Rants & Raves
Crypto-Rebels
I don't think anything outside my religion has given me more hope for the coming century than the "Pretty Good Revolution."
Jeff Warburton
jwarburt@is.med.utah.edu
Such elitist bullshit. The only reason why the punks want to distribute crypto-code is because they want to oppose the government. They don't particularly believe in American sovereignty and they feel like they are citizens of the "world." Therefore it is "their" obligation to jam American intelligence operations overseas. If you don't believe it is a legitimate function of government to infiltrate and subvert foreign nations' information and strategic businesses, just ask the French Intelligence Service. Or better yet, ask Hughes Aircraft or any other high-tech company.
Turner Jones
tsjones@delphi.com
Law enforcement people are overstating the threat that drug lords and other organized crime scum pose to the US. The real threat to the public welfare and economy is the theft of proprietary information and trade secrets owned by US companies - often, as your article on the EFF's efforts pointed out, by representatives of "friendly" intelligence agencies. That is the biggest and most pervasive argument for widely available, strong crypotography.
Doug Shapter
shapter@socrates.emd.edu
"Crypto Rebels" can be seen as a moot point. Why? Just as any dufus with a scanner can hear your cordless phone conversations, any dufus with a van full of fancy electronic equipment can "look over your shoulder" any time you use an electronic device in your home. Your entire screen, every keystroke you make, and every character you print broadcasts energy in every direction. Everything you do is public. Encryption can be a mis-leading illusion. Food for thought.
James Sanchez
Address withheld
What really scares the NSA is people using read/write CDs in well- shielded PCs for data and voice encryption/ decryption. You give your friends copies of random ASCII (or other codes) on CD, millions of digits (or digital voice code) in length. (Before microprocessors, this was a very cumbersome process, requiring mainframes - the reason algorithms like the public/private key system were devised). With random, rather than pseudo-random (algorithm-generated) keys, the neat things is: NSA can't do anything unless it gets physical possession of the CDs.
What the Wired article doesn't say, of course, is that the FBI and CIA can use the same terror tactics the DEA uses on drug dealers to obtain possession of any hardware, software, algorithms, private keys, CDs, the ID of those in the "network," and whatever else they want. You assume that these people observe the legal niceties. Not true.
Janet Whitney
Alexandria, Virginia
Papert on the 3Rs
The "primary" access to knowledge must be direct experience, and some futuristic interactive version of Wild Kingdom is not going to tell a child more about giraffes than her living among them. And even then it is arguable that her knowledge is direct, for a native child of the land of the giraffe might come up with a whole body of knowledge that the Western child's social con-ditioning hides from her, even as the visiting observer.
Joseph Troise
Sausalito, California
To ignore the politics and yet still hope to reform this lethargic Goliath we call "public education" is like attempting to reform the auto industry by arguing whether or not the new car models should come equipped with single or multi-disc CD players. Until we confront, head-on, the compelling issue of subtly changing the perceptions and attitudes of parents to a new, restructured educational model, we'll condemn ourselves to forever operate under the old one.
Kevin Bushman
Burley, Idaho
Help Us Rewire the White House
I am one of the "computer geeks" trying to fix the computer and communications systems in the White House. (I am also a professor of computer science at the University of California, Berkeley.) The new administration has a rather sophisticated vision of how they want to be wired into the rest of the country - workgroup computing, high- performance workstations, and Internet access. This could be the first fully wired administration. There are only a couple of problems.
The Executive Office is saddled with an archaic centralized computer system with very few workgroup LANs. While users in Media Affairs and OSTP are screaming for Internet access, we have to go slow to prove to the security experts that the interface can be resistant to intruders. And finally, there isn't any money. George Bush spent six months of funds between November and January. And the recent stimulus package, including $4 million to upgrade phones and computers in the White House, went down in a defeat to the gloating Republicans (that's $4 million out of $15 billion - hardly a dent).
So why shouldn't computer "geeks" (as opposed to the political "wonks") write to their senators and representatives to support our efforts to bring the White House into the late 20th century? Does the headquarters staff of a $1.5 trillion enterprise deserve anything less? What are the implications for the US citizenry for poor decisions being made because of faulty, inadequate information systems? In this, the Congress is being penny-wise and pound foolish.
Randy H. Katz, PhD
rkatz@arpa.mil
Surrender the Pink
It's apparent that Fred Davis has never written commercial software. If half the lines of code in Pink are written, it doesn't mean the product's half done. "The first 90 percent of a program takes 90 percent of the project time; the last 10 percent takes the other 90 percent."
David Dunham
Seattle, Washington
Why in a magazine with as thorough coverage of the techno-cyber-world as Wired offers, have I yet to see the words NextStep printed? Next is the only company offering a tried and true object-oriented operating system.
Rob Wyatt
rawyatt@scf.usc.edu
Speer's Waste of Space
Steven Speer's review of the Toshiba color laptop T4400C 486DX was a waste of space. I'm no prude, but all the profanity was absolutely unnecessary. Especially since he didn't say a single review-oriented thing about the product. Forget the cuteness of your "little buddy" and give us some facts about the machine, not just profanity-sprinkled garbage!
Steven T. Jones
Middle Tennessee State University
"Opinions are my own - no one else's"
(Steve says, "Get a fucking sense of humor.")
Logitech
So, you only got one letter objecting to the Logitech ad? (Wired 1.2) Here's another. The ad uses a child in a way that no (self-respecting) adult would be used. It is pos-sible to do this when you have no respect for children or are willing to take advantage of those unable to protect themselves. I urge all your readers to avoid Logitech products whenever possible.
Jeff Hallgren (father of two)
jhall@tahiti.umhc.umn.edu
The DAT Pact
As a writer and audio producer who testified before two Congressional committees against the Audio Home Recording Act last year, I can tell you with firsthand knowledge that the story of DCC and MiniDisc (Street Cred, page 102) is far darker and deeper than your reviewer Gene Pitts would have one believe.
Music executives have long feared digital technology. They assume all non-professional owners of digital tape recorders are tape pirates. For this reason, the music industry used every legal threat possible to stall the introduction of the consumer DAT format, and has thwarted recordable CDs for the consumer market.
In an attempt to break the "digital" logjam, executives of the consumer electronics and music industries got together for a series of backroom meetings. Out of these came a compromise agreement known as the DAT Pact. The DAT Pact did several things to benefit its industry participants. It allowed electronics manufacturers to build and sell consumer digital recording equipment without fear of lawsuits. In exchange for this concession, the music industry got several pounds of flesh:
- A tax, cleverly disguised as a "royalty," is being charged manufacturers on the sales of all consumer and business-grade digital tape rcorderes and recording media. (It is 2 percent of the wholesale price for digital recorders with an $8 ceiling and 3 percent for blank media.) The tax, which is being passed on to consumers, is collected by the US Government and given directly to the music industry.
- A copy protection circuit is required in all digital recorders for consumer and business use, including project studios and radio stations. (Only high-end studio equipment is exempt.) This prohibits the making of all second-generation digital copies, whether commercial or personal. An army of lobbyists was dispatched to Capitol Hill to announce the historic agreement that would "benefit" consumers. Key members of Congress signed on to the legislation. They eagerly posed for smiling photographs at pep-rally hearings with industry-provided pop recording artists.
The Audio Home Recording Act, the legal mani-festation of the DAT pact, was signed by President Bush just before the 1992 election. At about the same time, seductive ads touting the marvels of DCC and MD began appearing in consumer magazines. The hype to buy "the next big thing" in audio technology has begun. The remaining question is: Will consumers take the bait?
Frank Beacham
New York, New York
(See Copywrong by Richard Stallman, for an alternative to the DAT Pact.)
ILM Isn't Lucas Digital
A quick correction. George hasn't changed the name of Industrial Light & Magic to Lucas Digital. Lucas Digital is basically the new place on the corporate chart that ILM (and Skywalker Sound) now plug into. But we're still ILM. Also, Stan Winston wasn't part of ILM - he's had his own shop for a while.
Joe
Industrial Light & Magic
Nick's Erroneous Zone?
Nicholas has made erroneous statements in his second piece as well. Evidently he does not know that the main subject of this piece has been thoroughly discussed in FCC circles. The "bit police" are prevented by law from allowing TV stations to use the second channel for anything other than simulcasting. Otherwise it would be a grant of a channel without allowing other parties to compete for it in the normal way that spectrum assignments are made. Should the FCC allow non-simulcasting use for the second channels, they will be taken to court instantly.
William Schreiber
wfs@image.mit.edu
Tired
For me, Wired is tired. Same old same old same old same couldn't you look at the spaces between the ones and zeros? Couldn't you seek out people who apply technology to some earthly good - or beauty? Couldn't you profile one Woman In Technology And The Arts who isn't Brenda Laurel or Camille Paglia? (Stinks of tokenism to the uninitiated.) Sorry, I guess I just don't get it.
Abby Joslin
San Francisco, California
My only criticism is the model for the Wired T-shirt on page 109. How about equal time for the next issue? Isn't there a Wired Republican (or noted conservative) who would model your shirt? How about asking Rush Limbaugh?
Chad
chadb1216@aol.com
I hope the layout is simplified. Case in point, one of the board members wanted to look at the table of contents, but couldn't find it. I said, "Look for something that looks like a weird, hard-to-read advertisement." "Oh yeah, here it is."
Donald Theophilus
theo@hitl.washington.edu
These music reviews, are they relevant? The elite-exclusionary problem of technically dense media is enhanced quite enough by jargon; people don't really need more parameters to live by to feel like they belong in Wired's readership.
Rod McFarland
rod@leco.plant.ubc.ca
Wired
Congratulations on the launch of Wired. It's a very impressive start in all respects: Editorial content, design, ad sales, ...the whole package. I have to say it's one of the best independent launches I have seen in many, many years.
Jann S. Wenner
Editor & Publisher, Rolling Stone
1. Can't sleep 2. Thanks.
Anonymous
Hypernet Interactive
Sure beats reading PC Week. Oops, here comes the boss - gotta go . . . .
Steven Wilcox
Burlington, Massachusetts
When I read your magazine, I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or break into a government computer system.
Eric Schmitter
st_schmitter@stdvax.cc.slcc.edu
How dare you hook me on this new junk called Wired with a measured bimonthly fix. I need another hit NOW!
K. Gerard Garlow
gerard@tenetledu
Send your rants and raves to:
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