[OT] Why are you using the GPG / PGP keys?

[Mark H. Wood]

On Tue, May 28, 2013 at 09:18:57PM +0000, Henry Hertz Hobbit wrote:
> On 05/28/2013 04:17 PM, Forlasanto wrote:
> > The fact remains that email is "the house that Jack built." The wall
> > plugs are upside down, the wiring is sketchy at best, the plumbing is
> > crazy and doesn't function correctly, the house is half wood and half
> > brick, and/Jack forgot to put locks on the doors./
> > 
> > The fact that younger generations don't see email as a viable system is
> > telling. It's an opportunity for something /better /to take email's
> > place. Hopefully something with built-in encryption, rather than
> > encryption tacked on as an afterthought. Just my two cents.
> 
> It is a pretty good two cents but you don't understand where the
> encryption is needed most.  What needs to happen is that the aging
> SMTP protocol needs to be replaced by a SSMTP (Secure Simple Mail
> Transfer Protocol):
> 
> http://securemecca.blogspot.com/2012/09/vote-against-spam.html

The code is there.  The problem is that so few use it.  I always
enable STARTTLS but I see a lot of rejections.

I think that the problem that nobody wants to face is key management.
Vetting potential trusted introducers is *hard* and you have to keep
doing it periodically.  Maintaining trust stores is hard and tedious.
Most end users just don't do it.

To a certain extent the problem is fundamentally intractable.  Trust
is a complicated beast and depends on individual values and
judgments.  Automation can help but can't take it over.

> But not only young people today, but a lot of people that used
> to use email no longer use it.  Unless a way to get rid of the
> spam can be devised only a few stalwarts that MUST use email
> will use it.  But I dumped Gnome 3 entirely after looking at

I can't wait to see a serious legal or engineering discussion taking
place over Twitter.  No, on second thought I can....

Imagine if this thread were being carried on by us scribbling on each
other's Facebook walls.  *shudder*

> OpenSuSE 12.3 with Gnome as the last straw because I could only
> use Firefox and LibreOffice.  This smart-phone GUI on a desktop
> shows that thinking is in short supply.  But they just approved
> the iPhone and iPad for military use now.  The world is changing
> but most of the changes aren't good.

Wow, *real* military use?  I want to see an iPhone after Raytheon has
had a go at it.

-- 
Mark H. Wood, Lead System Programmer   mwood at IUPUI.Edu
Machines should not be friendly.  Machines should be obedient.
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