At 4:45 AM 10/13/95, Rich Salz wrote:

You will probably find it most helpful to read through a few months archives of the list (ask around for back digests, usenet access, etc). And read the Tim's cyphernomicon. You'll find most intro-level answers there, and you're less likely to annoy the natives. :)

Thanks, Rich, for the mention of my extremely long FAQ, available (if you're lucky and Netcom isn't too jammed up) at ftp.netcom.com in /pub/tc/tcmay, as "CP-FAQ." Also in compressed forms. A better version is the Web version at; http://www.oberlin.edu/~brchkind/cyphernomicon/ (And there are a couple of other sites that have it.) It is very long, and doesn't include specific things about the Netscape hack, the au courant topic, but it does have a lot of history, background, motives, and interesting (to me at least) applications/implications. (The problem with most FAQs is that that they're either too basic, or too long. I opted for the encycopedic, figuring people could use search tools. Even so, lots of topics don't get enough coverage.) The best way to get rolling with the Cypherpunks list is, I think, to do what Rich says. Read for a while, look at the archives, get a copy of Schneier's book and maybe a few others (Bamford, Kahn, the Springer-Verlag books, etc.), and find an area that interests you. --Tim May Views here are not the views of my Internet Service Provider or Government. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."