it’s demanding to defeat those evil machines

In June, I’m going down to New Orleans to give a keynote about igrep at the 2005 Red Hat Summit.
So last week, I did a quick e-mail chat with Red Hat magazine, which hit the web today. In it, I talk a little bit about my experiences with Linux:

“. . . after about a week of running Linux, I couldn’t believe that I’d ever willingly chosen to run Windows. I did my first complete switch with Mandrake and I’ve never looked back. I’m composing this response in Kate, on my primary machine, which is running kernel 2.6.8.”

I also talk about being the spokesman for igrep, what igrep is, and why I think it’s cool:

“igrep is a focused, targeted search engine aimed at developers. Because it only searches resources that are specifically relevant to developers, it saves them time and effort when they’re working on their various projects. Time developers don’t have to spend digging through piles of irrelevant search results is time they can spend goofing off. And isn’t that the whole reason we started using computers in the first place?
I’m using igrep on WWdN right now as a proof of concept, to showcase how powerful the igrep technology is. I think that igrep could eventually branch out into a whole new type of searching: rather than going to google (which is still a great tool, by the way) and trying to include and exclude terms and results to find what you’re looking for, you could use an igrep search to do that work for you. I don’t think we’re going to completely replace search engines like Google or Yahoo, but this could be the beginning of vertical niche searching for all sorts of things, like blogs, online comics, sites related to Star Wars . . .”

Incidentally, because I’m a spokesman for igrep, I get paid to represent it. My credibility is very important to me, so I wouldn’t have accepted the position if I didn’t believe in it, but I want to be completely up-front and honest about that. I will occasionally blog about igrep-related things (like appearances and stuff), but this isn’t going to turn into the igrep blog. (Remember when Bill Cosby co-starred with all sorts of Coca-Cola products in Ghost Dad? I’m not going to do that.)
In the same issue of Red Hat Magazine, there’s a nice introduction to encrypting e-mail, called “It’s 2 a.m. Do you know who’s reading your e-mail?” It’s targeted to Red Hat users, so it won’t be a good HOWTO for you if you don’t use Linux, but it’s a good overview of public-key cryptography.
If you’ve visited my contact page, you know that I’m a privacy and encryption advocate. However, as Bunny Macintosh once observed, my enthusiasm for encryption results in lots of e-mail from guys with ponytails, and hardly any e-mail from hot girls. She has a point: encryption is currently beyond the comprehension of most normal people (and the vast amount of documentation out there is written for propellerheads) but that doesn’t diminish its importance.
If you’re not a Linux user, but you use Thunderbird for e-mail (and you should) there’s a plugin called Enigmail that’s remarkably easy to use. You can learn how to use it with How to secure your e-mail with GnuPG and Enigmail.

You shouldn’t encrypt because you have something to hide; you should encrypt because you have the right to keep your communications and your files private. I encourage everyone, whether you’re a ponytail, a hot girl, an überGeek or someone who is online for the first time with a free AOL CD to read these articles and start encrypting your e-mail. Then you can send it to me, and we’ll all geek out together.
Privately, of course.

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42 thoughts on “it’s demanding to defeat those evil machines”

  1. *gasp* I have no idea who’s reading my email! LOL, thanks for the links, I’m going to go geek out now.
    Cheers!

  2. Thanks for the link to Enigmail! I have been using Thunderbird for a while and really enjoy how fast and stable it is compared to a more “mature” product like Outlook.
    I will have to try out igrep. As a developer, I often use Google to find the answers I need, and do indeed dig through a lot of stuff that is off-topic.

  3. Hey Wil,
    I don’t know how many times you’ve been to NOLA, but I’d be happy to show you a couple of unique drinking spots off the beaten path… There’s many more interesting places than Bourbon! Plus the girl I’ve been seeing is really into Star Trek and it would be fun to impress her…

  4. Ah Hah!
    Now I see why the World Poker Bloggers Tour hasn’t gotten an RSVP from you for our June event 😉
    Remember, if you can find a cheap flight from Nawlins to Vegas that gets you there before 9:30am on Saturday, your tourney seat will be there!

  5. Hi Wil,
    This is my first visit to your site, glad I found it!
    You sure have given me inspiration to look into open source, and other areas that I wasn’t aware of.
    Good luck with all of your endeavors.
    Have fun in New Orleans, make sure you make it to Cafe DuMonde if you have time for their iced coffee…

  6. You’re right, Wil. A lot of the encryption documentation is totally incomprehensible. (Now, there’s a way to encrypt something.) I can’t send you an encrypted personal email (not that I want to bother you) because I don’t understand how to do it. I’m still looking for that push button world.
    I actually work with computers, but I say I just drive them, I don’t look under the hood. And I’ve tried, but it’s just too much for my poor brain.
    I love your enthusiasm when you talk about computers, but my eyes glaze over when you talk the tech talk. But, like your poker stories, it does introduce me to some words and concepts that I wouldn’t normally hear about. So I read it all, hoping for some of it to sink in through repetition. Continue to spread the word.

  8. That is so cool Wil! I too know a few places down here in the Big Easy, and will have to check out the cool bands that will be playing when your here.

  9. Wil,
    I too have recently lost a dear companion (a dog on March 8th). He was my best friend for 12 years. Since then a new pal has wandered into my life, which is pretty wierd considering I live in rual s.e. Iowa, he was desperately in need of medical care and longing for a home. I don’t know if he had help from my old friend but I’m glad he found his way to me. I think Mojo Kitty will like it here. My 6 year old cat Felix seems to enjoy Mojo’s company as well. I wish the best to you and yours!–nstg8tr

  10. Hi Wil,
    Thanks for the explanation of igrep. igrok it a little better now, and will spend some time with tech searches there. I currently have a website problem to solve, and I’m hoping it will help me out. I got the Red Hat Magazine this morning and filed it away without even looking at the table of contents, so I’m glad you mentioned it, too.
    Only one thing … WTF is up with the sideburns in the Red Hat column picture?
    Be well,

  11. I’m a hot chick with a ponytail and I didn’t understand one word of this. Does your wife understand all this geek stuff?

  12. I wish that mail programs did something different with the HASH gobbletygook, though. Couldn’t they hide it and display a little icon you can click on to verify the message?
    I can’t see people’s moms understanding what all those extra character are for.

  13. Dammit! I’ve moved away from New Orleans for not even two weeks, and now all kinds of stuff I wanted to see is coming to town.
    Wil, any chance you’ll be coming to Minneapolis soon?

  15. I havent been able to read your site for a few days and played catch-up today.
    I certainly hope that that email was a joke. I couldnt imagine being truly that stupid.
    Have a great time in the Big Easy!

  17. hmmmm I don’t think I fit into any categories.. but I don’t get encryption.. although to be totally honest I have not actually sat down and really TRIED to spend some time and figure it out…. so.. I might do that.
    But not for you… just because…. Fnord!

  19. Aw, man! I wish I was going home for that week (about an hour away from N.O.), but these insane MidWesterners up here are still going to be in school and my plane ticket isn’t for until the last week of June. *pout*
    And definitely have Caf

  20. Wil, I think it is highly ironic that on one hand, you are this email privacy advocate, but on the otherhand, you find it acceptable to publish personal emails on your site. I am referring to that pro Bush email by Craig R. that you posted on the 10th of April. It said something like “Wil how a terrible news that ya are a lefty”
    I am glad you posted it, and I found it incredibly funny. Frankly, I was pissing myself laughing when I read it. But, I think that by publishing that personal email, you kind of diminish your argument that everyone should encrypt their mail.
    I don’t think less of your site or anything, but I felt ethically obliged to point that out.

  21. Wil, I think it is highly ironic that on one hand, you are this email privacy advocate, but on the otherhand, you find it acceptable to publish personal emails on your site. I am referring to that pro Bush email by Craig R. that you posted on the 10th of April. It said something like “Wil how a terrible news that ya are a lefty”
    I am glad you posted it, and I found it incredibly funny. Frankly, I was pissing myself laughing when I read it. But, I think that by publishing that personal email, you kind of diminish your argument that everyone should encrypt their mail.
    I don’t think less of your site or anything, but I felt ethically obliged to point that out.

  23. Wil–
    Re: this– “Remember when Bill Cosby co-starred with all sorts of Coca-Cola products in Ghost Dad?”
    No. Nobody does, Wil. Because nobody saw the damn thing, and even less saw “Leonard, Part 6”. I love the Cos, but he hasn’t done a movie of value since “Mother, Jugs & Speed”.

  25. RedHat is evil! I only use freely available non-commercial Linux distributions. I’m running Debian on my server and it’s very stable. I’ve also been trying out Ubuntu which looks very nice.
    There are a few GUI front-ends for GPG on Mac OS X and PGP includes a plugin for mail.app, which unfortunately doesn’t work with Tiger.

  26. Umm I just read the Red Hat Mag interview, and… you were never a hobo? And you never worked at a Waffle house?
    Beforehand I would like to interject that I don’t feel that you’ve lied to me at all (in fact I find these facts to be delicious literary plot twisters), but which part of “Dancing Barefoot” is fiction and which is actually fact? And which is which?
    BTW do you have a CC-licensed freely downloadable version of “Dancing Barefoot?” I promise I’ll buy a dead-tree copy as soon as I can afford it. (I might even fly to LA and ask for your autograph personally)

  27. Wil, I’m usually pretty smart, but I have NO idea what encrypted mail is or how to do it. Neither do I have any knowledge of igrip (do they sell a line of power tools?) or that other stuff you were talking about. Perhaps your next book will be on remedial encrypting. I’m beginning to know how my mom feels about e-mail… totally lost.
    Sigh, guess I’ll stick with the pretty pictures in photo blog. 😉

  28. …Nice I just asked if You could come down to Nawlins for Mardi Gras; and bam you’re coming in june. Hope to catch you then….enjoy

  29. Ok, I was determined to sit down tonight with a couple beers and attempt to download Thunderbird, Enigmail and the GnuPG clients and figure out all this encryption stuff on my own. I got Thunderbird fine, no problem there. (At this point, one beer down! YAY!) It was then that I realized I don’t pay for the “Hotmail Upgrade” email account, so I did a little search for a free Pop email account. (Found a nice, free client albeit ad ridden at HotPOP.com but this is strictly for testing/learning purposes at this point). Two beers down and I decided to break into the bottle of Tequila my buddy just brought me back from Mexico. This stuff is smooth and I can’t pronounce the name; so I decided to make it a double and chase it with a beer. Then I go to the GnuPG link you provided. (Not the best idea when the fear and madness of a tequilla buzz has you in the midst of its grip.) GnuPG ended up looking more like: GnuPGodoJKNDFOOjNJbnfjJNFJKD and needless to say my eyes glazed over as I was lost in the text. Oh well, there is always tomorrow. Thank the maker it’s Friday! WoOT! I’ll see if I can’t decipher some of this while I’m bored outta my skull at work tomorrow. Thanks for hooking us up with the links and sharing the knowledge! Time to go play some MxO! 😉

  32. What scares me about you, Wil, is that you can make geek talk about tech stuff sound funny and interesting. I know zilch about all the issues you brought up in that post, but now I’m curious. I’d have to say this means to me that you’re a very good writer.
    And hey, for all you sweet geeky boys out there – I’m a hot girl (or I was before the baby) who is married to one of your ranks. My sweet hubby does desktop support, reads comics and spends more time on his laptop than he does outside, and I love him like mad. Geeks rule, and its myth that hot girls can’t be geeks too.
    Keep up the good work, and I’m definitely gonna keep coming back because this blog is one of the best on the web.

  34. Damn you Wil,
    I’ll be in New Orleans for the NABS (North American Benthological Society) conference exactly 1 week before the Red Hat Summit….Oh so close!
    I guess I’ll wait till the stars align, and you see your way clear to visit the east coast.
    Signed:
    an ex-Wesley/actor fan…now a new Wil/writer fan

  35. I love that you can post about a theatre audition (during which The Writer and The Actor duke it out) and then let The Geek post the next day.
    “.. my enthusiasm for encryption results in lots of e-mail from guys with ponytails, and hardly any e-mail from hot girls.”
    Yeah, but The Writer and The Actor are likely to attract hot girls and that’s 2/3.
    (Of course I’m not counting The Father, The Husband, The Son, etc. in this case. They’re a little bit likely to get email from hot girls.)

  36. Bunny may be spot on with her observations on encryption, but try to ignore anything she says after the 5th drink… Or the morning after…
    (Heh, you linked Bunny. Cabbage Rabbit will be so proud of her sister.)
    I’m sorry, I just can’t support any OS that allows High School aged scriptkiddies and smacktards to alter its basic functionality. Microsoft may be the 5th sign of the apocalypse, bloated, buggy and vulnerable as all hell, but unless someone can lock a version of Linux down and simplify it so that only the most profoundly retarded can’t succeed in it (much like ITT and the Career Training Institute,) then you’ll have a product that remains unmarketable and unpopular.
    N00b soccer-moms and 85 year old men deserve to have the same internets you do.

  37. I have been using CiphireMail for some time now to encrypt email traffic. Once setup it is 100% transparent to the end user – in my house it is currently running on both my wife’s and kids’ computers. What better proof is there that it is simple to use!
    Any moderately effective geek should be able to set it up in no time. I am not affiliated with Ciphire in any way — just a happy user.
    It’s free, and cross-platform too (linux, osx, windows) http://www.ciphiremail.com

  38. Hi, Will. My name is Clarity, I’m 25 and currently living in Europe. I just discovered your blog today. It was during one of those online silly quizzes entitled “Who is your famous blogger twin?” Your link came up as a response. I thought.. “What? Will wheaton has a blog..that’s impossible!” I have to admit that I was thrilled to discover that you kept an online journal. I was amazed at your writing and enjoyed going through your archive. Now allow me to be a bit of a dork for a moment… When I was 13 I wrote you a long letter because I was a fan. You sent me a personalized typed letter..and a card with a picture and your signature. I kept that picture for years and it touched me. Funny, I know..you probably sent out millions of those cards. But that just sticks out in my memory. It made this one girl very happy. I still have it somewhere in a keepsake box faded and yellowed. I really admire you as an actor and now as a writer. I’m married and not that silly little girl with a crush anymore..don’t be concerned! But I think it’s great that you’re sharing bits of your life and your writing for the world to see! Of all the actors out there, when I hear your name..I always smiled. Sometimes you don’t realize how much you can touch others with your words, or with your talent.

  39. Why you out lookin for hot chicks anyway? It’s always the family men scoping all the hot chicks. Damn, kid. Leave a few hot chicks for the rest of the world.

  40. not that i’m not absolutely thrilled to hear about your computer… stuff… *cough*cough*, i loved your last post on your audition. how exciting! i really hope you get it. congratulations either way, that sounds fantastic.

  42. To Dr. Kilmore, re:
    so I did a little search for a free Pop email account
    Did you know that Gmail provides free POP access?
    And so I’ve got Tbird, I’ve got POP mail, I’ve downloaded enigmail and GPG, but I’m still to chickin’ (and overworked) to switch from Phil Zimmerman’s free (as in beer) PGP client. Soon enough, hopefully…

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