CDR: Re: Reading list

[dmolnar]

On Thu, 19 Oct 2000, Alan Olsen wrote:

> I also recommend a list of books that piss people off while reading.
> Things like "The ICSA Guide to Cryptography". (The most pro-GAK crypto
> book I have ever read. I keep it as a reminder of which libraries and
> products to avoid.)

I've only had occasion to flip through this in a bookstore. I remember
thinking that it could have used another 2 or 3 re-edits. Also that its
treatment of semantic security and probabilistic encryption was pretty
bad. Must have missed the pro-GAK stuff.

I think one of the books which made me wonder "what the hell" was _The
Frozen Republic_ in the last part -- the author argues that separation of
powers is an outmoded and silly concept, our government can't act fast
enough, and wouldn't we be better off with a British style system for
doing things which didn't have all these checks and balances? 
With due respect to British readers, I think the RIP act shows one of the
reasons why we would not be better off. Not that our own equivalent
isn't far behind; haven't there been murmurs for a while about making
"the use of cryptography in committing a crime" a separate crime? :-\

-david