December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Edited Edupage, 26 May 1996
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"educom(a)educom.unc.edu" 27-MAY-1996 14:46:47.89 From: Edupage Editors <educom(a)educom.unc.edu> >FLAT PC SCREENS HEAD FOR THE DESKTOP >Liquid crystal display screens currently cost about five times that of a >similarly-sized cathode ray tube screen, but that should be changing over >the next couple of years, say LCD makers. Next year, major LCD vendors >expect to halve the difference, bringing prices down to two-and-a-half times >that of CRTs. Analysts say when the difference comes down to that point, >the desktop replacement market could really take off. "CRT replacement is >inevitable, it's just that in the near term there are a lot of hurdles," >says an analyst at Stanford Resources. "The place where it makes the most >sense are with large-screen LCDs." NEC recently unveiled a 20-inch >high-resolution LCD screen with wide-angle viewing designed as a >"CRT-killer" according to a NEC engineer. (Investor's Business Daily 23 May >96 A8) IIRC, LCD screens are considerably harder to read off of by Tempest equipment than normal CRT screens. An encouraging change. >NORTHERN TELECOM PHONES GET JAVATIZED >Northern Telecom plans to incorporate Sun Microsystems' Java microprocessors >and software in a new class of inexpensive "smart" telephones designed to >double as Internet appliances. The move makes Northern Telecom the first >telephone manufacturer to license Java chips for its products. The chips >will be used in its wired PowerTouch phones and its wireless digital phones, >and customer trials should start next year. (Wall Street Journal 23 May 96 >B3) I would guess that these phones would still not be crypto-capable, but I'm not quite sure what they have in mind to use Java in them for. -Allen >*************************************************************** >Edupage ... is what you've just finished reading. To subscribe to Edupage: >send mail to: listproc(a)educom.unc.edu with the message: subscribe edupage >John McCain (if your name is John McCain; otherwise, substitute your own >name). ... To cancel, send a message to: listproc(a)educom.unc.edu with the >message: unsubscribe edupage. (If you have subscription problems, send >mail to educom(a)educom.unc.edu.)

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Public Key for Nymrod
by John A. Perry 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hello Everyone, I forgot to publish the public key for nymrod(a)nym.jpunix.com the other day when I announced the re-birth of the Nymrod nym server. Here it is: - -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.2 mQCNAzGm8g4AAAEEALaIAOXXnpui2Tlf7801sYp968SviYV45qrVpn9dbCxYRlUO 1g/NFHjUDO09NVn3GoWHRKfD81U6mNf+2lSkCDRaiYWysJpjSIspRIX5uZ44vmBx ZcBQzO35jxamJCoxHmVYkDF7IdWutIlmAzjLMdkS3lKJUaEwDqJo4m8yfNopAAUR tDNUaGUgTnltcm9kIFBzZXVkb255bSBTZXJ2ZXIgPG55bXJvZEBueW0uanB1bml4 LmNvbT6JAJUDBRAxpwtzU5OkROGu2G8BAcycA/9rKX7giTJ0FCaBb0ihJxZsGgth FdjmNt6dVh0AJ26CK5EiqehMHXhINcugWmRQY5OcIfhIUI8/ZW/EJpiaky+NWY5b nHmcXlJj07tmAiAa6B8gs8aWH5XyJ9AlEXC5OdhfpTZKFL9fHNceZtJYwABZeD11 KDVrZqCW6lNcw7IqL7QyVGhlIE55bXJvZCBQc2V1ZG9ueW0gU2VydmVyIDxhbGlh c0BueW0uanB1bml4LmNvbT6JAJUDBRAxpwvUU5OkROGu2G8BAZCsA/9sQP71f5YC 4DonpGwKw8vcz4IQ/P8jZEFpbzkJoBIg+PTrTqQZxmzr0Gg4bZn3f+0BIsuqId/U H71thZH7MvxHBQqU+E4oCzy44cmujMQv+BnT44F91ztutPTyyf2KlXEFBBX6ofbf ffJsmWIVkjWMcdnZndHMHuo/8/FxByC+hw== =pbAO - -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- I apologize for any inconvenience. John Perry - KG5RG - perry(a)alpha.jpunix.com - PGP-encrypted e-mail welcome! WWW - http://www.jpunix.com PGP 2.62 key for perry(a)jpunix.com is on the keyservers. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMapEqFOTpEThrthvAQG1awP+N3N6aQc5M8TofwJLPJ8gzKl6y6B6Y/iS 6l+nq0nCE369eWTC2Fgp30ihlLY9FOcg+M1QtVv/SQiozd+vrDaPTXtIQh8OPmw6 RZemfAkNgetIimpA1gNyN8/gLXGhKBnkaFawuNw4FESEyjbQ/IZmV02W4qO4MC9J axN6nfcTFa8= =5g4m -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Philosophy of information ow
by Chris Adams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On 27 May 1996 11:25:28 pdt, m5(a)vail.tivoli.com wrote: >What if I just *see* your couch, and then back in my garage I use my >couch replicator to make a couch just like yours, complete with fuzzballs >and loose change between the cushions? Now I have your couch, in a sense. >Are you still upset? > >When I walked off with your blood chemistry data, did you lose the use >of it for your future purposes? I believe that you are free to keep information, use it, etc. but you MUST get permission before selling it. /* From Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> on a Warped PC running a proudly unregistered (for now) PMMAIL 1.5! The Enigman Group - We do Web Pages! */ This Message Was Sent With An UNREGISTERED Version Of PMMail. Please Encourage Its Author To Register Their Copy Of PMMail. For More Information About PMMail And SouthSide Software's Other Products, Contact http://www.southsoft.com.

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Re: Edited Edupage, 26 May 1996
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"grafolog(a)netcom.com" "jonathon" 27-MAY-1996 20:45:08.30 > Porting PGPhone to JAVA, perhaps? The difficulty is that I don't know if the Java in the phones can actually affect the phone transactions in voice, or just do modem connections using the phones, or just act to handle the phone numbers. -Allen

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Re: Quickremail v1.0b
by loki＠infonex.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 2:28 PM 5/27/96, E. ALLEN SMITH wrote: >From: IN%"markm(a)voicenet.com" "Mark M." 27-MAY-1996 12:57:44.84 > >>On Sun, 26 May 1996, Lance Cottrell wrote: > >>> Which remailers does it install? > >>Mixmaster, and it gives a choice of either installing the Freedom remailer or >>the remailer code written by Matt Ghio. It also has support for reorder >>scripts, but I haven't debugged that part yet. > > What are the major differences between the various Mixmaster remailer >codes, especially in terms of the logistics of running a remailer? I'm >particularly interested in aspects related to A. running one by someone not >particularly familiar with UNIX (e.g., me) and B. a remailer accepting/sending >mail only from/to a limited list of addresses (e.g., only other remailers). > Thanks, > -Allen > >P.S. I'm planning on starting up a remailer, probably on Lance's machine (to >take advantage of his expertise) sometime this summer. I do want to get PGP for >the VAX before then, and the MIT site doesn't appear to have this code. I thing you misunderstood his answer, it installs Mixmaster and also installs either the Ghio or Freedom remailer. There are several flavors of remailer. The most common (but not most popular) are Cypherpunk and Mixmaster. At this time there is only one implementation of Mixmaster, mine. There are several version of the Cypherpunk remailer (A.K.A. Type 1) of which "Ghio" and "Freedom" are two. Mixmaster is known as a Type 2 remailer. Type 1 and type 2 are completely incompatible. -Lance ---------------------------------------------------------- Lance Cottrell loki(a)obscura.com PGP 2.6 key available by finger or server. Mixmaster, the next generation remailer, is now available! http://www.obscura.com/~loki/Welcome.html or FTP to obscura.com "Love is a snowmobile racing across the tundra. Suddenly it flips over, pinning you underneath. At night the ice weasels come." --Nietzsche ----------------------------------------------------------

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Programmable field gate array chips down in price
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

What were the estimates people were giving for the cost of an array to crack current credit card over the Net encryption? -Allen > XILINX SLASHES PRICES OF FIELD GATE ARRAY CHIPS, UPS PERFORMANCE > __________________________________________________________________________ > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net > Copyright &copy 1996 Bloomberg > SAN JOSE, Calif. (May 27, 1996 12:53 p.m. EDT) -- Xilinx Inc. said it > will slash the price of some of its programmable microchips by as much > as 53 percent over the next 12 months. > Xilinx said a new manufacturing process also will allow it to increase > performance of the chips, known as field programmable gate arrays, > which are found in a variety of complex electronic devices. > Xilinx said that by the end of the year, it expects to be selling its > XC5202 field programmable gate arrays for $5 apiece, down 44 percent > from an earlier projected price of $9. That price should decline to > $4.50 by mid-1997, Xilinx said. > The San Jose, California-based semiconductor maker said it also will > trim prices of more expensive gate arrays by as much as 53 percent, > bringing XC5210, for example, to $18 in mid-1997 from a current price > of $38. > The price cuts are for customers who purchase thousands of gate arrays > at a time. [...] > Xilinx pioneered the development of programmable chips, which are > found in complex devices such as networking and telecommunications > equipment utilizing Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) technology. Its > revenue increased 58 percent to $560.8 million in the fiscal year > ended March 31, in the face of steadily falling chip prices, as the > company's products found uses in a growing number of devices.

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MIN_ers
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

New Sci 25 May 1996: "Panning for data gold." Nowadays nearly every organization from supermarkets to the police can boast a vast mine of electronic data. Separating the gold from the dross is the real challenge. A growing band of computer scientists say they can dig out nuggets of 24-carat knowledge from huge mountains of database dross. They call themselves "data miners", and they are wielding some pretty impressive tools -- information theory, laws of probability, neural networks, tree induction, genetic algoritms, disjunctive normal form logic. But the impact of their efforts is anything but esoteric. By identifying potential new customers -- or ways of hanging on to existing ones -- this information is worth millions in extra revenue. And this is just the start, according to Usama Fayyad of Microsoft Research and co-editor of a new book on data mining. MIN_ers

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Re: [SCARE]: "If you only knew what we know..."
by Jean-Francois Avon 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On 27 May 96 at 21:46, Subir Grewal wrote: > > Oh, you mean, "for them, anybody who pass a judgment of his own > > that :contradict them should be killed" I see... > Glad you noticed that. Now tell me how AP for any other cause is > different? It has similarities. But AP will not be the enforcer of *one* opinion. And, according to Jim Bell, people will realize that the best way to behave is to adopt a low profile. Again, this is where I do not agree with JB, although I cannot say I disagree. I simply do not know. Maybe, since the basis for sustenance of human life is production, and since the majority has to be producers, the majority will endorse more libertarians ideas. But again, maybe Joe Average was so convinced that "the rich" owe him a free lunch that AP will lead to complete destruction of the system. I personnally tend to believe that Joe Average still has some common sense and integrity. JFA PLEASE NOTE: THIS POST DOES NOT MEAN THAT I ENDORSE MR. BELL'S SYSTEM. MY RATIONNAL CONCLUSIONS ABOUT IT'S INTERNAL MECHANICS AND IT'S INTRINSIC LOGICS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I LIKE NOR ENDORSE THE SYSTEM. I SIMPLY CONCLUDED THAT IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO PREVENT THE SYSTEM FROM BEING IMPLEMENTED. IMO, IT IS UNAVOIDABLE. DePompadour, Societe d'Importation Ltee Limoges porcelain, Silverware and mouth blown crystal glasses JFA Technologies, R&D consultants. Physists, technologists and engineers. PGP keys at: http://w3.citenet.net/users/jf_avon ID# C58ADD0D : 529645E8205A8A5E F87CC86FAEFEF891

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Re: [SCARE]: "If you only knew what we know..."
by Jean-Francois Avon 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On 26 May 96 at 21:39, Subir Grewal wrote: > Of course there are those who > fervently believe in the socialist ideal But, my dear, even in the most libertarian or AP-ruled world, they would absolutely free to give away *all* of their salary for the causes they consider valid. Only, thoses who don't agree with them would not be coerced into thoses noble causes. > and would probably feel > justified in killing the do nothing libertarians This paragraph seems to indicate that the only difference between libertarians and socialist is a mere difference of opinion and that everybody is justified to act on their beliefs. But the socialists who pretend that are simply blanking out the fact that *they too* recognize that Reality Is since they want to use force to get a lunch out of the mouth of somebody who have one (and who happened to produce it himself) to put it in the mouth of another who didn't have. Therefore, it is OK to deny reality when somebody come up with arguements against socialism, but it is darn convenient to use it (in the form of a loaded gun...) > (as opposed to > old-style liberals, i.e. minimalists) who ostensibly form the state. BTW, they do not "ostensibly" form the state. They simply *do*not*coerce* individuals into being sacrificial animals for the unearned benefits of others... > For them, inaction might be sufficient cause to initiate an AP > campaign. Oh, you mean, "for them, anybody who pass a judgment of his own that contradict them should be killed" I see... > I'd prefer a system that doesn't "target" people at all. I'd prefer a pink elephant with wings. Do you think that govt does not target peoples? > One of the fundamental principles of justice is that it be > comensurate (in some sense) to the crime, AP lacks that aspect. > "Final solutions" are all it has, but final solutions aren't always > desireable. JB seem to agree with the view that turning our most productive individuals into sacrificial animals for the benefit of the less productive is not exactly a kind thing to do. I tend to agree. To say "commensurate" means that you must quantify various things in their proper context. I invite you to do so. > The question is not one of becoming a dictator, but rather one of > what values will be protected, what freedoms will people have in the > world/state you imagine. I think the values AP engenders are not > the ones we want. We probably don't want to legitimize murder. It does not legitimates murder per se. I don't think that JB ever said that murder was legitimate. He only explained that the technology makes it inevitable to happens and that he believes that the outcome will be a better society. You will note that to the act of murdering, he opposed many other actions, including many that leads to direct loss of lives. He claims that the positives will outnumber the negatives. As to the morality, by your own standards, of starting a "Vietnam" war, I suppose it is highly questionnable, or so you seems to indicate. > It's difficult to operate in a vacuum of principles/values, we can't > simply say, "well whatever people will want to happen will happen > and why not give them that choice". Jim Bell does not believe that AP will evolve in a moral vacuum. On the contrary (and most collectivists think he is wrong), I think he believes that human beings have an intrinsic sense of justice and that this will prevail. > Marx was not the first to poitn > out that institutions influence our actions, that we are products of > our times, that the choices we face are as much determined by our > own preferences as they are by the world around us. Well, of course, our perception of reality is context dependent. But you seems to attempt to hint that truth is relative because knowledge is contextual. It looks like an attempt on reason. > :and who would want to take any politician's > :place? > Only the fanatic I think that by the nature of AP, this would be ruled out. Maybe there would be a fanatic president, but he would preside nothing because nobody would be there to enforce his fanatic views. > As I've said, the minimalist state is desireable in my opinion. The > most efficient system of taxation is the truly flat tax (i.e. a > fixed amount for each individual), since each person derives aprox. > equivalent benefits from the minimalist state, their contributions > are also equal. Each of us derives some benefits from the existence > of the state, some of these benefits are non-exclusionary. Till > these benefits are dependent on territory and jurisdiction taxation > of those who reside within the jurisdiction/territory will have to > be enforced. That is absolute BS. It might have been true before, but with the advent of the net and of computers and smart cards, it is becoming a fallacy. If Visa or Mastercard can operate on a voluntary basis, the govt could also do it. The technology makes it possible that any individual who wish to subscribe to any of the various insurances the govt could offer might do so. Including contributions to finance museums, research projects, etc. And mandatory taxes could be enforced in period of emergencies like wars, if ever they happens. The population seems to have a very short memory: Before the great wars, there was *no* income tax. It is mainly with the advent of socialism, coinciding with the nuclear era, that the taxes were hiked to the level they are now. Johnson blew up whatever Eisehower tried to do. Of course, it started before them but Eisehower tried to get back to the old system. I guess what defeated him what that too many poeples longed for a free lunch... Anyhow, we have the technology to institutes a card that would give access to most services like health care, unemployement insurance, etc. Why don't they put it in place? [Cypherpunkishstuff] Hey guys, could you believe it? I actually closed a post with some tiny relevance to CP! Gee, my brain must have skipped a few cpu cycles! JFA I am not subscribing to CP. For me to read you, you must cc to me directly. DePompadour, Societe d'Importation Ltee; Limoges porcelain, silverware and crystal JFA Technologies, R&D consultants: physicists, technologists and engineers. PGP keys at: http://w3.citenet.net/users/jf_avon ID# C58ADD0D : 529645E8205A8A5E F87CC86FAEFEF891 I reserve the right to post publicly any private e-mail sent to me. Unsollicited commercial e-mail will be proofread at US165 $/h Any sender of such material will be considered as to have ac- cepted the above mentionned terms.

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SEM_tex
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

New Sci 25 May 1996: "Forensic lab awash with Semtex." Just 5 nanograms of RDX -- one of the ingredients in Semtex -- is enough to link a suspected terrorist to a bombing. Yet the DERA forensic laboratory that carries out tests in many high-profile terrorist cases frequently finds more than this on its floor. "It's horrifying," says an independent forensic scientist who specialises in explosives cases. "They seem to have been getting contamination all the time." In contrast, forensic experts frequently say that the Forensic Science Agency in Northern Ireland has the most thorough precautions against contamination. The agency moved to a new laboratory in 1992 after the IRA blew up its old one. SEM_tex

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