From: jrochkin@cs.oberlin.edu (Jonathan Rochkind)
Date: Tue, 29 Nov 94 10:52:48 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: "You aren't following the _rules_!"
Message-ID: <ab0128ce01021004740d@[132.162.201.201]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 3:58 AM 11/29/94, Lucky Green wrote:
>I do not mean to belittle the work that has been done, but unless the
>encryption is built into the mailer and using a remailer means clicking the
>"use  X remailer(s)" button, and the mailer better know which ones are
>working and do the PGP envelopes, it won't happen.

Have you used premail?  It pretty much does all of that.
People still aren't using premail, either because they can't figure out how
to install it (doubtful, it's not hard to install), or because they don't
have a need for it that's great enough to justify the (minimal) time
neccesary to ftp it and install it, or wait the (sometimes more painful)
time neccesary for the computer to encrypt and/or sign your outgoing
messages.

Which was admitteedlyu your main point; until there is a _need_ for crypto,
it's not going to be used.
Because premail makes it incredibly easy to use PGP on a unix box. And, for
that matter, the Eudora/PGP applescritps make it incredibly easy to use PGP
on a mac.  And there are some people working on an applescript that will
automate using remailers on a mac too.    But ease of use appearantly isn't
enough; no matter how easy it gets to use, it's still going to have some
cost to the user over not using it. Even if the cost is only having to wait
the 1.5 seconds it takes your machine to decrypt/encrypt a message.  Unless
there's a use for it, people won't be willing to spend that 1.5 seconds per
message.