<<this post was written by me and two other people who have been watching cohen's career for the last few years. i'n sorry for the spelling mistakes and typos.>> dr frederick b. cohen's frequent rants in which he expresses nothing but contempt for everyone else in the security and crypt business have to be understood in their context: he's trying to sell something. what's he selling? who's he trying to sell it to? there are several answers. all are partly true and taken together explain his posts pretty well. directly, he's trying to get us to buy his products, services, and books, or at least recommend them to others. it is obvious how setting himself up as the only one who recognizes these serious flaws would enhance his consulting business. he doesn't care about netscape or pgp. he cares about his wallet. indirectly, he's testing out halfbaked ideas here to better learn how to refute those who see through their weaknesses so that he'll be better prepared when he spews in more "serious" forums. this is a low risk place, as far as he's concerned, to make a fool of himself. socially, he's selling the idea of his own academic respectability. notice how he reminds us he's "dr." (look at me! i have a doctorate!!!) cohen. the truth is he never managed to get the respect of the mainstream academic and research worlds. he's been reduced to playing the role of victim-soothsayer. we'll all regret not listening to him back when we had the chance, one of these days. look at the reaction to his "seminal work" on viruses for a great example of how the real research world yawns at him to understand why this is so important to him. he feels cheated out of the respect he deserves. (he's willing not to care about his wallet to the extent that he gets this) psychologically, he's selling the idea that he's respectable to himself. ultimately it doesn't matter that most of us see right through him as long as he gets enough people listening to him to feed his very delicate ego. he needs us (someone, anyone, even us cypherpunks if that's what it takes) to love him and take him seriously. it's very sad. let's just ignore him. he'll find somewhere else to play (he always does). --****ATTENTION****--****ATTENTION****--****ATTENTION****--***ATTENTION*** Your e-mail reply to this message WILL be *automatically* ANONYMIZED. Please, report inappropriate use to abuse@anon.penet.fi For information (incl. non-anon reply) write to help@anon.penet.fi If you have any problems, address them to admin@anon.penet.fi