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Comment by dmix | Hacker News Reader

For those not aware, the Forbes author of this article wrote a book on the history of cypherpunks (including the mailing list) which Dread Pirate Roberts was most likely a part of, or the very least inspired by it's members in some way: http://www.amazon.com/This-Machine-Kills-Secrets-WikiLeakers...

Having interviewed Timothy May, Cryptome founder and Phil Zimmermann is probably how he earned enough reputation to have this interview set up.

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I think you mean Timothy May, Cypherpunks founder?

AFAIK John Young runs Cryptome.

Correct, I wrote "Cryptome founder" as I figured that was more well known than John Young's name. Although I see now how the comma placement in my comment was confusing.

Incorrect comma usage, actually. You can't omit the Oxford comma (the comma before an "and") with a list of exactly 3 items. If you do, the middle item in the list can be parsed too many different ways, as happened here.

I beg to differ. I don't see how an oxford comma would fix this confusion. In fact I think without it his statement is easier to understand. We can easily see he means three people. If he used the Oxford comma the second person would look identical to a preposition and would make your parents comment more valid.

The easiest way to fix the sentence is to put the least precise term at the end + using the oxford comma.

> Having interviewed Timothy May, Phil Zimmermann, and Cryptome founder is probably how (…).

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