August 2002 - cypherpunks-legacy

Data Security class programming project
by Jason Holt 20 Aug '02

20 Aug '02

I'm working on designing the programming projects for a data security class. What do you think of this one? I love its intrinsic irony, but can we actually get away with requiring it for a university class? I mean, Elcomsoft really is in court for this. My University is unfortunately not the type of organization to stand at the forefront and protect our civil rights. -J ------- DRM Lab ------- Options ------- * Make the lab open-ended - they get to pick what to break and how, as long as they don't use a pre-packaged tool. DVDs, CDs, .WMA, etc. Objective --------- To demonstrate the fundamental futility of current attempts to prevent unauthorized copying of published works. Requirements ------------ _Here_ you can find a copy of Dmitry Sklyarov's Defcon slides in Adobe's eBook format. They were created with the eBookPro compiler, advertised as "the only software in the universe that makes your information virtually 100% burglarproof!". Extract all text from the slides using the method of your choice and turn in the resulting text file. It needs no special formatting.

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McDonalds workers resistance news.
by Matthew X 20 Aug '02

20 Aug '02

________________________________________________ A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E http://www.ainfos.ca/ http://ainfos.ca/index24.html ________________________________________________ OCTOBER 16TH 2002... "Slaves who are ready to put up with anything are spared nothing by the tyrants" - Georges Darien On October 16th 1918, the people of Hungary began to establish councils in their workplaces and communities. They seized land from wealthy landowners, occupied factories and freed prisoners. Within a month Budapest was run by ordinary people for the benefit of the many. Like too many courageous struggles for freedom, the Hungarian councils republic was eventually repressed and destroyed, only the vision lingers on... On October 16th 2002, a small proportion of the 1.5 million people employed by McDonalds around the world will take our first tentative steps towards a better world. This is an attempt to explain what's going to happen, where this day of action came from, why it's taking place and what we hope to achieve. WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN ON OCTOBER 16th? Hundreds of McDonalds workers, concentrated in the UK, but also across continental Europe, Russia, North America and Australasia, will take direct action against our employers. We are not necessarily expecting to see strikes, but definitely sabotage, go slows, partial walk outs, 'phone in sick days', etc. It will be the first ever co-ordinated, international, worker led mobilisation by the McDonalds workforce. October 16th was chosen because since the mid 1980s it has been the date of world anti-McDonalds day. So, simultaneous to our actions, people who do not work for McDonalds but are opposed to its labour practices, cruelty to animals and destructive environmental impact, will also be engaged in actions at McDonalds restaurants all over the world. We hope that all actions can be mutually supportive. WHERE DID THIS DAY OF ACTION COME FROM? The idea for co-ordinated workers action on October 16th was originally developed by the Glasgow branch of McDonalds Workers Resistance over a year ago. If you would like to know more about MWR, please visit http://mwr.org.uk The Glasgow branch proposed action around the following demand: "That all those employed by McDonalds, anywhere in the world, be allowed to organise themselves as they wish and that they be allowed to conduct the business of their chosen organisations on company premises, be allowed to display notices in staff areas and generally circulate information without hindrance. That this right to organisation and free expression is not dependent on the number of people involved in the organisation and that no person shall be prejudiced against for involvement in such an organisation. This demand applies to those employed directly and indirectly by McDonalds and so includes, for example, those employed to make happy meal toys or company packaging. Our lives may be very different but our struggle is the same. Finally, we ask McDonalds to make explicit that they do not own their employees and that they have no right to dictate what we can and cannot believe or express at any time." WHY ARE WE TAKING THIS ACTION? By using myriad tactics, legal and illegal, to deny us the right to organise, McDonalds ensures they can pay us the lowest wages possible to work in bad conditions with a total absence of employment rights. This ensures that their profit margins are maximised- in other words, a few people get obscenely rich while those who do all the work struggle by on minimum wage. But even more than that, by denying us the right to organise, they take away our ability to transform the world- our ability to change this crazy, destructive, profit driven system into a society built in everybody's interest- not just on the terms of the rich. WHAT DO WE HOPE TO ACHIEVE? We want to show the world and ourselves that we are capable of organising internationally and that we will not be divided by lines on a map. We want to show ourselves and the world that we re not powerless in the face of multinational corporations, that in fact it is us who make their billions and we are able and willing to organise and fight back. We want to show ourselves and the world that there is a young generation of workers, passionate and rebellious, who refuse to live like past generations- we will not surrender our lives to an idiotic pursuit of wealth on behalf of those who already have too much. We want to take our first tentative steps towards a world designed for the many, not the few. WHAT CAN YOU DO? BE PART OF IT!!! Take action on October 16th. It doesn't have to be anything spectacular- you could just phone in sick... or... break a machine, steal from the till, stop work in the middle of lunchtime, turn the power off at a busy period, give away free food, work especially slowly, follow every procedure exactly, inform customers about what's going on, turn the freezer off before you leave, hide the keys to locked areas, go on strike, refuse to smile (yeah, like we ever do), become very clumsy, etc. PRINT THIS AND HAND IT OUT, GET YOUR WORK MATES INVOLVED, DO SOMETHING AND PLEASE, PLEASE, TELL US ABOUT IT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! On the morning of October 16th we will deliver a single crysanthemum flower to McDonalds head office. The crysanthemum was the symbol of the revolution in Hungary that began on October 16th 1918. We will deliver it as a token of our intent to build a world that puts people before profits. But the crysanthemum is also a symbol of death, so we deliver it as a harbinger of the imminent destruction of the McDonalds empire and all wage labour- we neither need it nor want it. There is a new world growing in our hearts and we are taking our first tentative steps towards it. If you would like more information about the October 16th action, please visit: http://mwr.org.uk/proposal.htm For more on the ideas that inspired this action, please see: http://mwr.org.uk/faqs.htm http://mwr.org.uk/heavy.htm If you still have questions or would like to let us know that you are planning an action, then please contact: info(a)mwr.org.uk This text was produced by Greater London McDonalds Workers Resistance (2) and approved and amended by the other regional groups. "The enthusiasm for destruction is also an enthusiasm for creativity" - Michael Bakunin ===== "If you think you are too small to make a difference try sleeping with a midge" http://www.mwr.org.uk MWR, PO Box 3828, Glasgow, G41 1YU

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Anarchist Portal gets 3 million hits per month.
by Matthew X 20 Aug '02

20 Aug '02

OK so a lot might be freepers and feds but still...and its always going to be early days for the web,we all know that,right? http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=31953&group=webcast WWelcome to the second issue of an irregular update on the Infoshop.org project. We hope that this update can help you find new features and understand what is going on with this project. As the Infoshop.org project grows and includes more and more volunteers, regular communication is becoming more important. Infoshop.org has been causing trouble on the web since it went online in January 1995 as the Mid-Atlantic Infoshop. With over 3 million hits a month as of last year, Infoshop.org is considered by many to be a valuable resource to the anarchist and anti-capitalist movements, as well as for thousands of people who are simply looking for alternatives to the current capitalist system. The website is graciously hosted by the flag.blackened.net server, which is part of a collective of anarchist and anti-authoritarian digital activists. The webmaster and coordinator of Infoshop is Chuck "Chuck0" Munson. The website is becoming more of a collaborative network project every day. www.infoshop.org

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Mrs Petrov - Set lasers to jab.
by Matthew X 20 Aug '02

20 Aug '02

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,4931950%255E2862,… Also in this rag,news that Mrs Petrov may have been more valuable than her husband as she was a cipher clerk with access to VENONA. Jabs by laser free of pain By JEN KELLY, medical reporter 20aug02 A MELBOURNE firm has won worldwide patents for a laser device that could end the need for painful injections. The tiny pain-free laser allows drugs to seep through the skin into the body in minutes without a needle. It means childhood vaccines now injected could be given painlessly with an adhesive strip similar to a nicotine patch in a few years. Biotech company Norwood Abbey believes its device will revolutionise drug delivery worldwide. The hand-held laser will initially be used to administer anaesthetics, but the company hopes to use it for vaccines and painkillers next. The laser removes the top layer of skin so any drug applied immediately afterwards by cream or patch penetrates the skin swiftly. Norwood Abbey marketing director Bernie Romanin said the US drug agency was expected to approve the laser's use with a specific anaesthetic by the end of the year. Applying anaesthetic to the skin usually takes an hour to work but after using the new laser then applying the anaesthetic cream, the skin is numb within five minutes.

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Did AMD put the fear of death in INTEL?
by Matthew X 20 Aug '02

20 Aug '02

http://theage.com.au/articles/2002/08/19/1029114067050.html Could explain the P4 hypeburgers. PC owners sue Intel, OEMs over P4 claims August 19 2002 Intel, Gateway and Hewlett-Packard face a class action lawsuit filed against them by a group of computer owners who allege the companies misled them into believing the Pentium 4 is a superior processor to the Pentium III and the AMD Athlon. A report in PC World says the complaint was filed in the third judicial circuit in Madison County, Illinois. A ruling has yet to be made on whether the case comes under state or federal jurisdiction. PCWorld said it had received a copy of the complaint from an anonymous source. The complaint claims that the public were deceived by the marketing of the P4 and alleges that there is no benefit to consumers who choose the P4 over the PIII. It also alleges that the P4 is slower and less powerful than the PIII or the AMD Athlon.

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mwo aug 20 2002.
by Matthew X 20 Aug '02

20 Aug '02

"Don't worry, Governor. None of the children in MY agency's custody're gonna be lodging any complaints..." JEB APPOINTS CHILDBEATING ADVOCATE TO HEAD CHILD WELFARE AGENCY! SPOKESWOMAN: PRO-CHILDBEATERS ARE "MEN AND WOMEN OF FAITH" BEAT THEM OUT OF THE LORD'S LOVE? HUSBANDS HAVE FINAL SAY IN ALL DISPUTES! WOMEN WHO WORK OUTSIDE HOME "IN BONDAGE"! "CONFORM ALL FAMILY LEGISLATION TO BIBLICAL REALITY AND MORALITY"! TALLAHASSEE - The man named Thursday by Gov. Jeb Bush to head Florida's notoriously inept child welfare agency is an evangelical Christian who views spanking that causes ''bruises or welts'' as acceptable punishment. The revelation did not come to Bush's attention until hours after the governor introduced Jerry Regier, a former Oklahoma Cabinet secretary and aide to Bush's father, as the new chief of the state's Department of Children and Families. Regier, 57, was named less than 48 hours after the resignation of DCF Secretary Kathleen A. Kearney. He takes over an agency that has been embroiled in scandal since 5-year-old Rilya Wilson disappeared. In a 1989 essay entitled The Christian World View of the Family, Regier and co-author George Rekers railed against abortion and gay couples forming families, and emphasized that husbands have "final say in any family dispute.'' And the essay declares that ''biblical spanking'' that leads to "temporary and superficial bruises or welts do not constitute child abuse.'' ... But Regier's essay raises questions about the suggestion that he would keep beliefs and government duties separate. He and Rekers at one point urge Christians to take "whatever actions we can, within our biblical and constitutional limits, to realign county, state, and federal legislation regarding family issues in order to make it conform to the Bible's view of reality and morality.'' Full Story Jeb Bush has been under intense fire in recent months for his negligence in overseeing Florida's Department of Children and Families, ridden with controversy recently for losing track of foster children, leaving children in abusive situations and falsifying reports. So how does this sorry excuse for a public servant respond? Why in typical, negligent, patronage-for-Poppy-pals Bush Crime Family fashion: He appoints Jerry Regier, fundie fanatic and former Poppy aide with a paper trail revealing he is pro-child abuse as the agency's new chief! Shockingly, Bush says he didn't even know enough about Regier's background to realize he held fanatical, godless, anti-family views. Say what? Bush is faced with the responsibility of cleaning up a disgraced and scandal-ridden agency charged with protecting children and he doesn't even bother to find out the candidate's view on beating children? But wait, it gets worse... Now that Bush does know, what is his response? Bush spokeswoman Katie Muniz: "Mr. Regier has been an outstanding public servant for over a decade serving two presidents and a sitting governor. His record speaks for itself. Many of our nation's finest public servants past and present have been men and women of faith.'' That's right. Basically it comes down to: "We didn't know. But now that we do, we don't care." And, apparently, those formerly known as childbeaters are now to be known as "men and women of faith" in the Jeb Bush administration. Furthermore, aside from his extremism, Regier's record does indeed "speak for itself." But it doesn't say what Jebbie wants us to believe it says: When Gov. Jeb Bush appointed a Broward judge with a passion for reform to overhaul his badly damaged child welfare agency, he promised to repair a system he said other politicians had left in shambles. ''It's not how I want my state to be viewed,'' he said. The year was 1999, and Florida ranked 36th among the 50 states for key indicators of children's well-being. Oklahoma ranked 40th. Its secretary of Health & Human Services at the time was Jerry Regier, the man Bush tapped last week to head Florida's Department of Children & Families. Full story But wait... It gets worse still. How have Jeb's prospective Democratic opponents responded? Bush "should be focusing on what needs to be done to protect children, not on a controversy about who his nominee is," said Tampa lawyer Bill McBride. Former U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno said, "With all of the challenges facing DCF, one would think that the governor would pick someone who would not be a lightning rod for controversy." Full Story What is wrong with Florida Democrats? Why haven't they seized on an issue like this one that so clearly illustrates why any member of the Bush Crime Family should be permanently deprived of power? Why have these Democratic candidates made general, vague "controversy" the issue instead of the reason for the controversy: Jeb Bush's persistent and now more undeniable than ever unbelievable negligence and incompetence! (Flashback: In its early days, MWO exposed Jeb for the same kind of neglect and malfeasance when he refused to take action against another official/crony whose agency was embroiled in scandal after scandal -- but once the media determined they could not prove Jeb had an affair with the woman, they lost interest in the story.) UPDATE Jeb Bush's office has released a statement denying that Regier co-wrote the fundie extremist essay: Regier tried to disassociate himself with the paper, which lists him on the cover page as co-chairman of the group that authored it. "I was not a co-author of this paper and did not exercise editorial control over its content," Regier said in a statement released by the governor's office. "Rather, as a family advocate, I was asked to serve as a co-chairman of the group that released the paper." He said he broke his relationship with The Coalition on Revival Inc. a year after the paper was published because of the group's extreme interpretations of the Bible. But he looks to us to be extremely "associated" with the paper and the group. Determine for yourself whether Regier's claim that he did not endorse the contents of the essay is believable: http://www.reformation.net/COR/cordocs/family.pdf The Christian World View of The Family Dr. George Rekers, Ph.D., Chairman Mr. Jerry Regier, M.A.B.S., Co-Chairman With contributions by members of: The Family Committee of The Coalition on Revival Dr. Jay Grimstead, D.Min., General Editor Mr. E. Calvin Beisner, M.A., Assistant to the General Editor Bush: Regier "thoroughly checked" Bush, who is seeking a second term this fall, defended his choice and said Regier's background was thoroughly checked. He said he did not know about the essay before he appointed Regier, but accepted that Regier disavowed himself from it. Jebbie claims Regier's background was "thoroughly checked," yet he didn't know about the essay?? Readers: Perform a Google search on "Jerry Regier and The Coalition on Revival Inc." That's right -- at the time Bush claims he "thoroughly checked" out Regier, the FIRST ITEM that appeared when one entered the appointee's name and the organization he co-chaired: the essay Bush claims he did not know about. (Stories about the Bush controversy now appear above the listing.) "He doesn't share those extreme views," Bush said. "The focus ought to be on protecting children and I believe he will do a good job." Is that so? He doesn't share the extremist views of a group he co-chaired? What about this "Manifesto For a Christian Church" document that lists "Jerry Regier" among those endorsing it? THE MANIFESTO FOR THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH Declaration and Covenant July 4, 1986 An Act of Contrition and Humble Repentance A Solemn Covenant A Statement of Essential Truths and a Call to Action National Christian Leaders Who Signed the COR Manifesto in 1986: Mr. Jerry Regier, President, Family Research Council We affirm that all Bible-believing Christians must take a non-neutral stance in opposing, praying against, and speaking against social moral evils such as the following: B. Adultery, fornication, homosexuality, bestiality and other forms of sexual perversion Regier equates homosexuality with bestiality and considers it "sexual perversion," yet is not an extremist? J. Statist-collectivist theft from citizens through devaluation of their money and redistribution of their wealth Regier regards taxation as "theft," yet is not an extremist? Regier signs a document affirming that he will actively oppose "moral evils" like homosexuality and taxes - and Little Brother claims he doesn't share the views of extremists? UPDATE II From Counterspin Central: It appears that Mr. Regier's split with Christian fundamentalist group Coalition on Revival, was far more amicable then he claimed. According to the Miami Herald: "A fundamentalist Christian theologian who headed the group that issued a radical Christian essay now linked to Jerry Regier, the new chief of Florida's child-welfare agency, said Saturday that he does not recall Regier cutting ties with his organization because of its ''extreme views,'' as Regier said in a statement issued Friday. Contact Florida's Democratic gubernatorial candidates: Bill McBride Janet Reno -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to Media Whores Online. Media Whores Online takes an unbiased, in-depth look at the astonishingly vast myriad of whores who call themselves "journalists." MWO casts a garish spotlight on the relentless screaming heads of television, the babbling paranoids of squawk radio, and the crayon scribblings of lazy print media "columnists." Whore Watch -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KRUGMAN TELLS TRUTH ABOUT BUSH, INC.!! Breaks Time Honored Media Taboo: Openly Acknowledges Reality! Contrasts PHONY Bush Image With Policies Love 'Em And Leave 'Em Faux Populism Liberals Have Facts. Conservatives? Staged Schmoozing The Real Thing Paul Krugman The point is that there is an inexorably growing gap between the image and the reality of the Bush administration's policies. Mr. Bush is a master of photo-op populism; his handlers seek out opportunities to show him mingling with blue-collar workers. But the reality is that this administration loves 'em while the TV crews are around, then leaves 'em when it comes to actual policy. And that reality is becoming ever harder to conceal. ... In other words, behind the photo-ops, the administration is busy squeezing programs that benefit firefighters, police officers, coal miners, veterans and other "humble people of America" (Mr. Novak's phrase), in order to make room for tax cuts that mainly help a handful of not at all humble people. That's not demagoguery, it's the plain truth. And it's a truth that will become ever harder to disguise. What are the political implications? When Al Gore wrote an Op-Ed article condemning the elitist policies of the Bush administration, pundits and many Democratic politicians, including his former running mate jumped on him with both feet. Populism, everyone insisted, doesn't work in American politics. Yet conservatives enthusiastically rely on populism fake populism, based on staged shmoozing with ordinary Americans and attacks on the imagined cultural elitism of the liberal media. Why shouldn't liberals, who actually have the facts on their side, try engaging in the real thing? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONSERVATIVE "MORALITY" STRIKES AGAIN Wingnut Turns Breast Cancer Forum Into Abortion Sermon Survivors Just "Didn't Want To Hear It" Complains GOP Rep A group of breast cancer survivors who met with Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., to ask for his support of breast cancer research said all he wanted to talk about was some controversial studies that have linked breast cancer to abortions. "He was obsessed with that," said Coral Cochran, a Terre Haute grandmother who has had two battles with breast cancer and was one of 11 women at the meeting. "We were extremely disappointed," she said. Some of the women said they felt Hostettler was implying that they had abortions. One woman said she cried. Hostettler said in an interview that he felt it was important for the women to know about the studies linking abortions to breast cancer. But, he said: "They didn't want to hear it."

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APB - Crazy Elias and Renato Souza Lopes, alias "Ratinho" (Little Rat).
by Matthew X 20 Aug '02

20 Aug '02

A third member of the gang that killed journalist Tim Lopes shot dead See the portuguese version of the press release Alleged drug dealer Flávio Reginaldo dos Santos, alias "Buda", one of the suspects in the Tim Lopes murder who was still at large, was shot dead by police in the early hours of 15 August in Vila del Cruzeiro, a Rio de Janeiro shantytown. Police said he was hit by bullets while trying to escape the police officers who were attempting to arrest him. Dos Santos was reportedly a member of the gang led by "Crazy" Elias, the prime suspect in the Lopes killing. Dos Santos was not believed to have participated directly in the killing of Lopes. He was wanted for having set fire to a drugs squad vehicle with four police officers inside in September 2001. 14.08.2002 - Growing concern about Tim Lopes investigation after death of two suspects Reporters Without Borders today voiced its utmost concern about recent developments in the investigation into the murder of TV journalist Tim Lopes, in particular, the death in the space of a week of two suspects who had been wanted for their presumed participation, and reports of police corruption. In a letter to President Fernando Henrique Cardoso, Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Robert Ménard called for a thorough investigation into the circumstances of the death of the two suspects, especially Mauricio de Lima Mathias, who was reportedly killed in an exchange of shots with police during an attempt to detain him. Ménard said the organisation was also "extremely concerned" about reports that the journalist's killers had corrupted police officers. "It would be scandalous if elements in the police help to keep this crime unpunished", the letter said, stressing that "this odious crime has outraged Brazilian society and the international community". The organisation asked to be kept informed of the results of the enquiry into the presumed corruption of police officials by Elias Pereiora, the head of the gang that executed Lopes. Finally, it also insisted that measures be taken to guarantee the safety of the five suspects currently held in this case and that of the witnesses. One of Lopes' presumed killers, André da Cruz Barbosa, alias "André Capeta" (André the Devil), was killed by a bullet in the head on 13 August. The police say he probably killed himself, but do not rule out the possibility that he was gunned down by a rival gang or members of his own gang, However, according to Aldney Zacharias Peixoto, a representative of the public prosecutor's office, he could have been seen as someone who knew too much and may therefore have been executed by corrupt police habitually paid by the gang to ensure its protection. The other suspect, Mauricio de Lima Mathias, was shot dead five days earlier, on 8 August, when police tried to arrest him in the Vigario Geral shantytown (north of Rio) where he was hiding. He had been implicated in the journalist's death by other suspects, and was one of four persons wanted by the police in the case. According to Agence France-Presse, an anonymous caller recently told the police that Elias Pereira, alias "Elias Maluco" (Crazy Elias), the chief of the band of drug dealers which executed the journalist, had paid 600,000 Reals (200,000 Euros) to corrupt police for them to leave him alone. This is denied by Francisco Bras, commander of the military police. But Sergio Aguiar, secretary for public security in Rio de Janeiro, has said that "it is very possible that Crazy Elias enjoys the protection of certain corrupt police". Five officials are currently being investigated. Two suspects are still wanted in the Lopes murder investigation : Crazy Elias and Renato Souza Lopes, alias "Ratinho" (Little Rat). According to the daily O Globo, on 9 August a judge ordered that the five suspects already detained in this case be placed in preventive custody. They are Elizeu Felicio de Souza, alias "o Zeu", Angelo Ferreira da Silva ("o Primo"), Reinaldo Amaral de Jesos ("Kadê"), Fernando Sátyro da Silva ("o Frei") and Claudino dos Santos Coelho ("Xuxa"). This was done at the request of the two investigating magistrates in charge of the case, Vivian Tavares Henriques and Patrícia Mothé Glioche, to ensure they would not be released. The five face charges of theft, drug trafficking, homicide and "concealment of a body". A TV Globo journalist, Lopes was killed on the night of 2-3 June while gathering information on the use of child prostitutes by drug dealers in the Vila del Cruzeiro shantytown on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro. Dealers recognized him as he was shooting footage with a micro-camera. According to two if the detained suspects, he was tortured and then finished off with a machete by the local drug baron, Crazy Elias. His body was then burned. Charred human remains found on 5 July in a clandestine cemetery in the Grota shantytown have been formally identified as those of Lopes. http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=3434

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The future has barely begun.
by Matthew X 20 Aug '02

20 Aug '02

Confessions of an information junkie By Graeme Philipson August 20 2002 Next Nearly a decade after the Internet entered my life, it continues to amaze me. I remain astonished at the sheer volume of information it contains and the ease with which that information can be accessed. I am an information junkie. It has got to the stage where I cannot imagine life without the Web. People sometimes e-mail me and ask me where they can find out information on various things. I invariably tell them just to do an Internet search, usually with Google, which is the best of the search engines, but there are lots of others too. My second favourite is Anzwers, because I often need to know specifically Australian things. Engines that aggregate the results of other engines, such as Dogpile, are also useful. We all have our favourite websites. Mine is AnalystViews. It is run by a fellow in Connecticut called Jim Zimmermann, and it has only been going a few months. It aggregates and provides pointers to all the free content from more than a hundred IT analyst groups around the world. All these companies give away a bit of their information in the hope it will entice you to buy some of the stuff they charge for. Much of the free stuff is very useful. When you add it all together, it's invaluable. Zimmermann's site, which includes a free weekly newsletter, is an amazing resource for anyone interested in trends in the IT industry. Another good site with an astounding amount of free IT information is ITpapers, which was recently bought by CNet. ITpapers is a portal to so-called "white papers", which are semi-technical documents published by computer suppliers to explain the background to their products. White papers are marketing tools but are usually written in a style that is meant to be objective, and they often contain extremely useful material. I get quite a few e-mailed newsletters about various aspects of the IT industry. Some are free, some I pay for. But I also get some outside of IT. I devour my daily cricket news from Cric Info. I get my word a day from Wordsmith.org. Because I am such a surfer, I get spammed relentlessly. It is a small price to pay for the benefits of e-mail, truly the Web's killer application. E-mail suits my way of working to a T. I work from home and venture into the city only occasionally, and it is the main way I keep in touch with clients and associates around the world. I have really noticed in the past year or two how the telephone has dropped off in importance for many business functions. I get a lot of e-mails as author of this column, but before e-mail was common, I was lucky to get one letter a week. I got a note they other day from a reader suggesting that the benefits of the Internet age were overrated. I asked him why he had e-mailed his letter instead of posting it. The amazing thing about all this is that we have barely scratched the surface. We are still at the very early stage of the Internet. We will look back in 10 years and think how primitive all this was. High bandwidth will introduce many new applications. So will the Semantic Web. And Web services. And wireless. The future has barely begun. graeme(a)philipson.info http://theage.com.au/articles/2002/08/17/1029114033294.html

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Hellholes by Halliburton.
by Matthew X 20 Aug '02

20 Aug '02

Halliburton to Build New Cells at Guantanamo Base WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Halliburton Co. has been awarded a $9.7 million contract to build an additional 204-cell detention camp at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to hold additional suspected al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners, the Pentagon said on Friday. The move will expand the high-security prison on the base, where hundreds of such "detainees" from Afghanistan are already being held in 612 small cells. The prison at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station has played a major part in the U.S. war on terrorism declared after September's attacks on America in which more than 3,000 people died. No prisoners have been charged, but some could eventually face military trials. Brown and Root Services, an engineering division of Halliburton, will build the additional 6-by-8-foot cells on the windward side of the remote U.S. base at the southeastern tip of Cuba, the Pentagon said. The work is expected to be completed by October. But the Pentagon suggested on Friday that the facility could grow even more and that the contract could eventually total as much as $300 million if additional options were exercised over the next four years. Vice President Dick Cheney is the former chief executive officer of Halliburton, whose main business is providing oilfield services. The company has come under heavy pressure this year because of concerns about its liabilities and a probe by the Securities and Exchange Commission into its accounting for cost overruns on construction projects. Additional Cells Sought By Rumsfeld Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld earlier this month asked Congress to approve expanding the prison facility, which currently has 612 cells, by 204 cells. Army Lt. Col. Joe Hoey, a spokesman for the task force running the prisoner operation at the naval base in Cuba, said earlier that the United States was holding and interrogating 564 suspected Taliban and al Qaeda prisoners. The prisoners were captured in the U.S.-led war against the al Qaeda group blamed for the September attacks and against the Taliban government that sheltered them in Afghanistan. The captives were moved in April to Camp Delta, a permanent facility built to replace Camp X-Ray, a series of makeshift chain-link cells hastily erected when the U.S. military first brought prisoners from Afghanistan to Guantanamo in January. The United States drew fire from human rights groups after photographs were distributed of the prisoners squatting in their cells in the blazing Cuban sun. Human rights activists have criticized that U.S. stance that the captives are not prisoners of war under the Geneva conventions. The fate of the prisoners being held at Guantanamo is still uncertain. The United States government has set guidelines to try some of them before military tribunals but has not said when that might happen. Camp Delta is made up of solid cells in rows that look like long mobile homes. Unlike Camp X-Ray, they have wash basins with running water and floor-style toilets that flush. Like X-Ray, Camp Delta is surrounded by fences topped with razor wire and ringed by wooden guard towers manned by sharpshooters. But the new camp is enclosed inside a green mesh curtain, which prevents visitors from seeing in and keeps the prisoners from seeing the tightly guarded shoreline a few hundred yards away. author: Charles Aldinger news service: Reuters url: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0727-02.ht... date: 2002-07-27 Habeus Corpus is dead for 2 aussis held illegally by the great Satan.

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The "Bell Telegraph."
by Matthew X 20 Aug '02

20 Aug '02

'Bell Telegraph' May Enable Cosmic Communications Send this Article Print this Article Talkback Related Stories By Mike Martin NewsFactor Sci::Tech, Part of the NewsFactor Network August 19, 2002 Einstein's special theory of relativity strictly forbids anything from traveling faster than the speed of light. A quantum mechanical Bell telegraph, however, may defy this prohibition with a twist -- literally. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No ; not that one... The future of telecommunications may hinge on a clever new version of a device from its past, physicists claim. What the Bell telephone is to communication across town or overseas, the Bell telegraph -- named for British physicist J.S. Bell -- may become to communication across the solar system or even the Milky Way. John Bell first proposed that the strange properties of quantum mechanics might permit subatomic particles to interact instantaneously over distances so vast that signals between the particles had to travel faster than light speed. "A device that transmits information faster than light speed has always been possible, at least in theory," telecommunications engineering professor and former Bell Laboratories director Ira Jacobs told News Factor. "In practice, such a device would present monumental engineering hurdles that might be overcome by futuristic engineers," he added. Defying Einstein with a Twist Einstein's special theory of relativity strictly forbids anything from traveling faster than the speed of light. A quantum mechanical Bell telegraph, however, may defy this prohibition with a twist -- literally. The so-called up and down "spin" states characteristic of quantum particles would substitute for telegraphic dots and dashes. Spin is a particle's intrinsic angular momentum and may be visualized as a left or right-handed rotation -- or twist -- about an imaginary axis. In theory, a Bell telegraph could send an instant signal from a particle on Earth entangled with a second particle on a planet light years away -- a special configuration called a "Bell state." Spooky Physics "A Bell state is a particular kind of quantum state that describes two particles in which measurement of some quantity in one of the particles instantly affects the distant particle, no matter how far away it is," physicist Daniel Badagnani, a visiting professor with Argentina's National Research Council (CONICET), told NewsFactor. The very act of observing the Earth-bound particle's spin -- up or down -- instantaneously causes the distant particle to occupy the opposite spin state, a circumstance of quantum mechanics so mystifying Einstein called it "spooky." Spin "up down up" measurements on the Earth-bound particle instantly become spin "down up down" readings on the distant particle. Assigning dots to "spin up" and dashes to "spin down" leads to a "dash dot dash" with another amazing twist -- the dots and dashes appear instantly to a receiver -- no matter how far away. Quantum Hurdles However, future engineers will have to overcome another strange quality of quantum phenomena to construct a functional Bell telegraph. In theory, spin up is a "pure" state, a certainty like the left- or right-handed rotation of a planet or spinning top. In practice, however, quantum spin exists as a high or low "probability" of up or down, never guaranteed until an actual measurement occurs. Quantum states may be visualized as fuzzy, statistical "waves" that only collapse into hard data after a definitive observation -- hardly the stuff of reliable information. "Due to the probabilistic outcome of the collapse, or quantum measurement, no information can be transmitted through a collapse," University of Missouri physics professor Peter Pfeiffer told News Factor. 'Informed Crazies' Agree To surmount this hurdle, Daniel Badagnani has searched for an "ingenious setting that could distinguish between the pure state and the statistical mixture," he explained. The prospect of such an innovation heartens National Science Foundation Electrical and Communication Systems program director Paul Werbos. "I am one of those informed crazies who thinks that there is a 2-to-1 chance we should be able to build something to do what Badagnani wants to do, sooner or later, by exploiting basic phenomena of quantum dynamics and quantum measurement," Werbos told News Factor.

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