December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Transitive trust and MLM
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"eli+(a)GS160.SP.CS.CMU.EDU" 10-MAY-1996 17:48:49.87 >Each signature has an /a priori/ probability p of correctly indicating >validity, but these probilities are not independent at all: this key >isn't valid, period. If one certifying signature is incorrect, all >others on the same key must be, and vice versa -- about as correlated >as they come. The different paths going through those different signatures will be correlated/non-independent, yes.... but that isn't the problem unless you're considering multiple paths (in a more complicated version). >To limit transitivity, constrain the path length. This limits key >reachability too, but I think we agree that it's essential in the real >world. (It should also make the math simpler!) The model generalizes >to non-binary conceptions of trust, but I don't think these can >rehabilitate transitivity. Hmm, there are some possible approaches, >though. IIRC, there have been some sociological studies showing that _everyone_ is linked through 6 or so people. Now, there's the question of whether you _need_ to be linked to _everyone_ - just everyone with whom you want to do business (e.g., excluding authoritarian types doing a sting). It does come back to the elite vs masses distinction; I see nothing wrong (and am in favor of) separation of the elite from the masses. -Allen

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Re: Edited Edupage, 9 May 1996
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:08 PM 5/9/96 EDT, E. ALLEN SMITH wrote: >From: IN%"educom(a)elanor.oit.unc.edu" 9-MAY-1996 22:01:14.77 > >>REGIONAL BELLS WANT RATE HIKES FOR WIRING SCHOOLS >>The United States Telephone Association would like to raise the average U.S. >>monthly phone bill by about $10 over the next five years to pay for wiring >>schools and libraries with new lines for phones and computers, and to >>subsidize poor and rural customers. The proposal assumes an $11 billion >>cost for wiring schools and libraries, with local phone companies paying >>about a third to a half of that. The rest would come from a surcharge on >>other services, such as cellular. "No single industry should be held >>responsible for fulfilling this major goal," says USTA's president. "Each >>has a role and should make a significant contribution to the national >>education technology mandate." (Investor's Business Daily 8 May 96 A7) > > The "subsidize poor and rural customers" line makes me glad I don't >have a phone line. As might be expected, the math on this just doesn't seem to work out. If we assume that the average school has 500 students, and 1/2 of the telephone-using households have at least one kid in school (on average) then 1000 telephone households at $120 extra per year, or $120,000 per school, is available to wire it. That's a HELL of a lot of wire!!! And that's just for a single year. Why not just teach a few high school students wiring, pay them 2x the minimum wage, and give them a good summer job doing the wiring? As for subsidizing rural customers... Why not just install a cellular telephone site in an area that's too dispersed for efficient wireline telephones? And most of these people are probably already in an area served by cellular. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Clinton Administration against Internet Phone regulation
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Of course, there's the question of whether they'd have the same opinion on services routing stuff from the Internet to phones & vice-versa. Still, it's nice to see them having a bit of sense. -Allen >White House: No Need To Regulate Voice software > WASHINGTON - The Clinton administration has recommended that the > Federal Communications Commission not regulate firms that sell > software that enables voice communications by users of the Internet. > The Commerce Department letter to FCC Chairman Reed Hundt was in [...] > Larry Irving, head of the department's National Telecommunications and > Information Administration, argued that the software companies that > are the object of ACTA's petition provide no communications services, > but merely offer goods that enable individuals to engage in voice > communications. > Irving said those companies "are no more providing > telecommunications services than are the vendors of the telephone > handsets, fax machines and other customer premises equipment that make > communications possible." > Copyright, Reuters Ltd. All rights reserved

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C'punks on c|net
by corey＠hedgehog.mcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I haven't been able to plow through the C'punks mail in a while, so I don't know if the small news broke that I mentioned this list on TV. For what it's worth, here's what happened: At the c|net Awards for Internet Excellence last week, Netscape won for best server. David Pann (marketing), Mike McCool (engineering), and I (documentation/user interface) accepted on behalf of the company. We each got a chance to make acceptance speeches. (It was tres Academy Awards.) My speech was as follows: "I'll keep this short. I'd like to thank the Cypherpunks for their eternal vigilance." Which was received by the audience with a collective gasp. The live event was simulcast on the Web, and the TV version was shown over the weekend on the TV show "c|net Central." Corey Bridges Netscape Communications Corporation http://home.netscape.com/people/corey 415-937-2978 (New number!)

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[hrdware] anti-Tempest video settings
by Jean-Francois Avon 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi again. Is there anybody that have any idea about a color setting that would make it more difficult to detect by a Tempest attack? (I assume that Tempest cannot discriminate between various color guns and signals in the monitor... Maybe I am completely wrong...) Like, for example : background: G255 B0 R0 text: G0 B255 R0 Theses colors are not that bad to look at. I realize that Tempest is sensitive to actual electrical values rather than logical values. Anybody has any idea about settings that could fool Tempest? Crypto Relevancy: I was writing a passphrase file to later be secsplitted and I suddenly got all sweaty and nervous ... :-) Ciao all JFA PGP key ID# C58ADD0D at: http://w3.citenet.net/users/jf_avon Key Fingerprint: 529645E8205A8A5E F87CC86FAEFEF891 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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Re: Why I Pay Too Much in Taxes
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"frissell(a)panix.com" "Duncan Frissell" 10-MAY-1996 19:11:58.23 >Such a list could be published openly in any case since discussing >techniques of tax fraud is legal. Even advocay would be legal in almost all >cases. (Since tax fraud is a non-violent crime, you don't have any of these >'agitating an angry mob' scenarios.) As long as you avoided conspiring with >anyone, you can discuss techniques all you like. Some *participants* might >like to subscribe anonymously however. There are, however, some possible difficulties with this. A. If the Feds know about some scheme, they are more likely to be able to thwart it. The extent to which this is true, of course, depends on the method(s) being used. B. Sting operations. These are arguments for the list being closed in format, with some form of security check. The major problem with this is that the security check will break the anonymnity of participants... you may not want to trust whoever is doing the checking, even if they're public (as they should be for this). -Allen

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Open Group issues first new Internet security standards
by Lou Zirko 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Date: Fri May 10 18:35:00 1996 Story at: http://www.infoworld.com/cgi-bin/displayStory.pl?960510.opengroup.htm Lou Zirko Lou Zirko (502)383-2175 Zystems lzirko(a)isdn.net "We're all bozos on this bus" - Nick Danger, Third Eye -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: noconv iQEVAwUBMZPS9BKvccEAmlQ9AQF11Af+ICe2kFCFVo7oxTD6q5BTikFxlITSNwrS q88PturM07k788l0CgHEXR+GV4dyNB24Xgi2ZViyfOPeTHuKtVmpdr9w3T46Lo8d ixtuKWqpjY4W8n39LU8WlR6ULja43Qb9jPCal2AcXJALAdm/D72NVrr4ATwItYOI KeibIIevzTj68Un1/sEmlEQik1sqmMdNvEr4M3ePBnEhvbgjl7gk8T/XBPVjHMes 0e/gLtTbQ5WzuzC/rmpyoMBR20KUp83wSq5F1OtNTv33rmwhF08ZJdH/InO+L006 oLOVdeqBh/eB3ae2dpV3aApQMa3QNpHTgL9D1sokfoXdMZYt+MxJgg== =IfyX -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: will the real Irving J. Schlublutz please stand up? was: Senator Leahy's Public Key
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ C'punks, >On Thu, 9 May 1996, Timothy C. May wrote: >i think a related point is one we all know well, that being if there is a >will, there is a way.. we've seen it with phoney physicians and >specialists, even, with certificates and physicians' licenses.. if someone >wants to intercept corespondence and impersonate another person, it is >easy enough if that person has the time and impetus.. When I was a teenager I read /The Great Impostor/, the autobiography of Fred Demara(sp?). It was an eye-opener. Demara posed as all sorts of people. He didn't read any books on the subject of identity, he just invented his own techniques. Because he was always learning, he was always getting caught. Each failure, however, just made his next effort that much better. Read it if you can find it; it's facinating. S a n d y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: Remailer in a box
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I've been able to locate the following on the Web in regards to fax and voicemail to Internet. The first is the one you were thinking of; the third was mailed to me by a helpful individual (thanks). http://www.faxweb.net/ Allows 1/4 size web page looking, then download full via special software for Windows. Not sure why demands special software to do the web page - should be able to download normally then auto-delete (or charge more for memory space usage). Email used for notification. Requires a credit card. http://www.jfax.net/ Emails you with a compressed file containing the fax. JFAX software for Windows or Mac used to decompress it. Requires a credit card. http://www.vix.com/hylafax/ Software to enable fax reception and translation either into PostScript or TIFF/S (sp?). This may be the most practical for anonymous use; can TIFF/S and Postscript be easily translated into a jpg or gif file? Those are the easiest viewers to locate. -Allen

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Re: PGP, Inc.
by timd＠consensus.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 5:48 PM 5/10/96, Dan Weinstein wrote: >On Fri, 10 May 1996 10:22:24 -0700, timd(a)consensus.com wrote: >> >>The only effort they make is that when using the email-based CA, it mails >>the certificate to the address within, so it's not trivial to get a cert >>for an address that you don't have access to. (I'm not saying it's >>impossible, or even hard, just that it requires some skill and effort). > >I don't believe this is correct. They send you information after you >have created the cert verifying that you set it up, but nothing >requires a response and the key is transfered via http. If you'll examine my message, you'll see I was referring to the email-based S/MIME class 1 CA. Best, - Tim Dierks Tim Dierks -- timd(a)consensus.com -- www.consensus.com Head of Thing-u-ma-jig Engineering, Consensus Development

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