December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Are we gatewayed to Usenet
by Clark Reynard 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Never. I don't _ever_ want to see this made into a 'semi-private' mailing list. Extropians, for example, does this, and it's ended up being an incestuous, closed group, with extremely low signal-to-noise ratio; as the same groups of people chatter and blather about the same subjects to no end. I'd rather have the list the way it is. At least the noise is usually _new_ noise; and new signal comes in constantly. I even prefer it with L. Detweiler; perhaps he'll cease his rather garbled rants and return to being a constructive poster. In any case, if this sort of thing were ever to be put to a vote, I'd be emailing everyone I knew not to have anything to do with such a giddy, doomed proposal. ---- Robert W. F. Clark PGP Key Available Upon Request rclark(a)nyx.cs.du.edu clark(a)metal.psu.edu

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Re: (fwd) Netcom adds access in Denver area
by hfinney＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Unfortunately, netcom's nearest point-of-presence is a $.10/minute nighttime long distance call away from me. So this "free" service would cost me about $6/hour. There are several services which provide access via packet-switching networks which have hundreds of POP's, including some local to me. Two of these networks are Sprintnet and Compuserve's network (which is separate from the Compuserve service itself). These networks charge $2-$3/hour off-prime, so they are a better deal. But the carrying capacity of these networks seems somewhat limited, and you don't get the full throughput of your baud rate. There are resources available on the net, the "pdial" and "nixpub" lists, which provide lists of service providers for Internet access. I don't have access information handy.... Well, I just grabbed some info. Here is an excerpt from alt.internet.services FAQ: > *** 3.1: WHERE CAN I GET INTERNET ACCESS IN MY AREA? > Check out PDIAL, a list of public access service providers offering > dialup access to Internet connections. PDIAL lists both free and pay > services all around the world. The PDIAL list is posted semi-regularly > to alt.internet.access.wanted, alt.bbs.lists, ba.internet, and > news.answers. > > To receive PDIAL via e-mail, send mail with a subject line of > "Send PDIAL" to "info-deli-server(a)netcom.com". To receive future > editions as they are published, send email with the subject > "Subscribe PDIAL" to the same address. The most recent PDIAL is also > available by sending mail with a message body of > "send usenet/news.answers/pdial" to "mail-server(a)rtfm.mit.edu". To get > PDIAL via FTP: > ftp.netcom.com:/pub/info-deli/public-access/pdial > rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/alt.internet.access.wanted/P_D_I_A_L_(P) > > For more information about service providers and getting on the > Internet, read "FYI: Searching for Treasure" (FTP info at the end of > this document.) > > Another list of service providers, and tips on getting Internet access, > is provided in the "alt.bbs.internet" FAQ, available via FTP as > rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/inet-bbs-faq.Z > > Access provider information from the book "Internet: Getting Started," > (detailed in the final section of this document) is available via > anonymous FTP as > ftp.nisc.sri.com:/netinfo/internet-access-providers-us.txt > ftp.nisc.sri.com:/netinfo/internet-access-providers-non-us.txt > > If you are a college student or faculty, check with your campus computer > center to learn about the online facilities available to you. Many > schools offer free accounts to students and staff. > > Next, turn to the Usenet community for assistance. Find out if there is > a local newsgroup for your area or state. For instance, Columbus, Ohio > users can check on the "oh.general" and "cmh.general" newsgroups. Many > other areas have regional newsgroups. Ask the locals questions about the > area - who better to know the answers? > > If all else fails, post your plea on the Usenet newsgroup > "alt.internet.access.wanted". Note that such requests aren't looked > kindly upon if posted elsewhere. > > *** 3.2: I NEED A BBS (ON THE INTERNET OR IN MY AREA)! > This is covered extensively in the "alt.bbs.internet" FAQ, available on > the Usenet group "alt.bbs.internet" or via FTP as > rtfm.mit.edu:/pub/usenet/news.answers/inet-bbs-faq.Z > > Also look for information on the Usenet newsgroups > "alt.internet.access.wanted" and "alt.internet.services". Get the PDIAL > list, mentioned at the end of this document. > > Also available is NIXPUB, a listing of over 100 free and pay-for-play > accessible systems. It is posted regularly to the Usenet newsgroups > "comp.misc", "comp.bbs.misc", and "alt.bbs". Retrieval information near > the end of this document. > > Also, for BBS information for your area code or specific interest, FTP > to: > wuarchive.wustl.edu:/mirrors/msdos/bbslists > I check these lists every so often, hoping to find cheaper access, but still no luck. But I agree with Graham Toal that a much better setup would be smarter software on my home PC, with an intelligent protocol for communication with the net service provider. I wouldn't care if it was UUCP, POP, SLIP, or whatever, at this point; it's probably better than semi-automated ZMODEM. I hope that these facilities become more widely available at a price of around $20-$30 a month or less. Paying hundreds of dollars a month for these capabilities is far beyond my budget. I can't understand why England is so far ahead of the U.S. in this regard. No offense intended, but I always thought of their telecommunications and computing infrastructure as being several years behind the U.S. Hal

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Re: OMNI CARD
by Carl Ellison 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This sounds almost identical to the Racal-Guardata Watchword. It's old technology (although making the unit small might be new). I have a Watchword on my desk as I write this. It's a calculator with authentication built in. There's my own DES key inside. To get to it, I enter 1 of 2 PINs. (the second is a "duress PIN" -- works but sounds a warning in the security office, saying that I have a gun to my head, if I use it for a challenge/resp). The system authenticating me gives me a 7-digit challenge number. I enter it and my Watchword gives me a 7-digit response number back. I then give that number to the system -- typed as a password or over the phone to a person. ------- The SecureID (which I carry in my wallet, against directions from the vendor) has my encryption key buried inside along with a calendar clock. Every minute, it encrypts the date and time with my key and displays 6 digits of the result. It has a keypad for entering a PIN which is then added (without carry) to the 6-digit result and that is displayed instead, if I've entered the PIN, for the next 5 minutes. This saves half the protocol (by sync of calendar clocks). - Carl

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Re: Politics on the List?
by dmandl＠lehman.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> From: sommerfeld(a)orchard.medford.ma.us (Bill Sommerfeld) > > But the vast majority of the 500+ folks on this List are either not > writing crypto code, or are keeping silent about it. > > There are undoubtedly a fair number of the latter; probably better > than 50% of the cypherpunks subscribers I know around here (including > myself) get paid to (among other things) work on software related to > network security through cryptography. I've always had problems with the slogan "Cypherpunks write code." It's a cute pun (if it was intended that way), but I think too many cypherpunks are techie-snobs. Writing code is all well and good, even crucial, but there are plenty of other things that can and should be done to further cypherpunk goals. Many many people have found out about cypherpunk developments through sympathetic articles in Wired, the Village Voice, etc. I've done long interviews with Tim May and Phil Zimmerman on my radio show. (And Perry Metzger and I are going to be giving a talk on crypto anarchy here in NYC in January. This is being sponsored by a local anarchist group. More details on this later.) Everything helps. I was moved to invite Tim May to be on my show last year not because of any beautiful code he'd written, but because I was inspired by some of his political/theoretical writing. You don't have to write cypherpunk code to be a cypherpunk. You don't even have to write code at all. There are plenty of other things to do that are just as important and just as exciting. P.S.: I'm not being defensive. I write code for a living, just not cypherpunk code (yet). --Dave.

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Bandwidth limitations
by gtoal＠an-teallach.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In article <9311121650.AA03375(a)snark.lehman.com> pmetzger(a)lehman.com writes: > The human genome fits nicely in 1GB. Mere Gigabit networks could allow > you to send your whole genome in seconds -- and fiber can do many > orders of magnitude better than that. > > A complete MRI scan can be sent on a gigabit network in mere moments, > too, and again, fiber can do far better than that. > > If you can send a thousand video signals down your fiber at once, > sending complete plans for a factory to build Fords, and the complete > plans for the cars, will likely take a wink of an eye. Perry, I did understand your remark; I don't think you got the point of mine; give me a fiber and a computer fast enough to use it and sufficient disk space, and trust me, I'll find something to fill it with. Capacity increases to fill the available bandwidth/disk space/ whatever. Just because you don't have the imagination to think of how we'll use an essentially new medium in the future, don't write it off already. Here's one suggestion that is quite sensible given vast resources: instead of linear TV, we have parallel TV. I don't mean dial-on-demand download a program - I mean every single program ever made and every single movie ever made are broadcast down fiber simultaneously; - you want to see the 59th episode of Star Trek, you switch to the 59th episode of Star Trek channel, where it's going round and round as fast as it can be transmitted. Now, you do the sums. How much fiber does *that* need? (When you've done that one, add on the volume of transmitting a high-res scan of every page of every book in the world...) This may seem like an outrageous or stupid application *at the moment*, but I guess the guy at Manchester in the 50's who thought his computer would be enough to satisfy the needs of all our Universities over here would have thought that using the entire resources of his 64K giant machine to play Pacman on was totally insane, yet only 30 years later the same power was available in hand-held toys costing $20. G -- Personal mail to gtoal(a)gtoal.com (I read it in the evenings) Business mail to gtoal(a)an-teallach.com (Be careful with the spelling!) Faxes to An Teallach Limited: +44 31 662 4678 Voice: +44 31 668 1550 x212

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Re: Bandwidth limitations
by Clark Reynard 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Perry writes: [Elegant refutation of all examples I give in original article.] Point taken. Obviously, I took a few elementary examples, which are quite achievable even today. Perhaps some true bandwidth stretchers: Complete maps of all the known universe, with spectrographic assays, gravitational information, particle densities, motion/vector analysis of areas of high matter concentration, spin and orbital velocity graphs, etc. being zipped back and forth between relay satellites, earthbound observatories, and individuals needing such information. Complete records of all genomes of all humans born after this becomes standard. Copyright information, and rights transfers for all living humans; what portions of the genome are for sale, or if replication is prohibited. Perhaps black market genes will be hid, steganographically, in horrendously large files which appear to be garden variety vr porn. Voiceprints and retina scans for all living and dead human beings. Increasingly-detailed weather maps, down to the molecular level. Of course, what actually will happen will probably be stranger. When we had parchment, we had very narrow bandwidth, with very little to transmit.. Today, we have wide bandwidth, but a lot more ways to use it. I'm sure someone will find a way to use vast chunks of it; until we need come to a new standard. ---- Robert W. F. Clark PGP Key Available Upon Request rclark(a)nyx.cs.du.edu clark(a)metal.psu.edu

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RE: Mounting a "Secure" filesystem in UNIX
by Dave Hart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- | From: Sameer <netmail!sameer(a)uclink.berkeley.edu> | | I was wondering if it was possible to mount a "secure" | filesystem/partition using Linux or some other free version of UNIX, | so that it's inaccessible if logged in remotely, but accessibly when | logged in locally. I know you want to do this with UNIX, but Windows NT allows you do this quite nicely. One of the "groups" of users is INTERACTIVE, another is NETWORK. You can specifically prohibit network users from accessing a file by adding "NETWORK - No Access" to the p ermissions list in File Manager. I do this with secring.pgp and secring.bak, on top of the restriction which allows only me to access the file. So even if someone guesses my password, they can't snoop on my private key except by physically being at my machi ne. == DaveHart(a)microsoft.com == Opinions are mine, not Microsoft's. == -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLOPOM+mFbAJWprWtAQFihAQAoHfErGrFffPkJHeSdStjH8y+zHUAPv8I b9QP85l/jN545PKDB9iRBpqc6708DeXoR7Brm6vydElYDlvShzfpotcUxHtOO9bH vCGXd/lFKyF3d81Rhckn2DGqH9ab1yw587ofXfAKKzdt3tLpYDCLUdz8eMGLIZCD ILPaiKYryPI= =Nnzg -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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RE: Mounting a "Secure" filesystem in UNIX
by jim＠Tadpole.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I can't even begin to imagine the kinds of calls that Microsoft support will get with this 'feature' in place. "But it worked yesterday, and I haven't changed ANYTHING!" Jim

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digital timestamping
by peb＠PROCASE.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I seem to have lost all information about how to use the Bellcore timestamper. Neither could I find their hash code in the Sunday NYT, last I looked (perhaps that was a slow week). Please post information on this, if you have it. Paul E. Baclace peb(a)procase.com

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RE*2: (fwd) Netcom adds access in Denver area
by P.V.McMahon＠rea0803.wins.icl.co.uk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> these capabilities is far beyond my budget. I can't understand why England > is so far ahead of the U.S. in this regard. Do you refer here to its inexpensive private Internet access services (like demon)? Apologies if there was an antecedent in previous mail under this subject, but I have now deleted it. > No offense intended, but I > always thought of their telecommunications and computing infrastructure as > being several years behind the U.S. What aspect of the UK infrastructure did you perceive as lagging the US ? pvm Ps. I believe that the natural home for this thread isn't on this list.

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