Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!mips!pacbell.com!pacbell!pbhyf!jcwasik
From: jcwasik@PacBell.COM (Joe Wasik)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.misc
Subject: Re: Prodigy Rip-Off?!?
Message-ID: <8888@pbhyf.PacBell.COM>
Date: 2 May 91 16:20:13 GMT
References: <41832@cup.portal.com> <1991May1.161749.25807@agate.berkeley.edu>
Reply-To: jcwasik@PacBell.COM (Joe Wasik)
Organization: Pacific * Bell, San Ramon, CA
Lines: 23

In article <1991May1.161749.25807@agate.berkeley.edu> raymond@math.berkeley.edu (Raymond Chen) writes:
>One theory is that the information enters the Prodigy files purely
>by accident when the Prodigy software requests disk buffers from DOS
>and doesn't bother to zero them out.  So whatever leftover junk was
>in the disk buffer makes its way into your Prodigy file.

It's reasonable to accept the above as true.  Has anyone who's been shouting
"thief" even considered why -- if Prodigy wanted to steal information, that it
would leave evidence behind in their own file?  If their software wanted to,
it would have no problem sending the contents of your entire hard disk, both
regular and deleted files, and the contents of your memory, floppy drives, and
ram disk -- all without a trace.  In fact, if it was a really smart thief, it
would revise its own software after-the-fact to remove that part of it that
did the stealing.

Furthermore, as a *former* user of Prodigy,  if they ever did think that by
"knowing" me better they could sell me better... it didn't work.

-- 
Joe Wasik, Pac*Bell, 2600 Camino Ramon, Rm 4E750V, San Ramon, CA (415)823-2422
email: jcwasik@clib.PacBell.COM or [...]!pacbell!clib!jcwasik
Sloganeering (slo-gan-err-ing) v. The act of believing that people can be
	motivated by expressing a phrase. [See "We value..."]