December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: ABC News on internet telephony
by john (j.) brothers 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In message "ABC News on internet telephony", you write: > > General topic of internet telephony > There's something fundamental going on here beneath the surface. > Surprisingly, a recent item (maybe the one you reported) on this suggests > that the big phone companies are trying to use this phenomenon rather than > stop it. I think it was AT&T Sprint has also come out in favor of the internet phone. > This is the rankest speculation on my part, but could some of the bigger, > smarter phone company cum internet providers have done some serious > analysis and concluded that we're moving away from distance-based rates for > voice calls. I will weigh in with my own stinky speculation: Sprint, MCI and AT&T (and possibly LDDS) own pretty much the entire commercial network physically. Every other long distance company leases lines from the big 3 (or 4,etc) and resells them, except for certain very specific points. And the Internet phone has pretty much given them the chance to drive their competitors out of business if it succeeds. After all, there is a constant demand for internet bandwidth. Every T3 they pull out of long distance services is a T3 they can throw into data services. It gives them a real cost savings compared to installing another high bandwidth backbone. They'll lose money from their customers who switch too, but those three are the ones with the lion's share of business lines, which won't be switching to Inet phone anytime soon. and they gain all the business customers who leave the dying small companies. And yes, fixed rate will be the way to go, especially for small bandwidth applications. Bandwidth is exploding - 1 Terabit optical networks have been created. A single phone line becomes miniscule. Now, if you want a much bigger pipe, they might charge you per hour for that. The thing I find second most interesting about this is how the large companies are fighting regulation, while the small ones are demanding it. That is a big change from yesteryear. And I know that AT&T has benefitted in a major way from gov't regulation in the past, but that doesn't make it right for it to be applied now.

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Re: Responding to Pre-dawn Unannounced Ninja Raids [Noise]
by JonWienk＠ix.netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I personally keep a Desert Eagle .44 Magnum (66 oz empty, 8+1 capacity, semi-auto,) with +P+ 240 grain FMJSP hunting loads. It's not just a gun, it's an adventure. :) Even if it doesn't penetrate body armor, the impact will knock anyone entering entering through your window at 0400 on their duff long enough for a follow-up shot or two to finish the job. This is in addition to a 12-gage pump shotgun and an M-1 carbine. Jonathan Wienke "1935 will go down in history! For the first time a civilized nation has full gun registration! Our streets will be safer, our police more efficient, and the world will follow our lead in the future!" --Adolf Hitler "46. The U.S. government declares a ban on the possession, sale, transportation, and transfer of all non-sporting firearms. ...Consider the following statement: I would fire upon U.S. citizens who refuse or resist confiscation of firearms banned by the U.S. government." --The 29 Palms Combat Arms Survey http://www.ksfo560.com/Personalities/Palms.htm 1935 Germany = 1996 U.S.? Key fingerprint = 30 F9 85 7F D2 75 4B C6 BC 79 87 3D 99 21 50 CB

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********Apology**********
by Charles Senescall 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

To the dozens of people subject to a careless error on my part and who would have received bounced mail from me I apologise. I have fixed the error. Sorry.

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No Subject
by anonymous-remailer＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hello! Sorry for the off topic. I want to ask how to install Netscape3.0b5a under NT. I keep getting "Netscape is unable to locate the server: home.netscape.com. The server does not have a DNS entry." Thanks

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Periodic Mix-to-DOS Port Inquiry
by kdf＠gigo.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

(Please reply via netmail - I haven't regular list access.) Is Mixmaster ported to DOS yet? Thanks... -- : Fidonet: John Erland 1:203/8055.12 .. speaking for only myself. : Internet: kdf(a)gigo.com

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Re: MSNBC and cookies
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 4:25 AM 7/19/96, Joel McNamara wrote: >In attempting to check out different Net media coverage of TWA 800, it >appears the msnbc.com site won't let you in without a cookie. Repeated >cookie cancels with Navigator 3.0 drop you into an indigestive loop of the >server continuing to try to force feed you cookies. When you finally click >OK, you get in. > >Am I spacing, or is this the first site anyone's stumbled on that requires a >cookie for access? I've never been shut out of a site for canceling a >cookie. The first cookie request does have a user ID field. If the server >(or client) isn't misbehaving, this seems like a wee bit of a privacy issue. > >I tried accessing the page (http://www.msnbc.com) on 7/18/96 around 9:15 PM >PDT. Anyone care to confirm this. Microsoft and GE, the parent corporation of NBC, are participants in the FBI's "Web Awareness Program." Like the FBI's "Library Awareness Program," which tracked which books were being checked out by which patrons, the Web Awareness Program tracks user interests at Web sites. The WAP has already allowed the FBI and other intelligence agencies to check up on several people who appeared to have an unusual interest in the TWA 800 case. (Don't spend too much time in certain sites, friends.) --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: Responding to Pre-dawn Unannounced Ninja Raids
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 2:27 AM 7/19/96, Igor Chudov @ home wrote: >Sandy Sandfort wrote: >> >> > If you had a metal door, you would have enough time to wake up >> > and assess the situation. >> >> This is good advice though. Ironically, the only person I know >> with such a door is an ex-cop. Who should know better? > >That was the essense of my letter. The problem of Tim's approach is that >he has no time to react to a situation. The intruders will kill him >faster than he will be able to shoot. Look, I took this discussion to private e-mail with Igor earlier today, figuring the rest of you had already gotten my basic point in my main article and did not need further explanations. However, as Igor is imputing motives and plans to me, I have to comment. First, as I explained to Igor in e-mail, my home has _multiple_ (7 or 8) windows on the ground floor, several (3) sliding glass doors, and a couple of outside doors. The expense of fortifying each to Igor-recommended, Ninja-resistant levels would be quite high. (And I have seen houses with bars on all the windows...not a pretty sight, and not something I moved to my hill to turn around and imprison myself with. Not only are such bars ugly, they are expensive. And a potential fire hazard, as several cases have shown; people have been trapped in burning homes, unable to unlock the bars.) Second, and in line with Sandy's comments, I am quite aware--and quite careful--when visitors or guests are staying in my home. The scenario of my not realizing a noisemaker is one of my guests is implausible. In any case, most of the time I have no guests. Those who train with guns understand the dangers, the risks, and the proper handling of situations. Third, there are no plausible scenarios for "someone peaceful who entered your home with good intentions." If someone is in my home, uninvited and without my knowledge, the law in California and in most other states says that I am justified in firing. Period. I don't have to read him his rights, I don't have to ask if his intentions are peaceful, I don't have to have proof that he plans to shoot me. All I have to have is reasonable fear that I or my family/guests could be in danger. (The exact legal wording is something like this, but may be slightly different.) I know of few if any cases where a prowler was shot in a darkened house--or even during daylight--and any successful prosecution or lawsuit resulted. Fourth, the huge increase in "home invasions" in recent years should cause anyone to stop and ponder self-protection. ("Home invasion" is the practice of a gang of robbers hitting a house hard and fast, tying up or shooting the occupants, and then ransacking the place for anything they can carry. Often the occupants are shot execution-style.) Cops are not likely to be of much help. Fifth, when intruders, robbers, wandering drunks, and home invaders think there is no chance of a homeowner defending himself, crime rates tend to be high. In communities of the West where large percentages of homeowners have shotguns and assorted handguns, the crime rate appears to be much lower than in "disarmed" places back East. (We could argue the statistics on this til the cows come home, and I don't plan to. Talk.politics.guns is the place.) >Also, do not forget that if you sleep at night, your eyes will not be >used to bright light. Thus, an intruder with a bright flashlight would >be able to make you almost blind (and yes, you can keep the flashlight >away from your body). Your point being? I have no idea if intruders are planning to use flashlights to blind victims, but I rather doubt it. The nature of the most common intruder-defender situation is that the intruder typically does not want to awaken the defender...indeed, he tries to strike when he thinks the defender is away. (And most cases of intruders killing the defenders is when the defenders surprise the intruders.) Obviously there are all kinds of scenarios, but I'm skeptical that flashlights are a useful strategem for either side to count on. (I am thinking about getting a ultra-bright flashlight, though.) >I of course have no idea about Tim's accommodations, but in my apartment >it takes about one second to break into my door if you have a heavy axe. >Then three seconds after you break into the door you are in my bedroom and >can shoot at me. Would a gun under my pillow help? I don't think so. The good news for we defenders, and this applies to both the gun case and the hypothesized "flashlight" case is that most intruders are poorly trained in gun-handling, are armed with fairly wimpy guns (e.g., .38s), have practiced very little, and rarely carry high-power flashlights (such as the extremely bright "Sure-Fire" tactical flashlights). Cops are, of course, another story. The point being that a citizen who practices at the range, firing at least 500 rounds a year or so at combat-range targets, is usually _much_ better-prepared to win a firefight with a street punk carrying a .38 or .25 he's never fired before. (Ninjas are another story, of course.) (However, to a person who is unarmed, a shot from a .38 or a .25, or even a .22, can result in death.) >Now if I had a good door, I would have tim to wake up, cock the gun, >maybe call for help, and so on. Quite a different situation. Yeah, fine, you've now made your "good door" point several times, here and in private mail to me. So get a "good door" already! (BTW, my door is a solid-core heavy door, with Schlage lock and deadbolt, so it ain't wimpy. Ninjas have special tools to zap even such doors, but, frankly, I'd expect them to come in through the windows. As I said, I don't plan to spend thousands of dollars installing Lexan windows and bars, for various reasons. And windows are almost always the point of entry for burglars, not crashing through the front door.) >If you do not believe me, refer to the rec.guns FAQ. It has all >been discussed there. Puh-leese! As Perry would say, don't teach Grandpa how to suck eggs. I've been shooting since 1974 (not counting childhood target practice) and am pretty well-versed in such things. >I am not asking Tim to get rid of his gun -- I am merely suggesting >how to _improve_ security. Yeah, but you have a one-track mind ("get a good door"). And bringing in all the nonsense about bad dreams and sleepwalkers and lawsuits by people strolling through living rooms for "peaceful purposes" (though not invited by the owner!) and the like...this set of nonsense can only be interpreted in the context of your thinking that having guns in a house is dangerous. Do as you wish, Igor. Please, by all means, replace your apartment door with a heavier one, even a steel-core one. But don't conflate this advice with nonsense about dreams, sleepwalkers, getting arrested for defending a home, and suchlike. --Tim May Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software! We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Licensed Ontologist | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: New Infowarfare Panel
by Llywarch Hen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>I'm certainly not saying "information warfare" is impossible--for example, >I did some work in the late 70s for DARPA on knocking out satellites with >particle beam weapons. Specifically ... There is an interesting document at http://www.rand.org/publications/electronic/. _Strategic Information Warfare: A New Face of War_, by Roger C. Molander, Andrew S. Riddile, and Peter A. Wilson. -- Llywarch Hen

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Re: Responding to Pre-dawn Unannounced Ninja Raids
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:19 AM 7/19/96 -0700, Sandy Sandfort wrote: >> >[In California] anyone found in your house at night is >> >presumptively a threat to which you may respond with deadly >> >force. Shoot on sight, in other words. > >To which Cerridwyn responded: > >> I find it hard to believe "anyone". If "anyone" happens to be >> law enforcement, as has been proven again and again: yer screwed >> no matter what (either dead or in jail forever). > >Hard to believe or not, that's the presumption. Now in law, >it's a rebuttable presumption, but it's still a get-out-of-jail >card if you did not know the shadow at the end of the call was >a cop who was LAWFULLY in your house. In this regard, I called into a local (NYC) National Commie Radio talk show (Brian Lehrer's) last year and was talking with the host about G. Gordon Liddy's remarks on shooting federal agents who unlawfully break into your hose. I said that self defense *could* (not necessarily *would*) work as a defense to a murder charge involving the killing of federal agents in this circumstance. He asked me if I could come up with any examples from real life where this had worked and I immediately shot back with "Yeah, Randy Weaver and Kevin Harris." That was the so-called Ruby Ridge case. They were acquitted of murder. Then there was the guy in New York who shot six NYC cops who surrounded the apartment where he was hiding (none died). He was acquitted of assault and attempted murder charges because he argued that he thought the cops had been sent to kill him by the drug dealers that it was his profession to rob. Love those NYC juries. And they say that there's no justice for a black man in Amerikkka. Don't try this at home though kids. Better to be elsewhere when they come looking for you. DCF

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Re: Responding to Pre-dawn Unannounced Ninja Raids
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 03:49 PM 7/19/96 -0500, Igor Chudov @ home wrote: >> >> I may be a little nuts, but does it strike anyone else that a good >> self defense weapon against ninja raids would be a hand gernade? >> > >Maybe not even a little:) > >I suggest wiring an anti-tank mine to your door every night. If >ninjas break in, everyone goes to hell. No need to wake up and be >alert in sleep -- all will be done automatically. So before that >ninja raid you will sleep better. I've had a substantially better idea. Hang carbon-fiber bundles from the ceiling, which are charged to about 10,000 volts when an intrusion is detected. They'll glom onto anything conductive within their range, and anyone with the bad fortune to be breaking into the house at that moment _might_ live to regret it. (resistors could be added to limit the current to non-fatal but exceedingly painful levels. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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