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Hugh Hewitt Correspondence With Rice U Professor Shows CBS' Memos ARE Forgeries (MUST READ!!!)
HughHewitt.com ^ | 09/10/04 | Hugh Hewitt

Posted on 09/10/2004 7:17:29 PM PDT by goldstategop

Hi Hugh,

I am a Professor of Computer Science at Rice University who has followed the evolution of word processing technology over the past 30 years. A cursory glance at the "Killian documents" shows that they are forgeries, the product of a modern word processing system. Even the most powerful word processing systems available in the early 70's were not designed to produce propotionally spaced documents. Moreover, no mechanical typewriter, even with variable letter widths like the IBM Executive typewriter, could produce precise propotional spacing comparable to a modern word processor. Precise proportional type-setting is a very demanding computational problem. Since modern PC's are more powerful than supercomputers from the 70's, we take this form of computation for granted.

Let me take a moment to recount the state-of-the-art in word-processing in the 1970's. I used a state-of-the-art word processing system to write my undergraduate thesis at Harvard in the spring of 1971. I was one of a handful of Harvard students who were given access to a PDP-10 time-sharing system to conduct my thesis research. I used the same machine to prepare my thesis using a word processing program called "runoff". The output device for "runoff" on the Harvard PDP-10 was a flexowriter, a typewriter-like device driven by punched paper tape. I had to write in the superscripts and subscripts by hand because the flexowriter could not perform fractional line spacing much less proportional font spacing. The runoff program did not support any output devices with proportional spacing. Neither did any other word processing of that era to my knowledge. In the late 1970's, researchers at Bell Laboratories developed a new version of runoff, called troff, to support proportional typesetting on a photo-typesetter; troff is still available today on standard Unix distributions.

So in 1971, even the most powerful available computer systems were not equipped to produce documents like the Killian documents. In Fall 1971, I entered graduate school in Computer Science at Stanford. I soon gravitated to the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, which had the most powerful time-sharing system (a PDP-10) on campus. In either 1972 or 1973, Xerox gave the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory a prototype xerographic printer called a "Xerox Graphics Printer (XGP)". Two similar prototypes were given to the MIT Computer Science Department and the Carnegie-Mellon Computer Science Department. The programming staff at the Stanford AI Laboratory was thrilled with the gift because it was the first opportunity that computer science research community had to develop software to support printer quality type-setting. The three Computer Science Departments cooperated in developing the word processing programs to support the XGP. I wrote my first published research paper and my doctoral disseration using the XGP in Spring 1976. It would take another decade before comparable word processing systems were available to most computer science researchers on minicomputers running Unix. It would take nearly another decade before they were widely used on personal computers.

Sincerely,

Robert "Corky" Cartwright Professor of Computer Science Rice University"

I wrote Professor Carwright back and asked if I could reproduce his e-mail on the blog. Before he answered that, he had sent me a second e-mail, as well as one to the DailyKos, who is mounting a very, very lame defense of the CBS forgeries. Here is the Professor's e-mail to Kos:

"Hi Markos,

You are tilting at windmills with the IBM Selectric Composer theory.

Go to http://www.ibmcomposer.org/docs/Selectric%20Composer%20Operations%20Manual.pdf which is a user's manual showing some sample typed text using this typewriter.

The typed text in the "Killian memos" is kerned (check out letter combinations like "fo" and "fe"), but the Composer text is clearly not. Kerning is a computationally complex task beyond the capacity of any mechanical typewriter--even one as expensive and elaborate as the IBM Selectric Composer. Moreover, the proportional spacing in the sample text is rather crude (look at the typesetting of "11" for example) which is the best that a mechanical typewriter--even one as complex as the Composer--can do.

Consult someone who understands the typography behind modern word processing. The "Killian memos" are word processed documents.

Robert "Corky" Cartwright Professor of Computer Science Rice University ACM Fellow

P.S. I would have posted a comment on your site but you have a 24 hour waiting period that prevented it."

Here's the third e-mail, from earlier today:

"Hi Hugh,

I have seen reports that Dan Rather has upped the ante on the authenticity of the Killian documents by insisting that they are authentic. How foolish!

In the testimony that I have seen by forensic experts questioning the authenticity of the documents, they have qualified their opinions by stating that no typewriter familiar to them could have produced the documents. Perhaps they are merely being cautious to safeguard their reputations. But I wonder if these typewriter experts appreciate the computational complexity of modern "print-quality" word processing. No mechanical typewriter could implement the complex sequence of rules governing the formatting of text in a word processor like Microsoft Word.

The Killian memos could not have been typed on an IBM Executive typewriter with "proportional spacing" or any other typewriter using similar technology. According to product descriptions on the web, the IBM Executive typewriter supports only four different character widths. In contrast, modern proportional spacing involves a far more sophisticated type-setting algorithm. Every type font in Word (or any other modern word processing system) has a custom width for every character. Moreover, the spacing between individual pairs of characters is modified by a process called "kerning" that compensates for the fact that letters have varying shapes that affect our perception of proper spacing. To achieve an aesthetically pleasing result, the type-setting process must take into account the relationship between adjacent character shapes. For example, the letter "T" followed by the letter "o" looks badly spaced if the "o" is not tucked under the overhang provided by the top of the "T". On the other hand, no such adjustment is appropriate if the letter "T" is followed by the letter "H". In the Killian documents, you can clearly see the effects of kerning in pairs of letters such as "fo" and "fe".

I am amazed that Dan Rather and his associates at CBS are blind to the overwhelming evidence that these documents are blatant forgeries.

Sincerely,

Robert "Corky" Cartwright Rice University"

Unlike CBS, I did a quick google search on my source, Professor Cartwright, and found him to be who he says he is.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: 2004election; 60minutes; cbsnewsgate; danrather; forgeries; hewitt; hughhewitt; killian; memoforgeries; rathergate; riceu; riceuprofessor
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To: usafsk

Actually I don't know much at all about fonts, was just answering a question, (mostly because I found this out just last week while fooling around).


41 posted on 09/10/2004 8:26:21 PM PDT by JoJo Gunn (Help control the Leftist population - have them spayed or neutered.©)
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To: goldstategop

So the memos can't be real because the necessary proportional spacing technology didn't exist at the time they were allegedly written.

Fine, but try explaining that to Joe slackjaw or Jane mouth-breather.


42 posted on 09/10/2004 8:36:14 PM PDT by nsc68
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To: JoJo Gunn

bttt


43 posted on 09/10/2004 8:41:37 PM PDT by The Wizard (DemonRATS: enemies of America)
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To: Southack
There is no such Air Force Manual 35-13

Time to warn freepers to lay off this AFM 35-13. I have seen several posts saying that this AFM didn't exist and if it did, it couldn't be an order because it is a manual not a regulation. Only problem is, the same AFM 35-15 is quoted in the authentic letter which took Bush off flight status. I don't have the link but another freeper posted the PDF earlier.

44 posted on 09/10/2004 8:50:02 PM PDT by thpwat
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To: roadcat

I started with a manual and then an electric typewriter. Fixing simple mistakes was sheer torture. A lifesaver was the first Smith Corona Word Processor I used to write papers in graduate school. It was a breeze compared to the now obsolete typewriter. When it came to writing my thesis, nothing beat Microsoft Word, the King Of All Word Processing Programs in existence. Today writing reports and documents is so easy, we wonder why it took so long to invent what what is taken now for granted. I'm one of those who doesn't want to go back to the days of replacing worn ribbon and having to start all over again because I mistyped a word. In any event, what Bush did 30 years ago shouldn't even be an issue because he's not running on his NG service for President. Kerry IS running on his four months in Vietnam. The partisan media's attempt to strike a phony balance between the two candidates' wartime experience is what has gotten them between a rock and a hard place.


45 posted on 09/10/2004 8:54:04 PM PDT by goldstategop (In Memory Of A Dearly Beloved Friend Who Lives On In My Heart Forever)
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To: El Sordo


46 posted on 09/10/2004 8:54:53 PM PDT by El Sordo
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To: Dustin Hawkins
I think [Baghdad] Bob was slightly more credible

Rather has all the credibility of Baghdad Bob, but without the charm.

47 posted on 09/10/2004 8:57:43 PM PDT by Ken H
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To: thpwat
"Time to warn freepers to lay off this AFM 35-13. I have seen several posts saying that this AFM didn't exist and if it did, it couldn't be an order because it is a manual not a regulation. Only problem is, the same AFM 35-15 is quoted in the authentic letter which took Bush off flight status. I don't have the link but another freeper posted the PDF earlier."

No, there is no reason to fear the truth. There is no AFM 35-13. That's pretty simple, and that is a fact.

If a real document made a typo such that "AFM 35-13" was listed in it, and if that typo was later copied by a forger onto a bogus document, then *that* train of events lends additional refutational support to the debunking of the forgery.

What is important is whether or not "AFM 35-13" exists...not whether or not a real document mistakenly lists "AFM 35-13" one time.

1 Full Legislative Day Left Until The AWB Expires

48 posted on 09/10/2004 8:59:40 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: goldstategop

bump


49 posted on 09/10/2004 9:02:37 PM PDT by Eva
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To: goldstategop

Don't insult the man by starting off with "Professor Cartwright has more credibility than Dan Rather."

Doesn't it go without saying that everybody has more credibility than Gunga Dan?


50 posted on 09/10/2004 9:02:56 PM PDT by faithincowboys
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To: thpwat; commish

Nope. Apparently I stand corrected. Freeper Commish has *found* AFM 35-13! He is now researching what regs are contained therein.

1 Full Legislative Day Left Until The AWB Expires

51 posted on 09/10/2004 9:05:29 PM PDT by Southack (Media Bias means that Castro won't be punished for Cuban war crimes against Black Angolans in Africa)
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To: SirChas; JoJo Gunn
I don't think there was any kerning.

I looked at the August 1 and 18 memos, specifically at the word "my". The August 1 memo doesn't seem to be kerned while the August 18 memo does:

Perhaps it is just artifacts from the copying on one of the memos, since the fonts look alot different when blown up?

52 posted on 09/10/2004 9:08:34 PM PDT by rocklobster11
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To: goldstategop
no mechanical typewriter, even with variable letter widths like the IBM Executive typewriter, could produce precise propotional spacing comparable to a modern word processor.

Ok, my layman two cents. I used a IBM executive to type memos almost every day in the late 80's. We had to use that typewriter because it was the only one that had Optical Character fonts. I recall on several occasions after typing a long memo and proofing it I would find a couple of typos. I would then reinsert the document, line it up and center it and use the white correcting tape in the selectric to erase the mistake. Erase is not the right word, since the tape actually lifted the ink off paper. You had to have the paper lined up 100 percent right or the letter would not get lifted correctly. If I had more than one mistake I could not line up the first one and then backspace to the next one. The second typo rarely lined up exactly. It was a perfect match vertically, but the horizontal would most always be off slightly and I would have to release the carriage and manually line it up. In other words, the spacing on this typewriter drifted. What I'd be interested in seeing is an old Selectric used to the same exact document twice and see if they overlay. I would be very surprised if they matched up.

53 posted on 09/10/2004 9:10:39 PM PDT by Casloy (qs)
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To: Boss_Jim_Gettys

Dude. I told you not to let that out of the bag. You've now been on double secret probation since early yesterday.

One more stunt like that, and you will be made to watch Patsy Schroeder for 10 hours straight.


54 posted on 09/10/2004 9:11:44 PM PDT by 1L
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To: rocklobster11
I saw some of that also.

I used my old Corel software and tried to do some pixel compares, but the docs have a lot of "noise", probably from all of the fax/copying.

Would need the originals to do justice.

55 posted on 09/10/2004 9:12:48 PM PDT by SirChas
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To: goldstategop
I wonder if the professor from Stanford University Dr. Donald Knuth would consider weighing in on this? Dr. Knuth published the first three volumes of his anticipated ten volume set of text books on principals of computer science. He did this in the 1960s (maybe early 1970s). He was so dissappointed in the quality of the publication, he decided to spend a year to develop his own typesetting system. That year turned into 10 years (his time as well as time from his grad student).

THe result was TeX and its offspring LaTeX. The research and engineering world quickly adopted these publication systems during the early and mid 1980s to replace the runoff and troff systems mentioned in the above notes. When I worked in the aerospacee business, all our proposals, research papers and the like were written with these tools. By the way, this was also before postscript.

They were in heavy usage until modern publication systems on Mac and WinDoze systems came along.

Bottom line, Knuth probably knows more about publication technology than anyone alive. Not only that, but the underlying computer science and technology under the hood.
56 posted on 09/10/2004 9:30:42 PM PDT by tang-soo (Prophecy of the Seventy Weeks - Read Daniel Chapter 9)
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To: ladyinred

But they are authentic! They are the real documents that they have received from an unknown source! LOL


57 posted on 09/10/2004 10:13:15 PM PDT by Master of Orion
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To: SirChas

Yes, the prof is mistaken. fo and fe are not kerned in Times New Roman, just the glyph for f has negative right offset, so it overhangs a little the next glyph. Kerning is a secondary effect atop of it, which is absent in the forged docs. This makes sense, since the person who produced this forgery would not mess with kerning. On the other hand it is quite unlikely that proportional font for a typewriter will support overhanged glyphs. This can be easily checked if they can present a sample of the font for the said typewriter, but there is no such sample so far!


58 posted on 09/10/2004 10:34:21 PM PDT by eclectic
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To: rocklobster11

Those are two different fonts. Look at the bottom of the "m"...the base on the left one points to the left while the right one points to the right. Similar, but different.


59 posted on 09/10/2004 11:06:48 PM PDT by jellybean (Support Swift Boat Veterans For Truth)
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To: goldstategop
When it came to writing my thesis, nothing beat Microsoft Word, the King Of All Word Processing Programs in existence.

MS Word is great, but before that I thought Wordstar and CP/M were the greatest thing to happen after using typewriters for years. Before printing with Wordstar, practically every typed paper had corrections on it (and my trashcan was filled with wadded up discarded papers). Nowadays printing is a breeze!

60 posted on 09/10/2004 11:58:17 PM PDT by roadcat
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