well, just like any sweatshop, M$ exploted its workers.. early on, they had employees, who they paid very little, but gave stock options to-- and then suddenly, MS stock was worth something.. its kind of hard to oppress workers who are millionaires, and can say "take this job and shove it!" so, keep workers toiling away, most programmers now are "consultants" temporary workers, who are keep in line with a promise, that if they are good, they too, might some day be a blue badge'r--(employees get blue badges, consultants, red)

well, these guys are no dummies. you can string them along for only so long.. and then they start to sabatoge. and create lots of back doors, and "features" that have security gaps you could drive a truck through.

MS management knows about the problem, but actually paying employees what they are worth, would mean that they would only be billionairs 3 times over, instead of 4 times over.. and hey, they don't write the viruses.. and its not their problem..

are they in league? more or less.

helen, thank you for the information. I was not sufficiently familiar with the subject to have been able to reach so definite a conclusion.

the use of "discrete" when "discreet" was meant.

Are you suggesting that M$ thinks the hackers should be less united?

Don't worry, Max, I understood what you were getting at and it did raise a .

Bingley