ticketing summary & OT plea - Crypto

Hi folks,

Didn't receive that many responses on ticketing systems. Most people
really disliked GNATS, few had used Jitterbug, and many had good
experience with Request Tracker. I got the impression from the lack
of response that most people's systems were custom-written. Request
Tracker appears to have by far the most potential, from a going-forward
perspective. Some people did say Remedy, and i'll be calling them
today and adding an addendum to the summary for those users who care.

I have an offtopic plea completely unrelated to the above item, though.
Wired is reporting @ http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46816,00.html
that Judd Gregg, a Republican Senator from NH, called yesterday for a
global prohibition on encryption products without backdoors for
government surveillance. I'd like to urge the netops community,
whom I have no other method to communicate to, to send some correspondence
to your congresscritters on the issue. I'd like that correspondence
to say that the idea of having backdoors in crypto is bad, but I know
that some of you might disagree.

As a side note, can anyone who has submitted correspondence to congress
folks drop me a private line? I had a couple of questions.

Thanks,
Tim

[snip]

I have an offtopic plea completely unrelated to the above item, though.
Wired is reporting @ Congress Mulls Stiff Crypto Laws | WIRED
that Judd Gregg, a Republican Senator from NH, called yesterday for a
global prohibition on encryption products without backdoors for
government surveillance. I'd like to urge the netops community,
whom I have no other method to communicate to, to send some correspondence
to your congresscritters on the issue. I'd like that correspondence
to say that the idea of having backdoors in crypto is bad, but I know
that some of you might disagree.

Out of all the news I've seen, (web, TV, etc) I've not seen anyone point out
that they (anyone who would put encryption to devious uses) already have
encryption without backdoors, what makes anyone think that they're suddenly
going to comply with new laws regarding a 'backdoor key'? It hasn't worked
with guns, it hasn't worked with pirated software, it hasn't worked with
anything else, people who are willing to hijack planes and ram them into
buildings full of people aren't going to give a second thought to violating
a law regarding backdoor keys for governments.

As a side note, can anyone who has submitted correspondence to congress
folks drop me a private line? I had a couple of questions.

Any correspondence should probably include at least a brief mention of
the above aruement, I see this as a knee-jerk reaction, and an attempt
to further careers, and limit peoples rights.

Thanks,
Tim

        Matthew S. Hallacy