Insert Regex here for GPG and PGP

Memo to myself: Don't eat the Turkey sashimi.

In other news: I don't usually post links to things just to say "go read this". However, I'll make an exception in these cases.

First, I was recently going to use the word "Manichean" to mean "dualistic, good-vs-evil view of the universe, with an implied inevitable battle between the two". However, when I Googled for it to check the spelling, I came across this article explaining why that wasn't a terribly accurate use of the word. Interesting stuff...I certainly didn't know there were any Buddhist-influenced ascetics hanging around Baghdad in the 3rd century.

Second, there's some interesting and contradictory stuff on the procedures for GPG/PGP keysigning parties here and here. Why does publicizing a public key "slightly reduce the security of a key pair"? I don't know. I've had a quick look through my copy of Applied Cryptography (3rd Ed.), donated by the kind man behind Pangolin Systems, but can't find anything from Saint Bruce about this. Anyone?

Third, there's an excellent set of tools for keysigning parties available here. One of the people who signed my key at LISA had used caff to send it back, which is a nice wrapper around the whole procedure (grab the key, sign the key, encrypt the key with itself, email it back to each of the key's email addresses). The lack of understandable (but see next paragraph's self-ass-kicking) documentation for GPG means that a) this automation is very nice, and b) I'm kicking myself for not buying Michael Lucas' book from the No Starch Press booth at LISA.

Fourth, if'n you've got GPG, it's worth reading the documentation, like the FAQ or the GNU Privacy Handbook. Shame on me for not doing that previously. (And shame on me for taking so long to email people's keys back to them.)

Fifth, you can find some pretty stats here, or the trust path from me to Wietse Venema. Geek Pride!

Sixth and finally, there is this handy little page about how to set up a CPAN library in your home directory. Since it took me a while to track this down, I'm throwing it in here so's I can find it quicker next time.