[3906] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Ruthless.com
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Lance J. Hoffman)
Tue Jan 5 11:02:50 1999
Date: Tue, 05 Jan 1999 10:41:40 -0500
To: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>,
cypherpunks <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net>, cryptography@c2.net
From: "Lance J. Hoffman" <hoffman@SEAS.GWU.EDU>
In-Reply-To: <v04020a09b2b7ce8798f8@[139.167.130.247]>
I listened to "ruthless.com" on tape, but have not read the *paper* book.
I think the tape was abridged. I was actually considering using the book
in an information warfare class I am teaching this spring. Clancy weaves a
great yarn; however, the spectacle of a physical assault on a key escrow
center in California (as if the keys *there* would be stored in the clear)
and a number of other loose threads convinced me that my students could
(and have) written better scenarios/games themselves.
Robert Hettinga writes:
>With a back cover like that, it'll probably be a jingo-statist diatribe and
>Clipper apologia good enough to make even Dorothy Denning blow coffee out her
>nose, laughing so hard...
It is, but you can expect that from Clancy. The book gets an A for writing
but a D for content.
Lance J. Hoffman, Director, Cyberspace Policy Institute
and Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, The
George Washington University, Washington DC 20052. Phone (202) 994-5513
Fax (202) 994-5505. http://www.seas.gwu.edu/seas/institutes/cpi/
