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From: rpaul@crow.UUCP (Rodian Paul)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: SecretMail
Message-ID: <9103071829.AA20188@crow.omni.co>
Date: 7 Mar 91 18:29:55 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 48

> Would you (or others) like a proprietary mechanism that would work only
> between IRIS's?
> 

Initially yes, as I suppose that's gunna be the easiest to incorporate and
the people we tend to send encrypted mail to use IRIS's as their platforms.

> Are you interested in the Internet Secure Mail project?  Is the cost of
> "tickets" a consideration?  (That uses patented RSA crypto stuff, and
> involves something like $25 for the right to send things.  I haven't
> figured out if the right is for a company or for an individual, or for how
> many From: addresses.  I don't know how many messages the ticket is lasts,
> nor how many months or years.  There has been some recent controversy on
> these issues, so exact answers many not yet be knowable.)
> 

I'm not familiar with the above project, but as a possible end user I'd 
prefer just to pay a one time fee bundled in the price of the software 
purchase and updates. Why not handle it like the AT&T Documenters Work
Bench Package?

> How important are "multimedia" or other non-text inclusions?  What about
> 8-bit text?  Would you rather have X.400 or other, esp. non-UNIX gateways
> or mechanisms?  Again, do you want a standard or something proprietary?
> 

With (I hope) SGI's continuing slant towards full ANSI C implementation
(i.e. wide characters and string libraries) I would like 8bit+ handling
of text. The Japanese staff here would at times like to be able to use
Kanji text editors, but none of them want to bother dicking around learning
kanji-emacs and stick to vi. 

"multimedia"? for that I don't mind sticking to encrypt/compress/uucp. I 
assume that when image and voice xfer's become more prevelant they will use a
different transport method from good ol' Mail.

As I don't deal with non-UNIX mechanisms (except the slightly mundane Mac OS) 
it isn't an issue with me.

However, I would rather forgo the wait for a standard package at first and
would happily make use of an SGI proprietary product.

Anybody else out there got any comments they feel worth voicing on this
subject? Post away.

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