December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

You really do want to volunteer, don't you?
by Tim May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Item: Getting a transponder or bar-coded "EZ Pass" for your vehicle is completely voluntary....but if you don't have one of these transponders or passes, you'll have to go to the "manual" lane...Oh, and it seems that due to budget cutbacks we're short on staff and so you'll have to wait a while...maybe _quite_ a while. (Plus, while you're waiting maybe we'll just snap a photo of your license plate anyway, as you might be a terrorist or Mann Act felon trying to evade our surveillance....) Item: The U.S. is proud to call its tax system "voluntary," in terms of what citizens report. (The voluntary term was never that participation was voluntary, only that a tax collector did not show up in person and decide what a person owed.) However, to ensure compliance with the voluntary part, citizen-units will find that their bank narcs them out to FinCEN and IRS, and that electronic intercepts of financial dealings are common, and that "compliance audits" are far more draconian than ordinary citizen-units imagine. Item: Key recovery is purely voluntary. Unless you try to communicate with foreigners. Unless you are involved in any communications with drug dealers, money launderers, terrorists, child pornographers, or any other Horsemen. (Wouldn't you really rather play it safe and use the Government Approved Krypto?) Item (in the Very Near Future): "But, Mr. and Mrs. Zludnick, the ChildFinder (TM) implant is painless and quick. Based on the technology used to find lost pets, ChildFinder (TM) allows authorities in public places to scan for kidnapped or lost children. Surely you'd want your daughter to have access to this technology? While completely voluntary--after all, Mr. Zludnick, we are still a democracy, aren't we?--you should be aware that the school nurse will be most unhappy if your children are not ChildFinder-compatible. Not to mention the teachers who count on using RollTaker (TM) to automatically take the roll of students. And your children will have to take tests in special rooms, and checked for evidence of identity spoofing. All in all, Mr. and Mrs. Zludnick, I think you can see the problems. Why, in a sense, it would be a kind of child abuse, don't you think, to make your little Johnny and Suzy such oddities in the class. I'm sure you wouldn't Child Protective Services to make one of their "visits," would you? They're oh-so-thorough in uncovering signs of an unwholesome home environment. And then where would you be? So, can I assume you'll be volunteering?" What we are seeing is an Orwellian abuse of the English language. Programs are introduced as "voluntary" ones, but the alternatives are either deliberately made time-consuming and annoying, or the alternatives are just dropped completely. (I'm not talking about what private individuals or companies ask for. Alice's Restaurant is free to require patrons to wear silly hats, as it is their property. What I'm confining my comments to is the "mandatory voluntary" nature of more and more government programs.) The airline bag confirmation system is an in-between situation. It is partly a security matter to require bags be correlated with actual flying passengers...cuts down on bombs sent in bags. But it is also a surveillance/tracking issue, and the airlines are playing the tune the government calls for. (Else why would airlines not accept passengers who a) in fact board the plane, and b) pay in cash for their tickets? It used to be this way. No more. Now they demand a True Name, regardless of how easy it is to buy phony documents. If I can buy a phony set, or can even make up my own, imagine what actual terrorists can do.) And there's the whole issue of Social Security Cards. My card, issued in 1969, says it's not be used for any purposes except SS and income tax matters. Tell that to the many agencies, public and corporate, demanding it. The point? Our privacy is being "escrowed." The automobile transponders and barcoded vehicle passes are touted as voluntary, but they really are not. Chaumian, identity-protecting technologies need to be deployed. Frankly, I think Cypherpunks are getting off track with all the recent focus on "old" technologies (which I'll leave unspecified, as my point is not to attack certain pet projects). The real stuff is going undone. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: Information
by Integration 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Anonymous wrote: > > > > > > |> >>Dave K-P <k.p(a)snet.net> writes: > > > > |> >> > > > > |> >>>> > > > Information, please! > > > > |> >>>> > > Dont go swimming on a full stomach. > > > > |> >>>> > Don't "escrow" your keys. > > > > |> >>>> Don't take advice from strangers. > > > > |> >>>Don't ask, don't tell. > > > > |> >>Don't eat yellow snow. > > > > |> >DonŽt spit, just swallow. > > > > | >Don't touch anything. > > > > Don't touch _there_. > > > Never piss into the wind. > > Don't pull on a psycho's cape. > Don't jump to confusions.. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.

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Re: Information (yeah, two in one night..so sue..)
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Abstruse wrote: > > > > > > |> >>Dave K-P <k.p(a)snet.net> writes: > > > > > > |> >> > > > > > > |> >>>> > > > Information, please! > > > > > > |> >>>> > > Dont go swimming on a full stomach. > > > > > > |> >>>> > Don't "escrow" your keys. > > > > > > |> >>>> Don't take advice from strangers. > > > > > > |> >>>Don't ask, don't tell. > > > > > > |> >>Don't eat yellow snow. > > > > > > |> >DonŽt spit, just swallow. > > > > > > | >Don't touch anything. > > > > > > Don't touch _there_. > > > > > Never piss into the wind. > > > > Don't pull on a psycho's cape. > > > Don't jump to confusions.. > > Don't look a gift horse in the mouth. > > Don't *hate* the media.. > *become* the media" - Jello Biafra Don't talk to yourself (even by email).

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Re: Fate of Jews in America (fwd)
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Cypherpunks are in no position to make remarks about Jewish racism. Jews were far more welcoming to such as Sammy Davis, Jr. than many cypherpunks would be. "Off my porch, nigger!" would be the undoubted greeting from some of our ostensible leaders, as they take shotgun in hand.

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Re: Missing Kids and Porn Links
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Igor Chudov @ home wrote: > > Most of people who publicly "care for children" are hidden pedophiles or > control freaks, in my humble opinion. I agree. Does anyone have any pointers to child pornography sites, so that I can warn people which sites to avoid? T.C. Mayonnaise <tm(a)dhp.com> "Hey little girl, want to make some mayonnaise with _real_ eggs?"

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Re: Death Pictures of Diana on InterNet!!!
by Mike Duvos 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Nobody writes: > Made you look! > "We have met the public, and he is _us_." > UsMonger Now that pictures of Princess Diana trapped in the wreckage have been printed in European tabloids, it is only a matter of time before someone scans them and posts them to alt.binaries.pictures.tasteless. Clicking on such pictures, of course, is not the moral equivalent of having personally run Princess Diana off the road, regardless of what your neighborhood CPAC member would like you to believe. -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ enoch(a)zipcon.com $ via Finger $ {Free Cypherpunk Political Prisoner Jim Bell}

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Community ConneXion & its new look
by sameer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Community ConneXion is in the process of upgrading its web presence and image. If you'd like to keep abreast of developments, check http://www.c2.org regularly-- most of the changes are in terms of focus & marketing angle, but new services should be appearing soon as well. -- sameer Voice: 510-601-9777 Network Administrator FAX: 510-601-9734 Community ConneXion: The NEXUS-Berkeley Dialin: 510-658-6376 http://www.c2.org (or login as "guest") sameer(a)c2.org

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ADMIN: How to find out if you have been culled from the list
by hugh＠ecotone.toad.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

If I (or any software I write) remove a user from the <cypherpunks(a)toad.com> list the users entry now gets appended to the culled.users file. Since I was keeping a list anyway, I have set it up so that anyone can email/download the list of recently culled cypherpunks via majordomo. If you stop getting your CP drug for too long, before sending a note to the list(shame!) ask for this file to see if I culled you. If you forget how to get a file send a help message to <majordomo(a)toad.com>. Here is a quick (emacs) example of how to get the file: To: majordomo(a)toad.com --text follows this line-- get cypherpunks culled.users end and the file will show up soon. This is a very boring file (dates and email addresses). You might want to save this message away, so you will have it to reference if need be. Now, you get back to writing that great crypto/UI package! ||ugh Daniel Sometimes Postmaster Always Majordomo Potty Trainer <hugh(a)toad.com>

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Re: GAK/weak crypto rationale?
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Responding to msg by futplex(a)pseudonym.com (Futplex) on Wed, 13 Sep 2:11 AM >Your paraphrase of Nelson's statement strikes me as >remarkable. Doesn't "we are not concerned with bad >people using crypto among themselves" run completely >counter to all the hyperbole about terrorists planning >OKC II with PGP ? Does anyone have an exact quotation >? At any rate, sign me up as a "bad person".... "Bad people" is my euphemism for Mr. Nelson's "terrorist" -- which brought snorts from the audience. Yes, his statement about not being concerned with crypto use among terrorists was surprising. On a verbatim transcript: Mr. Ed Roback of NIST, the KE meet director, said that a complete transcript of the proceedings will not be published, only a summary report at some point, and then, after the September 15 session, some version will appear in the Federal Register for public comment. The summary report should appear eventually at the NIST web site -- the CSSPAB site has reports for prior KE sessions in the annual reports. See <http://csrc.ncsl.nist.gov/csspab/94-rpt.txt> for 1994, and similar for earlier years, on key escrow documents. To amplify what Tim said, the CSSPAB site has very interesting docs.

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Scientology tries to break PGP - and
by Henry W. Farkas 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On Tue, 12 Sep 1995, S. Keeling wrote: > I would just like to point out that, when a LEA comes to you > to get at the contents of your computer, (s)he is not going to > patiently wait while your system wipes the offending evidence off your > hard disk. The first thing they do is make a copy of everything, so > they can work from the copy. Besides, you do have backup tapes laying > around all over the place, don't you? Acutally, I have *everything* laying around all over the place but I suppose that's off-topic. They have to decrypt the file sometime if they want it's "contents". I use the -w option when encrypting. After encryption, the "dummy" file (would be) embedded and the plaintext is wiped. The only "secret" key is the "fake" key. The "real" key is under the blender in the kitchen. (If I get busted and they search under the blender I will write back if I'm in a position to do so. Not that I have anything to get busted for of course. :) Don't back up plaintext and what is the problem here? Where will they get the "real" data from? What does it matter where the decryption takes place? And no, I don't have backup tapes laying around; I use a Zip Drive! :-) =========================================================================== Henry W. Farkas | Me? Speak for IBM? Fat chance. hfarkas(a)ims.advantis.com |------------------------------------------------ hfarkas(a)vnet.ibm.com | http://newstand.ims.advantis.com/henry henry(a)nhcc.com | http://www.nhcc.com/~henry - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- PGP 6.2.2 Key fingerprint: AA D0 F5 44 C1 8C 11 52 B3 80 34 1C CE 38 EC 53 Public key at: pgp-public-keys(a)pgp.mit.edu, and other popular key servers. - --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brought to you by Henry's Hardware: Home of the Pretty Good Hack "We're not fast, but it's not bad, and we're cheaper than the guy down the street!" =========================================================================== -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Auto-signed with Bryce's Auto-PGP v1.0beta iQCVAwUBMFbWVqDthkLkvrK9AQFxlAP+P3blN7wD42aUNctsCF9QALqsRdGHPsdo B6ALA72dqVYXGIsW9M3DVxXAM2WAosHl2rDKXbTrXwirxCJQBPkYQLT9Vdzl8nyJ hb0uNb2zo9xQ8ImM/dCuUqGazW2tnnAXuHZ9KkwDAQFDwDpNtjkHYCSDRgKmPmWO fUjGpsVViU8= =3JI5 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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