I finally got time to read this, and it's a scary story indeed. It sounds like Bill Gates has been studying Machiavelli. It's very similar to my personal paranoid theory about the rampant abuse of Social Security Numbers. As some security expert (I wish I could remember who) pointed out, SSN's are routinely used for both identification and authentication, a totally unworkable system. Business and government agencies routinely demand the dreaded numbers, and yet they seem to be totally incapable of preventing the widespread occurence of identity theft. When the situtation becomes bad enough, they'll demand biometrics from everyone-- fingerprints, retinal scans, etc. They won't just be using those little inkpads, like the banks; they'll be storing them all digitally in the FBI's searchable database. And it's "Hello, Big Brother!" Vaughn Treude Nakota Software, Inc. Custom Industrial Software Development Technomage wrote: > the above may be viewed here. > has some very interesting points to make about security > and why it is that microsoft is so central to the lack > thereof. > > http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20010802.html > > Technomage Hawke > > -- > I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or > numbered! > My life is my own - No. 6 > ________________________________________________ > See http://PLUG.phoenix.az.us/navigator-mail.shtml if your mail doesn't post to the list quickly and you use Netscape to write mail. > > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss