From: Declan McCullagh <declan@pathfinder.com>
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997 14:36:05 -0800 (PST)
To: Sean Roach <roach_s@alph.swosu.edu>
Subject: Re: Newt's phone calls
In-Reply-To: <199701142209.RAA26359@pathfinder.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970114173320.24637A-100000@cp.pathfinder.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


It's a gradual change, certainly. The Washinton Post hasn't mentied crypto
in their exhaustive covering of the subject. But I maintain it's not that
far beneath the radar. Watch the Lehrer Newhour (or whatever the hell it's
called now) tonight, for instance.

-Declan

On Tue, 14 Jan 1997, Sean Roach wrote:

> At 08:37 PM 1/13/97 -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote:
> >Don't be too sure that crypto is that far beneath the radar. I spent
> >Thursday through Saturday at an annual privacy conference for activists
> >from around the country, and they understood the principles. Their
> >voicemails were filling up with calls from reporters last Friday about the
> >Gingrich incident, and I know they were talking crypto.
> ...
> Believe me, at least around here it is.
> I am a college student studying computer science, and 80% of the people that
> I talk to on a regular basis not only know how to play around with windows,
> (and Netscape), but also at least a modicum of simple fixes to simple
> problems, (such as unformatting a DOS disk).  This is what I consider to be
> bottom level for that 80%, however, very few of them know even as much about
> cryptography as I do.  And I barely know how to use PGP.
> I have had Computer Science professors express ignorance as to what PGP is,
> much less all of these others that I have learned about by hanging around here.
> A few people know what crypto is, but most don't.
> 
>