FC: RSA 2000 day 4 conference report from "Ralph"

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

**********

Declan,
The IBM Cryptographer's Gala: Very nice, huge crowd. Lot's of sushi, dim
sum, pastas, salads, meats, deserts. No one went hungry. Sodas, water,
wine, beer, martini bars, hard liquor. The wine tasting area was good.
The raw tuna and sushi were great, as I had recovered enough to sample them
(unlike my erstwhile compatriots, who were still a little green). Dress
ranged from jeans to formals. Notable: The blonde dancers in red vinyl;
Jefferson Starship (lot's O' folks reliving their youth, I suspect, based on
the crowd), who were good, but before my time. Notably, the ersatz Greeks
(in Roman regalia) were dancing around, fun. And the 30 something lady in a
silver gown, who had a floral scent shock wave of nuclear proportions
following her across the floor was clearly having a good time, as we fell
gasping for breath. The pickup line of the night was "my office is only ten
feet from his" was incredible, but even more so was the appearance that it
worked ... a clear example of the benefits (or dangers) of beverage alcohol.
John Bidzos had a great time, he was all smiles every time I saw him, which
was often as he was about 10-20 feet away throughout the night. He was in
the thick of the pack near the stage most of the night. We left after
Jefferson Starship finished, as we were tired, and further partying would
not have been wise. No "Boy's night out" at local "clubs".
The day's sessions were OK. Notable were the morning sessions on PSA key
generation, Key finding (especially this one), and Java implementations of
AES. The afternoon keynoter was a snoozer.
Dennis Miller: Great, very tough crowd. He noted amusing smart versus
really smart. Funny, humor culturally directed, so most may not have gotten
it. Some vulgarity, but not gratuitously. Good lines - if one wants to
bother children, then kill oneself - NOW!
Also, in discussing that VR may allow for simulated sex in 10 years, he
stated:
"If iron workers can sit with a remote in one hand and a Foster's in the
other, and have sex with Claudia Schiffer for $19.95, then this would make
crack look like Sanka".
Overall funny, but again, directed at an American crowd, and we are not
really his target demographic anyway, for the most part.
L8r,
Ralph



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