[107207] in Cypherpunks
RE: Ruthless.com
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Walter Burton)
Tue Jan 5 17:38:27 1999
From: Walter Burton <wburton@pipestream.com>
To: "Lance J. Hoffman" <hoffman@SEAS.GWU.EDU>,
Robert Hettinga
<rah@shipwright.com>,
cypherpunks <cypherpunks@cyberpass.net>, cryptography@c2.net
Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 17:14:12 -0500
Reply-To: Walter Burton <wburton@pipestream.com>
> It is, but you can expect that from Clancy. The book gets an
> A for writing but a D for content.
IMO, Tom Clancy's writing has always stunk. The man has no soul, voice,
or ear for dialog. John LeCarre he ain't. He should be writing VCR
manuals.
Perhaps his craftsmanship has improved with this latest fare, but it
would be a MASSIVE leap to bring him into the same ballgame with even
the marginally decent of his contemporaries.
Of course, he'll now be regarded as Pundit Primo on matters crypto. Now
that he's done a book on it, CNN will blaze the title, "Tom Clancy --
Bestselling Author, Cryptography Expert" beneath his pasty face on Larry
King Live.
Whatever. More power to him.
---
Walter S. Burton <mailto:wburton@pipestream.com>
For my PGP public key, send a message with the subject "get public key."
Fingerprint: 3E28 7C81 536C 92FE ED01 6B70 0E37 DB49 9F6C 8DF8
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lance J. Hoffman [mailto:hoffman@SEAS.GWU.EDU]
> Sent: Tuesday, January 05, 1999 10:42 AM
> To: Robert Hettinga; cypherpunks; cryptography@c2.net
> Subject: Re: Ruthless.com
>
>
> 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...
>
>
>
>
>
>
> 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/
>
