From: tallpaul@pipeline.com (tallpaul)
Date: Wed, 10 Jan 1996 22:22:40 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Mixmaster On A $20 Floppy?
Message-ID: <199601101410.JAA29058@pipe1.nyc.pipeline.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Jan 10, 1996 03:00:00, 'Bill Stewart <stewarts@ix.netcom.com>' wrote: 
 
 
>At 08:55 PM 1/5/96 -0500, tallpaul@pipeline.com (tallpaul) wrote: 
>>I've reports that the latest version of SyQuest's external parallel port 
>>EZ135 "floppy" drive is due on the shelves this month.  
> 
>Iomega's ZIP drives are similarly priced, hold 100 MB, and  
>come in parallel and SCSI flavors. 
> 
 
Quite right. In many ways the SyQuest and Iomega products are identical.
However, I'm shooting for the SyQuest because of the advertised 12.5 msec
access time. In any case, the tech is there and it is portable so we can
expect to see a variety of similar products in the future. 
 
 
>>Question 1: Can you fit linux, pgp, mixmaster, etc. on the 135 Mb disk
and 
>>have enough useful space left over for a useful amount of data?  
> 
>As various people have said, you can do it on a couple of floppies. 
>Is Mixmaster designed in a way that could easily accommodate having 
>Mixmasters pop in and out of existence, either well-known ones that
travel, 
>or (with some enhancement) temporaries that pop up and squawk their 
>existence to some sort of web site or mailing list?  What would it  
>take to add this capability? 
> 
 
I can't answer these questions which is why I started this thread to get
answers from those who have the knowledge required to make meaningful
answers. 
 
The major problem today stopping the proliferation of "temporary" sites
seems to be the user interface. Ultimately, we would want something that
was very easy to use and had incredibly simple user manuals (like the
Army's Training Manuals for really dumb soldiers). You know, the ones that
start: "This is a bullet. It has a pointy end and a flat end. The pointy
end is the end you want to face the enemy. The flat end is the end you want
to face you." 
 
>>Question 3: Anyone want to speculate on what data recovery is like when 
>>encrypted data and the horse it rode in (and out) on has all been 
>>physically destroyed at a replacement cost of only $US20?  
> 
>Old 5 1/4" floppies make a very secure satisfying sound when you  
>take the magnetic material out and drop it into a shredder :-) 
>The 20 MB Bernoulli Box floppies were also shreddable. 
> 
 
Yeah, and imagine the noise an anti-privacy technician makes when he/she/it
is told to try to extract plaintext from the shredded results. 
 
 
 
>#-- 
>#				Thanks;  Bill 
># Bill Stewart, stewarts@ix.netcom.com, Pager/Voicemail 1-408-787-1281 
># 
># "The price of liberty is eternal vigilance" used to mean us watching 
># the government, not the other way around.... 
> 
> 
-- 
     -- tallpaul 
     -- Any political analysis that fits on a bumper sticker is wrong.