Well, well, well. For all three of you who haven't given up reading in disgust, I'm still alive. The Saga itself is still alive. And I'm working on it.

Where are we? Well, pretty much about at the same place we were two weeks ago. For those of you at all interested in why I simply vanished for those two weeks and did nothing on the Saga, it's a long and complicated story involving servers, routers, and backbone connections dying like flies and me being the person that is in charge of keeping them working, plus a general dose of idiotic lusers.

Enough about me, though. The Saga *is* going on. i'm still looking for that tape recorder - again, the last two weeks have been hell-like.

I do repeat my promise, however, that there *will* be something. The situation on this end is mainly under control, the new router's going in soon, and that will fix most of my problems. Then I'll have a bit more time to spend on creatively bothering M$.

Busy day. Letter still waiting to go out, tomorrow hopefully if I can get to the post office. I want to call MS soon (nothing like a two-pronged attack), but I also want to set up some kind of recording gear before I do that. I have a feeling this is going to be a priceless conversation, and I'd like it preserved for posterity if at all possible. ;) Besides - "Have Server, Will Stream." Maybe it's not a video of me storming their Redmond havoc and raising holy hell, but might still be entertaining enough...

Nothin' new today. No mails from C|Net, no mails from MS, nothing new sent out, yada yada yada. I would have done something new, but I was busy, you know the drill.

To warn you in advance, no updates tomorrow (and despite what /. says, it's still Saturday, damnit!) because it's a close family member's birthday and will be even busier today. :) Your normal schedule of source saga will resume on Monday. :)

Nothing much on the external front, but here's the first draft of the letter that I'm planning to send to Bill Gates himself, via the US Mail, return receipt requested, on Monday. Comments are welcome and may be incorporated into the revisions. :)

Dear Mr. Gates:

For several years, I have been an avid user of Microsoft products, including but not limited to Windows and the Office suite, and a follower of Microsoft articles in the press. I also count myself among the ranks of those members of the software community interested in Open Source, for both pragmatic and idealistic reasons.

On January 1st, 2002, an article appeared on C|Net, containing an interview with you in your capacity as Microsoft's Chairman and Chief Software Architect. I read this with great interest, and was particularly fascinated by the quote, "I don't know that anyone has ever asked for the source code for Word. If they did, we would give it to them."

Taking your words at face value, I sent your corporation an email on that same night, respectfully requesting a copy of Word's source code, as per your comments. This email went unanswered. A few days later, I sent another email, thinking that my comments might perhaps have fallen prey to the inherent instability / insecurity of the Web. I received no response to that query as well. Another question on a different topic was answered with Microsoft's normal swift response time.

I hope that your statements were not simply airy fabrication, so to speak; it has long been an ambition of mine to get a good look at the innards of Word's code, and I would be disappointed to learn that you do not stand behind comments that you make to the press.

Sincerely,

(Real name)

Oh, and whoever you are, Anonymous Coward, thank you for posting the link to kuro5hin's article. Some of the comments made my day. :)

Oy vey. Thank you, Stillman, for posting that comment... I was lucky enough to acquire a lovely case of the flu a few days ago, and forgot all about this lovely saga. :) Anyway, onto the update.

Still nothing out of Redmond. Haven't called them yet (laryngitis is a wonderful thing), but looky here what I just emailed C|Net:

Salutations,

A few days ago, I read your fascinating interview with Chairman Bill Gates of Microsoft, located here:

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1014-201-6325584-0.html

Among other assertations, in this article, Mr. Gates states that "I don't know that anyone has ever asked for the source code for Word. If they did, we would give it to them. But it's not a typical request."

I consider Open Source to be a Good Thing. In addition, I have always wanted to get a look at the source code of part of the Office suite. Taking Mr. Gates' statement into consideration, I emailed Microsoft via their web-based comments form on January 01, 2002, requesting the source code for Word. It said on the confirmation page that they would get back to me concerning my question within 24 hours.

24 hours passed, and there was no email from Microsoft in my Inbox. Forty hours after the original email was sent, I sent another referencing the first and making the same simple request. As of today, January 10th, approximately 10:00 PM, I have heard absolutely nothing from Microsoft concerning that topic (I emailed them an unrelated question and received a speedy response).

From this, I draw the conclusion that Mr. Gates lied to you and the Internet community as a whole when he made the statement referenced earlier, and I feel that your readers (of which I am proud to count myself among) should be informed of this.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.

(Real name)

I sent this to their "Letters To The Editor" address, letters@news.com. I'll keep you all updated, and once I get my voice back (damn, why couldn't they just answer me in email and be nice about it? I hate phone calls), I'll call them too.

I'll even try not to do the fever-induced forget-about-it thing this time. :)

Well, well, well. They *are* just ignoring me.

I just got this email from MS:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting Microsoft.

I understand you have some comments about the Microsoft Online Knowledge Base.

We appreciate that you have taken the time to let us know your feelings about the Microsoft Web Site. Your comments have been forwarded to our Management Team for review. Microsoft is focused on providing high-quality products and services for our customers. Feedback such as yours enables us to move another step forward to our goal.

If you have other questions concerning this issue, please let us know by replying to this email.

Thank you,

Bhavesh

Microsoft Online Customer Representative


Original Message Follows:
------------------------

Hello,

I had a quick question about the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Could you please tell me why the "Interview Me" option to finding a solution was taken offline? I found this tool to be an excellent one and was disappointed when it didn't show up again in the redesign.

Thanks for your time!

Do please note that I sent this email after both of the Word Source ones, and yet got a response to it first.

I think it looks pretty obvious they're not gonna answer me. So now I've just got to decide what to do next. Try replying to *this* email and asking them what the hell's up, or calling them?

I'm thinking it might be time for the phone call thing. Hmm..

The topic pretty much says it all. Nothing from Microsoft on any count. Yawn. I would have done something interesting yesterday and / or updated this, but weekends tend to be busy and I got sidetracked into the delights of my OpenBSD server. Talk to ya'll tomorrow. :)

I need therapy. My self-esteem has been shattered. I don't think Microsoft *LIKES* me! WAH! Okay, okay, enough with the sarcasm. I'll clean up that spreading puddle of it in a minute.

Right now, I have better things to do. It's been three days since I emailed them the first time. No response out of Redmond. So I decided it was time to see if they're just ignoring *my* queries (most likely), or if they're just really busy and haven't been answering anything in a timely fashion.

How might I be doing this, you might ask?

Well, having twenty or so email addresses is a wonderful thing. I just sent them this innocent query, putting in a yahoo address as a contact:

Hello,

I had a quick question about the Microsoft Knowledge Base. Could you please tell me why the "Interview Me" option to finding a solution was taken offline? I found this tool to be an excellent one and was disappointed when it didn't show up again in the redesign.

Thanks for your time!

Damn, but I'm practically drooling over them. I nearly sound like a MCSE. Sheesh. Must keep self-esteem and remind self that this is all in the name of a scientific experiment. Kinda like James Bond sleeping with the enemy. Ah well.

So we'll see how fast we get a response to this. I'm not quite ready to call them yet; it *is* long-distance, and I *do* have better things to do than spend hours on the phone arguing with Microsoft... I think... Well, let's not go there. ;)

This speaks for itself, really. I just sent it to MS through their "Contact Us" form available here.

Salutations;

On January 1, 2002, at approximately 10:00 PM EST, I sent you a request through this comment system and was told by the next webpage I came to that I would have a response within 24 hours. It has now been approximately 40 hours, and I have received no response. I am assuming that my request did not get through for some reason. Included below is the complete text of my original request:

---

Salutations;

I am a user of Microsoft products, Windows and Office among others. I follow various pieces of Microsoft press with interest and intrigue, and I recently read Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates' interview with C|Net.

Referencing the section of Mr. Gates' comments referring to open source software:

"I don't know that anyone has ever asked for the source code for Word. If they did, we would give it to them."

Taking Mr. Gates' comment at face value, I hereby request a copy of the source code for Word. I would be fascinated to learn from such a program. It has long been an ambition of mine to see exactly what goes into the Office suite's programs.

I am completely serious in this query, and would appreciate a reply in the same vein.

Thank you,

(My real name)

---

Thank you for your time and attention to this request.

I'm trying to decide if this is worth a long-distance call to MS's headquarters. We'll try email a bit longer first, hmm? :)

Hiyas everyone,

I'll do a quick recap here. This was spawned from the discussion The Tech Interviews Of Yesteryear. I went to the interview link, I read Bill Gates' interview. Upon the reading of a certain quote, an idea popped into my smartass head, and this was that quote:

I don't know that anyone has ever asked for the source code for Word. If they did, we would give it to them.

Well, off I went to MS's "Contact Us" section, and fired off this email:

Salutations;

I am a user of Microsoft products, Windows and Office among others. I follow various pieces of Microsoft press with interest and intrigue, and I recently read Chairman and Chief Software Architect Bill Gates' interview with C|Net.

Referencing the section of Mr. Gates' comments referring to open source software:

"I don't know that anyone has ever asked for the source code for Word. If they did, we would give it to them."

Taking Mr. Gates' comment at face value, I hereby request a copy of the source code for Word. I would be fascinated to learn from such a program. It has long been an ambition of mine to see exactly what goes into the Office suite's programs.

I am completely serious in this query, and would appreciate a reply in the same vein.

Thank you,

(My real name)

Cool, huh? And did I mention that I posted a comment on Slashdot to that effect? And did I also mention that I appear to have several followers interested in how the saga turns out by now?

Well... After reading on their submission page that they would get back to me within twenty-four hours, they haven't. So tomorrow, I either call them or email them again.

I will be updating daily in this journal until I get some kind of satisfactory response out of them. For reference, my email is "sysadmin at mordac dot info", and feel free to post comments here or simply email me.

This should be fun. :)