December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Internet blamed for pipe bombs
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 08:30 AM 7/28/96 -0700, Lucky Green wrote: >At 5:36 7/28/96, E. ALLEN SMITH wrote: > >>> Across the country, latest figures from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, >>> Tobacco and Firearms show a 20 percent jump in pipe bomb incidents >>> between 1990 and 1994. >> >>[...] >> >>> "We've been incredibly busy," said sheriff's bomb technician Judd >>> Holiday. "As crime in other categories is dropping, this is going up." > >The friendly Anarchist's Bookstore in San Francisco sells several books on >building bombs. No Internet connection required. I would like offer another >possible explanation for the increase in pipe bombings. The People are >getting frustrated and a pipe bomb can be very useful device releasing >one's frustration. The local PBS station had a program on bomb detection and manufacture. It included a section with someone from the BATF explaining how Pipebombs work and included slow motion video. (It might have been an episode of NOVA. I came in in the middle.) It even included information about how nails and screws would be included for extra schrapnel. (Maybe this is part of a plot to remove funding from PBS once and for all...) The media and government types who are blaming the Internet for pipebombs do not get out enough. I have seen good working descriptions in books since I was a small child. (Of course, I actually read books as a child. And not just the pablum they expect kids to read nowadays.) Of course, since when have government and media pronouncements have had anything to do with the real world and/or truth... --- 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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overwhelmed/overloaded
by mallet＠juno.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Clearly, some of us aren't exhibiting the proper sensitivity to the feelings of others. This can't continue. But it will. So, live with it. Maybe we could have a cypherpunk nanny who exhorts niceness from a bully pulpit, but please can we keep it to one nanny? May it could be a rotating honor. Flame away, nannies.

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

17 Dec '03

At 5:59 PM 7/28/96, pjn(a)nworks.com wrote: > In> How can we differentiate cypherpunks to hackers? What are their > In> attitudes, psychological thinking, main objective? > > It is interesting to note that while both groups have opposite > objectives (Hackers want all information free, where cypherpunks want > everbody to be able to have privacy), and yet in there own ways, they > are both right. I don't believe this is an accurate picture of "what hackers want." The "information wants to be free" view is one facet of the outlook of many--but not all--hackers. Rather than debate semantics of the definition of "hacker," or ask others to suggest definitions, it might be better for interested folks to read some of the various books on the topic and then decide for themselves. Some of them are: - Levy, "Hackers," of course - Haffner and Markoff, "Cyberpunk" - Sterling's book on hackers - any one (but not more) of the several Shimomura v. Mitnick books etc. --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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Terrorist voice recognition
by nobody＠vegas.gateway.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Does anyone else find it odd that the tape of the 911 call, threatening the terrorist bomb at the Olympic Park, still hasn't been released to the media? It would seem that there is at least a possibility that someone could know this person's voice and finger him for the feds... I have a [disturbing, hence anonymous] explanation: The feds figure they have already got a pool of people who can recognise the voice of a pipe-bomber, as sworn courtroom admissions show that the previous pipebombs' burial locations, supposedly known to "the Georgia Militia," were actually only known to a single government informant infiltrator. [The media, for some strange reason, didn't choose to report this little item. The militia case has now been delayed.] Hmmmmmmmm.

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Re: Feinstein wants controls on Internet, Books
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 02:26 AM 7/29/96 -0700, tcmay(a)got.net (Timothy C. May) wrote: >One of my senators, Senator Dianne Feinstein, is now arguing on CNN for >controls on information put on the Internet, on censorship of books and >articles describing how pipe bombs work, and for making it easier to get >wiretaps against those suspected of committing thought crimes. Unlike many pro-censorship ideas from your Congresscritters and fedcops, Federal courts have dealt with this one, at least for magazines. "The Progressive" wanted to publish the plans for hydrogen bombs a few years back, and a federal district court issued a restraining order to prevent publication. Another magazine published the article, and a federal appeals court dismissed the case. (United States v. The Progressive, 467 F.Supp. 990 (W.D. Wis.), dismissed without opinion, 610 F.2d 819 (7th Cir. 1979).) Prior restraint is extremely difficult to get away with, and when the information is already widely available, such as simple pipe bombs, it's just not tenable. Now, there are subtleties to building them that may require some amount of thought, rather than being totally obvious to the builder, and there are things that are obvious but are difficult to do. For instance, say you, hypothetically, wanted to blow up your government's legislative building. You'd obviously want to pick a dark and stormy night, say early in November, and you'd sneak into the basement with barrels of gunpowder. You'd use a long, slow-burning fuse, so it would blow up the next day when they're in session, but after lighting it you'd still run away very fast just in case your fuse speeds up on you. The obvious thing you'd need to do is to NOT GET CAUGHT LIKE THE LAST FOOL WHO TRIED IT. However, if you do get caught, maybe you'll end up with your name in lights and people will set off firecrackers in your honor every fall, while if you don't get caught you won't be personally famous. Tough choice:-) Penny for the Guy? # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> # Dispel Authority!

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your favorite poison recipes
by anonymous-remailer＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Please post your favorite poison recipes to this mlist.

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Re: TLAs on cypherpnks (was Re: ALL OF YOU ARE CRIMINAL HACKERS)
by Greg Broiles 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>[Declan asked a former CIA employee] if he had ever monitored the >cypherpunks list. "No, I >didn't. It was too high-traffic," he said. "But the guy in the next >office over from me did." > >Is this the first confirmed report of TLA cypherpunk-monitoring? Given that no names or dates are mentioned, I dunno if it's fair to call it "confirmed". It doesn't seem to be re-confirmable, if someone else wanted to verify it independently. I'm also not sure that a TLA employee reading the list because they happen to find it interesting counts as "monitoring". "Monitoring" suggests to me that it's being read/filtered/indexed/archived in some organized and deliberate fashion. Even so, the issue seems likely to generate more heat than light. If the list is interesting, it's unremarkable that one or more TLA employees would choose to read it. On our better days, we're talking about the intersection(s) between politics and privacy and technology - issues which affect the performance of many of a TLA's duties as well as the public will to maintain the policies and funding of the TLA and its employees. It's not surprising that TLA's want the capability to read every word written and hear every word spoken; it's just surprising that they believe that using law to maintain their ability to do that is compatible with the Constitution. -- 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: your favorite poison recipes
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:11 PM 7/28/96 -0700, anonymous-remailer(a)shell.portal.com wrote: >Please post your favorite poison recipes to this mlist. Why post them? Barnes and Noble bookstore will sell you good poison recipes in book form. (I found mine in the bargain section.) You can also find them in any good book on organic chemistry or in a bookstore that specializes in mysteries. Or you can just go to McDonalds and ask them what is in the hamburgers... (Of course, they will not tell you that it is made with troll meat.) --- |"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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Just some comments on what I've read here
by Scottauge＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

1) Seems to be some excitment about banning information on the internet here... Setting up a set of computers for a private net is not that big a deal (just some money involved and with the availability of Linux - a UNIX variant - for free make it hardware and telephone costs.) Do it for companies all over (hence the aol address - just a local phone call from anywhere!) and it works just fine. So if people want to play by different rules.. it's possible. Think of it as a members only social club. (I can make computers real hard to get into, but social engineering kicks my butt all the time.) 2) Whats wrong with America? I've been leaning towards Libertarian for some time now. Voted for Ross last time as a message I ain't happy with how things are going over there. Likely gonna vote Harry Brown - my first vote for a Libertarian. (He is seems to have it together versus the others) - but hey, gettin off the subject here.... Seems we are no longer United in these United States... A stranger is not a potential friend or ally but a potential robber, baby raper... you fill in the blank. We're all scared of each other! Something has been happening where rich are pitted against the poor, the working against the non-working, races vs other races. Is it a conspiracy as some of my friends who look for black helicopters say, or a natural reaction of politicians and "leaders" seeing a formula that works and then implementing it. To much Hard Copy and Extra reporting out there too. I don't give a rat's a*s about most of the sh*t their putting out (censorship mine for those with delicate eyes). But US culture has become very valuable and ya gotta get them foreign markets ya know. There was a time when a famil could have a picnic on the white house lawn. Then it got gated, now the street is closed. Our leaders seem to be no longer among us. But it doesn't matter. Some beuracrat (sp) gets a bug up their butt to give you trouble, your f*cked. With a seconds thought and a signature on a peice of paper ya can have your land gone or your bank account cleared or you name it. One second and on to the next thing as far as they are concerned. Can we impeach them? Can we vote for someone else next time? They're a buffer between the ones we can give trouble too. Plus Laws are so damn big these days. It takes a ream of paper (sometimes a whole 3000 page box of paper) to print these things out. You can bet the leg. not reading these things! They got advisors to read over sections and say this is good, this is bad. The real representatives and senators are out looking for campaign money. So damn, I now speculate these guys and gals are letting the advisors put the laws together - again someone not answerable (or even known) to the public. So now, you got legislators not reading the bills they are working on and there is a whole army of serfs ready to make some regulations that are in effect the same as law and ready to start looking for people to bother so they can look busy - and these serfs are not answerable to the public. Sorry, but congress is a part time job as far as I'm concerned. These laws are the result of people with nothing to do. I listen to the TV set and I hear "Oh we gotta law comin to fix this". Bullsh*t. There are plenty of other laws out there to hassle trouble makers with. They didn't nab Capone on murder, but on tax evasion. People fix stuff, not laws. Somebody is measuring their prouctivity by the amount of paper they can spew out of their office. 3) I'm a keen believer in Social Evolution A quick definition: If your a drug addict and your stupid enough to OD, you deserve to die. Another example: Your a drug dealer and ya get shot - oh well. Goes with the choice , dude. We keep protecting people from their choices. We think we are doing a favor for ourselves but I POSTULATE we are not. We keep on fightin nature and it just ain't possible. There just might be a reason for this weedin out process. But I'll admit it - I have a prejudice against stupid people - not mentally hadicapped, but stupid people. Well, thanks for reading my ranting and raving....

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Re: your favorite poison recipes
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:11 PM 7/28/96 -0700, anonymous-remailer(a)shell.portal.com wrote: >Please post your favorite poison recipes to this mlist. I recommend a book called "Handbook for Poisoners," by Raymond Bond. While it is mostly a collection of (mostly fictional) poison stories, the forward is a rather extensive non-fictional summary of poisons as was commonly known when the book was written, in 1950 or so. The main problem is that it doesn't include the various anticholinesterases then known, such as Tabun or Sarin. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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