Codebreaker Makes $2.8B in a Year

[R.A. Hettinga]

On Apr 17, 2008, at 10:29 AM, John Young wrote:
> That was kiss blown to see if you read this list.

Okay. No tongues, though.

Yes, I'm still here on this list. In meatspace, I'm, um, composting  
away in Anguilla, actually. Just resting. Pining for the fjords, and  
all that. Says I'm "retired" on my visa extensions, like my wife's do.  
Somewhere on the way to Hilo, or Puna, or someplace, an unscrupulous  
real estate agent got us on a south facing veranda at sunset, and the  
next thing I know, I'm moving to Anguilla.

Vince Cate, the self-described "last hacker standing" around here,  
would say hello, I'm sure. Used to be something like 20 cypherpunks  
around here once. Then one day the government sent around a  
"questionnaire" asking them, exactly, what they were *doing* here, and  
the planes couldn't leave local airspace fast enough. Hushmail went to  
Ireland, for instance...

> What's Tim May doing?

Google is your friend, viz,

<http://groups.google.com/groups?q=author%3Atim+author%3Amay&start=0&scoring=d&num=100&lr=lang_en&as_drrb=q&as_mind=1&as_minm=1&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=17&as_maxm=4&as_maxy=2008&safe=off& 
 >

though you might as well just google "up the chimneys with you", and  
get the same number of hits, I bet...

>
> Have all the cryptographers been re-shackled by the authorities
> they were destined to slavishly serve, dumped by the Cold
> War die-out, rejuvenated by GWOT?

Apparently, for the time being, political cryptography is the only  
cryptography that matters... :-).


Though there's an argument to be made (okay, I'm the only one making  
it...) that the closer transaction settlement time converges to  
instantaneity, the more the risk of identity tends toward infinity,  
but the trend towards identified-to-a-fare-thee-well transactions  
proceeds apace. "Know your customer", etc., is the watchword of the  
day. Might as well have some, um, lubricant, because Uncle's gonna be  
engaging in military proctology whether you want it or not.

Yes, there's still an annual Financial Cryptography conference, and  
they went to Cancun (say no more...) this year. They were in Anguilla  
two years (see veranda, above...) ago, but things here are... pricey,  
now.

In 2001, gov.ai had to stretch the runway to 5000 feet in order to  
keep American Airlines still landing (Embraer Jungle-Jets apparently)  
here. Then the bottom fell out of tourism that winter after 9/11. No  
Jungle-Jets. Gloom all around.

But then something weird happened. It seemed like everyone with a long- 
range Gulfstream decided to land at the new stretched airport, and,  
hey, presto, the stars fall on Anguilla. A land boom, a golf-course  
with two on the way later, (Vince's original "million-dollar view for  
$450 a month" is now, apparently, worth $10mil, $10mil being the  
default price for a vacation home on a golf-course for those who fly  
in Gulfstreams...), .ai's got actual paved roads, an actual negative  
unemployment rate -- and illegal aliens :-) --, the national car is  
the Ford F150 pickup, the national occupation is concrete mason (as  
apposed to money-launderer), and the national bird is the concrete  
pumper crane. Anguilla's now crawling with official certified  
Gulfstream-flying moonbats, instead of, heh, Columbian pharmaceutical  
salesmen looking for a convenient Chubb safe to park their cash...

So, libertarian paradise is now just paradise, know your customer, as  
it were. Meanwhile, the view's nice.

In the meantime, come on down, John, JFK/SXM on JetBlue is chumpchange  
these days, and it's a big house, plenty of room. I'll keep the  
blender on for ya. We can argue the future of mankind on a beach, or  
by the pool, or on the aforementioned veranda.

> Your asskissing fan

Well, dammit, that's more like it.

Remember, no tongue. ;-)

Cheers,
RAH