<As excerpted from Julf (admin@anon.penet.fi)
Richard Childers writes:
It is the user's job to hide his or her identity, but it should not be the programmer's responsibility to anticipate the user's failure to think at all. Someone who uses these tools without understanding the principles upon which they are founded - such as people whom accept keys from individuals whom are only electronically known - will quickly founder upon their own, um, state of stupor, and one should not undertake to protect them from this, as what you are pro- -tecting them from, in reality, is the opportunity to learn from their mistakes.
As wary as I am of expressing my ignorance, I'll give it a shot... I'm new to the Cypherpunks list and I'm just curious, is it going against the principles of PGP to "accept keys from individuals whom are only electronically known"? (if so, I guess I'm in a state of stupor) Most of my dealings on the internet are internet-exclusive, that is, I never meet the people with whom I communicate. With the exception of some locals, computer social life in FL, USA is pretty non-existant. I wish my communications to be secure and I believe that PGP is the best way and I will never have the opportunity to meet the people I talk to in Kansas or in New York (both places, I hope I never visit). If meat-relations are the only secure way I'm supposed to communicate, then I guess I'll have to use carrier pigeons. :) DISCLAIMER: Of course, I could be taking this TOTALLY out of context, and in that case this message should read: Hey, I really like this list... It's intellectually stimulating and a clearly positive influence on my life. How's the weather in Europe? I'm not trying to be argumentative, I just have serious questions about the keeping of public keys... here's another one... couldn't we assign one at birth... it'd be better than a social security number (dunno what you use in Europe), but a whole lot harder to remember... ALSO: We Mac users are wondering when MacPGP 2.1 will be out? Anyone have any contact info? thanks for reading my words. +-------Matt-Willis--------------------------------+ | Matt Willis ASTMWILL@STETSON.BITNET | elsewhere: | Matt Willis Head of the Underground | mwill@mindvox.phantom.com | Matt Willis Robotech PBM List | +-------Matt-Willis--------------------------------+ "Absolutely alone in awareness of the mechanism." -Agrippa by WG