December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

FW: CEI's Internet Guide
by Blanc Weber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From: Competitive Enterprise Institute <cei(a)access.digex.net> The Competitive Enterprise Institute is pleased to announce: THE VIRTUAL HAND CEI'S FREE-MARKET GUIDE TO THE INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY Now, under one cover, all the Internet places of interest to free-marketeers. Do you want to find the complete electronic text of "The Wealth of Nations"? How many places can *you* list where you can discuss the words of Ayn Rand? (The Virtual Hand can name five.) Do you want to know the latest in conservative or libertarian politics, or would you rather sit around griping about gun control? All this -- and more! -- is available from the Competitive Enterprise Institute. TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Policy chatter (mainly Republican and Libertarian politics) 2. Cultural and philosophical (Objectivism, free-market literary journals, "fan" newsgroups, electronic books) 3. Student-oriented (college groups) 4. Single-issue forums (taxes, land rights, firearms, telecommunications policy, education, health care, feminism, law, Congressional reform, kids' rights) 5. Of local interest (statewide free-market groups) 6. Internet addresses of free-market groups 7. Miscellaneous 8. Other computer systems (BBS'es) 9. Government resources (how to get White House press releases, text of legislation, Federal Register, C-SPAN schedules, etc.) To get your very own copy of "The Virtual Hand," send $5 to: Alexander "Sasha" Volokh Policy Analyst Competitive Enterprise Institute 1001 Connecticut Ave. NW Suite 1250 Washington, DC 20036

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No Subject
by Tommy the Tourist 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Date: Wed, 11 May 1994 14:09:13 -0800 From: norm(a)netcom.com (Norman Hardy) There was a long article in April 11, 1994 Forbes: "AUCTIONING THE AIRWAYS", by George Gilder". It had a supprising amount of technical information about a new technology similar to spread spectrum. The article has a "too cheep to meter" flavor that I do not agree with but it does present some interesting information and ideas. It is about 43k bytes and is available via anonymous ftp at netcom.com:/pub/Silk/auction.txt By all means, please triple or quadruple check any alleged `data' coming from George Gilder. No matter what you might think of Susan Faludi, she has documented a tremendous amount of misrepresentation and outright lying on the part of Mr. Gilder. In *many* cases, very simple follow up on his attributions reveals that he has his head firmly wedged up his ass. Zeke -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLdGWPRVg/9j67wWxAQEg2wP/ZzTtjzZ0SNiuEKV9SNI0XcOpKGQuUWnm OFqM8ZX2GZwEOI59vQhE8Up9OFKXAJEvALDSIqzb2jxEJvxOp5onXHLCeRD8sgZ1 vt8u9Ns9WjdzXSlm8OldkvU+20oHhWIX7bJdVYG4JkO7X6sn9yagzS1oJFgRsMW5 lTU4u49VkdQ= =mkpr -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ------------ To respond to the sender of this message, send mail to remailer(a)soda.berkeley.edu, starting your message with the following 7 lines: :: Response-Key: ideaclipper ====Encrypted-Sender-Begin==== MI@```$]S^P;+]AB?X9TW6\8WR:^P&2':U$*B?=.'X4H1"CCQM(F<(6Y-[4XT G.L)4B<E70K)4@"#+R#9'#G+JK<8<6D'^>3H-S><XUY#8)CP7$U6= ====Encrypted-Sender-End====

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Re: Message Havens
by Karl Lui Barrus 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > People could use anonymous remailers to send in messages, and use > pseudonyms to protect their privacy. It occured to me that perhaps getting messages to a message haven won't require anonymous mail to protect privacy (who you are communicating with. You would still need to use a remailer to hide the fact you are using the message haven!). In each message, the author could specify what to name the next reply. If messages are encrypted, then all a watcher would see is incoming messages from various people, but not be able to figure out who is reading what message, and what messages are responses to what other messages. This would require the service to reject unencrypted messages, which would be easy enough. But it would still require people to "download" everything and sift through it at home, to hide what messages they are interested in. Karl Barrus klbarrus(a)owlnet.rice.edu -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLdG1c4OA7OpLWtYzAQH2MQP/f5M/4QHHHl8qg85ikGCkmFiN6wrs+DHc 3iIpogSO5oj/tJZ0xnHzky8B3Ll2rjmHgW+vH5hxTONw+2TZ5+5aFjJbqCs1pL1a rYFFyUP6AOj3809G1gSuLwa85iw5jY5fT/JZsMH82uL2v5i2839jQDZo1SCHff/1 77gQgjP9Agk= =7p6A -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Cypherpunks Goals: Bad debate drives out good debate
by dwitkow＠eis.calstate.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I agree that there is a lot of "static". In fact, I'm choosing to leave the cypherpunks list for that reason. Simply put, I'm spending a lot of time reading posts, many good, but some clueless. Example: Ten minutes after someone posted the location of PGP 2.5 we got three posts asking "Where can I get PGP 2.5?" and subsequent responses of "Yeah, me too!" The original poster had a legitimate question, assuming that he had JUST signed onto the list, but he could have directed his questions towards the original announcer, but those subsequent "votes" for information were completely unnecessary. These kinds of problems are inherent in the structure of network communication. (I long for the creation of artificial intelligence twit-filter daemons to help me separate the wheat from the chaff. Read David Brin's 'Earth' for an interesting portrayal of the future of such beasts.) Perhaps lessons can be found in the Usenet world. Knowing the location of some cypher-oriented FAQs and FTP sites upon subscription to this list might defer some of the more trivial traffic. Inclusion of some net-iquette guidelines in the list-server welcome message might defer even more. To be relevant, such things would have to be updated frequently, meaning more work for the keepers, but I think that the subsequent distillation of list traffic would pay off in better, more effective posting. In fairness, I'd have to say that I've learned many things in the past three days. But the original reason I joined this list was to ask for information on basic analog voice encryption techniques, a request that went completely unanswered. I find the subject interesting, I just can't justify the time I'm spending sorting through 40+ posts per day. ...dtw ---------------------------------------------------------------- Notice of address change: Please send mail to the following: dwitkow(a)eis.calstate.edu (Mail sent to dwitkows(a)nermal.santarosa.edu will be forwarded) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Transmitted via modified Eudora 1.4.2 over LINUX host dialup! ---------------------------------------------------------------- Finger dwitkows(a)nermal.santarosa.edu for PGP key ----------------------------------------------------------------

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Bad debates...
by dwomack＠runner.utsa.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Mr. May wrote an excellent piece regarding the lack of in-depth discussion of code...and, I believe he's put his finger on the problem when he mentions that the majority don't feel capable of adding to the post; indeed, I fear I may be guilty of hubris for commenting on the posting of someone who clearly knows far more than do I about crypto. Continuing the theme, I've just bought a copy of applied crypto...and even after Data Structures II and Assembly Language I, it's tough sledding. I still can't fix the PGP makefile to compile for the Sun4 machine at the university (although, thanks to this list, I was able to find an already compiled version). The problem, if I may say so, is that code at this level of complexity may be achievable for full-fledged cypherpunks...but it is not yet for those of us who remain mere "wanna-be's". This is, I suspect, why cryptography is not spreading as rapidly as we would prefer. Keep in mind that the better programs, while technically elegant, just aren't user friendly. As as example of what is being dealt with, I have a friend with a new 486DX 50Mhz machine with a 300 Meg drive...and he only uses it for one application. Word Perfect 5.0. I just installed Compuserve for him. And, this is a really intelligent person, he's just not computer oriented. He needs PGP, SecureDrive, and so forth, but he doesn't understand how to use them. How many others are out there, just like him? I suspect a bunch. To get crypto 'out there' it is going to have to be very, very easy to use...and with instructions equal to a single double spaced page (or less) ... all of this is just MHO. So, I probably won't be reasonably able to make intelligent comments on the in-depth posts for *_at-least_* a year; but, I DO know how to delete the more tedious posters! ;-) Since I do pick up a lot from the posts, I do hope Mr. May (and others) won't get TOO discouraged... Regards

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Re: MIT TOC SEMINAR--ADI SHAMIR--MONDAY--MAY 16--4:15pm
by norm＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:07 5/11/94 -0700, Paul E. Baclace wrote: >I'm very curious as to how humans can directly decode encrypted >pictures. Do they stare at it for 10 minutes and go "ah, there >it is". ... About 10 years ago there was a Scientific American article about visual encypherment. The decoder required no computing hardware. A one time pad was available at both ends in the form of an array of 1000 by 1000 random black or white pixels in the form of a transparency. When it was time to code a black and white image an array of pixels were produced with each pixel being black with a probility proportional to the darkness at that point of the 'plain-image'. That was exclusive ored with the one time pad. This yielded a random set of black and white pixels and was transmitted physically by insecure courrier. It it reached the destination it would ideally be exclusive ored with the other copy of the one time pad. The receiver could more easily align the cypher-image with the one time pad and see a fairly good image. This yields the 'and' function in place of the 'xor' and provides about half of the image quality in the information theortic sense.

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No Subject
by mlshew＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Version 0.1--This will change in case of conflicts, etc. I'll post V1.0 on Wednesday 5/18/94. This is version 0.1 of this file. For the most recent version, try the following: o finger mlshew(a)netcom.com, to read my .plan. (This file.) o get "plan" by ftp in netcom.com:/pub/mlshew This was originally sent to the cypherpunks and extropians lists. If you would like to meet informally with other readers of these lists during next week's COMDEX, I would suggest meeting Tuesday (5/24/94) at noon, directly above the food court in CNN Center--------->+ | | Map: (Badly out of scale and oversimplified to make sense | for walkers but not drivers) | | | | | | | -------------------+ +---------------------------------|-------------- Marietta Street | -------------------+ +---------------------------------|-------------- | | | +----------------+ | | +----------+ +-------V-----------+ | World Congress | | | | The Omni | | CNN Center | | Center (COMDEX)| | | +----------+ | (Food Court here) | | Walk this way like the rest of the mobs of people | +----------------+ | | +-------------------+ | Inter- | +--------------------+ |national| | MARTA Rail Station| | Blvd. | | (The local subway) | | | +--------------------+ | | | | Lots of very expensive parking here for those | | who want to drive directly to COMDEX in the | | middle of incredible traffic and raise their More Parking | | blood pressure instead of taking a shuttle from | | their hotel, or parking at a free-parking MARTA | | lot and taking MARTA in, as is the sensible | | way to go about it. (For those who haven't been to an Atlanta COMDEX before, the CNN food court is a place where almost every COMDEX attendee is likely to eat at least once during the week. If you happen to forget, loose, or never receive the ASCII map originally above this paragraph, any random person you might ask for directions can probably point you in the direction of the "CNN Center food court.") The court is in the center of the floor you will (likely) come in on. So don't go getting confused when you see smaller sets of restaurants and tables and chairs as you enter. That's not the central court. You won't miss it, just keep going in. (Of course, you won't have much choice in the matter: There will be a mob of hungry Comdex attendies behind you, and stopping in their path is simply not a viable option.) Go to the food court, and look up. You will see a single pedestrian walkway one floor above you. That is where we'll all be. Take yourself and your food up one floor, and enjoy the pleasant conversation. (Note that up on the walkway there's no place to put your food, but that's okay, because there's no place down in the food court either--it's _really_ crowded. Down there there's hardly a place to stand, much less sit, but go up one floor, and it's a virtual dessert.) I'd like to make a publicly available list that includes the following. (To be appended to this file.) o Persons coming to Spring Comdex, interested in attending a meeting such as this, and wishing to let that and related information be known to the world. o Whether they can make the noon Tuesday meeting. o Where they heard this announcement. o Good/bad days and times. Be specific but brief. Please include this in any event, so if 3 people say only Wednesday, and 7 don't bother to mention that Wednesday is impossible for them, that I don't switch to Wednesday. No guarantees of course. o Personal interests. (Explained below) o Misc. other information they want known to the world. If you would like to enter or modify yourself in such a database, modify and mail a form such as one at the end of this file to mlshew(a)netcom.com, with this subject line or "comdex meeting info". Feel free to also add in: o Any job openings you know about. (Esp. EE/DSP/Programming) :-) If you would like to tell me and everyone to expect one more person, just mail the form with a number "1" in the "Name" column, so you needn't broadcast your name. If you'd like to tell no one anything and just show up, that's okay too. I'll append the information (edited!) to the end of this file. As to why I included a field about interests, it will allow everyone to mull over everyone else's idea of what would be nice to talk about, the theory being that it might help conversation naturally bend towards topics all are interested in. As to the other information, it's also to help other people who might want to get together to do so if they don't want to go to this meeting. (Or to remember remember to bring that book they borrowed from another person three years ago.) It is not a "vote" on what time the get-together will be. Appended are two sample forms (since this is the first version: V0.1). Delete everything else, put in your own info, and mail it back to me. See you soon! Mark Shewmaker mlshew(a)netcom.com Noon Tue. OK? Name Where heard Can Schedule at Interests ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Y Mark Shewmaker extropians Flexible all days Schelling points of mlshew(a)netcom.com cypherpunks lunch meetings near conventions Thinks this is a great place to meet, and a nice place to watch everyone come and go. Need an employee? Apply now before prices go up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- N One fake anonymous never tell MWF 10-2 Mental Cryptography person just as an example I just kind of feel silly telling everyone that I'm going to be there; I look forward to meeting you there, though. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Cypherpunks Goals: Bad debate drives out good debate
by gtoal＠an-teallach.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

You have a good summary of what's going on. Personally I've found it useful to create a filter for my cypherpunks mail to send posts from people whom I respect more into a seperate folder such that the signal-to-noise ratio in that folder is higher. When I have more time I read the folder with the lower signal-to-noise ratio, but I often do not have those resources. I don't really have to deal with bad posts because I don't see most of them unless I have some extra time on my hands... Others interested in rational discussion and debate and actual-doing-things might find this a useful technique. Ditto. Actually I gateway c'punks straight into a local 'mail.cypherpunks' group, with the hack script below (there might be an easier way, but I had the code around anyway). First, I created a user called 'cypher', then gave it this .forward: suilven% cd ~cypher suilven% cat .forward "|mail2news mail.cypherpunks cypherpunks(a)toad.com" Since I'm running the smrsh security wrappers, mail2news has to be in the special smrsh directory, /usr/adm/sm.bin. mail2news: #!/usr/contrib/bin/taintperl # # mail2news - Incredibly simple program to take a mail message from # stdin and insert it into a moderated newsgroup so you can # read mailing list messages via news instead of mail. # # Usage: mail2news <newsgroup> <reply-gateway> # # Author: Stephen Hebditch <steveh(a)orbital.demon.co.uk> # # Operation: # 1. Create a new local group (e.g. orbital.lists.uri) with moderated # status to contain the local messages. # 2. Make sure the newsgroup isn't going to propagate outside your # system. # 3. Modify mailpaths (C News) or moderators (INN) so that your local # replies get sent back to the mailing list. # 4. Use a mail filter program (such as comes with elm) to divert # messages arriving from the list to this program instead. # # Add local config info here # Make secure (from 'perl' man page) $ENV{'PATH'} = '/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin'; $ENV{'IFS'} = '' if $ENV{'IFS'} ne ''; $path = $ENV{'PATH'}; # Not tainted $domain = "suilven.an-teallach.com"; $rnews = "/bin/rnews"; $update = "/usr/local/bin/op updatetrn"; $user = "news"; # If badly installed, news will get the replies $newsgroup = $ARGV[0]; if (!$newsgroup) { die ("No newsgroup name supplied\n"); } $replyaddr = $ARGV[1]; if (!$replyaddr) { $replyaddr = $user; } $body = 0; $kill = 0; $subject = 0; open (NEWS, "|$rnews") || die ("Can't run $rnews: $!\n"); print (NEWS "Newsgroups: $newsgroup\nPath: $domain!not-for-mail\n"); print (NEWS "Followup-To: poster\nReply-To: $replyaddr\n"); while (<STDIN>) { chop; if (!$body) { if (/^Subject:\s+(.*)$/io) { if ($1 ne "") { $subject++; print (NEWS "$_\n"); } } # Add here any headers you wish to kill elsif (/^(Received|Return-Path|X400-Received|Newsgroups|Path|To|Reply-To):/io) { $kill++; } elsif (/^From\s.*$/io) { } elsif ((/^\s.*$/io) && ($kill)) { } elsif ($_ eq "") { $body++; if (!$subject) { print (NEWS "Subject: <no subject>\n") } print (NEWS "Approved: news@$domain\n\n"); } else { $kill = 0; print (NEWS "$_\n"); } } else { print (NEWS "$_\n"); } } close (NEWS); system($update); exit (0);

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Here they come...
by dmandl＠lehman.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In today's New York Times: "Anarchy, a Threat on the Electronic Frontier," by Peter H. Lewis. It's kind of a scare piece on how flame wars, abuse, and out-of-control sociopaths are destroying the self-regulating Eden of the net. The piece itself is more or less "neutral," in classic NYT style, but it can also be seen as the first rumblings of a call for some kind of "responsible regulation" of the net. The pedophiles we all run into by the thousands every day are mentioned in the piece, as are the "pornographic pictures [...] traded in great volume." Also, "virtually every network, large and small, has crackpots and sociopaths who seek to bully others with obscenities and threats." Other quotes: "In recent months, it has become difficult for even network libertarians to argue that the network community can resolve its problems through peer pressure alone." and "[...] 'What people will probably do is invent "site kill files,"' wrote David Hayes, a Usenet regular who works for the National Aeronautics and Space Admistration's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. [...] 'My fear is that this will be a cyber-revisiting of the blacklisting that was prevalent in the 50's,' Mr. Hayes wrote. 'Eventually, I predict that such site kill files will be used to censor politically unpopular views (like mine, for example).'" Think about that next time you put someone in your killfile. --Dave.

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Re: State Dept Response to my second CJ request
by werner＠mc.ab.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Date: Wed, 11 May 1994 15:37:01 -0400 >From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry(a)snark.imsi.com> > >I'd say the obvious next step is a lawsuit -- at this point there is >standing and little point in accomodating the clowns. > >I've already offered Phil a donation towards this suit, and if he >chooses to pursue it I encourage others to donate money towards it as >well. In my opinion there is no more important action this year in the >area of cryptography than Phil's export license request. Please let us know if such a suit is filed. I will gladly contribute. tw

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