December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re:Micropayments are Crap
by mccoy＠communities.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Stephan Vladimir Bugaj <stephan(a)studioarchetype.com> writes: > > Micropayment proponents are incredibly fond of the proposition that software > could be leased on a usage time basis from a centralized server, and people > could also rent time on the servers' CPUs. Sounds an awful lot like the > mainframe days to me. Well, at the risk of being branded a heretic, maybe the mainframe days were not as bad as you assume... Back in "the mainframe days" computers cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, and the best way to most efficiently use that resource was to tiemsharing. Currently I would guess that 2/3 of the possible CPU cycles in the world go unused, wasted by machines that are turned off sitting in someones den or running a screensaver in the cubicle of some drone in the marketting department. With micropayments one can purchase access to these cycles and put them to use, allowing the user to recover costs when they are not using their system and giving the user cheap access when needed to computing resources way beyond what they would be capable of purchasing themselves. > I see plenty of ways in which this benefits the vendor (greater control > over distribution, centrailzed revision/upgrade distribution, greater > profits over one-time sales, etc.), but no ways in which this benefits > the user. Especially the power user. Some advantages to the user: -Faster and more frequent upgrades and bug fixes. No need to wait for the CD or floppies to be shipped. -Better responsiveness from the vendor/distributor. Currently once you buy a program you are stuck with it, warts and all. A "test drive" is not an option, so vendors are led by their marketting droids. With online "rental" the user has the ability to try a program before plunking down their $69.95 and possibly ending up with an unusable collection of annoying bugs. This also means that they have the option of selecting a different program without risking paying the entire cost of a program they do not really want but which had good advertising. Software vendors will be forced to actually pay attention to the users _after_ the initial sale and will also be motivated to create and provide more customized niche programs so you end up with a better selection of software as well. -Access to programs which the user could not normally afford or would not use enough to justify the purchase price. I am not a chip designer and am not interested enough to drop $20K on a VHDL simulator and design synthesis program, but I would be willing to pay several dollars an hour to play around with one. > I'm certainly not going to rent time > on a compiler or image editing program every single time I want to do some > work. Then buy the program yourself, and then wait overnight for that ray tracing and rendering program to complete two frames of that animated logo for your kewl web page. No one is saying that everything wll go to micropayments, in some cases for software which is used constantly it does make more sense to buy the program outright but in most cases you end up using the other programs which clutter your hard disk a lot less than you think. By renting your non-essential programs you save money. > It took the industry long enough to get PCs and workstations to the speeds > they're at today so people could do their own work on their own machines to > go back to waiting in a queue for time on a centralized system so you can > have the honor of paying someone a lot of money to run your job. How did you make the leap from micropayments (remember that "micro" prefix) to paying someone a lot of money to run your job. With micropayments you can pay a lot of people a very small amount of money to run your job and get it done orders of magnitude faster than someone stuck with a lone PC. You also avoid getting caught up in the hardware game. Just a few years ago everyone was told they needed to upgrade their 386SX to a 486 or 486DX2 or they would be left behind, now everyone simple must have a Pentium, and tomorrow it will be the next chip du jour. By only requiring the hardware necessary for user interaction on the desktop one can get better economies of scale (hence the so-called "Network Computer") If you could get by with having a 486 on your desk running the presentation and interface level and then rented cycles on a huge cluster of pentium cycle servers to get real work done you would probably end up saving money in the long run, and would not need to run out to Fry's every year/month/week to upgrade your hardware with new pieces which would soon be obsolete. jim

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CDT Policy Post 2.24 - Join Sen. Burns TONIGHT (6/11), 10 EDT
by editor＠cdt.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

----------------------------------------------------------------------------- _____ _____ _______ / ____| __ \__ __| ____ ___ ____ __ | | | | | | | | / __ \____ / (_)______ __ / __ \____ _____/ /_ | | | | | | | | / /_/ / __ \/ / / ___/ / / / / /_/ / __ \/ ___/ __/ | |____| |__| | | | / ____/ /_/ / / / /__/ /_/ / / ____/ /_/ (__ ) /_ \_____|_____/ |_| /_/ \____/_/_/\___/\__, / /_/ \____/____/\__/ The Center for Democracy and Technology /____/ Volume 2, Number 24 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CDT POLICY POST Volume 2, Number 24 June 11, 1996 CONTENTS: (1) Join Senator Burns Live Online TONIGHT at 10pm EDT - Preview Tomorrow's Hearing on "Pro-CODE" Encryption Bill (2) Attend the S.A.F.E. Forum on Encryption - July 1, Stanford, CA (3) How to Subscribe/Unsubscribe (4) About CDT, contacting us ** This document may be redistributed freely with this banner in tact ** Excerpts may be re-posted with permission of <editor(a)cdt.org> ** This document looks best when viewed in COURIER font ** ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- ** UPDATE: DECISION IS NEAR IN FIGHT TO SAVE FREE SPEECH ONLINE ** An announcement from the Court is expected any time. Be sure to visit http://www.cdt.org/ciec/ for the latest news and information! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) JOIN SENATOR BURNS LIVE ONLINE =TONIGHT= at 10PM EDT: Preview Tomorrow's Hearing on "Pro-CODE" Encryption Bill --> Visit http://www.hotwired.com/wiredside/ for details <-- Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) will be on HotWired's WiredSide chat TONIGHT (6/11) at 10pm EDT to discuss tomorrow's scheduled hearing on his "Promotion of Commerce Online in the Digital Era Act of 1996" ("Pro-CODE") encryption bill. Tonight's WiredSide chat is a great opportunity to join Senator Burns on the eve of an important hearing to ask questions about encryption policy and get a preview of what the Senator expects to occur at the hearing. Senator Burns will chair the first of two scheduled hearings on his "Pro-CODE" bill tomorrow at 9:30 EDT in Room 253 of the Russell Senate Office Building. The hearing will take place in the Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space. This is the first Congressional hearing in recent memory to discuss "pro-encryption" legislation that would relax current restrictive encryption export controls. Never before has the public had this much access to legislators without geographical proximity. Cheaper than teleconferencing, and more direct and unfiltered than the traditional press, online chats allow the public to directly question and hear the answers from members of Congress. The online chat is at 10pm EDT (7pm PDT) TONIGHT (6/11). HotWired's WiredSide chat is at: http://www.hotwired.com/wiredside/ Tonight's forum is another in a series of planned events, and is part of a broader project coordinated by CDT and the Voters Telecommunications Watch (VTW) designed to encourage members of Congress to work with the Net.community on vital Internet policy issues and to bring the Internet Community into the debate about those issues. Transcripts from previous online chats are available -- for transcript information and details about upcoming events, please visit CDT's newest Issues Page, "Congress and the Net": http://www.cdt.org/net_congress/ SEN. BURNS TO CHAIR "PRO-CODE" HEARINGS -- FIRST HEARING TOMORROW (Wed 6/12) The hearing tomorrow will take place in the Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space, of which Sen. Burns is the chairman. This first hearing will focus on encryption as it relates to commerce and business issues. Prominent industry representatives have been invited to testify at the hearing. Scheduled to testify are: o Michael Zisman, president and CEO of Lotus; o Jim Barksdale, president and CEO of Netscape Communications; o Jim Bidzos, president and CEO of RSA Data Security; o Tim Krauskopf, V.P. and co-founder of Spyglass Inc.; o Kenneth Dam, chairman of the National Research Council; o Richard Sevcik, Senior V.P. of Hewlett-Packard; o Joe Holmes, chief technology officer for EDS; o Joel S. Lisker, senior V.P. for security and risk management at MasterCard; o Danne Buchanan, president of Zion's Data Services Company; o Jack Valenti, executive director of the Motion Picture Association of America; o Aharon Friedman, chairman, founder and chief technical officer of Digital Secured Networks Technology Inc.; and o Robert Bigony, senior V.P. and director of strategic marketing, government and space technology group, for Motorola. The second hearing, scheduled for June 26, will focus on privacy, law enforcement, and national security issues. For more information about tomorrow's hearing, background on the "Pro-CODE" legislation (including the text of the bill), and other information about encryption issues, please visit the Encryption Policy Resource Page at: http://www.crypto.com/ or the CDT Cryptography Issues Page at: http://www.cdt.org/crypto/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (2) ATTEND THE S.A.F.E. FORUM ON ENCRYPTION - JULY 1 IN STANFORD, CA On July 1, 1996, members of Congress, prominent computer industry leaders, noted cryptographers, privacy advocates, press, and netizens will meet in the heart of California's Silicon Valley for a lively, all-day forum to discuss cryptography and the need to reform current U.S. encryption policy. Anyone interested in the future of encryption technology and policy is strongly encouraged to attend. Admission to this special event is free, but those interested must reserve a ticket to attend. (Please visit the S.A.F.E. web site to reserve your ticket - http://www.crypto.com/safe/ ) The S.A.F.E. (Security and Freedom Through Encryption) Forum will be held on Monday July 1st from 9:00am - 4:00pm at Kresge Auditorium on the campus of Stanford University in Stanford, CA. S.A.F.E. will feature panel discussions, interactive demonstrations of cryptography technology, and an opportunity for feedback from the public. Scheduled participants include such industry leaders and cryptographers as: o Marc Andreeson, Vice President of Netscape Communications Corp.; o James Bidzos, President of RSA Data Security; o Eric Schmidt, Chief Technical Officer, Sun Microsystems; o Brad Silverberg, Senior V.P., Microsoft Corp.; and o noted computer security experts Matt Blaze and Eric Thompson. Members of Congress scheduled to attend include: o Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), o Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) [via satellite] o Sen. Larry Pressler (R-SD), o Rep. Tom Campbell (R-CA), o Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), and o Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-CA). By bringing together policymakers, industry leaders, cryptographers, net.advocates, and netizens, the forum promises to be an enlightening and informative event that will help raise public awareness for the importance of encryption technology to enhance privacy and security on the global information infrastructure. The forum will also detail the problems posed by the current U.S. encryption policy. The S.A.F.E. forum is sponsored by: o America Online o American Civil Liberties Union o Americans for Tax Reform o AT&T o Business Software Alliance o Center for Democracy and Technology o Center for National Security Studies o Commercial Internet eXchange o CompuServe Incorporated o Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility o Cylink Corporation o EDS o Electronic Frontier Foundation o Electronic Messaging Association o Electronic Privacy Information Center o Information Technology Association of America o IEEE - USA o Media Institute o Microsoft Corporation o National Association of Manufacturers o Netcom Online Communication Services o Netscape Communications Corporation o Novell, Inc. o Oracle Corporation o Pacific Telesis Group o Prodigy, Inc. o Progress and Freedom Foundation o Securities Industry Association o Software Publishers Association o Sybase, Inc. o Voters Telecommunications Watch o Wired Magazine For the latest information about S.A.F.E. and to reserve your free ticket to the forum, please visit the S.A.F.E. Web site: http://www.crypto.com/safe/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ (3) SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION Be sure you are up to date on the latest public policy issues affecting civil liberties online and how they will affect you! Subscribe to the CDT Policy Post news distribution list. CDT Policy Posts, the regular news publication of the Center For Democracy and Technology, are received by nearly 10,000 Internet users, industry leaders, policy makers and activists, and have become the leading source for information about critical free speech and privacy issues affecting the Internet and other interactive communications media. To subscribe to CDT's Policy Post list, send mail to policy-posts-request(a)cdt.org with a subject: subscribe policy-posts If you ever wish to remove yourself from the list, send mail to the above address with a subject of: unsubscribe policy-posts ----------------------------------------------------------------------- (4) ABOUT THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY/CONTACTING US The Center for Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest organization based in Washington, DC. The Center's mission is to develop and advocate public policies that advance democratic values and constitutional civil liberties in new computer and communications technologies. Contacting us: General information: info(a)cdt.org World Wide Web: URL:http://www.cdt.org/ FTP URL:ftp://ftp.cdt.org/pub/cdt/ Snail Mail: The Center for Democracy and Technology 1634 Eye Street NW * Suite 1100 * Washington, DC 20006 (v) +1.202.637.9800 * (f) +1.202.637.0968 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- End Policy Post 2.24 6/11/96 -----------------------------------------------------------------------

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CDA decision TOMORROW 9 am! (fwd)
by David Lesher 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The CDA deathwatch is almost over. The Philadelphia court will announce its decision tomorrow, 6/12, at 9 AM EST, according to a fax from the court. Check the usual web sites for more info and breaking news on the decision: http://fight-censorship.dementia.org/top/ http://www.eff.org/ http://www.vtw.org/ http://www.aclu.org/ http://www.epic.org/ http://www.cdt.org/ The ACLU is holding a press conference in NYC at 11 am. The ALA/CIEC plaintiffs will be holding a press conference in Washington, DC at 12 noon. For the latest information, subscribe to the fight-censorship-announce mailing list by sending "subscribe fight-censorship-announce" to majordomo(a)vorlon.mit.edu. -Declan // declan(a)eff.org // I do not represent the EFF // declan(a)well.com //

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RSA patents in Canada
by sameer＠c2.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Anyone have a definitive source on the state of the RSA patent in Canada? Thanks. -- Sameer Parekh Voice: 510-601-9777x3 Community ConneXion, Inc. FAX: 510-601-9734 The Internet Privacy Provider Dialin: 510-658-6376 http://www.c2.net/ (or login as "guest") sameer(a)c2.net

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CDA decision TOMORROW 9 am!
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The CDA deathwatch is almost over. The Philadelphia court will announce its decision tomorrow, 6/12, at 9 AM EST, according to a fax from the court. Check the usual web sites for more info and breaking news on the decision: http://fight-censorship.dementia.org/top/ http://www.eff.org/ http://www.vtw.org/ http://www.aclu.org/ http://www.epic.org/ http://www.cdt.org/ The ACLU is holding a press conference in NYC at 11 am. The ALA/CIEC plaintiffs will be holding a press conference in Washington, DC at 12 noon. For the latest information, subscribe to the fight-censorship-announce mailing list by sending "subscribe fight-censorship-announce" to majordomo(a)vorlon.mit.edu. -Declan // declan(a)eff.org // I do not represent the EFF // declan(a)well.com //

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Re: Venture capital financing/partnering for unique website ideas/entrepreneurs
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 03:19 PM 6/11/96 -0400, Ventureweb(a)aol.com wrote: > Re: Venture Capital Funding/Venture Partnering For > Web Site Developers/Entrepreneurs > > Hello; > > My firm, DataMerge, Inc. is currently developing a program to >provide financial backing and strategic assistance for commercially >viable website development. It is my job to locate individuals with ideas >and/or plans for creating high profile, niche market websites that, with >our assistance, can be profitably brought to maket. Hmmmm... "High profile"? Check. "niche market"? Check. "profitable"? Check... Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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"Neil, the government wouldn't tap the phones of American Reporters"
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"Neil, the government wouldn't tap the phones of American Reporters" - Hedrick Smith to his NYT colleague Neil Sheehan, while working on the Pentagon Papers project - he was incorrect, and his phones _were_ being tapped.... CSPAN-2 is doing a 25-year retrospective on the Pentagon Papers this week; Daniel Ellsberg, Hedrick Smith, and others were on tonight, with people from other sides on later this week. Cool show so far! # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # http://www.idiom.com/~wcs # Dispel Authority!

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Re: Slander of Catholic Church
by Eric Wilson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 08:31 AM 6/11/96 -0400, you wrote: > > Tim , > You should stick to your own religion and not criticize other >peoples. It is unforunate that the esteem that I once felt for you is >dwindling because of your anti-Mormon trash. Perhaps you do not realise >that some people take more than an academic interest in their religion >;this is unforunate . It is pitiful.You are becomeing the ugly >American that foreigners hate; always having an opinion about everything. > moroni > > Hmmm.... This brings up two questions: 1. If you stick to your own religion, aren't you kind of saying the others are bad (or don't work) anyway? Its hard to be more critical than the "I'm going to heaven and you're not, because you don't do this...." crowd. 2. Isn't hard NOT to have an opinion about something? Eric

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[MISC] Speaking of Wearables
by blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Thought this might be of interest to some..... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 16:26:29 -0700 (PDT) From: Phil Agre <pagre(a)weber.ucsd.edu> To: rre(a)weber.ucsd.edu Subject: Wearable computing conference August 19-21st [The world is so wonderfully strange.] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field below. You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" command. For information on RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, send an empty message to rre-help(a)weber.ucsd.edu =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 18:50:09 -0400 From: Thad E Starner <testarne(a)tottenhamcourt.media.mit.edu> Subject: Wearable computing conference August 19-21st [...] Announcement/Call for Participation Workshop on Wearable Computer Systems Over the past few years, a new technology has been rapidly taking shape. It is the technology of wearable computer systems -- battery-operated computer systems worn on the user's body on a belt, backpack or vest, designed for mobile and predominantly hands-free operation, often incorporating head-mounted displays and speech input. Such systems are now being prototyped and investigated in the context of a wide variety of military, educational and industrial applications, including maintenance, training, and manufacturing. On August 19-21, Boeing will host an informal workshop on wearable computer technology, at the Boeing Customer Services Training Center in Renton, WA, a few miles east of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Our intent is to bring together vendors and potential vendors of these systems, researchers studying this technolgy, and key application customers for an open discussion of the future of wearable computer systems technology. The workshop's technical focus will be on the platforms, peripherals, software systems and applications associated with wearable computers. The format of the meeting will be as follows: o There will be several research presentations. Leading university, industrial, and government labs will discuss the research they are doing concerning the design and use of future wearable systems. o Booth space will be available for vendors to display and demonstrate their current products. o Selected government and industrial developers will describe the wearable computer applications they are planning or implementing, and the technical requirements implied by these applications. o Later in the meeting, participants will separate into breakout discussion groups of their choice to focus on issues of particular interest to them. Each breakout group will present a summary of their discussion and their recommendations to the main body of the workshop particpants. Breakout discussion topics may include - what standards need to be established? - what are the operating system and user interface software requirements for wearable computers? - what basic and applied research should the government fund in this area? A more detailed list of possible breakout discussion topics is included on the workshop registration form. Registrants are requested to select which topics they believe would be most worthwhile to address at the meeting. How to Apply to Participate Because of space limitations and the informal nature of this workshop, attendance will be limited to 150. Persons or groups wishing to attend should submit either a booth request or a research or application position paper, as described below. Academic, government, industrial or vendor researchers and government, industrial or vendor application developers are invited to submit position papers. As time permits, attendees will be asked to give brief talks about their research or development activities, based on their position papers. There may not be time for all attendees to speak to the group. In that case, the organizing committee will try to select a representative mix of research and application talks from among the position papers. Position papers and booth requests may be submitted by mail to Ms. Diane Rush Research and Technology Boeing Information and Support Services P.O. Box 3707, Mail Stop 7L-40 Seattle, WA 98124-2207 or by fax to 206-865-2965, or by Internet mail to diane.rush(a)iss-rt.boeing.com We strongly prefer submission via e-mail (ASCII text). For related questions, Diane can be reached by phone at 206-865-3211. Due Dates Booth space requests and workshop position papers are due by June 19. The committee's selections will be announced by July 12. Research Papers People engaged in research projects on wearable computer systems are invited to submit a two-page position paper, describing - the problems their research project is addressing - results they have achieved - the potential implications of their research on the future of this technology. Application Papers People conducting or commencing applications of wearable computers to military, industrial, medical or other domains are invited to submit two-page position papers describing their project, including - the application they are focused on - technical issues/problems they are encountering - requirements this application is placing on wearable computer technology. Vendor/Demo Booths Booth space in and near the workshop auditorium is limited. Displays should be designed to fit within an 8' by 6' area. Each display will have access to electrical outlets and will be provided, if they desire, with a 5' by 2' table. Booth requests will be filled on a first-come, first-served basis. Accomodations There are several hotels in Renton near the Boeing Customer Services Training building. Boeing buses will transport workshop attendees to and from the meeting at the beginning and end of each workshop day. The list of recommended hotels will be sent to attendees along with their selection notification. These hotels are reserving blocks of rooms for workshop attendees until July 18. Further Information About the Workshop Up-to-date workshop information will be maintained on the World-Wide Web, at the following address: http://wearables.www.media.mit.edu/projects/wearables/workshop/ Workshop Organizing Committee David Mizell Boeing Information and Support Services Thomas Caudell University of New Mexico Zary Segall University of Oregon Dan Siewiorek Carnegie Mellon University Thad Starner Massachusetts Institute of Technology

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[Tiny bit o noise] was Re: Terrorism Hysteria on the net
by Scott Schryvers 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:12 PM 6/11/96 -0700, you wrote: > >snow wrote: > >>>Give me 15 well trained soldiers(near special forces level) and >>>I can do it in less than 60 days. Without touching a computer. > >Gary Howland <gary(a)systemics.com> adds: >>Give me 10 well trained biological warfare scientists and I'll do >>it in 30 ... > >>Anymore bids? :-) > >Yeah, Give me one really sick monkey ..... > >Brian One final bid... Give me one nanotech manufacturing facility and I can screw the Universe. :) PGP encrypted mail preferred. E-Mail me for my key. Scott J. Schryvers <schryver(a)radiks.net>

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