Re: IMPORTANT: RSA Data Security Challenge participants please read
> 1. Do we want it? Do we really want free software to be associated with
> code-breaking in the eyes of the uneducated public? I'm not sure that
> would not hurt us. Just think about the articles on a government code
> being broken using a "hacker" tool called "Debian". Also, some of the
> people participating most likely don't have permission to use their
> employer's machines for outside cryptography projects (I'm thinking of
> a certain person at a U.S. military facility). I don't want to be around
> when that gets exposed.
Anybody who even starts along that reasoning is going to end up at
"linux", not "debian" as the hacker tool.
People are going to participate in this one way or the other. This
just gives us a little higher profile among the linux community. It
is that community that will be the people regularly checking the stats
page and seeing our name.
> 2. Does it hurt us in other ways? For example, will we be perceived
> as working against people we should be working with?
Only if the people we are supposed to be working with is the US government.
If we move the email address to linuxnet and just use the debian domain,
then we're seen as a friendly competitor within the linux community but
still working for the good of the community. It would be like a barn-
building contest to see which team could put it's wall up faster.
> 3. Are there better ways for us to spend our time? I sure think so.
Considering the minimal amount of time it takes to set this up and
the free publicity it could generate for the next several years, I
think it's very hard to beat that cost:benefit ratio.
Brian
( bcwhite@verisim.com )
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In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they're not.
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