December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: WaPo on Crypto-Genie Terrorism
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 07:21 PM 7/27/96 GMT, John Young wrote: > The Washington Post, July 27, 1996, p. A22. [Snip] > Mr. Freeh and others argue, "the genie is not yet > out of the bottle" on "robust," meaning uncrackable, > encryption. Why does it sounds like Mr. Freeh and his friends are drinking out of a different bottle than the rest of us? The genie is out of the bottle and has been for a while. The tools are there for those who care to use them. Maybe it is a diffrenet genie that he is trying to portray... Maybe it is the acceptance and relyance on crypto that has not quite escaped into the general populace. If someone tried to portray all automobie drivers as dangerous maniacs and cars as only useful for making getaways, he would be laughed out of the room. If someone tried to claim that phones are a haven for drug dealers, and thus must be licenced, they would get a harsh reaction from the public. Freeh is fighting a war against the public having a positive view of Crypto. By smearing crypto users as "criminals and terrorists", he is using his office to influence the opinions of "law abiding citizens" to be anti-crypto. I beleive that there is alot that can be done to influence the public to be pro-crypto. With the proper memes, you can reveal the flaws in the anti-privacy forces arguments. Here are a few in no particular order... Teaching computer users how to use PGP. Offer to give instruction in use of PGP amongst general PC and Mac users groups. Whenever possible associate the wiretapping requests of the FBI with the opening of mail. Remind people of the abuses in the past. Ask them of if they can remember any good coming from these program. Ask them if they mind *you* looking through their mail and what makes the Government any better or worse. Local stations will usually have a "public forum discussion" program on varioussubjects. get on it. Usually the program is rigged in one direction por another, but you can get in a good meme or two that will stick in the heads of the people watching. (And it can be alot of fun!) Offer to sponsor a crypto archive and discussion area on a local BBS. Keep it current. Get others interested. Spread the tools and teach people how to use them. Build web sites that are pro-crypto. Where possible, get them working under SSL. Are there any SSL crypto sites out there? I know of only one, and it is not advertised. (Or up to date.) Work fast lest the darkness overcome us all... Be creative. The control freaks and authoritarians lack that creativity. Lets use it to our advantage. --- |"Computers are Voodoo -- You just have to know where to stick the pins."| |"The moral PGP Diffie taught Zimmermann unites all| Disclaimer: | | mankind free in one-key-steganography-privacy!" | Ignore the man | |`finger -l alano(a)teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.teleport.com/~alano/ | alano(a)teleport.com |

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BCI_sys
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

7-27-96. WaPo: A report on the Army's Battlefield Combat Identification System (BCIS), designed by TRW, which identifies friendly targets through triple-checked microwave pulses, encrypted signals that change frequencies 43 times a second to resist jamming or detection by the enemy. (The roasting of friendlies depicted in "Courage Under Fire" is cited as firing increased public interest.) ----- http://jya.com/bcisys.txt (14 kb) BCI_sys

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Re: Twenty Beautiful Women
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:19 PM 7/27/96, David Sternlight wrote: >Here's another: > >Twenty beautiful women are to pass before you, one by one (or 20 handsome >men). You see only one at a time. You cannot speak to them. After seeing >any one, you must pick her or reject her. If you reject her, you cannot >change your mind. If you pick her the exercise terminates. > >What is the optimal strategy for insuring you get the most beautiful woman >possible under the circumstances? Look at the first 1/e of them, or about the first 36.8% of them. In this case, the first 7 of them. Then pick the first one after this group which is better than any of the first group. While there is some chance that one will get to #20 and find that none of #8-20 were better than #1-7, this strategy is the best compromise between "committing too early" and "waiting too long." --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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cypherpunks vs hackers
by Jerome Tan 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

How can we differentiate cypherpunks to hackers? What are their attitudes, psychological thinking, main objective?

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RE: Schelling Points, Rights, and Game Theory--Part II
by blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: James A. Donald > Some implications of Tim's view is that all our rights are basically a > transitory agreement between individuals. Tim may or may not believe this, but that is not a consequence of his views. The schelling point theory of rights is substantially equivalent in practice to "We hold these truths to be self evident." ............................................................................. Oh. I thought it was "we hold these truths to be too uneconomical for us to deal with". On a side note, I was thinking some time ago about situations in far off places in Europe where some people are mistreating others in the most horrendous ways (like Bosnia where the males are being beaten, the females are being raped). The news services report to us what is happening and so we know all about it, and we may feel the greatest sympathy for them, but yet be unable to render assistance - sufficient assistance - to be of any real help, from lacking the resources necessary to do what would be required. So here is an example where one would be moved, not to impose one's view of what is right or wrong, but to provide relief to those suffering, based on one's sense of injustice, yet likewise calculate that it would not be feasible to take action, reasoning that the cost would be excessive; too burdensome. .. Blanc

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RE: [NOISE IS NOISE] Re: Rand and smoking Re: Flaws of Thinkers (Jefferson, Rand, Nietzsche, Voltaire, etc.) [NOISE E. D.]
by blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Bill Stewart You fail to understand the precisely reasoned Aristotelian syllogistic logic of Ms. Rand's position (you heretic!): 1) Smoking is a result of fire. 2) Fire is cool. 3) Therefore, smoking is cool. Q.E.D. 4) Logic is cool, and non-logic is non-cool 5) We're cool 6) Therefore, light up that cigarette or be excommunicated! Q.E.D. ..................................................................... I don't remember reading anything about Ayn Rand insisting that her followers smoke, although I've read many of the Objectivist newsletters which were published for some time and read Barbara Branden's biography of her (I must have missed those parts). I do remember somewhat her description of what smoking meant to her and know that it was a very important symbol in her life. If her followers saw fit to emulate her on account of a mere symbol to the detriment of their health, and if this was at Rand's insistence, then I would say that they were demonstrating the principle which Rand also illustrated in her books, that being "the sanction of the victim". Ironic, huh. Sometimes you can identify the things that are far enough away to see, but not the ones that are too close to notice. .. Blanc

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NEW: E-LEX - electronic lexicons
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

For all you dictionary attackers out there... ;-) Cheers, Bob --- begin forwarded text Date: Sat, 27 Jul 1996 22:17:03 -0500 Reply-To: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke(a)babel.ling.nwu.edu> Sender: NEW-LIST - New List Announcements <NEW-LIST(a)LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU> From: "Sean M. Burke" <sburke(a)babel.ling.nwu.edu> Subject: NEW: E-LEX - electronic lexicons To: Multiple recipients of list NEW-LIST <NEW-LIST(a)LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU> E-LEX on listproc(a)listserv.acns.nwu.edu E-LEX is a new email list for the discussion of the design of dictionaries with electronic interfaces. Topics may include: * the possibilities of hypertext/hypermedia for the electronic interface * adaptation of machine-readable dictionaries to user-friendly human-usable form * issues in conversion and adaptation of paper dictionaries to electronic form The list's new homepage is at http://www.ling.nwu.edu/~sburke/e-lex/ To subscribe to E-LEX, send a message to listproc(a)listserv.acns.nwu.edu containing this line in the message body: subscribe E-LEX Your Name Owner: Sean M. Burke sburke(a)babel.ling.nwu.edu ------- Use this information at your own risk. For more information and disclaimer send E-mail to LISTSERV(a)LISTSERV.NODAK.EDU with the command INFO NEW-LIST in the body. --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "'Bart Bucks' are not legal tender." -- Punishment, 100 times on a chalkboard, for Bart Simpson The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/

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Re: Why <jf_avon@citenet.net> was blocked.
by Erle Greer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Umm.. when telling other ppl that they do not know how to read, it might >be usefull to use sentances with a subject AND a predicate. I know that >this is something they taught you _way_ back in second grade, but you >should still remember it. > > --Deviant I'm not even going to comment on the twentieth word here. Nope. Not gonna'. Can't make me. No way. vagab0nd(a)sd.cybernex.net http://ww2.sd.cybernex.net/~vagab0nd/index.html Visit web page for public key.

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Re: cypherpunks vs hackers
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 1:36 PM 7/27/96, Jerome Tan wrote: >How can we differentiate cypherpunks to hackers? What are their attitudes, >psychological thinking, main objective? I would differentiate cypherpunks to hackers this way: dC/dH Not sure what the result is, but the slope is the key. --Tim 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: Twenty Beautiful Women
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:48 PM 7/27/96 -0500, Igor Chudov @ home wrote: >Timothy C. May wrote: >> While there is some chance that one will get to #20 and find that none of >> #8-20 were better than #1-7, this strategy is the best compromise between >> "committing too early" and "waiting too long." > >This "some chance" is 1/e (for a very large number of women), obviously. > >There is 1/e chance that the best woman will be in the first 1/e >fraction of women. > >Also, I would appreciate if someone specified what exactly the goal >function is. > > - Igor. "Come again?" [quickly ducking...] Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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