December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

"Corporations selling your ass down the road for a dollar"
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 13:56 -0400 2/10/98, Michael Sims wrote: >I am aghast. Why not just pull some "facts" from the National >Enquirer or another equally reputable source? > >I would ask Declan how the hearings went but I suspect there'll be a >Netly piece involved. Yep, I'll probably write about this. There are three, maybe four, other Net-related hearings today, which I won't be able to go to, unfortunately. >None of this is news to Declan of course. I just get disappointed >when I see industry mouthpiece after industry mouthpiece without a >single goal in mind except maximum profit. Libertarianism in >action - corporations sell your ass down the road for a dollar and >some stock options. 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. The pursuit of profit in the free market is not to be discouraged -- without it, we wouldn't have the Internet we have today. Rather, we should be suspicious of the intersection between the government and the market in Congress and in federal agencies. I've written elsewhere about the dangers of industry sellouts on civil liberties -- sellouts and compromises which are of course opposed by libertarians. The libertarian Cato Institute opposes the McCain bill at issue in this hearing. -Declan

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Fourier & Signal Analysis...
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, There is one final point I would like to make regarding at least one comment on Fourier Analysis of signals in a noisy environment. Fourier signal analysis is not good for this sort of stuff, what you want is a function called a Laplace Transform. Fourier is a method to take a complex signal and break it down into component trigonometric functions (eg sin) such that we can apply filtering and other frequency dependant operations to the signal to improve the signals characteristic signature or operate on a particular component (ie a component that is resonating with something and decreasing the s/n ratio - ringing on a pulse edge for example). If you want to find a signal in the noise you want to apply a Laplace. What it does is convert the amplitude-time variant signal (ie f(t)) into a power-frequency variant signal (ie f(s)). What this does is take, for example, a sample of a signal and describe how that signals power is divided between the various frequencies in that signal (eg McLauren Series). In most applications the grass of the signal will be evenly distributed across the s-mapping while the signal (at least its carrier component) itself will show up as a spike of noticeable amplitude. The reason you do this in signal analysis is because that transormation function will often be a simpler equation to solve numericaly that actualy trying to deal with f(t). So, if you want to find a signal in a complex environment use a Laplace Transform, once you've found the signal and want to know about its components use a Fourier Transform. Good hunting! ____________________________________________________________________ | | | 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: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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