PSI Gulps Pipeline

Forwarding mail by: gleick@pipeline.com (James Gleick) on Fri, 
10 Feb  0:12 AM
-------------------


Dear Pipeliners,


I'm pleased to be able to tell you that the Pipeline has become 
part of  a larger enterprise: Performance Systems International 
(PSINet), the  nation's leading Internet access provider.


That means two things immediately. 


First, PSINet has a state-of-the-art dialup network in many 
cities  across the nation, and these will shortly be available 
to our users at  a cost much less than our current out-of-town 
SprintNet surcharges.


Second, PSINet plans to use our Internaut software as the basis 
for a  national service--not to replace the New York-based 
Pipeline but to  provide an alternative for out-of-towners who 
don't especially care  about New York information and services.


PSINet is a company a lot like ours--small (though not so small 
 anymore), enthusiastic, fast-moving, and steeped in Internet 
history.  The people there care about the Internet as an 
environment worth  preserving even as it grows so explosively.  
And they admire what we've  accomplished here at the Pipeline 
in forming a model online service.


That's enough for now--there will be more information following 
along  behind, but I wanted you to hear it here first.  As for 
me--this isn't  goodbye, exactly, but I have gotten a little 
behind on a book I was  supposed to be writing . . .


I am deeply grateful to all of you--staff and customers--for 
making  the Pipeline what it is and for letting me get to know 
you a little bit.


Jim


--
James Gleick
The Pipeline

Friends - and Bernstein,
-	I am a writer on assignment from the Economist writing about a 
certain cryptographers' tussle with the State Department, a fellow who is 
known around the beltway crypto-anarchy, privacy, 
niceness-on-the-Internet advocacy crowds as Bernstein. I have the outline 
of the case from the attorney's handling it. But my editors would really 
like to be able to name the party and sketch his background. All I have 
now is a last name, that he is a professor/and/or graduate student at UC 
Berkeley and is being roughed up by the State Department. Can anyone here 
- or the hero of the hour himself - come forward and help me complete my 
assignment?
-					Regards,
-						Peter Cassidy

-	PS: By the way, thanks to the guys who helped me shore up some 
basic concepts for the pieces I've done for OMNI and the Covert Action 
Quarterly that have touched on cryptography. Weirdly, one editor actually 
knew the fellow from Texas that I'd interviewed on technical points. 
(They worked together on a newspaper. What a ruck!)

I have never heard of such an individual, and I strongly suspect I
would have heard of them. I believe you have the name and details
wrong if the individual you are looking for exists at all.

Perry

Peter F Cassidy says:
> Friends - and Bernstein,
> -	I am a writer on assignment from the Economist writing about a 
> certain cryptographers' tussle with the State Department, a fellow who is 
> known around the beltway crypto-anarchy, privacy, 
> niceness-on-the-Internet advocacy crowds as Bernstein. I have the outline 
> of the case from the attorney's handling it. But my editors would really 
> like to be able to name the party and sketch his background. All I have 
> now is a last name, that he is a professor/and/or graduate student at UC 
> Berkeley and is being roughed up by the State Department. Can anyone here 
> - or the hero of the hour himself - come forward and help me complete my 
> assignment?
> -					Regards,
> -						Peter Cassidy
> 
> -	PS: By the way, thanks to the guys who helped me shore up some 
> basic concepts for the pieces I've done for OMNI and the Covert Action 
> Quarterly that have touched on cryptography. Weirdly, one editor actually 
> knew the fellow from Texas that I'd interviewed on technical points. 
> (They worked together on a newspaper. What a ruck!)
>

Actually, it is possible that you are talking about Dan Bernstein
(djb@silverton.berkeley.edu), but to my knowledge he hasn't had any
criminal problems with the state department. He's just requested some
export licenses that have been refused.

Perry

Peter F Cassidy says:
> Friends - and Bernstein,
> -	I am a writer on assignment from the Economist writing about a 
> certain cryptographers' tussle with the State Department, a fellow who is 
> known around the beltway crypto-anarchy, privacy, 
> niceness-on-the-Internet advocacy crowds as Bernstein. I have the outline 
> of the case from the attorney's handling it. But my editors would really 
> like to be able to name the party and sketch his background. All I have 
> now is a last name, that he is a professor/and/or graduate student at UC 
> Berkeley and is being roughed up by the State Department. Can anyone here 
> - or the hero of the hour himself - come forward and help me complete my 
> assignment?
> -					Regards,
> -						Peter Cassidy
> 
> -	PS: By the way, thanks to the guys who helped me shore up some 
> basic concepts for the pieces I've done for OMNI and the Covert Action 
> Quarterly that have touched on cryptography. Weirdly, one editor actually 
> knew the fellow from Texas that I'd interviewed on technical points. 
> (They worked together on a newspaper. What a ruck!)
>