I want to puhhff you up -- SNL?

We need to "Just say No!" to journalists asking for "more personal details" to spice up their stories... I no longer read the many puff pieces on Phil Zimmermann, for example, as they all are seemingly in the same format: huge closeup photos of Phil's...

You may not want to read those stories any more because you know all the details. But a puffed up cover story on Phil Z in People magazine would be one of the best things that could happen. Some actresses feel that any publicity is better than no publicity and they may be right. Given that we are not going to get many in depth technical articles in the mainstream press, puff pieces are better than nothing. In the last month on two different occasions I have been in casual conversations at work when the subject of PGP and cryptography came up based on articles in the local media. I was able to answer the questions and explain in detail the benefits of PGP and as well give out a disk loaded with the program for them to try. If the puff pieces weren't read by these people the subject would not have come up and I wouldn't have been likely to have had the opportunity to get these people interested in using PGP. Given that the average person still knows nothing of cypherpunk technology and issues and probably wouldn't mind if it was all outlawed in the name of national security, anything that keeps the topic in the public's eye is good. Steven Ryan sryan@reading.com