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 Message 331 
 Wilfred van Velzen to August Abolins 
 Re: pgp memories and diskettes 
 03 Jan 20 22:05:57 
 
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Hi August,

On 2020-01-03 22:02:34, you wrote to me:

 AA> The one at MIT (which sounds like where I would have submitted my key)
 AA> but fails with this:

 AA>   --[begin]--
 AA>   Proxy Error

 AA>   The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream  server.
 AA>   The proxy server could not handle the request GET /pks/lookup.

 AA>   Reason: Error reading from remote server
 AA>   --[end]--

 AA> I didn't expect that from the great MIT.

I get the same error there...

 WvV>> Afaik most key-servers are connected to each other these days,
 WvV>> and exchange keys on a regular basis. So if your key is out
 WvV>> there, it might be "everywhere".

 AA> Yes.. I notice that keys are now pooled and distributed to other servers.
 AA> Things have certainly changed since I first started with PGP in the 90's.

 AA> I looked with a few listed here: https://sks-keyservers.net/status/

You probably got the same results everywhere, because they are all synced. ;)

 WvV>> When I search for "abolins" on my (default) key-server it finds
 WvV>> 27 keys as old as from 1994. But none include a mention
 WvV>> of "august".

 AA> Are they *all* from 1994?

Nope, only the last one.

This is the list I get:

https://pgp.surfnet.nl/pks/lookup?search=abolins&fingerprint=on&op=index

 AA> 1994 sounds about right when I actually submitted to a server.  I
 AA> found about the same number of references to abolins as you at a few
 AA> random servers from the sks link above. I am surprised that I wouldn't
 AA> have included my FN.   I wonder if the last entry in one of those
 AA> searches could be it!

 AA> pub   512R/246249F7 1994-02-16

 AA> The DATE and bit size certainly looks right.  1994 is about the last time
I
 AA> actually used pgp. And, I am pretty sure the key signature was small
before
 AA> I learned about the benefits of larger ones.

I get that same one in my list, but I don't think it's compatible with modern
gpg2 that I use.
I can import it from the keyserver:

wilfred@wilnux5:~/tmp> gpg --recv-keys 246249F7
gpg: requesting key 246249F7 from hkp server keys.gnupg.net
gpg: key 246249F7: no user ID
gpg: Total number processed: 1

But afterwards it can't be listed:

wilfred@wilnux5:~/tmp> gpg -kv 246249F7
gpg: using PGP trust model
gpg: can't handle public key algorithm 22
gpg: can't handle public key algorithm 18
gpg: error reading key: No public key

 AA> This is what I did with a bunch of 3 1/2 diskettes a few years ago:

 AA>    http://kolico.ca/fidonet/echos/win95/index.html#diskettes

You have too much time! ;)

 AA> As an aside: I like the "status" page at
 AA> https://sks-keyservers.net/status/

 AA> It would be fun to see a similar live version of something like that
 AA> for the modest 900 IP nodes.   ..But I digress.

Fun for some, but painfull for others: It would embarrass a lot of hosts,
because it would show how bad their segments are maintained in the nodelist...


Bye, Wilfred.

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