December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: DigiCash releases protocol specs!
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"support(a)marktwain.com" 1-DEC-1995 18:56:11.57 By popular request, DigiCash is releasing the protocol specs. The specs are available at http://www.digicash.com/ecash/protocol.html Please be aware that the doccument is work in progess. More specifications, including byte level descriptions of the message format will be added throughout the weekend. --Lucky Green at ---------------------- Thank you. This raises my likelhood of using DigiCash's electronic currency from about none to above that. -Allen

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A challenge ...
by jmhayes＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I've been challenged to try to find a bank account; I win the challenge if I can wire in $100 to the hidden account. Anyone have any good ideas about how to find an ABA number?

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[NOISE] Fun quote
by Charles Gimon 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Just heard on tonight's "X-Files"... "The NSA?? Since when did they start issuing you guys piano wire instead of guns??" I can hear the clatter of .sig files being updated all over the net.

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Re: Barring access to Netscape
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:32 AM 12/1/95 +0600, Ed Carp wrote: >If you want to bar access to your site from a Netscape browser, such >can easily be accomplished. If memory serves, every browser, when >connecting to a site, exchanges certain information about the client >with the server. One can gain access easily to that information. This would not be satisfactory in itself: Ideally one would like to bring up a page saying "Sorry, you cannot access that page because you are using a netscape browser: Click *here* for the sad tale of Netscape. > --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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ANNOUNCEMENT: ALICE'S ADDRESS REVEALED.
by anonymous-remailer＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As I promised, I've now opened a channel so that anyone who wants to can send Alice de 'nonymous email. I can now be reached via an455120(a)anon.penet.fi. Mail sent to Alice de 'nonymous at that address will get to me, and I will do my best to reply to you as well, but I can't guarantee, anything. And before I get attacked for wasting bandwidth, I've got a deal to make it all worthwhile. A temporary break from GAK talk ... a pointer to a truly HOT website. Here's just a small sample of what you'll find there: :| ELIMINATING LIMBO :| :| "So the pope eliminated Limbo, did you hear?" she says :| "What?" :| "You know the pope, right, well he eliminated Limbo..." :| "When?" :| "I don't know, a while ago." :| "Well that means we're fucked..." :| "You got it." :| "What's Limbo for?"asks Jessica :| "That's where all the people that were around before they had the :| chance to get the word of christ get to go...and unbaptized babies :| that die early..." :| :| "It's not as good as Heaven, but it beats the hell out of the other :| options." :| "How can he just eliminate it like that?" :| "Cause he's the pope..." Check all of this out and MORE at the SCARED SACRED site. You'll be able to read the pope's "LETTER TO ALL THE WOMEN OF THE WORLD". :| "What he wrote a letter to all the women of the world? Man, his direct :| mail expenses must be huge!" :| "Yeah the people in the Vatican are just freaking out..." But you have to be running NETSCAPE. (1.1....NOT 2.0....OR IT JUST WON'T WORK...) Point your Navigators to http://www.banffcentre.ab.ca/ and then choose the --> Media & Visual Arts Page <-- and then from there the --> Artists Web, <-- and then just look for --> VELCRO RIPPER. <-- BE CAREFUL THOUGH IF YOU ARE PRONE TO EPILEPTIC ATTACKS!!!! IF YOU ARE, CHOOSE THE DIRECT ENTRANCE AND ENTER THERE!! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!! Alice de 'nonymous ... <an455120(a)anon.penet.fi> ...just another one of those... P.S. This post is in the public domain. C. S. U. M. O. C. L. U. N. E.

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Re: A "Warning Banner" for Netscape Navigator? Good idea!
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

It's been a long and interesting day... >Pull down the 'Options' menu, grab the 'Window and Link styles' >page, and change the default "home page location" from >netscape's to whatever you want. Oh. *Those* advertisements! I couldn't for the life of me figure out *what* Tim was talking about. I've made mine come up blank since the initial, "Hey, what do these twiddly bits in the Preferences command do...", session after the first download. You can also put up a type-it-yourself URL window on the browser window, which comes in handy now that you have to wait 10 seconds (on my dinky PB 180) every time you change code modules in 2.0b3 Netscape (like touching<!> the menu bar for the first time, or looking at the bookmark window)... Like I've said elsewhere, Netscape is hierarchical code trying to conquer a geodesic (a word I got from Bucky Fuller, through Peter Huber, just so I keep my attributions straight...) network. It ain't gonna fly, in the long run, folks. In that vein, could someone e-mail me the best non-netscape Mac browser, so I don't get HTML-nasties when I go play on the cactus machine? Anyway... Dave Winer(sp?), the Mac-Developer-turned-gadfly (speak not ill of the other gadflies, I always say...), talks about seeing some Netscape (sorry...) patches which actually *do* strip banner ads from various web-pages. I believe you have to tell it which pages, and what the banners' file names are, but I'm not sure. Don't know where *Weiner(sp?)* got it from... I seem to remember the name "Ad Stripper" but I could be imagining things... Of course, if that's the way this code really operates, simply changing the name of the HREF call regularly on the server side, which is probably done anyway, with all the web-management code showing up out there, defeats ad-filters of this kind completely... Obcrypto: Maybe these web-pages will send you nanocash (not mine, either, sorry, taken from one of the wearable-people at mobileworld, I'll look up their name, and get back to you. soon. I promise.) to watch their message? Also, could someone talk here about how easy it might be to spoof Java "byte code"? The Java presentation at this conference had a lot of hand-waving and reverent invocation of Whit Diffie's name, so it might not be trivial. Another feature of this presentation was a really splendid "subjective axis" chart showing how "powerful" Java is in comparison to say, client-server, HTML, and other "technologies". This chart reminded me for all the world of the famous "Pravda Charts" that Tufte likes to lampoon in "The Graphical Representation of Quantitative Information". Just so I keep my sources straight. Of course. To quote Prof. Tufte. "If it looks like a duck, ignore it." Or something to that effect. Maybe the word "waddle" was in the sentence. Maybe he got it from someone else... I'll get back to you on that. I really will... ;-). Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA (617) 958-3971 "Reality is not optional." --Thomas Sowell The NEW(!) e$ Home Page: http://thumper.vmeng.com/pub/rah/ >>>>Phree Phil: Email: zldf(a)clark.net http://www.netresponse.com/zldf <<<<<

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Info on Netscape's key escrow position
by Jeff Weinstein 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I had lunch with Jim Clark today, and explained the furor that was currently going on in cypherpunks and elsewhere. After lunch he sent me the e-mail that I've attached below to pass along. I think the gist of it is that if governments require key escrow, we will have to do it in order to sell our products with encryption into those countries. We've actively lobbied against the government's proposal through our participation and support of industry efforts by the ITAA, BSA, SPA and others. Next week we will be sending two representatives to the NIST key escrow conference in DC. In preparation for that meeting we have been formulating an official company position on key escrow and export restrictions. Phil, myself, and other folks with cypherpunk leanings are involved in writing the policy statement. We are planning on taking a firm position against the government's key escrow proposals. Some time next week we will be posting our statement publicly, and will welcome your comments on it then. After the NIST meeting we will also be talking to folks in congress and the white house about our position, looking for help in getting the current export limitations removed. We will also be looking for help in getting the government's position on export controlled FTP sites clarified so that we can make the US version of the Navigator with 128-bit crypto available for download by those people who are legally allowed to use it. We don't have any plans to stop doing separate US and export versions of our software. As long as our customers want strong crypto and the government lets us sell it, I think we will keep doing it. --Jeff Jim Clark wrote: > > I made some pragmatic comments. > > I said that if we are to use this encryption technology in business, we must > have a better solution than to limit keylength or put keys in escrow. All > governments of the world have a valid concern about terrorism and other > activities of concern to the security of their nations. All of them will > continue to restrict our ability to provide products to their markets unless > we build in some mechanism that allows them to legally access > information that is in the interest of their national security. (We obviously > cannot be involved in determining what is legal by the laws of that country.) > This is not just a US government problem. Until recently, France did not even > allow us to sell products with 40-bit keys, much less 128-bit keys. > > A lot of ordinary citizens are rightly concerned about their own privacy. I > am one of them. I do not want the government to snoop on me, but in fact the > government, through the FBI, can now tap my phone without my knowing it by > simply getting sufficient evidence that I am conducting illegal activities, > then presenting this evidence to a court to get permission. I have no say in > the matter. > > If we as a company were to take the position that in no case will we allow > a government to get access to our encrypted messages, or refuse to allow > key escrow with our products, the governments of the world will quickly put > us out of business by outlawing the sale of our products in their countries. > The fundamental issue is how do we accommodate the requirements of governments, > while protecting our rights as citizens. > > None of this represents the position of Netscape with respect to what we > will do. But if we do not come up with a solution to this problem that is > acceptable to each government, we will not be able to export our products, > except with a short key length (e.g. 40 bit keys), and that will not be > acceptable to corporate customers in other countries. They will create their > own solution, and we will not be able to sell to a larger world market. In > fact, we could even be ordered by our own government to establish a key > escrow system for its use inside the US. > > Ironically, anyone in the US may import unbreakable encryption technology from > another country -- we just cannot sell it back to them. No one ever accused the > government of being rational. > > I chair an industry group called the "Global Internet Project", with members > from almost twenty companies, including companies from Asia and Europe. This > was the central issue we all agreed upon this morning, and we are putting > together a policy statement whose purpose is to educate lawmakers on the > importance of quick resolution of this matter. > > Thanks for your concern. Let me know what you like and don't like. Jeff Weinstein - Electronic Munitions Specialist Netscape Communication Corporation jsw(a)netscape.com - http://home.netscape.com/people/jsw Any opinions expressed above are mine.

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No Subject
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The recent flap over Netscape and GAK ought to serve as a wakeup call and a reminder of the advantages the anarchstic GNU/FSF paradigm of software development has over the corporate model. No one can control GNU code, and no entity can impose changes on everyone else. If everyone was using GNU browsers and ssl servers right now we'd be safe. Competing with Netscape is obviously something that's easier said than done. But we ought to consider the strategic importance of having robust, free, open source packages for security applications, even if affordable and high quality commercial products exist.

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update.250 (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message:

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by 61033134＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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