Microsoft Pressures Testers After Software Leak

narramissic writes "ITworld reports that Microsoft is 'taking tough measures to find out who leaked a Community Technology Preview (CTP) of Windows Home Server to The Hotfix.net blog.' The software preview was posted on the site by a user named 'Richard' soon after it was released to a small group of testers. In an e-mail to MVPs whose names contain 'Richard,' Kevin Beares, the Windows Home Server community lead at Microsoft, wrote: 'For right now, you have no access to the beta until I can find the Richard who posted the WHS (Windows Home Server) CTP on this site.... I will work with the Connect Admin team to determine which one of you is the real culprit of this leak.'"

Comments

The MS approach

[ACS Solver]

foreach (Tester ReallyUnluckyGuy in GetTestersByName("Richard"))
{
    ReallyUnluckyGuy.DenyAccess(Now);
    ReallyUnluckyGuy.AskQuestions(Later);
}

grep /rich(?:ard)?|[dr]ick/

[Speare]

In an e-mail to MVPs whose names contain 'Richard,' Kevin Beares, the Windows Home Server community lead at Microsoft, wrote: 'For right now, you have no access to the beta until I can find the Richard who posted the WHS (Windows Home Server) CTP on this site.

Translation, "Are you the Dick who leaked?"

Dear Slashdot - Thankyou!

[Anonymous Coward]

Dear Slashdot,

Thankyou for agreeing to help publicize our new products by spreading information about our phoney leak. You have my personal assurance that if we ever find this "Richard" character, I will be certain to punish him very severely for creating public awareness of our super-innovative new server software. Gosh, I do hope no-one downloads a pirate version and sees how awesome it is!

Also, thanks for your good work on the Xbox 360. Who would have thought so many Linux dorks would be willing to buy into our wall-to-wall DRM and platform lockin?

-- Bill Gates

(This is a private email, right? IE is doing something strange....)

This should be interesting!

[Odiumjunkie]

This will be a great opportunity to get a rare insight in to the kind of proprietary, highly advanced digital fingerprinting schemes they're using at Redmond! Digital certificates, binary padding - who can say?!

The software preview was posted on the site by a user named 'Richard' soon after it was released to a small group of testers. In an e-mail to MVPs whose names contain 'Richard,'....

Oh...

Re:Wow...

[ClaraBow]

How many Dicks (I mean Richards) work for MS?

Jeez get A Clue!

[hydertech]

Could it be Richard Stallman in the conservatory with the wrench?

Not really news

[Kamineko]

"Dick leaks, causes embarassment."

That's not really front page news now, is it?

Re: Richard = Dick

[Migraineman]

That was my first reaction.

Msft: Who leaked this onto a newsgroup?
Lackey: The username on the account was "Richard."
Msft: Richard who?
Lackey: We don't know. The account name is just "Richard."
Msft: Suspend all priveledges to anyone with a "Richard" in their name!
Lackey: Sir, yes sir!
Msft: Man, this Richard guy is a real dick.
Lackey: *snickers*
Msft: What?

Re:Wow...

[cmacb]

"To be fair, it isn't that hard for a Robert to type in Richard instead."

This just in:

Kevin Beares, the Windows Home Server community lead at Microsoft, wrote in an updated memo to all testers named Richard or Robert: 'As someone on Slashdot graciously pointed out, someone name Robert might have typed in Ricard instead so for right now, you have no access to the beta until I can find the Richard (or Robert). Note, people named Kevin, Steve or Bill will not be affected at this time, however we may have to expand our search to people named Dick, Bob, Bobby, Rick, Roberto, Richardo. That is all.

Re:Have you read Slashdot before?

[cyphercell]

Exactly, it's offtopic, mod everyone named Larry Offtopic!