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The first issue is the seemingly sincere attempts at answering questions that are obviously irrelevant. IMO cypherpunks are not "Mr. Answer Man" for every question someone has regarding computers or electrical engineering. Sure, most of us are pretty capable of answering these questions - that doesn't mean that we should.
At most, they might be privately directed to the appropriate URL or other reference. Some take the time to answer such questions by providing an exercise which should lead the individual to the answer. Chances are, though, that they're perfectly aware of Schneir's book and numerous other FAQ's of relevance. That means most likely we're dealing with laziness - which does not deserve a response
Whenever I asked a silly question at home, my dad used to tell me - "look it up". The process of finding the answer was actually far more important than the answer itself. We should attempt to ignore these kinds of questions. Maybe eventually they will go away.
I believe that's called "learning." Unfortunately, far too many people engage in what I call "willful ignroance." I'm not an engineer. I'm not a mathmetician. I don't fully understand everything I've read here. If I'm interested, however, I look further and read up on the subject so I can make informed queries if needed. Some seem to think that this list is cruel to newcomers by posting sarcastic responses to newbie inquiries. This list assumes some amount of prior knowledge on the part of it's members. It is not the place for "what does PGP stand for?" questions.
My other "peeve of the day" is the wonderful introduction of the "mee too" postings to cypherpunks.
me too. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMgJSYab3EfJTqNC9AQHXqwP/YUx5mtuDZTV4G6T//DsOZHtWqKo19+sN mUEWKFa0DkErukEXnNIhSXgQjtkknp/AJEP2UQ04JE5cIoVB8ti2tpeB+qLFJUvi pd149EYzQC+da0l0rSDWARtciWv642ZX5fdrCn7388tpxnCsTlnSLziaQVM7E9+S ZZ2etwMCQd8= =796N -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Omegaman <omega@bigeasy.com> PGP Key fingerprint = 6D 31 C3 00 77 8C D1 C2 59 0A 01 E3 AF 81 94 63 send a message with the text "get key" in the "Subject:" field to get a copy of my public key. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------