Matt Deatherage on Maynor and Ellch’s Credibility

MacJournals publisher Matt Deatherage is home and recuperating after being hospitalized for congestive heart failure (!). In a weblog entry updating MDJ and MWJ readers about his health (publication is set to resume next week), he offers the following observation regarding Maynor and Ellch’s AirPort claims:

If Maynor and Ellch had demonstrated it or shown code to just one Mac expert who could have verified their claims, they’d rightly be lionized for their work. Instead, they took credit for “hacking a MacBook” at security shows and in the international press while refusing to provide even the barest proof that they’d actually accomplished what they said they had, or at least what they wanted you to believe they’d said. Now that bugs and fixes are in the real world, there’s no way of ever knowing if what they say they found matches those bugs or not — when they had the chance to prove it, they refused. It’s like saying after the fact that you knew the answer to Final Jeopardy — you have to say it before it’s revealed to get credit for knowing it.

Best wishes for a speedy and full recovery, Matt.

★ Friday, 22 September 2006