Perry writes:
Perry is again narrowly defining allowable speech on Cypherpunks. Encryption becomes a trivial topic if its best medium is taken by the States. Perry is still in his "only encryption algorithms in C is a proper topic for Cypherpunks" mode.
No, I don't think that, Mr. Jeffers, but I must admit that my opinion is that random political crap (NOT careful announcements by the likes of jya@pipeline.com of reprints of articles on the new FBI wiretap garbage) doesn't belong.
Well, Perry, my opinion is that there is far too much noise on this list as it is. I have already seen my words drowned out by bellyaching over next to nothing. As one of the many non-Americans on this list, I find US policy and politics simply _amusing_, but certainly not in the least bit relevant to nearly anything that I do.
This is a direction that if followed would take the vitality and relevance out of the Cypherpunks list. Perry does a disservice for Cypherpunks.
I'm sorry, but you do a disservice to the cause of freedom. People are trying to get work done to actually get cryptographic systems written, deployed, and popularized, and the sort of crap that fills this place periodically prevents people from working together towards that end. If you want to talk about politics, go to Libernet or some such.
Perry, you put an interesting twist on what the agenda of most people on this list is. It is not "getting cryptographic systems written, deployed, and popularized." It's about getting people to learn how to protect their privacy and to see that their self-interest is served by having privacy. That's much more than "writing code". If you have an insecure machine, a machine on which I can monitor your keystrokes as you enter your pass phrase, what good is strong crypto?? Somewhere between diddly and squat?
Since when did Cypherpunks become the mailing list fit for Perry?
Look, its simple. If you want the FBI and NSA to win, post lots of crap here. Nothing will help them out more than clogging one of the few communications channels available to people interested in spreading cryptography. If you are really successful, all the smart people will leave (as has happened in waves before -- the losses of Steve Bellovin and (effectively) Phil Karn are still felt) and you will have totally destroyed the channel.
What would Perry have us do?? What does he want?? Does he want all of us to order radiation detectors to beef up our random number generators?? Talk about a red herring!! How about this instead Perry? How about if you suggest that everyone make sure that every Network which a machine connects to, and every other trusted Network has removed the username/password combinations, "tech/support", "LAN/admin", and "guest/user". This is easy to do, and is a solid recommendation. Unless the almighty "Perry" would rather that you NOT worry about simple security matters which protect privacy and are within anyone's control.
we must also take the time and trouble to occasionally tell Perry to shove his opinions up his ass.
If you want the anti-crypto people to win, nothing can help nearly so much as your attitude. I'm glad to see what side you are on.
There's lots of things I could think of doing to Perry's ass, and shoving his opinions is but one of them. It was hard enough for me as a Canadian to watch 3 out of 5 Francophones vote to separate from Canada and form their own nation. And to then watch as two leaders from within English Canada -- Preston Manning who runs the Reform Party, and Ralph Klein, who is Premier of Alberta -- breach protocol and insult the peoples of Quebec by discussing, commenting and gloating over the overall election results even before concession speeches by Bouchard and Parizeau. And I groaned later when Parizeau said that the overall vote squeaker was a result of "money and the ethnic vote." Touche. But this is nothing in comparison to listening to some jackass talk out of both sides of his mouth, while he deliberately attempts to steer people away from what the MAJORITY of posters to this list have a strong common conviction about. Securing their systems and their personal privacy. It might be a rag tag bunch with differing political ideologies, but one idea brings all of us together here. Except for one ... jackass. And yep, I'm back after a brief silence. Alice de 'nonymous ... ...just another one of those... P.S. This post is in the public domain. C. S. U. M. O. C. L. U. N. E.