December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

(fwd) Russians Break RSA?
by tcmay＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Friends, I just grabbed this of the ClariNet news feed on Netcom...I'm not supposed to forward anything from this service (so don't tell Brad Templeton!), but this appeared to be too important not to pass on as quickly as possible. Apparently those rumors that the Russians, always topnotch mathematicians, had developed public key crypto in the 1950s or early 60s are true--my hero Kolmogorov developed this when he was technical director at Kryptogorodok, the secret city of Soviet cryptographers hidden in the Urals (and first visited by an outsider, Stephen Wolfram, only a couple of years ago). Here's the report on a news conference announcing the cracking of their Kolmogorov system, which is equivalent to our own RSA. I haven't had a chance to talk to John Markoff, who was at the press conference, to get his comments. --Tim > Xref: netcom.com clari.world.europe.eastern:2783 > clari.news.hot.ussr:3792 > clari. > news.trouble:3258 clari.science.crypto > Path: netcom.com!bass!clarinews > Approved: doug(a)clarinet.com > From: clarinews(a)clarinet.com (AP) > Newsgroups: > clari.world.europe.eastern,clari.news.hot.ussr,clari.news.trouble,clari.sc > ience.crypto > Distribution: clari.apo > Subject: Russian Mathematicians Announce Breakthrough > Keywords: Europe Cryptography RSA > Copyright: 1994 by The Associated Press, R > Message-ID: <russia-cryptoUR7f0_4ME(a)clarinet.com> > Date: Fri, 1 Apr 94 10:40:19 PST > Expires: Mon, 18 Apr 94 12:40:19 PDT > ACategory: international > Slugword: Russia-Crypto > Priority: regular > ANPA: Wc: 116/0; Id: V0255; Src: ap; Sel: -----; Adate: 03-14-N/A > Codes: APO-1103 > > > MOSCOW (AP) -- At a press conference held minutes ago in a > crowded hall, Russian mathematicians announced that a breakthrough had > been made nearly a decade ago in the arcane branch of mathematics > known as "cryptography," the science of making messages that are > unreadable to others. > Leonid Vladwylski, Director of the prestigious Moscow Academy > of Sciences, called the press conference yesterday, after rumors began > circulating that noted Russian-American reporter John Markoff was in > Russia to interview academicians at the previously secret city of > Soviet cryptographers, Kryptogorodok. The existence of Kryptogorodok, > sister city to Akademogorodok, Magnetogorsk, and to the rocket cities > of Kazhakstan, had been shrouded in secrecy since its establishment in > 1954 by Chief of Secret Police L. Beria. Its first scientific > director, A. Kolmogorov, developed in 1960 what is called in the West > "public key cryptography." The existence of Kryptogorodok was unknown > to the West until 1991, when Stephen Wolfram disclosed its existence. > American cryptographers initially scoffed at the rumors that > the Russians had developed public-key cryptography as early as 1960, > some 15 years prior to the first American discovery. After interviews > last year at Kryptogorodok, noted American cryptographers Professor > D. Denning and D. Bowdark admitted that it did seem to be > confirmed. Professor Denning was quoted at the time saying that she > did not think this meant the Russians could actually break the > Kolmogorov system, known in the West as RSA, because she had spent > more than a full weekend trying to do this and had not > succeeded. "Believe me, RSA is still unbreakable," she said in her > evaluation report. > Russia's top mathematicians set out to break Kolmogorov's new > coding system. This required them to determine that "P = NP" (see > accompanying article). Details are to be published next month in the > journal "Doklady.Krypto," but a few details are emerging. > The Kolmogorov system is broken by computing the prime numbers > which form what is called the modulus. This is done by randomly > guessing the constituent primes and then detonating all of the > stockpiled nuclear weapons in the former Soviet Union for each "wrong > guess." In the Many Worlds Interpretation of quantum mechanics, > invented in 1949 by Lev Landau (and later, independently by Everett > and Wheeler in the U.S.), all possible outcomes of a quantum > experiment are realized. > As Academician Leonid Vladwylski explained, "In all the > universes in which we guessed the wrong factors, we were destroyed > completely. But since we are obviously here, talking to you at this > press conference, in this universe we have an unbroken record of > successfully factoring even the largest of imaginable numbers. Since > we are so optimistic about this method, we say the computation runs in > "Nondeterministic Pollyanna Time." Allow me to demonstrate..." > > [Press Conference will be continued if the experiment is a success.] > > MOSCOW (AP), ITAR-Tass, 1 April 1994 > > > -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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RE: anon-mail article in LA Times
by Pat Farrell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Eli Brandt <ebrandt(a)jarthur.cs.hmc.edu> writes: > Today's L.A. Times had an article, > [stuff elided] > Pretty good article, > with less than the usual amount of confusion. Today's Washington Post's Business section (page F2) has the same article by Michael Schrage. He is acknowledged as a LA Times columnist. Pat Pat Farrell Grad Student pfarrell(a)gmu.edu Department of Computer Science George Mason University, Fairfax, VA Public key availble via finger #include <standard.disclaimer>

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Re: Cryptography banned in the Netherlands....
by dmandl＠panix.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>> I have always thought that the Netherlands was a very liberal country. >> But now the government is proposing a law that totally outlaws the use >> of encryption methods. > >Actually, these are quite consistent. Much of the ``liberal'' agenda >relies on government, whether to impose taxes to support welfare, or to >enforce political correctness, or whatever. But the continued >effectiveness of government (and other large institutions) is threatened >by strong cryptography. > > John E. Kreznar | Relations among people to be by > jkreznar(a)ininx.com | mutual consent, or not at all. Right, as opposed to conservatives, who are happy to have people "threaten the effectiveness of government and other large institutions." So, among "liberals" we can include Reagan, J. Edgar Hoover, Joe McCarthy, and Nixon, all of whom took some pretty extreme steps to silence critics of "government and other large institutions," up to and including political assassinations. Tell CISPES (Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador) that the hundreds of break-ins and phone taps by the FBI in the mid-80's were intended to make sure that the former didn't increase the effectiveness of the U.S. government too much. Refresh my memory: which country has been destroying lives and seizing millions of dollars' worth of private property for over a decade in a fascistic "War on Drugs"? In which country can people buy, sell, and smoke pot openly without police harrassment of any kind? Which "politically correct" president forbade a Canadian filmmaker who made a film critical of the U.S. government to show that film here unless it had the label "Propaganda" attached to it? I'm no lover of "liberals" (though for very different reasons from you, to be sure), but this is utter nonsense. Do people really believe this stuff? -- Dave Mandl dmandl(a)panix.com

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Anonymous phone calls.
by GRABOW_GEOFFREY＠tandem.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I know how to suppress the transmission of your phone number (caller id) with *67, but I've heard that there is a way to force the routing of call through multiple long distance companies. Since the LDCs don't talk to one another, this should increase the difficulty of tracing and/or tapping a call. Does anybody know how to do this? G.C.G. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Geoffrey C. Grabow | "What we demand are rigidly defined | | Oyster Bay, New York | areas of doubt and uncertainty!" | | | -------------------- | | grabow_geoffrey(a)tandem.com | Clipper, SkipJack & Digital Telephony | | | JUST SAY NO!!! | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | PGP fingerprint = C9 95 0F C4 E9 DD 8E 73 DD 99 4E F5 EB 7A B6 1D | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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MAIL: remailer list
by Karl Lui Barrus 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The only change to the list is a new section briefly describing three other services: Miron Cuperman's, Matt Ghio's, and Jay Prime Positive's. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Cypherpunk anonymous remailers, 4/1/94 Q1: What are the anonymous remailers? 1: remailer(a)chaos.bsu.edu 2: nowhere(a)bsu-cs.bsu.edu 3: hh(a)soda.berkeley.edu 4: rperkins(a)nyx.cs.du.edu 5: hal(a)alumni.caltech.edu 6: ebrandt(a)jarthur.claremont.edu 7: catalyst(a)netcom.com 8: remailer(a)rebma.mn.org 9: hfinney(a)shell.portal.com 10: remailer(a)utter.dis.org 11: remail(a)extropia.wimsey.com NOTES: 1-4 no encryption of remailing requests 5-11 support encrypted remailing requests 11 special - header and message must be encrypted together 8,10,11 introduce larger than average delay (not direct connect) 1,2,8,10,11 running on privately owned machines 3 features USENET posting 11 features anonymous pools ====================================================================== Q2: What help is available? Look in ftp://soda.berkeley.edu/pub/cypherpunks/remailer (soda.berkeley.edu = 128.32.149.19) chain.zip - program that helps with using remailers dosbat.zip - MSDOS batch files that help with using remailers hal's.instructions.gz - in depth instruction on how to use hal's.remailer.gz - remailer code pubkeys.tar.gz - public keys of remailers which support encryption pubkeys.zip - MSDOS zip file of public keys scripts.tar.gz - scripts that help with using remailers Or try to gopher to chaos.bsu.edu and look in "Anonymous Mail"/Remailer Instructions" ====================================================================== Q3. Other Services: 1. Miron Cuperman's anonymous pool. To subscribe, send mail to pool0-request(a)extropia.wimsey.com. Mail sent to pool0(a)extropia.wimsey.com will be sent to all subscribers of the anonymous pool. 2. Matt Ghio's pseudo-account remailer. Send mail to mg5n+getid(a)andrew.cmu.edu You will receive an encrypted mail address of the form mg5n+eaxxxxx(a)andrew.cmu.edu Mail sent to this address will be forwarded to you. 3. Jay Prime Positive's mail pool Send mail to jpp=0x123456(a)markv.com, and the mail will be encrypted with the key matching 0x123456, and sent to alt.test with a subject line of "Ignore 0x123456" To add a key, send to jpp=poolnew(a)markv.com. The body of the message should contain the public key in pgp format. If there is a key clash, a message with the subject "Ignore jpp=poolnew key already in use" ====================================================================== Q4. Email-to-Usenet gateways? 1: group-name(a)cs.utexas.edu 2: group.name.usenet(a)decwrl.dec.com 3: group.name(a)news.demon.co.uk 4: group.name(a)news.cs.indiana.edu 5: group-name(a)pws.bull.com 6: group-name(a)ucbvax.berkeley.edu NOTES: * This does not include ones that work for single groups, like twwells.com. * Remember to include a Subject: with your post, may cause failures if missing #6 blocks from non-berkeley sites (so use the berkeley remailers :-) ====================================================================== This is the remailer.data file I use with pingmail, a script for pinging anonymous remailers: 01:n:remailer@chaos.bsu.edu 02:n:nowhere@bsu-cs.bsu.edu 03:n:hh@soda.berkeley.edu 04:n:rperkins@nyx.cs.du.edu 05:y:hal@alumni.caltech.edu 06:y:ebrandt@jarthur.claremont.edu 07:y:catalyst@netcom.com 08:y:remailer@rebma.mn.org 09:y:hfinney@shell.portal.com 10:y:remailer@utter.dis.org 11:s:remail@extropia.wimsey.com -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLZwz4YOA7OpLWtYzAQGGeQQAuyFqwdZOzFxndIfsCxkU2UMLUCpaRTY6 AVt3KB7uk3YcEYrghxyZhlMcSJp6TywZGfaQbE9edCc4HEMJeUXicVHYgtbazXXm a9gIbSNXb+PTsJMjlqb6fk2uzOq+u2C3RscN8Gh3EVvOg2UVx2PaFcmeGGRRRVQa TrthaeDGjhI= =Loon -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Patent expiration
by Alan (Miburi-san) Wexelblat 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Someone has just pointed out to me that the basic PKP patents (D-H especially) expire relatively soon now (the D-H patent was issued in 1980). Seems to me this is a strong motivation for the gov to get Clipper in place now; three years from now all the places that won't use PGP because of legal tangles will be able to use it free and clear! --Alan

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Re: Patent expiration
by smb＠research.att.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Someone has just pointed out to me that the basic PKP patents (D-H especially) expire relatively soon now (the D-H patent was issued in 1 980). Seems to me this is a strong motivation for the gov to get Clipper in place now; three years from now all the places that won't use PGP because of legal tangles will be able to use it free and clear! --Alan No. The basic patent on public key cryptography and the patent on Diffie-Hellman key exchange expire in 1997 (the former on April 28; the latter on August 18). PGP uses RSA, which is protected until September 19, 2000.

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How Many Games of Chess?
by kkirksey＠world.std.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This is tangentially related to crypto. I've been reading A.K. Dewdney's _The New Turning Omnibus_ recently to refresh my memory of all that stuff I learned in undergrad that I'm going to see again on the Comp Sci GRE shortly. :-) Anyway, I was glancing through the chapters on complexity, computabilty, and minimax trees, and I got to wondering something: how many possible games of chess are there? I know that it has to be a finite number, but I'm not sure how to go about finding this number. Any pointers would be appreciated. Ken ============================================================================= Ken Kirksey kkirksey(a)world.std.com Mac Guru & Developer ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- When the going gets tough, the tough hide under the table. -Edmund Blackadder

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Re: How Many Games of Chess?
by lefty＠apple.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>This is tangentially related to crypto. I've been reading A.K. Dewdney's >I was glancing through the chapters on complexity, >computabilty, and minimax trees, and I got to wondering something: how >many possible games of chess are there? I know that it has to be a finite >number, but I'm not sure how to go about finding this number. Any >pointers would be appreciated. It doesn't seem to me that this _can_ be readily calculated in any reasonable amount of time. It's not a simple (realtively) combinatorial problem: the configuration of the board at any given point limits the legal moves in an extremely nontrivial way. I believe I can get you as far as the second move, though: I make it to be twenty-one possible openings and twenty-one responses. -- Lefty (lefty(a)apple.com) C:.M:.C:., D:.O:.D:.

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Re: Cryptography banned in the Netherlands....
by dmandl＠panix.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>C'punks, > >Hey, remember, we're all on the same side. > >On Fri, 1 Apr 1994, David Mandl wrote after quoting John Kreznar's rant >about "liberals": > >> Right, as opposed to conservatives, who are happy to have people "threaten >> the effectiveness of government and other large institutions." [and so >on in this vein for several more paragraphs.] > >Whoe, lighten up fellows. You both agree! *Neither* liberals nor >conservatives are automatically our friends. People who are PRO CRYPTO >are our friends regardless of what political camp they put themselves >in. Please, lets not bring extraneous political, posturing onto this >list. Liberals or conservatives who want to ban or regulate crypto are >our enemies. Liberals or conservatives who support strong crypto are our >friends. It's as simple as that. Yup, that was exactly my point. Knee-jerk generalizations like "all liberals are evil and want to take our freedom away" are simplistic and silly and betray a gross misunderstanding of the way things are. Personally, I prefer to stay away from "good cops" AND "bad cops." --Dave. -- Dave Mandl dmandl(a)panix.com

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Khufu
by John K Clark 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In the April Dr. Dobb's ( page 20 ) it say's that Khufu is insecure because the key is only 64 bits long ; I was always under the impression that Khufu was 512 bits long ( 64 BYTES ). Have I been misinformed? John K Clark johnkc(a)well.sf.ca.us -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLZxbgnwRpTAWSvwVAQEPsgQAyWHDGPJux9eJz4w0jOX7IHWZ1ogvMPKH y4nUOzJDTHtAmmgjmxt+5J4cVKOMtpRMkHMNys+bqn5Cv0cEPf/dH/XSJUBmryNA OHNjfAMSPPXxvUiejH3rXqMqeeIt2XL75BWDoUp2Gx7PJBBcvsGUGSSgo3UHROko R8UpUK278qA= =G7WF -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: How Many Games of Chess?
by Mike Markley 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- | From: Lefty <netmail!lefty(a)apple.com> | To: <cypherpunks(a)toad.com> | Subject: Re: How Many Games of Chess? | Date: Friday, April 01, 1994 9:31AM | | Received: from relay2.UU.NET by netmail.microsoft.com with SMTP (5.65/25-eef) | id AA25823; Fri, 1 Apr 94 09:50:19 -0800 | Received: from toad.com by relay2.UU.NET with SMTP | (5.61/UUNET-internet-primary) id AAwjtu01006; Fri, 1 Apr 94 12:44:37 -0500 | Received: by toad.com id AA11484; Fri, 1 Apr 94 09:33:09 PST | Received: from colossus.apple.com by toad.com id AA11477; Fri, 1 Apr 94 09:33:01 PST | Received: from [90.1.0.18] by colossus.apple.com with SMTP (5.65/8-Oct-1993-eef) | id AA17501; Fri, 1 Apr 94 09:31:21 -0800 | Received: from lefty.apple.com by gallant.apple.com with SMTP (5.64/27-Sep-1991-eef) | id AA18102; Fri, 1 Apr 94 09:31:18 PST | for cypherpunks(a)toad.com | Message-Id: <9404011731.AA18102(a)internal.apple.com> | Mime-Version: 1.0 | Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" | Sender: netmail!owner-cypherpunks(a)toad.com | Precedence: bulk | | >This is tangentially related to crypto. I've been reading A.K. Dewdney's | >I was glancing through the chapters on complexity, | >computabilty, and minimax trees, and I got to wondering something: how | >many possible games of chess are there? I know that it has to be a finite | >number, but I'm not sure how to go about finding this number. Any | >pointers would be appreciated. | | It doesn't seem to me that this _can_ be readily calculated in any | reasonable amount of time. It's not a simple (realtively) combinatorial | problem: the configuration of the board at any given point limits the legal | moves in an extremely nontrivial way. | | I believe I can get you as far as the second move, though: I make it to be | twenty-one possible openings and twenty-one responses. | | -- | Lefty (lefty(a)apple.com) | C:.M:.C:., D:.O:.D:. | | | I seem to remember from way back in high school that the number of potential moves by the third set of moves is on the order of billions of legal moves. I am also pretty sure that it is not exponential but a factoral growth. I don't think that it is possible to determine every possible game. Mike -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Mike Markley || The opinions here do not represent the mmarkley(a)microsoft.com || opinions of my employer. Attempts to || associate the two are pointless. "I want to look at life, In the available light" - Neil Peart -

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InVisible Basic 1.0
by Blanc Weber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

<Sender composed mail containing characters not in the US-ASCII set.> <These characters have been transformed into a printable form.> FYI. I am not making this up. I can only imagine how this will = impact society. ~ Blanc ------------------------------------------------- Microsoft Announces InVisible Basic 1.0 Using the slogan "Not Seeing Is Believing," Microsoft Corporation today = is announcing InVisible Basic 1.0, a completely new use of "stealth" = technology in an object-oriented development environment. "We're taking code transparency to new heights," enthused Product = Manager C. R. as she began an impressive product demo. After just five = minutes of moving a mouse around what appeared to be a blank screen, = selecting unseen menu items, placing indiscernible controls on = inevident forms, and typing in unapparent code, the alleged application = was able to access an undisclosed database, perform a series of = unspecified queries and display whatever data it supposedly encountered = in a completely undetectable format. The only evidence that the application existed at all was the use of = disk space and CPU cycles. "And we're working on that for version 2.0," = C. R. said. "The applications are obvious," said "Jim," a developer with "General = Enterprises," a defense-industry supplier that lists its address as a = P.O. Box somewhere near Bakersfield, Calif. "I mean, if you were = developing a sensitive application--not that we are currently engaged = in any such contracts--and you wanted to ensure complete security--not = that we currently have any clients who have any need for such = security--this would enable you to make an application that was = completely protected--not that I am implying that any of the clients = that I cannot confirm or deny we might have would need this level of = data security--from outside intrusion. It also really saves on screen = real estate." Developed under the code name "Provo," the product was due to ship = concurrently with Visual Basic 3.0, but was lost when the development = team moved to its new offices in the D Level of Building 25. "That = ended up being a thrilling beta test," said C.R. . "I mean, if the = development team can't find the product, then it's pretty darn = invisible, right?" InVisible Basic 1.0 is currently available at an undisclosed location = for an unspecified amount. For technical support, leave an ad in the = personals section of the Miami Herald reading, "Marjoe: all is = forgiven. Bunny." You will receive in the mail a postcard of the = Ballard Fish Locks. At midnight, exactly two days after receiving this = card, be waiting at the "G" concourse of Mile High Stadium in Denver. A = PSS representative will contact you there. The password is "blibbett." -------------------------------- | | | | | | -------------------------------- Clear as a bell, the InVisible Basic product development team shows off = its enthusiasm at a recent ship party. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- = ---------- Copied from MicroNews, Copyright =A9 1994 Microsoft Corporation "Never say a humorous thing to a man who does not possess humour. He = will always use it in evidence against you. -- Sir Herbert Beerhohm-Tree (1853-1917) English actor-manager

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PHILIP ZIMMERMAN ARRESTED [NOT!]
by gnu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This is an April Fools' Day prank. I spoke personally to Phil and he is sitting comfortably in his own house (with the phone ringing off the hook). John ------- Forwarded Message From: Tommy the Tourist <nobody(a)soda.berkeley.edu> Newsgroups: alt.security.pgp Subject: PLEASE READ: PHILIP ZIMMERMAN ARRESTED Date: 1 Apr 1994 14:25:30 GMT Organization: Cypherpunks Message-ID: <2nhasq$ltb(a)agate.berkeley.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: soda.berkeley.edu Originator: hh(a)soda.berkeley.edu Philip Zimmerman, writer of the popular encryption program PGP, has been arrested! He is being held on $1,000,000 bail. The charges against him are as follows: 1) Violating PKP's patent on RSA. 2) Allowing PGP to be distributed outside of the US. I have just heard about this, since I work for the FBI (which is why I am posting this anonymously), and will post more information when I can get it. You may wish to set up a fund to help pay Zimmerman's bail. ecodefence nitroglycerin uzi detonate - -------- For more information about this anonymous posting service, please send mail to hh(a)soda.berkeley.edu with Subject: remailer-info. Eric Hollander takes no responsibility for the contents of this post. Please, don't throw knives. ------- End of Forwarded Message

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Encryption banned in the Netherlands.
by Gary Jeffers 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

conservative liberal fascist left-wing right-wing statist minarchist anarchist SOME DEFINITIONS In the U.S. it is almost impossible to talk sensibly about politics since no one knows the definitions of political orientations. For instance: what is a conservative? Someone who resists change; someone who wants the old order. Conservative is a relative term & does not make sense without reference to time & place. In the U.S. a conservative would be vaguely a right wing statist. In Russia a conservative would be a Stalinist. Also take liberal: In the old days in the U.S., liberal meant libertarian. In Europe now, liberal means roughly libertarian. In modern U.S., liberal means left wing statist. So what is left & right? The dictionary is useless for this question. But, I think I have figured it out. Left & right is based on EQUALITY OF OUTCOME AMONG PEOPLE BY RULES. A left winger insists on rules that will insure equality of outcome & resists rules that might yield inequality. A right winger opposes rules that coerce equality of outcome & may favor rules that coerce inequality of outcome. In the modern U.S., the political majority is made up of right wing statists (fascists/conservatives/republicans) & left wing statists (socialists/liberals/democrates). There does not seem to be any name for left wing minarchists /or anarchists or right wing minarchists /or anarchists. This list seems to have a lot of left & right wing minarchists & anarchists. I am a right wing anarchist. Strange that right wing & left wing are not bluntly defined. A taboo maybe or doesn't the ruling class want the political discussions to make any sense? Maybe if it were made explicit, then the left & right would think they could be left & right & yet, not support the state. PUSH EM BACK! PUSH EM BACK! WWAAAYYYY BBAAACCCKKKK! BEAT STATE!!!! yours truly, Gary Jeffers

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Re: How Many Games of Chess?
by lefty＠apple.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>p.s. i wonder if there is a "irrational" game....one that goes on to >infinity but never repeats itself.....I would imagine not as there are >only a finite number of possibilities for peices to exist on the board >it was an interesting thought whie it lasted.... I can easily think of a trivial one. Get to a point where the only pieces left on the board are the two kings. Roll an eight-sided die to determine the next move for each king. If the move would place the king in check, roll again. -- Lefty (lefty(a)apple.com) C:.M:.C:., D:.O:.D:.

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Number of Legal Chess Games
by tcmay＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On the question someone asked about the number of chess games... My recollection is that a fairly careful calculation of the number of legal games between good players (see Note below) is about 10^140. The number of legal Go games is vastly larger, around 10^700. (Each board position has far more branch positions, the Go board being 19 x 19.) I have a bunch of Go books, and some computer chess books (Levy), but I can't find the calculation referenced. It's not a "plug in" calculation, either, as a lot of empirical cruft (good moves, winning configurations, etc.) gets taken into account. But I think the basic estimate of around 10^140 is well-accepted. It might be as "low" as 10^120 or as "high" as 10^160, for example, but that's the right ballpark, from what I've seen. As a reminder, it is estimated that there are about 10^72 particles in the entire universe. Thus, about 10^60 games of chess for each and every particle in the universe. The situation with Go is even more extreme. Welcome to the strange and exciting world of combinatorial explosion. (Note: If two infinitely powerful agents played, the number would presumably drop, as each would see the implications--chess not being a game of chance--of who made the first move and one side would resign. Lesser agents would have more games, presumably. Even lesser agents, novices, might eventually have _fewer_ games, as the games stumbled into wins earlier on. A novice against a grandmaster should also have far fewer games. as the grandmaster wins quickly. At what point of expertise the "maiximum" number of games exists is an interesting question.) For further info, I'd recommend the many good books on computer chess....I'm sure that some of them sketch out how these calculations are done. I've recently seen several new books on computer Go and computer chess, which technical bookstores and libraries should have. Also, asking on rec.games.chess and rec.games.go might produce better results than here on Cypherpunks. The question might well even be in a FAQ for rec.games.chess...now I'm curious about this and will go check. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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RE: How Many Games of Chess?
by Mike Markley 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- | From: Robert M. Solovay <netmail!solovay(a)math.berkeley.edu> | To: Mike Markley | Cc: <cypherpunks(a)toad.com> | Subject: How Many Games of Chess? | Date: Friday, April 01, 1994 11:06AM | | Received: from math.Berkeley.EDU by netmail.microsoft.com with SMTP (5.65/25-eef) | id AA02131; Fri, 1 Apr 94 11:04:58 -0800 | Received: by math.berkeley.edu (8.6.8/1.33(math)Ow) | id LAA28894; Fri, 1 Apr 1994 11:06:45 -0800 | Message-Id: <199404011906.LAA28894(a)math.berkeley.edu> | In-Reply-To: Mike Markley's message of Fri, 1 Apr 94 10:20:55 | TZ <9404011831.AA05066(a)netmail2.microsoft.com> | | | mmarkley(a)microsoft.com writes: | | I seem to remember from way back in high school that the number of | potential moves by the third set of moves is on the order of billions | of legal moves. | | The number of moves in a given chess position is less than 64 | (number of starting squares) times 64 (number of destination squares) | x 4 [number of ways a pawn can promote]. Thus we get the bound 16, 384 | [which can be easily improved] which is way less than "billions of | possible moves". The same computation shows that the number of | possible games of length n grows at worst expoentially pace mr | markley. | | The right way to think about this is to get sharp upper bounds rather | than attempt a precise calculation. A crude upper bound would be | longerst possible game is about 6000 moves [using the 50 move rule]. | At most 2**16 mves per position so at most 10**[192 * 10**6] games. | I'm sure that sharper estimates are readily available. | | I should have said billions of potential states for the board after each move. If you think of the number of initial moves for the starting player its only 16 potential positions for the pawns and 4 for the knights. If the first player takes one of these positions then the second player moves he has the same 20 potential moves giving an potential state of 400 different positions after the first move. After the second move there is on the order of greater than 160,000 potential states for the board. After 3 moves it is greater than 2.56 * 10^10 potential states. I was thinking in terms of states rather than valid moves. Mike. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Mike Markley || The opinions here do not represent the mmarkley(a)microsoft.com || opinions of my employer. Attempts to || associate the two are pointless. "I want to look at life, In the available light" - Neil Peart -

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Re: Anonymous phone calls.
by jamiel＠sybase.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:25 AM 04/01/94 -0800, GRABOW_GEOFFREY(a)tandem.com wrote: > I know how to suppress the transmission of your phone number (caller >id) with *67, but I've heard that there is a way to force the routing of One point here- you are not actually suppressing the transmission of your phone number. It is transmitted *between switches* in any case- you are simply suppressing the transmission from a switch to the destnation phone. This is important in relation to the phone company recieving data, as well as the distinct possibility that a clever person could still get this. I got the above info out of Phrack Magazine (_Caller ID Technical Details_ by Hyperborean Menace #45-06, still being issued as I write this). >call through multiple long distance companies. Since the LDCs don't talk >to one another, this should increase the difficulty of tracing and/or >tapping a call. Does anybody know how to do this? Don't know, but from what little I know about the phone company, I would assume using the demand-dial numbers (like 102880) for ATT) from another long distance phone would be a start. jamie

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Re: the rest of the key
by Carl Ellison 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> >I understand the Skipjack review committee will be looking into the key >generation process at Mykotronx also. The procedures originally proposed >for burning in the keys has some annoying flaws that have been pointed out >frequently, like the existence of both halves in the same room at the same >time, which would be a tempting target for somebody siphoning them off to >a private single-site escrow. :) Various people have suggested that the >two halves of the key could be burned in at separate locations, so that the >only place they're put together is in the key itself; this was not part of >the proposal as we've seen it so far out here. > ..but what of at least the original description which had the key generated by a function within the sacrificial laptop (a PRNG driven by the two key pieces supplied by the escrow agents)? K_i = PRNG( E_1, E_2, i ) ; If PRNG is secret (a high power NSA algorithm), it might be a *truly* high quality one-way-function -- which happens to be independent of E_1 and E_2. No one would be the wiser -- and the NSA's job would be a lot easier, in the event that some chips get stolen or someone bombs the escrow center and its backup sites. - Carl

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Re: patent search service (fwd)
by rarachel＠photon.poly.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Incase you need to sneak up on some patents, you have your chance next week... These guys are doing a >FREE< patent search for a week because they're testing their systems... I thought I'd pass this on to you incase you'd like to look up the finer points of crypto, the MicroSoft-Stacker patents wars, etc... Forwarded message: > From spo_patent(a)spo.eds.com Mon Mar 28 22:56:07 1994 > Date: Mon, 28 Mar 94 21:11:48 CST > From: spo_patent(a)spo.eds.com > To: uunet!photon.poly.edu!rarachel(a)uunet.UU.NET > Sender: spo_patent(a)spo.eds.com > Subject: Re: patent search service > Message-Id: <19940328_162456_spo14_5430> > Return-Receipt-To: spo_patent(a)spo.eds.com > > EDS-SPO ELECTRONIC MAIL PATENT SEARCH SERVICE > PHASE TWO FREE TESTING PERIOD > April 4-April 15, 1994 > > CONCEPT VERSUS BOOLEAN SEARCHES > > Key word searches are now obsolete. EDS' Shadow Patent Office (SPO) > has developed a computerized, concept search method that utilizes the > Internet Information Superhighway. This on-line, computerized method > analyzes input text and compares it against EDS-SPO's database of 1.7 > million US utility patents. > > THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND CONCEPT SEARCHES > > The EDS-SPO concept search method utilizes massive databases with huge > memory (20 gigabytes), parallel hardware and software, and client > -server technology. The EDS-SPO computer's combination of advanced > hardware and software maximizes fast access to its main memory. > Consequently, EDS-SPO can offer customers a fast, accurate, and cost > effective patent search. EDS-SPO has offered patent searching since > 1992. > > PHASE II TESTING > > The Phase II testing period will occur April 4, 1994 through April 15, > 1994. During this time, each participant will be allowed 3 free patent > searches per day. After April 15, 1994, there will be fees associated > with the type of patent search requested. > > For the Phase II testing period, users may request Subject Search > reports by providing 50-1000 words of text and keywords in electronic > mail format. An Infringement Search report is also available. A user > requests this report by providing a patent id number and keywords in > electronic mail format. A report will be electronically mailed back to > the user requesting either type of report. Each report will contain the > following information for the 50 closest patents to the search criteria. > > o Patent ID > o Issue Date > o Class > o Title > o Inventor > o Assignee > o Abstract > > Any organization or individual researching and/or developing a non- > patented product or service will want on-line access to this powerful > search tool. Areas of potential research include, but are not limited > to: electronics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, software, petroleum, and > mechanics. > > HOW TO REGISTER > > Prior to performing a patent search, you must be registered with EDS-SPO. > To register, fill out the form below and send it to the following > Internet address: spo_patent(a)spo.eds.com. > > PLEASE ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS > > 1) Company Name: ___________________________________________ > 2) Customer Name____________________________________________ > 3) Title: _________________________________________________ > 4) Address: (street)________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ > City: _____________ State: ____________ County:_______ > Zip: ______________ Country: __________ > 5) E-Mail address: ________________________________________ > 6) Telephone Number:________________________________________ > 7) Fax Number: _____________________________________________ > > When the above information is provided, EDS-SPO will send you > a tutorial via the Internet. > > > CONTACTS > > Contact EDS-SPO by sending an e-mail message to spo_patent(a)spo.eds.com. > > > CONFIDENTIALITY AGREEMENT BETWEEN CUSTOMER AND EDS-SPO > > The EDS-SPO network and system are separated from the rest of EDS. > EDS-SPO agrees to keep all customer information confidential and will > allow only those staff members with a need to know to have access to > such information. Customer information shall include, but not limited > to, search disclosures, customer names, report requests, and any other > written, electronic, or oral correspondence between EDS-SPO and its > customer. >

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RSA contact info needed
by Don Melvin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi! I seem to have lost some files. One of them had contact information for RSA and a comment that they are resonable in their licensing pratices. If someone could email that info to me, I'd be very appreciate. Thanks, Storm

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How Many Games of Chess?
by collins＠newton.apple.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>This is tangentially related to crypto. I've been reading A.K. Dewdney's >_The New Turning Omnibus_ recently to refresh my memory of all that stuff >I learned in undergrad that I'm going to see again on the Comp Sci GRE >shortly. :-) Anyway, I was glancing through the chapters on complexity, >computabilty, and minimax trees, and I got to wondering something: how >many possible games of chess are there? I know that it has to be a finite >number, but I'm not sure how to go about finding this number. Any >pointers would be appreciated. First, I think there are a finite number of games only if all stale-mates are are required to terminate. Second, here's one way if `just walking the tree` is too boring for you: 0 - Start your computer on this while you hop in a starship and circle in local space at a significant fraction of C. 1 - Generate every legitimate board position (don't forget, pawns may be promoted to other pieces) without regard for playing games. A board position might be expressed as a 64 digit, base 13 number. More efficient representation is probable (and desirable). Plainly the number of board positions is something vastly smaller than 13^64 which is 1.96e71 or 196053476430761073330659 760423566015424403280004 115787589590963842248961 At this time, use two extra bits per state to note the mate condition. Additionally, the total number of games must be less than or equal to the total number of permutations of every possible board position. Thus the total number of possible chess games is something (again vastly) less than (13^64)! (i.e., factorial --- sorry, Mathematica found this a little too daunting to give me an estimate). 2 - Connect nodes with edges representing possible moves. For each position, there can be no more than 64 pieces that might move, and for each, no more than 63 possible results (including pawn promotion), so the maximum number of edges is (13^64)*64*63 or about 7.90e74. At this time, or slightly later, use the mate bits to indicate stale-mates. 3 - Remove all subgraphs unreachable from the distinguished node that represents the starting position. 4 - Count the number of distinct paths through the graph that end in a mate or a stale-mate. 5 - Land your spaceship, collect your answer and find out how much money accumulated in your hedge-fund while you were gone. Scott Collins | "That's not fair!" -- Sarah | "You say that so often. I wonder what your basis 408.862.0540 | for comparison is." -- Goblin King ................|.................................................... BUSINESS. fax:974.6094 R254(IL5-2N) collins(a)newton.apple.com Apple Computer, Inc. 5 Infinite Loop, MS 305-2D Cupertino, CA 95014 ..................................................................... PERSONAL. 408.257.1746 1024:669687 catalyst(a)netcom.com

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Re: How Many Games of Chess?
by pcw＠access.digex.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> >This is tangentially related to crypto. I've been reading A.K. Dewdney's > >_The New Turning Omnibus_ recently to refresh my memory of all that stuff > >I learned in undergrad that I'm going to see again on the Comp Sci GRE > >shortly. :-) Anyway, I was glancing through the chapters on complexity, > >computabilty, and minimax trees, and I got to wondering something: how > >many possible games of chess are there? I know that it has to be a finite > >number, but I'm not sure how to go about finding this number. Any > >pointers would be appreciated. > >First, I think there are a finite number of games only if all stale-mates >are are required to terminate. There is that curious rule that ends a game when the same board position occurs three times in the course of the game. I wonder if there were any real cool endgames where the underdog was able to manipulate the overdog into repeating the position three times? Peter Wayner * 4129 Roland Ave. #1B, Baltimore, MD 21211-2038 410-366-1452

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The President's Analyst
by jim＠bilbo.suite.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I saw a movie last night called "The President's Analyst". The movie was made in the mid 60's. It's an action comedy that stars James Coburn as the President's psychiatrist who sneaks away from the job because he doesn't like it. Most of the movie consists of silly scenes of spies from the world's major countries chasing after Coburn under the assumption he knows all the President's secrets. At one point in the movie the Russian spy is talking to the US spy... Russian spy: You mean all the phones in the country are tapped? But this is America, not the Soviet Union!! It's a moderately funny movie that contains more truth now than when it was first shown. I recommend it as a cheap laugh and somewhat relevant to today's issues. Jim_Miller(a)suite.com

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