ISP Information:
This is a memory device. Once data is written to a PROM it is there forever, unlike with an EPROM. A PROM is also a curious high school ritual involving strangely colored dresses, tuxedos, and sometimes limousines, unconsciously mirroring the wedding rituals most of its participants will undergo at some point in the following 10-15 years. PROMs leave some traumatized and others gleeful, but everyone agrees the post-PROM
ISP Glossary:
PROM - Playing Devil's advocate for a moment, why is it so bad if the government can tap into my e-mail the same way they do into my phones? If the government can use the technology to stop one terrorist attack, or to catch one future greedy CEO, or to break up a drug dealing operation, why should I care if they can also read my personal e-mail?Would you allow the police to search your home whenever they felt likeit? What about pulling you over for any reason?I cannot trust a government that doesn't trust its citizens. I haveabsolutely nothing to hide, but that doesn't mean I want to give thegovernment carte blanche to investigate me and spy on me.Yes, we could possibly catch the next Enron. But I doubt it. We couldn'tcatch a bunch of Middle Eastern flight students who wanted to skip thoseboring classes about take-offs and landings. Why aren't the same people who are afraid of touch-screen voting problems in favor of tools that will help police catch cyber- criminals? Or what about spam? What's the point of making it illegal if law enforcement doesn't have the tools to catch violators?I'm not against touch-screen voting because I'm afraid of vote fraud. I'magainst it because it's a waste of money. My county uses the good oldfashioned #2 pencil and Scantron sheet and it works just fine. Othervoting methods were demonized in 2000 when, quite frankly, the problem washuman error. I used to live in Florida and I remember even in 1992checking my ballot to make sure everything punched through. I can'texpect the government to do everything for me. Every aspect of my well being in the USA is based upon the rule of law. Couldn't one make the argument that the only way this "bugging" of the Internet could be used against innocent people is if we lose the rule of law here, but that if we lose the rule of law then the Internet problems will be insignificant compared to all the others? My personal view is that all of these efforts are in vain anyway. Any first-semester encryption textbook gives me the tools to create secure electronic communications on the Internet. (For example, if I really cared to, I could generate a huge one-time random cypher, give the only copy to my friend, and the only way people could read our conversations is if they stole a copy of the key. If I wanted to transfer the key without telling my friend "I'm transfering the key," I could use a track on a publicly available CD for the key, or send a JPG of a friend, etc.)I agree. There are plenty of tools out there allowing people to encrypttheir messages. If someone were really motivated I supposed they couldcreate their own. Or use low-tech methods of communicating. During WorldWar I, Germans in this country had phonographs to send Morse code atsomething like 100 words per minute. This was recorded in Germany andplayed back and a slower speed. Are we actively monitoring every inch ofRF spectrum for something like this? What about face-to-faceconversations? Letters? Even hidden messages in personal ads orcomp.dcom.telecom postings could be used.John Mayson Austin, Texas, USA
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