September 1993 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: CHAUM CHIMES IN
by cme＠ellisun.sw.stratus.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Date: 08 Sep 93 16:30:55 EDT >From: Sandy <72114.1712(a)CompuServe.COM> >Subject: CHAUM CHIMES IN >Message-Id: <930908203054_72114.1712_FHF95-2(a)CompuServe.COM> ..From: > SANDY SANDFORT Reply to: ssandfort(a)attmail.com [ . . . ] >Of course, the next letter to the editor calls for the adoption >of systems to track every vehicle at all times. The genius who >wrote the letter, thinks it would be a good way to prevent >nuclear, biological or chemical terrorism. Geeeeez. It was signed by Dorothy Denning, right? Actually, they should take that to its full conclusion. We need implants in every individual, broadcasting to the local surveillance agency, giving not only location but also every word spoken in the vicinity. It could also do a chemical analysis of the air in the neighborhood. It should also have a radiation counter. It should also monitor the host body, looking for signs of anger or sexual arousal? How else will we be guaranteed safe from mad bombers, rapists and child molesters? How else will our big budget LE agencies be able to protect us? I know. When it's finally adopted, worldwide, they'll call it the Ellison Plan. :-( - Carl

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Stegno and DAT and digital music...
by Peter Wayner 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In this week's Sunday NYT, Hans Fantel, their music guy, writes at length about the new "dithered" CD's and how the guys have improved the sound. He says that the original CD format was limited to 16 bits of sound because of costs. But many audiophiles reacted very negatively to the tinny, metalic quality to the music. For this reason, the companies have developed 20 bit DAT recording tape and then come up with ways to "dither" this into 16 bits. I am curious if anyone knows the details of these algorithms. Also, his point suggests that flipping the least significant bit of 16 bit music may not be imperceptable to some ears. If the classical music starts to sound tinny then there might be something subversive in the least significant bits. -Peter Wayner

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Remail: errors
by HFinney＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I have been out of town for the last week, so I missed some CP mail. It looks like some good things are happening with remailers, though. Kudos to Karl, Sameer, and the others for their work! I have received many messages to my remailer in the last week which came from remail(a)tamsun.tamu.edu, which were PGP-encrypted apparently in an effort to get my remailer to send them. They did not work, though, because there was no "Encrypted: PGP" header to trigger the remailer's decryption. This can be arranged by creating the message something like this: ======================================================== :: Request-Remailing-To: hfinney(a)shell.portal.com :: Encrypted: PGP - -----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE----- <rest of message> - -----END PGP MESSAGE------ ======================================================== This would then be sent to remail(a)tamsun.tamu.edu. I don't know whether the multiplicity of such erroneous messages is just due to one person stubbornly re-trying, or whether there is an error in one of the new programs for creating chained remailer messages. Hal Finney hfinney(a)shell.portal.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.2 iQCVAgUBLJaNuKgTA69YIUw3AQHrNwQAowMEQwuH6YyHoj6T7AqZFLNdTf+eqJ9L LhAatHS94nmC1smkfVNq0dZmigmkvBdMNEPlBZemmxALz+KJw6OSY/ULSBmuVNEq 5rJANh3XimoJWqLISy2lZiuC5Fw2R7UvRadcdM94pncSVvev92Fyf7CqEOOtrGAK PUzRds7BVNo= =FpLa -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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more than spread spectrum
by cme＠ellisun.sw.stratus.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There are alternatives to spread spectrum, if we're threatened with loss of freedom to communicate. We could lay our own wires/fibers. We could set up a mesh network of infrared lasers through the air. Last time I looked, there were no laws against shining lights out your window as long as they didn't bother anyone. An infrared laser could hardly bother anyone. We could produce a line of cheap cards to plug into a PC which would do packet routing, using a variety of physical links -- our own wires, lasers, very low range radio, .... Each card would connect to three or more neighbors and become part of the global mesh. Adaptive routing with no global map would suffice for the card and would keep the whole system peer-to-peer with no need for central control and no chance for central tapping. Of course all of these solutions require a high density of users. A college campus might be the right place to start. We could then branch out to cities. I suspect that a place like Chicago or NYC with high rise apartments might be the place to start -- many options for line-of-sight communications. The benefit isn't just for Cypherpunks. It's a free network for the masses -- like the original USENET (with each user donating routing and store/forward) but with unrestricted, low-range, continuously operating physical links. I'll volunteer to do the software for the node card. Does anyone have hardware design/fab to donate to the effort? - Carl

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Re: PGP/Constitutional Defense, Take IV (fwd)
by Mike Godwin 30 Sep '93

30 Sep '93

EFF TO DEFEND CRYPTO RIGHTS LEGALLY Washington, D.C. -- The Electronic Frontier Foundation has committed itself this week to legal defense efforts in response to what is apparently a U.S. government campaign against the use and export of cryptographic technology. EFF's response to the anti-cryptography campaign, which has been directed initially against the "Pretty Good Privacy" (PGP) encryption program written by Phil Zimmermann, is three-fold: o EFF and EFF board members will immediately contribute funds to Phil Zimmermann's current legal expenses as they relate to constitutional issues, and will encourage others to make donations for this legal effort. o EFF will continue to vigorously investigate the facts of the PGP case and other cryptography-related cases that may arise, in order to spotlight the constitutional issues raised by such cases. o EFF is now planning to launch in the near future a First Amendment campaign aimed both at raising funds to support legal work on the Constitutional issues raised by these cases, and at educating policymakers and the general public about need to reform our outmoded export control laws . The basic facts of the PGP case(s) are as follows: The Customs Bureau has interviewed Phil Zimmermann and others involved in PGP. A San Jose grand jury, convened by Assistant US Attorney William Keane, subpoenaed documents relating to PGP from Zimmermann, as well as ViaCrypt and Austin Code Works, two companies who intend to offer commercial products related to PGP. Finally, the State Department has sent a letter to the Austin Code Works requiring them to register as an arms dealer, even if they don't plan to export cryptography. In light of these developments, the Electronic Frontier Foundation Board of Directors met in Austin on Sept 22-23 to plan EFF's response. EFF's Board of Directors believes that this case may involve fundamental issues in the application of the U.S. Constitution to digital media. At stake is the right of privacy, public access to secure cryptography, the right to publish digital writings, and the right of equal protection under the law. We are resolved to take this matter very seriously. For this reason, EFF will undertake a vigorous investigation of the facts in this and any other PGP related cases which might arise. If the Grand Jury issues indictments that would, in the view of EFF, threaten the future of digital liberty, we are prepared to assist in the case and any others which might have similar adverse effects. We are also prepared to seek to amend the export laws to protect constitutional speech and the right to disseminate and use encryption to protect the citizens' right to privacy and to the security of their communications. In the short run, EFF will assist Phil and others involved with PGP to find criminal defense attorneys, explore ways to get any cases handled pro bono publico, or for expenses only, and contribute funds to Phil and other possible defendants for preindictment constitutional research, and we encourage others to do the same. As of this announcement, several thousand dollars have been pledged by EFF and EFF board members including John Gilmore, Mitchell Kapor, John Perry Barlow. In the near future, EFF will launch a national campaign designed to provide legal and financial support for cases or legislative efforts that would promote the Constitutionally guaranteed rights to develop, discuss, and use cryptographic technology. We urge you to help Phil Zimmermann in preparing his constitutional defense by contacting Phil's lawyer, Philip Dubois (dubois(a)csn.org, +1 303 444 3885, or 2305 Broadway, Boulder, CO 80304, USA). He is accepting legal defense contributions relating directly to Phil's defense as an individual. Board of Directors Electronic Frontier Foundation

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SKIPJACK IN POPULAR SCI
by Sandy 16 Sep '93

16 Sep '93

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT Reply to: ssandfort(a)attmail.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cypherpunks, There is a short piece about Skiptap, er, Skipjack, in the electronics section of the October "Popular Science." It has a pretty good diagram and a photo of the Mykotronx chip. It says "Bill Clinton himself decided that the U.S. government will promote a new encoding chip for communications." It also quotes a guy from NIST who says, "Once you accept the fact that law enforcement has to do its job, this is a good solution." (Fortunately, Cypherpunks generally *don't* accept that "fact.") A vice president at Mykotronx, John Droge, tried to create the impression that Skipjack just sort of happened to them. He also gave away the real party at interest. He said, "They [the NSA] came to us with a neat equation and said, `Here you go.'" The article mentioned that 85% of the comments at recent federal hearings were hostile or skeptical. Amazingly, the article never quoted May, Hughes or Gilmore. Where has this writer been? S a n d y >>>>>> Please send e-mail to: ssandfort(a)attmail.com <<<<<< ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: Joke of the Day
by doug＠netcom.com 16 Sep '93

16 Sep '93

an23412(a)anon.penet.fi said: >My actual horoscope for today: Uh-oh...your anonymity is partially compromised; we can now narrow down your identity 91.7 percent more closely than before! A few more slips like that and we'll have it down to one of several thousand choices... Speaking of privacy violations, a coworker relates a story from his father (ok, just a FOAF story, but it's still interesting): He needed to find his wife, who'd headed off for some errand and thence to the airport, leaving her spending cash at home. He called her on her cellular car phone, but she'd turned it off. He called Cellular One and explained the problem, and they told him over the phone where she was...he sped off and caught up with her. Although this was handy for him, it's an obvious privacy problem for Cellular One to tell someone where one of their customers is. Doug

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No Subject
by Anonymous 16 Sep '93

16 Sep '93

Hi, Can someone clue me in to a location of a VMS version of PGP? Thanks

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Joke of the Day
by an23412＠anon.penet.fi 15 Sep '93

15 Sep '93

My actual horoscope for today: "A paradox: Someday, millions will read your words, and yet you shall be anonymous! Your ability to mediate makes you friends with opposing parties." The joke of the day from an AP report on the veep's Information Highway press conference: "American industry already is out front in high-tech development, but a fear exists that better coordinated government-industry relationships in other countries may give an edge to foreign competition." ------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help(a)anon.penet.fi. Due to the double-blind, any mail replies to this message will be anonymized, and an anonymous id will be allocated automatically. You have been warned. Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin(a)anon.penet.fi.

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Random numbers
by Timothy Newsham 15 Sep '93

15 Sep '93

Anon Wrote > mjr(a)TIS.COM writes: > >So figure you want more than 56 bits of pure unpredictability as your > >seed. This is a tricky problem. One option is to give the user a typematic > >buffer: "hit keys for 30 seconds" - you NEED unpredictability! > > So, it sounds like what we *really* need is a little box with a shot-noise > generator that attaches to a serial port and generates truly random > numbers to use for the key. Anyone out there feel like designing one for us ? Last time I was fingering through an analog parts catalog under the telephony section I noticed a bunch of parts that generate audio-noise. Maybe some of these would be suitable (if they dont use an internal digital state machine to generate the noise).

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