On 23 Jul 96 at 15:53, Timothy C. May wrote: [..]

A while back I proposed one approach: a brute force "screen saver" for Windows machines. Other platforms, maybe, but the most cost-effective thing to do is to go after the Windows market only.

How about applets for java-aware pagers or tv-sets that will supposedly show up in the near future? When a crack is found, you can call a toll-free number, give them the code, and win a prize (ala Chinese-lottery). Would it be better to have them all try random keys rather than use assigned keyspaces? Can't keysearches be shorted by half (not that it's that significant, 2^55 rather than 2^56) using complement keys? First thing one should check are the weak and semi-weak keys (a good implementation will avoid them, but that doesn't mean one shouldn't check for them). [..]

Acquiring chunks of keyspace remains an issue, but I think we resolved a while back that a probabalistic method works OK: people just pick chunks at random, and the decreased efficiency as compared to perfect scheduling is something like a factor of a couple (I have the numbers I calculated somewhere, and I recall Hal Finney made the same estimate).

Some means of communicating results--especially wins!--is still needed. This is where Perry's idea of a Java program is a good one.

Rob --- No-frills sig. Befriend my mail filter by sending a message with the subject "send help" Key-ID: 5D3F2E99 1996/04/22 wlkngowl@unix.asb.com (root@magneto) AB1F4831 1993/05/10 Deranged Mutant <wlkngowl@unix.asb.com> Send a message with the subject "send pgp-key" for a copy of my key.