Wednesday February 21
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   LEGENDS OF THE FRONTIER, PT. 1

   "He's  your  worst nightmare," the townsfolk were whispering, "A smart
   outlaw with a death wish."

   Kid Mitnick had been part of frontier life for years. It had gotten to
   the  point  where he was pretty much just accepted, a force of nature,
   like the winds that howled across the prarie.

   Yet,  it  was undoubtedly bothersome to wake up in the morning, go out
   to  your  barn, and find he'd been in there at night slapping paint on
   your horses. And for what? For the *fun* of it!

   This was one twisted cowboy. But then he messed with the wrong lawman.

   WHY WE LOVE THE HACKER STORY

   Tsutomu  Shimomura,  the guy who brought in Kid Mitnick, is the return
   of  the western hero, cyber-style. He was the guy who stood up. He was
   the  guy  who  said "enough". He was the guy who WOULD NOT TAKE IT ANY
   MORE. [ed: apologies to Robert de Niro and Paul Schrader]

   And so, for all of us, (but most of all for himself) he sallied forth,
   alone  onto  the  digital  frontier, and chased his man. He chased him
   through  Unix  Servers  and X-Windows Workstations, from satellites to
   relay  stations, never resting, tracking a data trail that to the rest
   of us would be as invisible as an Indian Spirit.

   And,  like  the  Lone Ranger and Samurai swordsmen that he is no doubt
   descended  from, when it came time to accept the kudos for what he had
   done,  Tsutomu strode silently into the sunset. Even when his helpless
   and  quartered  foe  uttered those most rare of words, "I respect your
   skills," silence was Kid Mitnick's only answer.

   Silence. The most definitive victory cry of all.

   [ed:  The  above refers to this week's computer security saga from the
   press,  so  ably  reported  by  John  Markoff  in  the New York Times,
   concerning  the  rogue hacker, Kevin Mitnick, who was apprehended this
   week  through  the  extraordinarily skilled efforts of security expert
   Tsutomu  Shimomura.  If  you haven't read it, go to the effort to find
   the articles. It's a great story.]
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   LEGENDS OF THE FRONTIER, PT. 2

   Roy  Bean,  so  the  story  goes,  set  himself up and Judge, Jury and
   Executioner  out in parts of Texas where things were a might too hairy
   for  regular  law.  He was easily more than half criminal himself, and
   that's what made him a good judge.

   There  was  no  bamboozling  old  Roy  Bean. It didn't matter how much
   liquor  he  had  drunk. He could still spot a liar, cheat, horsethief,
   murderer  or  whatever  when  he  saw  one. And he saw them every day,
   sometimes  when  they  weren't  even  there.  He might have hung a few
   innocent  ones along with the guilty, true enough. But out there, that
   was just the way business was done.

   Judge  Stanley  Sporkin  sets  up  his  court in much the same way. It
   doesn't  matter  that his role in the Microsoft case was slightly more
   judicial  than  a  rubber stamp. A file marked "Microsoft" crosses his
   desk, you can be damn sure he's gonna take a good look inside.

   What he saw was a company that has run roughshod for too long over too
   many  little  wannabees.  Microsoft  says  it's unAmerican to punish a
   company  that just does software, and the business of software, better
   than  its  competitors.  Stanley  Sporkin says its unAmerican to let a
   megalithic  company  that  systematically snuffs out creative startups
   through predatory pricing and a host of other sleazy tactics.

   You  can  opine  any way you want on the case, but you gotta love this
   old crusty sonuvabitch. Nothing and no one will tell him where or when
   he  gets  to  say  his piece. No Bill Gates, no Janet Reno, no army of
   Washington  lawyers  is  going  to keep Stanley Sporkin from trying to
   string up a few bad guys.

   Still, I wouldn't want to live with him.
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                     -FIN- ----- -CHRONICLE STREAM- ---
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