cypherpunks press

The 29 January New Yorker has an article "Hackworm" that discusses the
Mitnick-Shimomura-Markoff echoing cypherpunks lack of sympathy for the
Markoff-Shimomura P.R. extravaganza.  Article ends mentioning cypherpunks
and John Gilmore specifically, discussion of crypto politics, while not
entirely toe-ing the cypherpunks party line, an enhearteningly informed and
rational treatement.

[An altavista search reveals the New Yorker is at
http://www.enews.com/magazines/new_yorker/, but they don't seem to put the
entire issue online, and parts of the 15 January issue is what you get when
you click on "current issue"]

Jonathan Rochkind writes:
> The 29 January New Yorker has an article "Hackworm" that discusses the
> Mitnick-Shimomura-Markoff echoing cypherpunks lack of sympathy for the
> Markoff-Shimomura P.R. extravaganza.  Article ends mentioning cypherpunks
> and John Gilmore specifically, discussion of crypto politics, while not
> entirely toe-ing the cypherpunks party line, an enhearteningly informed and
> rational treatement.

Could someone please explain to me why Mitnick is a cypherpunk issue?
Myself, I have neither sympathy nor lack of sympathy for the
Markoff-Shimomura "pr extravaganza", see no "cypherpunk" opinion on
the subject, and don't see any reason we should, as a group, discuss
or care about the topic.

Perry

> Could someone please explain to me why Mitnick is a cypherpunk issue?
> Myself, I have neither sympathy nor lack of sympathy for the
> Markoff-Shimomura "pr extravaganza", see no "cypherpunk" opinion on
> the subject, and don't see any reason we should, as a group, discuss
> or care about the topic.

I'm sure glad that you don't run this list, Perry, but it seems that you
think you do.  I, for one, get rather tired of your seemingly endless
attempts at censoring what *you* think is and isn't relevent to the list. 
I see it as a cypherpunk issue, insofar as it deals with the issues of
tracking down crackers, but I don't expect you to make the connection,
since I guess the word "encryption" didn't figure prominently in the post 
and the connection isn't immediately obvious to the most casual observer, 
causing you to foam at the mouth and gush all over the list about "the 
relevence to the cypherpunks list" nonsense.  Can someone please explain 
to me why *your* posts whining about the lack of relevence of certain 
posts are relevent?  Why don't you take your own advice?

I've got a better idea -- why don't you start your own list?  That way,
you can moderate to your heart's content and I don't have to see any more
whining messages from you about what is and isn't "relevent". 

Why don't you go and write some code?  Put those busy fingers to better
use than to try and write pithy flames in an attempt to sound "cool" and
call attention to yourself as the self-appointed censor of cypherpynks. 
--
Ed Carp, N7EKG    			Ed.Carp@linux.org, ecarp@netcom.com
					214/993-3935 voicemail/digital pager
					800/558-3408 SkyPager
Finger ecarp@netcom.com for PGP 2.5 public key		an88744@anon.penet.fi

"Past the wounds of childhood, past the fallen dreams and the broken families,
through the hurt and the loss and the agony only the night ever hears, is a
waiting soul.  Patient, permanent, abundant, it opens its infinite heart and
asks only one thing of you ... 'Remember who it is you really are.'"

                    -- "Losing Your Mind", Karen Alexander and Rick Boyes

The mark of a good conspiracy theory is its untestability.
		    -- Andrew Spring

ecarp@netcom.com sez:

> > Could someone please explain to me why Mitnick is a cypherpunk issue?
> > Myself, I have neither sympathy nor lack of sympathy for the
> > Markoff-Shimomura "pr extravaganza", see no "cypherpunk" opinion on
> > the subject, and don't see any reason we should, as a group, discuss
> > or care about the topic.
>
> I'm sure glad that you don't run this list, Perry, but it seems that you
> think you do.  I, for one, get rather tired of your seemingly endless
> attempts at censoring what *you* think is and isn't relevent to the list. 
> I see it as a cypherpunk issue, insofar as it deals with the issues of
> tracking down crackers, but I don't expect you to make the connection,
> since I guess the word "encryption" didn't figure prominently in the post 

My feeling is that Mitnick getting past security, and Mitnick not having
to decrypt at every stage, and stuff like that is good material, but these
topics generally have big ol' love handles attached to them. Describing
people's hot tub parties, for example, is not exactly cypherpunk material.

NeoNazi mirrors for freedom, in the same way, are central (or at least
directly related) to what cypherpunks fight for, but then the resulting
discussion about the morals of war, and whether it was right or wrong
are also slightly outside of the cypherpunks relevance, despite the fact
that information was or was not freely readable because of cryptograpy.
Discussing cryptography does not make it necessary to provide an in-depth
historical review (and subsequent flamewar) on the resulting consequences.
We know what happened at Hiroshima. Lets talk about future consequences
instead please.

I am imagine many people use (and I am headed this way) nntp.hks.net merely
to avoid large boring non crypto/political threads. Not everyone has this
capability, and now some of them have left because of the S/N. I'm talking
about real cryptographers, not weekend warriors like, well, ok I'm more like
a yearend warrior.On the other hand, Alice and others haven't posted lately,
so perhaps the noise is just the fill-the-vacuum pheonominon.

> Why don't you go and write some code?  Put those busy fingers to better

Perhaps he is. I am. Are you?

Don