December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Advertising Creepiness
by Tim May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:04 AM -0800 11/9/98, Declan McCullagh wrote: >I didn't see Tim's original post, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to see >such a right "emerge" in claims by media company lawyers. (Probably not the >advertisers.) > >Something that came across our Reuters feed over the weekend is a lawsuit >by the whitehouse.com folks -- they're pissed that a new version of >Netscape has some "intelligent" guessing features that, when someone types >in "whitehouse," automatically take 'em to whitehouse.gov. > >Which interferes with the rights of the whitehouse.com porn site, or so the >argument goes. Seems to me there are numerous variants and angles: * If the adbuster is user-controlled, it's like handing a copy of "Time" to a butler and saying "Please clip out the articles and throw away all the ads." * And "clipping services" do this and redistribute the results to clients, perhaps with some "copyright remuneration" to the publisher (I just don't know). The ads are obviously not retained. * If a content supplier (Web page, magazine, etc.) has the power to stop adbusters from removing ads, does it also have the power to stop font changes? Or colors? Can a television commercial maker sue to stop viewers from disabling color when viewing his commercial? (Of course this wouldn't happen, for various logistical and common sense reasons, but it seems to me analogous to where users disable dancing Java applets....if disabling dancing Java applets is ruled a violation of the advertiser's leasing of the original copyright, why not block anyone who interferes with a television ad?) * The "whitehouse.com" --> "whitehouse.gov" thing is just another skirmish in the whole Namespace War. Corporations will try to get browsers and search engines to turn spelling errors or perceived errors to their favor. "intek.com" --> "intel.com" I'm glad I'm not a lawyer. --Tim May Y2K: A good chance to reformat America's hard drive and empty the trash. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments.

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IP: Crunch Time for Y2K Suppliers
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Crunch Time for Y2K Suppliers Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 11:22:46 -0600 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: Wired http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/16035.html?3 Crunch Time for Y2K Suppliers by Declan McCullagh 4:00 a.m.5.Nov.98.PST The phones are already ringing when Steve Portela arrives at his office every morning. Orders are piling up as they never have before. Walton Feed, his bulk food company, doubled its workforce this year to 125 people and a new warehouse will open in late November. It isn't enough. Orders placed today won't be delivered for six months. "I'm falling further behind every day," Portela complains. The source of Portela's woes? Widespread worries about the Year 2000 computer problem. The looming bug has sent thousands of Americans scrambling to load up on bulk food, generators, solar cells, and gold coins. Some of the products, if ordered today, won't arrive on a customer's doorstep until spring 1999. And delays are expected to grow. Spikes in demand are nothing new to Portela. The Mount St. Helens eruption, the Los Angeles riots, and the last major California earthquake all spurred people into grabbing their credit cards and phoning Walton Feed. From a perch 6,000 feet up in the Idaho mountains, the company has grown into one of the nation's largest bulk food suppliers. But nervous jitters caused by those disruptions are peanuts compared to growing fears that Y2K will snarl electric power, telecommunications, and the banking system. "Add it all together, and Y2K surpasses everything," Portela says. This time it's not just survivalists stockpiling sealed barrels from Walton's extensive selection of wheat, rice, and other dried foods. "It's common everyday folks, people just like you," Portela says of his customers. "We're not talking about any radical people." Other food companies have similar bellyaches. "The demand is amazing -- 99.99 percent of the people we deal with are preparing for Y2K," says Tamera Toups, office manager for Montana-based Peace of Mind Essentials." Unlike Walton's, Peace of Mind Essentials doesn't boast a storeroom full of towering bins of grain. Instead, it places orders that are later filled by warehouses. Toups estimates volume has leapt 500 percent this year. "If anyone doesn't have an order in by the end of April, their chances of getting it before 2000 are pretty slim," she said. "The window might be even smaller than that." You'll still be able to buy bulk food after next April, of course. America Inc., a food exporter, has plenty of it. But Walton Feed makes a niche product prized by Y2Kers: sealed 50-pound drums of food with the oxygen removed, a process that delays spoilage and eliminates grain-munching critters. A year's supply tips the scales at 600 pounds and costs $300, plus shipping. Trying to procure a diesel generator, on the other hand, is shaping up to be increasingly difficult. Loren Day, president of China Diesel Imports, spends a good portion of each day puzzling out how to crank out more and more generators to meet a swell of Y2K orders. Shipments of his company's most popular 8,000-watt model are already running six months behind. "Orders are up about 1,000 percent since the first of the year," Day says. "And the amount of people who will want a generator now is nothing compared to the amount of people who will want a generator later." Day, whose 50-person company is the largest US distributor of diesel generators, usually sells to rural customers who live beyond the reach of electric power lines. "Now with this Y2K thing it's gone crazy," he said. He said he now has the both of the world's largest generator manufacturers running at near capacity to satisfy US demand. Why don't Y2Kers simply pick up a $500 gasoline generator at Home Depot or their local hardware store? Day believes they're so worried about the oft-criticized reliability of the portable units, that they're willing to pay diesel prices, starting at $1,750. "The main thing is the longevity and fuel economy of the diesel," he said. Diesel fuel is an oil, so it keeps longer than gasoline, which spoils after a year. Those Y2K consumers who dread running out of fuel are also turning to renewable energy. "We're totally swamped by Y2K," said Laura Myers, a sales representative for solar equipment distributor Sunelco. "We're beginning to see some lead times on some of our products. By next spring it's going to be insane." Sales at the Hamilton, Montana-based Sunelco have tripled because of Y2K, Myers said. She predicts that orders placed after next spring won't arrive until 2000. "It's been a huge increase," said Davy Rippner, a vice president at Alternative Energy Engineering, a California-based firm. "The things that we're out of and we can't keep in stock are the Baygen [hand-cranked] radios and the Russian-made hand-dynamo flashlights." Then there are the full-blown home solar systems, which start at $3,000 and can range up to $30,000. "A lot of small installers around the country that have been struggling to make a living are now booked for months in advance," said Karen Perez, who publishes Home Power magazine with her husband Richard from the couple's off-the-grid home outside of Ashland, Oregon. The Perez family won't do anything to prepare for Y2K -- except spend time handling the sharp uptick in recent subscriptions to their magazine. "We're six miles from the nearest phone and power line," she said. "As far as Y2K with us, the only thing that I'm planning on doing personally is getting a stash of non-hybrid seeds." Non-hybrid seeds are particularly prized by Y2Kers who stay up nights worrying that potential widespread computer crashes could disrupt food distribution. Most hardware store seeds are hybrid varieties. They grow well, but they can be sterile. Since seeds from hybrid plants may not germinate, some Y2Kers are stockpiling the non-hybrid varieties. "[We've been] getting calls about bulk seeds and buying in quantities and packing them for storage for some period of time," said Dave Smith, vice president of Seeds of Change in Santa Fe, New Mexico. "We definitely think that there will be an increase in sales because of this problem." Burt Blumert doesn't need to speculate. The Burlingame, California, company he owns, Camino Coin, has seen sales of precious metal coins double from last year because of Y2K jitters. "It's widespread now," Blumert said. In May, Blumert began to run ads for a "Y2K Life Preserver," a $3,500 collection of coins that includes British gold sovereigns, silver dollars, and pre-1965 silver dimes and quarters. He markets the collection as a kind of financial Y2K insurance policy, just in case banking glitches or more widespread problems call for a permanent currency. "When people buy gold, they're dropping out," he said. "This is the ultimate dropout, when the institutions themselves aren't working." Copyright © 1994-98 Wired Digital Inc. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- **************************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer ****************************************************

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Re: IP: NSA Threatens To "OUT" Republicans Over Hubbell Investigation
by Michael Motyka 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

OOH: Oh, I suppose so. Part of the Yet Another Conspiracy Conspiracy Theory. OTOH: 1) The people who run NSA are powerful people in their own right. I would be surprised if they could be easily made into a simple political tool 2) If there is ONE country in the world that the US would like to set up for another "Crypto-AG", another "Softwar"( ok early computer spy story I read long ago ), which country might that be? And why might NSA not want media attention? Could it be that someone spoke before thinking? Ready, fire, aim. That's why I don't go into the woods during deer season. It would be damn nifty to be able to snoop ( and override ) the target country's police and military communications networks and air traffic systems wouldn't it? Now they're wise before we've got'em mainlining our trash. Mike Newt Gingrich - There are some good people in the Republican party. Newt is not one of them. Good riddance to bad rubbish. ******** The seemingly crazy Clinton policy shows our President to be crazy like a fox. Clinton did what Pollard and Walker could not do. President Clinton sold national security secrets for cash by writing his own legal waivers. Clinton's secret crypto policy served to line the pockets of politicians and greedy corporate executives with red money. The Clinton export policy has significantly upgraded the nuclear strategic and tactical firepower of the Chinese Army. Clinton, like Walker and Pollard, sold military code secrets for cash. America knows more about AREA-51 and UFOs than Ft. Meade and Webster Hubbell. Bill Clinton and his China crypto-tale will never be declassified for the American people. The Clinton scandal cover-up is backed by the NSA library of greatest intercepts against Republicans. *********

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Fwd: [ISN] Wang touts spy-proof portable
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>X-Authentication-Warning: enigma.repsec.com: majordomo set sender to >owner-isn(a)repsec.com using -f >Date: Sun, 8 Nov 1998 21:35:22 -0700 (MST) >From: mea culpa <jericho(a)dimensional.com> >To: InfoSec News <isn(a)repsec.com> >Subject: [ISN] Wang touts spy-proof portable >X-NoSpam: Pursuant to US Code; Title 47; Chapter 5; Subchapter II; 227 >X-NoSpam: any and all nonsolicited commercial E-mail sent to this address >X-NoSpam: is subject to a download and archival fee in the amount of $500 US. >X-NoSpam: E-mailing to this address denotes acceptance of these terms. >X-Copyright: This e-mail copyright 1998 by jericho(a)dimensional.com >Sender: owner-isn(a)repsec.com >Reply-To: mea culpa <jericho(a)dimensional.com> >x-unsubscribe: echo "unsubscribe isn" | mail majordomo(a)repsec.com >x-infosecnews: x-loop, procmail, etc > > >Forwarded From: William Knowles <erehwon(a)kizmiaz.dis.org> > >[News.com] (11.8.98) Wang Global has introduced a new portable computer, >but it's not going to be winning any svelteness contests. > >Wang's Tempest Mobile Workstation, 3 inches thick and weighting 14.5 >pounds, is designed for government officials who need spy-proof computers >that don't leak any telltale signals to electronic eavesdroppers. > >The boxes are designed to meet the U.S. government's "Tempest" >specification, which requires a computer to release extremely low amounts >of electromagnetic emissions that could reveal what information the >computer is processing. > >To protect against such emissions, Tempest-compliant machines must be >encased in a lot of metal. Wang's portable looks like a thick laptop, said >Wang spokeswoman Loretta Day, "but it's really so heavy, you can't really >call it a laptop" --all that metal would make it quite a burden for your >lap. > >As an added bonus, all that metal shields the computer from the >electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generated by an exploding nuclear bomb that >wreaks havoc with anything electronic. > >When it's running, the machine can withstand a shock of five Gs--that's >five times the acceleration caused by the Earth's gravity. But when it's >switched off, it can take a 60-G shock. > >Aside from being spy-proof, the new Wang system has some features that are >familiar to ordinary buyers: a 15.1-inch LCD screen, a 233-MHz or 266-MHz >Pentium II processor, a CD-ROM drive, and your choice of a 4GB, 6GB, or >8GB removable hard disk. > >Wang also makes Tempest-compliant desktop computers, printers, routers, >switches, and servers. It's one of a handful of such companies that supply >the equipment to the government. Day said the chief customers are the >State Department and intelligence agencies. Wang also makes computer >equipment that complies with the Zone standard, similar to but less >stringent than the Tempest standard. > >Pricing on the Wang portable wasn't available, but a competitor's Tempest >portable computer with more lesser features was listed at one government >Web site as costing more than $10,000. > > >-o- >Subscribe: mail majordomo(a)repsec.com with "subscribe isn". >Today's ISN Sponsor: Repent Security Incorporated [www.repsec.com]

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Re: Advertising Creepiness
by Tim May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 9:50 AM -0800 11/9/98, Tim May wrote: >Seems to me there are numerous variants and angles: > >* If the adbuster is user-controlled, it's like handing a copy of "Time" to >a butler and saying "Please clip out the articles and throw away all the >ads." > >* And "clipping services" do this and redistribute the results to clients, >perhaps with some "copyright remuneration" to the publisher (I just don't >know). The ads are obviously not retained. By the way, the White House and Pentagon are major forwarders of clipped material. The daily intelligence briefing, for example, clips from newspapers, magazines, wire services, etc. I can understand Declan trying to be a loyal reporter by urging people to buy the magazine or go to the ad-laden site, but clearly a lot of folks are already bouncing stuff around cyberspace, including the White House. It is _remotely_ possible that the gov't. is paying some token amount to Time Warner, CNN, WSJ, etc., but I doubt it. Speaking of the gov't. conveniently ignoring what it expects private players to do, a few days before the California election I got a telephone phone solicitation from a male voice identifying himself as the Calif. Secretary of State. Ordinary advertising, right? Well, it was a) left on my answering machine, and b) was itself a recording. California officials not subject to the "robot's rules of order" laws, which forbid the practices above, especially in combination. You can bet that if J. Random Corporation was using robot dialers and leaving recorded messages on answering machines there would be the threat of prosecution. (Actually, most threats to corporations are just shakedowns, and are considered discharged when the corporation makes the appropriate campaign contribution.) Of course, in a system where the Chief Executive can perjure himself with impunity, can suborn perjury, can tamper with evidence, and can use public monies to cause his subordinates to suborn perjury and perjure and tamper with evidence.... (Not to mention violating the export laws and committing high treason by supplying the Red Chinese with ICBM technology....and kiling Vince Foster for his attack of conscience and his plans to meet with a reporter....) Ah, Amerika. --Tim May Y2K: A good chance to reformat America's hard drive and empty the trash. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments.

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SR2201 Supercomputer
by Jan Dobrucki 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://www.hitachi.co.jp/Prod/comp/hpc/eng/sr1.html Is the link for more information, in english... And I can't find a stupid computer and a printer in one place that prints postscript so I still haven't been able to give in my application for the account on this super computer... JD

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SR2201 Supercomputer
by Jan Dobrucki 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://www.hitachi.co.jp/Prod/comp/hpc/eng/sr1.html Is the link for more information, in english... And I can't find a stupid computer and a printer in one place that prints postscript so I still haven't been able to give in my application for the account on this super computer... JD

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SR2201 Supercomputer
by Jan Dobrucki 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://www.hitachi.co.jp/Prod/comp/hpc/eng/sr1.html Is the link for more information, in english... And I can't find a stupid computer and a printer in one place that prints postscript so I still haven't been able to give in my application for the account on this super computer... JD

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Re: Grounding (fwd)
by lcs Mixmaster Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Jim Dolt writes: > The spark gap generates sparks and that builds up free electrons in the > space inside the sphere (whether it is gas filled or a vacuum is > irrelevant). As that charge builds up it will be all of one type, electrons. > Now the electrons repel each other and therefor move in a circular motion > with the spark gap as the center. They strike the surface of the sphere and > tunnel through to the outside surface where they reside. The amount of > charge at any one point is related to the curvature of the surface at that > point. Since a sphere is constant curvature the charge will be evenly > distributed. It will continue to build up so long as you supply power to the > spark gap. In an ideal world it will get bigger and bigger. In the real > world at some point insulation breaks down and normal current flow takes > place. Listen to this. Jim Dolt thinks that a spark gap inside a conductive sphere will cause charge to build up on the surface of the sphere! The dunderhead has forgotten about conservation of charge! Gauss' law says that the charge on the outer surface of a closed conductive sphere will be equal to the net charge inside the sphere. The spark gap can't change the net charge inside the sphere, it can just move charge around. Jim Dolt has conveniently forgotten about the net positive charge which will build up on the spark gap as it (supposedly) emits electrons. His Doltish notion that electrons will hit the inside of the sphere and "tunnel through" to the outside is totally confused. Suppose this happened. We've removed negative charges from the interior of the sphere and put them on the outside, where they would give the sphere a negative charge. Now, what is the net charge on the interior of the sphere? We started neutral and removed negatives, hence it's positive! Gauss' law would imply that the sphere must have a positive charge. But Jim Dolt tried to give it a negative charge from all those electrons that "tunneled through." The whole idea is ludicrous. No charge can spontaneously appear on the outside of an ideal closed conductive sphere. This would be a violation of the law of conservation of charge. By Gauss' law, the charge on the outside is equal to the net charge on the inside. If a sphere, just sitting there in empty space, suddenly develops a charge, then that means that the interior has manufactured charge out of nothing. It is impossible. The fundamental misconception that started this whole sad comedy of Doltish errors was Jim Dolt's belief that a Faraday cage has to be grounded in order to suppress electromagnetic radiation. This has led us to his revelation of his further misunderstandings of how charge behaves inside a conductive surface, not to mention his numerous errors about the mechanism by which a spark gap transmitter generates EM radiation. (Hint: it has nothing to do with a cloud of electrons spreading out from the spark gap!) The fact is, Jim Choate knows nothing about this topic, and the same is true for most subjects that he writes about. He loves the attention he gets, but if more people told him they knew how worthless his contributions are, he just might go bother someone else.

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How to make non-neutral charge batteries...
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

One way a person could generate a battery suitable for the spark gap experiment to address the conservation of charge issues related to the battery is to build a mechanism such as: 2N e- 1N p+ | | | | |-------------| |--------------| | | | | | | | | | | | | |------0 0------------------0 0--| \ \ spark gap switch The two vertical plates above are not a capacitor. They simply represent some mechanism to hold charge, Leyden Jars for example. Now when the switch is closed 1 N of e- will combine with 1 N of p+ to form a neutralization of charge. That will leave a net 1N of e- that will represent a point charge of that value. That charge will be exposed at the right contact of the spark gap above. ____________________________________________________________________ Lawyers ask the wrong questions when they don't want the right answers. Scully (X-Files) The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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