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Re: Microsoft 'Smart' Quotes

  • Subject: Re: Microsoft 'Smart' Quotes
  • From: ibuprofin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Moe Trin)
  • Date: Thu, 03 Nov 2005 18:15:34 -0600
  • Newsgroups: alt.os.linux.mandrake
  • References: <11maq549lu1bkd2@news.supernews.com> <dk4ai3$244g$1@godfrey.mcc.ac.uk> <436700f3@news1.veridas.net> <dk81e3$2mmr$2@godfrey.mcc.ac.uk> <436a11ec@news1.veridas.net>
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In the Usenet newsgroup alt.os.linux.mandrake, in article
<436a11ec@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Peter D. wrote:

>Roy Schestowitz wrote in alt.os.linux.mandrake:

>> So,  once again, proprietary cripples communication.

Yeah, but look at all the new features you get!!! Next year, they will
be adding bioluminescent crayon support so that the web pages and email
looks even more st00pid

>Sometimes it almost looks as if MS is trying to break standards.

You're posting from Oz, so I wouldn't expect you to have heard an
American folk tale called "Legends Of Sleepy Hollow" (by Washington
Irving) - and about "Rip Van Winkle" - a guy who fell asleep for twenty
years, and when awoke had missed all of what had happened during those
years. (google for 'Rip Van Winkle' - it's a short tale available online.)

Yes, microsoft intentionally breaks standards (including their own)
because they've got to keep coming up with new crap so that the sheep
have something to buy.  While the example I quote below is only a few
years old, this practice goes back twenty years.

  1994 PPP Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP). W.
       Simpson. August 1996. (Format: TXT=24094 bytes) (Obsoletes RFC1334)
       (Updated by RFC2484) (Status: DRAFT STANDARD)

  2433 Microsoft PPP CHAP Extensions. G. Zorn, S. Cobb. October 1998.
       (Format: TXT=34502 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)

  2759 Microsoft PPP CHAP Extensions, Version 2. G. Zorn. January 2000.
       (Format: TXT=34178 bytes) (Status: INFORMATIONAL)

RFC1994 is the international standard of CHAP using an MD5 hash.
Microsoft introduced a "new and improved" version called MS-CHAP Version
1 for windoze 95 using an MD4 hash, and having a few other security holes.
They finally documented it in RFC2433 - but note that it is not a standard.
They then decided to fix the holes (a miracle in itself) and improve things
again for windoze98. Is 'Version 2' compatible with anything? Surely you
jest.

   This document describes version two of Microsoft's PPP CHAP dialect
   (MS-CHAP-V2).  MS-CHAP-V2 is similar to, but incompatible with, MS-
   CHAP version one (MS-CHAP-V1, described in [9]).  In particular,
   certain protocol fields have been deleted or reused but with
   different semantics.

And one asks - what is the current status?   Well of course, neither
version of MS-CHAP is used very often.  Why? Well, Version 1 is obsolete,
but few people bothered to use the replacement.

        Old guy

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