December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

How many cypherpunks?
by sico＠hacktic.nl 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Saturday July 09 1994 01:04, Harry Bartholomew wrote to All: HB> After the two list meltdowns, there are now only 508 of us left. That count may not be accurate. There are sites with an abundance of cypherpunks that turn the list into news, which makes transport (often over UUCP links) more efficient. CU, Sico.

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Forwarding or pointers + attorney use of PGP
by greg＠ideath.goldenbear.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Count this as a vote in favor of pointers to information instead of reposts, at least where the original is easily accessed by most folks. The only time I find reproductions in toto useful is where the information comes from private mail, obscure mailing lists, or other sources I can't get. Also, I thought some C-punks might be pleased to hear that PGP and discussions of encryption/confidentiality are making their way into the legal community - a law/computers list I'm on has recently had a spurt of messages re confidentiality and attorney/client privilege, and every response so far has mentioned PGP in a positive light. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.5 iQCVAgUBLh77nX3YhjZY3fMNAQHlFAP7Bv9WvNrzmwj83YeznlObs7tsEDViVAtH oa2J+mVcLsSbXQGc8/lIsSKHsQarPdXn3nalo3fuG8lcRNPWKXDKlwnoagkCo5D8 DQrWfOr6toM4bYUNr7PfL9Q+Ou4faCX/5Yl7cTWlzM1cGmiETGpjkd4tSUNJ8DkD KfN0n0X+wgk= =W461 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: All the free energy in the universe
by Jonathan Rochkind 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> The late Nobel laureate Richard Feynman became very interested in the > subject of computation and physics towards the end of his life. My > understanding is that he concluded that there was no apparent > limitation to the amount of computation that could be completed with a > given amount of free energy. Computation may indeed always dissipate > energy, but Feyman's conclusion was that this dissipated energy can be > made arbitrarily small -- that there is no fundamental quantum > limitation on the amount of computation that can be performed at any > given mass-energy scale. Actually, I _think_ I've read an article in a pop-science magazine about some work of Hawking's that indicated there was a minimum amount of energy neccesary to do some sort of quanta of computation. (is there such a thing ? I don't know enough about the math, I'm afraid. INformation theory?) If my memory serves, he used this to hint at a solution to the "why does time only flow in one direction, when the mathematics are perfectly symmetrical both ways?" question. But I could be wrong. Sorry I don't have any better info then you.

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(None)
by Jeff Gostin 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

greg(a)ideath.goldenbear.com (Greg Broiles) writes: > Count this as a vote in favor of pointers to information instead of Count this as a second, plus some kind of summary of the article referenced. :-) --Jeff -- ====== ====== +----------------jgostin(a)eternal.pha.pa.us----------------+ == == | The new, improved, environmentally safe, bigger, better,| == == -= | faster, hypo-allergenic, AND politically correct .sig. | ==== ====== | Now with a new fresh lemon scent! | PGP Key Available +---------------------------------------------------------+

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As long as we're voting,
by D.C. Williams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > > Count this as a vote in favor of pointers to information instead of > Count this as a second, plus some kind of summary of the article > referenced. :-) . . . I concur. Pointers are preferable. =D.C. Williams

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Cypherpunks Gopher Server Modifications
by Chael Hall 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The Cypherpunks gopher server at chaos has been migrated from gopherd to GN version 2.09. All of the data should be intact. Although many of the filenames have been changed so that they could be stored in compressed format, they should be served exactly the same way as before. If you experience any problems with the system, please write gopher-admin(a)chaos.bsu.edu. This entire gopher hierarchy will probably be moving in the near future after I install the new hard drive for chaos, but there should be no interruption in service. Chael -- Chael Hall, nowhere(a)chaos.bsu.edu

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Re: As long as we're voting,
by D.C. Williams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > > > Count this as a vote in favor of pointers to information instead of > > > Count this as a second, plus some kind of summary of the article > > > referenced. :-) > > > > . . . I concur. Pointers are preferable. > > > > Ditto, with regards to on-line, electronic sources. However, if you > want to take the time to type-in an article related to crypto by > hand, I'll certainly take the time to read it. Agreed. Let's not be too quick to condemn those who offer material of interest in any form. We're quibbling over format, but provided that it's not C&S e-spam and is crypto related, the sentiment is good. My thanks to those who take the time and effort to alert others to material of interest. My only request is that they be as judicious as possible and forward or post only those tidbits that can't be readily obtained elsewhere. If someone else can't get it for themselves, other c'punks are usually very helpful w/ email forwards (I've done this for others a few times myself). =D.C. Williams

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Re: As long as we're voting,
by an65＠vox.hacktic.nl 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>> >> > Count this as a vote in favor of pointers to information instead of >> Count this as a second, plus some kind of summary of the article >> referenced. :-) > . . . I concur. Pointers are preferable. >=D.C. Williams I agree. I'm especially interested in references to alt.usenet.kooks, alt.pedophiles, and reviews of any TV shows with babes in them. c@lib@n -------------------------------------------------------------------------- To find out more about the anon service, send mail to help(a)vox.hacktic.nl Please report any problems, inappropriate use etc. to admin(a)vox.hacktic.nl Direct replies to the sender of this message are -not- anonymised..<YuK>..

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Re: As long as we're voting,
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Responding to D.C. Williams on Sat, 9 Jul 4:2 PM: >My thanks to those who take the time and effort to alert others to material of interest. Seconded. John

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Re: (fwd) Re: BSD random() - any good (source included)?
by norm＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 15:20 1994/07/07 -0500, Jim choate wrote: ... >Does anybody know of a good test for randomness? I would definitely like to >know how good computer RNG's are. Post away! A good RNG must pass all such tests. The idea of just one test is itself dangerous. It would be a generous person who would collect such tests and organize them to a common interface. Only then would you begin to have "one test": the collection of these tests. I coded a blum filter a few years ago which requires about 16,000 random bits. I tried several prngs in various libraries, then implemented several from literature including Knuth. All of these caused the filter to work at about half efficiency. I could find no bugs in the filter code. Then I recalled that there was a DES routine available. I used DES to generate the random bits. The filter then worked close to the theoritical maximum!

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