December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: NYT on NTT/RSA Chips
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 04:45 AM 6/5/96 -0400, Peter D. Junger wrote: >The software for both DES and RSA are publically available so it would >not have solved any previously unsolved problem for someone to have >mailed the code--or the algorithms--to NTT. Here's something to think about: At this point, the USG apparently doesn't attempt to restrict the IMPORTATION of crypto software and hardware. Yet, it calls it "munitions" and the government certainly claims the authority under certain circumstances to restrict munitions imports: For example, automatic rifles and Chinese "assault weapons" (sic). Until this new NTT/RSA chip, there has not been much that the USG wanted to keep out that it could keep out. Software is easily copied, so that is futile. Hardware is more practical to restrict, but until substantial quantities are imported it doesn't constitute much of a threat. Wouldn't it be reasonable to suspect that the advent of this NTT chip set might induce the government to start restricting crypto hardware import, under some odd new interpretation of ITAR rules? If so, I think NTT should immediately import into the US the database for the design and testing of this chip, on the offchance that the USG gets uppity and decides to ban its import. At that point, they merely start manufacture domestically, supplying the domestic market. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Re: MELP: 2400 baud speech coding
by Sandy Sandfort 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ SANDY SANDFORT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ C'punks, At 08:28 PM 6/4/96 -0800, jim bell wrote: >Which raises another question: When are Internet ISP's >going to start acting as Internet-phone gateways?...Any >guesses as to when this will be real? After Jim Bell has shot a few recalcitrant ISP operators? S a n d y ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: Richard Stallman on RSA, Zimmermann, crypto
by Hallam-Baker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Deranged Mutant wrote: > > Not to defend or condemn RSA folx or patents, etc., but sometime ago > (recently) I read or was told or perhaps hallucinated that PGP3 was > going to include non-RSA algorithms that didn't suffer the patent > stickiness (El Gammel based on DSA?) DSA is based on El-Gamal, not the other way round. Although it is likely that a future version of PGP will include these algorithms the problem arises from the Diffie-Helleman patent and not the RSA patent. When this expires in 1997 it is certain that many products using public key cryptosystems will be avaliable in an unrestricted fashion. Phill

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URL for NRC Report, html
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Thanks to Replay Web Development, the URL for NRC Report on "Cryptography's Role in Securing the Information Society" has been html-ed: http://pwp.usa.pipeline.com/~jya/nrcindex.htm

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A.Word.A.Day--seigniorage
by Joseph M. Reagle Jr. 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From: Wordsmith <wsmith(a)wordsmith.org> >To: linguaphile(a)wordsmith.org >Reply-To: anu(a)wordsmith.org >Subject: A.Word.A.Day--seigniorage >Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1996 00:51:14 -0400 > >sei.gnior.age or sei.gnor.age \'sa-n-y*-rij\ n [ME seigneurage, fr. MF, > right of the lord (esp. to coin money), fr. s]eigneur : a government > revenue from the manufacture of coins calculated as the difference between > the monetary and the bullion value of the silver contained in silver coins > > > 1996 MARK BERNKOPF, Electronic Cash and Monetary Policy, > "The widespread adoption of electronic cash would deprive Federal > authorities of a substantial amount of seignorage, the margin > between the face value of currency issued, and the costs of issuing > that currency. In 1994, the Federal Reserve turned about $20 billion > in seignorage over to the Treasury." > > >........................................................................... >When you starve with a tiger, the tiger starves last. -Griffin's Thought > >To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send a message to wsmith(a)wordsmith.org >with "Subject:" line as "subscribe <Your Real Name>" or "unsubscribe". >Email anu(a)wordsmith.org if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. >Archives, FAQ, words and more at the WWW site: http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/ > > _______________________ Regards, Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present. - Albert Camus Joseph Reagle http://farnsworth.mit.edu/~reagle/home.html reagle(a)mit.edu E0 D5 B2 05 B6 12 DA 65 BE 4D E3 C1 6A 66 25 4E

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Re: whitehouse web incident, viva la web revolution
by Hallam-Baker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Vladimir Z. Nuri wrote: <Uninformed crap> Its worth pointing out that a complaint to an editor is not necessarily pressure. Did the Whitehouse threaten to sue HotWired? What _pressure_ was applied? I find Meeks' style somewhat tiresome. It is tabloid jornalism rather than reasoned argument. His dislike for the Clinton is well known - he recently accused the administration of being fascist. I know of no evidence that the Clinton administration has a genocide policy, it is an insult to the 10 million civilians murdered by Hitler to use the term facist simply as a term of abuse, especialy if it is being used as a substitute for an argument. Point of fact: the skeleton closet does not know how traded options work. If one sells a traded option one is liable to pay the broker if the market moves the opposite way to that hoped for. Normally the broker asks a client to put up a deposit or "margin" to ensure that the broker can recoup the money. In this case the broker knew that Hilary had good credit and so accepted only a token deposit as "margin". Had the market moved in the opposite direction Hillary would have been liable for very much more than $1000, she was liable for hundreds of thousands. In most cases it is profitable to sell options, it is only if the market moves in the "wrong" direction that one can lose out. In such cases the losses are unlimited - the potential profit being fixed. This is why most punters buy options - the potential loss is limited. You can see a similar effect in the market each time there is a "short squeeze". A lot of people bet on Netscape going down in price because it was overvalued. The number of short positions turned out to be higher than the number of shares on offer which meant that many people were having to buy shares at high prices to cover their positions. This is how lack of confidence in a stock can send it through the roof. The free market - don't you just love it? Phill

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OECD on Crypto
by Mixmaster 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[haven't seen this on cypherpunks yet] OECD NEWS RELEASE - Paris, 10 May 1996 OECD EXPERTS BEGIN DRAFTING CRYPTOGRAPHY GUIDELINES Cryptography experts from OECD countries have begun drafting a proposal for OECD Cryptography Policy Guidelines that governments can use as a guide to formulate their national policies on encryption. Many governments are under pressure within their own countries to develop a national position on cryptography, which is used in computer technology to protect everything from product designs to health and tax records and global correspondence. But the needs of global technologies and applications require an international --rather than a strictly national -- approach to policymaking. The fast-paced development of the Global Information Infrastructure adds an element of urgency. The business community, individuals and national security and law enforcement agencies are all pressing for encryption guidelines and the OECD will strive to reflect the legitimate interests of all these groups as it drafts Guidelines. The private sector is closely involved in drafting the Guidelines, with business representatives from the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) participating at the meeting. The OECD meeting, which took place on 8 May, was hosted by the US Department of State in Washington DC. It was held immediately after a Second Business Government Forum on Global Cryptography Policy in Washington DC on 7 May, which was cosponsored by the OECD, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Business and Industry Advisory Committee (BIAC) to the OECD. Two similar conferences took place in Paris in December, when OECD countries and business representatives met for the first time to discuss international cryptography policy. The process of drafting the OECD Cryptography Policy Guidelines will continue at an experts meeting in June and is due for completion in early 1997. For further information, please contact Ms. Hiroko Kamata, OECD Directorate for Science, Technology and Industry (tel. 331 45 24 80 04 - fax. 331 45 24 93 32 - e-mail. hiroko.kamata(a)oecd.org)

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Re: Java
by minow＠apple.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> From Tim May's citation of Vladimir Z. Nuri: > >> maybe Java is all about a generation >>gap in computing. hey!! the first language that the "older generation" >>hates. Better try another language, I'm quite a bit older than Tim, and like Java very much. It's one of the best languages I've seen since Algol 60. To learn the language, I'd recommend Java in 21 Days and, as a quick desk reference, Java in a Nutshell. Tim May writes > I think >the security problems are, first of all, no worse vis-a-vis the language >itself than problems with any language. They're better than most, as programmers can't "escape" from memory and variable typing bounds. > >Until Java and >associated programs and tools appeared, I was seriously thinking about >getting a Pentium or Pentium Pro (shudder, even though I admire my former >employer and current stock benefactor, Intel) and putting Linux on it. If you're interested in Linux, you can get Linux for Power PC. Check out http://www.mklinux.apple.com for details. Currently, it runs on the first-generation Power PC's (6100, 7100, 8100). > >Perry has some valid points vis-a-vis the most naive uses of applets. Were >I the security manager of Morgan Stanley, I would certainly not want >traders downloading "kewl" applets and (possibly) causing Big Problems. So >what else is new? The use of signed classes makes this practical as "kewl," but unsigned, applets should be safe unless the user makes a stupid decision regarding default applet permissions (and ignoring the Trojan Horse problem). The attraction to (for example) Morgan Stanley, is that it minimizes their risk when employees must work outside the corporate firewall. For example, an employee making an external sales call can dial into Morgan Stanley and use an appropriately privileged signed applet to access private data on the corporate server as well as files on the employee's portable computer). > >Java as a language and as a platform-independent implementation is an >achievement. It's also not owned by the evil Redmond empire and does not appear to be owned by a hardware vendor (as, when compared with Intel, Motorola, and the Intel clones, Sun is a minor player in the hardware arena). It will be very interesting to see what happens when ANSI/ISO/IEEE decide that they must "standardize" the language. I'm currently reading "The Hubble Wars" and don't hold out mush hope that the official standard dies will actually improve the language. > >And in some ways a more important comparison is to Perl and TCL, along with >more obscure languages like Python and REXX. The welter of Net-oriented >languages shows signs of being much-simplified by the wide adoption of >Java. It will be interesting to watch the next several years of >developments. > Rather than compare Java to Perl/TCL, try comparing it to Visual Basic, C, C++, Fortran, and COBOL. Martin Minow minow(a)apple.com

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re: Fight-Censorship Dispatch #12: CDA deathwatch, copyright update
by minow＠apple.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In "Fight-Censorship Dispatch #12", Declan McCullagh writes about "everybody's favorite net.loon," Fred Cherry: >Whatever you think of Cherry's antics, you gotta grant him one thing > not many people have the balls to demand that a Federal court uphold > their right to flame. I suspect that Tom Payne would -- Cherry seems from your description to be a prize example of "the lonely pamphleteer." It would be interesting to know what Nat Hentoff thinks of Fred. Martin Minow minow(a)apple.com

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Norton Eyes only
by A5113643667＠attpls.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Dear Cypherpunks, Has anyone been able to analyse the 'patent pending', 'on-the-fly' encryption in Norton's 'For your eyes only'? Peace.. Tom

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