December, 2000      Diablo Blue      Page 9

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cern that we might be out in the street. Sources at BofA tell me there is no solid information, or even rumors, backing this up. It is the people, not the real estate, that are being let go. The new owners merely want to replace all California BofA employees with employees with names like Bubba, Earl, Charlene, Becky Sue, etc. What else would you expect from a company whose head hatchet man is named "Hootie"?
Alan was unsure of the details, but thought the bank account was pretty low. He blamed it on our insurance having just been paid and a deposit pending, but we suspect the Treasurer has is just discovering the high cost of beer at the UC Davis campus where she is an attendee.
Mark reported that the Linux SIG is having a bit of an identity crisis and may split off from the club. This is probably because the vendors and products we feature at our meetings are too easy to understand and use. Linux people tend to like greater challenges.
Finally, a word of warning: if you are planning to use Turbo Tax to file this years' income tax, you may want to hold off ordering it. Intuit is scheduled to be at our February meeting to demo Turbo Tax, and quite possibly donate some copies for the raffle and auction. Then again, making plans based on what a vendor may due three months in the future may not be smartest thing to do. You decide.
I thought I should pass this last tip on to you now because I used Turbo Tax last year. As a result, in October I got two snail mail and three email offers for buying. I ordered it then, and have since received two more snail mail offers and one more by email. They may be able to balance your books and calculate your taxes, but their marketing and sales data is out of control.

I am writing this to alert you to a situation that could affect your right to have access to information about computer software. This is not a spam e-mail or a scam. I am a real person with a real e-mail address.
If you have visited newsgroups or chatrooms concerned with computer security, firewalls and the like, you may have seen postings from someone named "pchelp". PCHelp is really Keith Little, a computer consultant who runs a one-man company in the state of Washington. In recent years, Keith has focused on computer security on the internet. He is the one who first publicized the security hole in Microsoft Windows scrap files. You can see his website here: www.nwi.net/~pchelp.
In 1998, Keith reviewed a security software package named LockDown 2000. He found the program to be very poor and that it did not even come close to meeting its overblown claims. He published this on his website and told users whom he met in newsgroups and chat rooms about his findings.
In October 2000 the makers of LockDown 2000 initiated a suit for libel against Keith in US federal court. You can see LockDown's position here: www.lockdown2000.com/pchelp. Judge for yourself if this suit has any merit or is just aimed at silencing someone who gave the software a bad review.
Being involved in a U.S. federal court case is a long, drawn-out process and is very, very ex

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