Posted on 09/12/2004 2:49:12 PM PDT by Minus_The_Bear
In an effort to discredit the work Charles at LGF has done investigating the Rathergate forgerys PC Magazine has published an article void of any substance or journalistic ethics (if there is such a thing).
The author of the article tries to prove that the memos were in fact typed on a IBM Selectric Composer completely ignoring the fact that the typography in the memos was kerned. The author also give graphical examples that are purposely small in order to deceive (when the two are placed on top of each other they DO NOT LINE UP).
In a finally act of stupidity the author references Daily Kos. The liberal blog that has numerously called for the death of US service personnel and even said "Screw 'Em" to the horrifying deaths of the contractors that where mutilated, burned, and then hung from the bridge.
Click here to tell this lying "journalist" what you think
Every death should be on the front page (2.70 / 40) Let the people see what war is like. This isn't an Xbox game. There are real repercussions to Bush's folly. That said, I feel nothing over the death of merceneries. They aren't in Iraq because of orders, or because they are there trying to help the people make Iraq a better place. They are there to wage war for profit. Screw them. |
by kos on Thu Apr 1st, 2004 at 19:08:56 GMT |
They ceased to be a reputable source of tech info years ago. Most probably because they're scared of pissing off a major company like Dell and having to end up paying for the equipment they review.
They keep trying to send me complimentary professional subscriptions, and I keep telling them to buzz off. I think they don't have my current address, thankfully.
You would also have to be clairvoyant or a time traveler from the future.
While this point has not been made much of, since everyone seems to be focused on the POSSIBILITY of creating these documents in 1972 and 1973, few have considered the liklihood that out of all the myriad fonts, spacings, line spacings, centerings, etc. available to someone using an IBM Executive or an IBM Selectric Composer, or a Linotype machine, assuming access to one, these memos used the one of millions that would precisely match a font/typeface that would not come into existence for another 10 or 15 years, and were carefully and precisely crafted with ssupreme efforts and care so that an overlay easily created in MS Word in 2004 would overlay the 20-year old documents precisely.
Now that is quite an accomplishment (understatement alert), whoever did it - if it were done in 1972/1973.
Zuniga ("kos") has been known to raise money for the Kerry campaign. I wonder if the writer of the article took that into account?
Makes you wonder....
well put! plus, who believes that a man who doesn't type was given a $20,000 typewriter (in 2004 dollars) to type one perfect memo, with no mistakes, requiring a change of rotating ball several times, never to use the typewriter again, or before, would be placed in a "private file", which no one knew existed (even by his family), signed in a completely different handwriting style,was given to CBS by an unknown person?
Just checked the masthead of my latest issue of PC Magazine.
"Forgery expert" Mendelson is listed as a contributing editor, but what interested me is the mission statement of this periodical, which is as follows:
"PC Magazine is the Independent Guide to Technology. Our mission is to test and review computer-and internet related products and services and report fairly and objectively on the results."
I am wondering if this guy went off on his own, publishing under the PC Magazine banner his comments comparing IBM typewriters and modern day word processing programs. This is something that seems outside the test and review mission of the magazine.
As a subscriber, I will give the magazine the benefit of the doubt for the time being because I don't believe the editors or publisher cleared Mr. Mendelson to do this.
Let's see if he even keeps his job after what appears to be a major mistake on his part, i.e., injecting his employer, a technical journal, into a Presidential campaign.
In any case, it appears his article is getting clobbered, so if I am wrong in my belief about how this came about, then PC Magazine will lose me as a subscriber.
Thanks!
BTW....I am a rotten speller when I get worked up! LOL. I meant "cite" not site. Sheeeeesh!
This may be the most important thread in the history of this topic:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1214078/posts
Burn 'em bump.
And I'm a subscriber!
Some have argued that the documents are forgeries because the characters are kerned. Kerning is an operation which tucks characters together to compact space. However, Microsoft Word by default does not kern text. The text of the memo is not kerned. Kerning is a pairwise operation between characters, and each character pair that can be kerned has a specified kerning value.Microsoft fonts and many others come with accompanying kerning data. But kerning is complex, and computationally expensive, and therefore would have slowed down redisplay in a WYSIWYG editor. However, Times New Roman uses a characteristic of Microsoft TrueType fonts called the ABC dimensions, where the C dimension is the offset from the right edge of the bounding box of the character to the next character. If this offset is negative, the character with the negative C offset will overlap the character which follows (in some technologies, the distance from the start of one character to the start of another is called the escapement, so a negative C offset gives an escapement which is less than the character width).
This gives the illusion of kerning, or what I sometimes call pseudo-kerning.
OK guys. This explains a lot. FReepers have been arguing for days that the CBS documents are kerned. I have been biting my tongue because I saw what I thought were obvious instances where the CBS documents were not kerned. Yet FReepers and others wer able to point out instances where something more sophisticated than proportional spacing occurred.
Now hold on. This is a bumpy ride. The forged documents and the MSWord documents are "pseudo-kerned". This is an automatic feature of True-Type. Another thread has a former Apple programmer discussing the invention of True-Type. The ultimate point is that The forged documents are typeset using a letter spacing technology that was not invented until 1989. Not only was it not invented until 1989, but it is patented. No one but a True-Type licencee (read Microsoft) can produce the CBS documents.
If the docs aint kerned, the defense don't burn.
I read the Kos Krap last night, snickered, and didn't dirty up this space by bringing it back with me.
Instead, I just decontaminated myself.
...and knowing that it was found mostly in print shops, typesetting shops, small publication offices, and occasionally a law firm...
The idjit at Kos actually suggested the "HE would never consider writing such a memo without legal advice". (For self-protection from the big, bad, well-connected GWB's supposed retribution)
He went on that, Killian would "probably" have had a lawyer, who "very likely" would have had one of these machines and a skilled operator, compose & type it for him to sign!!!!!
Talk about tin-foil hat conspiracy theorists, desperation, and straw-grasping!
I almost wish I had the concession to wash their pee-stained pants; I'd make a fortune!
maximum pc minimum bs
So take your IBM Composer and type the memos!
They will either be better or worse than what can be done with MSWord; then we'll decide.
Enough talk about how it could have been done--just do it!
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