December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Microsoft Network
by ai05＠solo.pipex.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This may be the wrong place to pose this question but... Does anyone have any experience of using the nascent Microsoft Network ? Early reports from beta testers say it could be a hackers delight due to the use it makes of objects and such like. Any opinions or does anyone know of any hacks or cracks circulating yet ? Thanks in advance.

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Re: Wide Release (Re: PGPfone (BETA TEST) is released)
by Alex de Joode 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Bob Snyder sez: [..] : > likely to be all over the (non-US-and-Canada) place before the : > weekend is over. : But if people get it from MIT directly, then MIT is violating ITAR/DTR, and : its lawyers would be justified in shutting things down. If it's pulled down : by a US citizen, and then sent out, I don't see how MIT could be held : responsible for it. It's already posted to alt.anonymous.messages, alt.fan.david-sternlight and alt.binaries.warez.mac . -- Alex de Joode Fear Uncertainty Confusion and Kaos, Inc.

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MicroGorilla Postpones Rocket-Launch Plans Until..."likely sometime next year."
by nobody＠neva.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Anonymous wrote:(c) > > The "Not-News Gorilla NutWork" was rocket-launched in the Mohave Desert > > early yesterday morning by a rag-tag bunch of paramilitarist computer > > gurus who unveiled an InterNet Bill of Bytes that included the words, > > "MicroSoft shall make no laws..." Steven Vonder Haar wrote, the very next day: > Microsoft Corp. has tabled plans to include new technology in its > Internet Explorer 4.0 browser that would have made "news" oriented > sites exempt from content rating standards promoted for use on the > Internet. >Anonymous wrote:(o) > > Angered by a self-appointed council of computer industry magnates who > > have announced their intention to seize fascist control of the quickly > > burdgeoning Information Highway by controlling the definition of all > > information, the rebels set up a shooting range which contained a wide > > variety of targets ranging from copies of the Wall Street Journal to > > life-sized cardboard cut-outs of a hooded figure referred to only as, > > "a billionaire to be named later." Steven Vonder Haar wrote, the very next day: > RSAC President C. Dianne Martin said Microsoft is running out of time > to implement the separate designation for news sites before the launch > of the 4.0 version of Explorer later this year. >Anonymous wrote:(e) > > "We have decided on two classes of ratings." explained a tassle- > > haired young woman as she slid shells into a Winchester Defender > > sitting on her lap. "On..." she said, lifting the shotgun with one > > hand, then liberating the hooded head from a nearby cardboard cut-out, > > before turning back to say, with a Cheshire grin, "...and _off_." Steven Vonder Haar wrote, the very next day: > However, the company > plans to include the news designation in the 5.0 version of Explorer > when it is made available..."likely sometime next year."

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Modern Journalism (was: All about Bernstein)
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I've never met either Dan Bernstein or Peter Cassidy, but this raises an issue of slight relevance to the themes of this list, at least the nexus of publicity and journalism issues. You folks may have different views of this trend toward journalistic puff pieces. As crypto issues reach public visibility, and as things like the SSL breakage get reported, and as digital money efforts reach fruition, I expect a lot more journalistic coverage. Sadly, I also expect most of the articles to be in the vein of the many repetitive articles about Phil Zimmermann. "The Soul of a New Journalist" meets "Manufacturing Drama" (apologies to Kidder and Chomsky). At 10:56 AM 8/25/95, Peter F Cassidy wrote: >Folks, > >I'm the guy who authored an upcoming piece about Bernstein's law suit >with the state department for WIRED. WIRED loves the piece but, in the >style of popular mags, wants more personal stuff on Bernstein, who is >super articulate about the science and law of crypto but super shy about >his heroic self. (Guy wouldn't even disclose his age! Had to threaten to >throw myself in front of a bus to get him to tell me he's from Long >Island!) Editor thinks guy comes across as a ghost, not surpisingly. . . > >One fellow from the list, following up an appeal I made here for Friends >of Bernstein to call me and tell me about the litigant's best qualities, >I'd appreciate greatly hearing from again. He called when I'd pretty much >passed deadline for manuscript delivery. I'm calling Dan again, but after >one trip to Delphi, I dunno if the responses from the Oracle will be any >more forthcoming. We need to "Just say No!" to journalists asking for "more personal details" to spice up their stories. No offense meant to Peter, who is apparently just responding to editorial pressures, but this "personal journalism" is getting tiresome. (Needless to say, "in my opinion." Your mileage may vary.) I no longer read the many puff pieces on Phil Zimmermann, for example, as they all are seemingly in the same format: huge closeup photos of Phil's face, crap about his peace activist days, personal anecdotes about his battles with RSADSI, speculations about his possible indictment, etc. Utter journalistic bullshit, Oprah style. I have expect Stone Philips to attach an Estes rocket engine to Phil to give the story more pizazz. Instead of good "science reporting," we get "personality pieces." Instead of explanations of crypto, of PGP, of the many important (and complicated!) issues involving identity, key signing, "nymity," digital money, and the implications of crypto anarchy, we get "People" magazine. "In the next issue, computer hackers reveal the secrets of their special diets." Granted, many people prefer personality stories. Fits with short attention spans, with only the most casual interest in the subject. If you've never heard of a prime number before, all you can get out of a story is where Dan Bernstein grew up and why he became a scientist. On a personal note, I provided almost no personal details to Steven Levy, for a book he's reported to be writing. I think he'll confirm this, if he's still reading this list. When he did the "Wired" piece a couple of years ago (cover story on "Crypto Rebels," issue #2, or "1.2"), the few personal details which crept in about us were (at least in my case) nearly the only such details provided. I kidded (not kiddered) Levy about the focus on "personalities" in modern books on high tech and science, and asked him not to do the same with me. There were three books out at that time (late 1992) on "complexity" and/or "artificial life": Levy's "Artificial Life," Mitchell Waldrop's "Complexity," and one by Lewin (sp?), which I have someplace but can't find right now. All were remarkably similar, with this as a typical personality passage: (opened at random) "When Langton finally made it to the University of Arizona campus in Tucson in the fall of 1976, he was able to hobble around with the aid of a cane, although there were still more operations to come on his knee and right shoulder..." (Waldrop, p. 211) And so on, ad nauseum. Chris Langton, a very fine fellow whom I met at the first Artificial Life conference, back in 1987 (before it got so trendy, so high tech chic), has been "profiled" in dozens of books, ad nauseum. Like Zimmermann, his childhood and exploits with hang gliders have been told over and over again, often substituting for solid explanations of the important ideas. I haven't seen Cassidy's story, of course, nor have I seen Levy's book (forthcoming, I think), so perhaps they have moved away from the personality profile approach. Editors may demand more personality stuff, but we should just say No. (Or not get interviewed, which is fine. I've turned down three interviews in the last year, mostly because I couldn't say what would be gained. Too many damned magazines anyway! What's the point of being the "freak of the week"--to use Dave Mandl's term--in some obscure issue of "Access" or "Spin" or "Raygun," when the issues are just skimmed by the Generation Xers to whom they are targetted? A wonderful, wonderful book which--I think--set the stage for modern personality profile journalism, at least in high tech, was Tracy Kidder's "The Soul of a New Machine." It came out in 1981 and was a best-seller and award-winner, recounting in great detail the development of the Data General answer to the VAX. Wonderful stuff about "shootouts at HoJos," about how "if you succeed you get to do it again," and how "Wests hire Wests." The personal stuff was fascinating, and lent an air of a group biography to the book. Highly recommended. I think this has become one of the main models for modern high tech journalists to emulate. However, few have the flair that Kidder had (Levy does, in my opinion), and many misapply the Kidder model to stories that basically don't have the drama that the Kidder story did. For example, artificial life is interesting stuff, but it's hard to get any high stakes drama out of it, except by "manufacturing drama" (to borrow from Chomsky). John Markoff, another writer whom I respect a great deal, is doing a screenplay (or story treatment, so I have heard) about the Mitnick affair. Lots of Hollywood stuff is already there: Shimomura, Mitnick, high tech war rooms tracking Mitnick's movements, a raid by the authorities, even a Nevada hooker who has it in for Shimomura (read the personality piece by Katie Hafner, Markoff's wife (I think), in a recent issue of "Esquire"). If he hits the big time, even more so than he's already hit, I expect even more journalists and writers will be sniffing around. "Cypherpunks--The Movie"? The modern crypto issue has some real drama, of course, but I'm not sure I want to read several pages on Dorothy Denning's childhood, or why Stu Baker had to miss Woodstock. I hope Levy is not just Kiddering. Anyway, enough of my rant on journalism today. I mean no offense to journalists, who are probably just doing their job. But publicity can be seductive, and sometimes it's better to just take a Zen approach of avoiding the empty furor. --Tim May, who lives in "Digital Walden," 90 miles south of San Francisco, and who thus finds it easy to turn down requests for interviews in SF. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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PGP and AIX
by White Adept 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Has anyone sucessfully compiled PGP with AIX v.4 on an IBM RS6000? If so, please mail me, as I'm trying to install it sucessfully. Thanks! Ben. ____ Ben Samman..............................................samman(a)cs.yale.edu I have learned silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet, strange, I am ungrateful to those teachers.-- K. Gibran. SUPPORT THE PHIL ZIMMERMANN LEGAL DEFENSE FUND! For information Email: zldf(a)clark.net http://www.netresponse.com/zldf -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 Comment: Auto-signed with Bryce's Auto-PGP v1.0beta3 iQB1AwUBMD90vL5ALmeTVXAJAQFY/wL/eMTW42xlF7BGJ8btfb4VCHvZcRFkTTZa vTAiCRRdlXsKsdLRtxmE+Bf2aRVsiXg1xQ3YVQNewcX42PLET+GGqmIo6u2jXuCn bfslubIHAr9InfPMV+/tOvGhgAWP3nTr =8qXL -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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"Voluntary Censorship" vs. Govt Legislation
by Jim Burnes 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Chris: Considering the volume of email you're receiving on this topic, I doubt that you will get around to reading this letter. But for what its worth, the whole idea of heading off Federal legislation by policing ourselves is surrendering everything that we've won from the defeat of the British in 1776 to the defeat of the CDA. (a slight overstatement seeing that the Brits don't seem to have Parliment passing CDA laws) Can you imagine going into a library and having censorship ratings stamped on the bindings of all the books there? The very thought nearly brings tears to my eyes. Last week I watched Farenheit 451 and realized how close we are coming to that sort of society. If people want their information censored then they should "donate" money to their church and have it write filtering software. This would be a great way for churches to make money -- all tax free. Chances are that people would be able to find a church that agrees with their tastes in censorship. They may even attend that very organization. Think about it! Rather than bland names such as CyberSitter or NetCop or whatever you would have a "Parish Priest" that filters all references to clerical pedophilia, a "Rabbi Goldberg" that bans everything it considers anti- semitic and a "Baptist Minister (southern edition)" that pretty much bans... well .. a lot. Microsoft has been trying to sell user agents for a while. This would beat the hell out of Bob. Someone might actually use it! You would know exactly what you were getting and people won't usually sue their church if they should happen to miss a nasty URL once in a while. The church agents could also keep a tally of all the bad information the kids had been protected from and the nature of the information -- just in case the 'rents need to save them from mortal peril. As for the concept of an RSACi rating for "news sites" that are "officially approved" I can only say this is the most Orwellian proposal so far. After fifty-plus-years of "official" news I'd say that most people have had a belly full. The pure arrogance of such an idea is simply repulsive. To call this hypocrisy would be a affront to hypocrits everywhere. Rather than discussing this issue with the government I suggest you take it to a council of churches where it belongs and not the Feds. The last time the Feds staged a morality play they burned twenty children to death. For an example of how well the media served the people during that "rescue attempt" I refer you to charred corpses of little girls at Public Affair's Waco Holocaust Museum at: http://www.mnsinc.com/SkyWriter/WacoMuseum/ Would Public Affairs get an official "news site" stamp of approval? I thought not. --------------------------------------- When the world is running down make the best of what's still around -sting

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Query on cookies
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have a detailed understanding of how cookies work? I've read Netscape's explanation of the protocol, but I still have some questions. -Declan

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Old Cryto stuff,
by Jason William RENNIE 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Can anybody suggest any good books on old cryto techniques ?? I'm finally learning to program, along with the stuff i've got to learn as part of the class i thought i would make a start on learning to code crypotgraphic algorithms. I was after some old ones that are simple to code in software. Unfortuently the one in the back of the Schnier book are a little to complex for my limited programming knowledge so far. So can anybody help or will i just be ignored like i have been at other times ? Jason =8-]

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You wanted it - YOU GOT IT !!!
by name1＠msn.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

OK, here it is: 45,000,000+ Yep that's right, FORTY FIVE MILLION PLUS E-Mail addresses on 2 CD's. Your Cost $119.00 plus $5.00 for shipping and handling. Want them overnight add $15.00 These are brand new names, with no duplicates, in text format for easy use with your Bulk E-mail software programs. Order now - will not last long at this price only taking limited orders as we do not want to saturate the market with these names. Send Check or Money Order Only - (No Cash) to: HPC (702) 454-2563 2887 North Green Valley Parkway Suite # 298 Henderson , Nevada 89014 Name ______________________________________________ Address_____________________________________________ City _____________________ State _______ Zip ___________ Email Address _______________________________________ _____ Send me the 45,000,000 Email addresses for $119.00 plus $5.00 shipping and handling (total $124.00) _____ Send me the 45,000,000 Email addresses for $119.00 plus $5.00 for shipping and handling and $15.00 for overnight service (total $139.00) Make all checks and Money Orders payable to : "HPC" (Checks held 5 business days) (please print this order form) Hpc/897

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Links re. crypto in Canada
by Martin Janzen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A while ago, someone was asking about the status of cryptography in Canada. You may be interested in the following links, courtesy of Electronic Frontier Canada's David Jones: EFC's Draft Statement on Canadian Cryptography Policy http://www.efc.ca/pages/crypto/policy.html Can you keep a secret? - Canadian Crypto: true, strong, free http://www.theconvergence.com/columns/djones/08021997/ Entrust skirts export rules on encryption software http://www.efc.ca/pages/media/globe.29jul97.html Canadian Product Puts New Spin on Encryption Debate http://www.efc.ca/pages/media/nytimes.01aug97.html It's the law vs. privacy in high-tech debate http://www.efc.ca/pages/media/ottawa.citizen.06aug97a.html -- Martin Janzen janzen(a)idacom.hp.com

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