December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

VISA Travel Money
by mpd＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Happened to browse the VISA Web site last evening to read about the new microprocessor-based VISA Cash Cards that are being accepted in lieu of small change at the Olympics in Atlanta. While there, I noticed a new product that VISA is about to introduce. Called "VISA Travel Money", it is a pre-paid card with a user-selected PIN which one can simply purchase at a participating financial institution, just like Travelers Checks. One can then use it at any of the 250,000 ATMs in 89 countries until the amount one paid for it has been extracted, after which, one presumedly tosses it. Since the card is pre-paid, and does not involve the extension of credit, I would think that a "nym" would have no difficulty in purchasing one. Seems like a convenient way to keep moderate amounts of cash in a form which cannot be easily stolen, nor perused by the Feds. I wonder if an SSN is required at the time of purchase? In any case, http://www.visa.com/ and a few clicks will get you all the available information. VISA Travel Money: No Horseman should leave home without it! :)

1 0

Re: Digital Watermarks for copy protection in recent Billbo
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Now, would you mind doing a little translation (for the laymen), >since I didn't understand? We did Fourier transforms in third--or-fourth semester calculus in college, but then I _was_ an engineer; electrical engineers would go on to do lots more of this stuff, since frequencies and waveforms are their territory. Essentially, you can look at "most" continuous functions in normal time-space, or you can represent them in a frequency space instead, and you can reproduce the original function by transforming from the frequency space back to the time space. The "Lebesgue" bit is a precise definition of "most". (For most of the math I did in college, "Lebesgue" was a phrase meaning "/* you are not expected to understand this */", and it and Measure Theory got trotted out to clarify rigorously when functions are well-behaved enough for the stuff we were learning to apply. Most functions you use are Lebegue integrable, unless you use stuff like "f(x) = 0 if x is rational and 1 if x is irrational".) Discrete Fourier Transforms are a related analysis technique that work on sets of numbers such as equally-spaced samples from a continuous function. The Fast Fourier Transform is a particularly efficient way to do DFTs, which was a breakthrough that made them practical to do on computers, and Jim was reminding the previous poster that for the problem at hand, determining the frequency spectrum of whatever-it-was, that DFTs aren't what you need; you need the regular continuous Fourier transform. At 01:04 PM 7/29/96 +0000, you wrote: >> Jim Choate <ravage(a)einstein.ssz.com> writes: > >> You want a continuous Fourier transform, not a discrete one, to >> determine the frequency spectrum of the waveform being sampled. >> The FFT is simply an algorithm for computing the DFT without >> redundant computation. In general, any Lebesgue integrable >> complex function will have a Fourier transform, even one with a >> finite number of discontinuities. The reverse transform will >> faithfully reproduce the function, modulo the usual caveats about >> function spaces and sets of measure zero. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> # Dispel Authority!

1 0

Re: TLAs on cypherpnks (was R
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 05:35 AM 7/30/96 -0500, pjn(a)nworks.com wrote: > In> Is this the first confirmed report of TLA cypherpunk-monitoring? > Might be the first reported, but many people probably thought it was... > I did... ABout N years ago, when you could still read all of Usenet if you really wanted, and when Usenet mostly was carried by telephone rather than NNTP, there were a few places that got their newsfeeds by weekly magtape. One of them was Australia. Another was the FBI..... # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> # Dispel Authority!

1 0

crypto CD source
by aba＠atlas.ex.ac.uk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Some time ago on the list there was some discussion of putting together a CD full of cryptographic software and reference material. Nothing came of it, but I think several people expressed an interest, for those of you who were interested, take a look at: http://www.sevenlocks.com/ Only problem is the price: http://www.sevenlocks.com/Encyclopedia.htm Single issue $195 One-year subscription (4 issues) $695 ($174/issue) Two-year subscription (8 issues) $995 ($124/issue) Ouch! Bit pricy, perhaps they justify it by the value added information they've supplied? Interesting that they keep the information up-to-date, one issue per quarter. They have a large supply of crypto software available on-line as well. (No mention of ITAR on their software down load pages (78 Mb of security related software they claim), and it looks you could download the lot even if you weren't in the US). Adam -- #!/bin/perl -sp0777i<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<j]dsj $/=unpack('H*',$_);$_=`echo 16dio\U$k"SK$/SM$n\EsN0p[lN*1 lK[d2%Sa2/d0$^Ixp"|dc`;s/\W//g;$_=pack('H*',/((..)*)$/)

1 0

Re: "Soft Targets" as Schelling Points
by eli+＠gs160.sp.cs.cmu.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim May writes: >Schelling points need not involve "coordination" between actors, though >Schelling points provide one means of coordination without communication >(e.g., where does each think a meeting will occur). > >Schelling points are like "The Match Game" (an old t.v. show largely >written by one of the main contributors to "Mad Magazine"). Namely, "Name >a place likely to be attacked by terrorists." This isn't EconPunks, so I'll just say I haven't seen the term used except in the context of tacit coordination (see <http://www.best.com/ ~ddfr/Academic/Property/Property.html> for some examples). There is some coordination here, I guess: terrorists and television crews both benefit from being in the same place when the bomb goes off. But this probably isn't a driving motivation for either. -- Eli Brandt eli+(a)cs.cmu.edu

1 0

CPC_ode
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

AmBank, July 29, 1996: Technologists at banks with large overseas operations have drawn encouragement from a National Research Council report suggesting that businesses be allowed stronger forms of data encryption. Although financial transactions are generally exempt from encryption restrictions, bankers advocate more freedom in the market. They complain that government officials often refuse their requests for international use of applications with strong cryptography -- and give no reasons for their decisions. NiSaShi, July 23, 1996: Japan ID Tech, an Osaka-based information technology startup, has developed a system for encoding text as graphical images that can be sent via fax over normal communications transmission lines. The system consists of software that converts text to a two-dimensional bar code called a CP code, which is gaining popularity as a next-generation coding system. The company's encoding program also incorporates DES. MiPa, July 29, 1996: Patent: Method and system for key distribution and authentication in a data communication network (IBM). Inventors: Bjorklund, Ronald E.; Bauchot, Frederic; Wetterwald, Michele M.; Kutten, Shay; Herzberg, Amir. ----- http://jya.com/cpcode.txt (for 3, 11 kb) CPC_ode

1 0

Re: TLAs on cypherpnks (was R
by Deranged Mutant 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A story I heard: During a privacy conference back when Clipper was first proposed (about 3 yrs ago) people were questioning an NSA rep about escrow. He started off his rebuttal by asking "Is Sternlight here?" and then contined his reasoning as to why Clipper was a good thing. Don't know if this actually happened, but I'm sure if it did some here would remember it. --Rob On 30 Jul 96 at 5:35, pjn(a)nworks.com wrote: > In> Is this the first confirmed report of TLA cypherpunk-monitoring? > > Might be the first reported, but many people probably thought it was... > I did... --- 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.

2 1

Re: ALL OF YOU ARE CRIMINAL HACKERS, I AM GOING TO CALL FBI
by Stephen Cobb 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:33 PM 7/26/96 -0700, you wrote: >I AM NOT GOING TO TOLERATE EXISTENCE OF A MEDIUM FOR CRIMINAL HACKERS >AND MUNITIONS SMUGGLERS. I WILL COMPLAIN TO THE FBI IMMEDIATELY SO THAT THEY >CAN TRACK YOU DOWN AND CLOSE THIS LIST. > As a Certified Information Systems Security Professional I am sworn to uphold a professional code of ethics. I have pledged to help my clients protect the privacy of their information. I do not consider the free exchange of ideas as inconsistent with that plegde or those ethics. Please feel free to email me directly with a statement of your specific fears and concerns and I am sure I can allay them. Otherwise I suggest you spend some time studying the US constitution and contemplating the personal sacrifices made those who are dedicated to defending it. Respectfully...Stephen

1 0

Re: Returned mail.No such addressee
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 02:58 PM 7/30/96 +0200, somebody signing a message as Remo Pini <rp(a)rpini.com> wrote: > Actually the archives from ftp.dsi.unimi.it have moved to: > ftp://idea.sec.dsi.unimi.it/pub/ > It's a very large repository and to hell with ITAR, it's italian. And it's got a set of mirrors for many of the other popular sites as well. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> # Dispel Authority!

1 0

RE: Let's Say "No!" to Single, World Versions of Software
by frantz＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Someone asked a few days ago what US companies are doing to oppose ITAR. many of them are taking public positions on the ProCODE bill. Another of the things they are doing is deploying strong crypto domestically. (Arun Mehta and Tim May have detailed the mechanisms why this domestic deployment will have world-wide impact.) Here is a start at a list of such companies: Community ConneXion - Too much to mention, Thanks Sameer IBM - The Anarchistic Key Authorization system (from U of Texas), see 6th Usenix Security Symposium proceedings Netscape - SSL PGP Inc - 'nuff said Sun Microsystems - SKIP implementation, PGP v3 implementation Please add to the list. We should recognize and remember our friends. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Frantz | Cave ab homine unius lebri | Periwinkle -- Consulting (408)356-8506 | [Beware the man of one | 16345 Englewood Ave. frantz(a)netcom.com | book] - Anonymous Latin | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA

2 1