December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

RE: ****Tacoma, Washington Starts Taxing Internet Access 07/30/96 (fwd)
by Jerome Tan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Here in Philippines, the government tax for connecting to the Internet, the percentage is 10%. Forwarded message: > Date: Wed, 31 Jul 1996 11:26:59 -0400 > From: "Joseph M. Reagle Jr." <reagle(a)rpcp.mit.edu> > Subject: ****Tacoma, Washington Starts Taxing Internet Access 07/30/96 > > >WASHINGTON, DC, U.S.A., 1996 JUL 30 (NB) -- By Bill Pietrucha. > >Tacoma, Washington, has just gained the distinction of being the > >only municipality in the United States to tax Internet Access > >providers (IAPs) like telephone service providers. > > Somebody needs to do their homework. Austin, TX has been taxing ISP's for at least a year now. A recent Internet Provider meeting on this issue resulted in a return to ISP's of a goodly amound of their taxes because of various issues (read that I didn't go to meeting, I don't run an ISP but a SOHO consultancy w/ Internet services). > >The city of Tacoma has extended its six percent gross receipts tax on > >telecommunications services to include Internet services, Information > >Technology Association of America (ITAA) spokesperson Bob Cohen > >told Newsbytes. I have to pay the state 8.25% interest on any funds my customers deliver to me. > >If other cities attempted to follow Tacoma's lead in taxing IAPs, > >Miler said, it could cause the "Balkanization of the Internet, a > >hodgepodge of confusing, conflicting, and difficult to administer > >Internet tax rules and regulations. Agreed. Jim Choate

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Re: FPGAs and Heat (Re: Paranoid Musings)
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 9:39 AM 8/1/96, Scott Schryvers wrote: >This was about a year and a half ago. >I can't remember the name of it, but this chip fab industry mag was >talking about how the NSA was obtaining out side help in fabricating what >was at the time a type of ram that did processing off chip in parrallel. This was a company in Bowie, Maryland, closely linked with the NSA and with the "supercomputer centers." The idea of "processing in memory" has been explored by various companies. By the way, on the subject of using FPGAs for computers, here's a URL I found that's interesting: http://www.io.com/~guccione/HW_list.html >Side note: Wired just recently talked about IRAM or Intelligent ram, and >how it seems to be the future of high speed computation. Side side note: I worked on Intel's "iRAM," standing for "intelligent RAM," in 1980-81. It found little market success. The idea of changing the architecture of RAM bubbles up every few years, but has not yet succeeded (except in some video-specific applications). Cautionary Note: Bubble memories, laser pantography, integrated injection logic, e-beam addressed memory, neural nets, Josephson junctions.... When you've watched the industry for enough years you'll learn to cast a jaundiced eye on pronouncements that a technology is the Next Big Thing. The above list--which covers only chips, not similar Next Big Things in software--is a list of some of the things "Wired" would've hyped, had it been published back then. Most such announcements come out public relations departments at major public labs, or from over-enthusiastic VCs. Or from claims made in papers presented at the International Solid State Circuits Conference and similar conferences. Reporters seeking stories then push the story. The usual form of the press release goes something like this: "The discovery of foobartronic switches may mean chips that are ten times faster and one hundred times denser. Researchers say the foobartronic revolution could reshape the entire industry..." Few of the advances reported in "Wired" will ever see the light of day.... Some will, of course, but it's useful to remember that most of it is hype. --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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Re: Welcome Back
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:52 PM 8/1/96 -0400, Brian Davis wrote: >> Do you have an honest job or are you still taking the King's Shilling? > >I have opened a law practice. Just this morning, I visited a client (in >jail) charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine ... in other words, >one of the Four Horsemen. They checked me for weapons, etc., upon entry, >but no one asked about any cryptographic munitions. Joke of the day: A swarthy fellow was in jail, and was visited by his sister and nerd brother in law. He tells them, "next time you show up, bring me something with a file in it." His bro in law brought a floppy disk... Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Internal Passports
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 7:30 AM 8/1/96, Lucky Green wrote: >At 11:12 7/31/96, Duncan Frissell wrote: >>Most Central European countries have both privacy commissioners and legal >>requirements that everyone register their addresses with the police. I'll >>do without the former if I can also avoid the latter. > >I remember a time when Privacy Commissioners were a new thing. Their >primary purpose seemed to be to sanction government access to (and keeping >of) large databases on the activities of the population. Their secondary >purpose was to prevent the private sector competition from doing the same. >Eliminating access to such data by the individual in the process. I'm with Duncan and Lucky on this one. Nations with a "Privacy Ombudsman" are almost always nations with extensive files on individuals, their habits, and their political activities. Having a "Privacy Ombudsman" is a bone thrown to the proles. I suspect a police state like Singapore has such a person. And related to the "photo I.D." discussion, most of these nations demand that passports be left at hotel desks when checking in. (At least they did when I spent 6 weeks travelling through Europe in 1983.) Perhaps the theory is that this stops people from running out on their bills, though credit cards do the same thing (*). However, the police reportedly inspect these passports and enter them into data bases to track movements. (* As the credit card companies increase their cooperation with law enforcement, a la the links between FinCEN and the Big Three credit reporters, the passports will no longer be necessary, and the process of tracking movements can be done just with the credit cards. Those without credit cards...well, they'll think of something.) Question (a la "Wired"): "When will the United States introduce an internal passport?" May: "2005, but they won't call it that." --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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Terror attack!
by Mike McNally 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"I think I see one outside my window! Help!" A breaking story from Reuters: > FBI Chief Says U.S. Under Terrorist Attack > WASHINGTON (Reuter) - FBI Director Louis Freeh warned Congress Thursday > that the United States was under attack from foreigh terrorists and > said new counter-terrorism weapons were needed to fight back. Why don't they just be done with it and declare martial law? ______c_____________________________________________________________________ Mike M Nally * Tiv^H^H^H IBM * Austin TX * For the time being, m5(a)tivoli.com * m101(a)io.com * <URL:http://www.io.com/~m101> * three heads and eight arms.

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Again, disappointed in Gingrich
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Again, I'm disappointed in Gingrich. This amplifies the earlier comments. -Allen >Clinton, congressional leaders to meet on terrorism > _(c) Copyright 1996 Nando.net_ > Associated Press [...] > Gingrich, interviewed on NBC's "Meet the Press," said, "I think that > we should have a provision that allows us to recognize that we now > live in the age of the cellular telephone and allows us to track an > individual person" He said the taggant requirement was "a > possibility."

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POLL
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . C'punks, The electronic newsletter put out by the TV show, C-NET Central, had this item in the most recent issue: ------------------------------------------------------------------ 5. "YOUR TURN": SHOULD YOU BE ABLE TO READ BOMB-MAKING INFO? The United States and seven other governments are moving to "felonize" distribution of bomb-making information on the Net and other electronic media. Yet censorship of the Net was recently dealt a double blow by twin defeats of the Communications Decency Act. Is this strictly a free speech issue? Or is there a difference in your mind between pictures of naked people and blueprints for a pipe bomb? And can the Net know the difference? To contribute your opinion, phone CNET at 415/395-7805, enter extension 5400, and leave a message. We'll listen to the responses and broadcast some of the best on CNET radio. Each week Digital Dispatch brings you the new "your turn" question, and each Wednesday you can hear the responses to the previous week's question on CNET radio: http://www.cnet.com/Content/Radio/ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Some of you may have a comment about this subject. S a n d y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: Tolerance
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:46 PM 8/1/96, Chris Adams wrote: >Just a comment to all of the 'true libertarians' out there, especially >the "defend to the death" types: How many of you defended Mr. >Sternlight's recent membership? > I certainly did, as you all know. But, to clear things up, I don't think I've ever in my life uttered the phrase "defend to my death your right...." (I don't think asking the 1000+ members of this list to say one way or another is a good idea.) --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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Cracking RC4/40 for massive wiretapps
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:13 AM 7/30/96 -0700, frantz(a)netcom.com (Bill Frantz) mused paranoidly: >I combine the above with Whit Diffie's observation that, while crypto users >are interested in the security of *each* message, organizations which >monitor communications want to read *every* message. A TLA interested in >monitoring communications would need to crack RC4-40 much faster than >1/week. When we discussed using FPGA machines to crack RC4/40 last year, someone calculated the cost of cracking a message at 8 cents if you're doing enough to amortize your machine, and Eric had designed a system that should be able to crack it in about 15 minutes for $25-50K. The two basic search approaches are to take a cyphertext and decrypt it trying many keys to see if you get a likely plaintext, or to take known plaintext and encrypt with many keys to see if you match the cyphertext. But those designs are for one-at-a-time cracks. An interesting question is whether you can speed up performance substantially by cracking multiple messages at once. For instance, if you've got known plaintext, such as a standard header format saying "FooVoice" or "BEGIN DSA-SIGNED..", you can try many keys and compare them with _many_ cyphertexts, which may not slow down the FPGA very much. Also, even for unknown-plaintext, since key scheduling is a relatively slow part of RC4/40, you can split the key-schedule and the block-encryption phases, feeding one keyschedule output to multiple decrypt-and-compare sessions in parallel. So the cost per victim of cracking many sessions may be much lower. >Now expensive specialized cracking equipment can certainly speed up the >process, but there may be a better way. If cryptanalysis of RC4 yields >techniques which make the process much easier, then it is the ideal cypher >to certify for export. >The paranoid conclusion is that there is a significant weakness in RC4. Just keeping the key length down to 40 bits on a fast cypher is a good start. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> # Dispel Authority!

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Re: Freeh slimes again: Digital Telephony costs $2 billion now ...
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:58 PM 8/1/96, Ernest Hua wrote: >Louis Freeh is now asking the Congress for $2 billion to fund >Digital Telephony. Yes, that is FOUR TIMES what he said it >would cost the taxpayers to give up their own privacy. Score >one for the cynics who said $500 million was not enough. And when this $2 B is defeated by encryption, look for dramatic, drastic, and draconian restrictions on crypto. (With the Internet Phone deals--even Intel is entering the market--why are there no widespread uses of PGP or S/MIME? Yes, I know about about PGPhone, and also the Nautilus product, but none seem to be used by anyone I know. Maybe we should spend some time talking about the practical realities of these tools.) --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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