From: "Peter Trei" <trei@process.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 23:30:35 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: hello
Message-ID: <199708291518.IAA14303@toad.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



> Date:          Fri, 29 Aug 1997 07:19:07 -0600
> From:          TruthMonger <tm@dev.null>


[someone wrote]
> Can anybody teach me the abc's on Hacking, Cracking, Phranking,
> Cryptomography, I know that to be a good hacker you have to know all,
> but speciallize on one.  Or do any of you are in the LA area that
> willing to teach me face to face.

I usually ignore people whose clue meter reads in the negative, 
(hint: cypherpunks want people to have *better* security, 
not less), but there's a long standing tradition on cpunks of 
being creative with other people's typos.

Lets see:

"Phranking" This seems to draw from the word 'franking' which is
related to snail mail cancellation, and 'phreaking' which is a
contraction of 'phone freaking', refering to stealing phone
service. Therefore, 'phranking' must mean the art of faking stamps
and postal cancellations in an effort to steal postal service. I
don't think anyone on this list can help you. Ask again after the
PO introduces it's 2D barcoded stamps, when the privacy implications
may spark some interest (btw, I spotted something very much like this 
on a UPS package last night).

'Cryptomography' seems to draw from 'crypto', meaning 'secret'
and 'tomography' the art of making crossectional images 
(tomography is the T in CAT scan). Therefore, 'cryptomography' is
the art of making secret crossectional images. I think the query 
should have been directed to the people who make airport luggage 
scanners, or some very weird subset of voyeurs, not us.

Peter Trei
trei@process.com

aka 'Etymologymonger'




Peter Trei
Senior Software Engineer
Purveyor Development Team                                
Process Software Corporation
http://www.process.com
trei@process.com