Today Debian turned 10 years old. The popular distro, that comes perhaps the closest of any of open source project in stating the radical anti-capitalist critique that seems to me the next logical step for free software, and has quickly become the de rigeur choice for the radical left techies, apparently had a long slow lead, before its wildly successful current days. Good to remember that. Debian has also really pushed the use of gpg keys, and the web of trusts to a new level, which was interesting to observe in action.

Party!

In Seattle we celebrated with a beach party/barbeque at lovely Alki beach organized by sometimes Protest.net volunteer, Debian Non-profit founder, Mako. Geeking, and key signing, were joined by a vegan grill, frisbee, fire juggling, kite flying, and “times I was arrested” stories for a well rounded event. ### The Game Theory of Key Signing

Mako, besides being a general free software geek about town, and Debian evangelist, is also ranked 9th in the notorious “strongly connected set” of the PGP trust web. Fascinating times was spent listening to how he reached this vaunted heights, and the offensive, and defensive signing strategies necessary to keep his position in the competitive top 50. Who knew so much was involved?

More Key Signing Thoughts

  • If you’re going to a key signing (and if you’re going to a Debian party there will be a key signing) it works really well to have your fingerprint printed out on tiny pieces of paper. Having it printed out on full sheets of paper gets cumbersome (especially on a windy beach) and merely having your laptop and handing writing out your fingerprint (as yours truly did) gets old fast.
  • The really slick people had their fingerprint printed on their business card, which means someone else covered the cost of your printing, and you’re more likely to actually pass out your card.
  • Can you think of any other type of party (beach party no less!) were you leave with homework? I’ve got a wallet full of keys I need to sign, ugh.

Last Key Signing Thought

While I was typing this a Friendstr “New Friend Request” email arrived, and I realized that key signing is just the geek version of Friendster. ### ps.

Seattle Perl Mongers is next Tuesday, at Cedars (apparently an Indian restaurant in the U district), though the Ingy’s presentation on Kwiki has been postponed until next month.