At 11:05 AM -0400 5/10/01, Trei, Peter wrote: >1. I don't think a modern diesel car would have much >more HERF resistance than a gas car - I expect that the >target is not so much the ignition system as it is the >onboard computers, which modern diesels have just as much >as gas cars. Indeed, my Mercedes dealer (and mechanic) tells me that the diesels are more complicated to work on than gasoline models. And they're all filled to the brim with electronics. I know folks get tired of me saying this, but We've Had This Discussion Many Times. The news about HERF guns and disabling cars comes up every year or so. Newcomers ought to try searching the archives first. (As a trivial note, when I was working on never-finished novel about NSA/crypto-anarchy things, one plot twist involved a guy driving down the road from Los Alamos toward Santa Fe when the Feds HERFed his electronic ignition system. I wrote this part in 1989 or so. I'd done a little bit of work for Intel on the "EEC-IV" electronic ignition contract with Ford, so I knew something about the RF sensitivities.) But most of the press reports, which are ALSO based largely on recycled rumors, give the wrong impression. Does anyone here think it likely that local law enforcement will be given a "HERF gun" to disable a fleeing car? Get real. Not for many years, if then. We'll probably have "ignition key escrow" long before then. > >2. I'm highly doubtful about LEA deployment of HERF >weapons, at least in the US because of the collateral >damage/liability problem, up to and including killing >innocent bystanders with heart pacers. Cops like to >fantasize as much as anyone else. Exactly. --Tim May -- Timothy C. May [EMAIL PROTECTED] Corralitos, California Political: Co-founder Cypherpunks/crypto anarchy/Cyphernomicon Technical: physics/soft errors/Smalltalk/Squeak/agents/games/Go Personal: b.1951/UCSB/Intel '74-'86/retired/investor/motorcycles/guns
