Keith_Chandler@10NRC3.CEO.DG.COM (10/23/87)
So, let's assume for a moment that the nice people in Washington and the nice people in Moscow see the light and decide to allow a UUCP (or whatever) link between our universities and theirs. Why shouldn't they? As we have read here over the past few days, it would appear that they can't really keep it from happening anyway! BUT... are any of us really naive enough to believe that 'useful' information is really going to flow bidirectionally across that link? When is the last time you read of a Soviet being arrested for trying to sell technical documentation to the U.S.? Let's get serious and drop this facade of innocence regarding the state of world affairs.
imprint@orchid.waterloo.edu (U of Waterloo Student Newspaper) (10/25/87)
In article <5.003752@adam.DG.COM> <Keith_Chandler%10NRC3.CEO.DG.COM@adam.DG.COM> writes: >would appear that they can't really keep it from happening anyway! >information is really going to flow bidirectionally across that >link? When is the last time you read of a Soviet being arrested for >trying to sell technical documentation to the U.S.? Let's get >serious and drop this facade of innocence regarding the state of >world affairs. Hmmmm . . . I suppose that some of us think that "technical documentation" is not always the most interesting or useful part of cross-cultural intercourse. We really cannot determine the value of what they might say to us until we hear it. If nothing else, we might hope that some small measure of the abysmal ignorance and mythology generated by the propaganda machines of both sides about the other might be dispelled. Doug Thompson Fido 221/162 watmath!orchid!imprint watmath!221/162.fido!Doug_Thompson
ken@cs.rochester.edu (Ken Yap) (10/26/87)
(-: (-: I can see it now: Soviet spy sends Unix source code back on a microdot. An army of typists punch it all in. "Comrade General. I have just brought up Russnix on our KMK-11." "What good is it?" "You can read Usenet news with this command, rn. Watch this." "soc.singles? rec.audio? But there is no information there. Bah, show me something else." "You can share your files by setting the modes. Notice the output of ls -l." "Bah. I have no intention to share my secrets with my fellow generals. I stick with MOSC-DOS. Waste of time. No more freebie trips to the West for you, Ivan." Ken :-) :-)
brt@homxc.UUCP (B.REYTBLAT) (10/27/87)
In article <11349@orchid.waterloo.edu>, imprint@orchid.waterloo.edu (U of Waterloo Student Newspaper) writes: > > If nothing else, we might hope that > some small measure of the abysmal ignorance and mythology > generated by the propaganda machines of both sides about the > other might be dispelled. Or that this will become yet another avenue for further propaganda and disinformation campaigns routinely and skillfully conducted by the Soviet Govt. Frankly, I don't think you understand the meaning of the word "propaganda", as it is practiced behind the iron curtain.