January 2002 - cypherpunks-legacy

The Trouble with Harry
by mattd 01 Jan '02

01 Jan '02

Yada Yada blah blah blah...Let's take a closer look at the females in Harry Potter. Let's compare Harry Potter, a kid's book, to Tom Clancy's macho war-porn books. Clancy's The Hunt for Red October doesn't have a single woman in it. It's men, submarines, and aircraft carriers. Boys and their toys. At some point, a woman reviewer complained that Clancy didn't have any women in his novels, so the next Clancy novel starts off with a woman. Within thirty pages, she manages to stand next to a car bomb and is literally vaporized out of the novel. That'll teach women to be in Tom Clancy novels! So why do women get the same treatment in a children's book? The women and girls in The Sorcerer's Stone are weak, whining, bitches. The boys Harry and his friend Ron are the central characters. The girl is the annoying Hermione, a prissy know-it-all who already read the entire year's schoolwork before school starts and knows all the answers in class. When the boys want to go exploring in the school at night, she warns them, but often ends up tagging along. She casts a spell, but can't do it right and hits the wrong person. After she answers classroom questions, Ron complains to Harry "It's no wonder no one can stand her. She's a nightmare, honestly." She overhears this and ends up crying alone in the bathroom and the boys "...quickly put Hermione out of their minds." While she is weeping alone in the girls' bathroom, a dangerous troll enters(and he is dragging a long wooden club. The Freudians are going to extend their profession another ten years just with this scene.) Theres more at ... http://www.advancingwomen.com/womsoc/review_potter.html

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Re: CFP: PKI research workshop (fwd)
by Jim Choate 01 Jan '02

01 Jan '02

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 31 Dec 2001 22:32:41 -0500 (EST) From: Russell Nelson <nelson(a)crynwr.com> To: cryptography(a)wasabisystems.com Subject: Re: CFP: PKI research workshop Andrew Odlyzko writes: > 1. Cryptography does not fit human life styles easily. > 2. Novel technologies take a long time to diffuse through society. to which I would add: 3. Cryptography, and therefore PKI, is meaningless unless you first define a threat model. In all the messages with this Subject, I've only see one person even mention "threat model". Think about the varying threat models, and the type of cryptography one would propose to address them. Even the most common instance of encryption, encrypted web forms for hiding credit card numbers, suffers from addressing a limited threat model. There's a hell of a lot of known plaintext there. -- -russ nelson <sig(a)russnelson.com> http://russnelson.com Crynwr sells support for free software | PGPok | If you argue with someone 521 Pleasant Valley Rd. | +1 315 268 1925 voice | who is not rational, he will Potsdam, NY 13676-3213 | +1 315 268 9201 FAX | always win, in his own mind. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo(a)wasabisystems.com

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Tim May found dead by FBI Special Agent Jesus Gomez.
by mattd 01 Jan '02

01 Jan '02

Subject: Tim May found dead by FBI Special Agent Jesus "necro" Gomez. May was a vulgar and common man, a cad undiluted. He was ignorant, bigoted, self-seeking, blatant and dishonest. His career brought him in contact with the first men of his time; he preferred the company of rustic ignoramuses. ...He seemed only a poor clod like those around him, deluded by a childish theology, full of an almost pathological hatred of all learning, all human dignity, all beauty, all fine and noble things. He was a peasant come home to the dung-pile. Imagine a gentleman, and you have imagined everything that he was not.Stiffness in the extremities, incoordination, stupor, myotonia, and other physical abnormalities marred may's last 40 years.Talking with him was described as morally abhorrent, evil. unhealthy, selfish, elitist, and ultimately an experience that could only lead only to unhappiness and pain. simple, neat, and wrong. May's headstone was precarved by longtime fiend and fellow cypherpunk mattd who spoke briefly over the grave... "There was a old fool on our hill, Who found his way to work his will. He changed his shape, he changed his name, But ever the other will be the same. So runs the water away, away, So runs the water away"

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Re: CP movies?
by mattd 01 Jan '02

01 Jan '02

Saw this 3 nights running,it was on with a long turgid rod Taylor western,Chisum,but we put up with that for the sheer brilliance of http://morricone.topcities.com/film/film073.html#Kopf The guy blows up tax offices! Its from a site here that lists some highly influential spaghetti westerns.http://morricone.topcities.com/film/frm/ft_main.html

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CP movies?
by Nomen Nescio 01 Jan '02

01 Jan '02

There was once an effort here to list CP relevent prose. How about a list of CP relevent moving pictures (and why relevent)? Enemy of the State ---for surveillance and conspiracy GATTACA ---for biometrics, identity fraud, surveillance more? [NB: this isn't moot; I've bought book$ on the recommendation/ reputation of some here; I'd certainly rent a videotape, though not a DVD.. :-] [PS: please *don't* recommend "hacker" (fnord) crap like swordfish, sneakers, gag, etc. I am uncertain whether to encourage (e.g., documentary) TV segments --there are lots of these but they may be harder to find. Probably for the sake of Future Historians they should be accepted.]

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Re: Clarification for cpunks_anon@einstein.ssz.com
by Faustine 01 Jan '02

01 Jan '02

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Jim wrote: > Modify your text style; review favorite words or phrases and > avoid them completely. If possible run your text through a > translation service (eg source -> Spanish -> source) and then > edit the resultant. If you do use an online translation service > use an anonymizing service for this access as well. This is a great point, but it's worth remembering that even your opinions themselves can be used to find you. Real example (details changed for privacy): I have a friend who used to write for a financial magazine whom I wanted to get in touch with again. I had no idea which aliases he was using, so the first thing I did was look up a few keywords related to a current subject that, if he were still posting, he was unlikely to resist: dollarization and the financial crisis in Argentina. I knew his opinions on other subjects well enough to pick him out of a crowd, but chose Argentina first, since not many people posting online are well-informed and passionate enough to get a first-class tirade going about it. Hear somebody rant about something a couple of times and you know what to look for. Sure enough, I found him on the very first search, railing away and breathing fire as anticipated, almost as if on cue. All I had to do was jump right in the conversation and trot out my own crotchety old hobbyhorses in my own style...that afternoon, I got a "hey Faustine, is that really you?" message. He was quite pleased with himself to have found me! Harmeless enough, but I'm sure you can think of more sinister applications. Anyone who is really passionate about specialist subjects is at a distinct disadvantage to Joe and Jane Sixpack, whose opinions are largely interchangable and indistinguishable within various broad parameters. (How else could marketing turn this sickening conformity and predictability into a science?) Take an inventory of all the unusual things that push your buttons--the opinions that make you unique--and you'll be a step ahead. ~Faustine. *** He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. - --Thomas Paine -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPDDZXPg5Tuca7bfvEQLpzgCgjs3DdbAyVjc+PD3iuD7R05naS/0AoKA3 ycqyfa7L9uPDUqqC5epGmOo1 =eNIe -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: jamesd,Tim Mays lying black dog.,
by mattd 01 Jan '02

01 Jan '02

>>I guess "irony" is not a defined word in Choate Prime. Nor the subjunctive. --Tim May "The great object is that every man be armed and everyone who is able may have a gun." --Patrick Henry "The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." --Alexander Hamilton<< I guess "debates" not defined or practised at the corralitos compound.Comparing and fondling firearms is. Take this sub and junctive it up your pompous,pretentious fat,ugly,hairy ass,Tim. I hope you choke.

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I wadered lonely as a choate.
by mattd 01 Jan '02

01 Jan '02

>>On Tue, 1 Jan 2002, mattd wrote: > Technology is the sum of mediations between us and the natural world and > the sum of those separations mediating us from each other. >>Technology is science applied with a purpose.<< My posts here are random noise with purpose that remains a mystery.JC. >>Science is understanding an 'event' in the abstract, Dont bother with that messy experimental observation,data collection stuff. >>usually including or requiring a mathematical expression. It's most useful when it is predictive, but there are categorical sciences as well.<< Oh,small S science,I see.Words can have 2 meanings.Maybe even more than 2!? >>Operations Research is about how to string the pieces together in a workable system, with as little waste as possible.<< Unless your a DoD contractor/subbie .Operation soft drill is collecting proffr dollar pledges to shoot this twit. >>Economics is how to pay for it. << APster is how we club together enough to wack out Tim May as a 'control" for the applied science of assassinating the 'W' >>Depends on what one is meaning by 'anonymous'. Or 'technology' >>Context is quite important. << On the internet it means being able to move around without anyone being able to track or trace you.Its done every split second. >>Can somebody go through their entire life completely anonymously?<< The unabomber was doing OK till he unloaded to much text.Some guy lived on an island for 17 years alone. >>Not likely. Email on the internet? Likely, if they are very careful and nobody has any reason to suspect them of anything for some other reason.<< I suspect jim choate is a spamming menace. >>It's a set theory sort of issue. << *Yawn* Revenge of the nerds,jimmy,are we not Punks? >>Thinks like 'signature analysis' come in handy.<< Thorazine for you jimmy,your getting timmies disease. >> When people engage in ANY activity there is 'evidence' left behind. The trick is to understand the (hopefully) distinctive differences in different activities. Then one can 'measure' the sample at the site and (supposedly within some delta of error) determine what did happen. << Jim Choate;spam detective >>The only way to be truly anonymous would be to never leave any sort of evidence. That's (at least for any practical intent or purpose) impossible. << Like you extracting your head from your ass? Eurobilge latest from the belgian foreign minister;"The European Rapid Reaction Force must declare itself operational without such a declaration being based on any true capability." Sheer oat attack?

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Faustine dangles her memes
by Incognito Innominatus 01 Jan '02

01 Jan '02

Agent Faustine writes: >> But since I did want to be found, it seemed perversely interesting to see if he was the kind of person I could get to find me the same way I found him...somehow it was much more satisfying to let him think my post was a coincidence and he was the one being clever and doing the sleuthing. << This is semantic analysis, by analogy with lexical analysis. In the latter you look for misspellings, idioms, word choice, sentence structure choice. In the former you look at meaning. I suppose they're both a content-aware form of traffic analysis. Otto A.K. Sear

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I shot an elephant in my pyjama's today.
by mattd 01 Jan '02

01 Jan '02

More than a few essayists and researchers on science fiction have noticed that science fiction is a little lacking in the humor department. This isn't for lack of trying: humor in our supergenre of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fails mostly because either the writers are too close to their subject matter or because it's hard to drop a few great jokes into a 4,000-word short story without it distorting the plot. A few examples exist of brilliant humor in the genre, including Fritz Leiber's "Lean Times In Lankhmar", Harlan Ellison's "I'm Looking For Kadak", and Paul Di Filippo's The Steampunk Trilogy, but comedy writing requires a completely different attitude than that of any other form of literature. (This may sound as if I'm belaboring the obvious, but you would be amazed at how many feeble attempts at humor are attempted by otherwise excellent writers who simply don't understand the basics; they're like the folks who write children's stories without understanding what a typical children's story needs for success.) The first thing to remember is that humor is dependent upon two things: the audience's level of knowledge, and its attitude. For instance, the humor in the phrase "Whitley Strieber still hasn't caught on that `Klaatu barada nikto' really means `Squeal like a pig, boy! SQUEEE!'" depends upon the readership being knowledgeable of (a) Whitley Strieber and his claims of being rectally probed by aliens and (b) the movies The Day the Earth Stood Still and Deliverance. All three are necessary to make the gag work: a passing familiarity with the three is all that's needed, but lack of knowledge of one component causes the gag to lose most of its impact. The worst feeling a humorist can experience is that horrible facial expression implying "Should I be laughing?", and the more time spent explaining the basics means less time to finish the story. (This isn't always true: Arlo Guthrie's song "Alice's Restaurant" goes on for 25 minutes with the details of the notorious Alice's Restaurant Massacree, and every last element is essential to explaining why ol' Arlo's potential sojourn into the Army was compromised by a charge of litterbuggery. Take out even five minutes, and the whole thing falls apart More at...http://www.hpoo.com/errata/humor.html

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