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September 2004, Week 3

HP3000-L@RAVEN.UTC.EDU

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Subject:
From:
Larry Barnes <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Larry Barnes <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Tue, 21 Sep 2004 07:24:07 -0700
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This says it all:

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/benson/ 

-----Original Message-----
From: Jim Mc Coy [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Monday, September 20, 2004 10:59 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Rathergate, the conclusion?

It ain't over yet...

It is now known that CBS was coordinating the show with the Kerry
campaign

http://usatoday.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=USATO
DAY.com+-+CBS+arranged+for+meeting+with+Lockhart&expire=&urlID=11703685&
fb=Y&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.usatoday.com%2Fnews%2Fpoliticselections%2Fnati
on%2Fpresident%2F2004-09-20-cbs-documents_x.htm&partnerID=1660


jm


----- Original Message -----
From: "Denys Beauchemin" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2004 12:29 PM
Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Rathergate, the conclusion?


> I find it interesting to see otherwise highly intelligent and well 
> educated people stubbornly cling to one flimsy premise when presented 
> with a conundrum.  I think it is the foundation for the saying: "can't

> see the forest for the trees."
>
> Wirt's assertion is that since the lines on the memos are wavy, they 
> could not come from an "electronic type-setting mechanism" such as a 
> laser or inkjet printer, I presume.  These memos HAD to have been 
> produced by a "mechanical typewriter."  Irrespective of the 
> overwhelming mountain of evidence showing that these memos had to come

> from an MS Word driven device, that the content was not proper for the

> Air Force and that the secretary of the time said they were bogus, as 
> long as the lines of text are wavy, they could only have come from a 
> mechanical typewriter.
>
> A corollary to the statement would be why did the incredibly detailed 
> web page not even address this issue of wavy lines?  The answer is 
> simple, it is not an issue.  Let me explain.
>
> The typewriter I had at home in the late sixties and early seventies 
> was an Olivetti machine.  I have absolutely no idea what model it was.

> It was gray and had lots of keys.  It had the fonts for the letters at

> the end of long stems.  I am sure there are proper names for all these

> parts; I have no idea what they are.  It was a sleek machine, but it 
> was all manual.  There was absolutely now power assist here.  :-)
>
> When I typed a text on the Olivetti, two things stood out when I 
> looked at the completed product.  The first one was the appearance of 
> some waves in the lines of text.  Closer examination of this 
> phenomenon revealed that in fact these were not waves intrinsically 
> built into the lines, but rather that some letters always typed at a 
> position slightly above or below the others.  You see, if the stems 
> with the characters were just a smidgen longer or shorter than they 
> should be, the printed character would be a little higher or lower.  
> When viewed from above, it was interesting to see the arrangements of 
> these stems.  Only the middle one was straight, all the others would 
> have a bend to them, more pronounced the further away from the middle
they found themselves.
>
> So, the characteristic of a mechanical typewriter would be to have 
> specific letters out of step with the remainder and to varying
degrees.
> In other words, if the letter 'h' typed lower than the others, it 
> would ALWAYS be lower than the others.  If the letter 'k' typed a 
> little higher, it would ALWAYS type a little higher.
>
> About the only time you would get a perfectly straight line was when 
> you repeatedly typed the same character, as for example the underscore

> "_", because the carriage itself would not go up and down, producing
waves.
>
> If you look at the fake memos, you can readily see that the "wave" is 
> not repeated for specific characters.  Indeed it seems to affect 
> portions of lines, including the ones above and below.  This is more 
> consistent with someone producing a nice output and crumpling the page

> deliberately, flattening it out and then photocopying it.  Voila, 
> instant old typewriter look.  Unless you look closely.
>
> I am not aware of ANY mechanical typewriter as I have described with 
> proportional fonts and capable of kerning or even pseudo-kerning.
>
> I am aware that electric typewriters with the 'golf ball' head had the

> capability of producing proportional fonts, but certainly not kerning.
> However, one of the great benefits of these 'golf ball' typewriters 
> was they virtually eliminated the wavy text.  The output they produced

> was far superior to what the mechanical ones produced and that was one

> of their main selling features.
>
> Now, by now, you probably think that I forgot to talk about the other 
> characteristic of the output of a mechanical typewriter.  And you 
> would be wrong.  Since the mechanical typewriter depended on human 
> power to strike the letter, some letter would be struck more lightly
than others.
> Therefore the text would have various degrees of character definition,

> so to speak but on a letter basis.  This was more pronounced with 
> touch typists because certain fingers would be weaker than others.  If

> you look at the fake memos, you do not see that at all.
>
> But wait a hunt and peck typist would not produce a document where the

> characters would vary in intensity.  Since only one or perhaps two 
> fingers would be used, the keys would all be struck with approximately

> the same force.  We all know that LtCol Killian hated to type.
> Therefore he must have been the one to type the fake memos, which is 
> why the secretary could state that she didn't type these memos. (Let's

> ignore the fact she called them fake also.)
>
> Fair enough, except that now, we have someone who hates to type, 
> probably because he does not have the skills to do so and maybe even 
> considers the task to be beneath him, (and we all remember how Wirt 
> feels about Colonels, right?) producing perfectly centered and 
> letter-perfect memos.  Wirt has reviewed for us, and has had 
> reinforced by private mail, how one can achieve such a feat with a 
> typewriter.  At that time I responded to Wirt, expressing my veritable

> joy at being able to agree with him that these memos were fake.  I 
> would have paid real money to see a Lieutenant Colonel in the Texas 
> Air National Guard going through all the motions described by Wirt and

> his anonymous correspondent, to PERFECTLY center the heading of a memo

> to a subordinate and putting a fake address in the heading and 
> mistyping his title at the bottom.  All this without a single typo.
>
>
> Denys
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On 
> Behalf Of Wirt Atmar
> Sent: Thursday, September 16, 2004 11:09 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: [HP3000-L] OT: Rathergate, the conclusion?
>
> Denys writes:
>
> > I found this
> >
> >  http://homepage.mac.com/cfj/newcomer/index.htm
> >
> >  Warning, this page falls under the heading "more than you ever 
> > wanted
> to
> >  know about fonts."
>
> That page contains nothing but crap. No computer produced that text. 
> All you need do is look at the baseline of the letters in the images. 
> They vary up and down in the manner that mechanical typewriters
produce text.
> No electronic text-setting mechanism has ever done anything like that.
>
> Wirt Atmar
>
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