December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Metered Phone
by Jerome Tan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have any ideas about this metered phone? I am from Philippines and heard some news that it will be existing in 1997. Quite a big problem! Every dial will be counted, every seconds will be measured...

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Metered Phone
by Jerome Tan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have any ideas about this metered phone? I am from Philippines and heard some news that it will be existing in 1997. Quite a big problem! Every dial will be counted, every seconds will be measured...

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Metered Phone
by Jerome Tan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have any ideas about this metered phone? I am from Philippines and heard some news that it will be existing in 1997. Quite a big problem! Every dial will be counted, every seconds will be measured...

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FUD-Con V: DC
by Deranged Mutant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On 8 Jul 96 at 14:10, winn(a)Infowar.Com wrote: [..] > Historically, civil defense has meant to protect citizenry against hostile > military actions. Today, with the specter of Information Warfare representing > new challenges to late-industrial and information age nation-states, the rules [..] Are these really "new" challenges? > - The Power grid is the basis of most of modern society. With it gone, > not much else happens. If you think this is just a matter of building more > generators, think again--what happens if the factories that *make* the > generators are taken down, too? You haven't lived in a hurricane prone area and lost your electricity for most of a month, have you? Many of the generators are already in place. The power grid is not centralised, so it's difficult to take down everything for a long period of time (long enough to be truly detrimental to a lot of people) quickly enough (that would require some non-informational real-life bombing and warfare). > - The Communications infrastructure: land, sea, air and satellite. 95% > military communications go over the public networks, and 100% of all financial > and industrial communications. Is it worth protecting? Is it so easy to take a whole network down? What about various radio operations (HAMs, Marineband, FM, etc.)? And don't forget automobiles and roads as last-resort communications. > - The Global Financial structure depends upon the first two > infrastructures, and is perhaps the most vulnerable to theft and denial of > service attack. 99+% of all "wealth" is digital--what happens if it vaporizes? I'm skeptical of that figure (many institutions maintain several printouts and have contingencies to do things by hand... for no other reason than computers go down without human interference). > - Transportation systems rely upon the other three. The air traffic [..] Not really. Automobiles and buses rely on very little. In major disasters there are ways to keep limited air and train traffic running. > Without all of these infrastructures properly and reliably functioning, the > private sector and the national security community cannot function. No heat, no [..] You sound as if you have not been in a place hit by natural disasters such as earthquakes, hurricanes, major floods, etc. These cause much more damange to infrastructures as well as human life than any organized action could, save for an all-out physical war. Life still manages to go on. > air conditioning, no food distribution, no light, no radio or TV, no Internet. > Are we prepared? Do we have a a crisis response for the day money as we know > it vanishes? Isn't that what FEMA is for? Do you want FEMA involved with the 'net? Or would you rather get the DoD, NSA, FBI also involved with "Emergency Management"?!? > Electronic Civil Defense will soon become a critical component of any nation's > well being while the needs of both the private sector and government converge. > The convergence of military and civilian interests that Mr. Schwartau predicted Yes... it's called key escrow. > two years ago is happening before our eyes. Defensive and commercial postures > have so intertwined as to make them indistinguishable. That still implies empowering the state rather than allowing entities (individuals and corporations) to protect themselves. I'm skeptical of much of the InfoWar hype. Yes, there are important security issues (data integrity and preservation). But these also cross over with non-info disaster preparations. I also question whether large corporations and banks have compatible interests with individuals. It seems entirely possible that measures could be taken to protect the former at the expense of the latter. It's also dangerous to give LEA's another bogeyman to use. Very dangerous. 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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Metered Phone
by Jerome Tan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have any ideas about this metered phone? I am from Philippines and heard some news that it will be existing in 1997. Quite a big problem! Every dial will be counted, every seconds will be measured...

1 0

Metered Phone
by Jerome Tan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone have any ideas about this metered phone? I am from Philippines and heard some news that it will be existing in 1997. Quite a big problem! Every dial will be counted, every seconds will be measured...

1 0

RE: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Mike Duvos Of course, no amount of reason will disuade the True Believers from embracing yet another disease model, and we shouldn't expect that it would. But I think it is clear to many people that the forced medication of children for the convenience of those who take care of them is getting a bit out of control. ........................................................................

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RE: What remains to be done.
by Andy Brown 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On 09 July 1996 02:04, John F. Fricker[SMTP:jfricker@vertexgroup.com] wrote: > One of these days Microsoft will officially release NT's IFS SDK. A few > "preliminary" and incomplete copies of a 1993 beta release do float around > but for a mere $50K there's a company that will sell you the complete source > for an IFS. It's a crime that Microsoft hasn't shipped this SDK yet as the > Installable File System is one of the great powers of NT. You can do this with the existing device driver kit since they supply the entire source code to the AT hard disk driver. I took a look and decided that it would be too much work for me alone. They also seem to suggest that you can write "filters" that extend the capability of existing drivers. > So, if someone is interested in coughing up the $50K I know a couple NT > programmers just chomping at the bit to build cool IFS's like PGPDrive, etc. I'm one of them, but this low level device driver stuff makes me shudder! - Andy

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RE: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Perry E. Metzger I suppose you don't understand what it might be like for someone to be unable to do their work no matter how heavy the threat against them if they don't, and no matter how easy it is. There are people out there who can't get themselves to pay a phone bill or throw out the newspapers for months on end -- they just can't get themselves to dance around into the task no matter how hard they try, no matter how great the threat (job loss, etc) to them is. ...................................................................... Drugs create a picture of coercion - where the mind is coerced into a state arrived at not by thoughtful consideration, but by round-about ways of achieving the desired result. This is what makes some people wary of them, but make them appealing to others who find this very feature attractive - that they can get results without having to think about it. There are times when people have been totally unmotivated to take care of themselves or the mundane matters in life because they were not involved in the pursuits which were of true value to them, and life "lost its meaning". Putting one's priorities into perspective can do a lot towards feeling motivated to attend to life's minor contingencies, while elevating the lesser items to the top of the hierarchy can totally dissipitate one's energies and interest. What if someone was working at a "practical" kind of job, living the kind of life prescribed by someone else, when what they really wanted to do was something related to fine art or other field, living a different kind of "life-style"? This could be so depressing that subconsciously they would finally rebel from supporting that false existence, and find themselves with no energy to move. Maybe Ritalin could make them forgot their true interest which was lying dormant, pushed away by who-knows-what kind of arguments against it, and help them to start paying attention again to those mundane, irrelevant aspects of existence. Maybe it could help them forget the *point* of their existence and they could attend to ordinary things which are easily understood and accomplished without too much creative energy. Maybe Ritalin could help force them to pay attention, in spite of the protest from their submerged psychology. Maybe. In taking 'beneficial' drugs there's always a question of whether someone's mind is being helped into awareness or overpowered into submission, even if the results seem to be acceptable to everyone. You're right, Perry, that no one should be making that decision for others. I do think, though, that achieving self-command by a conscious knowledge of what is right for one's nature is actually the most beneficial (and less controversial). (But I wonder how this would apply to crypto. Hmmmmmmm - only in reference to those evil old men in the govmt who......might allow it to be prescribed indiscriminately.) .. Blanc

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Re: [RANT] Giving Mind Control Drugs to Children
by JR＠ns.cnb.uam.es 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"Perry E. Metzger" <perry(a)piermont.com> says: >Timothy C. May writes: >> At 1:14 PM 7/7/96, Simon Spero wrote: >> >On Sat, 6 Jul 1996, Timothy C. May wrote: >> >> >> >> When the mother (a single mother, as this is California) drops her son off >> >> with my friend (also single, of course), she includes several "Ritalin" >> >> capsules with instructions on how to dose her son with this >> >> depressant/behavior modification drug. >> > >> >Er... Tim... Ritalin is an amphetamine. >> >> Whatever. It acts as a calmant/tranquilizer/depressant on many. > >Only those who have ADD, which you claim doesn't exist. > >> (As with many drugs, there are apparently paradoxical effects. Alcohol is a >> downer for some, and upper for others.) > >Alcohol is a CNS depressant for all. Lowering inhibitions tends to >make people relax and "party", but it doesn't have particularly >paradoxical effects. > >.pm > Sorry, but that's wrong. There must be some understanding of what's actually going on. Brain is not just a simple linear device. It's complex. And that goes to Tim's original point: Society is made by humans with brains that are complex but which try to use simple models to understand reality. Let me show with your own example. Alcohol *is* a depressant. But it doesn't act equally on all the CNS. It acts faster on one part of it whose role is to depress all the rest of the CNS. So, first alcohol depresses a depressor and therefore acts as a stimulant. If you maintain your levels of alcohol there the rest of your brain will be above its threshold and keep stimulated. Only if you pass that threshold the rest of the brain will be depressed. That's what alcohol drinking cultures like mine call "knowing how to drink". But then we don't know about taking cocaine (like some centroamerican cultures do) for instance. Same happens when you take other drugs (in their own context). It's only when you simplify or make a generalization that it gets dangerous. And same goes for society. If you have a society that teachs people how to drink you'll have less problems than one that doesn't. Or that teachs how to eat coca leaves avoiding the pure drug. Or that teaches you that curare is OK eaten -as it is- but letal in the blood (which allows survival for many tribes). That's were Tim's argument comes into cypherpunkish arena. If you teach people that it is easier to calm down hyperactive people, or solve all problems by increasing mind control and surveillance you can't complain of a police state. OTOH if you can teach people were to stop (as with alcohol) and that simple models just don't work you'll be on the road to a better system. I agree there is people that can benefit from drugs. But being a MD PhD myself too, I also know that the amount that really needs them is a minuscule proportion. Most times it is just a convenience for doctors, family, fathers or society. Though good doctors agree it would be better if they could avoid the drugs at all in most cases of mental disease. Same happens with surveillance: we benefit from some control to stop those few, exceptional, deep criminals that are better stopped in advance, but we don't really need as much as we have. There are better solutions, but it's far more convenient for power-holders to increase surveillance than to really address the underlying problems. But, IMHO, as long as we keep allowing many people to use simple and "convenience" models to quickly fix symptomps instead of addressing the real problem (like, e.g. making a greater effort in the education of their children), we are stating the basis for a future, more restrictive, controlling and "convenience" system. We need both, to educate people on a more responsible course of action, and develop tools to stop or make more difficult or less convenient the easy and fast solution of increasing surveillance instead of addressing the underlying problem. And that's where cryptography comes to help equate the balance and increases presure on power-holders into worrying more by decreasing the convenience of surveillance. That is, all in my most very humble opinion. jr

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