From: Black Unicorn <unicorn@access.digex.net>
Date: Wed, 14 Dec 94 10:18:19 PST
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: (fwd) I don't use PGP. (Was:I NUKED PGP.)
Message-ID: <199412141817.AA11248@access1.digex.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Path: news1.digex.net!access1!unicorn
From: unicorn@access1.digex.net (Black Unicorn)
Newsgroups: alt.security.pgp
Subject: I don't use PGP. (Was:I NUKED PGP.)
Date: 14 Dec 1994 18:11:29 GMT

Bretton Wade (bw16@cornell.edu) wrote:
: In article <3clri0$jqn@crl.crl.com>, jdulaney@crl.com (John Dulaney) wrote:

: >         1) Too difficult to setup for the average user.

: The "average" user of PGP is somebody who understands why they need PGP.
: I'd say almost everybody with that level of knowledge is capable of
: understanding "type randomly for a while", and the three or four standard
: options to pass to PGP for day to day use.

: >         3) I may forget to decrypt and miss an important note.

: pay attention. If you need the security...

: >         2) Requires that I exit my E-mail reader to decrypt which takes 
: > too much time.
: > 
: >         Suggestions:
: >         1) Make it operable INSIDE PINE for example.
: >         2) Put it in EUDORA or other MOSAIC/NETSCAPE browser and make it 
: > work AUTOMATICALLY, seemlessly, in the background.
: > 

: read the newsgroup for about 30 seconds before you post. A lot of people
: have put a lot of work into this sort of stuff. Some good, some not so
: good, but that is for you to evaluate.

: Bretton

I'm a Mac user.

MacPGP is a general nightmare.  For those of us who have shell accounts, 
it is such a annoyance as to cause me to dislike using it at all except for
the most extreme messages.

I fear I am not of the ability, or of the spare time to work on making a 
seamless application myself or else it surely would have been a project 
on the top of my list.

PGP needs to be a drop and drag application.  I want a box sitting on my 
desktop, a box I can drag any document to and press two buttons after a 
mouse click and drag and encrypt/decrypt/sign a message which can then be 
copy/pasted to Zterm.  Currently the only thing that nears the 
transparancy of this sort of thing is the bulky, annoying, poorly 
packaged and massively oversized, not to mention rarely working, MacPGP 
Kit.  It doesn't seem to work out to any time advantage when I factor in 
the debugging and outright code crashes into my computation.

The modular PGP project has been out there for almost a year.  Any 
progress on this front?  Does anyone care?

Now that some lists are beginning to delay or reject unsigned messages 
altogether, I would really like to be able to reply to a simple note in 
less than the 7 minutes it currently takes me.

This is the single most problematic hitch in PGP.  It's not easy to use, 
to install, or to apply.

Every move toward transparent crypto simply serves to increase user base 
and deter a prospective ban.  It should be in EVERYONE's interest to try 
and push for a easier front end, while still allowing a flexible and 
detailed set of advanced options for the expert user.

Curve Encrypt is a classic example of simplicty and ease.  PGP front end 
designers for the Mac should take its example.


-uni- (Dark)
Spelling errors disclaimed, I've been up for 30 hours.

--
073BB885A786F666 nemo repente fuit turpissimus - potestas scientiae in usu est
6E6D4506F6EDBC17 quaere verum ad infinitum, loquitur sub rosa    -    wichtig!