December 2000 - cypherpunks-legacy

Welcome to portalsa2z.com
by sales＠dsfinternet.com 28 Dec '00

28 Dec '00

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Microsofts new crypto patent
by Bo Elkjaer 28 Dec '00

28 Dec '00

United States Patent 6,163,841 Venkatesan , et al. December 19, 2000 Technique for producing privately authenticatable cryptographic signatures and for authenticating such signatures Abstract A technique for generating, for a given message to be signed, an authentic cryptographic signature that can be authenticated, by a recipient of the signed message, as having originated from a signor of the message; and appropriately authenticating such a signature. Specifically, this technique, given a message, such as, e.g., a numerical product copy identifier (83, 93), forms an authentic signature (87, 97), based on public-key cryptosystem, through use of generator value selected from points on an elliptic curve over a finite field. The authentic signature is generated using the generator value in conjunction with three keys; namely, a public key, a private key and a secret key, and thus substantially increases the security associated with cryptographic signatures generated through a conventional two-key public-key cryptosystem. A unique product copy indicia can be formed by concatenating the identifier, for a given product copy, with its corresponding authentic signature. During subsequent user installation of that copy to a computer, the user enters the indicia when prompted by execution of an installation program which, in turn, privately authenticates the signature contained in the indicia in order to continue or prematurely terminate the installation. Inventors: Venkatesan; Ramarathnam R. (Bellevue, WA); Montgomery; Peter L. (San Rafael, CA) Assignee: Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA) Appl. No.: 102851 Filed: June 23, 1998 Link: (May be wrapped into garbage. Use patented cut'n paste technology to restore) http://164.195.100.11/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PALL&p=1…'6,163,841'.WKU.&OS=PN/6,163,841&RS=PN/6,163,841 Yours Bo Elkjaer, Denmark -- [ ... Bevar naturen: Sylt et egern... <-- ]

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New MLM Opportunity
by Todd 28 Dec '00

28 Dec '00

****************** Information about this email can be found at the bottom. ****************** Hi, my name is Todd Smith. Your email address was on a list of people that opted to receive emails about new MLM opportunities. I have one for you, and I hope it fits your needs. Let me first say that when I was deciding what email to send to talk about my MLM program, I decided against the standard email ad with a bunch of exclamation points and dollar signs. I thought that if I received one of those in my email, I would delete it as soon as I saw the title. So I thought you would appreciate a hand written intelligent email that has more facts than figures. The website is called Gold Club. If you are already signed up, you don't have to read any farther, and thanks for your time. Otherwise, I think you'll really like it. The idea of the site is that before you enter into an MLM, you should already have people in your downline. But you can't put people in your downline until you sign up, right? Well Gold Club isn't actually an MLM company. It's a free service that builds up a downline under you, so that when you decide to join one the 4 MLM companies that are registered with Gold Club, you will already have the people under you to begin making money. I'd also like to point out that I work as a computer programmer. This means that my mind is very logically oriented, and skeptical about anything without proof. After I joined, a bombarded the owners with every question and problem I could make up or find, but I was always given a good, satisfying answer. The point being I couldn't find anything wrong with the system and I really do think it will work. The best part of the program is, besides the fact that the whole thing is free, is Gold Club will automatically put people in your downline for you. That way you really do have to do nothing to build your downline, and therefore you do nothing to start making money in MLM's. I hope this short truthful email has done more to convince you than a long flashy one. If you want any more details, all will be explained at the site. Please, go there and look around, ask me anything you like, and have a nice day. http://www.gold-club.net/sponsor.asp?TS96321 ****************** Email Info: This email was sent to you because you chose to receive emails about MLM opportunities. If, in fact, you didn't want to receive emails about MLM opportunities, please accept our apologies and know that we'll never send you anything ever again. If you feel like reporting me for spamming, please realize that I got your email address from an opt-in list, which means that somehow your email was voluntarily put on the list. And although the return address is hotmail, I didn't use the hotmail mail server to send them. Thank you ******************

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Single-file photons
by Secret Squirrel 28 Dec '00

28 Dec '00

Photons can now be emitted one at a time, an advance towards quantum computers and cryptography A tiny disc that emits light in an orderly procession of single photons, and with no background noise, has been created. The "photon turnstile" could ultimately transmit the keys to secret codes safely past prying eyes or help computer scientists exploit the strange laws of quantum mechanics. Researchers have long tried to develop devices that emit one photon at a time. In September, researchers reported that a single molecule could do the trick. But the material surrounding the molecule produced a lot of noise - an unwanted second photon popped out about 20% of the time. However, the new semiconductor disc, made by a team from the University of California, Santa Barbara, avoids this problem. "Our principle improvement is that we were able to remove this background," says applied physicist Atac Imamoglu. Quantum dot Imamoglu and colleagues embedded a "quantum dot" inside a 200-nanometer-thick disc of gallium arsenide. The dot is a dab of indium arsenide less than 50 nanometres across and 3 nanometres thick. They cooled the device to about 25 Kelvin and shone pulses of laser light on it. The light sent electrons cruising through the gallium arsenide. These left behind vacancies or "holes" that acted like positive charges floating through the disk. An electron-hole pair would quickly settle onto the quantum dot, where they would recombine to give off one photon of a particular wavelength. In the meantime, all the other electron-hole pairs would annihilate in ways that produce no light, or light of the wrong wavelength. In this way, the researchers obtained precisely one of the desired photons per laser pulse. Extraneous photons didn't crop up because the disk was so small, Imamoglu says. "The microdisc helps by reducing the volume of material that is excited and thereby reducing the background," he says. Keys and Q-bits A stream of single photons could safely transmit code keys because a spy would have to measure each photon. According to the laws of quantum mechanics, this would alter its state, says team member Christoph Milcher, now at the University of Bremen, in Germany. "You can send a key with single photons so that no-one else can detect it without you knowing," he says. Two photons might also be joined through a process called entanglement, Imamoglu says, to form a logic bit that can be 0, 1, or 0-and-1 at the same time. Such "q-bits" are essential for quantum computing. But currently, Imamoglu and colleagues capture only one in every 10,000 single-photon pulses. They hope to adjust the shape of their tiny device to quickly raise that to a more practical one in every 100. More at: Science (vol 290, p 2282), Nature (vol 407, p 491) Correspondence about this story should be directed to latestnews(a)newscientist.com 1136 GMT, 22 December 2000 Adrian Cho

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The Taxman Cometh
by Anonymous 28 Dec '00

28 Dec '00

http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/williams1.asp

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Interesting item on eBay web site item#532211899: Patent for Mazed Castle board game for sale.
by donblack1995＠yahoo.com 28 Dec '00

28 Dec '00

I saw this item for sale at eBay, the world's largest personal trading community, and thought that you might be interested. Title of item: Patent for Mazed Castle board game for sale. Seller: donblack1995(a)yahoo.com Starts: Dec-25-00 18:37:21 PST Ends: Jan-04-01 18:37:21 PST Price: Starts at $2,500.00 To bid on the item, go to: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=532211899 Item Description: Mazed Castle Patent number D297,023 This patent is for a game I invented many years ago. I still have the patent and have no idea of what to do with the game, or the time to do anything with it. I am selling this game and the rights for an extremely low amount considering the value that it could make. This patent is being sold for only $2,500 for 99% of the rights or if bid is to exceed $10,000 I will be selling all rights to the game. The game is called Mazed Castle and involves game boards with mazes on them. The object would be to get through the maze. There are cards to draw to tell how many spaces to go and there are also cards that will send you in different directions, which could be to your benefit or your hindrance depending on the direction the card would send you. The mazes could have many paths to get through or just a few depending on what age level you wish to play. Visit eBay, the world's largest Personal Trading Community at http://www.ebay.com

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Save 15% on Gifts for Kwanzaa!
by Britannica Store 27 Dec '00

27 Dec '00

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Profile Approved on Adult Friend Finder!
by webmaster＠adultfriendfinder.com 27 Dec '00

27 Dec '00

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Find more of what's inside NYTimes.com
by NYTimes.com 27 Dec '00

27 Dec '00

Dear Member, Thanks for joining the NYTimes.com community. We hope that you are finding our site to be an excellent source of insightful news coverage, in-depth analysis and the best in arts and entertainment. There are a lot of new and useful features on NYTimes.com that may not be immediately evident on our home page. I'd like to take a moment to introduce some of them to you. -- Choose from a broad selection of exclusive daily e-mail newsletters ranging from breaking news alerts and daily headline summaries to weekly updates on the latest movies and books: http://email.nytimes.com/email/email.jsp?cub -- Search the past two weeks of articles from major news sections, free of charge: http://search.nytimes.com/search/?cub -- Play today's New York Times Crossword Puzzle for free using our special Java-based solver. Take your best shot, then come back the next day for the answers. http://www.nytimes.com/diversions?cub -- Get the latest news, information and entertainment on your mobile phone wherever you are, through our Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) enabled news service. Key in [wap.nytimes.com] on any WAP-enabled mobile phone, or visit this page for more information: http://www.nytimes.com/services/nytmobile?cub -- Send NYTimes.com articles to your friends and colleagues. Look for the new "E-mail This Article" link at the top and bottom of most articles on the site. Thanks again for your interest in NYTimes.com. To comment on any aspect of our site or services, feel free to write to us at comments(a)nytimes.com. We hope you'll make a point of visiting us today and every day. Sincerely, Rich Meislin, Editor in Chief New York Times Digital ABOUT THIS E-MAIL ---- This is a one-time e-mail. As a member of the BBBOnline Privacy Program and the TRUSTe privacy program, we are committed to protecting your privacy. Please do not reply to this e-mail.

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Evil Copy Protection vs. Good Crypto-Capable Objects
by Bill Stewart 27 Dec '00

27 Dec '00

Most of us agree that this technology is Nasty Copy Protection pushed by Nasty Software Hoarders opposed to Honest Open Source, and by Nasty Music Hoarders who want us to Pay Per View for music, videos, e-books, and other products that we've bought, using them technical workarounds for activities that would normally be covered by First Sale and Fair Use and only be covered by the limited protections of copyright, and they richly deserve to Die Like DIVX (remember DIVX?*) and get rejected by the market like Lotus Copy Protection. (*I'm told DIVX's cracked format has been recycled as a convenient tool for Napsterizing videos...) Much worse, these Mindshare Marketing Thugs are in league with the sleazy DMCA-abusers who got a law written badly enough that it not only directly confiscates the previous rights of information consumers but goes far beyond that to criminalize people who are engaged in the legitimate activity of seeing what it is they bought and using it in interesting ways. The technical side is bad enough, but left to itself, either Darwin would get them or they'd find a market that's willing to be couch-potato consumers we can sneer at, either of which are ok, while the legal side is outright evil. But what happens if we look at this from a cypherpunks viewpoint? Cypherpunks write code. Nasty MusicHoarderPunks can too. The right way to protect information isn't to write laws, which are ineffective against crackers (whether government or free-lance), usually contain loopholes for cops to abuse, and can be changed if the government wants to - it's to write code and algorithms and hardware designs that actually protect the information. That's what these guys are doing, and it's what we WANT them to do, though we'd rather have them operate a gift economy, the way the folk music profession did before it commercialized, and the church music and hacking professions. (I'm not counting the use of DMCA to criminalize working around bad software - that's still evil.) How do you build tools to protect information, at a level of granularity that someone who'd cracked root on a Unix box or bought or cracked User on a Windows box can't break into? You use crypto to encrypt data, with public-key algorithms to do appropriate parts in public, use objects that maintain their own data and keys, and maybe you build capability-based operating systems, or partition functions into separate devices like smartcards or intelligent peripherals to keep the private parts more isolated. If you want to build a For Your Ears Only secure telephone, it's much easier if you can ship an encrypted data stream that only the recipient's headphone can decrypt. And if you want a digital signature system that can't easily be forged by FBI spook who shoulder-surfs your passphrase, or want a digital payment system that can't easily be ripped off by some online store clerk, it's easier if you can use some hardware object in the process. To a large extent, the threat models are critical to your security - but if being overprotected doesn't interfere with regular use, and doesn't interfere with the other protection you're building, it's not a Bad Thing. Of course, it cuts two ways - if you're not a Good Guy building hardware protection against virus crackers, but an NSA Spook building cracking tools to workaround for the software protections, it's nice to get down and dirty in the hardware and hire Chip-R-Us to include an undocumented Export Chip Private Key instruction in addition to the Export Chip Public Key instruction... Music Hoarders have a somewhat harder problem, in that they want to copy-protect information while providing near-identical copies to large numbers of people, while you're more likely to want to provide your personal transaction information or private messages only to a small number of recipients - but you may still want some kind of watermarking to identify who sold your "private" information to somebody you didn't authorize. As long as watermarking isn't seriously obnoxious, the fact that different listeners hear slightly different versions isn't that bad - listeners at a concert also hear different versions depending on whether they're in the front row, the nosebleed seats, or the Phil Zone, as well as how hard they've been dancing, how bouncily the people in front are dancing, whether Jerry forgot some of the words or had a magical guitar night that reminds them of a previous concert, and how, umm, chemically enhanced they are :-) Somebody allegedly wrote to RAH: >Don't forget Intel and IBM are charter members of both these scuzzy >outfits. And somebody please tell me what good an encrypted hard >drive is gonna be when the key material has to pass through an untrusted >PC running a see-through OS such as Windows? If one is actually >trying to save the data _from_ the PC operator not _for_ him/her, one >needs a TCPA-like hardening. At least Intel and IBM must realize this Intel and IBM know that Windows isn't going to protect their data - if they want it protected, they'll have to work around it, using techniques like CPUs, speakers, and disk drives that share public keys and only pass encrypted data through the OS. Thanks! Bill Bill Stewart, bill.stewart(a)pobox.com PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639

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