[Eric Brummer]

... the title of this post is rather.... questionable, but how many people on these forums that consider themselves above average computer users DIDN'T consider the idea that... encryption is possible to circumvent. As soon as I heard about the early pdf release, my thought was, "i wonder what they are using to protect it." FIRST is made up of people that were once just like us or still are like us. We are a community of intellectuals that generally see a challenge and attempt to overcome it. Thats the very point of every game we play. Disregarding whether its allowed on the forums or not, cause that is solely up to the admins, I was wondering when this discussion would come up. The game is the game. I wouldn't, and I dont recall reading any post before mine that directly talked about using the information to gain an advantage. There were some various good arguments, for both sides, which I won't bother quoting cause their are way to many. I don't really see somethign wrong in discussing it. Yes, the rules pdf is the target of this discussion, because everyone here is apart of a community of FIRST robotics. We aren't a cryptology group, so the idea didn't come up until we had a specific problem dangled in front of us. Obviously the manual is gonna be what is talked about in regards to 128 bit RSA encryption. I also don't think anyone could possibly do it before the data would be available to everyone. FIRST has underestimated us in the past, in the game, and i believe they vowed to try and avoid it again. They arn't going to give us something easy. Just like my first thought was.. I wonder how to overcome the security, the first thought at FIRST had to have been... how long will this document last with all of these people eagerly interested in it? It's not gonna happen. I really dont think its so much someone who is a genius that could crack it. Like many things, its about having the connections. You don't need as much intelligence as you need access to high-end computer equipment and some basic cryptology information. I know I wouldn't use the information, its just an intersting thought, and as someone else said, something definilty to brag about, especially if achieved before the code is released. It would be very satisfactory to have cracked it regardless of whether u saw a single page inside that pdf. It isn't a big issue though, since it's not going to happen. I believe, and it's rather obvious with how many people cried foul to this thread, that people here do have the moral views to not ruin the gracious profesionalism that FIRST stands for. As far as it not being able to be cracked... I doubt it, but like everything, you never know. "Never say never."