Josh Michael Sled wrote: ...
The idea of the Chinese Lottery seemed to be rather far fetched in my first few readings, but then I came across the discussion of the new Emergency Broadcast System.
This may just be an unfair helping of paranoia, but the system seems to be a perfect distribution system for a Chinese Lottery-like keychecking or cracking system. Even though the public can turn off the broadcast, the signal will still be sent. The chips may even be government-regulated... available only from the government so no one can tamper with the signal and use this system for their own information-disemination needs (*ahem* Political agendas *ahem* re-election ads). They might even encrypt the signals, for a touch of irony. Anyone find fault in this?
Josh, I'm sending this note to you privately--please don't comment anymore in public on this! You could be undermining national insecurity by revealing this system! More than just key-crackers are included in the Emergency Broadcast System boxes. In addition, the red LED acts just as the LEDs on cable set-top boxes act, namely, as an infrared sensor. These LEDs can count the numbers of citizen-units in the same room as the unit, and can of course even detect the thermal signature of drug abuser (flushed skin, dilated eyes, etc.). The key-cracking functions are only incidental. In fact, they may not even be cost-effective. I was told last year by the NSA's A.U.N.T.I.E. (Authorization Unit for Non-Terminal Industrial Enterprises) group that the real key-cracking crunch is contained in the *Clipper* phones, which of course have crypto modules and can do all the right calculations. They can also occasionally dial the Clipper phone ("Sorry, wrong number.") and check on the progress of calculations. Mysterious phone calls in the middle of the night should rightly worry folks--it may mean your number's up. But don't discuss this on the list! If you do, she'll have us killed. (And don't call her Dotty!) --Klaus! von Future Prime, being channelled by Carol Moore^H^H^H^H^HAnne Braddock