December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Private Information Retrieval
by Ravi Pandya 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This work looks like it might be of interest to readers of this list. Ravi --- On Tue, 24 Sep 1996 14:52:08 -0700 (PDT) Scott Dakins <sjdakins(a)cs.washington.edu> wrote: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON Seattle, Washington 98195 Department of Computer Science and Engineering Box 352350 (206) 543-1695 COLLOQUIUM SPEAKER: Benny Chor, Technion, Haifa, Israel TITLE: Private Information Retrieval DATE: Wednesday, September 25, 1996 TIME: 3:30 pm PLACE: 422 Sieg Hall HOST: Richard Karp ABSTRACT: Publicly accessible databases are an indispensable resource for retrieving up to date information. But they also pose a significant risk to the privacy of the user, since a curious database operator can follow the user's queries and infer what the user is after. Indeed, in cases where the users' intentions are to be kept secret, users are often cautious about accessing the database. It can be shown that when accessing a single database, to completely guarantee the privacy of the user, the whole database should be downloaded , namely $n$ bits should be communicated (where $n$ is the number of bits in the database). In this work, we investigate whether by replicating the database, more efficient solutions to the private retrieval problem can be obtained. We describe schemes that enable a user to access $k$ replicated copies of a database ($k\geq 2$) and privately retrieve information stored in the database. This means that each individual database gets no information on the identity of the item retrieved by the user. These schemes use the replication to gain substantial saving. In the talk, I will describe the original work on this topic (joint work with Oded Goldreich, Eyal Kushilevitz, and Madhu Sudan), as well as recent developments in this area. Refreshments to follow. Email: talk-info(a)cs.washington.edu Info: http://www.cs.washington.edu ---------------End of Original Message-----------------

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Re: WHO IS MAKING A MOCKERY OF WHOM?
by Jeremy Mineweaser 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 06:15 AM 9/24/96 -0700, Sandy Sandfort wrote: >C'punks, >Time for another informal poll. > >On Mon, 23 Sep 1996, John Anonymous MacDonald wrote: >> What a joy to make a public mockery of Tim Mayo! > >Do list members think Anonymous' posts make a public mockery of >Tim May or Anonymous? Let me know whose reputation you think >is enhanced or tarnished by these posts. I'll post a summary to >the list in a week or two. First, to answer your question, I think the posts tarnish the reputation of Anonymous, although there never was much reputation to begin with. I am of the opinion that a positive reputation is earned, not given, and arguing over the matter at hand certainly doesn't help build a positive reputation. Since these annoying posts started a week or so ago, I have (for the first time ever) begun killfiling people and messages on the cp list. Right now I am killing all messages from John Anonymous MacDonald, Dmitri Vulis, and any message in the "daily ... regarding TCM" thread(s). I hope this madness can end, so we can get back to more normal traffic levels on the list. If anything good can come of this, it's that more people (myself included) will begin to use filtering tools to improve the perceived S/N ratio of the list. I am working on making a Eudora Pro plugin that creates and maintains a reputation system, which can then be tailored to modify incoming mail as desired, removing irrelevant paragraphs, summarizing, all kinds of things. Initially it will just keep an index score for each user representing the quality of the content which they author, but I have lots of things I hope to add to it. Good luck with the survey, Jeremy --- Jeremy L. Mineweaser | GCS/E d->-- s:- a--- C++(+++)$ ULC++(++++)>$ P+>++$ gt4436c(a)prism.gatech.edu | L+>++ E-(---) W++ N+ !o-- K+>++ w+(++++) O- M-- | V-(--) PS+(--) PE++ Y++>$ PGP++>+++$ t+() 5 X+ R+() *ai*vr*vx*crypto* | tv(+) b++>+++ DI+(++) D+ G++ e>+++ h-() r-@ !y-

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The daily word of caution regarding Timmy May
by nobody＠zifi.genetics.utah.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Timmy May studied yoga back-streching exercises for five years so he could blow himself (nobody else will).

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Re: Portal remailer shutting down
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 7:03 PM 9/24/96, Hal wrote: >The ISP which I have used for over five years, portal.com, is going >out of business at the end of this month (September, 1996). This means >that my remailer at hfinney(a)shell.portal.com will cease operations. >I had asked that it be removed from the remailer lists a few weeks ago >due to some problems, so hopefully not many people have been using it >lately. But now it will go away for good. > >This remailer has been in operation since the fall of 1991. I believe it ^^^^^^^^^^^^ You obviously mean "fall of 1992." Anyway, congratulations on all of your work back then (in 1992 :-)), and for running it for so long. I, too, was a Portalite, from 1988-1992 (when I switched to Netcom, which offered a local POP (point of presence) in Santa Cruz). Portal was the first major ISP to offer accounts to non-academic users. They were also heavily used by those who'd signed up with "PC-Pursuit," a flat-rate phone service which made it feasible to dial-in to Portal from anywhere in the country. When the plug was pulled on PC-Pursuit, circa mid-89, the prospects for Portal dimmed as well. (My own usage dropped dramatically when PC-Pursuit was canned, as dialing-in to Portal directly was costing me $6-10 an hour, depending on the time of day. Once I got on with Netcom, in 1992, I was able to join various mailing lists, including the Extropians list and of course the Cypherpunks list.) I haven't been following the fortunes of Portal for a couple of years, but its relative absence from the playing field of Netcom, Best, Earthlink, etc. has been pretty noticeable. So I can't say I'm surprised it's going away. --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I 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, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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The Netsurfer of Penzance
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Priority: normal Date: Tue, 24 Sep 1996 10:31:58 PST Reply-To: Law & Policy of Computer Communications <CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM> Sender: Law & Policy of Computer Communications <CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM> From: Eugene Volokh <VOLOKH(a)LAW.UCLA.EDU> Organization: UCLA School of Law Subject: The Netsurfer of Penzance To: CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- From: "Thomas P. Vogl" <tvogl(a)wo.erim.org> The Newbie's Song (Based on the Major General's song from "The Pirates of Penzance", Gilbert & Sullivan). I am the very model of a Usenet individual, I've information meaningless and ultimately trivial, I know the basic elements of alien biology, And all the hidden secrets of the Church of Scientology, I've seen "The Wrath of Khan" and every Star Trek film that followed it, I moan about my Servicecard and how the cash till swallowed it, About the laws on handguns I am sending off a counterblast, With many cheerful facts about the way you can MAKE MONEY FAST! ALL: With many cheerful etc. I'll tell you why the Japanese are taking over Panama, And why the USA is still a better place than Canada, In short, in matters meaningless and ultimately trivial, I am the very model of a Usenet individual. ALL: In short, in matters meaningless and ultimately trivial, He is the very model of a Usenet individual. I post in alt.revisionism lies about the Holocaust, I cut my .sig to twenty lines, I didn't want to, I was forced, I really can't believe the "Good Times" virus to be mythical, And Clinton's raising taxes which is, frankly, bloody typical, I've upset several people on alt.flame, I really don't know how, And sent a thousand business cards to Mr. and Mrs. Shergold now, I have a very poor grip of political geography, And absolutely no involvement (yet!) in child pornography, ALL: And absolutely no, etc. I've paid two-fifty dollars for the Nieman-Marcus recipe, And told the Spanish tourist's tale about the toothbrush pessary, In short, in matters meaningless and ultimately trivial, I am the very model of a Usenet individual. ALL: In short, in matters meaningless and ultimately trivial, He is the very model of a Usenet individual. In fact, when I know what is meant by "binary" and "FTP", When I know how to decode porno JPEGs from a .uue, When I can handle HTML, Telnet, mail and IRC, And when I know the words initialized to form "http", When I have learnt what topics are acceptable in talk.bizarre, When I know more of Usenet than the tailpipe of a motor-car, In short, when I've a smattering of elementary netiquette, You'll say a better individual has never surfed the Net. ALL: You'll say a better individual, etc. For my technical experience, although I claim to know it all Could barely serve to run the installation disk from AOL; But still, in matters meaningless and ultimately trivial, I am the very model of a Usenet individual. ALL: But still, in matters meaningless and ultimately trivial, He is the very model of a Usenet individual. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Harry Erwin, Internet: herwin(a)gmu.edu, Web Page: http://osf1.gmu.edu/~herwin 49 year old PhD student in computational neuroscience ("how bats do it" 8) and lecturer for CS 211 (data structures and advanced C++) -- Eugene Volokh, UCLA Law --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "'Bart Bucks' are not legal tender." -- Punishment, 100 times on a chalkboard, for Bart Simpson The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/

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Re: Bernstein hearing: The Press Release
by Greg Broiles 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>And the ITARs are only executive orders, no? Not laws, right? I'm curious >as to why they're considered valid. Anyone know? They're administrative regulations. Legislative bodies (like Congress and state legislatures) can delegate some of their legislative authority to executive agencies (like the Forest Service or the State Dept) to make rules which have the force of law. This is done because legislatures don't have time to write all of the laws that bureaucrats think ought to be written - so the legislature says "Fine, write your own damn laws." Legislatures don't want to bother with deciding where you can build a fire on federal lands or exactly how close you can fly to an airport if you're not taking off or landing or what happens to undeliverable mail at the Post Office. So legislatures give some of their lawmaking power to the agencies that are in a position to see what needs to be regulated. The delegation of power is limited by superior law (e.g., statutes written by the legislature) and the regulatory duties of the agency (such that the Forest Service can't write regs for the FAA, etc.) and by the grant of power itself. This sounds like cops making up their own laws - and it is, but they have to act like legislatures when they do it. This means that they must (generally) publish proposed regs, accept comments, ignore them, and then publish final regulations. Agencies can't change the regs on a daily or a case-by-case basis, or change them without making the changes public. (But "public" means "buried somewhere in the Federal Register".) And that's what the ITAR is - a body of administrative law developed by the executive branch pursuant to a grant of power from Congress. (e.g., 22 USC 2778(a)(1), ". . . The President is authorized to designate those items which shall be considered as defense articles and defense services for the purposes of this section and to promulgate regulations for the import and export of such articles and services. The items so designated shall constitute the United States Munitions List.") It is subject to review by the courts just like the product of Congress itself; and an agency can't do something Congress can't do, like write an unconstitutional law. (Which is not to say that I agree with the inclusion of crypto on the list, or even the idea of "export controls", but I've seen the argument that "ITAR is not a real law so none of this matters" float across the list a few times and it's not realistic. Whether or not a given individual likes the idea of administrative rulemaking, it's clear that the courts and the government think that it's real, and will put people in jail for violating administrative regs.) -- Greg Broiles | "We pretend to be their friends, gbroiles(a)netbox.com | but they fuck with our heads." http://www.io.com/~gbroiles | |

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Re: Public Schools
by Ross Wright 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Or About: 24 Sep 96 at 14:16, Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM wrote: > No, on the contrary, sending poor kids to good schools on scholarships > does not improve their genes. They tend to become drug dealers. > That just about does it for me. This jerk is just trying to push everyone's buttons. He is doing a beautiful job. Fuckhead. Ross

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Lexis and Privacy - Bill approaches.
by Black Unicorn 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Pressure from the FTC Which fielded hundreds of complaints about Lexis and the social security number scrap) has prompted members of the Banking Committee to add provisions to the most recent spending bills which protect personal information (including social security numbers, phone numbers, addresses, and so forth) under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. This limits access to this information to credit agencies and otherwise authorized entities. (Of which I assume Lexis is not one). It's not great protection, but it's something. I urge everyone to take their own measures to protect personal data regardless of what some piece of paper on a library shelf says is protected. The only real protection is not to allow release of the data in the first place. -- I hate lightning - finger for public key - Vote Monarchist unicorn(a)schloss.li

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Re: We removed radikal 154 from xs4all :(
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:31 PM 9/23/96, tank wrote: >>Hi all, >> >>We have temporary removed radikal 154 from xs4all. >> >>We did this because the german ICTF and BAW continued to stop IP-traffic >>to and from xs4all. They not only blocked the web-server (with more than At 02:00 PM 9/23/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote: >Unfortunately, this means that Germany wins. No it does not: It means that I and presumably lots of other people just added radikal to their web sites. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | 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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ISP Legal Fund
by William H. Geiger III 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, As it seems to be an almost daily event of hearing of a government authortity infringing on the liberty of Internet Users throughout the world I would like to present the following proposal: The establishment of an Internet Service Provider Legal Fund. All ISP world-wide would contribute to this fund. The resources of this fund would be used for the legal fees of ISP who whish to challenge government infringements of their users freedoms & liberties. Something like an ACLU for the Internet but on a Global scale. Any thoughts? -- ----------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii Geiger Consulting WebExplorer & Java Enhanced!!! Merlin Beta Test Site - WarpServer SMP Test Site Author of PGPMR2 - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice Look for MR/2 Tips & Rexx Scripts Get Work Place Shell for Windows!! PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. Finger whgiii(a)amaranth.com for PGP Key and other info -----------------------------------------------------------

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