December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: THAT is what makes (ANY) "John" an ASSHOLE!
by George A. Stathis 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Flames? What flames? Hm... I'm neither a fireman, nor a... pyromaniac! :-) ****************************************************************** Gradually, I came to the conclusion that "Flame wars" rage-on because of INTOLERANCE. Typically, they develop at a "meta-level" to the flames _themselves_, and escalate when people start talking about "getting offended" and that kind of shit, aiming at CONTROL. ****************************************************************** At 08:00 ðì 15/11/1996 -0500, aga wrote: >This whole thing boils down to John Gilmore not liking >"rants" or "personal attacks." What does that chicken-shit ************************** >punk hide behind in real life? When his terminal is not ******************************************************** >protecting him? *************** ^^^ VERY IMPORTANT ($1000-) QUESTION HERE! ( I've often wondered myself... ) i.e. (the wider issue) HOW does cowardice manage to *fake* power? Well, having lived outside my country for about 15 years, at first I tried to blame... some nationalities (such as the English) for possessing the cowardice which is the root of the problem. (-NOT true, in fact. Being "reserved" is not always "cowardly"). Then I blamed the... gullible Americans; then my... "buzuki-minded" Greek compatriots (those who've never been outside their villages). (BTW a "buzuki" is a fuckin-awful Greek/Turkish musical instrument I can't stand, which puts me in the minority over here)... :-) However, it's a deeper and wider problem than such narrow "national" explanations. Boils down to _personal_ growth, maturity, tolerance, and the ability to respond in a "tit-for-tat" basis, rather than a "look mummy what they've done to me" mentality-basis (TM/worldwide). Another way of looking at it is this: DO NOT carry guns when going to the... saloon (or to the Internet discussion)... :-) ( A list-owner's _only_ gun is "forcible unsubcription". ) Tit-for-Tat is simple enough, and does NOT always imply escalation; e.g. If someone calls me an asshole, I _also_ call the guy an asshole. It doesn't have to continue... Then (and only then) _if_ he and I calm down, we MIGHT buy each other drinks! The Anglo-Saxon way of Politeness and the Greek way of Expressiveness are not incompatible, BTW: Oscar Wilde said that "A gentleman is a man who knows _when_ to be rude". Of course, gentlemen ALSO make mistakes. (AND admit them, bravely; in direct contrast to the view that "a man admits no mistake"). But if you called me an asshole, and I REFRAINED from answering back, becoming friends again would be indeed humiliating: THIS is the Greek way, as I understand it; Insults can be *CATHARTIC*. Censoring insults is HIDEOUS, HOSTILE, and DANGEROUS. I can forgive ANY insult, but NOT an act of censorship. Either we speak as equals, or else we kill each other. And censorship is like _spiritual_ MURDER, philosophically. I also never understood why an insult offends the "insultee"; Is not "hurt" an indication that the "offensive" attributions are TRUE? Some of my English friends never understood why the Greeks burst out in laughter with some of the most horrifying insults... :-) >John Gilmore is connected with the corrupt >cabal boys anyway, so he should be dismissed as anybody having >any credibility any more. > >"Once you pull the first plug, you are forever more a whore," ********************************************************** >as the greeks would say. A ha ha! :-) Indeed (and it rhymes!) Minor Correction: (Once pulling a plug) one is a pimp, not a whore. A whore's worst problem is that she OBEYS her pimp. And we intend NOT TO become WHORES for the benefit of (would-be-) Net-pimps censoring us in order to hide their cowardice in REAL life. Regards George P.S. Why do I agree with Aga? My life outside the Net guarantees SOME sanity; E.g. the climate here allows me to swim nearly every day in the beach! :-) (except in December/January/February). So, I prefer to be liked for what I am, or what I do in _real_ life, rather than for my... scribbles in the Net (as I write for... pleasure mostly!) ************************************************************************* "A beautiful female ass is worth a thousand Buddhas". (Greek... Heterosexist Zen-saying). :-) ************************************************************************* P.S.2 (added later) Semantically speaking, the word "poutana"(whore) in Greek can also mean... someone really clever, ya know. So let's not underestimate whores! :-) Here is a list of a few WEIRD semantic connotations in the Greek language: "Big Whore" ("megali poutana") = Very shrewd clever guy; Shrewd salesman. "Big Faggot" ("megalos poustis") = Very Devious (or Secretive) Impauster. "Big Wanker" ("megalos malakas") = Very gullible stupid guy; Clueless fool. "Big Pimp" ("megalo-tavatzis") = Authoritarian or Censorous Media Director. The sexual connotations are often LOST; those listed above are more valid. :) Complaints about "political correctness" are irrelevant. You hear gay people call each other "poustis" and women call each other the same names too...

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Re: National Emergency
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hal Finney wrote: >I found interesting is that it refers to the fact that we are currently >living under a state of national emergency! [Snip] The same emergency was invoked for the same purpose in December, 1995, with citation of the elusive EO 12924 identical to the latest EO. See: http://jya.com/exporeg1.htm

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Re: Members of Parliament Problem
by paul＠fatmans.demon.co.uk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > Is there a way to take published public keys and combine them with > your own in such a way that your identity is not compromised, but > it is clear beyond a doubt that you control one of a set of public > keys? An obvious solution would be a shared public key/private key pair between a number of users then use them for digital signatures and route the messages through an anonymous server. You could also have an arbitrated blind signature protocol whereby trent shares a keypair with all users. bob encrypts his comment, M with the key he shares with trent. On recieving it trent carries out a blind signature on it and publishes it, as trent knows only bob has the shared key, K he knows bob said M but as it is a blind sigature and he is likely to be signing a lot of messages (trent is of course a computer program) he doesn`t know which message came from bob. Also Chaums group signatures could be used but unfortunately the arbitrator can find out who said what, but does not normally know. Also trent can forge digital signatures with this protocol. Chaum further mentions protocols for this sort of thing that do not even need an arbitrator but I don`t have the papers on this. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3ia Charset: cp850 iQCVAwUBMoyPCr5OPIRbv66xAQE6pQQAvs/NVY8s6Uid186CAQf8Q+iZucYtzRM7 iNjR0RkiNMnYACgHG0NO9UfkPgKGdomMQrGJFubH9O2/fnbMAIGZh8gv+k9P7iYl 5lMfCtCQe4AgeCyS2YRLMEYQiI6MAqWn4HoTzA58gWRbtOHeIZNpw/vc/hTqBbA7 3sDsOGYqqCk= =kiS8 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- Datacomms Technologies web authoring and data security Paul Bradley, Paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk Paul(a)crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul(a)cryptography.uk.eu.org Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/ Email for PGP public key, ID: 5BBFAEB1 "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"

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Re: Censor John Gilmore -- EFF is a disgrace!
by Bryondp＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

take me off this fucking list

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San Jose Mercury News declares encryption battle over
by Peter D. Junger 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Headline: Encryption battle ends peacefully Technology will block circuitry in exports without U.S. licensing Byline: BY RORY J. O'CONNOR Mercury News Washington Bureau Date: Published: Nov. 16, 1996 Opening: WASHINGTON -- Computer companies and the federal government appear to have peacefully resolved a fierce battle over the export of powerful coding software in computers. The computer makers plan to use new technology that would block the use of code circuitry in exported computers unless both buyer and seller obtain licenses in this country. The coding software is designed to help people prevent their electronic mail, files, credit-card numbers and the like from being read by hackers and thieves. URL: http://www.sjmercury.com/business/compute/encrypt1115.htm -- Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH Internet: junger(a)pdj2-ra.f-remote.cwru.edu junger(a)samsara.law.cwru.edu URL: http://samsara.law.cwru.edu

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Re: ideal secure personal computer system
by frantz＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 3:10 PM 11/15/96 -0500, Adam Gulkis wrote: >a locked startup disk is not a good idea, if it is even possible. A system file and boot blocks you know can't be written to is a wonderful aid to a comfortable sleep. For a number of things, I would like to boot off CDROM. (E.g. the program which checks the cryptographic hash of all the executables on my hard drive and delivers me a report.) >Most applications setup scratch space on the startup volume. It would be better if they set up scratch space on the writable volume with the most available space. VM/CMS provided a system call to to this in the late 1960s/early 1970s. "Modern" systems should provide a similar service. >It would >be a better idea to setup a partition for applications and lock it, if >you feel that is necessary. Norton DiskLock is a nice tool that >provides a startup password protection as well as screensaver >password. It will request a password if the machine sleeps or to >reboot after a crash. Protection against strangers walking up to your machine and using it is nice, and easy to do. Protection against viruses which install Trojan horses in your system would also be nice, but is very hard to do in systems where programs run with all the privileges of their users. Examples include (in alpha order): DOS, MacOS, Unix, and Windows (including NT). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Frantz | The lottery is a tax on | Periwinkle -- Consulting (408)356-8506 | those who can't do math. | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz(a)netcom.com | - Who 1st said this? | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA

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Executive Order establishing national emergency
by Peter D. Junger 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Since apparently people are having some difficult in finding Executive Order No. 12924, which continued the authority for the Export Control Regulations that are administered by the Commerce Department, I am posting a copy here. This is taken from the entry for 50 USC 1701 in the House of Representatives internet law library. ----------------------begin quoted text----------------------------- EX. ORD. NO. 12924. CONTINUATION OF EXPORT CONTROL REGULATIONS Ex. Ord. No. 12924, Aug. 19, 1994, 59 F.R. 43437, provided: By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including but not limited to section 203 of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (''Act'') (50 U.S.C. 1702), I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the United States of America, find that the unrestricted access of foreign parties to U.S. goods, technology, and technical data and the existence of certain boycott practices of foreign nations, in light of the expiration of the Export Administration Act of 1979, as amended (50 U.S.C. App. 2401 et seq.), constitute an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States and hereby declare a national emergency with respect to that threat. Accordingly, in order (a) to exercise the necessary vigilance over exports and activities affecting the national security of the United States; (b) to further significantly the foreign policy of the United States, including its policy with respect to cooperation by U.S. persons with certain foreign boycott activities, and to fulfill its international responsibilities; and (c) to protect the domestic economy from the excessive drain of scarce materials and reduce the serious economic impact of foreign demand, it is hereby ordered as follows: Section 1. To the extent permitted by law, the provisions of the Export Administration Act of 1979, as amended, and the provisions for administration of the Export Administration Act of 1979, as amended, shall be carried out under this order so as to continue in full force and effect and amend, as necessary, the export control system heretofore maintained by the Export Administration regulations issued under the Export Administration Act of 1979, as amended. The delegations of authority set forth in Executive Order No. 12002 of July 7, 1977 (50 App. U.S.C. 2403 note), as amended by Executive Order No. 12755 of March 12, 1991; Executive Order No. 12214 of May 2, 1980 (50 App. U.S.C. 2403 note); Executive Order No. 12735 of November 16, 1990 (50 U.S.C. 1701 note); and Executive Order No. 12851 of June 11, 1993 (22 U.S.C. 2797 note), shall be incorporated in this order and shall apply to the exercise of authorities under this order. Sec. 2. All rules and regulations issued or continued in effect by the Secretary of Commerce under the authority of the Export Administration Act of 1979, as amended (50 App. U.S.C. 2401 et seq.), including those published in Title 15, Subtitle B, Chapter VII, Subchapter C, of the Code of Federal Regulations, Parts 768 through 799, and all orders, regulations, licenses, and other forms of administrative action issued, taken, or continued in effect pursuant thereto, shall, until amended or revoked by the Secretary of Commerce, remain in full force and effect as if issued or taken pursuant to this order, except that the provisions of sections 203(b)(2) and 206 of the Act (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2) and 1705) shall control over any inconsistent provisions in the regulations. Nothing in this section shall affect the continued applicability of administrative sanctions provided for by the regulations described above. Sec. 3. Provisions for administration of section 38(e) of the Arms Export Control Act (22 U.S.C. 2778(e)) may be made and shall continue in full force and effect until amended or revoked under the authority of section 203 of the Act (50 U.S.C. 1702). To the extent permitted by law, this order also shall constitute authority for the issuance and continuation in full force and effect of all rules and regulations by the President or his delegate, and all orders, licenses, and other forms of administrative actions issued, taken, or continued in effect pursuant thereto, relating to the administration of section 38(e). Sec. 4. Executive Order No. 12923 of June 30, 1994, is revoked, and that declaration of emergency is rescinded. The revocation of Executive Order No. 12923 shall not affect any violation of any rules, regulations, orders, licenses, and other forms of administrative action under that order that occurred during the period the order was in effect. Sec. 5. This order shall be effective as of midnight between August 20, 1994, and August 21, 1994, and shall remain in effect until terminated. William J. Clinton. ----------------------end quoted text------------------------------- -- Peter D. Junger--Case Western Reserve University Law School--Cleveland, OH Internet: junger(a)pdj2-ra.f-remote.cwru.edu junger(a)samsara.law.cwru.edu URL: http://samsara.law.cwru.edu

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Re: Remailer Pricing
by Hal Finney 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: ph(a)netcom.com (Peter Hendrickson) > Right now the remailer network is a mess. There just aren't that many > remailers operating in a timely and reliable manner. I am not knocking > the remailer operators for this, it's just clear that "free" doesn't > make it worth their while to keep the remailers operating perfectly > at all times. I agree with this very much. For a long time we have had two contradictory notions floating around: nobody will pay for remailing services because free ones are available, and the remailer network can't be reliable because the operators don't have the resources to make them work better. Clearly if people understand that the choice is between free remailers that don't work well and for-pay ones which do, things look a little different. Peter's idea of having the remailers keep accounts for people receiving anonymous mail, possibly even sending them a monthly check, would completely change the spam equation. > Furthermore, many remailers don't use 2048-bit keys. Why not? Because > they don't want to spend money on the cycles. That's okay with me - > it's charity. But, if I pay a dollar for a remailer, I can expect > to be able to use a very strong key. Actually when I ran a remailer I had a small key because it was on a system which I did not control. The small key was meant as a signal to potential users that my system wasn't all that secure. The big problem that I always saw with the for-pay remailing model was the fear of greater liability when abusive mail goes through the remailer. I felt that operating a service for free would make it easier for me to argue that I was offering a public service, while running it for pay would mean that I would be profiting from the abuse. I don't know if this is really a valid argument, though. Hal

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Re: National Emergency
by amp 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Date: Sat Nov 16 06:48:39 1996 > I know that the WhiteHouse.gov site has Clinton's EO's (searchable, or, > with a little finagling, a list of them), but I want *all* of them. > > I'd love to see a site which has all these things. as would i. i'd appreciate it if anyone with access to same could post a url or mail me about it. amp === amp(a)pobox.com Earth First! We'll strip mine the other planets later! === -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBMo24KVUbR1RWr40pAQHgLwf+PJBccxl5eKIyxoK1AWodP5WYPioIP1SN zqXo1eNL3CiK/e+UOYJRO4anLpdaZvo/1KJZAsaBZue/OsWqXFkLa67ziGygfZqG fPCCR5yOuSNS/dKFCW4pbEHWDjw4mw59wmws+xQy5uuZp6seLfduuzdaGLS+HIYn Ad3weBoafThhtZ47w9DR71ZWFOL2FVvBJNJDhcdN/7zyhBGdhkMics+1EdbI1Z83 Ypu3Uyj9iMk68CrcdRfRTBa0tZq4vSRmFaifzYWgiocIlrit6Bdm4GYueS5Y2Dor kSLpBo34bgWx1bgofx8qCwKZZka+DE3IGixaeJUspVLL4GYIZSsADQ== =B+cq -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Clipper 3.11 executive order
by Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://library.whitehouse.gov/PressReleases.cgi?date=0&briefing=4 A. Michael Froomkin | +1 (305) 284-4285; +1 (305) 284-6506 (fax) Associate Professor of Law | U. Miami School of Law | froomkin(a)law.miami.edu P.O. Box 248087 | http://www.law.miami.edu/~froomkin Coral Gables, FL 33124 USA | It's warm here.

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