Todd Graham Lewis wrote:
>From comp.security.firewalls Fri Sep 12 06:41:18 1997
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From: Todd Graham Lewis 
Newsgroups: comp.security.firewalls
Subject: Re: NT vs. UNIX firewall
Date: Tue, 9 Sep 1997 21:55:55 -0400
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
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On Tue, 9 Sep 1997, Andrew Hart wrote:

> So someone tell me.  Whats the benefit of choosing a firewall that sits
> under NT as opposed to UNIX.  Most firewalls are controlled by a GUI, so
> who cares what the operating system is.  

Sigh.  Apparently you don't keep up with the trade literature on the topic,
so let me clue you in.

Have you ever wondered why Microsoft is located in _Redmond, Washington_?
What the heck else is in Redmond, at least that is not Microsoft-related
or predates Microsoft's establishment there?  Nothing!  There aren't any
other computer companies in Redmond, no big customers, there are other
places to do business which are more corporate-friendly than Washington.
Why did Microsoft not locate, say, in the Bay area, or Boston?

The answer is that Redmond, Washington is the one remaining source for
pixie dust left on the planet.  Back in the Middle Ages, there were
several veins of pixie dust in Europe, mostly in Spain (which is why
they all wore those funny jock-strap-looking things on their groins),
but they were all exhausted by the mid 16th century.

In the mid 70s, Paul Allen and Bill Gates were traipsing around a cow
patch in Redmond looking for 'shrooms when Bill started tripping out.
Allen just assumed that he had found some killer 'shrooms, but when he
went over he immediately recognized the material seeping from the ground
as pixie dust.  (Apparently Allen was an amateur medieval historian.)
Gates borrowed $5k from his Mom and bought that cow field (known
historically as "CPM", for "Cows Produce Manure", an abbreviation
much used on signs around the Redmond area.)

Ever since, the field of computer science has been left in the dust
by the new field of _computer alchemy_, one on which Gates and his
minions have a complete and iron-clad grasp due to their monopolistic
control of the only known pixie-dust mine on the planet.

This is why Microsoft's release schedule is so erratic.  Sure, they've
got the magic dust, but a little labor unrest in Indonesia goes a long
way when you've got a $40 billion company riding on some tail of newt.

> Surely it is about the features that the firewall offers.
> 
> Or am I missing something?

DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?  THEY'VE GOT THE MAGIC PIXIE DUST!!!

The puny incantations from the Book of Knuth, the instruction of Abelson
and Sussman, even the wizardry of McCarthy are NOTHING COMPARED TO THE
MAGIC PIXIE DUST!  Mere algorithms and clean design, all are meaningless.
This is why no user interface, no matter how carefully designed, can
ever approach the ease of use of the Windows interface.  It's not the
interface, IT'S THE PIXIE DUST!

Rumour has it that Allen found a second vein of dust in, of all places,
Silicon Valley, where he has set up a second company, Transmeta, to mine
it.  Let us pray that this is true, for only pixie dust can conquer
pixie dust.  Until then, get on your knees every night and pray that
Bill, in all his munificient glory, shall continue to rain the fruits
of his all-powerful magic on the rest of us to the end of our puny,
pixie-dust-less days.

All wierd coders, hand in hand,
Coders of the sea and land,
Thus do go about, about:
Thrice to thine and thrice to mine,
And thrice again, to make up THE MAGIC PIXIE DUST!!!

-- 
Todd Graham Lewis       Manager of Web Engineering    MindSpring Enterprises
(800) 719-4664, x2804             Linux!               tlewis@mindspring.net