December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: The OS wars and DOOM...
by Andrew Loewenstern 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Apps have migrated from Unix to the Mac and the PC before in the > past. In the further past, this has included curses and > other-types-of-text-control packages such as PC versions of Emacs > and nethack and the like. > Of course, this was not done with graphical programs; everyone > knows that graphics isn't Unix's strong suit, and what it has is > so different from the PC, etc., blah, blah,... > Except that for the past two or three years, it's been WRONG. > One of the hottest games on the PC, DOOM, was originally written > in Nextstep (a Unix variant, and a ghetto even amidst the "ghetto" > of Unix) and then ported to the PC. Being a resident of the NeXTSTEP ghetto, please allow me to chime in. While Doom is written on NeXTSTEP boxes, that's about all the game itself has in common with it. The game is carefully written in strict ANSI-C and any portions that must be OS specific are separate. They have a VGA emulator that allows them to run Doom on non-DOS boxes. All of the platform independance comes from the discipline of the developers (who are extremely talented, IMHO). In contrast, Lotus Improv was NeXT native and had to be completely rewritten over a period of at least 3 years to get it to work on Windoze. The primary reason Id software (and Trilobyte among others) uses NeXTSTEP (over DOS or any other unix environment) is because it lets them write in-house tools like map and monster editors really fast (and really slick too!). On any other platform it would take much more time and effort to write the tools and they probably wouldn't be as nice either. Since these tools aren't being sold to customers, it doesn't matter that they only run on a dead-end niche software platform that costs $1000 per user (and $5k per developer!!). This strategy makes sense for a commercial video game where there is the opportunity to save major amounts of time and effort through the use of custom tools (and the incentive of major amounts of cash if it is successful). However, this strategy definitely doesn't make sense when you are talking about a cypherpunk donating their spare time to write a freeware (or copyleft) crypto app. Better would be to just write the app for the target platform or write it using an environment that is designed to be platform independant (like Java). andrew ...able to work cypherpunks relevance into virtually any thread......and uses Python instead of NeXTSTEP when writing stuff that needs to be platform-independant...

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Re: Phrack SummerCon - I enjoyed your talk
by Alex de Joode 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Owen Lynn sez: : Eric, : I was there in 'lanta when you gave your talk at SummerCon, and I : thoroughly enjoyed it. I was especially intrigued by some of the, um, : fun you can have with corporations. Are there any books I can read : that are sort of _Fun with Your Corporation for Beginners_? Corporation as in a Delaware "Inc" ? Are there transcripts of the speach available ? -- /ME kewl as fuck !

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Re: big word listing
by Alex de Joode 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Jim Gillogly sez: : Also you should be aware that cracking passwords is passe' these days: : it's much easier to run an ethernet sniffer and gather them wholesale. : Every little bit helps, though. Is there a "challenge response" type of password/login available somewhere ? -- /ME kewl as fuck !

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Searching for reference
by ruf＠osiris.cs.uow.edu.au 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I am trying to find some pointers to a recent UK finacial services report of the Foresight Program. It deals with fraud detection systems, an outline appeared in 'The Australian' 9th May 1995 - by Vanessa Houlder from Financial Times, London. Additionally any pointers to :- Jason Kingdon of SearchSpace. Barclay and Touche Ross (Mr Mark Tantum) - Fraud 2000 system. Visa International's - Cardholder Risk Identification System (CRIS) - Merchant Risk Identification System (MRIS) Cooper & Lybrand's (System Name?) - Using Netmap visualisation software (by Active Analysis) in conjunction with neural net & knowledge based system. Additionally any information in regard to such systems would be useful. TRW, Mastercard, etc.. So far have been unable to find any details via gopher, netfind searches and would like to avoid making international phone calls. -- +---------------------+--------------------------------------------------+ | ____ ___ | Justin Lister ruf(a)cs.uow.edu.au | | | \\ /\ __\ | Center for Computer Security Research | | | |) / \_/ / |_ | Dept. Computer Science voice: 61-42-214-327 | | | _ \\ /| _/ | University of Wollongong fax: 61-42-214-329 | | |_/ \/ \_/ |_| (tm) | Computer Security a utopian dream... | | | Disclaimer: dreaming is at own risk | +---------------------+--------------------------------------------------+

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Re: Anyone going to DEFCON
by jeremym＠jax.jaxnet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>As chance has it, I will be vacationing in Las Vegas July 29 - August 6. >Is anyone else planning on going to DEFCON? > >Sam I'm planning to attend all of DefCon III. I, for one, am anxious to meet Bruce Schneier. AFAIK, there will be time for Q&A during the Con, and I'd be happy to ask questions for anyone who won't be able to attend. .jeremy --- Jeremy Mineweaser | GE d(++) H- s+:- g- p1+ au a18 w+ v++ jeremym(a)jax.jaxnet.com | C++ L++++ P+>+++ L+ 3+ E- N++>+++ K- http://www.jaxnet.com/~jeremym | W++@ M-- V- po+ Y++ t++ 5 j+ R+++ G? tv- Finger for PGP key | b++ D++ B-- e u---(**) h! f+ n---- y? http://dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/x.html | *ai*vr*vx*crypto*ITAR*unix*data havens*

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Re: Netscape the Big Win(dows)
by shamrock＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 21:47 7/21/95, Damaged Justice wrote: >Au contraire. I finally got the chance to use Netscape, and although I AM >impressed, I still prefer Lynx. Most folks will probably call this pointless >stubborness, elitism, I don't care. Graphics are too damn slow at any >speed and personally, I have no need (or desire) to have my net connection >slow to a snail's crawl just to make it "look nicer". Ever tried turining off "autoload immages"? -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred.

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Re: Netscape the Big Win(dows)
by shamrock＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 19:15 7/21/95, bigdaddy(a)ccnet.com wrote: > In my own experience, the Mac newsreaders that I have >tried(mainly Nuntius and Newswatcher) have felt incredibly slow compared >to tin. Depends on the load on the host, the speed of your link, the speed of your Mac, and if you want to trade features for speed at that given moment. >What, IMHO, would be a good step forward would be Mac versions of >UNIX packages like pine and tin... The human interface is the whole point behind Newswatcher and Nuntius. As for Mac users that prefer tin, they already have an implementation available. It is called telnet. >preferably with AppleScripts that >implement the same functionality as the PineSign and TinSign scripts >recently distributed here. I have been thinking about writing AppleScripts that link Newswatcher with PGP. Unfortunately, there is another project that has precedence. Still, as with most great utility software not yet available, you can always try to write it yourself. Have fun, -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred.

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Re: big word listing
by Joey Grasty 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Alex sez: > Is there a "challenge response" type of password/login available > somewhere ? > Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) has an optional command called APOP which sends a string of the form "<process-ID.clock@hostname>". The POP3 client calculates the MD5 digest of <process-ID.clock@hostname>password and sends it to the server as "APOP username 58349485whatever89583449". I like it. Regards, -- Joey Grasty jgrasty(a)gate.net [home -- encryption, privacy, RKBA and other hopeless causes] jgrasty(a)pts.mot.com [work -- designing pagers] "Anyone who considers arithmetical methods of producing random digits is, of course, in a state of sin." -- John Von Neumann

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Re: big word listing
by stewarts＠ix.netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 04:17 PM 7/21/95 -0500, Chris Gorsuch wrote: [ stuff about keeping a dictionary of previously used passwords to prevent reuse ] > A "cryptographic" solution would be to simply store a hash of the password >rather than the password itself in the "appended" dictionary. A CRYPTOGRAPHIC >solution would be to use one time passwords :). Be _very_ careful if you try this. After all, it's an invitation for anybody who runs the dictionary to use a crack program on the convenient list of hashes. (If you use the same hash as the password file, you haven't risked _too_ much, but using something fast like MD5 invites people to use their pre-computed "MD5's of a million wimpy passwords" list. #--- # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, Freelance Information Architect, stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # Phone +1-510-247-0664 Pager/Voicemail 1-408-787-1281 #--- # Export PGP three lines a time --> http://dcs.ex.ac.uk/~aba/export/ M0V]N9W)E<W,@<VAA;&P@;6%K92!N;R!L87<@+BXN(&%B<FED9VEN9R!T:&4@ M9G)E961O;2!O9B!S<&5E8V@L(&]R(&]F('1H92!P<F5S<SL-"F]R('1H92!R M:6=H="!O9B!T:&4@<&5O<&QE('!E86-E86)L>2!T;R!A<W-E;6)L92P@( T*

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Re: Something occured to me
by Andrew.Spring＠ping.be 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- > >Whent he republicans took over the congress, they instidtued that >Contract on America. One of the first laws that was passed (by both >parties, I might add) was a law that made lawmakers abide by the same >laws that "normal" people abide by. > I think this was aimed at congress's tendency to exempt themselves from their own legislation. For example, Congressmen are, supposedly, entitled to practice hiring discrimination based on, "race, creed, or color of socks" in the words of GB Trudeau's Lacey Davenport. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMBAYFY4k1+54BopBAQHxuwP+J/ypbLg07RE49Mvc/oXTl9RtPwTInEv7 t2RjOb57I2gvjr60i/OS/1EFVQv8FE7iZHtXpOEw7W2nHRTOBsWwTx6L9b7NB5Z9 ufkierYXyJnTJvXXvkrevXZ4wmc26Q5dyMU35HmMensRJSYwlR213DyvvKD5aOG1 6MtCqMomJZQ= =Wn55 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Thank you VERY much! You'll be getting a Handsome Simulfax Copy of your OWN words in the mail soon (and My Reply). <Andrew.Spring(a)ping.be> PGP Print: 0529 C9AF 613E 9E49 378E 54CD E232 DF96 Thank you for question, exit left to Funway.

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