Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ucbvax!hoptoad!tim
From: tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac.programmer
Subject: Re: Firing of David Ramsey
Message-ID: <7776@hoptoad.uucp>
Date: 27 Jun 89 17:53:09 GMT
References: <14980@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU>
Reply-To: tim@hoptoad.UUCP (Tim Maroney)
Organization: Eclectic Software, San Francisco
Lines: 46

In article <14980@pasteur.Berkeley.EDU> bruce@cory.Berkeley.EDU
(Bruce Burkhalter) writes:
>In this week's issue of MacWeek there is a short article about Apple
>firing MacPaint 2.0 author David Ramsey.  Apparently he disclosed 
>confidential information in messages posted on Compuserve's MacPro
>Forum.  
>
>Anybody know more about this?  This was all MacWeek said about it.

There was an article on it in today's San Francisco Chronicle.
Apparently the leak was very small, concerning a couple of future
Macintosh models.  Ramsey was extremely well liked and helpful on
Compuserve and Apple has earned itself a lot of ill will by firing
him.  This is typical anti-humanistic corporate blundering.

Ramsey had nothing to do with nuPrometheus, apparently, nor with
whatever that other source code leak was.  Apple is just flexing their
muscle.  When I see disgusting acts like these, I begin to wonder
whether the "Reichstag fire" theory the nuPrometheus revelations just
might have something going for it.  Obviously Apple wants to crack
down, and the distribution of the QuickDraw source gave them a perfect
excuse without actually causing any tangible damage.

But then how could they invite the FBI in to investigate?  The FBI is
*dumb*.  At Apple, there's a Macintosh shell that's been hollowed out
and fitted with a fishtank.  Until the light is turned on, it looks
like a normal Mac.  Someone turned it on in front of the FBI dweebs a
few weeks ago, and they were amazed, saying things like, "Geez!  That's
so realistic!"

These people are not about to figure out a "Reichstag fire"
conspiracy.  They're lucky to remember where they parked their cars.

I'm not saying this *is* what happened, only that Apple's obvious
desire to crack down does make one wonder whether it might be.
-- 
Tim Maroney, Mac Software Consultant, sun!hoptoad!tim, tim@toad.com
Postal: 424 Tehama, SF CA 94103; Phone: (415) 495-2934

"Those Mayas were sacrificing not only pagan children, but baptized
 Christian children, for crying out loud!  And they were carrying out
 those sacrifices, those barbarities, with great savagery, without
 giving the victims the benefit of the humane types of death that the
 European Church accorded even to heretics and witches during that
 century, such as burning at the stake."
		-- Matthew Rosenblatt, rec.arts.books