December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Doctor Denning
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 02:52 PM 1/26/96 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote: >>What I found interesting was the lack of meat behind >>"Crypto Anarchy is Not Inevitable". It seemed to boil >>down to the vacuous "if everyone could just agree that key >>escrow is a good thing, there would be no problem". > >This is the main reason I haven't bothered to rebut her points: there were >essentially none to rebut. > >(There are substantive criticisms of my points that can be made, including >discussions of what might be done to delay or even head off crypto anarchy >completely. I had dinner a few nights ago with David Friedman, author of >"The Machinery of Freedom," and he made some incisive comments about how >the State might go about heading off this future. I'm glad he's on our >side, and not the government's.) > >Two other reasons I have not sought to rebut her analysis: > >First, I doubt many people saw either my original article (available on Bob >Hettinga's page: http://thumper.vmeng.com/pub/rah/anarchy.html) or >Denning's reaction article. > >Second, I stated my views, she stated her views, not much more to say. >Especially as she has not had an active presence on the Net, either in >talk.politics.crypto or in other forums I have seen, and thus a real debate >on the Net has not been possible. > >Mostly I know I can't change her views, so why bother? Other people may >have their views affected by what I say, and for these people I have >certainly written enough. Tim, trust me on this one. Dorothy Denning doesn't have a PRAYER. You already believe it, but I _KNOW_ it! Jim Bell Klaatu Barada Nikto. This will become important...soon Something is going to happen. Something...wonderful! (BTW, the above few lines, which looks like a canned signature, is not. Careful readers will note that I keep typing it in, which means that it isn't identical every time. This should be a clue to all you lurkers out there that I MEAN this; it's not just an idle macro. (It also means that I'm going to have to RTFM on my Eudora to do automatic signatures, but that's an ENTIRELY different story.) -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMQmQGfqHVDBboB2dAQF3lwP+JzEaN+sR9PdvnaWf2EnWJuDddZs86GbS cO7t+BLb/ALvAExBhBmVhMbYU1lFQS92akUQoMXBM/TLf330QR7E0FOjBdv12rqg n4RfFN7xV6Stib7gDOl2Q2niNqBusIzXT5Isv1A7x4NGF5Yxu7fVtUJ52tRBxHFI 9V+68Z21E4c= =SCkf -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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The Politics of Mistrust
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The Washington Post initiates today a 6-part series on the loss of trust in all American institutions, "The Politics of Mistrust," based on a recent poll sponsored by the Post, Harvard and the Kaiser Family Foundation. While not directly related to technical crypto, a number of findings parallel discussions here about the diminution of personal and economic security. Samples: America is becoming a nation of suspicious strangers, and this mistrust of each other is a major reason Americans have lost confidence in the federal government and virtually every other major national institution. Every generation that has come of age since the 1950s has been more mistrusting of human nature, a transformation in the national outlook that has deeply corroded the nation's social and political life. Mistrustful Americans repeatedly expressed far less confidence in the federal government, the military, the Supreme Court, Congress and the Clinton administration than the dwindling numbers of Americans who were more upbeat about human nature. Fear of crime, economic insecurity and pessimism about the lives of future generations all have separately added to the belief that government is either making things worse or is incapable of making them better. Today, a clear majority of respondents in their early 20s said they do not trust their fellow Americans, a view they share with one in four Americans over the age of 60. "It's like living in the cave man age," said a 29- year-old. "Nobody cares anymore. Nobody cares. They will no sooner run you down and run away than to spit in your face." An environment in which a majority of Americans believe that most people can't be trusted breeds attitudes that hold all politicians as corrupt, venal and self-serving, and government action is doomed to failure. Wages have stagnated, workers change jobs frequently and downsizing corporations offer little protection even to the most loyal of employees. Americans who feel most pessimistic about the economy also are more likely to see the government as a threat. Harvard and Kaiser are to separately publish their own analysis of the poll. The first article offers much more detail and is quite long, about a page and a half. Perhaps someone might offer a site where this and others in the series could be made available as they appear. If so, send me a note.

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Re: PIDAHO and EUDORA PRO 2.2
by David E. Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 03:10 AM 1/28/96 -0800, bruceab(a)teleport.com wrote: >At 09:17 PM 1/27/96 -0800, jdoe-0007(a)alpha.c2.org wrote: >>In response to the "what has John Doe got that PIDAHO >>doesn't" messages I tried to PIDAHO v2.6b. I am unable >>to make it work. Messages from PIDAHO can not be sent to >>the selected and OnLine EUDORA PRO application. >Um, yes, indeed they can. I do it routinely. Eudora Pro >is one of the options in the drop-down list box in the >E-mail|Transfer options... dialog, right below the buttons >for canned settings. And it works just fine. You are >making sure that you've got Eudora with a blank new >message ready to go, right? I'm using an essentially identical setup to jdoe-0007's and I can't get it to work either. It worked nicely under Win31 and Eudora 2.1.2, but Win95 and Eudora 2.2(32) don't play nice with Eudora. It might be a bits thing (sixteen versus thirty-two)... ObCrypto: Um, well, this note is PGP clearsigned? (Seriously, this discussion ought to be Cc:ed to Joel, and/or taken off the list.) dave - ----- David E. Smith, c/o Southeast Missouri State University 1210 Towers South, Cape Girardeau MO USA 63701-4745 +1(573)339-3814, "dsmith(a)midwest.net", PGP ID 0x961D2B09 Do not use old PGP keys 0xFF829C15 and 0x92732139. http://www.midwest.net/scribers/dsmith/ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQEVAwUBMQvCGDVTwUKWHSsJAQGWbQf9GPtB+VhubUDeBU56eYHJjPQmPfDRgJ6T NApeChNNYv57GH5/E+V7wEVwaWyF+wTdSAYnQVCWMUozSZ02V+m4MdtXT6vUQpya SSWt7h0BadOqbI+KR1gA1etGFC/kIHscRf2aGCUziHlpTe1nm7Hw9Kx/B1j9/Vc6 cFahN7wi+xohbRBJPYqsp/k1qNrDzuhySAW1+zNNSOPvxGQs5QrI9H5rIeL/L+iS wri1sq0GVrktEGue838HGUDG2E6RaELAQe3OV0Y6nhee0KvHAcidK75d988zSP+i DH7L6/nh/KC+72VwiuzoAsPy4PJvlLgmmiiWZYh1t1dtu97YGD1vKg== =CKEw -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: "Gentlemen do not read each other's mail"
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 01:40 PM 1/26/96 -0500, Robert A. Rosenberg wrote: >At 20:18 1/25/96, jim bell wrote: > >>Now, I was born in 1958 and thus can't claim personal knowledge of the time, >>but it's truly amazing how UNPERCEPTIVE the public must have been in the >>late 40's and early '50s about "intelligence" realities. Let me give you a >>specific example: The classic movie, "The Man who Never Was," relates the >>(true) story of a counter-intelligence mission done by the British to (I >>think) mislead the Germans into believing that the attack on Sicily would be >>substantially LATER than it actually was. > >The code name for the project was "Operation Mincemeat" and the intent was >to get the defences at Normandy ("Operation Torch" - ie: D-Day) away from >there and transferred to Sicily (which was NOT a D-Day objective) not as >you say to fool them on when the attack was coming. It did its job and much >of the mobile coastal defences were moved out of the area. I apologize for the error (presuming it's an error). I was working from an old memory there, from reading a book called "A Bodyguard of Lies" (William Cave Brown?) which addresses the misinformation/disinformation campaigns that went on during WWII. And, of course, seeing the movie "The Man who Never Was." -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMQlEXfqHVDBboB2dAQHwlwP8DJt2Vg5jmI/gQ8dV5rXJ6mgHFwmzAcMA 12kJWWUJzQg/6M/acTtwTntUYaT9sJ5nxfE6mV58KEpGRuz76ZAZ3LSugG/DlAAx NL1AMqhcv1Xelh+UD7tLqhH/lTt5mDJC0pWWquyOi85l8TOo05142BUOYL9YPx6q 6XjRqUgIDu8= =CcUZ -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Denning's misleading statements
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 03:12 PM 1/28/96 -0500, Rev. Ben wrote: >On Sun, 28 Jan 1996, Peter Wayner wrote: > >> I believe that David Gelerntner, the professor of computer >> science at Yale University injured by a UNABOMBER bomb, is also >> a supporter of the Clipper chip. This may or may not be >> something that arose from the bombing. But I'm not sure how many >> cavaets and things he adds to his position. He may have changed >> it. But then he's not exactly a cryptographer. > >There's quite a few folks in the Yale CS department that are pro-Clipper >or fence sitters. They justify it in class by claiming that law >enforcement needs these abilities if LE is to remain effective. I wonder if the same justifications were used for the Inquisition. "We have to use these methods in order for the Church to remain effective." Currently we have a whole host of laws that are difficult, if not impossible to enforce. The response from law enforcement is that we have to use stronger and stronger enforcement methods to shore up laws that are by their nature unenforcable. How they expect to do this and remain in a non-police state is beyond me. I expect that such enforcement methods will be sold to us the same way that they sell us soap and presidents. The media will give us plenty of "reasons" as to why we have to accept draconian methods to resolve problems from undefined enemies. Already we get the "real life" cop shows showing us a whole host of "enemies" who need to be hauled off to jail and the news programs showing us the scare story of the moment. Expect the four horsemen to get closer and closer as the shacles are ready to be put into place. Such enforcement is self-defeating in the long run. It is based off the false perception that the governed cannot recognise that these laws are unenforcable. Continued enforcement of "unenforcable" laws increases the disrespect for laws in general. ("The imposition of order equals the escalation of disorder.") The question is when the bulk of the population will see what is being prepared for them... Probibly after it is too late. Alan Olsen -- alano(a)teleport.com -- Contract Web Design & Instruction `finger -l alano(a)teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key http://www.teleport.com/~alano/ Is the operating system half NT or half full?

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"German service cuts Net access" (to Santa Cruz)
by Alan Pugh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>"Germany's biggest Internet provider has blocked access to a Santa Cruz >computer service that makes available neo-Nazi propaganda in another sign >of the growing tension over material available on the Internet. > >"Deutsche Telekom, Germany's national phone company, blocked its 1 million >customers Thursday from gaining access to Internet "Web sites" maintained >by customers of Web Communications of Santa Cruz. At least my local paper got it right in the AP article they published on this... "The block - analogeous to the government ordering a bookstore to take every book by a given publisher off the shelves because it objected to one title - was imposed Thursday."

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[NOISE] FIG_newt/on CIA
by Dave Del Torto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[ This came to me from someone at Apple, through our pal Stephan Somogyi ] [ ...another "your tax dollars hard at work" story... heh. --dave ] ................................. cut here ................................. There's an easter egg in the 2.0 Newton (MessagePad 120) which was "censored" by, yes, the CIA. Back in '94, one of the Newton software types make a trek to the (very) small town of Rachel, Nevada, which is located at the edge of a secret government airbase. The base, called "Area 51," is thought by UFO-enthusiasts to be filled with alien technology which the government is in the process of reverse engineering. Meanwhile, the government denies the very existence of the base, in spite of widespread media coverage ("Larry King Live from Area 51", etc.). We figured it'd be funny to put a reference to Area 51 in the Newton -- especially given the substantial overlap between conspiracy buffs and computer nerds. So, in the "Time Zones" application, contains a world map, we put an entry for Area 51 in its correct location. Later, we added a twist -- if the user picks Area 51 from the map, the icons in the datebook application take on an alien theme. Normally, meetings are represented by an icon of two people face-to-face, events are represented by a flag, etc., etc. But when Area 51 has been chosen, the icon for a meeting is a person facing an alien, the icon for an event is a flying saucer, a to-do task is represented by a robot, an so on. Okay, cute enough. Now cut to August 1995, when the 2.0 ROM has been declared final, seed units have been in customers' hands for a little while, and the release is just about ready to go. One of the seed units, it turns out, was sent to a cryptographer working for the CIA. When he found that Area 51 was listed at the correct latitude/longitude, he complained to Apple, demanding the removal of the easter egg and threatening to have his superiors take the issue to Spindler if necessary. In the end, Newton management caved in to the demand, and decided to pull the joke out of the system. But the ROM was already done -- so the feature was hidden by a software patch ("System Update") -- but this part of the patch can itself be removed, and "Area 51" returned to its rightful glory. Here's how to get the easter egg back: 1) Open the Extras drawer. 2) Switch the folder of the Extras drawer to "Storage". 3) Tap on the icon "Time Zones" and press the "Delete" button. Warning -- any cities you've added to your Newton will be lost. 4) Switch the folder of the extras drawer back to "Unfiled icons." 5) Tap on "Time Zones." You'll find that Area 51 is on the map -- just tap near Las Vegas and choose Area 51 from the popup. Now look at the icons in Dates. (To purge the aliens from your PDA, open the back and press reset).

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Re: Microsoft's CryptoAPI - thoughts?
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>James A. Donald writes: > > A notable misfeature of the API is that it assumes that in general > > you will have two key pairs. One for signing and one for encrypting. > > > > Since in the most common case you are encrypting something related to a > > signed message by the person you are encrypting to, this is a > > bad idea, At 07:59 AM 1/27/96 -0500, Futplex wrote: > Could you elaborate ? I haven't heard of any known interaction > effects between a strong encryption algorithm and a distinct strong digital > signature algorithm (with or without distinct keys), I was concerned about a different issue: Suppose you have some signed information: You wish to send some encrypted information to the person who wrote that signed information. If the signing key and the encrypting key are the same, your software can locally ensure that you encrypt with the right key, (The correct key is the same public key that you used to check the signature on the message.) If the signing key and the encrypting key are different, then in order to ensure that you are not spoofed into using the wrong public key, the whole protocol must work correctly, exposing many more points of attack, since key management is the most complex and most vulnerable area. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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Re: [NOISE] Re: NWLibs> Re: Anonymous trashing of Assassination Politics
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:38 AM 1/28/96 -0800, jim bell wrote: >I guess I should offer a partial apology, even though I'm not really >responsible for this. Jack Hammer is the on-air name for John Benneth, who >is a local (to me, Portland, Oregon) "moderator" for a "advertised as >controversial" radio talk call-in show. He saw my Assassination Politics >essay a few months ago, and for a few weeks just before the November sweeps >Neilsen ratings period he was trying to bait me into calling in, thinking >I'd be a sucker for a local audience. (He _needs_ controversy to be >sucessful.) Since then he gave up for a while, although he occasionally >snipes at me. I assume his interest will wax and wane as various ratings >periods come and go. Actually ratings do not apply in this case. KKEY does not subscribe to the ratings service. (Never has, to my knowledge.) KKEY is a part time station. It has never had much of a broadcast range. (And never will, as their equiptment causes interfearence with neigboring phone equiptment and the like.) It is supported by advertising which is pitched by the talk show host themselves. It has never had much of an audience. The talk show hosts run the gamut from conservitive to very conservitive. (The former owner had a habit of firing hosts on the air if he did not like their views. But Ralph is dead now...) It has a very bad reputation in Portland as being a station for neo-nazis, whackos and cranks. (Back in my conservitive days i had friends who worked there. It was an "interesting" experience.) >>I have saved Jim Bell's "Assassination Politics" essay, with his PGP >>signature, and soon to be a lot of other things, at >> >> http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~llurch/Not_By_Me_Not_My_Views/ > >Thank you. I guess... > >BTW, I sent the file to you as A16.??? That isn't a really descriptive >name. Please change it to something more mnemonic, like ASPOL.TXT or something. The site does need an index. >>I plan to collect as many off-the-wall conspiracy theories in this >>directory as will fit in my disk quota. And when I run out of quota, I'll >>raise it for myself. > >Now, now, Rich, "Assassination Politics" is not a "conspiracy theory". Or, >at least, it's not your classic "conspiracy theory." I think he is collecting stuff he thinks of as whacky theories. >>I think it's time the wacky right and wacky left started looking at each >>other's Web pages and lurking on each others' lists. > >What about the wacky libertarians? Why did you leave us out?!? >Waaaaaaahhhh!!! I think he is collecting stuff that is just "whacky". >> It's really funny >>putting two "Anarchist" pages, one featuring Che Guevara, the other >>featuring David Duke, side by side. Both say the guvment is out to get >>them; > >I, on the other hand, am out to "get" the government. But you'll be hearing >more about that later. Unless they get you first... Alan Olsen -- alano(a)teleport.com -- Contract Web Design & Instruction `finger -l alano(a)teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key http://www.teleport.com/~alano/ Is the operating system half NT or half full?

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Re: [NOISE] Re: NWLibs> Re: Anonymous trashing of Assassination Politics
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 02:17 AM 1/28/96 -0800, Rich Graves wrote: >On Sat, 27 Jan 1996, Jack Hammer wrote: > >> Here might be an interesting example of a snippet from a plot to commit >> criminal syndicalism. > >You know, I'm not really sure whether you're kidding, ignorant, cheering, >or warning. Frankly, I don't fucking care. You guys are all nuts. And I >should know -- ask Clark or AlanD. I guess I should offer a partial apology, even though I'm not really responsible for this. Jack Hammer is the on-air name for John Benneth, who is a local (to me, Portland, Oregon) "moderator" for a "advertised as controversial" radio talk call-in show. He saw my Assassination Politics essay a few months ago, and for a few weeks just before the November sweeps Neilsen ratings period he was trying to bait me into calling in, thinking I'd be a sucker for a local audience. (He _needs_ controversy to be sucessful.) Since then he gave up for a while, although he occasionally snipes at me. I assume his interest will wax and wane as various ratings periods come and go. >I have saved Jim Bell's "Assassination Politics" essay, with his PGP >signature, and soon to be a lot of other things, at > > http://www-leland.stanford.edu/~llurch/Not_By_Me_Not_My_Views/ Thank you. I guess... BTW, I sent the file to you as A16.??? That isn't a really descriptive name. Please change it to something more mnemonic, like ASPOL.TXT or something. >I plan to collect as many off-the-wall conspiracy theories in this >directory as will fit in my disk quota. And when I run out of quota, I'll >raise it for myself. Now, now, Rich, "Assassination Politics" is not a "conspiracy theory". Or, at least, it's not your classic "conspiracy theory." >I think it's time the wacky right and wacky left started looking at each >other's Web pages and lurking on each others' lists. What about the wacky libertarians? Why did you leave us out?!? Waaaaaaahhhh!!! > It's really funny >putting two "Anarchist" pages, one featuring Che Guevara, the other >featuring David Duke, side by side. Both say the guvment is out to get >them; I, on the other hand, am out to "get" the government. But you'll be hearing more about that later. Jim Bell Klaatu Burada Nikto "Something is going to happen... Something....Wonderful!" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMQu0VPqHVDBboB2dAQHfegP/W67SNQnzCL7TYdphdVmQ6wwWUjniUkz5 PJG/vJzQONFlsqLyz0o+jn0dZsMquoAWmB6jkrSzN6oAPoSnpAL5e5GPxk7busP+ Jmn56UCCFc6TUPlA69zqI5EA0uctcTGPunnLhNN/aEFTmngwQVmgC8o/eRB8NEyt s2ImX/n6u0s= =0YOC -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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