Re: Welcome to the list

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 4:45 AM 10/13/95, Rich Salz wrote:
>You will probably find it most helpful to read through a few months
>archives of the list (ask around for back digests, usenet access, etc).
>And read the Tim's cyphernomicon.  You'll find most intro-level answers
>there, and you're less likely to annoy the natives. :)

Thanks, Rich, for the mention of my extremely long FAQ, available (if
you're lucky and Netcom isn't too jammed up) at ftp.netcom.com in
/pub/tc/tcmay, as "CP-FAQ." Also in compressed forms.

A better version is the Web version at;

http://www.oberlin.edu/~brchkind/cyphernomicon/

(And there are a couple of other sites that have it.)

It is very long, and doesn't include specific things about the Netscape
hack, the au courant topic, but it does have a lot of history, background,
motives, and interesting (to me at least) applications/implications.

(The problem with most FAQs is that that they're either too basic, or too
long. I opted for the encycopedic, figuring people could use search tools.
Even so, lots of topics don't get enough coverage.)

The best way to get rolling with the Cypherpunks list is, I think, to do
what Rich says. Read for a while, look at the archives, get a copy of
Schneier's book and maybe a few others (Bamford, Kahn, the Springer-Verlag
books, etc.), and find an area that interests you.

--Tim May




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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
Corralitos, CA              | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839      | black markets, collapse of governments.
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