December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Apps: Unix for Windows 95
by Jerome Tan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I want to play with Unix or at least be familiar with Unix. Unfortunately, Unix systems are expensive, if possible, is there any software that can be run in Windows 95 that makes you run Unix in your system?

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RE: Schelling Points, Rights, and Game Theory--Part II
by jbugden＠smtplink.alis.ca 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

If crypto is going to become widespread, at some point it will need to enter the mainstream consciousness. We have already discussed the issue of "getting the word out" about GAK in comparison to video cameras in every home. "If people understood the issue, they would never accept GAK..." The stats on the average internet user are usually something like 85% male, US$50K average income, 30-35 years old, Univeristy education. It may come as no suprise then that Internet users as a group could have life experiences significantly different than a majority of the population. Similarily, their views may also be in the minority. On the other hand, they do hold a majority of the technological power. Revenge of the Nerds is one phrase that I have heard. tcmay(a)got.net wrote: >Even meant humorously (">;-)"), many of us would dispute the notion that >a voluntarily-taken job is a "McJob." Frankly, working at a fast-food place >is usually not a lifetime career, but is instead a [stepping stone] And what or who guarantees that this later, better job exists. Much of what I read today suggests that McJobs may become the norm for many. >>jbugden(a)alis.com >>As soon as those with power are not able to see a situation where they >>could become like those without power, there will cease to be motivation >>to maintain a "safety net" of rights or economic means to protect the >>"losers" of our society. >What are "those without power"? Can you image working at a low paying job for your entire life. I personally can't. I work hard and am doing well for myself. Like most of those here, crypto would be a benefit for me. On the other hand, unlike most of the population, I could join Mensa if I applied. My point: I'm not average and I suspect that neither are you or most of those here. How do you make the cypherpunks agenda (on the days that there is one ;-) of widespread concern to the average citizen? >The best way to help the "losers" of our economy is to allow voluntary >economic relationships to be formed. I always thought that feudalism was a voluntary economic arrangement. The vassals pledged allegiance and offered their labour while the feudal lord pledged protection. Here is where Phil could give better examples. If we are not prepared to maintain some lowest common denominator (a.k.a. safety net), what will keep our individual freedoms intact if the concerns of the "average" citizen drift unchecked towards simple survival? I'm having a hell of a time getting my e-mail read because I'm too busy shooting at the food scavengers. They killed my dog! James

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remailer network/winsock remailers
by Sam Quigley 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, I've been unsubscribed from the list for a while, and only recently rejopined, so this issue may well have been addressed in my absence. If not, though, here: It occurs to me that, with the invention of the winsock remailers, we have the potential to establish a very widespread and distributed network of part-time remailers. Specifically, it seems like there are a lot of users who are only connected to the internet for short periods (PPP/SLIP) or who only have full control over their machines for short periods. These computers could not normally be used to run remailers as mail would bounce when the computer/remailer software is down. If there were some sort of central registry where winsock (or other non-permanent) remailers could announce their ability/inability to bounce mail, email could be forwarded through these temporary remailers on a dynamic basis. I imagine the system would be something like this. User X, a part-time cypherpunk, turns on his PPP connection to get his internet fix. When he does, his remailer software connects to a central site and registers itself, the software (and capabilities of the software) it's using, and how many email messages (CPU time) X is willing to give up. The registry sends back a confirmation message, and adds X's computer to its list. Now, when user Y wants to use the remailer network, she sends a message through a series of remailers, one of which is the remailer network host computer. When the message gets to the host computer, the host looks at its list and bounces the message randomly to one of the winsock remailers. In this way, people who can't ordinarily run a remailer can still help out with the network, and the message becomes, ultimately, much more untraceable because (ideally) there are tons of temporary remailers that the message could have been sent to. This could expand the network by a lot... I imagine precautions would have to be taken to ensure that temp. remailers really are up and running (the host would have to ping remailer computers regularly to ensure that none went down without informing the host). It would also be good if incoming messages to the host remailer could specify how many hops it should take, whether or not it should be subject to random delays / burst sends, and other options which haven't occurred to me yet. This can't be a new idea, though. If something like this already exists, please send me a pointer. If not, I'd be willing to help develop a protocol for client / server interaction. -sq

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www.anonymizer.com
by mpd＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I had occasion to try www.anonymizer.com recently, and noticed that it does not make SSL connections to other Web servers, nor does it seem to accept them from the user. Is there some technical reason for this? If I wish to grep the Web without my browsing habits becoming known to someone monitoring my Net connection, https://www.anonymizer.com with 128 bit encryption would probably be a good thing to connect to. I realize that the anonymizer does perform its stated function quite nicely, namely that of preventing Web sites from collecting information on people who visit them. It just seems that this additional functionality would be useful and not particularly difficult to implement. -- Mike Duvos $ PGP 2.6 Public Key available $ mpd(a)netcom.com $ via Finger. $

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Re: CD Prices and Inflation
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 05:06 AM 7/26/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote: >So, what do we have now? Salaries are 2-4x higher, gold is at $375 an >ounce, a new 3-br house averages about $100K (and is 2x that in many >places), hamburger is at $2-3/pound, "Scietific American" sells for $3.95 >or $4.95, and paperback books go for $4.95. > >Roughly, then, everything on this list is 3-4 times more expensive than it >was in the late 60s. So, those LPs I was buying for $4-5 should now cost >$12-20, correcting for inflation/price rises. > >And yet I am able to find many CDs I want for $8.67 (Tower Records: "3 for >$25" sales). And they never wear out. And they usually have 60 minutes or >more music on them--at least the CDs I buy do--, compared to the paltry >35-40 minutes on most LPs of the past. >So, while I "wish" CD prices were even lower, I'm paying a lot less in >"real dollars" for more music today than I was paying 15 years ago or 30 >years ago. I think you're trying to hide a 5-year effect by immersing it in 30 years of change. Yes, we've had inflation, but the large spurt of post-Vietnam inflation was basically over by about 1983, when the CD was introduced. At that time, the explanations for the higher expense of CDs included the fact (then true) that they were costlier to manufacture due to the lower volume and lesser competition, as well as a lower production capacity. (all of these effects were essentially eliminated within 5 years or so.) At the time, I recall that most vinyl was around $7 or so, and CD's typically sold for $15. By 1988, therefore, CD prices should have dropped to the same as vinyl, plus whatever inflation had occurred in the 1983-1988 time frame. (20% total?) $9. Maybe. You'll respond, as you did, that SOME CD's are available for $9.00 Yes. A few. (But it's now 1996, and 1988 was 8 years ago, and back then $15 pricing rule was not frequently broken.) When they're on sale. But the vast majority are stuck, as if by glue, to the $12-$15 price range. I think most people understand, implicitly, that "there's something going on." We don't pretend to be able to quantify it, exactly, but it's there. Here's a proposal that I think would fix the problem. What if the copyright laws were amended to allow _anyone_ (individual or a company) to copy and sell any CD, paying the artist a royalty 20% greater than he'd get from the contracted record company, _and_ paying the originating record company, say, 50 cents royalty per CD. The company doing the "legal bootlegs" would still have to pay for its own production, distribution, and any other costs. This wouldn't be practical if the pricing by the main record company is reasonable; it becomes quite profitable for them if they are in competition with $15 discs. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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INTERESTING ADS
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C'punks, Today while thumbing through POLICE CHIEF magazine, I saw some ads that have at least peripheral Cypherpunk interest. Two were for mobile communications software/hardware. One even had a Web page (though when I browsed it with lynx, there wasn't anything to see). Both give direct access to NCIC, NLETS, motor vehicle records, local police databases, etc. They both make a point of saying they offer encrypted links. In the words of one, "And unlike conventional radio communications, all transmissions are totally secure and unavailable to eavesdropping perpetrators AND INQUIRING REPORTERS." (My emphasis added.) Cerulean http://www.cerulean.com 508-460-4000 Premier MDT 800-966-7722 for brochure and free demo disk. ^^^^^^^^^ The other ad was for computerized polygraph equipment. It looks like a laptop with input units for respiration, galvanic skin response and blood pressure. It uses something called the "Johns Hopkins Polyscore Analysis Algorithm. US$5,700. Axciton Systems 800-460-2645 S a n d y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Twenty Bank Robbers -- Game theory:)
by Steve Reid 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Twenty cypherpunks robbed a bank. They took 20 million bucks. Here's > how they plan to split the money: they stay in line, and the first guy > suggests how to split the money. Then they vote on his suggestion. If > 50% or more vote for his proposal, his suggestion is adopted. > Otherwise they kill the first robber and now it is the turn of guy #2 > to make another splitting proposal. Same voting rules apply. I don't know the final outcome, but I do have a couple of observations... - The person at the front of the line, making the suggestion, will always vote for his own proposal, if only to save his own life. This is obvious. - The second-to-last person is in an interesting position. If everyone before him is dead and he gets to the front of the line, he will decide that he gets _all_ of the money for himself. If there's only two people left, his own Yes vote for his own proposal makes 50% and he automatically gets all the money. This is the best possible deal for him. So, I think the second-to-last person will vote No to every proposal except his own, in an effort to force this situation. Now that I think about it, solving this 'game theory' scenario has some parallels to cryptanalysis (disclaimer: I am not a cryptanalyst). By pointing out the above properties, I've removed a couple of 'bits' from the 'search space'. ===================================================================== | Steve Reid - SysAdmin & Pres, EDM Web (http://www.edmweb.com/) | | Email: steve(a)edmweb.com Home Page: http://www.edmweb.com/steve/ | | PGP (2048/9F317269) Fingerprint: 11C89D1CD67287E68C09EC52443F8830 | | -- Disclaimer: JMHO, YMMV, TANSTAAFL, IANAL. -- | ===================================================================:)

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Re: Twenty Bank Robbers -- CLARIFICATION
by David E. Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: ichudov(a)algebra.com, cypherpunks(a)toad.com Date: Thu Jul 25 20:12:45 1996 > > I forgot to say what the GOALS are. The goals of every individual > cypherpunk are (in from highest to lowest priority): > > 1. Stay alive > 2. Get as much money as possible > 3. Keep as many cypherpunks alive as possible, all other things being > equal. Well, the existence of "3" changes the problem entirely, as does a system of prioritization. Under these rules, Robber 1 would propose an even split, eleven ways, and it would probably be accepted. That keeps a majority alive, and a majority get some money (~2M each). Without that, I'd tend to concur with the other answers (19 & 20 each get $10M). If we have to actually give a damn about each other... :) dave - ---- David E. Smith POB 324 Cape Girardeau MO USA 63702 dsmith(a)prairienet.org http://www.prairienet.org/~dsmith send mail of 'send pgp-key' subject for my PGP public key "I'm only a social smoker, just a few packs a day really" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Automagically signed with Pronto Secure for Windows. iQEVAwUBMfgbozVTwUKWHSsJAQE+jQf+OwCOcoyX9nyMO1ihLr/Jzzqr4c+FXDLl xWsAGKtr9Qr7afzCxeYRMjN5w5wGhSpXcNLa9oXgPlGRV0L2tH9vPvLifHWzzv7K nvOQIC8mBK6O7rbHY8koD6E32D1BQE6SiTRVo3b3L7HOceCIxeT40RvEQfhDKj7B RFaWehB4s1Aw1IdMh2rnIFpwY/vLDRx8/q8vXy6mAugOJmAvdoaeGQfbrKLIWSE0 D3X8F3O7fjQ3dda9oEE3xVhsJoRwuQ/Hcbk2eqrIomeLWSqeQO/OQl/vNHkNMAmX MrkdHNYlXZRhtwHS3mKfcli+iekFLKzXRpyhurUN8g3Ni14Q8I6BSQ== =eaX7 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: CD Prices and Inflation
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 1:14 AM 7/26/96, jim bell wrote: >At 05:06 AM 7/26/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote: >>So, while I "wish" CD prices were even lower, I'm paying a lot less in >>"real dollars" for more music today than I was paying 15 years ago or 30 >>years ago. > >I think you're trying to hide a 5-year effect by immersing it in 30 years of >change. Yes, we've had inflation, but the large spurt of post-Vietnam >inflation was basically over by about 1983, when the CD was introduced. At No, I'm not "trying" to hide anything. What I said is what I meant: CDs today offer more music/dollar than LPs did in 1967. And, in 1975. And, in 1983. (In 1983 I bought my last "audiophile" LP, a direct-to-disk half-speed-mastered album that cost me something like $12.) The complaint that CD prices have not fallen faster than some would like, since 1983, is a different kettle of fish from what my point was, that CD prices in 1983 or in 1996 are a better "deal" than LPs were in the period I described. As for prices not dropping, if customers stopped buying, prices would drop very rapidly. That they are not, and that "mega-stores" are sprouting up all over place tells us that CD sales are exploding. Finally, and most convincingly, nothing in U.S. law prevents Jim Bell or anyone else from setting up his own CD company and undercutting the prices of the Biggies. Hey, if you think you can supply CDs to customers for a lot less money, go for it! --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Cyber Rights Non! -- French Net-Censorship
by declan＠well.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Date: Thu, 25 Jul 1996 20:38:22 -0500 To: fight-censorship-announce(a)vorlon.mit.edu From: declan(a)well.com (Declan McCullagh) Subject: FC: Cyber Rights Non! -- French Net-Censorship Sender: owner-fight-censorship-announce(a)vorlon.mit.edu Attached is a portion of the lead article from today's HotWired on the French government's net-censorship. I'm pleased to say I just received word from a French correspondent that the French "Conseil Constitutionnel" has blocked the part of the law creating "Le Conseil SupÈrieur de la TÈlÈmatique" to decide what should be blocked online. (From what I've been able to gather, that court reviews laws to ensure they're constitutional. On June 27, the Conseil heard arguments from senators that the law violated articles of the French constitution.) I have more on other international net-censorship attempts at: http://www.eff.org/pub/Global/Dispatches/ http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~declan/international/ -Declan ----------------------------------- Read the full article at: http://www.netizen.com/netizen/ HotWired The Netizen Cyber Rights Non! by Jerome Thorel Paris, 24 July Early last month, at a time of day when typical netsurfers are just hitting their mouse-clicking stride - around 3:30 in the morning - the French Senate voted on the final version of the new Telecommunications Regulation Act. A little-remarked section of the act, introduced as an amendment a few days before, represents the French legislature's first plunge into the digital ocean. It creates a kind of administrative oversight of Internet speech, Web sites, and online services. The law's effect is to create a council - le Conseil SupÈrieur de la TÈlÈmatique (CST) - to dictate or arbitrate guidelines regarding Internet content. It turned out, however, that the move by Telecommunications Minister FranÁois Fillon, sponsor of the French Telecom Act, was a little hasty. France had been shaken this spring by two investigations into pedophilia and Holocaust revisionism (both considered crimes in France) on the Internet. For months, Fillon had promised French Internet service providers that they would no longer bear responsibility for the content they transmit. The law does settle that question. But no one imagined that this guarantee would include as its condition the creation of the CST. To be safe from indictment, ISPs will be obliged to follow CST's guidelines - a policy typical of France's strong tradition of centralized administration. [...] The French Net-regulation bill became law on 7 June - the same week that US federal judges declared the Communications Decency Act unconstitutional.... [...] Jerome Thorel, a Paris-based freelance reporter, writes frequently about technology and society. Andy Oram, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, contributed to this article. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- fight-censorship is archived at http://fight-censorship.dementia.org/top/

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