December 2001 - cypherpunks-legacy

Wank for capitalism
by mattd 08 Dec '01

08 Dec '01

SchNEWS just couldn't make it up, last Sunday was the first annual walk for capitalism. Three dozen capitalists, (or two as the police saw it), walked through Westlake Park in Seattle waving signs such as "Help a starving child in Africa. Give him capitalism." "Make Money Not Class War." and "Capitalism is more important than democracy." - OK, these were held by anti-capitalist protestors, who infiltrated the march. Tym Parsons, the Seattle coordinator of WalkForCapitalism complained "We knew they had something in the works. Their aim was to infiltrate our organization and discredit it by way of parody." Er, SchNEWS reckons you did a good enough job of that yourself, with one passer by commenting "I find it all very amusing. I don't think I've ever seen a protest for capitalism before. Don't these people already have what they're fighting for?" The question is why did they choose to celebrate D2 (they've even nicked the names) with something as inefficient, ecologically sustainable and downright un-capitalistic as walking? SchNEWS reckons they would have also got more people onboard if someone had promised to bung each person who turned up #25 and a packed lunch (well that's the only reason us rent-a-mob lot ever bother turning up to demonstrations.) Have a laugh, look at their website: www.walkforcapitalism.org/

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More on
by mattd 08 Dec '01

08 Dec '01

6 anarchists who are "claimed to be" from U~ak Anarchist Autonom have been arrested and will be judged in State Security Court-SSC (Devlet G|venlik Mahkemesi-DGM). SSC's are special courts which were established for revolutionary leftists and Kurdish militants; this is the first event in Turkish anarchist history that a group of "anarchists" are being sent to SSC. They are claimed to be members of an illegal organization and the reason of the arrests is JUST an anarchist leaflet they've distributed in a demonstration of trade-unions in 1st of December. For now they are in U~ak Prison but perhaps will be moved to Nazilli Prison and wait for their trial in Izmir SSC. The news appeared in one of the biggest papers of Turkish mainstream media (H|rriyet) but in Europe press. (So we could not justify the info for a few days) More detailed info will be sent as soon as we get..

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Re: US seeks to force feed pilot it tricked, detained
by mattd 08 Dec '01

08 Dec '01

Seif should run for office,Its 20 years since MP bobby sands.Sheriff arpaio needs operating on with a soft drill.(my 2c) "All advice is bad,good advice,fatal" Wilde.

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MD5 (was Re: Antivirus software will ignore FBI spyware: solutions)
by Gil Hamilton 08 Dec '01

08 Dec '01

Karsten Self writes: >on Mon, Nov 26, 2001 at 01:12:53PM -0800, Tim May (tcmay(a)got.net) wrote: > > > Some interesting tips (bottome of this message) for detecting FBI/SS > > snoopware that NAI/McAfee is now assisting the FBI in installing. > > > > I especially like the idea of "type hundreds of random key strokes and > > see which files increase in size." (Or just look for any file size > > changes, as most of us type tens of thousands of keystrokes per day.) > >Defeat: create a log buffer file of fixed size, logged activity changes >its contents, but not the size of the file. E.g.: a filesystem image >file under GNU/Linux. Techniques could be used to maintain a constant >global MD5 checksum to defeat other detection attempts. What techniques could be used to do this? MD5 has some weaknesses, but creating collisions still is not trivial. Unless you know something I don't. - GH _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp

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Re: IT revealed: Dean Kamen shows off mystery transportion device
by Bill Stewart 08 Dec '01

08 Dec '01

At 09:53 AM 12/03/2001 -0500, Declan McCullagh forwarded articles on the Ginger Hype Generation Machine finally being revealed. Boy, what bad timing Kamen has. Not only is it too late for Christmas sales (if in fact the things are shipping anytime soon, as opposed to this being a demo for next Christmas shipping), but overall it's a year or two too late to catch the Razor Scooter fad and the San Francisco geek toys market, where there are some people still commuting on $500 electric scooters (Doug Barnes used to haul one on Caltrain, for instance), but an N-thousand-dollar device that's only usable for short hauls within cities, it'll be a real tough sell. The real question is whether, next year when he's trying to sell quantity, anybody will list to the next round of hype. On the other hand, this announcement is at least timed to keep people from totally forgetting him as more dot-com vaporware, so maybe it's not that bad timing after all.

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WSJ again touts 802.11 as an emerging open solution to wireless
by mean-green＠hushmail.com 07 Dec '01

07 Dec '01

High-Tech Hobbyists Develop Internet Links for the 'Masses' By PUI-WING TAM and SCOTT THURM Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ASPEN, Colo. -- Jim Selby clambered up a ladder onto the roof of a four-story office building here to survey his little alternate empire. "I've got one on top of there," he said, pointing to a distant rooftop, "and one there, too." Mr. Selby was speaking of all the gray antennas dotting the skyline, broadcasting Internet access all over town. The service is fast and free, which makes Mr. Selby, who put up the towers, a bit of a revolutionary. "I've got Aspen nailed!" says Mr. Selby, 35 years old, as he gestures at a dozen antennas atop low-rise buildings. "I've opened the network up to the masses." Some of the nation's big corporations have racked up billions of dollars in losses trying to bring high-speed Internet access to all who might want it. But the 6-foot-4 Mr. Selby, an avowed ski bum, is doing it in his own small way with a combination of Russian military-surplus antennas and electronic parts from a hardware store. His antennas allow anyone in a 45-square-mile area around Aspen with a computer and a $120 plug-in card to surf the Web over the airwaves free at speeds 30 times as fast as with a standard modem. Mr. Selby is a wireless guerrilla, one of several hobbyists around the nation who are building shoestring wireless networks out of such materials as potato-chip cans and rubber hoses. They are doing so by piggybacking free of charge on the premium high-speed Internet connections that telecom and cable companies provide to many homes and businesses for as much as $1,000 a month. Even so, Mr. Selby, who eventually aims to charge for access to his network, says he hasn't encountered any resistance from providers of such high-speed links, who don't seem worried about his plans. Mr. Selby and fellow guerrillas now operating in cities such as New York, Portland, Ore., and Seattle are defying the conventional wisdom that building high-speed networks is complex and costly. Their secret is a technology known in technical lingo as 802.11b, or Wi-Fi. It was never intended for public Internet access. Using the same unlicensed radio spectrum as microwave ovens and baby monitors, it was designed primarily to transmit signals for 300 to 400 feet in wireless corporate computer networks and from a phone line to a laptop. But history is full of unscripted uprisings just like this, in which people take an existing technology off the shelf and put it to an unanticipated use. It doesn't take much time or money to set up an 802.11b network. "All that's involved is a simple geek factor," says Bruce Potter, a wireless guerrilla in Leesburg, Va., who estimates it cost him $500 in cables, wireless cards and other equipment to create a wireless node atop his house. "I've built three or four other antennas so far using Pringles cans, and that cost me about $4." Many of the guerrillas have adopted a crusading tone about their work. "I want bandwidth to be as free as air," says Rob Flickenger, who founded a free wireless network in Sebastopol, Calif. Bandwidth is the capacity to carry data; broadband is used to describe connections that are faster than conventional modems. Kevin Rich, a Denver-based proponent of free wireless networks, adds: "We want to make it a people's movement." Wireless guerrillas could face trouble from their own Internet-service providers for allowing nonsubscribers to tap in, but so far nobody has bothered them because of the small number of users involved. Shaun Gilmore, executive vice president of Qwest Communications International Inc., which provides local phone service and high-speed Internet access in Aspen, says the wireless guerrillas are "creative people developing creative ways" to make high-speed Internet access available. Building an 802.11b network to piggyback on a high-speed Internet line is "not technically illegal," Mr. Gilmore says in a statement, but adds that it can slow the Internet connection. Mr. Selby began investigating wireless technologies a few years ago. Through word of mouth, he found a wireless-equipment supplier in Solon, Ohio, from whom he bought two surplus Russian military antennas for a total of $700. At an Aspen hardware store, he picked up a length of rubber hose to protect the wiring. Then he placed the antennas, which he nicknamed "the Ruskis," on an office building owned by some friends and atop his own townhouse. When Mr. Selby flipped the switch in August 1999, not much happened. "We didn't know squat," he says. But after making a few adjustments, he had a faint signal between his house and the office building. His friends' office was connected to a T-1 line, a direct, high-speed link to the Internet. He had created wireless coverage in a 13-block area. That gave him an idea: Why not deliver the Internet to everybody in town? Mr. Selby quickly sold his house in Detroit and plowed $80,000 into broadening the network. He began scouting out locations for other antennas. Last year, a former high-tech executive who lived in a mountaintop home gave him permission to put up an antenna in exchange for free wireless service. That increased the network's wireless coverage by five square miles. Mr. Selby soon made the same barter deal with other mountaintop residents. Word of the free network began spreading. Bill Gurley, a partner at Benchmark Capital, a Silicon Valley venture-capital firm, and Sky Dayton, founder of Internet-service provider Earthlink, unexpectedly tapped into Mr. Selby's network while in Aspen for a conference earlier this year. Mr. Dayton opened his laptop in his hotel room and found he could choose from four guerrilla wireless networks, including Mr. Selby's, to reach the Internet. "I was floored," Mr. Dayton says. Other entrepreneurs are launching companies to offer small-scale Internet access via 802.11b in airports, hotels and coffee shops. And some think the technology could be harnessed to offer commercial high-speed Internet access to homes and offices. These developments could conceivably spell trouble for long-delayed "third-generation" cellphone networks, which are to offer high-speed data services in addition to voice. Security is an issue, as some companies using 802.11b discovered when hackers tapped their corporate networks. Mr. Dayton says he can detect a neighbor's 802.11b network when he logs on at his Los Angeles home. You can't prevent people from picking up the signal, which is why Mr. Dayton sees his neighbor's network, but you can encrypt the traffic so they can't read it. Most experts think the problem can be circumvented. For the past few months, Mr. Selby has been concentrating on scraping together more cash to expand the network, which he says has attracted about 70 free users, including 10 regulars. He plans to augment his 13 antennas with three more by the end of the year. To raise cash, he sold the wireless network in August for $120,000 to a small Aspen company called Broadband West. Mr. Selby, who still runs the network, says he and Broadband West hope to start charging an unspecified fee for the wireless access sometime next year. When the network shows up on somebody's laptop, the person will be directed to a Web page and asked to provide a credit-card number and pay a fee. Write to Pui-Wing Tam at puiwing.tam(a)wsj.com and Scott Thurm at scott.thurm(a)wsj.com

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US seeks to force feed pilot it tricked, detained
by Major Variola (ret) 07 Dec '01

07 Dec '01

U.S. Seeks Force-Feeding Order for Fasting Detainee in Phoenix Courts: The unusual step involves a Middle Eastern pilot protesting his jailing in a dragnet. He faces identity fraud charges. http://latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-000097083dec06.story?coll=la%… By RICH CONNELL, TIMES STAFF WRITER Federal prosecutors in Phoenix are asking a judge to issue an unusual order to force-feed a hunger-striking Middle Eastern pilot arrested on charges stemming from the investigation of the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks. Malek Mohamed Seif, also known as Malek Mohamed Abdulah, is protesting what he contends is his improper detention as part of the global anti-terrorism dragnet. Taking only liquids, Seif has lost 30 pounds since his October arrest and is rapidly deteriorating, officials said. Seif, 36, believed to be a Djibouti national, has acknowledged a passing acquaintance with one of the suspected skyjackers. He also trained at the same Phoenix area flight school as an Algerian pilot suspected of helping prepare some of the hijackers, according to federal investigative records. But the only charges filed to date against Seif are for identity fraud. A federal judge recently stressed in a court order that no evidence has been presented linking him to terrorism. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who is housing Seif for federal authorities, says he is getting worried about his high-profile inmate. "I don't want this guy to die in my jail," said the no-frills lawman who made headlines by housing prisoners in desert tents and making them wear pink shirts. Arpaio says he has been talking with Seif, trying to coax him to eat. As a compromise, Arpaio said, he removed pork from Seif's meals. But he has declined to fill his special requests for dates and ice water. "I said, 'We don't have room service.' " Seif's attorney, Thomas Hoidal, reported to a judge Monday that his client was in the jail infirmary and too weak to attend a hearing. Seif, who left the U.S. before the attacks, has complained that federal investigators duped him into returning to answer questions. After he landed in Phoenix on Oct. 25, he was arrested for allegedly making false statements on federal forms to obtain dual identities. "He doesn't understand, when he came back voluntarily, why he is being treated in this fashion," said Hoidal, who also is trying to persuade Seif to eat. Prosecutors expect to file additional bank and financial fraud charges against Seif and are worried he may be unfit to stand trial. They are seeking medical and psychiatric evaluations of Seif. One veteran U.S. law enforcement official in Phoenix said he knew of no other instance when federal prosecutors there sought a forced-feeding order. Sporadic hunger strikes have been reported among the more than 1,000 detainees rounded up in the anti-terrorism crackdown. But Seif, who has dropped from about 180 to about 150 pounds, appears to have lasted the longest. It is not clear whether Seif intends to fight the forced feeding order, his attorney said. A hearing is scheduled for today. Arpaio doubts a judge's order will be effective, as long as Seif remains conscious. "If he's still coherent . . . you can't force the guy to eat if he says he doesn't want to." In another development Wednesday, a coalition of 16 civil liberties groups filed suit against the Justice Department, demanding information about those arrested and detained since the Sept. 11 attacks. The groups said they were seeking such information as the names of the detainees, the charges against them and how long they have been held. Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft has argued that some of the information must be kept secret to aid in the investigation. Kate Martin of the Center for National Security Studies, a plaintiff in the case, said that instead of federal officials "simply announcing that they are respecting the Constitution, we need evidence that will show whether that is true."

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Delinquent officer list
by mattd 07 Dec '01

07 Dec '01

Agent jeff gordon is requested to supply the following...Tax Reporting Account number Legal Entity name (individual, partnership or a corporation) Original amount of the debt (the current amount due is not disclosable) Date of lien filing Court where the tax lien was filed Date the business license was revoked (if applicable)In relation to abuse of office in bell trial.

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Why May
by mattd 07 Dec '01

07 Dec '01

And now, the end is near And so I face the final curtain You KKKunt, I4m not a queer I4ll state my case, of which I4m certain I4ve lived a life that4s full And each and every highway And yet, much more than this I did it my way And yes, I4ve had a few But then again, too few to mention But dig, what I have to focked I4ll see it through with no devotion Of that, take care and just Be careful along the highway And more, much more than this I did it my way There were times, I4m sure you knew When there was nothing fucking else to do But through it all, when there was doubt I shot it up or kicked it out I fought the just as before And did it my way Knocked out in bed last night I4ve had my fill, my share of looting And now, the tears subside I find it all so amusing To think, I killed a cat And may I say, oh no, not in a shy way. But no, no, not me I did it my way For what is a rat, what has he got When he finds out that he cannot Say the things he truly thinks But only the words, not what he feels The record shows, I4ve got no clothes And did it my way.

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Honig falling down drunk?
by mattd 07 Dec '01

07 Dec '01

"...If you don't see the implications for future history..." NO FUTURE NO FUTURE NO FUTURE FOR YOU NO FUTURE NO FUTURE NO FUTURE NO FUTURE FOR ME NO FUTURE NO FUTURE NO FUTURE FOR YOU NO FUTURE NO FUTURE FOR YOU

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