December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

hawkenet.com
by lane＠sutm.2sprint.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I have been trying to log into hawkenet.com for the past few days. Does anyone know what is wrong with it? It seems to have some pretty interesting stuff on it. Lane

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Re: Cypherpunks Decency Act
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 02:50 AM 2/16/96 -0500, t byfield wrote: >At 9:43 PM 2/15/96, jdoe-agamemnon(a)alpha.c2.org wrote: > >>>Perry sent me a polite note asking why I had posted the original post, and >>>He suggested that in the future I make it clear why I think my posts are >>>relevent to the subject of the list. >> >>Is this what we call the chilling effect? > > No. > bell@pacifier--surely not a coincidence--has indulged himself >excessively. Anyone checked out the LD angle on him? Hey, I resent the implication, here! Three months ago I wouldn't have known what you meant by that, but "comparatively" long ago I learned that "LD" is Detweiler, who apparently has a long and established history of using aliases. It sounds like you're trying to imply that I am either a Detweiler "tentacle" (yet another term of art that I learned in the last couple of months) or am somehow in league with him. Right?!? Well, "It ain't so." Now, I realize how difficult it is for me to prove that I'm not some other particular person, but from the snippets I've managed to see over the last few months on Internet, this Detweiler character appears to know FAR more about the use of Internet than I do. (He apparently is a sleazy bastard, but then you probably know much more about that than I do...) Hell, it was only a couple of months ago that I even learned how to use PGP with Eudora. I've only had a full SLIP account for a few months before that. In fact, so far (luckily for me, I guess) my only contact with LD is that I was flamed by him, actually under the Detweiler name, when I first posted "Assassination Politics" to various USENET areas. At that point, I had no idea of his checkered history (still don't know much; I'd appreciate hearing more) and he apparently assumed that I was some Tim May clone. He even referred to May as "TCM," a set of initials that mystified me for a week, until some kind soul sent me a small snippet of the Cybernomicon, the part dealing with "net-killings." At that point, he ignored me, probably classifying me as a clueless newbie. His flaming ceased when he discovered that I was not only not "in the TCM camp," but I hadn't even heard of May and Cypherpunks. In any case, as I understand it from vague commentary, some of you people "out there" know a lot more about LD, and it should be possible for me to show my history in enough detail to convince anybody that I'm not Detweiler. Hell, somebody posted my correct address just a few hours ago (it was no secret; I am well aware of USENET indexing, and I've freely published my address and the correct, current phone number in a USENET area within the last couple of months, and I've never had an unlisted telephone number. Jim Bell, N7IJS, 7214 Corregidor, Vancouver, WA, USA 98664, 360-696-3911 (they changed area codes from 216 last year), MIT Class of 1980, Course 5, Chemistry major. "James Dalton Bell" (yes, THOSE Daltons!) jimbell(a)pacifier.com Klaatu Burada Nikto. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMSSvq/qHVDBboB2dAQG89AP8D+Wv6oXk3Yj0gcLg6pPP7DNvEhQCQG1j q8UzCvz/lA0d2Pv+DR5KCAsgCeWD3H2b5435GrYt4jsUhOSBmwZ4C1KFdogBon5D ELvbNwLyNtf6GGaqeAxlD/ztJ/MMuoPAaohi4tZuUhEnMGe7JMV5UlMHgnSfyRQ+ SKyM7bHg2io= =qC3l -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Computer unmasks Anonymous writer...
by sasha1＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I ran my essays through Word grammar checker a while ago, and was surprised how stable the grammar statistics were. Complexity of the text (grade level) was the same to the decimal point, average length of sentences was consistent, etc. People also use the same styles of smileys or *highlights*, make consistent spelling errors, have their habits of indentation, etc. My suggestion at the time was to have randomizing output filter that would substitute synonyms, change spelling, modify paragraph formatting, etc. - Style anonymizer, I'd call it. Also, if small random changes are applied to every copy of the message you send out, and you keep track of what recipient got which version, you will find it easier to identify the leaks if you send private messages. A dishonest recipient, to protect himself, would have to further randomize the message, which has apparent consequences for the ease of your identification and attributability of the message. Of course there are more subtle consistencies of style one can't easily mask with a filter - but they are not easy to detect either. ----------------------------------------------------------- | Alexander Chislenko | sasha1(a)netcom.com | Cambridge, MA | | Home page: http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/home.html | -----------------------------------------------------------

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Libertarians and crypto and such
by Thomas Grant Edwards 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Isn't it the libertarian types on the list who are into mass killings of >civilians with nukes and the "socialist statists" who tend to oppose it? Libertarians do not believe in killing civilians with nukes. Libertarians do not believe in murder, period. We're not the ones calling for the death penalty for drug lords. We're not the ones calling for military force in foreign countries, be they Kuwait or Bosnia. Infact, the Libertarian Party has often called for nuclear disarmament. Libertarians are interested in democratic change, not violent revolution. ObCrypto: William Winter, Director of Communications of the Libertarian Party, not only ordered the Libertarian Party web site to go dark for "Black Thursday," he also delivered an empassioned speech at the anti-CDA rally in Washington, D.C., last saturday. (http://www.wam.umd.edu/~tedwards/rally.html for pictures and links to audio) The Libertarian Party has consistantly sent out the strongest statements of any political party in support of cryptographic freedom and freedom of expression on the Internet. -Thomas

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Computer unmasks Anonymous writer...
by Peter Wayner 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The Feb 16, 96 edition of the Baltimore Sun announces that a computer program similar to one used to attribute unknown poems to William Shakespeare has been turned to solving the mystery of who wrote the best selling book, _Primary Colors._ The work was apparently done by Donald Foster a professor at Vassar College who discovered that both Joe Klein and the author of _Primary Colors_ used these adjectives quite often: especially, entirely, fiercely, incredibly, mortally, particularily, precisely, profoundly, reflexively, relentlessly, seriously, subtly, surprisingly, ultimately, utterly, vaguely, wistfully More information will be published in an article slated to run in the copy of _New York_ magazine that goes on sale on Monday. This article seems to be the major source for the Sun piece. If Joe Klein, a well-known political writer, is indeed the author, it is clear that he didn't learn one of the first lessons of Washington. If you're going to leak information or quotes to the world, make sure you use the diction of your enemy. That's ventriloquism Washington style. -Peter Wayner

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Re: AT&T Public Policy Research -- hiring for cypherpunks
by mccoy＠communities.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Bill Franz writes: > Adam Shostack wrote: [...] >>IP numbers are not portable, DNS names are. You can move toad.com >>anywhere on the network, but you can't move 140.174.2.1 anywhere on >>the network. > >FYI - IP portability, both in the sense of disconnecting in one place and >reconnecting in another and in the sense of keeping a TCP connection alive >while moving from place to place are design goals of IPv6 But IPv6 also brings link-level encryption and makes subliminal communications channels trivial; Big Brother (now does anyone know what that that translates to in Chinese?) won't stand for that... The enhancements of IPv6 make a lot more possiblities for secure channels and untracable packet-level communications available. Instead of needing to jump through many hoops you just have to subvert one of the new goodies IPv6 gives you for free :) jim

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Re: Cypherpunks Decency Act
by tbyfield＠panix.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

bell@pacifier: >Hey, I resent the implication, here! This maybe isn't the best forum for your feelings. Be a mensch and ice the thread, OK? TIA.

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PUR_ple
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

2-16-96. FinTim: "First world smartcards and third world pensioners." Each month, a thin line of grandparents and great-grandparents shuffles across the rural wilderness clutching fresh banknotes dished out by the most sophisticated cash dispensers in the world. The machines are the hub of a thriving market economy. Mounted on unmarked pick-up trucks and escorted by armed guards, they are pursued across the hillsides by traders carrying buckets of freshly slaughtered meat, caged chickens, and an array of traditional medicines. The able-bodied carry the disabled and infirm with them in wheelbarrows. Under makeshift awnings, every pensioner swipes a plastic card through the machine, then rolls a weathered finger across a tiny scanner which checks the fingerprint against a digital template and dispenses a monthly allowance. Another machine, the "smartbox", keeps a tally of its contents and transmits an encrypted data stream with a constantly updated record of deposits to its destination bank. If tampered with, it sprays its contents with indelible purple ink like that with which the security police once sprayed anti-apartheid protesters. No reports yet of the graffiti inspired by the coloured ink in the 1980s, when township walls proudly proclaimed: "The Purple Shall Govern." PUR_ple

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"US Court: Communities Can Judge Cyber-Porn"
by Deranged Mutant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From LI Newsday, 2/16/96, p. A32: "US Court: Communities Can Judge Cyber-Porn" [Combined News Services] Memphis, Tenn. - In a court ruling that could have a wide impact on cyberspace, a federal appeals court has decided that every community can judge for itself the obscenity of material downloaded from computer bulletin boards - no matter where those boards are based. That opinion, unless overturned by the US Supreme Courtm coult mean that bulletin board material that might have been at the far edge of acceptable in New York or California could be judged by perhaps more conservative standards if downloaded in Tennessee or Iowa. Rob. --- Send a blank message with the subject "send pgp-key" (not in quotes) to <WlkngOwl(a)unix.asb.com> for a copy of my PGP key.

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Selling-Candy[TM] Politics
by tbyfield＠panix.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 2:18 PM 2/15/96, Bill Frantz wrote: >My purpose on this thread is to examine the limits of Jim Bell's idea of >Assassination Politics. My ground rules are to assume that it is a natural >outgrowth of the technologies of anonymous cash and anonymous remailers. It's a natural outgrowth of Jim Bell's noggin, more like. It has nothing per se to do with anonymous remailers _or_ anonymous cash _or_ double blinding _or_ anything else of much interest to anyone on this list except for a few overheated zealots: you could describe any economic activity you want--including selling candy to children or paying big meanies to steal it from them--with precisely the same protocols. KILL THIS THREAD, NOT POLITICIANS.

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