December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Patents and trade secrets was: Encryption algorithms used in PrivaSoft
by Pat Farrell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

thad(a)hammerhead.com (Thaddeus J. Beier) writes: > At this point, in this country, a patent is secret until it is issued. This will change in the US fairly soon. It is fallout of one of the world-wide trade and tarriff treaties -- we have to make our patent process be more in line with the rest of the world. One of the big technical challenges that the PTO and PRC have is how to release in-process patents securly. (PRC is the systems integrator for the PTO's APS (advanced Patent System) that had all the text and images of all patents since 1970 online.) They have even talked about putting patents on the WWW, but actually doing it is quite a way off in the future. Pat Pat Farrell Grad Student http://www.isse.gmu.edu/students/pfarrell Info. Systems & Software Engineering, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA PGP key available on homepage #include <standard.disclaimer>

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Re: USA Today on Fear of Credit Cards over Net
by Randy Catoe 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 07:35 PM 9/20/95 -0400, Perry E. Metzger wrote: > >Re: The risk of credit cards. > >I suppose that indeed there are large risks elsewhere in the credit >card system. However, I think that the credit card system itself is >stupid and insecure and ought to be scrapped -- sending around account >numbers as magic keys to get payment is a stupid move. Its not >suprising how large credit card fraud is. > >One of the great hopes I have for cryptographic technology is its >ability to lower the incidence of fraud, and thus lower transaction >costs a lot. Someday, hopefully, everyone will be able to be a credit >card merchant because you won't have to trust the merchants not to >steal. > >Perry > > I'm told that the revenue lost to fraud in the credit card industry is around .15 percent of the gross purchase value. I'm also told that the credit card companies actually face higher costs from disputes, i.e. when you call them up and busy out a person to resolve a question on you bill. Randy

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Re: Net Papa: Global Internet Taxes Inevitable
by jf_avon＠citenet.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> --------------------------------------------------------------------- > This mail is brought to you by the e$pam mailing list > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > (09/09/97; 12:00 p.m. EDT) > By Douglas Hayward, TechWire > > Cerf co-developed the > TCP/IP[LINK] protocol on which all Web and Net transaction depend. Net-Papa bullshit! > ..."If something is becoming an infrastructure that is important for > people's daily lives, then governments will have the right to be > concerned about the public's safety and well-being," Cerf said. Absolute Bullshit! Bit tax comes down to taxing thinking! This guy might have been a (past tense) a smart programmer but he'd better shut up about the rest... jfa -- Jean-Francois Avon, Pierrefonds(Montreal) QC Canada DePompadour, Societe d'Importation Ltee Finest of Limoges porcelain and crystal JFA Technologies, R&D consultants physicists and engineers, LabView programing. PGP encryption keys at: http://w3.citenet.net/users/jf_avon http://bs.mit.edu:8001/pks-toplev.html ID# C58ADD0D : 529645E8205A8A5E F87CC86FAEFEF891 ID# 5B51964D : 152ACCBCD4A481B0 254011193237822C

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Re: USA Today on Fear of Credit Cards over Net
by jgrubs＠left.webcasters.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"Perry E. Metzger" <perry(a)piermont.com> writes: > > Re: The risk of credit cards. > > I suppose that indeed there are large risks elsewhere in the credit > card system. However, I think that the credit card system itself is > stupid and insecure and ought to be scrapped -- sending around account > numbers as magic keys to get payment is a stupid move. Its not > suprising how large credit card fraud is. Hence the fast growing popularity of those cash cards. -- WebCasters(tm) James C. Grubs jgrubs(a)left.webcasters.com 6817 Maplewood Avenue Tel.: 419-882-2697 Sylvania, Oh 43560 Fax: 419-885-2814 Internet consulting, HTML programming, Information brokering

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Re: Removing Tyranny from Democracy (Part II), (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > From: amp(a)pobox.com > Date: Tue, 09 Sep 1997 09:26:21 -0500 > Subject: Re: Removing Tyranny from Democracy (Part II), > was Democracy is the true enemy... > > > I don't believe there are intrinsic flaws in democracy, so much as > > there are intrinsic flaws in *human*nature* that are coming to light > > after decades. government is a reflection of our human natures. > > one cannot really expect a government to correct the flaws of its > > users, any more than software could do the same. > > No intrinsic flaws in democracy? > > Surely you jest. Please be so kind as to detail your top three flaws... ____________________________________________________________________ | | | The financial policy of the welfare state requires that there | | be no way for the owners of wealth to protect themselves. | | | | -Alan Greenspan- | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http:// www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

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PRNG state (and conditioning) (was Re: netscape's response)
by Carl Ellison 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

If you are looking for PRNG conditioning code, feel free to snarf code from http://www.clark.net/pub/cme/html/ranno.html I'm assuming your new PRNG has enough state (more than 64 bits) that the 128-bit key (or later, larger keys) is worth its bits. I'm assuming you solve the problem of finding enough entropy bits for seeding the PRNG and considering how to keep as much of that entropy as possible in your PRNG seed (rather than, for a silly example, distilling it to an unsigned int for driving rand() ). For example, the state in ranG (from the giveaway code) or in ranM may not by itself lead to a secure PRNG, but when it drives a one-way function (e.g., ranH, ranD, ranN) the state is still serving a purpose. [ranG keeps 186 bytes of state while ranM keeps 32KB of state.] - Carl

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Re: "random" number seeds vs. Netscape
by patrick＠Verity.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Philip L. Karlton said: > > I agree, but I have a hard arguing with those that asser that the security > of UNIX is weak enough that given what we are doing for the patch it will > be easier to become root from a logged in account than to hack the seed. > Why would you have to argue with them? When they say that's it's easier to become root from a logged in account tell them, "Good, that's just as it should be!" It's a feature, not a problem! Patrick _______________________________________________________________________ / These opinions are mine, and not Verity's (except by coincidence;). \ | (\ | | Patrick J. Horgan Verity Inc. \\ Have | | patrick(a)verity.com 1550 Plymouth Street \\ _ Sword | | Phone : (415)960-7600 Mountain View \\/ Will | | FAX : (415)960-7750 California 94303 _/\\ Travel | \___________________________________________________________\)__________/

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A Short History of Liberty
by William H. Geiger III 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Below is a copy of "A Short History of Liberty" by Dean Russell first published in the Freeman in Jan 1955. Copied from "Essays in Liberty" Volume III, published by the FEE (The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc,) 1958. "From Biblical times onward, the history of liberty and progress among various peoples seems to have followed a remarkably similar pattern. there are exceptions, of course-and the time element varies widely-but the pattern may be generally described by ten key ideas in sequence:" 1. BONDAGE. At some point in their histories, all peoples seem to have existed in some form of bondage or slavery-frequently even to their own domestic rulers by their own votes or acquiescence. But when thoughtful persons finally become aware that they are no longer free men, they want to know why. When they ask themselves that question, they automatically turn to contemplation and soul searching. Out of this grows ... 2. FAITH. If people in bondage have no faith-either in a personal Creator or impersonal ideal-they will remain slaves and eventually die out or be absorbed by another culture. But an intelligent faith will almost always develop into ... 3. UNDERSTANDING. A person's faith needs to be buttressed by an understanding of why it is evil to force any peaceful person to conform to the will and ideas of another person. Otherwise, he is apt to remain a faithful slave or attempt to become a slave-owner. But the combination of faith and understanding results in the necessary ... 4. COURAGE. You may depend upon it, courageous men with faith and understanding will neither remain in bondage nor keep others in bondage. Even against great odds, this combination leads to ... 5. LIBERTY. Liberty is a relationship among persons wherein no person molests any other peaceful person in his ideas, possessions, or actions. Liberty may also be viewed as the responsibility one assumes for himself and recognizes in all others, for there can be no liberty where there is no responsibility. Liberty has never existed completely among any people at any time; but where it has existed to a high degree, the resulting freedom to work, trade, choose, win, lose, and bargain has always meant ... 6. ABUNDANCE. But if an abundance of material things is the primary aim of a person, his life is devoid of any real meaning. For if the goal is abundance, its achievement logically results in ... 7. COMPLACENCY. Complacency and self-satisfaction (the "full barns" of the Biblical lesson) inevitably lead to ... 8. APATHY. With apathy comes a dullness and loss of interest-a "let George do it" philosophy. And there will always be many political "Georges" around to accept this invitation to seize both the reins and the whip. This always degenerates into ... 9. DEPENDENCY. For a time, it is possible for dependents to be unaware that they are dependents. As they continue to shed the personal responsibilities which *are* freedom, they also continue to delude themselves that they are still free people-"We never had it so good." Or they may be deluded into believing that they are still free so long they themselves are able to participate in the mechanical processes of selecting their rulers-"We can still vote, can't we?" But dependents are at the mercy of the persons or groups or parties upon whom they depend for their housing, or security in old age, or subsidies, or education, or medical care, or any of the other "aides" from political authority which cause persons to depend on others instead of themselves. Sooner or later, this dependency becomes know by its true nature ... 10. BONDAGE. Fortunately, the record shows that people can regain their faith, understanding, and courage. They can again become persons and citizens who are responsible for their own welfare, rather than units and subjects identified by numbers for the purposes of regimentation and subsidization. The record shows that people can, by their own intelligent actions, regain their liberty any time they want it. - -- - --------------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii Geiger Consulting Cooking With Warp 4.0 Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. OS/2 PGP 2.6.3a at: http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii/pgpmr2.html - --------------------------------------------------------------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3a Charset: cp850 Comment: Registered_User_E-Secure_v1.1b1_ES000000 iQCVAwUBNBXK9I9Co1n+aLhhAQF1iQQAgaukTVudUNFRAZUk++bbiN6Q3UK4XMCN enLRoBh5fb5wuBi3UHj2jGZ9d5DAr4KeksyRUTbK4ULpi/UXs0Eo8Dcgjp6I4afH XBlgDO+brpCebSbKU5pHATu2gviSmFCAlWYtsDbQdzja3mHsaZtVfU57sn9ZntFa YLP0lRWw3bg= =CrrO -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: RSA Prevails In Arbitration Against Cylink
by patrick＠Verity.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Just a note for those who aren't aware, Business Wire is a pay-per-use > "news release" service. That is, RSA wrote the contents of what Bob > (Hi!) posted. > > The clue is at the bottom of the "story": > > CONTACT: RSA > Kurt Stammberger, 415/595-8782 > kurt(a)rsa.com > > This is not to say anything pro or con about the content of the press > release; just that it wasn't written by a third party. > > /jordan > I can't imagine that anyone wouldn't have known that, it was written from RSA's point of view. Patrick _______________________________________________________________________ / These opinions are mine, and not Verity's (except by coincidence;). \ | (\ | | Patrick J. Horgan Verity Inc. \\ Have | | patrick(a)verity.com 1550 Plymouth Street \\ _ Sword | | Phone : (415)960-7600 Mountain View \\/ Will | | FAX : (415)960-7750 California 94303 _/\\ Travel | \___________________________________________________________\)__________/

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None
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

John Young said: > Flame War, by Jonathan Quittner and Michelle Slatalla, > William Morrow, New York, 1997. 291 pp. $24.00 > ISBN 0-688-14366-0 Sure that isn't Alexis Slatella? ;) FedPlunger

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