Re: Air gap technologies

[Frederick M Avolio <fred () avolio com>]

At 03:32 PM 1/23/01 -0800, Crispin Cowan wrote:
> > With the added property that the cable is only ever connected to one side
> > or the other at a time?
>
> The assertion from those of us in the skeptics gallery is that a cable
> connected to only one end at a time is equivalent to a veeeerrrrry long cable,
> i.e. no significant difference.  We await a cogent explanation of how it is
> different, and snipe until we get one :-)

And at 02:21 PM 1/23/01 -0800, Aleph One wrote:

> A disconnected cable is just as a good to a very close approximation as a
> connected cable were there is no software listening to any requests on it

Crispin says that the skeptics viewpoint is that a disconnected cable is 
like a long connected cable. Aleph says that they ae just as good. I would 
say "functionally equivalent, but practically -- in implementation -- very 
different. I maintain a short connected cable is equivalent to a very long 
connected cable but both are different from a disconnected one. If we 
cannot agree that a cut cable and a non-cut cable are different then we 
cannot discuss anything further, can we? :-) I bet we agree if I hand you a 
wire with copper showing and I tell you to put it in your mouth because, 
trust me, the wire is very, very long.

And maybe that is a way to look at it. Would you grab onto the 
copper?  Would you if you knew and could prove that the wire was not 
connected to anything? Would you if I told you that it was physically 
connected but practically disconnected because the software just wouldn't 
send electricity down that wire... honest.

I'm thinking that Whale has to build these boxes very big so that you can 
see the gap (Mind The Gap!), but they'd really be too expensive... :-)

f

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