David A. Harding
Saturday, 08 Dec 2007
I've noticed several GNU+Linux User Groups (LUGs), particularly those in the city, have locations that request or require meeting attendees RSVP and bring identification (ID) in order to get in the building. Since everyone is bringing ID anyway, why not have a Gnu Privacy Guard (GPG) keysigning party in the lobby? Or why not geek it up and use a GPG-powered RSVP mechanism, like the one described in the hypothetical meeting announcement below.
._____. .__________________________________________________________________. | ._. | | .______________________________________________________________. | | |_| |_|_|___. _____ | | |___| |_____. | The Philadelphia Area Linux Users Group | ._. | | | .___|_|_| |_| | (PLUG) cordially invites you to our next .___| |_|_|_| | | ._____| |___| meeting, Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 | ._| |_______| | | | |_| | at The University of the Sciences in | |_|_|_| |___. | | |_____| Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |_______| |_. | | |______________________________________________________________| | | |_| | |__________________________________________________________________| |_____| Topic: The History of PLUG Speaker: Michael See Torrent[1] Summary: PLUG started by spreading Linux through advocacy. But that was hard. Now we spread Linux through mitosis. Two generations and three cell-divisions later, we have four PLUGs. Soon we will rule the world through indefatigable exponential binary fission propagation. Bill Gates was wrong: Linux isn't a virus, it's a bacteria. To attend this meeting, you are required to send a copy of your GPG public key, signed by a member of the PLUG keychain, to rsvp@...; You will receive a randomly-generated string in the return email; sign that string in ASCII-armoured format using the same public key previously emailed to us, save the resultant text file as plug-id.asc in the root directory of the ext2-formated first primary partition on an USB mass storage device, and bring the device to the meeting so security can inspect it. Camden native Phil Zimmerman will be working security. Failure to correctly follow the instructions above will result in Mr. Zimmerman giving you a pretty good roughing-up.
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