From: "Randy H" 

Searching back through the archives, the Asperger analysis was proffered by
Graham Lea:
#: 619478 S10/News of the Week
    21-Mar-96  04:01:51
Sb: #BARKTO REVEALED?
Fm: Graham Lea 100137,655
To: All

I think I have made some significant progress about the Barkto affair.  As
there may be somebody in some remote place who has not heard the story
before,
I first give a brief version of the affair (based on my account in Citizen
Microsoft).

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
THE BARKTO AFFAIR

In January 1994, somebody using the name Steve Barkto posted some
quasi-literate but derogatory remarks against IBM on the Canopus Forum on
CompuServe.  Although Barkto claimed to be a user from Oklahoma City, it
was discovered that the port being used to access CompuServe was a Seattle
node, that the account belonged to Microsoft, and that the owner' of the
account was
Rick Segal of Microsoft.  The account was opened on 21 January 1994, just four
days before the first messages from Barkto appeared, and was charged to a
Microsoft credit card bearing Segal's name.   From the content of the
messages
(which can be seen in library files on the Canopus Forum -- search for Barkto)
it would appear that the likely sender was either Segal, or a collusion
with Microsoft executives.

The concern was not just at the robustness of Barkto's anti-IBM remarks,
but the fact that the inevitable conclusion was that Microsoft was playing
at dirty tricks against IBM on a CompuServe forum that is more
independently minded than the many pro-Microsoft fora to be found
elsewhere.  Canopus was founded by Will Zachmann, who had taken a position
of high principle when he was a columnist with PC Week and refused to write
in a pro-Microsoft fashion,
following complaints to Ziff-Davis from Microsoft executives.

Zachmann complained to the Board of Microsoft about the Barkto affair:

         "There have been persistent rumours and claims throughout the
industry of a deliberate and intentional "dirty tricks" campaign
by Microsoft
to spread disinformation about Microsoft competitors and to discredit critics
of the Microsoft Corporation.  The office of Microsoft Vice President of
Systems Strategy, Jonathan Lazurus and the operations reporting to him have
repeatedly been the focus of such rumours.
        "These rumours include claims that Microsoft has engaged in a
systematic practice of having employees of Microsoft as well as independent
agents of Microsoft log onto on-line services such as CompuServe, Prodigy,
America On-line, the Internet and others, sometimes under assumed names, to
spread disinformation about Microsoft's competitors and to discredit
critics of the Microsoft Corporation.  They have also included claims of
deliberate efforts by Microsoft improperly to influence the editorial
content of various
publications and to silence critics of Microsoft in the press."

After four months of what was suspected of being busy inactivity and cover-up,
Maples replied and confirmed that the CompuServe account of Barkto was opened
by Segal's Microsoft credit card some days before the messages started. Gates
had said he would initiate a formal investigation of the matter, but later
said that no evidence of wrongdoing had been found.   Segal refused to be
more
forthcoming, but accepted responsibility generally, without acknowledging that
he had posted the messages.  Canopus Forum members were incensed at this
new example of Microsoft's fickleness, and thousands of messages were
generated about the issue.

Segal complained to three senior IBM executives about an IBM Online Advocate.
Segal even accused the IBM staffer of "assassinating his
character", and stated that it would have "grave consequences for
your career and for your financial well-being".  The claim of any
character assassination was utterly denied by the IBMer, and no evidence
was provided by Segal.

Segal's comments have included:
     Actually, for a long time there were two CIS accounts that were Exec
lurker accounts . . . one got "caught" about two years ago and it
hasn't happened since.
     Nope, MS is not boy scouts and yes we play rough and tough

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Although my main work is as an industry analyst, specialising in Microsoft, I
was invited at the end of last year to write a weekly column entitled
Billwatch for COMPUTING, the UK weekly owned by VNU.  The columns are
copyright VNU, and the more recent ones can be seen at
http://www.vnu.co.uk/bc/ctg.   A date is then selected, and the columns are
to
be found under "Opinions".  (Unfortunately there are frequent
hiatus). Incidentally, a full list of them is given at my primitive
homepage at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Graham_Lea

Now to get to the point.  My Billwatch column in COMPUTING for today, 21 March
1996, examines the possibility that Gates has Asperger's syndrome.  Here's an
extract from the beginning:

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
++
++++++++++++
In December 1993, there was an article on autism in the *New Yorker* by
Professor Oliver Sacks, a London-born and New York-resident neurologist,
followed a week later by an article about Bill Gates. *Time* noted briefly
that "In some ways, the articles were strangely and intriguingly
similar", gave some selected quotations, but did not comment any
further. Intrigued by what seemed to be unfinished business, I've done
further research
into the possibility that, like Bela Bartok, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Albert
Einstein and Robert Maxwell, Bill Gates' form of genius may have some
connection with Asperger's syndrome, named after the Viennese Hans
Asperger. Asperger defined autism in the 1940s, as did Leo Kanner,
independently, in Baltimore.  Asperger concentrated on the positive,
compensating features of subjects, whereas Kanner concentrated on the
classical aspect -- the serious clinical cases.
Sacks incorporated this article in a remarkable book entitled  "An
anthropologist on Mars" [Picador, 1996], which gives some excellent
insights into the nature of autism.  I was in no doubt after reading it
that Bill Gates
exhibits many characteristics of autism, and specifically Asperger's syndrome.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++
+++++++++++++

1.  It probably hit you immediately: BARTOK is but a minor modification of
BARKTO.  There may be some deeper significance involving STEVE, but I
haven't
investigated this.
2.  The New Yorker article was dated December 27 1993/January 3 1994, and
Sacks' article, entitled "An anthropologist on Mars" did mention
Bela Bartok.
3.  The article entitled "E-mail from Bill" by John Seabrook was
in the New Yorker, dated January 10 1994.
4.  The Time article was in the issue dated 24 January 1994, and entitled
"Diagnosing Bill Gates".
5.  I assume that the copies were actually available some days earlier than
the cover date.
6.  At this very time, the Barkto affair started. 7.  I believe that
Microsoft staff, triggered by these events, considered Gates to be
autistic, and bizarrely used the name Barkto as a coded recognition of
this.  It seems to me unlikely that Gates himself was involved.
No doubt there will be much additional speculation, but I find the coincidence
too great to draw any other conclusion. 8.  I have read a great deal about
autism and Asperger's syndrome since I discovered this, and I will be
expanding on these issues in Microsoft Monitor
shortly.
9.  I am not trying to make a medical diagnosis, although as one who once
practised as a medical geochemist, I think it valid to note correlations.
10.  I wish to place on record that I have every sympathy for anybody with
any
medical condition.

Graham Lea
(c) Copyright Graham Lea 1996.  All Rights Reserved

* Replies:  619484-Plus, 619499-J445, 619504-J447, 619507-J455, 619764-J458



"Geo."  wrote in message news:3eda8f8f{at}w3.nls.net...
> "William F. Zachmann" 
wrote in message
> news:3eda5d37$1{at}w3.nls.net...
>
> > I have not idea what merit there may or may not be to Joan's
contentions.
> > Computer math and the innards of computer graphics calculation and
> > generation is nowhere to be found within any of my own areas of
> competence.
>
> I've used just about every major raytracer over they years, truespace
> included. Truespace has some awesome neon lighting features but it's
modeler
> sucks to put it mildly, I would not be surprised to find the error is in
> truespace even if it's restricted to one platform. It would be easy to
prove
> otherwise, create the same model in POV or some other modeler.
>
>
> > P.S.  What was the name of the writer lady from the Bad Old Days on
> > CIS:CANOPUS who later decided that BillG must be suffering from
Asperger's
> > Syndrome?  Wendy Something
>
> Wendy Rholm, aka lower case wendy?
>
> Geo.
>
>

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