Not sure what happened in my previous post. The "error" in the code isn't in the Word text I pasted???

Repeat post, since this thread is bloated enough a few more words won't matter(?)

A somewhat disturbing subject I've seen popping up recently is a push for "secure hard drive" technology. Although only vaguely described, it appears that you could have a hard drive that is entirely encrypted with strict read, copy, write, etc controls enforced by "secure" (read encrypted) programs that will be a core part of your new PC. There is an "official" organization to advance development of this technology. Microsoft, and all major hard drive makers are participants.

It reportedly will be an integral part of the next new Windows version, called "Vista" which is due out in 1999 (according to first reports) and is now expected to be offered "sometime," but seems likely to appear during the current year.

It appears that the encrypted drive technology would remain "optional," but it has been suggested that an OEM builder could provide all the software purchased with a new computer on a "secure drive" with very tight control over what one could do with respect to copying, moving, and/or replacing the programs supplied. The tech reporters indicate that when they ask the "industry experts" about this, they get no reply, but that the experts "just smile."

Vague and incomplete reports are that all Microsoft work on this technology, until quite recently when they created a new group for it, was done in their "Digital Rights Management" development organization. I find the association of security methods with DRM methods disturbing.

The "good news" about Vista is that it appears to require machine resources not available on most existing computers, so there will be few upgrades. The only way to get it may be to buy it preinstalled on a new OEM machine, for most people.

Ongoing work on DRM for DVDs, and potentially for audio CDs, will require a hardware decryption chip installed in the playback device. According to the most recent reports, the manufacturer(s?) of the required chips currently have no plans to make the chip available to anyone except OEM builders, and makers of add-on display/multimedia cards have thus far been "stone-walled" with respect to whether the chip will even be available to them. It appears, at least for now, that building your own computer incorporating the decoding chip, or adding it as an upgrade to an existing computer will not be possible. Vague reports suggest that an "analog quality" playback of protected DVDs may be possible without the chip, but hardware decryption will be required for "digital playback." The existence of even that option is unconfirmed.

Expect an advertising blitz soon, telling us why it's good for us.

John