hello

[Peter Trei]

> Date:          Fri, 29 Aug 1997 07:19:07 -0600
> From:          TruthMonger <tm at dev.null>


[someone wrote]
> Can anybody teach me the abc's on Hacking, Cracking, Phranking,
> Cryptomography, I know that to be a good hacker you have to know all,
> but speciallize on one.  Or do any of you are in the LA area that
> willing to teach me face to face.

I usually ignore people whose clue meter reads in the negative, 
(hint: cypherpunks want people to have *better* security, 
not less), but there's a long standing tradition on cpunks of 
being creative with other people's typos.

Lets see:

"Phranking" This seems to draw from the word 'franking' which is
related to snail mail cancellation, and 'phreaking' which is a
contraction of 'phone freaking', refering to stealing phone
service. Therefore, 'phranking' must mean the art of faking stamps
and postal cancellations in an effort to steal postal service. I
don't think anyone on this list can help you. Ask again after the
PO introduces it's 2D barcoded stamps, when the privacy implications
may spark some interest (btw, I spotted something very much like this 
on a UPS package last night).

'Cryptomography' seems to draw from 'crypto', meaning 'secret'
and 'tomography' the art of making crossectional images 
(tomography is the T in CAT scan). Therefore, 'cryptomography' is
the art of making secret crossectional images. I think the query 
should have been directed to the people who make airport luggage 
scanners, or some very weird subset of voyeurs, not us.

Peter Trei
trei at process.com

aka 'Etymologymonger'




Peter Trei
Senior Software Engineer
Purveyor Development Team                                
Process Software Corporation
http://www.process.com
trei at process.com