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From: alex@bilver.uucp (Alex Matulich)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.misc
Subject: Re: Anyone using prodigy with an AMIGA?
Message-ID: <1991May5.205134.665@bilver.uucp>
Date: 5 May 91 20:51:34 GMT
References: <+W6B79@irie.ais.org> <1991May2.151223.19343@cbnewse.att.com> <1991May02.160135.20734@convex.com>
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Organization: W. J. Vermillion - Winter Park, FL
Lines: 32

In article <1991May02.160135.20734@convex.com> swarren@convex.com (Steve Warren) writes:
[lots of quotes about how Prodigy must be stealing private data deleted]

COME ON PEOPLE!  You are making a fuss about what is probably nothing at
all.  Doesn't anybody realize that under MSDOS, when a program allocates
file space for itself on the hard disk, that space may contain fragments
of files that used to occupy that space?  When you allocate file space,
the space is NOT cleared.

If you REALLY want to test if Prodigy is glomming data from your hard
disk then try the following.  It will determine once and for all if the
allegations are true.

1) First, use a utility like PCTools Compress to defragment your drive and
CLEAR THE FREE CLUSTERS.  This will cause all unused space to be cleared,
and not contain fragments of other things that used to be there.

2) Then, run Prodigy.  From a floppy, to make the test more conclusive, if
necessary.  When you are through I'll bet that the Prodigy files STAGE.DAT
and CACHE.DAT won't contain anything but Prodigy-related data.

I am not a Prodigy subscriber.  If anybody out there is, please perform
the above test and post the results before doing any more bashing.

(insert usual disclaimer about not being associated with Prodigy here)

My opinions DO represent the opinions of my company, so there.
-- 
 _ |__  Alex Matulich
 /(+__>  Unicorn Research Corp, 4621 N Landmark Dr, Orlando, FL 32817
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