Microsoft code release leaves demanding terms out in the open

When Microsoft chairman Bill Gates made his historic code-sharing deal with the mainland on Friday, staffers were quick to fire off a press release to announce the fact.

A little too quick, perhaps. They forgot to remove the editing marks from their Word document. So the agreement, apparently signed at the tasty-sounding Sate Development & Planning Commission (SDPC), had various corrections, deletions and additions hidden waiting, like Easter Eggs, to be discovered.

In the final release, the director of the China Information Technology Security Certification Centre, Wu Shizhong, was quoted praising Microsoft's Government Security Programme, which gives China controlled access to Windows' source code. 'Microsoft has taken a great step forward to let us understand its product security,' Dr Wu said.

The original quote read: 'Microsoft has taken a great step forward to meet our demand for information technology security.'

So was Microsoft helping out a befuddled China or was it made an offer it couldn't refuse? One can only wonder which quote was more accurate.

Economist Brad DeLong wanted to know how Google became profitable, so he went to a talk by Google founder Larry Page. Mr Page's explanation makes as much sense as anyone else's: