;)
>
> -Donwulff
>
>
