Posted in Courtroom, Finance, GNU/Linux, Kernel, Microsoft, SCO, UNIX at 10:25 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“…Microsoft wished to promote SCO and its pending lawsuit against IBM and the Linux operating system. But Microsoft did not want to be seen as attacking IBM or Linux.”
–Larry Goldfarb, Baystar, key investor in SCO
“[Microsoft's] Mr. Emerson and I discussed a variety of investment structures wherein Microsoft would ‘backstop,’ or guarantee in some way, BayStar’s investment…. Microsoft assured me that it would in some way guarantee BayStar’s investment in SCO.”
–Larry Goldfarb, Baystar, key investor in SCO
“On the same day that CA blasted SCO, Open Source evangelist Eric Raymond revealed a leaked email from SCO’s strategic consultant Mike Anderer to their management. The email details how, surprise surprise, Microsoft has arranged virtually all of SCO’s financing, hiding behind intermediaries like Baystar Capital.”
–Bruce Perens
“Microsoft hardly needs an SCO source license. Its license payment to SCO is simply a good-looking way to pass along a bribe…”
–Bruce Perens
THE Linux kernel is one of the most fascinating bits of software out there, perhaps owing to the vast number of contributors who are responsible for creating it. The Linux kernel has spread into many areas of our lives and it is used extensively in embedded devices where its presence goes largely unnoticed. Linux is also ubiquitous in servers and its growing success in that area often came at the expense of other established software companies.
With the growing attraction of Linux comes great fear among its rivals. Contributors and proponents of Linux are motivated by the fact that Linux is Free software. Ownership is warped such that the user truly owns the software, rather than essentially ‘rents’ it by paying for license to use. This makes Linux a very disruptive technology, but success can be attributed to other factors also.
SCO Makes an Appearance
The development methodology of Linux, its cost, and that question of ownership can also be used as an argument against it, especially by fierce opponents whose territory is being encroached upon by this mighty kernel. This has truly been the case ever since SCO chose to take a litigious route to combating Linux.
SCO asserted that Linux developers had stolen SCO’s code. For several years a legal battle persisted which ended up with SCO filing for bankruptcy. After over 4 years, SCO is still unable to prove its claims, which it was never willing back in an upfront fashion.
“It blamed not only Linux but also a newly-earned public image problem for its demise back in September 2007.”In many ways, SCO’s dragging of time contributed to greater fear, uncertainty and doubt. It had some companies hesitant about deployment of Linux in their environment. That, however, did not work in SCO’s favour. There is this unfortunate dilemma to face when one launches a legal assault against its own customers. Many businesses used SCO and Linux at the same time, which led to backlash. SCO learned this the hard way. It blamed not only Linux but also a newly-earned public image problem for its demise back in September 2007. Its presently-departing CEO admitted this in an interview.
To many observers, SCO’s battle against Linux seemed like a bad idea right from the very start, much like the recent investment of $100 million in SCO. This later turned out to be a takeover and we will get to that at the end of the article. It is widely agreed that SCO lost its focus on development due to litigation, which led to decrease in staff and talent. Alienation can be costly and quality of products is harmed accordingly.
The only return on a new investment in SCO might therefore be legal compensation, but launching a case based on poor or imaginary evidence is unlikely to bear fruit. Moreover, after so many years of continued failure to make much progress, the greatest of hopes is that this trial can carry on, yet the outcome seems rather predictable. To SCO, the desired outcome is probably unreachable, but this could be a question of duration, not vocation.
SCO’s Past Funding
Speculations and accusations have been flying about since SCO’s case against Linux had begun. Passionate advocates of Linux sought to discover an involvement by other parties who would benefit from SCO’s actions and affairs. At one stage, Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems made a statement that used SCO’s assault as a way to promote Solaris at the expense of Linux. More conspicuous, however, was Microsoft’s role.
“Among the payments that SCO received there were Sun’s and Microsoft’s payments — for what was thought to be a right to use UNIX.”Several years back it was found that one of the several strategies for combating Linux was to concentrate on its perceived weaknesses. Examples which were found in Microsoft’s Halloween Documents included copyrights and software patents. These documents were intended to discuss ways of defeating the growing threat of Linux — a threat so great that it has been listed among the #1 risks in Microsoft’s SEC filings for almost a decade.
SCO was a struggling software powerhouse even before resorting to lawsuits. The unfortunate reality can still be seen in the SCO UNIX Follies videos, which are available for viewing on YouTube. As the lawsuits went on for years, the high cost of lawyers took its toll and the company required more considerable investments from the outside. Shareholders went elsewhere, indicating that they had too little faith in the company’s future.
Among the payments that SCO received there were Sun’s and Microsoft’s payments — for what was thought to be a right to use UNIX. Only later it turned out that the owner of UNIX is actually Novell, so SCO has a debt now. Nevertheless, therein you have a situation where 3 companies which compete against Linux shared wealth in one way or another and this enabled the lawsuits to linger on and hurt the uptake of Linux.
There were other curious funds that SCO received throughout its lifetime, even when its main role was that of a plaintiff in court. These include an investment from BayStar, a venture capital firm. In a court declaration it emerged that Richard Emerson, a Microsoft employee, was involved in BayStar’s investment in SCO. A BayStar representative later added: “Yes, Microsoft did introduce BayStar to SCO.”
SCO Once Again to Attack Linux
The legal proceedings never ended and they are bound to resume in April. Nevertheless, until last week SCO was seen as a company that would be decommissioned by the end of the year. But then something happened.
Last week, a press release surfaced which surprised many pundits and analysts who had been covering this saga. It seemed to suggest that SCO would continue its legal battle against Linux, having received a very large cash infusion. The odds of seeing returns on these investments seem mere. That sentiment of misunderstanding is echoed almost everywhere you turn.
SCO maintains its image problem and it also carries that aforementioned heavy debt. It owes money to several parties including Novell and it could face followup lawsuits (comeback claiming damages) from victims of its own lawsuits, assuming money remains in its coffers. Why would anyone invest in SCO? More importantly, why now? That remains the key question in many people’s minds. █
Originally published in Datamation in 2008
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Posted in Astrum, Hardware, Microsoft, Novell, Patents at 6:59 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Friction in the boards
According to this message from Wednesday, Compiz suffers from a developers vacuum. People move on to forks of this Novell project, notably Compiz-Fusion. This new comment from LinuxToday is about “Novell’s role” and it asks, “Could devs be moving to a different home because of the Microsoft factor?”
It’s worth remembering that Compiz predates Novell’s patent deal with Microsoft. If there is any substance to the argument above, this would not be the first example where developers are leaving Novell because of the Novell/Microsoft patent deal. This actually leads to a different and older story; Novell betrayed partners like Astrum [1, 2, 3] and they got sued for it too, but what about the relationship with AMD?
There are those who insist that hardware acceleration is an area where Novell contributes a lot, but had it not been Novell, it probably would have been more of Red Hat.
“AMD was close to going through with the canning its Novell contract, which would have effectively spelled the death of RadeonHD.”One known example of contribution is the AMD-Novell relationship. But Novell angered AMD in a major way some time ago , despite the fact that AMD and Novell had enjoyed a good relation, as demonstrated publicly in LinuxWorld 2007. It was quite an affair and several press releases came out at the time (this did not recur in LinuxWorld 2008). AMD and Novell were a good match; both were abused by convicted monopolists.
What few people know is that AMD almost cut Novell off on their RadeonHD contract. AMD was getting especially steamed over RadeonHD avoiding AtomBIOS. The RadeonHD developers were not entirely aware of this at the time, and maybe they still don’t know.
A senior AMD official wrote: “And to think I spent the last four months of my life trying to save their sorry asses. What a fool I was. [...] it was scheduled to be finished 5 weeks ago. [...] I escalated high and hard within Novell’s senior management.” It was the Novell developers who were causing the issues, whereas Novell’s management was not the one trying to knock AMD over AtomBIOS. AMD was paying Novell to write a driver to use AtomBIOS, but Novell continued going forward bashing AtomBIOS and avoiding it. The real reason, simply put, was that AtomBIOS is written horribly, or that’s how Novell viewed it anyway. The developers said it was their intention all along to hard-code it with no AtomBIOS.
AMD was close to going through with the canning its Novell contract, which would have effectively spelled the death of RadeonHD.
Were the specs sufficient for anyone else to take over? Hypothetically speaking, for some parts, yes. But for every document that’s publicly available, there are at least three times as many NDA documents than Novell had. However, if they had canned RadeonHD, it’s reasonable to suspect that they would have steered their resources towards Red Hat as they already do for the -ati driver.
NDAs are used all the time when they release documentation that has yet to be sanitised and for documentation and hardware on unreleased products. The danger with Novell is one that revolves around control. It seems like AMD clings on to control. They don’t want the community to leapfrog its own development.
Those NDAs were part of this arrangement and are in some sense akin to what Microsoft arranged with Novell. Microsoft makes source code visible, but only Novell can use it. This leads to a liability path and there’s also the issue of Linux (or broadly speaking, the Free Desktop) depending on Novell’s existence. In a sense, NDAs, just like RAND and software patents, are inherently incompatible with the spirit and goals of the GNU project.
Another related example of control would be Maemo versus the iPhone. In the former case, Nokia lost control of its direction and its equipment, at least in some sense. DRM and all that antifeature fluff wouldn’t be properly enforced; On the contrary — looking at the latter — Apple uses “security” as a codeword for control. It’s prepared to brick iPhones that leap out of its hands (jail-breaking). █
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Posted in Fraud, Microsoft at 4:06 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
“You’re right. Some of the evangelism practices that I taught and executed at Microsoft in the 1990’s were unethical. I didn’t think so at the time — I thought that they were just hyper-competitive — but I agree now.”
–James Plamondon, former Microsoft 'shills chief'
LAST WEEK we showed solid proof that Microsoft was paying people for what's known as "AstroTurfing". It’s part of the company’s strategy and policy — always has been. The men at the very top — those who are responsible for this — are Marshall Goldberg and James Plamondon.
Some people remember “Steve Barkto”, who was exposed by a newspaper for being a Microsoft agent [1, 2, 3, 4]. Gary M. Stewart may be another such agent, who has posted under literally hundreds of names in mediums that include USENET, Digg, Slashdot, even Netscape/Propeller, where he libeled, embarrassed, threatened, gave fake testimonies, stole identities and — above all — viciously attacked everything and everyone that competes with Microsoft. This has gone on for over a decade, and that’s just one person (there are more).
Among the names that he posted under: Moshe Goldfarb, Sandeep Kumar, Abbie Diaz, achmed.jones, Aftab Singh, Allen Cusimano, Allie Perkins, Allison Juergans, allison_hunt1969, Alicia Hunt, Ana Thema, andyschipowitz, Anna Banger, anonymous, arkady.duntov, Archie, Archie Moss Bunker, Archie Watermann, Attila, Baba Booey, Babcock Johnson, babcock.latreen, Babu Singh, ball.cock.the.plumber, banjo.boy69, Bill Thomson, Billy, bill.gates.loves.me, BingoBongo, bison, Bjarne Jensen, bjornstad8800, BklynBoy, bones4jones, bonobo magilla, Boyce Mabri, BSEE, Bunsen Burner, Buster, c.baumstumpff, CBFalconer, Charles LeGrand, Charlie, Choppers McGee, Chris Thomas, Christine Abernathy, Claire Lynn, Clippy, Clock King, collie4roy, Collie Entragion, Colon Singh, common cold, compton.plaines_kid, Connie Hines, Corrie, corry.lebeu, Corrie Titlaand, Cory Dyvik, Curtis Wilson, cymon.says, Damian O’Leary, Dana Bush, Danny Kwong, dbx_boy, Deadpenguin, Debbie, detective48, Devon Dawson, dismoqualifetch, Donn Carlsbad, donna.bunting_tv, dont.pullout, doris.gets.her.oates, Doug Richardson, Dragon.Boy, Dr.Long John Jones, dy.sector, echo.valley_26809, Elliot Zimmermann, Elwin Winters, Emmanuel Arias, Fawn Lebowitz, flatfish+++, foamy, frank boson, Franz Klammer, Fred Simmons, gabriele howorth, Gary Stewart, GayClod, George Cotton, George Littlefield, Gilbert, Gilbert Goiter, Gilbert Hochaim, gilligan, goldfarb44, gooseborg, Greg Finnigan, Greg Laplante, Hans Kimm, Hans Tomlinson, Harry Hilton, Harvey Fogel, Heather, Heather69, Heather Trax, Heddy Seafield, Heidi van Wong, helmut.ginter, hepcat, high_pain_humper, Hugh Himless, hymen.the.jew, llanalott, Ishmeal Hafizi, itchy balls, Ivan Mctavish, IvanaB, Jason, jeff.smiley, Jeff Szarka, jjwassermann, Joe Josephson, John, John King, John Shelton, John Smith, johnnyscotrun, jolt.n.pizza, Jorge Jorgensen, jorge_shillingford, Jose Lopez, juke_joint, kaptain kaput, Karel Olish, karen.bullfinch, Karen Hill, Karla Snodgress, kathy_krantz, Kaylie Solomon, Kendra, Kenneth Downs, Kenny Dugan, Kent Dorfman, Ken Johnson, Kim Coinop, Kinglen Wang, Kristen, kumba killington, Kurt Janker, Kyle Cadet,  lafferty6, L Didio, Laura Shillingford, Le Farter, Le Yammy, Leaking Onion, Leo Diaz, Les Cramer, Les Turner, Les Walton, Leslie Bassman, Lilly, Lindy, linux.curious, Linux Exposer, linux.freak.detector, Lisa Shavas, Lisa Cottmann, Lois Hunt, Long, long_tong_ling,  luisortizhome, Lukumi Babalu Aye, Luna Lane, Major Mynor, Manny, mark.kent.is.owned, Mario Fermin, McSwain, mista twista,Mogumbo, Moses, Mooshoo Bong Singh, mr.macfeelme,  mycarisfast, narrows_whitefish, nate_mcspook, Navid Shakibapour, oh.bama.da.rack, okto_pussy, opensource.sucks, organ.creep, OSS KDE User, Paddy McCrockett, Paul Wannamaker, Paris Marriot, Patricia, Patrick Landrum, Patty LeGrange, patty pippins, Patty Poppins, percy samson, Peter Gluckman, Peter Kohlmann, peter.traphagen, Phil, Phillip Cornwall, phoung, phoung quoak, pickle_pete, Piss Clam, Polly Ester, Poopy Pants McGee, pus.boy99, pyles69, Quimby, Quinton Magee, Quizno Backer, Ray Schitzmepantz, Reporter, Rich, Richard P. Johnson, Richie, Richie O’Toole, Richie Spano, right.wanger, Robert Strunk, rodolfo.garcia44, rothstein_ivan, Roy_Pestowitz, Roy.Schakemetitz, Roy.Schavedmenutz, Roy.Schavesmewankz, roy.shysterwitz, Roy.Schitzowitz, roys.testicles, roy.the.spam.king, RP Modell, ryebra, Sally Vadi, Sammy, Sammy Whalen, Saul Goldblatt, schavemetitz, Schestertitz, schestowizzle, schestowitz, schitzmepantz, schisterwitz, Schlomo Smykowski, Sharon Cackle, Sharon Hubbasland, Sean, Sean Fitzhenry, Sean Macpherson, Sewer Rat, sewer_clown, Shelly K., Sherlock Holmes, Schlomo Rabinowitz, Simon, Simon Lewis, simply.lisa, Singer, sista sledgehammer, slacker.mcspritze, Spammy_Davis, spanny_davis, Stefan Karstensen, Stephan Simonsen, Stephanie, Stephanie Mannerz, Stephen, Stephen Olsen, Stephen Townshend, stomach.pump, SuckyB, Sue, sue quinterra, sully1999, SunnyB, Susan, Susan Bladder, Susan Lapinski, Susan Wong, Suzi Wong, suzie.linux, Suzie Wong, Swampee, swing.cock, sylvano12tegriorgriach, Ted Bennington, Terri Sorensen, Terry Porter, The Beaver, Thorsten, Thorsten Thigpen, Timmy Luncford , Toby Rastus Roosovelt III, toe.mein, Tomas Bicsak, tomas.bozak, Tomas Dunton, Tomas Lucatorto, Tori, Tori Wassermann, Torre Stanslaand, Trace Dennison, Tracee, Traci, traci.alicock, traci.manicotti, traci.pusey, Traci Spritzendrainer, trailerpark, Trina Swallows, Trolly, Trudi Simpkins, Tryxie Lustern,  udayshankar29, Uday Shankar, victimizedb, victimizedbyms, Vince Fontain, Vladimir Yepifano, Walter Bubniak, Wang Mycock, Wasser, Waterskidoo, wendy, Wendy Duzz, Wendy Toiletwater, Whizzer, Wilbur J, willy watkins jr, Willy Wong, wiltons_pypes, Winnie Septos, wizard.shot, wm_walsh, Wobbles, wylbur.horseman, Yanick Schmuley and zyklon_C.
That’s just a sample, a fraction of the names that he has used (about 200, among many more). Gary was mass-mailing my colleagues and bosses. He did the same to other people whom he tried to get in trouble, or get fired. That’s because they advocated GNU/Linux. Gary also posted inflammatory and libelous stuff, sometimes ‘on behalf’ (forging) of posters whom he was discrediting. The severity of this is very high. The allegations, once tied to Microsoft, would have enormous consequences because the number of victims of high and the damages high too.
The identity of Gary was exposed several years ago back when one of his victims, “mjcr”, found out his identity and posted:
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He mainly focuses on /comp.os.linux.advocacy/ but he regularly (cross-)posts
to other groups, & to non-computer related groups.
Gary Stewart on c-24-60-155-178.hsd1.ma.comcast.net
This was investigated & tied this very same address to the "linux-sux troll.
This address is a cable user in Mass.
Apparently Gary Stewart IS the linux-sux troll as well as being the flatfish
troll.
He lives at one of these addresses:
93 Thayer St, Millville, MA
30 Chickatawbut St, Dorchester, MA
229 N Brookfield Rd, Barre, MA
[...]
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That was years ago, so it’s possible that the address/es have changed. As for the name, this was confirmed last year, again. He accidentally had his Windows username, “Garys” (as in C:\Documents and Settings\Garys), displayed to the public. It’s a case of sloppiness. He posted under the name “Polly Ester” (like polyester) in MSG-ID 46fd58dd$0$26405$88260bb3@free.teranews.com
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From: "Ms. Polly Ester" <pes...@gmail.net>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
References: <46fd2a49$0$26379$88260...@free.teranews.com><ii00t4-98l....@dragon.myth>
Subject: Re: Linux users and COLA posters blatantly break the law
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:32:21 -0400
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NNTP-Posting-Date: 28 Sep 2007 19:41:17 GMT
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"Jim Richardson" <warl...@eskimo.com> wrote in message
news:ii00t4-98l.ln1@dragon.myth...
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> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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> On Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:13:36 -0400,
> Ms. Polly Ester <pes...@gmail.net> wrote:
>> Here we see that two of the major scumbags on COLA are sharing one
>> internet connection between them. Yet the terms-of-service (TOS)
>> forbids this sort of thing.
>> http://www.demon.net/helpdesk/producthelp/aup/thusfup/
>> Why is it that both Mark Kent and Roy Schestowitz are posting from
>> the same internet connection? Doesn't the lowly community college
>> that Roy goes to have internet access yet? If so, why isn't he
>> using that instead of breaking the law?
>>http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.advocacy/msg/256384be674...
>>http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.advocacy/msg/ebbd4b4b2ba...
> That's because they are both posting from demon.co.uk you pillock.
No. It's because they are both posting from the same machine at
ellandroad.co.uk
The IP address for the news server (news.demon.co.uk) is:
C:\Documents and Settings\Garys>tracert news.demon.co.uk
Tracing route to news.news.demon.net [158.152.254.254]
> Honestly, some of the trolls we get around here are really dumb.
The lintards are even dumber.
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Keeping his name secret is a lost cause to him (and it’s not enough anymore). Moments ago he also let it be known that he is paid for it, assuming he is not lying on purpose, but why would he?
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###### Begin Original Message ######
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From: "Gary M. Stewart" <gmstewart1953@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
Subject: Re: Another user loves Ubuntu
Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 21:01:48 -0500
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On Thu, 1 Jan 2009 20:58:05 -0500, Don Zeigler wrote:
> Gary M. Stewart wrote:
>
>> "How Windows Ruined My Life"
>>
>> By "Fairy Tale"
>
> How I Wasted My Life Trolling COLA
>
> by Gary Stewart, aka flatfish and about 600 other nyms
It's made me A LOT of money....
A Best Seller you might say......
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“It’s made me A LOT of money,” he says. Well, this is just the beginning of what could soon develop. Does he, like James Plamondon, spill the beans on Microsoft? █
Update (03/02/2009): I was sent more details about this person. Here is the message that I posted:
Hey Gary,
How are you feeling? Okay?
How’s that flatfish?
Remember Merril Lynch and Smith Barney?
Many of you worked on those accounts.
You would often, like every day, get take out chicken from a truck which parked in front of Smith Barney and devour it. The chicken, not the truck! The truck was filthy and several people ended up getting very sick, never to eat there again, but it didn’t seem to affect you at all. Your buddies used to joke that a germ wouldn’t stand a chance in your fat body.
How do I know? Someone told me.
“Seeing that you are still alive,” he said “it seems we were better at predicting the future than we thought. Gary was always one of those types of people where the lightning bolts would strike all around him, destroy everyone else but never singe him.”
Sounds like a perfect recollection. Right, Gary?
Let’s get more personal.
——–
I Thought you might like to know a little about your uber troll Gary Stewart. I used to work with him as a consultant to IBM back in the late seventies and at that time he was one nasty person who would do anything to get ahead in the company we worked for including selling his co-workers down the river when he could get away with it. The company was really a sub-company of IBM but we were billing IBM even though we effectively worked for IBM. Ultimately IBM spun the company off as TSS (Technology Systems Services) and let most of us go. I went to work for one of IBM’s clients where I still work to this day although retirement is looming assuming I don’t get fired due to the awful economy.
Gary ended up going to work for Amdahl in the early eighties and finally was fired from that company under a cloud of suspicion. It seems that computer telcom equipment was disappearing from the customer shipping inventory and somehow being directed to fake address he had set up. It was rumored that he was at the time running some kind of online dating service with a BBS of some sorts. I was never able to confirm this however I heard that Amdahl asked him to leave quietly and they would not prosecute him. I don’t know for sure what he did though but the above is what we heard from the grape vine.
I lost track of Gary up until last year when I ran into a mutual colleague at a convention and we started telling war stories and Gary’s name came up. As it turns out, his parents left him a small fortune in real estate consisting of several run down tenements in NYC as well as Camden N.J. which he rents out to social services recipients for whatever the going rate is. He has them managed by property agents, does only the minimum repairs on them and sits back and watches the money roll in. From what I have been told he has become very wealthy because of his real estate business. He was married at one time and had 4 children which based on his approximate age are all grown up by now.
Gary would be approaching 60 years old or so from what I know. My former colleague heard that his wife left him due to his clandestine anonymous homosexual encounters as a cross dresser. We all knew that he liked to swing both ways and back then it was pre-AIDS so random encounters like that were not life threatening like they are now. He showed up at a Halloween party once dressed as Jane Mansfield complete with fake breasts. He looked like a complete fool because he is a big man towering tall at 6 feet 4 at least and quite overweight. At some point during the party one of his fake breasts broke and the water sprayed all over him. We didn’t know if we should laugh or cry but the company had a policy of not gossiping about what went on a parties so it was forgotten at least at work.
Last my colleague heard, Gary was living somewhere in Massachusetts near Hyannis Port but I took a look online and don’t see him listed in the phone directory for that area. Honestly I am surprised he is still alive because he was always in very bad health due to his obesity. Gary weighed in at 300 lbs easily when I last saw him. I’m a poor judge of weight and age but he barely fit through the elevator doors that’s how large he was. That is all I know about Gary Stewart except what I have read on Google which is where I saw your name as well. You may or may not know all this information already but I just thought you might not realize that he is a very sick individual.
Respectfully,
Anonymous
——–
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No, thank you.
Update #2 (09/02/2009): the message above (in the update) was fake and sent by Gary and his friends as bait to muddy the well.
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