At 01:54 AM 1/6/98 -0800, Tim May wrote:
At 12:51 AM -0800 1/6/98, Wei Dai wrote:
I don't understand why there is so much talk about guns here lately.
Wei, Tim's response, though correct, is too serious. The real reason, I am inferring as I was not the initiator, was humor. This list tolerates a fair amount of crap, including spam and random ad-hominems. This is a result of the openness required to permit anonymous posts as has been explained in the last month or so. I have considered this 1. an occasional demonstration of crypto issues, esp. anonymity and authentication 2. just typical net.abuse. (There is also some oddness going on apparently between Vulis and others on this list, which Vulis didn't deny was spoofed when I asked. I don't know why, as V. seems to be libertarian, if homophobic.) There are also various humorous threads and banter that occurs. The gun-troll was part of that. Of course, it was a respectable question and answered well, although TM's answer tended towards the expensive, but Intel has done well. Both the question itself on this list, and the dryness of the answers, were amusing. The body-armor question is humorous also, esp. following the gun side-thread. Of course, your milage may vary. ------------------------------------------------------------ David Honig Orbit Technology honig@otc.net Intaanetto Jigyoubu "How do you know you are not being deceived?" ---A Compendium of Analytic TradeCraft Notes, Directorate of Intelligence, CIA