Tempering

["P. Law" <spamalot666@gmail.com>]

To whom it may concern:

Your webpage " http://debian.org/News/2009/20090523 " states:

"The Debian Project wishes to announce the change of the GNU Privacy 
Guard key used to digitally sign its archive reference files. Signatures 
are used to ensure that packages installed by users are the very same 
originally distributed by Debian, and have not been exchanged or 
tempered [SIC} with."


From Wikipedia, it says,

"Tempering is a heat treatment technique for metals, alloys and glass. 
In steels, tempering is done to "toughen" the metal by transforming 
brittle martensite into bainite or a combination of ferrite and 
cementite. Precipitation hardening alloys, like many grades of aluminum 
and superalloys, are tempered to precipitate intermetallic particles 
which strengthen the metal. Tempering is accomplished by a controlled 
reheating of the work piece to a temperature below its lower critical 
temperature."


The word you were looking for is "tampering." From the website,
" thefreedictionary.com ", the definition of "tamper" is:

"1.  To interfere in a harmful manner: tried to tamper with the 
decedent's will; tampering with the timing mechanism of the safe.
2. To tinker with rashly or foolishly: Don't tamper with my feelings.
3. To engage in improper or secret dealings, as in an effort to 
influence: tamper with a jury. See Synonyms at interfere.
v.tr. To alter improperly."


Sincerely,


P. Law