Dining with the Cryptographer

[Ed Carp]

On Wed, 8 Dec 1993, Douglas Barnes wrote:

>    It was 4:30 in the afternoon; Dallas is a highly optimistic three and
> a half hours away.

3 hours, the way I drive...

>    Since neither of us had ever really been to Dallas as an actual 
> destination, we bought a map in Troy. (Home of the fighting Trojans.)
> Jim spent the rest of the way to Dallas (several hours) attempting to 
> unfold the map.

Dallas is easy - get on I-35 and go NORTH...

>    Now, unbeknownst to Jim or I, we were _savagely_ underdressed for
> what turned out to be the best Italian restaurant in Texas. Chaum, at

Horseshit.  Eletto's in Austin is the BEST Italian place in Texas!!!

>    He had come to Dallas not for a convention, but rather to work with
> a company that is implementing his smartcard technology for automated
> toll collection equipment. "It's hard to do this protocol in such a 
> narrow window, but we're getting there. If the car is doing 60, there
> just isn't much time."

The North Dallas Tollway already *has* such a gadget.  Pretty cool, too...

>    Halfway to the car, as if on cue, Jim and I just completely lost
> it and started laughing hysterically. All the tension and nervous
> energy of our mad dash to Dallas and meeting a hero of the digital 
> revolution had melted away, and the full realization of the incredible 
> experience hit us full force -- out of the blue, this guy whose papers 
> we had passed back and forth and argued about endlessly over bagels, 
> had called Jim up, invited us out to dinner two hundred miles away, we 
> had a great talk, this incredible food, put new life into the Digial 
> Credit Union project...  and only about eight hours had gone by.

Oh .. did you ever figure out why he called *you*???

Ed Carp, N7EKG			erc at wetware.com			510/659-9560
                   an38299 at anon.penet.fi, anon-1157 at twwells.com
If you want magic, let go of your armor.  Magic is so much stronger than
steel!        -- Richard Bach, "The Bridge Across Forever"