News and commentary from the cross-platform scripting community.
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Mail Starting 10/1/97 | |
Read your latest DaveNet piece, noted that there was beer and that you noted that the food (perhaps you didn't mean to include beer?) was vegan. As one of the Mac loyalist vegans out there (I guess I just "think different" it struck me as odd, because there are very few beers commercially sold that are vegan. . .mostly microbrews are the only vegan beer, since they add some pretty horrid stuff to clear beer usually.
From: JOGOLDBERG@vassar.edu;
Sent at 10/1/97; 10:33:29 PM;
Vegan beer?Incidentally, who is vegan that makes this party noteworthy?
The reply from my friend at Apple... "My fault. Learned yesterday that "vegan" and "vegetarian" are not one and the same, at all! I should have said "the spread at the Steve/Beer/Food party involved no obvious meat products." Why did I mention it at all? 'Cause I'd heard Steve doesn't eat meat. So what? Nothing! It was a silly comment. Thanks for pointing that out!"
OK, I have to play Advocatus Diaboli here. Note that I might not actually agree with what I'm about to say, I'm just tossing out the memes for discussion. Because I don't think the current advocates of any position I've heard have fully thought out the implications of the proposals being discussed.
From: argyll@earthlink.net (Hal O'Brien);
Sent at 10/1/97; 7:18:22 PM;
privacy, or lack thereofTHERE IS NO PRIVACY.
None. Zippedy-doo-dah. Hasn't been for two decades or more.
Even encryption, which the privacy advocates are holding out as the Last Great Hope, is a dead end.
Reason?
There's no way to prove it works.
The *ONLY* verifiable claim one can make is that no one has stepped forward to demonstrate that they've broken a particular algorithm or product... Like, say, PGP.
The problem is, said crypto breakers have a vested interest in *NOT* telling you, and in letting the users of a broken algorithm chatter away, blithely assuming they're secure. As long as they don't act on the data they gather by this method (unless backed up by some other, non-encrypted data) YOU WILL NEVER KNOW whether your communications are secure or not.
To those who say, "but if they don't act, why would it matter?"... Well, what if they don't act... Until the time is right, shall we say? That is, after years of surveillance.
I myself am fully in favor of Clipper and Clipper-like initiatives, simply because any regime with an acknowledged back door will be publicly broken in 3-5 years at the outside... Leaving the Federal government with no place to hide.
There's only one way to be safe, and never be surprised: Treat everything on magnetic media as if it's public record.
To the, "but without encryption, how can one reliably ascertain the identity of the sender?" crowd, I would ask, How is this any different than the current situation with paper? I don't know of any paper document that can't be spoofed. Why must computer communications first achieve a higher (and unattainable) level of reliability than the current standard?
Just call me Martha Stewart. Here's a tip for all your readers out there:
From: kadams@apple.com (Kate Adams);
Sent at 10/1/97; 7:00:59 PM;
Christening your volumesWondering what to call all those volumes you partitioned your hard disk into so that you could back each volume up on a single CD? DaveNet to the rescue! Many of the titles from old DaveNet postings make wonderful volume names. I named seven partitions just by glancing over the 1997 and 96 postings. Cooool!
-Kate
(the names I chose are:
LittleBird (System software and apps)
Hype (Internet)
LineToMoveTo (Graphics)
Quickie (QuickTime)
Floating Ideas
Thirty Miles of Air
Killer CloudsThe last three are so cool that I'm not sure what I'm going to put on them yet!!!!)
I recently wrote about privacy for The Independent (the London Daily), in my regular column.
From: cg@gulker.com (Chris Gulker);
Sent at 10/1/97; 4:53:23 PM;
Re:Ideas for PrivacyThe immediate threat to citizens is not some future Hitler (though we shouldn't overlook that), but phalanxes of individuals, from lawyers to petty con men who routinely abuse personal information, gathered increasingly from unencrypted sources on public networks.
The column recounts a front page NY Times story of how a major oil company intimidated many (mostly poor) people out of legal damages after a refinery explosion by using information brokers to get things like outstanding warrants, traffic tickets, immigration problems which they then threatened the claimants with - sue us and we'll turn you in.
Your bank balance is available for $75, your salary for $80, 10 years of medical records for $400, and your credit card numbers for $450. Well integrated public encryption would stop this nonsense...
The column's at
http://www.gulker.com/ra/smackem.html
or
http://www.independent.co.uk/ in Network+
Thanks for DaveNet last night; it was good to hear the real-world issues up close. Here are a few comments for your amusement:
From: minow@apple.com (Martin Minow);
Sent at 10/1/97; 4:11:49 PM;
Re:"Mac 94 is like Mac 84"-
Mac 94 is like Mac 84. Well, I would say, both "yes" and "no" and, in many ways, that this is a good thing. There are a huge number of improvements to the system; things like multiple monitors, plug-in and forget about it networking, one-click file sharing secure (no plaintext) remote server logins. At the same time, the overall user interaction has stayed remarkably consistent.
-
PGP: you asked about the Key Server -- it's a database (there's one at PGP, and another at MIT, and probably a few more out there) that contains pubic keys. From PGP 5.0, this lets you lookup keys (it found yours, for example) and download them to your private public keyring. If your key is signed, you can also fetch the key of the signer. If you click "encrypt" in the Eudora toolbar, PGP pre-selects the recipient's public key (if it can find it), which I think is a very nice touch. You can revoke a key you no longer need using the PGP Keys utility.
Again, thanks for a nice evening.
Found this in my notepad file:
From: kadams@apple.com (Kate Adams);
Sent at 10/1/97; 4:52:10 PM;
Finding freedom?"A bad reputation can set you free. After all, if you've already declared yourself to be a pot-smoking, acid-addled slut, your opponents are forced to oppose your ideas on their merits, rather than strategically revealing your hidden depravities. Shame is no weapon against the shameless."
I wish I could remember where I found that! I think I really believe it! I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not :-)
A week ago I sent a mail intrigued by your counter for the millenniumshift. The status of the year 2000 thousand is not relevant. As you responded: "No, as it turns out it doesn't matter one bit."
From: bosse@vest.theorysc.gu.se (Bo Walhjalt);
Sent at 10/2/97; 1:55:15 AM;
Re:"When is the milleniumshift?"I've been away for a week, and when back and picking up the habit of a daily virtual refreshing visit at Davenet I'm still intrigued! Two years and a couple of months is left before the millenniumshift. In my head that makes a little more than 800 days. Your counter will miss the celebration with a full year!
The intriguing thing to me is that your audience is unusually observant and sharpeyed and this seems to have been unobserved for weeks. Actually, I like seeing the human factor play games with us in this innocent way, because it reminds us to be more careful when more is at stake and mistakes may be fatal.
I listed to the RealAudio version of DaveNet Live. You made a comment about being surprised that people were buying clones now.
From: bsimmons@ranchero.com (Brent Simmons);
Sent at 10/1/97; 4:36:47 PM;
DaveNetLive -- I bought a cloneI myself just bought a clone from Power Computing.
Why?
I wanted a new Mac, but I'm still feeling a little pissy about Apple's dealing with the clones issue. Buying a clone, even at this late date, makes a statement. (A futile statement, probably.)
But more importantly:
PowerComputing's deal on the PowerTower Pro is great. For a little more than $2000, I could get a 225Mhz 604e with 96MB RAM. Built-in ethernet, fast CD-ROM drive, extended keyboard, all the goodies.
http://www.powercc.com/info/ptpinfo.html
PowerComputing still offers support, so I'm not taking a big gamble. From their website: "Each system includes a 30-day money back guarantee, toll-free lifetime technical support, and a one year limited warranty."
I couldn't think of any reason not to buy this computer. Simply put: it's by far the better deal.
Thanks again for your session. I particularly enjoyed the give and take on "write once, run anywhere" between the Netscape developer program guy and the Microsoft marketing honcho. Seems to me the subtext of Microsoft message was "write once, run anywhere" is not possible now and we're going to make damn sure it won't be possible in the future.
From: john.king@hmg.com (John King);
Sent at 10/1/97; 3:42:07 PM;
DaveNet LiveAfter overhearing your conversation about Flash after the session, I thought I'd pass along a URL for an "all Flash" website you might find interesting; http://www.sky-rocket.com/. (Give your browser plenty o' RAM if you go there.) Sky Rocket Interactive is the new interactive division of Red Sky Films in SF. A friend of mine, Tom Pollack, is a producer there.
I just finished listening to the RealAudio recording of DaveNet live. I thought you did a gentle, honest, and respectful job. Enjoyed it.
From: mcg@halcyon.com (Michael C. Gilbert);
Sent at 10/1/97; 11:53:54 AM;
your Apple ad commentaryI would love to see your commentary on the new Apple ad in print! Your thoughts really captured something for me. Some critics of the campaign miss the point....
Couldn't leave work in time to get to the city for your session, so I did the next best thing. I listened to the webcast -- only a few dropouts but otherwise good quality. Good discussion. Next year, think about plugging in people like me via IP phone and conferencing software, and taking questions from the global audience.
From: dgillmor@sjmercury.com (Dan Gillmor);
Sent at 10/1/97; 8:41:58 AM;
DaveNet liveThink Different = Think "Different"
From: Ned.K.Holbrook@Dartmouth.EDU (Ned K. Holbrook);
Sent at 10/1/97; 11:23:37 AM;
Think differentIt's the same thing as a software designer saying "think portable" rather than "think portably". The two phrases mean completely different things, and should be read differently. In this case, different is not an adverb, nor should it be. Different is the idea, the noun.
Apple is telling us to think about the concept that the word "different" stands for (think implicit "about"), not to change our way of thinking.
Think different!
Am listening to last night's DaveNet live on cnet radio. It's great. Quality is excellent. Thanks to you and them for doing it.
From: jevans@shokt.com (Jeff Evans);
Sent at 10/1/97; 10:14:28 AM;
cnet radio was greatHas anyone commented that "Think different" is grammatically incorrect unless the intended meaning is "Think about the concept of differentness"?
From: btanen@netspace.org (Ben Tanen);
Sent at 10/1/97; 10:27:31 AM;
Think grammar.The big excitement and press release reveal that Apple actually means to say "Think differently;" the intended meaning "Don't think like all those Windows drones," or something like that.