While I don't intend to try to impose my views on what cypherpunks should discuss, I would like to inject some comments on some recent trends that I throw into the "silliness" category. The first issue is the seemingly sincere attempts at answering questions that are obviously irrelevant. IMO cypherpunks are not "Mr. Answer Man" for every question someone has regarding computers or electrical engineering. Sure, most of us are pretty capable of answering these questions - that doesn't mean that we should. Whenever I asked a silly question at home, my dad used to tell me - "look it up". The process of finding the answer was actually far more important than the answer itself. We should attempt to ignore these kinds of questions. Maybe eventually they will go away. My other "peeve of the day" is the wonderful introduction of the "mee too" postings to cypherpunks. I know it makes you feel really great to donate your old TRS-80 to the cause of brute-forcing DES, but honestly, most of us don't share your joy. Nuff said. For the record, I appreciate good humor (I get a real kick out of the "Cypherpunk Enquirer"). I think humor absolutely has a place on this list, I just differentiate humor from some of the "silliness" trends I noted above. Clay *************************************************************************** Clay Olbon II * Clay.Olbon@dynetics.com Systems Engineer * PGP262 public key on web page Dynetics, Inc. * http://www.msen.com/~olbon/olbon.html ***************************************************************** TANSTAAFL