Jim wrote:
> 
> Everyone knows that if the task were real, the moratorium would be longer
> than a month.

But: MS sent all their programmers to a Security Boot Camp for a WHOLE
WEEK!  The reports I read claimed 20,000 programmers were involved
(really).  So, given that 20K programmers have 1 week of professional
training on secure coding, divided by 52 weeks... that gives MS an
awesome 384.61538 YEARS of secure coding experience.  Dang, I wish I was
one of their shareholders :-)

> > It would be nice if even one legitimate news source was carrying
> > this story.  The sites listed below lose a lot of credability when
> > they start referring to Bill Gates as "His Billness".  So far I have
> > not been able to find anything about this on any of the news wire
> > services.

FWIW, the story's also on www.silicon.com, when their network's up.  All
of the details seem to fit: the conference happened; Mr. Purcell spoke
at it; what the heck's "Government Computing News" got to gain by making
up funny stories about MS? 

> >
> > At Tuesday, 05 February 2002, you wrote:
> > >This doesn't seem to be a hoax. Very brief. Please see:
> > >
> > >Microsoft stops new work to fix bugs
> > >http://gcn.com/vol1_no1/daily-updates/17874-1.html
> > >
> > >I prefer The Reg's version:
> > >http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/23922.html
> > >
> > >P.S.  It's not "Microsoft bashing", it's... praising them for their
> > >brutally honest self-appraisal.  Yup.
> > >
> > >Steve