Wirt writes:
> As they say in big-time lawyerly circles, the whole question may be moot [or
> as they say in military circles: OBE ("overcome by events")]. The NY Times
> reported this story a few days ago on May 2:
>
> =======================================
>
> Israeli Scientist Reports Discovery of
> Advance in Code Breaking

Shamir's proposed machine is interesting, but does not fundamentally
change anything.  He's got a way to factor numbers up to about 512
bits in size relatively quickly, but this method does not scale well,
and 1024 bit numbers still appear unfactorable up until the Sun burns
out.

G.