Microsoft will suspend software development for a month to scour its vast, bloated reams of code in search of bugs, according to a brief item by Government Computer News.

This startling development was announced by MS privacy chief Richard Purcell during a conference in Washington on Friday.

Chairman Gates "is really annoyed by the incredible pain we put everyone through in computing," Purcell is quoted as saying.

It does seem odd that His Billness would make a frank admission of guilt for all the rotten things that have happened to users of Microsoft products. We can imagine him 'confessing' with an air of sadistic mockery during some matey boozefest with the Redmond brass; but it's rather hard to picture him putting an arm around Purcell's shoulder and saying softly, "Now Rick, I want you to go out there and make sure everyone knows how humbly contrite I am over the Hell we've needlessly put our customers through."

We reckon Purcell must have misinterpreted the Chairman. Either that, or he'd recently lined up a new job and figured to go out in a memorable blaze of honesty. ®