December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Conspiracies and "Ciphergroupies"
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 5:57 PM 8/10/95, John Young wrote: > I respect the view that sound crypto requires skeptical > review and testing outside closed rooms. Conspiracies live > or die by the same process. Crypto would die if there was > no belief in conspiracies. > > Conspiracy theory drives the cypherpunk agenda, I surmised > from the welcoming statement. Note the caution about "S1," > and any other crypto offering. I think a better, and less loaded, tern than "conspiracies" is "threat models." It has always been important to many of us that the policies and plans of potential threats be discussed, analyzed, etc. Thus, our recurring focus on the activities of the NSA, GCHQ, FinCEN, and so on. For example, all folks on this list should almost certainly read "The Puzzle Palace," even though it does not _directly_ help with the latest project in writing code. And like Orlin Grabbe, whose "End of Money" article I posted a pointer to last winter, I closely follow the recent developments involving the intelligence agencies, the plans to limit crypto, etc. (By the way, it was my close following of the NSA and related organizations, and my monitoring of what Dorothy Denning was saying, that led to my "A Trial Balloon to Ban Crypto?" article in this group and in sci.crypt three years ago. This warning, which generated much discussion on sci.crypt and here, prepared us for the Clipper announcement six months later.) Is this wasted time? Shouldn't I be using my time to write Trumpet Winsocks--whatever they are!--for WinCypherHyperPhone? Well, we all decide what our interests are, and exhortations by others that we are not working on what is "really" important are not very useful. There are probably a dozen different sorts of interests here, ranging from a bunch of folks interested in popularizing crypto to several law professors and lawyers interested in legal aspects to Internet programming experts. Even some pure mathematicians. Even some novices. > Perry's sharp statements on the urgent need for crypto > deployment are motivated, it seems to me, by a view of a > believable, if not wholly proveable, threat that crypto is > believed to counter. I choose to believe him; Orlin's got my > skeptical interest -- put up or shut up -- and he's not out > of line. Perry is Perry. He has certainly written his share of rants and "off-topic" posts, as have we all. Literally thousands of his posts over the past 3 years reside on my disk drives, and certainly until recently most of them were not about writing code. Ironically, just a few weeks ago, Perry was sharply criticizing me for my "Crisis Overload" post and was urging me to join him in a serious lobbying effort to undermine the Grassley bill. I declined, thinking it unlikely to succeed and preferring to concentrate on my other project (including a new release of SmalltalkAgents, just arrived). When I preferred to work on more technical things than launching a grassroots political campaign, he got abusive and insulting in e-mail and I told him I would no longer accept this sort of abuse. You may recall he chose to post this private message here in public, without of course the messages that preceeded this (and without my permission, needless to say). Again, Perry is Perry. People work on what interests them. It is nice for Perry, and maybe for all of us if his efforts work out, that he has thrown himself into this new programming project, but it is wrong for him to automatically dismiss the interests and efforts of others. There's also a certain "control freak" attitude that creeps into this list (and other lists, of course) at times, wherein people say that their current interest is vastly more important than anything else and that anyone who does not drop their frivolous other interests and begin work immediately on the One True Project are fools and knaves, and are probably secretly working for the NSA! (:-}). People should write about what interests them. Those who wish to program, should program. Those who wish to explore number theory, should explore number theory. And so on. Attempting to control what gets posted on this list is pointless. If you don't like a particular topic, or an author, use filters and kill files. This can be done in many ways, including mail programs, procmail, and even the "MailWeir" service that Harry Hawk offers. And many people dump the list traffic into local newsgroups, allowing threadified reading. Also, various digestified versions of the list exist--Eric Blossom has one. Insulting people as "ciphergroupies" because they are not working on one's current interest seems needlessly counterproductive. Just my views. If you don't like 'em, ignore them or filter them. That's the Cypherpunk way of doing things. --Tim May Special note: My ISP has changed its domain name from "sensemedia.net" to "got.net" (as in "got milk?"), so I have to again ask you all to bear with me and use my new e-mail address, "tcmay(a)got.net". ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net (Got net?) | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-728-0152 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Corralitos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: Crypto = Competitive Advantage?
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:30 PM 8/10/95, sameer wrote: >> >> It seems that anything involving the Internet, the Web, and digital >> commerce is really, really hot. > > The fire that burns twice as hot burns half as long. It may be >a cliche but it is quite applicable here I think. Indeed. Who now recalls Jaron Lanier's virtual reality company? (In retrospect, Jaron's error was in not finding a way to take VPL public. VPL was the Netscape of 1990. But will Netscape be the VPL of 1992?) Let the record show that I was not one of the tens of thousands of people calling their brokers trying to get in on the Netscape IPO. (Though getting in at the IPO price and selling out the same day was obviously lucrative for a lot of folks.) --Tim May Special note: My ISP has changed its domain name from "sensemedia.net" to "got.net" (as in "got milk?"), so I have to again ask you all to bear with me and use my new e-mail address, "tcmay(a)got.net". ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net (Got net?) | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-728-0152 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Corralitos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Is there a 12 step group in the house?
by Censored Girls Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sounds like someone needs a meeting. There are groups for obsessive/compulsive activity. Member Internet Society - Certified BETSI Programmer - WWW Page Creation ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Carol Anne Braddock <--now running linux 1.0.9 for your pleasure carolann(a)censored.org __ __ ____ ___ ___ ____ carolab(a)primenet.com /__)/__) / / / / /_ /\ / /_ / carolb(a)spring.com / / \ / / / / /__ / \/ /___ / ------------------------------------------------------------------------- A great place to start My Cyber Doc...

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Re: PERRY METZGER: YOUR MOMMY IS CALLING YOU HOME
by bshantz＠nwlink.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>I'm tired of Perry. <REST DELETED> I think that any Perry bashing can be taken offline. I don't think that 700 people subscribed to the "I Hate Perry Metzger" list; they subscribed to cypherpunks. If you have anything to say to Perry, tell him in private e-mail. Don't post a milion lines of shit to the list. Get a clue folks... Brad

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Re: "S1" encryption system (was: this looked like it might be interesting)
by corondan＠eng.eds.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Aug 10, 12:02pm, David G. Koontz wrote: > Subject: Re: "S1" encryption system (was: this looked like it might be int > >Jon writes: > >> Two other possibilities: (1) It's merely an independently produced > >> cryptosystem disguised as a "leak" to save its creator the trouble of > >> asking experts to analyze it for him/her. > > >It strikes me as rather foolish to mail off anonymous copies to several > >individual recipients (Matt, Perry, Tim, ...) in addition to the list, if > >S1 is a real leak. Why aid the traffic analysts by firing off multiple > >messages through the remailers ? > > A third possibility comes to mind, that person or persons associated with > the list are using the post to focus on cryptographic efforts in lieu of > political or apocalyptic diatribes. how about a fourth possibility: the government ___ agency did it. this was done to achieve two goals: 1) make cypherpunks easy to villify (look at all of the nasty crypto stuff being passed to foreign nationals) 2) a quick estimate of cypherpunks' ability to analyze an algorithm am i being too paranoid? probably, but you tell me :-). -- George A. Corondan Inet: corondan(a)eng.eds.com E.D.S. Mail Stop 4251 Voice: (810)265-2937 800 Tower Drive FAX: (810)265-3432 Troy, MI 48098-7019

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It may be time to electrify the floor...
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

... because we seem to be in the throes of a listwide piss-fight. Unless we're the victim of duelling rant generators -- but I don't think this is the case, as they all happened too fast. It's a nice night. Maybe I'll go sit on the back porch and smoke the base-ball-bat Macanudo (cigar) I bought at Erlich's today... See you all in the morning. Don't forget to insulate yourselves, everyone... Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Shipwright Development Corporation, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA (617) 323-7923 "Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell >>>>Phree Phil: Email: zldf(a)clark.net http://www.netresponse.com/zldf <<<<<

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"Protect the children" as passphrase to Constitution
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I was reminded the other night by someone of the "'National security' is the root passphrase of the Constitution." The idea being that the normal Constitutional protections are bypassed by invocation of "national security." But it occurs to me that we are seeing a new variant of this: "Protect the children." Some recent examples: - Clinton's Executive Order today which limits advertising of cigarettes, limits the display of tobacco-related symbols and words on t-shirts, baseball caps, billboards, and publically-visible signs at sports events. (There were all kinds of details, most of them blatantly in violation of the First Amendment. I half-watched the Clinton announcement, but didn't take notes...consult your newspaper or the Web.) The critical phrase: "We have to protect the children." (Oh, and one amazing detail: the possible issuance of I.D. cards to all of those under the age of 18. Besides being useful for things like curfews, video tape rental prohibitions, and the cigarette ban, it would lead to I.D. cards for those over 18. naturally (if those over 18 don't have to carry them, then all a child less than 18 has to do is to claim not to have to carry one because he's 18!) - The whole Exon and V-chip debates, now likely to be passed by Congress, are about "protecting children." - and the Oklahoma City bombing, not that I supported it in any way, was seen as especially horrific because of the children that were killed. This means that restrictive legislation, such as bans on explosives information, guns, etc., can be justified as measures to "protect children." And so on. Now clearly this strategy will be welcomed by many. It's hard to argue against children and against the "protection of children." Arguing the Constitutional side is tough when "the children" are at issue. More speculatively, I think Clinton has hit on this strategy as a way to line up support from the Republican majority in Congress on many key issues. There may even be repercussions for welfare and health care issues (which Clinton can also cast as "protect the children" issues). The potential crypto relevance? Look for arguments about limiting access to strong crypto to be more heavily focussed on "pedophiles" and "pornographers." Look for calls to have a national I.D. card--which serves many State-needed purposes (and I don't mean in terms of Revelations). A national I.D. card could then be tied in to GAK/escrow systems. "We have to protect the children." --Tim May Special note: My ISP has changed its domain name from "sensemedia.net" to "got.net" (as in "got milk?"), so I have to again ask you all to bear with me and use my new e-mail address, "tcmay(a)got.net". ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net (Got net?) | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-728-0152 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Corralitos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^756839 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: PERRY METZGER: YOUR MOMMY IS CALLING YOU HOME
by anon-remailer＠utopia.hacktic.nl 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Brad Shantz writes: > >I'm tired of Perry. > > <REST DELETED> > > I think that any Perry bashing can be taken offline. I don't think that 700 > people subscribed to the "I Hate Perry Metzger" list; Nah, that list is way bigger than cypherpunks.

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Re: "Protect the children" as passphrase to Constitution
by liberty＠gate.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Every time I hear some porker say, "Protect the children," the BS translator that resides in my brain replaces the word "Protect" with the words, "Treat adults like." Probably a mental defect. JMR PS RIP Jerry G. Let's cease the flamewar for 24 hours, in memory. - -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Freedom isn't Freeh iQCVAwUBMCq1/m1lp8bpvW01AQGg8gQAiq+kzyQopCLFQtzPhr4WIN42I41ZDPyh 1qH1/DBHAS8BaNqK8f9jObEvG4a5dlpbzp5c0FdJ2cbcZtG/GZIG3clUPNd0cqtf hR1abL8pTgoj7WMclOMF6iclzRn/fcHY9VawZHT10At3I11eyjOq3hBsfIU1c1IG 9pjlPeEW/IE= =Ci1C - -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Regards, Jim Ray PGPsign all your cleartext messages! [Makes the statists nervous.] - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ PGP key Fingerprint 51 5D A2 C3 92 2C 56 BE 53 2D 9C A1 B3 50 C9 C8 Key id. # E9BD6D35 - ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Support the Phil Zimmermann (Author of PGP) Legal Defense Fund! email: zldf(a)clark.net or visit http://www.netresponse.com/zldf ________________________________________________________________________ - --- [This message has been signed by an auto-signing service. A valid signature means only that it has been received at the address corresponding to the signature and forwarded.] -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Gratis auto-signing service iQBFAwUBMCq3ESoZzwIn1bdtAQGfFQF9FL9ptx5QVfg6nGL+NePHg6cuq3B2fa/U 9Ir2SmI6NZQPgjvFtCPO9ZmepaLBkEqs =+nDm -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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UHS encoding
by anon-remailer＠utopia.hacktic.nl 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

has anyone heard of UHS ? ? its universal hint system . . its for game hints . . its data files are encrypted and a decoder decodes only the hints you need . . anyone know what encryption is used ? ? its probably very weak but a good idea . . i wonder if this is export - restricted too ! ! --

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