Re: hi-tech ROT-13
Andy Dustman wrote:
The main problem I see with the various key-passing schemes is that they aren't useful if the receipient is cryptographically-challenged, which is why I'm presently inclined to stick with just the magic cookie exchange without crypto (unless the recipient can supply a PGP public key).
Andy seems to realize something that many people don't, which is
that all of the cypherpunk discussions as to security, privacy and
anonymity are just preaching to the converted unless the end result
is a program that the average joe can actually use.
I am personally GUI-challenged, but that is what most people know
and can actually work with. Even then, the average user doesn't know
enough about his or her system and software to do anything remotely
exotic to install it.
What you or I might consider simplistic (e.g. changes to a config.sys
file), might be a journey onto dangerous ground for someone who may have
to pay someone $50.00/hr or more in order to get their machine running
again if something gets screwed up.
The bottom line is that people want something that they halfway
recognize and feel comfortable with, and is written to be self-
installable by someone who actually knows what the hell all those
things inside their computer do.
I used to tell people, "I invented a pill that cures Alzheimer's,
but it doesn't do any good, because nobody remembers to take it."
If the goal is to make anonymous remailers available to those
who need them, then one must also consider the computer knowledge
and capabilities of those who have a genuine need for anonymity
for safety reasons.
Assholes and the spammers will always take the time to learn what
they need to know to spread their bullshit, but what about people
who have a one or two-time legitimate need to pass information
along in saftey?
Even though unencoded, direct use of an anonymous remailer is not
that complicated, many people today think that a command line is
"Sit, Rover, sit!" and if you ask them about syntax they look at
you funny and say they think they paid it when they bought the
condoms.
Raph Levien's list of remailers is great, but he fails to give
simple instructions as to how to get remailer help/instructions
from different remailers. And some of the remailers autobot help
replies are rather vague even to those who know computers well.
The Anonymous Nymserver
Someone who invented a pill that cures Alzheimer's (but it didn't do any good, because nobody remembered to take it) writes:
Assholes and the spammers will always take the time to learn what they need to know to spread their bullshit, but what about people who have a one or two-time legitimate need to pass information along in saftey?
Geoff Keaton's remailer applet has just been released under GPL license, with source code. Mixmaster applet soon to come. That's strong anonymity at a mouse click. Sending anonymous mail never has been easier.
Ulf Möller wrote:
Geoff Keaton's remailer applet has just been released under GPL license, with source code. Mixmaster applet soon to come. That's strong anonymity at a mouse click. Sending anonymous mail never has been easier.
Good news. Do you have a pointer to it? -- Toto "The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre" http://bureau42.base.org/public/xenix/xenbody.html
On Thu, 3 Apr 1997, Toto wrote:
Ulf Möller wrote:
Geoff Keaton's remailer applet has just been released under GPL license, with source code. Mixmaster applet soon to come. That's strong anonymity at a mouse click. Sending anonymous mail never has been easier.
Good news. Do you have a pointer to it? --
a quick search at altavista showed: http://www.ozemail.com.au/~geoffk/anon/anon.html cheers, Tony. --------------------------------------------- Did you hear that two rabbits escaped from the zoo and so far they have only recaptured 116 of them?
participants (4)
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bomber@globalpac.com
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nobody@huge.cajones.com
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Toto
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um@idril.shnet.org