Microsoft's Mr. Hintze said that the company removed the code after being contacted by Mr. Mayer, and that Microsoft is still trying to figure out why the code was created.
They capture samples via honey pots and customer reports, un-package them, reverse engineer the executables so they can see the source code, and try to figure out what the malware is doing.
Woodland, a Manhattan Project scientist, came up with the idea for bar codes while running his fingers through the sand, trying to figure out how to put a unique code on every item of merchandise that could be easily scanned by a mechanical device.
Whether he was right or wrong, he was demonstrating an impulse that is embedded into the DNA code of almost every political player and observer I know: the desire to figure out what other campaign year the current one is like.