Slashdot | Google Expands Usenet Archive to 20 Years

R. A. Hettinga rahettinga at earthlink.net
Tue Dec 11 17:24:27 EST 2001


--- begin forwarded text


Status:  U
Date: Tue, 11 Dec 2001 11:12:54 -0800
Subject: Re: Slashdot | Google Expands Usenet Archive to 20 Years
From: Tim May <tcmay at got.net>
To: cypherpunks at lne.com
Sender: owner-cypherpunks at lne.com

On Tuesday, December 11, 2001, at 08:07 AM, Trei, Peter wrote:
> What expanded capability for ego-surfing!
> What expanded ability for better-forgotten posts to rise
> from the dead!
>
> Seriously, this is neat. My earliest listed posting is from
> 28 November '82. The first mention of the cypherpunks list
> appears to be a post from Eric Hughes on 25 September '92,
> which refers to the list as 'recently formed'.

Yes, it's great to see Google finally get around to doing what DejaNews
said would be done.

Interestingly, I see a January 1992 use of the term "cypherpunks":

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=+%22cypherpunks%22&hl=en&as_drrb=b&as_mind=17&as_minm=5&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=11&as_maxm=12&as_maxy=1992&rnum=9&selm=1992Jan11.232019.3543%40highlite.uucp

This predates Jude Milhon's naming of our list by about 9 months. And
the earlier reference was not in the same context. Still, interesting.

A search on "cypherpunk" gives a history of the term and the early
meetings at the Hackers Conference, the early CP meetings, etc.:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=cypherpunk&hl=en&as_drrb=b&as_mind=17&as_minm=
5&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=11&as_maxm=12&as_maxy=1992&rnum=1&selm=1992Nov16.154438.
14092%40kumr.lns.com


The first mention of "cryptoanarchy" (the spelling I used then)  is in a
9 January 1991 post from John Gilmore, citing my item on cryptoanarchy
at the 1990 Hackers Conference:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=cryptoanarchy&hl=en&as_drrb=b&as_mind=17&
as_minm=5&as_miny=1981&as_maxd=11&as_maxm=12&as_maxy=1992&rnum=1&selm=14631%40hoptoad.
uucp

"
Cryptology, Computer Networks, and Big Brother
Tim May
slide presentation

	Views privacy and freedom from the point of view of "cryptoanarchy",
	in which cryptographic technology provides people the ability to
	communicate in privacy, despite the best efforts of governments
	to prevent their doing so.  Examines technical developments that
	led to it, and social possibilities that result from it.


(I wrote "The Cryptoanarchist Manifesto" for the 1988 Crypto Conference,
where it was privately distributed to a few folks. I'd been using the
term in talks around the Bay Area for several months prior to this,
e.g., in a talk with Marc Stiegler, Phil Salin, Jim Bennett, Dave Ross,
Chip Morningstar, Randy Farmer, and some others.)


--Tim May
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a
monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also
into you." -- Nietzsche

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-- 
-----------------
R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah at ibuc.com>
The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/>
44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'



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