HLL%SLACVM.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu (11/07/85)
Date: 6 November 1985, 08:28:17 PST
From: HLL at SLACVM
To: INFO-IBMPC at USC-ISIB.ARPA
An article in the PC Week of 5 November 1985 (p. 8) relates some
dangers of Lotus' 123 release 2. Apparently as part of their copy
protection scheme, Lotus remapped interrupt 12, but did not clean up
their act when finished. The result is that trying to run other
programs after 123 can cause some unpleasant side effects. The precise
behavior depends upon details of the following program, but the
following possibilities are mentioned:
(1) The screen scrolls like crazy.
(2) The machine reboots.
(3) Parts of the disk are overwritten.
(4) The hard disk is formatted.
The bug appears in disks shipped before mid October. Lotus in their
great generosity offers to replace the disks for those people who have
called to complain about the problem. Apparently, they do not seem
very concerned about those people who have not yet been burned.
Who needs this kind of software?