[Cryptography] Long-term security (was Re: ratcheting DH strengths over time)

John Gilmore gnu at toad.com
Tue Nov 17 05:26:28 EST 2015


> Another ray of light is in smoke alarms. The new ones come with a
> battery designed to last the life of the device. When the battery
> runs down, replace the whole box. (This will also replace the
> nuclear material used to detect smoke, which is why regular
> replacement is recommended.) If people actually replace their smoke
> alarms, they may be willing to replace other devices just because
> time has past.

This is perhaps a ray of black light.  I was forced to upgrade an old
smoke alarm to one of these units (because the Feds have forced every
manufacturer to stop selling the old ones).  The first "new" one I got
was way too sensitive -- merely turning on a gas burner on the stove
would set the thing to shrieking.  I replaced that with a second one.
It had the same problem.  Eventually, one day when we were cooking, we
took the thing down and smashed it -- it was the only way to get it to
shut up.  You can't just remove the &%*(#@) battery (it locks in
place), and apparently you can't buy one that actually can tell
cooking on a stovetop from a dangerous fire.

Luckily I found a few old units that a friend replaced -- so, armed
with a few 9-volt batteries I will be able to have a working smoke
alarm.  Or at least I'll have an "old" non-working smoke alarm that I
can live with, instead of a "new" non-working smoke alarm that I can't
live with.

Let's not use this as a great example of how to force users to upgrade
(to non-working devices they are forbidden to control).

	John


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