December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: A Global Village, or the future of porn on the net
by Arun Mehta 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:00 24/07/96 +0000, Alex F wrote: > >why is it that Bill(ary) signed an unconstitutional law? I >am referring to the CDA and the telephony bill. ... arguments that I wholeheartedly support deleted.. >Anyway, getting off-topic again. I'll be quiet now :) Let me see if I can bring this back on track. We have some interesting developments that could converge: 1) Legally, the Internet is more or less in the clear as far as indecency is concerned. The moralists will rally again and put through a bill that doesn't so blatantly violate the constitution, but for the time being we're OK. 2) Porn is very, very popular. As a consultant, I often use Netscape from the offices of my clients, and invariably take a peek at the bookmarks. Guess what is pointed to more than anything else. By making a hullaballoo about porn on the net, its enemies may have shot themselves in the foot: it will attract people rather than repel. 3) Porn on the net by and large isn't all that great, so if there is a risk, it is that people might be bored. What you mostly have are stills of nudes on the web and Usenet postings of indifferent quality. 4) the web is changing from static to dynamic through Java and the like. VRML in fact adds a 3-D element. Stir, add some spicy curry, and see if you get: Java classes for males and females corresponding to VRML objects. The class methods might include kissing, hugging, spanking, restraining... A female object might be initialized with Hillary Clinton's face, Evangelista's body... Anyone could now write a script which you could view enacted on your screen, or interact with one another as in MUDs. Why, someone might write a translator that takes a story off alt.sex.whatever and produces an appropriate script. People would only need to download the software and appropriate objects once, then receive emscripts which could be run in total privacy. People should we willing to pay small amounts for use of the classes and objects, as well as for the scripts. Of course, it would only work in our prudish societies if the transactions were totally anonymous. If Digicash payment systems were built-in, that might be a reason for people to start adopting eCash. Of course, this opens up a whole can of worms. For instance, given the violence of many pornographic stories on Usenet, it won't be long before famous personalities routinely get violated in cyberspace. Talk about copyright: do you have the right to prevent someone from doing this to you? I unfortunately lack the bandwidth to find out the extent to which porn on the net is already moving in this direction. However, if you have pointers, I'll go *find* the bandwidth! Where on the net do people discuss such matters? Arun Mehta Phone +91-11-6841172, 6849103 amehta(a)cpsr.org http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta/ finger amehta(a)cerfnet.com for public key

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RE: Brute Force DES
by Chris Adams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On 24 Jul 96 06:19:10 -0800, mattt(a)microsoft.com wrote: >To whittle this down to a 40-bit workload, we'd have to save 2^36 >entries* 2^8 bytes/entry = 2^39 Bytes = 512 Gig. Yes, admittedly large. Can you say RAID? I've had an idea for something similar to this, where you have a VERY large database btreed using the file system and subdirectories. This type of thing would REALLY lend itself to Unix, as we could just mount separate drives as branches of the tree. Now, enable NFS and things get interesting... >What's the cheapest form of storage, magtape? How much can you store on >magtape? The entries can be sorted so that lookup doesn't take long even >when you have to mount tapes. Hmmmm... Don't they have some of those 8mm tapes that go to 4-8GM per tape? Anyone have access to one? // Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> - Webpages for sale! Se habla JavaScript! // Automatically receive my resume or PGPKEY by sending email with a subject // of 'send PGPKEY' or 'send resume'. Capitalization counts so be careful!

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Open Letter to the Net from Sens. Burns, Pressler & Ashcroft
by Conrad_Burns＠burns.senate.gov 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

AN OPEN INVITATION TO THE INTERNET COMMUNITY FROM MEMBERS OF THE SENATE COMMERCE COMMITTEE July 23, 1996 This week, the Senate Commerce Committee will take a historic step forward toward enhancing citizens participation in the democratic process via the Internet. On Thursday July 25 the Committee's hearing on S. 1726, the "Pro-CODE" Act of 1996 will be cybercast live on the Internet. As many of you are well aware, the debate over US encryption policy is of vital importance to the future development of the Internet and the privacy of all Americans. We are writing to invite you to join us in this unique event. And to help the Committee better understand your concerns about privacy and security on the Internet, we are inviting you to submit your thoughts for the hearing record via the World Wide Web and to discuss the issues with us and members of our staff live online during the hearing. Information on how you can join the cybercast, submit your thoughts for the record, and participate in an online discussion with encryption experts, members of the committee, and other concerned individuals are available at: http://www.crypto.com/hearing-cybercast/ Witnesses scheduled to testify at Thursday's hearing include: * Louis Freeh, FBI Director * William Reinsch, Undersecretary, Bureau of Export Administration, Dept. of Commerce * William P. Crowell, Deputy Director, NSA * James Barksdale, CEO Netscape Communications Corporation * Grover Norquist, Director, Americans for Tax Reform * Roel Pieper, Pres/CEO Tandem Computer * Ambassador Michael Skol The Cybercast, which is being coordinated by the Center for Democracy and Technology, Voters Telecommunications Watch, HotWired, DIGEX, and Mike Rawson of Senator Burns' office, has four components. These are: 1. LIVE AUDIO CYBERCAST: The audio portion of the hearing will be cybercast live online in real-time. Anyone with RealAudio installed on their computers (available free at http://www.realaudio.com/) will be able to listen in on the hearing. Audio transcripts will also be archived online at http://www.crypto.com/events/072596/ after the hearing. 2. REAL-TIME PICTURES: Pictures from the hearing will also be uploaded to the World Wide Web in real time throughout the hearing. 3. SIMULTANEOUS ONLINE DISCUSSION FORUM: Netizens can also join a live discussion forum where encryption experts and Commerce Committee staff while they listen to the audio portion of the hearing. This provides an opportunity to discuss the issues raised by the testimony in real time with knowledgeable experts and Congressional staff. Several members of the Commerce Committee may also join the discussion periodically (TBA). 4. TESTIMONY FOR THE RECORD: Netizens can also submit their thoughts on the legislation for the record via the World Wide Web. Details are posted at the http://www.crypto.com/events/072596/. Finally, detailed background information on the encryption debate can be found at the following World Wide Web sites: Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) - http://www.senate.gov/~burns/ Senator Larry Pressler (R-SD) -http://www.senate.gov/~pressler/ Senator John Ashcroft (R-MO) -http://www.senate.gov/~ashcroft/ Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) - http://www.senate.gov/~leahy/ The Encryption Policy Resource Page - http://www.crypto.com/ The Internet Privacy Coalition - http://www.privacy.org/ipc Your thoughts and comments on this issue are extremely helpful to us as we continue to push for passage of legislation to enhance privacy and security on the Internet. We hope you will join us on Thursday for this important experiment in the future of democracy. Sincerely, Sen. Conrad Burns Sen. Larry Pressler Sen. John Ashcroft

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Exportable Netscape with strong crypto...
by Deranged Mutant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

An alternative to exporting a strong Netscape might be to build a browser outside the USA with a strong SSL. Mosaic source can be licensed, correct? What's to stop a non-US company from licensing it and modifying it to have strong crypto, then making that version freely available as shareware, or perhaps with non-crypto goodies locked out in the free version? Or even selling it commercially with strong crypto? Rob --- No-frills sig. Befriend my mail filter by sending a message with the subject "send help" Key-ID: 5D3F2E99 1996/04/22 wlkngowl(a)unix.asb.com (root@magneto) AB1F4831 1993/05/10 Deranged Mutant <wlkngowl(a)unix.asb.com> Send a message with the subject "send pgp-key" for a copy of my key.

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FW: Distributed DES crack
by geeman＠best.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- From: Remo Pini[SMTP:rp@rpini.com] Sent: Wednesday, July 24, 1996 7:34 AM To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Subject: Re: Distributed DES crack -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Date: Wed Jul 24 16:31:44 1996 Has anyone thought about TI or Motorolas DSP-Eval-Boards (at 99$ a piece at 40 MHz with optimized assembler they might easily outrun a PPro200) Don't look at me that way, I know only little about DSP-Programming. >>> DSP's are optimized for add/multiply ... and you get their memory-access pipelining; but I am not too sure how they'd do on a DES algo. I wouldn't get too excited.

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Re: Digital Watermarks (long, getting off-topic)
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 08:23 PM 7/24/96 -0400, Duncan Frissell wrote: >At 10:26 AM 7/24/96 -0800, jim bell wrote: > >>Isn't it odd that when music is sold, CD's are MORE expensive than cassette >>tapes, even though you _know_ that the manufacturing cost of CD's is less? > >CDs sell for more because buyers decided that they wanted a wider range of >titles with shallower sales (hence higher unit costs) rather than a narrower >range of titles with lower sales prices. The number of CD titles available >is far greater (in general distribution) than the number of vinyl titles >that were available during vinyl's peak year. This greater availability of >short run pressings raises average unit sales costs justifying the higher >prices. Had the market decided (when physical production costs fell) that >it was satisfied with a Top-40 CD stock, average CD prices would have fallen >to vinyl levels. I'm afraid that quantitatively, this is utter nonsense. A relevant data point is the fact that for about $1000, anybody can have 1000 copies of a custom CDROM manufactured. That, by music industry standards, is an EXCEEDINGLY low production run. The difference in cost between such a CD, and one made in quantities of 100K to 1 million can't possibly exceed 90 cents or so. While the early days of CD's were marked by lack of capacity, it is obvious that if the pressing plants are now accepting orders for pressing runs of 1K or less, there is plenty of capacity left in the industry. The extra manufacturing cost for those extra titles certainly can't be found in the cost of production. So how about record stores? Are you suggesting that the fact that there are "too many titles" are somehow increasing costs so much that $8 vinyl turned into $13.95 CD's? But how can this be? CD's are physically smaller than vinyl records. Cheaper to transport and store, and cheaper to display. And they are certainly not more expensive to advertise! No, the number of titles available has essentially NOTHING to do with the price. I'm truly astonished that you would think this to be true. >>Another oddity: The price for a blank, standard-quality videocassette is >>about the same as that of a blank, standard-quality audio cassette tape, >>despite the fact that the volume of tape included in the former is probably >>about a factor of 10 higher. > >Materials cost is a minor part of total cost. > >In both cases, the cost of production is a small part of the cost of goods >sold. Almost all of that cost is the cost of marketing (as with all >mass-market products in a modern capitalist economy. Then why is it more expensive to market a cassette audio tape, over a videocassette?!? Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Re: When books are outlawed
by Greg Broiles 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 06:07 PM 7/24/96 -0400, Alan Horowitz wrote: > ><< On Our Backs magazine>> > >That's "Off Our Backs". Very much at the forefront of the >PC-gestapo-thought-police trend. Both are (or were) magazines, "On Our Backs" appearing some years after "Off" and appealing to a different (but still lesbian) market segment. -- Greg Broiles |"Post-rotational nystagmus was the subject of gbroiles(a)netbox.com |an in-court demonstration by the People http://www.io.com/~gbroiles |wherein Sgt Page was spun around by Sgt |Studdard." People v. Quinn 580 NYS2d 818,825.

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Re: [Noise] Re: <rant> Re: Devil's Bargain
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> I don't know if it was terrorist activity, I was just annoyed at >the extensive every 15 minutes even tho' there is nothing new to say I >gotta get my mug and my voice on the ether coverage. It's also yet another excuse for the government to say "Be Afraid! Be Very Afraid! We're Here To Help You" - Clinton's first speech after the event had him bringing up terrorism and making sure everyone knew that even though there was as yet no evidence that it wasn't an accident, he was tough on terrorism and he'd be making sure we have more controls on the population to protect us from terrorists. I'm surprised I haven't heard Kallstrom calling for radically increased wiretapping yet or Freeh calling for bans on encryption like he did after OKCity. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # http://www.idiom.com/~wcs # Confuse Authority!

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Re: Game Theory and its Relevance to Cypherpunks
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 03:21 AM 7/21/96 -0700, Llywarch Hen wrote: > What Timothy May espouses is not the appearance of craziness but actual > insanity itself. The best way to convince others you are crazy is to actually be crazy. More practically, if you organize your nuclear forces so that any serious war is likely to escalate uncontrollably into the battle of armageddon, regardless of your intentions and desires, which is how the American government organized its nuclear forces in Europe, then you can pretty much guarantee you will not have to face a serious war. --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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Re: [Noise] Re: <rant> Re: Devil's Bargain
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:51 PM 7/24/96 -0700, Bill Stewart wrote: >I'm surprised I haven't heard Kallstrom >calling for radically increased wiretapping yet or Freeh calling for >bans on encryption like he did after OKCity. As if it would have done any good. One of the news reports pointed out that if it was a bomb, it had probibly been placed on the plane in Greece. (But then, since when did logic and rationality have *ANYTHING* to do with the Freeh and Kalstrom wiretap jihad. I am waiting for one of them to get arrested as a peeping tom. Something deepseeted about these people's fetish about watching others...) --- Alan Olsen -- alano(a)teleport.com -- Contract Web Design & Instruction `finger -l alano(a)teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key http://www.teleport.com/~alano/ "We had to destroy the Internet in order to save it." - Sen. Exon "Microsoft -- Nothing but NT promises."

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