Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 13:46:19 -0600
From: Rocke Verser <rcv@dopey.verser.frii.com>
To: deschall-announce@gatekeeper.megasoft.com
Subject: WE FOUND IT!
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"Strong cryptography makes the world a safer place."
That's the message RSA has been waiting for us to decipher.
And we did it!
The correct key (8558891AB0C851B6) was reported to RSA Data Security
shortly before midnight last night (Mountain Time). RSA's automated
server acknowledged our win!
The winning computer is a Pentium 90MHz, operated by iNetZ Corporation
of Salt Lake City, Utah. Their employee, Michael K. Sanders, was the
individual who was running the DESCHALL client.
Congratulations, Michael. And congratulations to all who participated!
Many thanks are due, all around.
Special thanks to Justin Dolske and Matt Curtin, who took enormous
pressure off of me, early in the project; and who have kept the client
archives, mailing lists, and gateways humming right along; and who
diligently responded to *so many* questions on the mailing lists.
Thanks very much!
Special thanks to Darrell Kindred and Andrew Meggs, whose programming
skill in their respective fields (fast bitslice clients and fast
user-friendly Mac PPC clients) is unmatched!
Special thanks to Karl Runge, who has spent many evenings into the wee
hours (is 5 AM wee?) to develop some outstanding stats and to make sure
those stats were posted each morning!
Special thanks to Jeff Simmons, and others, whose names tragically
escape me, who did some early publicity to get the project rolling!
Special thanks to the other developers, Guy Albertelli and Kelly
Campbell. Guy performed a number of "ports", and Kelly produced the
first Mac client.
Thanks to countless others, who devoted not just their CPU cycles, but
their boundless energy as well.
I offer both thanks and consolations to our only public "competitor",
SolNET.
Magnus and Fredrik: As I have said before, SolNET is a class outfit. I
never once heard you disparage your competition. We thank you!
In a sense, the "win" belongs to all of us, who contributed CPU cycles
and clients and ideas and innovations. We searched less than 1/4 of the
keyspace. Worldwide, over half of the keyspace was searched. A
DESCHALL client may have found "the" key, but you deserve credit for
helping to bring the "expected date of completion" significantly ahead.
Your Web site gave us a goal to shoot for. A goal which we never met.
Your clients had many features our users wished for. There is no shame
in not finding the key. But I know the anguish you must feel after
putting your hearts and souls into a project for 3-4 months, and not
being "the" winner.
In my eyes, everyone who participated, whether working for the DESCHALL
team or the SolNET team is a winner!
Last but not least, thanks to my dear wife, Myra, who allowed me to
engage in this project (when I should have been looking for my next
contract programming job); and to her and my children, who tolerated
the disruption to our household routine caused by this project.
- - - Rocke Verser, DESCHALL organizer, rcv@dopey.verser.frii.com
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