December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

re: Opiated file systems
by EVERHART＠Arisia.GCE.Com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hmm... I can set up a cryptodisk on a not necessarily contiguous file on another cryptodisk; the software is free. The second cryptodisk would appear to be just a binary file on the first; would it not be an obscured filesystem? (The drivers have been given away for years public domain for vms, vax or alpha, in source. My old rsx11d driver was published similarly back in 1977 or 78.) In fact, though, the containing file of a cryptodisk does not have to have any specific name or location, and can be hidden away as though it were, say, a sound file or something else among the rest of the system store. Before someone comes demanding your keys, they first have to realize that something might in fact be encrypted. My approach would be to have lots of these obscured cryptodisks for the stuff I wanted private, if I wanted to hide a lot, and have the usual assortment of cleartext stuff of all sorts lying around. The default operation mode forgets the keys automatically once you log off...or even at dismount. If you're stuck with a whole partition being hidden, this is harder to do. When any file of over a few kb can be a separate filestructure when the proper magic is applied, locating the keys can be impossible. glenn

1 0

Netscrape download
by David Lesher 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[From Phil Karn] Netscape's use of a CGI interface to download the US version (128-bit key) of Netscape Navigator raises the possibility that they are "serializing" or "personalizing" each copy they send out, perhaps in response to a DoS request that they do so in order to trace unauthorized redistribution. One way to test this theory without redistributing the actual code is to compare MD5 hashes of the distributions. After two days of unsuccessful attempts at obtaining the code from their overloaded server, I've just successfully downloaded the SunOS, BSDI and Windows 95 versions of Netscape Navigator. Here are the MD5 hashes of the files I received: BSDI version: 4ec4a705e2e4c6560475852fae807c8c SunOS version: e72ff352ca7c619cb31b8f8ef3651b28 Windows 95 version: 8e936813f12a1b3b77ed03d9239ebd5d Anybody care to compare these to the copies they obtain, assuming the logjam on the server breaks sometime soon? Phil -- A host is a host from coast to coast.................wb8foz(a)nrk.com & no one will talk to a host that's close...........(v)301 56 LINUX Unless the host (that isn't close).........................pob 1433 is busy, hung or dead........vr vr vr vr.................20915-1433

5 4

Re: #E-CASH: PRODUCT OR SERVICE?
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 3:18 AM 7/17/96, Stig wrote: >Perhaps this has already been voiced on the main list (I get a filtered >helping or two of cypherpunks), but *I'm* surprised that such a generic name >as 'Ecash' was granted trademark status anywhere. > >It's like giving Microsoft a trademark on the term 'Email'... It's nuts! >Was the term ecash not in use before DigiCash showed up on the scene? I agree, but note that Microsoft has gone a long way toward getting the courts to give it full monopoly ownership of the term "windows," or "Windows." I guess that windows-based Symbolics machine I was using in 1984, or those Xerox PARC windows-based D-machine, were violating the standard Microsoft set years later. (I admit that I bought Windows 1.0 about six months before I bought my first Macintosh, but I also note that Windows 1.0 was a ludicrous joke, and did not become a serious product until Windows 3.0 was released in 1990. And Apple had their windows (Windows is a TM of The Microsoft Corporation, all rights reserved) based machine, the Lisa, out in 1982-3.) As for Digicash's claims on "digicash," "ecash," etc., it won't matter much. The whole legal knot (including the patents and claims on the algorithms) makes things more complicated, but I don't worry too much about Digicash claiming people can't use the term "ecash." (If anything, Digicash may have failed to protect the name aggressively enough, and it may have entered the English language as band-aid did.) --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."

1 0

Re: Alternative Journalism
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:04 PM 7/18/96, enquirer(a)alpha.c2.org wrote: > THE CYPHERPUNK ENQUIRER PRESENTS: > ... >"Don't worry about it. It gets worse before it gets better. Come on, we're >going to a party. Tim May and John Gilmore are throwing a Mad Tea Party." > >"Are they really mad?" > >"May's crazy as a loon. You'll like him. Gilmore, he's just still pissed >at Shimamura for that stunt in the hot tub ... " Ssshhh! Don't let it out that I'm crazy as a loon. BTW, "loon" is now considered to be derogatory slur and has been replaced by the more PC term "differently outlooked." We differently outlooked persons are forbidden by U.S. and California law from owning firearms, a method used increasingly to seize the firearms of those who have ever come into contact with the mental health profession. (Hint: Never, ever, ever, ever have yourself admitted to any kind of psychiatric facility for any reason whatsoever! Never, ever, etc. let a family member have you admitted for treatment, observation, or analysis. You will likely find that your right to own a firearm has evaporated if you do any of these things.) Personally, whenever I fill out the forms to buy a gun, I have no compunctions about lying. (The checking procedures are primitive, fortunately, unless one is so stupid as to answer "Yes" to any of the questions the form asks.) That I am a felon has never stopped me from picking up a gun. --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."

3 2

Re: Opiated file systems
by JonWienk＠ix.netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

You had better make sure that you TEMPEST-shield any such hidden drive. 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

1 0

Remailers & NYMs
by kpdarby＠juno.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone know some good PGP encrypted remailers, that are secure and pretty fast? How about a few good NYMs? KPD ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere" --Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1 0

Re: #E-CASH: PRODUCT OR SERVICE?
by mccoy＠communities.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Lucky wrote: > At 20:19 7/16/96, Stig wrote: [regarding the "Ecash" trademark...] > >It's like giving Microsoft a trademark on the term 'Email'... It's nuts! > >Was the term ecash not in use before DigiCash showed up on the scene? > > No that I am aware of. Furthermore, to the best of my knowledge, DigiCash's > Ecash is the only ecash that I am aware of. The other "ecashs" lack various > properties of cash, as previously explained by Bryce. Digicash's ecash lacks various properties of real cash from the users point of view (offline transferability, large scale acceptance, etc.) and a great many from the issuers perspective (too many to list...), but we still seem to want to call it electronic cash when it isn't. It may be "Ecash" but it sure ain't digital cash... jim

1 0

Re: New Infowarfare Panel
by nobody＠zifi.genetics.utah.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

David Sternlight wrote: <snip> >I'm talking about some of the information that started slowly leaking out >later, not the prime-time TV pyrotechnics. It doesn't "slowly leak out" as if there were some regrettable lapse in the plumbing. Someone has to commit the federal crime of military espionage! <snicker>

2 1

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.

1 0

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

1 0