.RT
Events have forced me to make certain clarifications to my earlier memo.
The following statements are accurate.


I live in college on the campus, and had gone over to Keynes to the
fast food bar to buy a burger for my evening meal; the burger bar
closes at 11pm so I probably arrived there at about a quarter to 11.

I dropped into the terminal room on my way home to check my mail,
and started working on my raster graphics library.
I was using the terminal nearest to the door.
After about five minutes, Mr Hyman came into the room, and sat at the terminal
next to me.  He was not at this point known to me; I had never met him and
was not able to recognise him.  I forget whether Miss Goh entered the room
with him, or arrived very shortly afterwards.  With my back to the entrance
of the terminal room, the only thing which distracted me about his entry
was the expansive manner in which he chose his terminal, removed his coat
and gave the terminal room a running commentary of what he was typing.
He did not crack his knuckles over the keyboard, as I recall, but it would
not have seemed out of place.

``Cluster'', he said, ``NFT091'' and he typed the correct password for the login.
I know it was the correct password because VMS then asked him what type of
terminal he was using.  The pattern formed on the screen by this part of the
VMS login sequence is quite distinctive and by this time he was the
centre of my irked attention and I was wondering who he was.

The lady was present at this point, and feigned surprise.  I doubt whether she
knew the password herself, but this is, of course, speculation based only upon
observation of her reactions.

When another user in the terminal room came over and introduced Brian and me
to each other, Brian went a range of interesting colours, stuffed his scarf
into his mouth and started chewing it.

There are other witnesses to this sequence of events.  The person who was
with me can probably fill in any details which I failed to notice while I was
temporarily distracted by the work I had been doing.
The person sitting the other side of him from me also had a clear view of his screen and his actions.
I am reluctant to name
them, or any other people in the room if it can be avoided, for the simple
reason that any involvement in Mr Hyman's eventful life seems to be quickly
followed by a reduction in the amount of enjoyment one gets out of life, and
brings a great amount of hassle.
Having experienced this, it is not something to which I would wish other
people to be subjected needlessly.

His claims that he did not type the password for login NFT091 on that occasion
are inconsistent with reality.

Contrary to what Mr Hyman must surely by now think, and, it would appear,
to a doubt which may have troubled others connected with this unpleasant
sequence of events, I do not bear Mr Hyman any ill will, was not snooping
on him or on anybody else, and did not lay an elaborate trap for him.
He was just very, very, very unlucky.
I have nothing whatever to gain from persecuting him.  Indeed, knowledge
of his very existence has been rudely thrust upon me.

The only reason I am pursuing this with such vigour now is that I have been
sucked into it at a professional level, and I fear that it is likely to sow
unpleasant doubts about my character in the minds of people who do not
otherwise know me, and with whom it is likely that my work will, at some point,
bring me into contact.

A summary of these events so far as presented by the universe to me could be:

.in +0.5i
.ll -0.5i
``By failing, in my own leisure time, to ignore a flagrant breach of the
University Regulations which I could not have failed to see,  I have brought
disrepute upon myself among those who hold power above me.''
.ll +0.5i
.in -0.5i

Ta.

It would also be nice to be able to believe:

.IP \-
that members of the university staff have rather more faith in their
colleagues than has been manifest recently,

.IP \-
that it is not common for members of the academic staff to pursue and
persecute selected students.  Though I suppose this possibility has to
be allowed for, it might be fair to contact the accused *before* taking
action on the assumption, and

.IP \-
that it is not possible for university discipline to be sidestepped
so easily by creative reconstruction of the truth.

	Martin Guy