He also posts the message to the Canopus forum of CompuServe with a note asking people to run Dr. Nicely's test and report results back to Smith. This is the first public disclosure of the flaw. Alex Wolfe, a reporter for Electronic Engineering Times , sees Smith's post on Canopus and starts research for a story. He forwards Dr. Nicely's message to several people, including Terje Mathisen of Norsk Hydro in Norway. Within 24 hours, hundreds of technical people all over the world know about the Pentium flaw.
All hell breaks loose on the newsgroup.
This is only the first print article about the flaw, but by this time there are hundreds of postings about it in CompuServe forums and Internet newsgroups. All research results are posted in public on the Net for the world to criticize and contribute to. By this time, a furor has erupted on the Net. Intel still claims there is no problem. Steve Smith of Intel says the Pentium processor's problem is minor.