"Dr. Evil" wrote:
I don't understand why one would pay $1000 for a Starium device when comparable devices are available in the market place for less than half
Do you have any references for those? ...
of that. The design goal for the new Starium boxes was sub-$100 retail. I doubt that design goal was met, but I would not pay a penny over $350 for one device. Which will still leave the seller with a nice profit.
Declan reported on 1999/08/12 that Starium planned to sell them "by early 2000" for under US$100. (http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,21236,00.html) A Google search on "telephone encryption" yields: http://www.tccsecure.com/csd4100.htm - no price http://www.thespystore.com/telefax.htm - $249 http://shop.store.yahoo.com/spytechagency/telscram.html - $260 http://www.tscm.com/stu.html - several models, over US$5000 And others in the over-US$1000 range. Few details on the devices, though some of them mention an algorithm. (Including one which claimed 128-bit triple-DES. I'm not sure what to make of that.) There were several other statements on some pages which may have indicated either security holes or cluelessness on the part of the writer, but more likely indicate cluelessness on my part. -- Steve Furlong Computer Condottiere Have GNU, Will Travel 617-670-3793 "Good people do not need laws to tell them to act responsibly while bad people will find a way around the laws." -- Plato