If you've ever developed crypto hardware or software, you get to the point where you memorize the hex for a key & block, and when you see it computed correctly (even as you tweak the code or RTL) its a joy. One can also look at the entropic properties as you feed test vectors (eg 1,2,3,4...) into it (emulating a PRNG), and when you pass Marsaglia's Diehard or otherwise measure 1 bit/symbol, you know things are cool. See, you write test progs to encrypt, decrypt, and check that things D(E(x))=x; you also use published test vectors as "gold standards". But I've only got half the protocol coded, so I could only assure that highly redundant input gets turned into noise. Noise, sweet noise, even if its just eyeballing the hex. Of course, lots of error handling and input checking to assure that one has covered all the bases (and corner cases); but before that tedium there's the joy of making munitions by typing. Cypherpunks *do* write code. Or copy others', wrap it in a class, and put it together in useful ways. Under the cold, shaded eyes of a poster of lots of Agent Smiths. When I was unemployed for a year, which might recur in a month or so, I was worried about outsourcing, albeit as a lib that bothered me. Recently I realized that the kiretsu has outsourced software to the US, refilling my checking account, even better, saving my self-esteem. -------- Additional case studies are needed, however, to determine which traits of chemical and biological terrorists might help identify them because charisma, paranoia, and grandiosity are alo found to varying degreees among, for example, leaders of political parties, large corporations, and academic depts. --John T Finn, _Science_ v 289 1 sept 2000