December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Word lists for passphrases
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:10 PM 7/8/96 -0500, Igor Chudov @ home wrote: >Ben Holiday wrote: >> If you have access to a shell, and to the news spool, you can generate >> some quick lists by hopping into the directory of any newsgroup that >> interests you and doing: >> >> cat * | tr -cs A-Za-z '\n' | tr A-Z a-z | sort | uniq > my-big-ol-wordlist >> >> With most unixes that will generate an alphabetized list of all the unique >> words in your source text, converted to lowercase. I've had some problems >> with tr on a few machines, however. Adding a '-c' after 'uniq' will tell >> you how many times each word occured (useful for grepping out words that >> appear too infrequently, or too frequently) .. > >Actually I am fairly sure that your selection of words will be mediocre >at best. There are words (such as nethermost, insatiable, insufferable) >that are almost never used in news. If the purpose is for use with "Crack" or some similar program, it might be better than you would think. You won't get the "unusual" words, but you will also get the words in common usage that do not appear in dictionaries. (Such as fnord, jedi, killfile, and the like...) You will also get alot of proper names, which may have been used as passwords. The idea is that words in common usage may be more likely to be used as passwords. Another thing to look for when choosing dictionaries/wordlists for crack is not sticking to english. If you have a userbase that is known to have a certain percentage of people of a non-english background, you will want to find lists of words from that background. (I had a sysadmin asking me about Yiddish and Hebrew wordlists for just that reason.) These can be a bit harder. (Especially for unusual languages.) But knowing your userbase can make all the difference in what it might take to crack the passwords from the outside. --- Alan Olsen -- alano(a)teleport.com -- Contract Web Design & Instruction `finger -l alano(a)teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key http://www.teleport.com/~alano/ "We had to destroy the Internet in order to save it." - Sen. Exon "Microsoft -- Nothing but NT promises."

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ACLU: NJ Alert! Personal Data Chip in DL! (fwd)
by Julian Assange 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: >From notes(a)igc.org Tue Jul 9 15:12:01 1996 Date: Mon, 08 Jul 1996 19:48:10 -0700 (PDT) Reply-To: Moderator of conference "justice.polabuse" <bwitanek(a)igc.apc.org> From: Bob Witanek <bwitanek(a)igc.apc.org> Subject: ACLU: NJ Alert! Personal Data Chip in DL! To: Recipients of pol-abuse <pol-abuse(a)igc.apc.org> Message-ID: <APC&1'0'a9f989e8'c0a(a)igc.apc.org> X-Gateway: conf2mail(a)igc.apc.org Errors-To: owner-pol-abuse(a)igc.apc.org Precedence: bulk Lines: 32 Posted: sspnj(a)exit109.com *Computer Chips in Driver Licenses?* NEWARK, N.J. -- The Associated Press reported today that drivers may soon be using a new high-tech driver's license to pay tolls and do banking in New Jersey. The soon to be tested "Smart Card" will carry a data packed computer chip that will provide authorities with access to private information including fingerprints and medical records. The pilot cards will be limited to standard driver's license information. By the time the cards are issued to all New Jersey drivers in July 1997, they would also contain fingerprints and an "electronic purse" to be used to pay bus and train fares, the AP said. Civil libertarians said the new licenses raise privacy concerns. Ultimately, the AP said, the license will contain arrest records, medical records, vehicle registration, and could be used as a debit card to pay for groceries and do banking. "I think citizens should be extremely scared about loss of privacy," David Rocah of the New Jersey ACLU told AP. "They could store tax data. They could store medical data. They could store driver's records, insurance data, virtually any data in the government's possession." The ACLU also warned that the potential for misuse of the information --government surveillance or telemarketing research - - could pose potential problems. ---------------------------------------------------------------- -- "Of all tyrannies a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies, The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis, _God in the Dock_ +---------------------+--------------------+----------------------------------+ |Julian Assange RSO | PO Box 2031 BARKER | Secret Analytic Guy Union | |proff(a)suburbia.net | VIC 3122 AUSTRALIA | finger for PGP key hash ID = | |proff(a)gnu.ai.mit.edu | FAX +61-3-98199066 | 0619737CCC143F6DEA73E27378933690 | +---------------------+--------------------+----------------------------------+

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Re: Word lists for passphrases
by stevenw＠best.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>AwakenToMe(a)aol.com, in a profound display of stubbornness, continues >to insist that his program to enumerate all possible words of length N >(that is, aaaaa, aaaab, aaaac, etc.) is somehow interesting. I am >therefore forced to drive in the nail with a sledgehammer. Forgive me. >------Cut Here------ >/* > This could be more elegant, but the point is obviousness. >*/ >#include <stdio.h> > >int main() >{ > char i[6]; > > for (i[0] = 'a'; i[0] < 'z'; i[0]++) > for (i[1] = 'a'; i[1] < 'z'; i[1]++) > for (i[2] = 'a'; i[2] < 'z'; i[2]++) > for (i[3] = 'a'; i[3] < 'z'; i[3]++) > for (i[4] = 'a'; i[4] < 'z'; i[4]++) > printf("%s\n", i); >} >------Cut Here------ > >Perry I agree with you, but it could also be correct. Since the char array is allocated on the stack as an auto, its contents are not guaranteed. So i[5]='\0'; is needed as the first statement. And of course it will never include a 'z' because the '<' will not permit it. Replace all the '<' with '<='. Plus there is the small matter of non-ASCII character representations breaking the increments and comparisons. Oh, and don't forget that main() returns an integer. This will generate at least a warning from the compiler, since the code does not return anything. It may well return a random number or something that will be interpreted as an error code. (also less than a minute's work) ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steven Weller | Technology (n): | | A substitute for adulthood. stevenw(a)best.com | Popular with middle-aged men.

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Metered Phone
by Jerome Tan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have any ideas about this metered phone? I am from Philippines and heard some news that it will be existing in 1997. Quite a big problem! Every dial will be counted, every seconds will be measured...

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Metered Phone
by Jerome Tan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have any ideas about this metered phone? I am from Philippines and heard some news that it will be existing in 1997. Quite a big problem! Every dial will be counted, every seconds will be measured...

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Metered Phone
by Jerome Tan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have any ideas about this metered phone? I am from Philippines and heard some news that it will be existing in 1997. Quite a big problem! Every dial will be counted, every seconds will be measured...

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FUD-Con V: DC
by Deranged Mutant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On 8 Jul 96 at 14:10, winn(a)Infowar.Com wrote: [..] > Historically, civil defense has meant to protect citizenry against hostile > military actions. Today, with the specter of Information Warfare representing > new challenges to late-industrial and information age nation-states, the rules [..] Are these really "new" challenges? > - The Power grid is the basis of most of modern society. With it gone, > not much else happens. If you think this is just a matter of building more > generators, think again--what happens if the factories that *make* the > generators are taken down, too? You haven't lived in a hurricane prone area and lost your electricity for most of a month, have you? Many of the generators are already in place. The power grid is not centralised, so it's difficult to take down everything for a long period of time (long enough to be truly detrimental to a lot of people) quickly enough (that would require some non-informational real-life bombing and warfare). > - The Communications infrastructure: land, sea, air and satellite. 95% > military communications go over the public networks, and 100% of all financial > and industrial communications. Is it worth protecting? Is it so easy to take a whole network down? What about various radio operations (HAMs, Marineband, FM, etc.)? And don't forget automobiles and roads as last-resort communications. > - The Global Financial structure depends upon the first two > infrastructures, and is perhaps the most vulnerable to theft and denial of > service attack. 99+% of all "wealth" is digital--what happens if it vaporizes? I'm skeptical of that figure (many institutions maintain several printouts and have contingencies to do things by hand... for no other reason than computers go down without human interference). > - Transportation systems rely upon the other three. The air traffic [..] Not really. Automobiles and buses rely on very little. In major disasters there are ways to keep limited air and train traffic running. > Without all of these infrastructures properly and reliably functioning, the > private sector and the national security community cannot function. No heat, no [..] You sound as if you have not been in a place hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, major floods, etc. These cause much more damange to infrastructures as well as human life than any organized action could, save for an all-out physical war. Life still manages to go on. > air conditioning, no food distribution, no light, no radio or TV, no Internet. > Are we prepared? Do we have a a crisis response for the day money as we know > it vanishes? Isn't that what FEMA is for? Do you want FEMA involved with the 'net? Or would you rather get the DoD, NSA, FBI also involved with "Emergency Management"?!? > Electronic Civil Defense will soon become a critical component of any nation's > well being while the needs of both the private sector and government converge. > The convergence of military and civilian interests that Mr. Schwartau predicted Yes... it's called key escrow. > two years ago is happening before our eyes. Defensive and commercial postures > have so intertwined as to make them indistinguishable. That still implies empowering the state rather than allowing entities (individuals and corporations) to protect themselves. I'm skeptical of much of the InfoWar hype. Yes, there are important security issues (data integrity and preservation). But these also cross over with non-info disaster preparations. I also question whether large corporations and banks have compatible interests with individuals. It seems entirely possible that measures could be taken to protect the former at the expense of the latter. It's also dangerous to give LEA's another bogeyman to use. Very dangerous. Rob --- No-frills sig. Befriend my mail filter by sending a message with the subject "send help" Key-ID: 5D3F2E99 1996/04/22 wlkngowl(a)unix.asb.com (root@magneto) AB1F4831 1993/05/10 Deranged Mutant <wlkngowl(a)unix.asb.com> Send a message with the subject "send pgp-key" for a copy of my key.

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Metered Phone
by Jerome Tan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have any ideas about this metered phone? I am from Philippines and heard some news that it will be existing in 1997. Quite a big problem! Every dial will be counted, every seconds will be measured...

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Metered Phone
by Jerome Tan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have any ideas about this metered phone? I am from Philippines and heard some news that it will be existing in 1997. Quite a big problem! Every dial will be counted, every seconds will be measured...

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RE: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Mike Duvos Of course, no amount of reason will disuade the True Believers from embracing yet another disease model, and we shouldn't expect that it would. But I think it is clear to many people that the forced medication of children for the convenience of those who take care of them is getting a bit out of control. ........................................................................

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RE: What remains to be done.
by Andy Brown 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On 09 July 1996 02:04, John F. Fricker[SMTP:jfricker@vertexgroup.com] wrote: > One of these days Microsoft will officially release NT's IFS SDK. A few > "preliminary" and incomplete copies of a 1993 beta release do float around > but for a mere $50K there's a company that will sell you the complete source > for an IFS. It's a crime that Microsoft hasn't shipped this SDK yet as the > Installable File System is one of the great powers of NT. You can do this with the existing device driver kit since they supply the entire source code to the AT hard disk driver. I took a look and decided that it would be too much work for me alone. They also seem to suggest that you can write "filters" that extend the capability of existing drivers. > So, if someone is interested in coughing up the $50K I know a couple NT > programmers just chomping at the bit to build cool IFS's like PGPDrive, etc. I'm one of them, but this low level device driver stuff makes me shudder! - Andy

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RE: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Perry E. Metzger I suppose you don't understand what it might be like for someone to be unable to do their work no matter how heavy the threat against them if they don't, and no matter how easy it is. There are people out there who can't get themselves to pay a phone bill or throw out the newspapers for months on end -- they just can't get themselves to dance around into the task no matter how hard they try, no matter how great the threat (job loss, etc) to them is. ...................................................................... Drugs create a picture of coercion - where the mind is coerced into a state arrived at not by thoughtful consideration, but by round-about ways of achieving the desired result. This is what makes some people wary of them, but make them appealing to others who find this very feature attractive - that they can get results without having to think about it. There are times when people have been totally unmotivated to take care of themselves or the mundane matters in life because they were not involved in the pursuits which were of true value to them, and life "lost its meaning". Putting one's priorities into perspective can do a lot towards feeling motivated to attend to life's minor contingencies, while elevating the lesser items to the top of the hierarchy can totally dissipitate one's energies and interest. What if someone was working at a "practical" kind of job, living the kind of life prescribed by someone else, when what they really wanted to do was something related to fine art or other field, living a different kind of "life-style"? This could be so depressing that subconsciously they would finally rebel from supporting that false existence, and find themselves with no energy to move. Maybe Ritalin could make them forgot their true interest which was lying dormant, pushed away by who-knows-what kind of arguments against it, and help them to start paying attention again to those mundane, irrelevant aspects of existence. Maybe it could help them forget the *point* of their existence and they could attend to ordinary things which are easily understood and accomplished without too much creative energy. Maybe Ritalin could help force them to pay attention, in spite of the protest from their submerged psychology. Maybe. In taking 'beneficial' drugs there's always a question of whether someone's mind is being helped into awareness or overpowered into submission, even if the results seem to be acceptable to everyone. You're right, Perry, that no one should be making that decision for others. I do think, though, that achieving self-command by a conscious knowledge of what is right for one's nature is actually the most beneficial (and less controversial). (But I wonder how this would apply to crypto. Hmmmmmmm - only in reference to those evil old men in the govmt who......might allow it to be prescribed indiscriminately.) .. Blanc

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Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by JR＠ns.cnb.uam.es 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"Perry E. Metzger" <perry(a)piermont.com> says: >Timothy C. May writes: >> At 1:14 PM 7/7/96, Simon Spero wrote: >> >On Sat, 6 Jul 1996, Timothy C. May wrote: >> >> >> >> When the mother (a single mother, as this is California) drops her son off >> >> with my friend (also single, of course), she includes several "Ritalin" >> >> capsules with instructions on how to dose her son with this >> >> depressant/behavior modification drug. >> > >> >Er... Tim... Ritalin is an amphetamine. >> >> Whatever. It acts as a calmant/tranquilizer/depressant on many. > >Only those who have ADD, which you claim doesn't exist. > >> (As with many drugs, there are apparently paradoxical effects. Alcohol is a >> downer for some, and upper for others.) > >Alcohol is a CNS depressant for all. Lowering inhibitions tends to >make people relax and "party", but it doesn't have particularly >paradoxical effects. > >.pm > Sorry, but that's wrong. There must be some understanding of what's actually going on. Brain is not just a simple linear device. It's complex. And that goes to Tim's original point: Society is made by humans with brains that are complex but which try to use simple models to understand reality. Let me show with your own example. Alcohol *is* a depressant. But it doesn't act equally on all the CNS. It acts faster on one part of it whose role is to depress all the rest of the CNS. So, first alcohol depresses a depressor and therefore acts as a stimulant. If you maintain your levels of alcohol there the rest of your brain will be above its threshold and keep stimulated. Only if you pass that threshold the rest of the brain will be depressed. That's what alcohol drinking cultures like mine call "knowing how to drink". But then we don't know about taking cocaine (like some centroamerican cultures do) for instance. Same happens when you take other drugs (in their own context). It's only when you simplify or make a generalization that it gets dangerous. And same goes for society. If you have a society that teachs people how to drink you'll have less problems than one that doesn't. Or that teachs how to eat coca leaves avoiding the pure drug. Or that teaches you that curare is OK eaten -as it is- but letal in the blood (which allows survival for many tribes). That's were Tim's argument comes into cypherpunkish arena. If you teach people that it is easier to calm down hyperactive people, or solve all problems by increasing mind control and surveillance you can't complain of a police state. OTOH if you can teach people were to stop (as with alcohol) and that simple models just don't work you'll be on the road to a better system. I agree there is people that can benefit from drugs. But being a MD PhD myself too, I also know that the amount that really needs them is a minuscule proportion. Most times it is just a convenience for doctors, family, fathers or society. Though good doctors agree it would be better if they could avoid the drugs at all in most cases of mental disease. Same happens with surveillance: we benefit from some control to stop those few, exceptional, deep criminals that are better stopped in advance, but we don't really need as much as we have. There are better solutions, but it's far more convenient for power-holders to increase surveillance than to really address the underlying problems. But, IMHO, as long as we keep allowing many people to use simple and "convenience" models to quickly fix symptomps instead of addressing the real problem (like, e.g. making a greater effort in the education of their children), we are stating the basis for a future, more restrictive, controlling and "convenience" system. We need both, to educate people on a more responsible course of action, and develop tools to stop or make more difficult or less convenient the easy and fast solution of increasing surveillance instead of addressing the underlying problem. And that's where cryptography comes to help equate the balance and increases presure on power-holders into worrying more by decreasing the convenience of surveillance. That is, all in my most very humble opinion. jr

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Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by William Knowles 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On July 8th, 1996 Herr Doctor Duvos wrote: >Medicating a disease is fine. Recreational uses of relatively >harmless intoxicants and are also fine. It is the inappropriate >use of strong medicines with serious side effects by clueless >people for vague criteria like "reaching his or her potential" >that I have a problem with. I have a problem with people like Mike Duvos who think that folks like myself and others on this list with ADD use having ADD as a crutch for being fidgety, not getting their work done on time, or worst yet, Fired. I wish people like Mr. Duvos could walk a mile in my shoes before making off the cuff remarks, I wish I could get jobs done on time, I wish that I could finish one project before starting three more! My office looks like someone tossed a hand grenade in it, Proposals to the left, Job quotes to the right, jobs is various states of completion, Lost jobs to my inattentivness to my clients, Lost good clients because of having ADD and not knowing it! I wish I would have known about ADD eariler than now, I might not have been the complete fuck-up that I was in school, and worst than that, The nearly ten years after high school. One of my wishes did come true, and that was finding out that I do have ADD. Ritalin has been a godsend, I am able to dialin when I have to. Ritalin is not the only drug for treating ADD, Prozac works for some. There are times when I need the boundless energy to find time to be creative and I stop taking my meds, but its only for short periods, I remember all too well what I was like without knowing what the problem was with work, love, and life in general. Below is a list of famous people with Attention Deficit Disorders and/or Learning Disorders, and I'd be willing to bet that Perry Metzger either has, or knows someone with ADD. Albert Einstein, Galileo, Mozart, Wright Brothers, Leonardo da Vinci, Bruce Jenner, Tom Cruise, Charles Schwab, Henry Winkler, Danny Glover, Walt Disney, John Lennon, Winston Churchill, Henry Ford, Stephen Hawkings, Jules Verne, Alexander Graham Bell, Woodrow Wilson, Hans Christian Anderson,Beavis, Nelson Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, Gen. George Patton, Agatha Christie, John F. Kennedy, Whoopi Goldberg, Rodin, Thomas Thoreau, David H. Murdock, Dustin Hoffman, Pete Rose, Russell White, Jason Kidd, Russell Varian, Robin Williams, Louis Pasteur, Werner von Braun, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Robert Kennedy, alberto Tnmba Prince Charles, Gen. Westmoreland, Eddie Rickenbacker, Gregory Boyington, Harry Belafonte, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Steve McQueen, George C. Scott, Tom Smothers, Lindsay Wagner, George Bernard Shaw, Beethoven, Carl Lewis, Jackie Stewart, "Magic" Johnson, Weyerhauser family, Wrigley, John Corcoran. One can only wonder how much more great some of the people on this list would be today if they knew ADD back then. William Knowles erehwon(a)c2.org -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMeI+wgURbnwsNLz5AQHM6AP/Zln3eu50jKdhkER4Go3uBp0a4zlVUYti pW71AHLR8VydFaMM7iJFhYmv7vgFeuA1cAo27Hq1Pb8LZ/uucPRACKI8ku/XsVHh 9wdPsEKXMo0pHftnVHmuFb3dVtAA9jYKfGw3SwpktNkACQMvGHU2Z5+DkbetvSZm xrMSjCpxlvM= =ucXF -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- William Knowles <erehwon(a)c2.org> PGP mail welcome & prefered / KeyID 1024/2C34BCF9 PGP Fingerprint 55 0C 78 3C C9 C4 44 DE 5A 3C B4 60 9C 00 FB BD Finger for public key --

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Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by JR＠ns.cnb.uam.es 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"Perry E. Metzger" <perry(a)piermont.com> says: Mike Duvos writes: > Perry Writes: > > > Most people would have no particular urge to stop a child with > > diabetes from taking her insulin. Your friend seems to have the sick ... ... > Since diabetes has an organic cause, this analogy with syndromes and > disorders defined solely by behavioral percentages fails. 'fraid not. ADD has an organic cause, and can be detected with reproduceable biological tests. Agreed, but the point is IMHO that not everybody that takes it do actually need it, and that it is worst for them as well as for the rest of us (indirectly). And I don't think there's any point in denying there is a strong and widespread abuse of "easy solutions" (like government mandated key scrow for instance). >Admittedly, ADD is nonfatal, and I will agree that the analogy breaks >down there. I will also agree that it may be overdiagnosed -- that is, >misdiagnosed by sloppy practitioners. That does not mean it isn't real. > That's it. Agreed again. .... >Has it occurred to you that many of the children in question are happy >being medicated, as are many adults? In any case, who are you to tell >other people what's good for them? > >Perry Wrong. Many people feel happy taking antibiotics for a cold. But it is worst for the vast majority of them. A cold is produced by viruses on which no antibiotic is effective. But they kill their natural baterial barrier, making them more prone to a serious disease. And they select AB-resistant bacteria which will spread to other innocent people later. Anyway, I'm nobody to tell them to stop killing themselves. But *I* am ENTITLED to tell them not to kill *ME* by selecting resistant microorganisms when they take antibiotics they shouldn't. For *I* will have to stand those myself later. I don't tell them what's good for them. I do tell them what's BAD for ME. As well as I tink I'm not entitled to forbid anyone to smoke, but I am to expect they not to in my presence and to respect my health if I politely ask them so. I am not entitled to say which crypto anyone has to use. But I am entitled to expect no one will force me into using one that will be worst for me in the long run. And would rather prefer if people knew what they do and the extent on which they can rely on crypto when they use it. jr

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Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by JR＠ns.cnb.uam.es 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hey Perry, I think you are taking this too far. I believe that almost nobody (there are always some exceptions) will deny the existence of disease. And while Tim may not be a great doctor and even totally wrong in the case he stated, the original point was not to discuss a specific medical case. You may -or not- agree that there is abuse. You may -or not- be esceptical on the statistics. But there is no point in denying that it is far easier in most cases to fix the symptoms than actually solve the problem. Not that I say doctors do. God forbids. And from the very onset Tim explained his point in not building a mental control society. And there's no point in denying that it is far easier for most societies to have full mental control of their subjects (to which technology aids) than to fix the big social problems. If you can't see the parallel, I'd advise a visit to the doctor. Not to consult him, but to stay with her or him for a while and see what patients demand and how well educated is our society into looking deep to the problems instead of taking shortcuts. My experience as MD before I switched to computing was very illustrating. Long ago, granted, but interesting indeed. jr

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Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by JR＠ns.cnb.uam.es 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> >Yeah, you know, I bet your body doesn't get infected for lack of >penicillin, either. I suspect that taking Penicillin prepares you for >drug dependancies. Why, next, you might take insulin to deal with >diabetes, or worse! > Or worse! You could take penicillin for an infection. Why the hell do you think we need doctors? And antibiotics beyond penicillin? Just because too many damn schmuck take it for almost anything, and have been creating resistences giving the rest of us worst, resisting diseases that were originally easy to treat and are now letal. >Thank god most of those heroin addicts never had Ritalin as kids -- you >never know how much worse off they might be now. And if they'd gotten >antibiotics, why, forget it. > >Quit from modern medicine cold turkey. Its the only way. > >Perry The thing to remember is always that there's a place for everything under the sun, but that one shouldn't allow it to extend beyond reasonable ground or look upon it as some magic solution to everything. There's a place for crypto. It's been OK while only a few guys used it because only a few guys needed it. But when we talk about allowing the government to impose a crypto policy that will allow them to have more power than needed, we are stating the basis for future, worst diseases. You speak of insulin. Most diabetics can just manage with a good diet. Even insulin dependant ones can make dietary excesses from time to time if they know how to. Giving those who don't need it insulin or forbidding the occasional party to those who depend on insulin -as has been done by doctor for years- is teaching people to depend on "doctor's control magic" or "drug control magic". It's as bad encouraging people who don't need a drug to take it as encouraging people to believe doctors won't make mistakes. It's as bad to let people believe that strong crypto for them will solve their problems as encouraging them to believe that they should leave all crypto control on the government's hands because they won't make mistakes or abuses. So what? We need strong crypto as we need strong antibiotics, but we also need to teach people when and how to use it, what its pros and cons are, and form people into a more conscious use of technology and not to believe in crypto- drug- or technology-magic at all. jr

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Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by gdunn＠sciborg.uwaterloo.ca 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 2:32 96.7.9 -0700, William Knowles wrote: >Below is a list of famous people with Attention Deficit Disorders >and/or Learning Disorders, and I'd be willing to bet that Perry Metzger >either has, or knows someone with ADD. > >Albert Einstein, Galileo, Mozart, Wright Brothers, Leonardo da Vinci, >Bruce Jenner, Tom Cruise, Charles Schwab, Henry Winkler, Danny Glover, >Walt Disney, John Lennon, Winston Churchill, Henry Ford, >Stephen Hawkings, Jules Verne, Alexander Graham Bell, Woodrow Wilson, >Hans Christian Anderson,Beavis, Nelson Rockefeller, Thomas Edison, >Gen. George Patton, Agatha Christie, John F. Kennedy, Whoopi Goldberg, >Rodin, Thomas Thoreau, David H. Murdock, Dustin Hoffman, Pete Rose, >Russell White, Jason Kidd, Russell Varian, Robin Williams, Louis Pasteur, >Werner von Braun, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Robert Kennedy, alberto Tnmba >Prince Charles, Gen. Westmoreland, Eddie Rickenbacker, Gregory Boyington, >Harry Belafonte, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Steve McQueen, George C. Scott, >Tom Smothers, Lindsay Wagner, George Bernard Shaw, Beethoven, Carl Lewis, >Jackie Stewart, "Magic" Johnson, Weyerhauser family, Wrigley, John Corcoran. > >One can only wonder how much more great some of the people on this list would >be today if they knew ADD back then. > > >William Knowles >erehwon(a)c2.org OTOH, one could argue that their lack of attention to daily matters was what allowed them to be 'great' in the first place. Picture a Mozart on Ritalin. Boss - "Hey, Wolfgang, thanks for getting that presentation together so quick, it really impressed our client. And that was a really snappy jingle you wrote for the opening slide show, too ..." So, he's a 'great' worker at the office, and undoubtably undergoes nowhere near the mental stress he would off Ritalin. But I cannot, for the life of me, imagine _this_ man writing the music that the non-medicated Mozart did. So should the medication you take be decided by the area in which you want to be successful ? (or even better, vice versa: Personality engineering, here we come). Regards, Graham Dunn --- No PGP signature. Who would _want_ to impersonate me ?

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Re: Transforming variable- to fixed-length keys
by pgut001＠cs.auckland.ac.nz 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>For iteration-0, CFB (or some other feedback mode)-encrypt the passphrase from >the input buffer to the output buffer (assuming the library doesn't require >that the plaintext and ciphertext be in the same buffer) This doesn't work because the input and output buffer will almost always be of different lengths. >Questions: Are you using the previous chaining-variables/hash for each >successive chunk? No. Each chunk is a new hash with <whatever>, where <whatever> defaults to SHA1. Since (for SHA1) 64 bytes of input affect each 20 bytes of output, I don't think there's much need for chaining. I'm trying to keep the specification as simple and easy to check as possible (one of the problems with the PGP data management was that it was rather complex and hard to follow. I suspect it would be difficult to implement a compatible version going only from a written specification). >How do you pad passphrases that are smaller than the minimum input for a hash >function? The input wraps, just like the output, so for example the letter "a" would be hashed as: <length>a<length>a<length>a<length>a<length>a<length>a[...] >Hash the user's input, prepended with a 0x00. Use this for the first 0..160 >bits of key. If more than 160 bits is needed, write over the 0x00 with 0x01. >Hash again. This is much like your solution, but no wrapping. Note there is no >problem truncating hash output. That's another possibility. The only thing here is that you're only changing one byte for each pass, and I'm not sure if this is healthy. I'll see what the sci.crypt crowd (those who've survived the spamming) has to say about this - it may actually be stronger than my increment-by-one method if you're worried about related-key cryptanalysis. Peter.

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Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by JR＠ns.cnb.uam.es 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>One can only wonder how much more great some of the people on this list would >be today if they knew ADD back then. > That a fallacy. First, there's no way to know what they suffered if anything at all. Second, there's no way to know what would have happened. Third, there's what they themselves said. I know of many people who has your same signs. Hey you should see *my* office. And you should have seen it when I could devote myself to interesting things instead of XXXX(whateverI don't like) crap. Someone said about a kid not concentrating on grammar. Hell, I couldn't stand half of my professors in class, though I would perfectly listen to the same subject with other people. I don't know about you and don't pretend to tell you anything. But there are lots of cases in which the problem is *on the other side* (society, teachers, work, parents, priests, erroneous expectatives). I wonder how can we know from the external manifestations that those people were ADD and not just brilliant guys with dull teachers. As for those people you mentioned. Maybe if they had prozac they would have been perfect, quiet and compliant citizens, concentrated on what the power-that-be asked them to do. Think of Einstein happily working for Hitler, not worried about other themes (like ethical implications for instance). Thing is, it's very easy to keep everybody uniform. Easier than giving equal opportunities to less-good workers or allowing one to attempt many projects lest one succeeds and changes the stablishment! Let's make everyone into a uniform clone, and those who can't be made -say Down syndrome people- be exterminated. Let's enterprising people be forced into non-creative jobs, and if they don't like, be given drugs. Yeah! Let's monitor what everybody says, detect those guys who spend too much time at work reading cypherpunks or worrying about politics (which is not their job) and control them. Let's tap all their conversa- tions and force them to fit our idea of a uniform world of mediocre wits who just work perfectly in what we tell them and never question anything. I also wonder how those people you mentioned would have been allowed to do such great discoveries and destroy the grounds of their societies under the society we are heading to. "The World turning around the Sun? C'mon! Everybody knows it is flat and the Center of the Universe. That Galileo guy is obviously sick. Let's calm him down with some drugs so he can concentrate on Theology as it should well be"... Sorry, I think we need unfitted people, feeling unhappy about the society to make it evolve. jr

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Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by smith＠sctc.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 8:01 PM 7/8/96, John F. Fricker wrote: >Ever hear of home schooling? Home schooling has its own set of disadvantages. I've done enough teaching to respect it as a profession, especially when dealing with a small, evolving set of students. I also respect my own limitations. >Seems like if your child needs drugs to go to school than perhaps school is >the problem not that your child's body lacks Ritalin. I tend to agree, but it doesn't make the problem any easier to solve. Another alternative to Ritalin would simply be to let him struggle with school. It worked for me, I guess. >So it happens that I was talking with a fellow Saturday who grew up on >Ritalin. He's 36 now and strung out. Life with Ritalin prepared him for >drugs, you know. They were natural. I definitely see that as a risk. Without knowing how his parents and associated medical gurus (if any) were managing the drug, it's hard to tell if the situations are parallel. Life without Ritalin prepared me for a life as a coffee addict, I guess. Rick.

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stupid national security excuse again ...
by Ernest Hua 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Ok. Not that I really care, at this point, who really killed Kennedy or whether there was this or that conspiracy, but I am really sick of this bull shit "national security" excuse. What kind of "national security" excuse could there be for the CIA to say whether they confirm or deny the employment of some guy (whom they could easily discredit by saying that they have nothing to do with him)? This sort of maneuvoring by (insert your favorite TLA) is just exactly why I am so against encryption regulation by the government. They can snowjob anyone just by saying "national security". Ern -------- COURT REJECTS BID FOR FACTS ON ALLEGED KENNEDY PLOTTER REUTERS SAN FRANCISCO - A federal appeals court Monday rejected a bid to force the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to disclose whether it employed a man who claimed he was involved in the murder of President John F. Kennedy. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco denied an appeal by a California judge who sued to try to force the CIA to disclose information about Claude Capehart. Capehart, who died in 1989, claimed to have been a CIA agent involved in the November 1963 assassination of Kennedy in Dallas, according to the court ruling. In February 1992, David Minier, a municipal court judge in Chowchilla, California but acting as a private citizen in this case, made a Freedom of Information Act request to the CIA to say whether the agency had ever employed Capehart. Minier, 61, later asked the CIA for all records of the ''activities, assignments, actions and whereabouts of (Capehart) during the month of November 1963,'' according to the Appeals Court ruling. The CIA denied Minier's request, saying that to confirm or deny a relationship between the CIA and Capehart ``would jeopardize national security and compromise CIA sources and methods,'' the ruling said. ...

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CERT Advisory CA-96.13 - Alien/OS Vulnerability
by stevenw＠best.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Subject: CERT Advisory CA-96.13 - Alien/OS Vulnerability From: CERT Bulletin <cert-advisory(a)cert.org> Newsgroups: comp.security.announce, rec.humor ============================================================================= CERT(sm) Advisory CA-96.13 July 4, 1996 Topic: ID4 virus, Alien/OS Vulnerability - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The CERT Coordination Center has received reports of weaknesses in Alien/OS that can allow species with primitive information sciences technology to initiate denial-of-service attacks against MotherShip(tm) hosts. One report of exploitation of this bug has been received. When attempting takeover of planets inhabited by such races, a trojan horse attack is possible that permits local access to the MotherShip host, enabling the implantation of executable code with full root access to mission-critical security features of the operating system. The vulnerability exists in versions of EvilAliens' Alien/OS 34762.12.1 or later, and all versions of Microsoft's Windows/95. CERT advises against initiating further planet takeover actions until patches are available from these vendors. If planet takeover is absolutely necessary, CERT advises that affected sites apply the workarounds as specified below. As we receive additional information relating to this advisory, we will place it in ftp://info.cert.org/pub/cert_advisories/CA-96.13.README We encourage you to check our README files regularly for updates on advisories that relate to your site. - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Description Alien/OS contains a security vulnerability, which strangely enough can be exploited by a primitive race running Windows/95. Although Alien/OS has been extensively field tested over millions of years by EvilAliens, Inc., the bug was only recently discovered during a routine invasion of a backwater planet. EvilAliens notes that the operating system had never before been tested against a race with "such a kick-ass president." The vulnerability allows the insertion of executable code with root access to key security features of the operating system. In particular, such code can disable the NiftyGreenShield (tm) subsystem, allowing child processes to be terminated by unauthorized users. Additionally, Alien/OS networking protocols can provide a low-bandwidth covert timing channel to a determined attacker. II. Impact Non-privileged primitive users can cause the total destruction of your entire invasion fleet and gain unauthorized access to files. III. Solution EvilAliens has supplied a workaround and a patch, as follows: A. Workaround To prevent unauthorized insertion of executables, install a firewall to selectively vaporize incoming packets that do not contain valid aliens. Also, disable the "Java" option in Netscape. To eliminate the covert timing channel, remove untrusted hosts from routing tables. As tempting as it is, do not use target species' own satellites against them. B. Patch As root, install the "evil" package from the distribution tape. (Optionally) save a copy of the existing /usr/bin/sendmail and modify its permission to prevent misuse. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- The CERT Coordination Center thanks Jeff Goldblum and Fjkxdtssss for providing information for this advisory. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you believe that your system has been compromised, contact the CERT Coordination Center or your representative in the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST). We strongly urge you to encrypt any sensitive information you send by email. The CERT Coordination Center can support a shared DES key and PGP. Contact the CERT staff for more information. Location of CERT PGP key ftp://info.cert.org/pub/CERT_PGP.key CERT Contact Information - ------------------------ Email cert(a)cert.org Phone +1 412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline) CERT personnel answer 8:30-5:00 p.m. EST (GMT-5)/EDT(GMT-4), and are on call for emergencies during other hours. Fax +1 412-268-6989 Postal address CERT Coordination Center Software Engineering Institute Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh PA 15213-3890 USA CERT publications, information about FIRST representatives, and other security-related information are available for anonymous FTP from http://www.cert.org/ ftp://info.cert.org/pub/ CERT advisories and bulletins are also posted on the USENET newsgroup comp.security.announce To be added to our mailing list for CERT advisories and bulletins, send your email address to cert-advisory-request(a)cert.org Copyright 1996 Carnegie Mellon University This material may be reproduced and distributed without permission provided it is used for noncommercial purposes and the copyright statement is included. CERT is a service mark of Carnegie Mellon University. -- Moderators accept or reject articles based solely on the criteria posted in the Frequently Asked Questions. Article content is the responsibility of the submittor. Submit articles to ahbou-sub(a)acpub.duke.edu. To write to the moderators, send mail to ahbou-mod(a)acpub.duke.edu. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steven Weller | Technology (n): | | A substitute for adulthood. stevenw(a)best.com | Popular with middle-aged men.

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Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by Rick Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim writes more about Ritalin: >From what I've read--and I'm no expert, having long had essentially the >_opposite_ of "attention deficit disorder," assuming it really even >exists!--most children getting Ritalin are just being sedated. Behavior >control in its purest form. While the kids stop their wandering attention >and constant physical motions, it's because they're in a mental fog, just >one step away from drooling. (The 8-year-old friend of my friend's son is >so zoned out he can't play video games well at all...until the drugs wear >off.) That's very interesting, especially the part about video games. It sounds like overdosing to me. My wife says that a Ritalin overdose can also affect your heart rate and ability to sleep. Regarding video games, we went through some elaborate assessment process before Alex ended up on Ritalin. The school people did an assessment declaring he wasn't "learning disabled" but may have ADHD. Then he saw a behavioral psychologist for a few hours of observation, yielding the diagnosis. Lastly a different psychologist measured his behavior using some computer based game/test. The actual dosage was calibrated according to his effectiveness on the game/test, which involved memory, coordination, and ability to concentrate on something fundamentally boring. The test was performed 3 times to compare his performance before and after dosage. The point of all this is that there are other ways of using Ritalin. I don't think I'd tolerate its use on Alex if I didn't trust my wife. She has a much better background in such things than I, as well as a family doctor's experience with seeing the results of drug abuse. >>BarelyObCrypto: ADD is more about lack of attention *control* than lack of >>attention itself. Hyperfocus is also a trait of ADHD, and computers tend to >>cause hyperfocus for a lot of ADDers. >BTW, I saw a comment that Bill Gates is almost certainly an ADD person...or >maybe the comment was that he is borderline autistic? This matches my own experiences with ADHD. That's the thing about the raw phenomenon and its overall lifestyle effect: you either find your niche and do OK, or you get sidelined. Rick.

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Put Uncle Sam in your Calling Circle
by Ray Arachelian 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hey guys, I just got a really cool poster from RSA. It's a big circle split off into several sections showing people talking to each other, the upper right hand corner shows two NSA dweebs looking like Bevis & Butthead in suits, one smoking, the other seated infront of an old 60's reel to reel audio tape recorder, a sign on the wall behind them says "Key Escrow" There are several logos for various government agencies including our friends at No Such Agency and the FBI, a small quote next to the Copyright (C) RSA notice says "One of a series of public relations posters that never made it out of Fort Mede." Very very funny! Many many thanks to the cool person(s) at RSA who sent it my way. ========================================================================== + ^ + | Ray Arachelian |FL| KAOS KERAUNOS KYBERNETOS |==/|\== \|/ |sunder(a)dorsai.org|UL|__Nothing_is_true,_all_is_permitted!_|=/\|/\= <--+-->| --------------- |CG|What part of 'Congress shall make no |=\/|\/= /|\ | Just Say "No" to|KA|law abridging the freedom of speech' |==\|/== + v + | Janet Reno & GAK|AK| do you not understand? |======= ===================http://www.dorsai.org/~sunder/========================= Key Escrow Laws are the mating calls of those who'd abuse your privacy!

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