From: Mike McNally <m5@vail.tivoli.com>
Date: Fri, 3 May 1996 10:26:11 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: [getting off topic] Re: Freedom and security
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.91.960502123659.8410F-100000@mcfeely.bsfs.org>
Message-ID: <3188FCD2.3885@vail.tivoli.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


Rabid Wombat wrote:

> If I send snail, there are "rules" governing who can open the envelope.
> If I'm suspected of criminal activity, the community has recourse.

If you don't encrypt or otherwise secure sensitive surface mail the same 
way you would e-mail, you deserve what you get.  The community, of course,
is in the same state with secure snail-mail case as it is with PGP-encrypted
e-mail.

Which reminds me of something I've been meaning to ask about.  I read
(probably in WiReD) about a bar-code-like (well, not *much* like, but
ink-on-paper similar) technique for rendering data onto paper with
enhanced properties of storage efficiency, resistance to degradation
through photocopying, and ease of recovery via ordinary scanning.  The
stuff looks like bunches of little lines at different angles, I think.
Anyway, what I'm curious about is whether encode/decode (i.e., print
and scan) software is available.

______c_____________________________________________________________________
Mike M Nally * Tiv^H^H^H IBM * Austin TX    * pain is inevitable  
       m5@tivoli.com * m101@io.com          *
      <URL:http://www.io.com/~m101>         * suffering is optional