On Thu, 2 May 1996, Mike McNally wrote:
Rabid Wombat wrote:
If I send snail, there are "rules" governing who can open the envelope. If I'm suspected of criminal activity, the community has recourse.
If you don't encrypt or otherwise secure sensitive surface mail the same way you would e-mail, you deserve what you get. The community, of course, is in the same state with secure snail-mail case as it is with PGP-encrypted e-mail.
Yes, I CAN encrypt. The point being discussed is whether society should allow me to do so, and if I have the RIGHT to do so. Classic freedom of individual vs. rights of society. Plato, Aristotle, Montesquieu, etc. etc. Can't swing a dead marsupial without hittin' a philosopher on 'punks these days.
Which reminds me of something I've been meaning to ask about. I read (probably in WiReD) about a bar-code-like (well, not *much* like, but ink-on-paper similar) technique for rendering data onto paper with enhanced properties of storage efficiency, resistance to degradation through photocopying, and ease of recovery via ordinary scanning. The stuff looks like bunches of little lines at different angles, I think. Anyway, what I'm curious about is whether encode/decode (i.e., print and scan) software is available.
Ah, the modern day version of the Rosetta Stone, unearthed in post-nuclear holocaust Peoria ...
______c_____________________________________________________________________ Mike M Nally * Tiv^H^H^H IBM * Austin TX * pain is inevitable m5@tivoli.com * m101@io.com * <URL:http://www.io.com/~m101> * suffering is optional