Re: distributed.net and seti@home

[lamont () ICOPYRIGHT COM (Granquist, Lamont)]

I did some porting work on seti@home back when I admin'd more than just
Linux boxes, so I had the source, and really you were just doing FFTs
precisely like the web page describes.  Of course I can't confirm that the
data was *really* aracebo data and that it wasn't some NSA-inspired
FFT-based factoring scheme to crack the Russian's RSA missile codes.  And
of course I always secretly suspected that the linux porter had encoded a
package into the binary distrubution which patched your kernel to rootkit
your box and disable correct strace()ing of the seti@home binary, but I
never had time to disassemble it on an uncompromised box and prove it.

But, of course, we've all been compromised already by the Ken Thomspon
Compiler attack, so what does it matter?

On Wed, 2 Feb 2000, Kerneels wrote:
> This may sound silly, but for all you know your machine could be churning
> away at decrypting the FBI login passwords for all you know, or whetever
> else, with a lovely gui showing you that you still havent found any aliens
> :)  If there is no source, how can you be sure what is being deciphered?
> I personally like the idea of everyone working together toward a common
> goal, but I dont believe in blind trust.