December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: FCPUNX:time to learn chinese?
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-- At 10:24 PM 2/9/98 GMT, Adam Back wrote: > The interesting aspect of her speculation was on the > possibility of an economic and political process of change > which would result in a transition directly from communism > to a free market based political system, by-passing > democracy and socialism. She viewed democracy and > socialism as mistakes made by the west to be learned from > and avoided. In other words, instead of China taking over Hong Kong, Hong Kong takes over China. We shall see. Right now Hong Kong is being run by some rich capitalist chinese. (What else is new, you may ask) The problem with such systems is that they are vulnerable to the same disease that struck down Venice. Rich merchants aquire state power, soon are tempted by the easy and safe returns from confiscation and taxation, rather than the difficulty and risk of commerce, soon become aristocrats, equally contemptuous of the poor, of real businessmen, and of earning an honest living. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG f/S+Mn40UqaSQjsUULlWtwVMEkmnupDDQNCEyHSC 44TB2tTSr9ueaMq5FhuDDot2crWmnd7SePUYV0Qux --------------------------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the state. http://www.jim.com/jamesd/

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Blind signatures dead in the water. What now?
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-- At 09:25 AM 2/9/98 -0800, Tim May wrote: > Sadly, the ideas of David Chaum are more needed than ever, > but his stuff is essentially nowhere to be seen. (To > reflect Lucky's comments back to him, > :-), spare us any citations of how Mark Twain Bank will let > :some people > open a cumbersome Digicash account.) Why are blind signatures dead in the water? One obvious reason is that people attempting to do business with David Chaum seem to get rather irritable. Still, despite that, Digicash actually exists, but no one uses it. One reason is that the network to convert Digicash into other forms of value is rather limited, whereas the credit card network is fast and spans the world. Another is that people do not wish to hold large amounts of Digicash] for long periods, (security, no interest) and converting money back and forth between interest bearing forms and Digicash attracts rather high charges. (Or used to attract rather high charges when last I looked.) So where do we go from here? One obvious solution is nymous money-- money that is not anonymous, but is not required to be connected to one's government approved and registered name either. This is arguably better than the half-anonymous money that has in fact been implemented by Digicash. What nymous money projects are happening, and how are they going? --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG LYaOPLZKNwSNWeffnb7uS95ByY1zFrrw5ORiNblo 4jCWkLjLNXwKCdAtmb4IoOno/9n7A5bv6OhoyZ2Ki --------------------------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the state. http://www.jim.com/jamesd/

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Fwd: Social Security
by Brian B. Riley 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ---------------- Date: 02/09 10:25 PM Received: 02/09 10:29 PM From: James A Chappelow, chappja(a)mail.auburn.edu Reply-To: Vermont Libertarian, vtlp-list(a)catamount.com To: Multiple recipients of, vtlp-list(a)catamount.com Outside of Birmingham, a kid was arrested Saturday for not giving a cop his Social Security number. The bumper fell off his truck, so he stuck the tag in the rear window; not a rare sight in Alabama. He got pulled over for it. Alabama licenses have the holder's SSN on them (because that way the state gets more Federal highway $), except his parents had never applied to get him one, because of their religion. When the cop demanded his SSN ("Deine Papieren!"), and he didn't tell him one, he was arrested for disorderly conduct. He's still in jail because in order to bail him out his parents had to supply their (guess what) SSNs. Clinton recently declared his intention to use his supposed budget surplus to save Social Security. In order to maintain Social Security payments, it is estimated that combined Federal taxes will have to rise to 84% of national income! Social Security is doomed as a retiremant option; there is no reason for any able bodied citizen born after 1950 to ever expect to see any benefits from it. So why should any of those people have SSNs? Because securing retirement is not the real goal of Social Security. However, it is still quite valuable as a means for tracking and controlling people, and it looks like voluntary compliance is now being strictly enforced. That's why Clinton wants to save Social Security. James A. Chappelow --------------------------------------------------- This message is from the VTLP-list (Vermont Libertarian) mailing list. To send a message to everyone on this list send email to <vtlp-list(a)catamount.com>. To unsubscribe from the list send email to <listserv(a)catamount.com> with "unsubscribe vtlp-list" in the body of the message. To subscribe to the list send email to <listserv(a)catamount.com> with "subscribe vtlp-list your name" in the body of the message. ----------------- End Forwarded Message ----------------- Brian B. Riley --> http://members.macconnect.com/~brianbr For PGP Keys <mailto:brianbr@together.net?subject=Get%20PGP%20Key> "Everyone has a photographic memory. Some just don't have film."

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Re: FCPUNX:comp.html (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Tue, 10 Feb 1998 15:10:08 -0800 (PST) > From: "James A. Donald" <jamesd(a)echeque.com> > Subject: Re: FCPUNX:comp.html > However quantum computers so far envisaged (but not yet > built) can only do a few steps before they lose quantum > coherence. > > So far factoring a four bit number is well beyond the state > of the art in quantum computation. I only have two things to say to this: - This year. - Quantum Coupled Architectures ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The obvious is sometimes false; | | The unexpected sometimes true. | | | | Anonymous | | | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http://www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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Re: FCPUNX:comp.html
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-- At 03:14 PM 1/28/98 -0600, Jim Choate wrote: > Recently, an algorithm was developed for factoring > numbers on a quantum computer which runs in steps where > is small [1]. This is roughly quadratic in the input > size, so factoring a 1000 digit number with such an > algorithm would require only a few million steps. The > implication is that public key cryptosystems based on > factoring may be breakable. However quantum computers so far envisaged (but not yet built) can only do a few steps before they lose quantum coherence. So far factoring a four bit number is well beyond the state of the art in quantum computation. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG W7fOL2Uec3TpIWpLT+xcgrKGVfoQL3gmNdcADrkN 41SXVwnn/Gy+C42ptPxygaLgt1miSt2a1T/6/b9p8 --------------------------------------------------------------------- We have the right to defend ourselves and our property, because of the kind of animals that we are. True law derives from this right, not from the arbitrary power of the state. http://www.jim.com/jamesd/

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Re: "Corporations selling your ass down the road for a dollar"
by Jim Ray 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 02:28 PM 2/10/98 -0500, Declan McCullagh wrote: ... >I'm sure Michael was upset and not typing clearly. He knows as well as >anyone that libertarians are not pro-business; they're pro-individual >rights. Libertarians spend quite a bit of time complaining about the >Republican habit of funding corporate subsidies. ... In view of his constant spewing of lies to the contrary, I'm beginning to doubt that (and it isn't just the Republicans voting for corporate welfare socialism, Democrats do it too). JMR -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Freedom isn't Freeh. iQEPAwUBNODjfjUhsGSn1j2pAQFziQfQ4ZrEuBdROssccGRGZHvhLUsCBhlz3j/1 PD0bcZXD8xvHiprG8jsCQV1nduKE3FNA8odhtbRUwtYF5dUxS5aSscnb/wuQXcda FaSs6UhRmnwwech38zh7fK0qeC56rstpDdAKy5aoBso4lSLGOu/vyCEhU78zw/NW 2hxm5w9wHapJ4LyU7NwpGrCZWpKHREJKoPnme77roU+AiAVmM44TnZmVNRjbb0lL +rEwXeSckj+d8qF+qdv/l0WUhg3jBMRXBwlBYOejEjNpwLkeGlWo70zLsSq/ihPc 9c9qbb/q2582mwmnl7rI/jo4q4RbVhsQdRCZ8UVdBACghg== =EyXh -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Who are the "digerati"?
by Ross Wright 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://www.edge.org/digerati/index.html Have you guys seen this? Any comments? I thought it was pretty interesting. Ross =-=-=-=-=-=- Ross Wright King Media: Bulk Sales of Software Media and Duplication Services http://ross.adnetsol.com Voice: (408) 259-2795

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FC'98 Palm Pilot Resources
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I have produced some FC'98 files in suitable formats for the Palm Pilot. I will be adding more as the date approaches. http://www.frissell.com/AXA/axa.html So far we have: A map of Anguilla (looks great in Image). A map of Monserrat with eclipse lines. and in DOC format: The Wired article on FC'97. The Forbes cover story on FC'97. and finally: For purposes of amusement only, a Jfile databse of the first 4 quarterly reports of the (1786) names of Taxpatriates (those with too much money who renounce their US citizenship) as reported to the Secretary of the Treasury last year by the State Department. More to come including a schedule in .dba format as soon as The Powers That Be settle on one. DCF

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No Subject
by nelsonde＠umich.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I'm Snyder, the karmic metacrawler. The word: cryptanalytic and Alta Vista's Scooter lead me to you. Know that in the frigid wastes of the WWW my PERL-scripted heart beats for you. To: cypherpunks\(a)toad.com

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PRESS RELEASE: VENTURE CAPITAL CD
by spencer＠datamerge.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

_______________________________________________________________ HIGH TECH FINANCING FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: DATAMERGE ANNOUNCES VENTURETRACK 2000 CD-ROM INFOBASE VENTURE CAPITAL INSIDERS "TELL ALL" DATABASE Press Contact: Peter Masi (303) 399-6031 MasiPR(a)aol.com http://www.datamerge.com/venturetrack.html DENVER -- DataMerge, Inc., a Denver-based developer of software and information for companies seeking financing, today announced the release of VentureTrack 2000, a software package containing extensive profiles and proprietary "insider" information on hundreds of venture capital firms throughout North America. The VentureTrack 2000 CD-ROM Infobase gives entrepreneurs and small business owners "insider" information, education and advice critical to establishing business relationships with specific venture capitalists and securing financing from them. The software lets users find the firms that optimally fit their needs by identifying links between their company and the interests of the venture capitalists. VentureTrack 2000's "Inside Track" section then instructs users on custom tailoring their business plan and presentation to each venture capital firm. Specific questions, concerns and objections that a given firm will likely raise and good responses for each are also provided to VentureTrack 2000 users. Information contained in the profiles was gathered by finance savvy investigative reporters who used techniques adapted from the intelligence community. The information is exclusive to VentureTrack 2000 and is not available in competing products. It includes: *Insight into the firm's most likely areas of interest; *Personal/individual preferences of principals; *Best methods of approach and specific things to say or not say to a particular individual; *Investment philosophies and strategies based on past experiences; *Firm background, working atmosphere and relationships; *Case studies of investments that best represent their investment philosophy; *Inside advice/scoop from companies each VC firm has previously financed; *Information from DataMerge's customer "grapevine"; *Key contacts by project type and procedure for internal review; *Portfolio investment overview. In addition to the eight- to 12-page profiles of each venture capital firm, VentureTrack 2000 includes an on-line tutor and venture industry knowledgebase called VentureAdvisor, which was developed with extensive input from venture capital principals. The total package is designed to give users proprietary "insider" information and insight into the venture capital industry, which historically were closely guarded secrets of a few well-placed individuals. In addition to small business people, DataMerge CEO Spencer Kluesner says venture capital firms themselves have shown strong interest in VentureTrack 2000 because they want to gather competitive intelligence on their rivals. VentureTrack 2000 supports Windows 95 and Windows NT. The time-limited introductory price is $495. VentureTrack 2000 can be ordered by calling (800) 580-1188. Privately-held DataMerge was founded in 1989 by Spencer Kluesner, a former securities advisor who today serves as chief executive officer of the 26-person company. DataMerge's products are sold directly to customers in the North America, Western Europe and Asia. Additional information can be obtained at DataMerge's website: http://www.datamerge.com/venturetrack.html Additional Information: VentureTrack 2000 White Paper - http://www.datamerge.com/venture/capital/whitepaper.html Sample VentureTrack Profile - http://www.datamerge.com/venture/page5.html VentureTrack Brochure - http://www.datamerge.com/venture/page2.html --30--

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