December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Oregon License Plate Site in the News Tonight!
by jfricker＠vertexgroup.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Have bandwidth, will travel. Server space available here. www.vertexgroup.com/dmv/ is good to go. Database front ends a speciality. At 05:57 AM 8/8/96 -0700, Declan McCullagh wrote: >Looks like we're a little late. However, we can still grab the tape from >Oregon's DMV for $220. It would be an interesting excercise to try to get >these tapes from each state with similar provisions and put them all >online. > >Anyone want to donate server space? > >-Declan > > >http://www.spiritone.com/cgi-bin/plates > > Service has been temporarily suspended. > Don't panic, I just want to think about the situation for a while. > Stay tuned. --Aaron > >--- > > There is a very real chance that it will be turned off. That's becuase > all of the people who hate it call the TV and Radio stations, the DMV, > and their elected representitives. All of the people who love it send > me email. As much as I appreciate hearing from all of you, sending me > email doesn't let anyone else know how you feel. If you want to keep > this service going, make your voices heard. > > > >On Wed, 7 Aug 1996, Timothy C. May wrote: > >> >> Cypherpunks make the news again. >> >> I'm watching the LA NBC news channel, and they report that the Oregon "look >> up any license plate" Web site is causing a flap. Though apparently legal, >> the critics admit, the Governor wants the material removed. >> >> (Sounds like a good time to mirror it on some other sites, pronto!) >> >> --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." >> >> >> >> > > >// declan(a)eff.org // I do not represent the EFF // declan(a)well.com // > > >

3 3

Re: Tim's Mac Tales
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:50 PM 8/7/96, John Young wrote: >What caught my eye in Tim's remarks about Apple was his continued use of >Macs. Why was that enticing? I have no idea why it would be enticing, inasmuch as I've covered this a bunch of times. Though John is asking this as a joke, I'll pretend he's serious. At least for a few paragraphs. >It has to do with what hard-headed physicists know about hardware that >soft-headed coders don't. Amongst other things, an _operating system_ is not the same as a _CPU_. The Macintosh OS happens to run, for historical reasons, on Motorola processors, and DOS happens to run, for historical reasons, on Intel processors. Other operatings systems, such as Unix, tend to run on various processors. Had history evolved slightly differently, a DOS-like OS could have been dominant on Motorola CPUs, a Macintosh-like OS could have been dominant on Intel CPUs (indeed, many would say this is what Windows 3.x and later are), and so forth. Quibblers may jump in with the usual religious arguments about segmented architectures, the orthogonality of the 68000 instruction set, etc., but these points are tangential to the simple decisions about Seattle Computer and Microsoft coming up with a CP/M-like OS for Intel processors, and Apple committing to the Motorola family. (And recall that windowing systems _did_ exist for the Intel CPU even back in the 80s...Unix systems, including Sun's OS, ran on Intel CPUs.) As several of my messages over the years have explained, including the one sent out yesterday, the Macintosh visual metaphor was the closest to the LISP machine I had been using while at Intel. I did buy an IBM PC in '83 (and an S-100 Sol in '78), running DOS. I even bought Windows 1.0, a truly, totally, completely awful product! (Steve Ballmer of Microsoft admitted as much in his interview on "Revenge of the Nerds.") I looked closely at the Lisa in '83, but it was too expensive. The Macintosh in '84 was priced better, but also lacked a few key things. But by the time the Mac Plus arrived, I was ready to buy. That the CPU was a $40 chip from Motorola rather than a $40 chip from Intel was not even a consideration. (Intel bought Macs to do various graphics arts things, just as I'm sure Motorola bought PCs to do various things.) > >So my curiosity: does Tim know Intel intel that we don't know, and can't >tell it? More generally, do chip physicists know what crypto coders don't, >about the covert features of those world-pervasive chips inside? > >Would Tim tell, could Tim disclose intel, what the world doesn't know about >Intel, about what Intel's hard-headed Moore, the immigrant physicist, >whispers in utmost secrecy to Microsoft's soft-headed Gates, the >American-way coder? Is soft-hearted OS code the front for cold-hearted >hardware spying? I'm having my usual problems trying to parse this? Is this some sort of rhyme, a la "a horse is a horse of course"? Gordon Moore is not an immigrant physicist, not even an immigrant into California. He was born about 40 miles north of where I now live. >Maybe the most that Tim can tell without exposing Intel is that Tim uses >Macs. Indeed, I use Macs because Intel chips have those special NSA instructions in them, like the Cray did. (Funny, we haven't had this thread here that I can recall...it used to be a staple of sci.crypt in the late 80s.) > >(Hold on, Tim, this is the way I write after thirty years of grinding out >grim technical reports.) > I suspected as much, John. Your TRs must be doozies. (TRP, he of The Whole Sick Crew, used to hide from his officemates by placing a large sheet of blueprint paper over his head as he did engineering drawing work at Boeing.) --Tyrone Slothrope

1 0

Re:Wee Beasties on Mars [NOISE]
by mccoy＠communities.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > schryver(a)radiks.net: > > > > NBC News at Sunrise has just announced the discovery of alien life on the > > > planet Mars. The lifeform that became extinct more than 2 billion years > > > ago was found as a fossil in a meteor that originated from mars and landed > > > on earth. The fossil found was a primitive germ life form. > > NASA is holding a news conference today to discuss the find. I must > admit I am curious as to how they determined the meteor's origin. > Most material in the solar system is similar in composition. Using the same methods that geologists use to determine whether or not certain meteorites are from the moon, by chemical composition. Material from within the solar system actually has varied composition mainly determined by the distance of the body from the Sun (there are various theories as to why this is, an intro cosmology book will describe them all in detail), the actual percentages of various elements and compounds can be used to make a reasonable guess as to whether or not a particular meteorite was knocked off of a planet or moon to which we have sent a probe. For example, it is possible to buy fragments of "moon rocks" which are not actually samples returned from Apollo missions (which are all owned by the U.S. government) but are from meteorites which match the exact chemical and physical composition of the returned lunar samples. Such determinations are a lot easier for planets/moons which do not have active vulcanism or other events which significantly mix up the composition of the planet. At the news conference given this afternoon the fact that the meteorite was Martian in origin was probably the least controversial. It seems that exobiology may no longer be a field without a subject :) If the results are confirmed what I think will end up being the most interesting fallout of this will be in the creationism/evolution debate. It seems that life may have been independantly generated at multiple locations, barring a "space seed" debate flaring up again, and the "impossible odds" argument has become pretty weak... jim

3 2

Scientists discover evidence of life on Macs!
by bryce＠digicash.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Okay, I'll stop. Bryce -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2i Comment: Auto-signed under Unix with 'BAP' Easy-PGP v1.1b2 iQB1AwUBMgmgKUjbHy8sKZitAQGH+AMAgUBwBqkZCbHw21xUwiarJe+Gzo+7yDqs gvX0Tos+/YdMSjl2fMbV8480qvbTz+r6izqh8y6D4Fv0sbM12PCUq2AoeJo35naI GWNV3yybBj2N0YsuOmvhQvcE/lDyVesF =kx/N -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Re: ****Tacoma, Washington Starts Taxing Internet Access
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 8:05 PM 8/7/96, James A. Donald wrote: >At 05:08 AM 8/7/96 GMT, Brian C. Lane wrote: >> A slight correction. They are imposing a 6% tax on the Gross receipts of >> all Internet Providers who have customers in Tacoma. This includes AOL, >> Compu$erve, and my local favorites - aa.net and eskimo.com > >So if someone has six thousand customers, one of whom is in Tacoma, they >want six percent of his gross on the other 5999 customers? ...and California wants 8.25%, Virgina wants 7.5%, ....., France wants 37%, Iraq wants it all, and Singapore wants it shut down. This is the flip side of regulatory arbitrage, I guess. --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: Oregon License Plate Site in the News Tonight!
by Joel McNamara 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Not all states (Washington and California, for example) will sell their DMV lists. There is a gentleman that goes by the handle of Bootleg, that does sell CD-ROM versions of said listings (my guess where the Web site got the data from). Last heard, he had Oregon, Texas, and Florida. Oregon was the bargain around $220, Florida and Texas were about $500. Try 503-325-0861 for voice (don't know if that's still current). He may be on the Net, but I don't have an address. Joel At 05:57 AM 8/8/96 -0700, Declan McCullagh wrote: >Looks like we're a little late. However, we can still grab the tape from >Oregon's DMV for $220. It would be an interesting excercise to try to get >these tapes from each state with similar provisions and put them all >online. > >Anyone want to donate server space? > >-Declan > > >http://www.spiritone.com/cgi-bin/plates > > Service has been temporarily suspended. > Don't panic, I just want to think about the situation for a while. > Stay tuned. --Aaron > >--- > > There is a very real chance that it will be turned off. That's becuase > all of the people who hate it call the TV and Radio stations, the DMV, > and their elected representitives. All of the people who love it send > me email. As much as I appreciate hearing from all of you, sending me > email doesn't let anyone else know how you feel. If you want to keep > this service going, make your voices heard. > > > >On Wed, 7 Aug 1996, Timothy C. May wrote: > >> >> Cypherpunks make the news again. >> >> I'm watching the LA NBC news channel, and they report that the Oregon "look >> up any license plate" Web site is causing a flap. Though apparently legal, >> the critics admit, the Governor wants the material removed. >> >> (Sounds like a good time to mirror it on some other sites, pronto!) >> >> --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." >> >> >> >> > > >// declan(a)eff.org // I do not represent the EFF // declan(a)well.com // > > > >

1 0

CryptoCD
by Remo Pini 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

If your interested in the upcoming CryptoCD, check out: http://www.rpini.com/crypto/cryptocd.html If you'll get one, once it's finished, mail to: mailto:cryptocd@rpini.com <hr> see you, remo pini

1 0

Babble about universal service
by E. ALLEN SMITH 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I wish that people (like Phil Agre, who claims to be in favor of democracy on the Net) might get it through their heads that many - probably most - of those already on the Net have no desire to see every redneck on the planet on here, much less pay for the privilege of their being able to send inane messages to us. -Allen From: IN%"rre(a)weber.ucsd.edu" 17-JUL-1996 23:08:46.62 From: Phil Agre <pagre(a)weber.ucsd.edu> =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= This message was forwarded through the Red Rock Eater News Service (RRE). Send any replies to the original author, listed in the From: field below. You are welcome to send the message along to others but please do not use the "redirect" command. For information on RRE, including instructions for (un)subscribing, send an empty message to rre-help(a)weber.ucsd.edu =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Date: 2 Jul 1996 17:03:29 GMT From: rh120(a)columbia.edu (Ronda Hauben) Organization: Columbia University Report 1 I just returned from a fascinating week in Montreal, Canada where I attended the INET '96 conference held by the Internet Society. I will try to write some reports about what happened at the Conference in the next week or two as it would be good to have the online community discuss some of the issues that were raised at the Conference. What became clear at the conference was that this is an important time in the development of the Internet. People from around the world attended the conference and most expressed the desire that the Internet be made available in their countries for education and scientific and other uses. Some of the focus of the conference was on business uses of the Internet, but it seemed that there was a great concern among the people I spoke to that the Internet be available for educational and scientific and government and community purposes, not just for business uses. I want to start this report however, with the last talk that was given at the conference. The final talk was to be given by Reed Hunt of the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. He didn't attend however, and instead the talk was given by Blair Levin, Chief of Staff at the FCC instea. A version of the talk is available at the FCC www site. The talk was a surprise as it seemed uninformed both about the history and importance of the Internet and of the important public policy considerations that need to be taken into account when making any rules for regulating the Internet. At the beginning of the talk, there was the statement that Reed Hunt was the first FCC Chairman to have a computer on his desk, but that he asked his staff to explain how the Internet works. So instead of a commitment to learn about how the Internet developed and the significant impact it is having on the world, the speech presented us with the glib "the Internet gives us the opportunity to change all our communications policies." The problem with this is that the FCC is therefore starting from scratch, throwing out all the lessons that have helped the Internet to grow and develop, and instead, creating its own models. In his talk Blair Levin listed five principles. They were: 1) How can public policy promote expansion of band width? 2) What rules can we get rid of or have? 3) The concern with pricing. 4) How to make sure it reaches everyone, especially kids in schools. 5) How to make sure it reaches across the globe. The problem with this was that it took universal service as the 4th point, and then basically substituted access by kids in schools for the principle of universal service. During the talk Blair described how the NTIA (the National Telecommunications Information Administration) had submitted an important paper to the FCC on the issue of voice over the Internet. This made clear that the NTIA has not submitted any paper to the FCC on the issue of universal service, despite the fact that they held an online hearing on several issues, including universal service and the Internet, in November 1994 and the NTIA has done nothing to act on the broad expression of sentiment for universal service that was expressed during that online public meeting. When asked about that online meeting, Blair said that the FCC knew of the meeting. However, it seems to have had no effect on their deliberations, or on the request of people that the FCC open up their decision making process so that the people who are being affected by their decisions have a means of providing input into those decisions. In response to a question about the need for universal service Blair responded that that was the obligation of other branches of the U.S. government like the Department of Education. He said this despite the fact that at the current moment the FCC is supposedly making rules to provide for the universal service provisions of the Telecommunications Act passed by the U.S. Congress in Feb. 1996. Also, he claimed to welcome submissions into their process, but when told that it would cost over $50 to pay postage costs for a submission since there were over 35 people who had to be served (and postage on a minimal submission was $1.45), he said to see Kevin Werbach a lawyer at the FCC, who had come with him. Kevin Werbach offered no means of dealing with the high cost of making a submission. Many people at the Internet Society Conference applauded in response to the question about the lack of concern by the FCC for the principle of universal service to the Internet. At the Internet Society conference many people spoke up about the need in their countries, whether that be Canada, or Norway, or Ghana, etc. for the Net to be more widespread and available to the public for educational and community purposes. Many were concerned about the lack of ability of the so called "market forces" to provide networking access to other than corporate or well to do users. Yet here was a talk being given in the name of the Chairman of the regulatory body in the U.S. charged with making the rules to provide for universal service, and the talk was unconcerned with the important issues and problems that issue of providing universal service to the Internet raises. It is unfortunate that Reed Hunt didn't come to the conference and take the challenge to learn what the real concerns of people around the world are with regard to access to the Internet. Isolated in Washington, with no access to him possible for most people (though someone from one company told me that he was told to send him email whenever he had a concern), it seems difficult for the rules process to be able to produce any helpful outcome. There need to be open meetings and sessions where people who are concerned with these issues are invited to be heard and to discuss these issues with the FCC. Instead the process is going on behind the same closed doors that the crafting of the Telecommunications Act was created by the U.S. Congress. It is a tribute to the Internet Society that they did make an effort to invite government officials like Reed Hunt to the conference. The FCC will be setting an example for the rest of the world by the telecommunications policy rules it creates. Will the policy be one that recognizes that the so called "market" cannot provide the free or low cost access to the Internet that is necessary to make such universal service a reality? Will the rules created be based on looking back at how time sharing and the the ARPANET and the Internet developed so it can build on those lessons? To have those rules be based on firm lessons from the past and firm principles that can make them fruitful, it is necessary that the FCC process creating those rules be much more open than it is at present. If the FCC could learn from the experience of the Internet and set up newsgroups and real email access to the officials involved that would demonstrate a commitment to a more equitable access to the Internet and to the fcc rulemaking that is needed to make the Internet available to all. But from the recent talk by the FCC official presented at INET '96, there seems little indication that the need for an open process and a many to many means of communication is recognized among those at the FCC and thus there is even less evidence that the FCC is capable of making rules to apply the principle of universal service to make Internet access available to all. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Hauben Teachers College Dept. of Communication Amateur Computerist Newsletter http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/acn/ WWW Music Index http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/music/ Netizens Netbook http://www.columbia.edu/~hauben/netbook/ Netizens Cyberstop

3 2

Re: PGP Mailer for the masses ?
by David.K.Merriman＠toad.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com, provos(a)wserver.physnet.uni-hamburg.de Date: Thu Aug 08 12:20:42 1996 > Hi! > > Due to the possibility of governments prohibiting strong cryptography > the idea to provide an easy to use mailer with addressbook > and pgp functions arose on the german krypto mailinglist. The availabilty > of an easy to use product would greatly enhance the use of cryptography > on the internet and thus getting us nearer to the point of noreturn, > that > is the point where a prohibtion of cryptography is not any longer > possible. > I can testify to the integration and effectiveness of Pronto Secure (Windows version), which I've changed over to from Eudora Pro. As near as I can tell, PGP interface is seamless. Don't know if that's what you're looking for. Dave Merriman - -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- PGP Email welcome, encouraged, and PREFERRED. Visit my web site at http://www.shellback.com/p/merriman for my PGP key and fingerprint "What is the sound of one hand clapping in a forest with no one there to hear it?" I use Pronto Secure (tm) PGP-fluent Email software for Windows -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMglrIsVrTvyYOzAZAQEXIgP/eGi+VScrDU4laIc9HHRjBTGG09Et8yHb tPpXzQrvNsmmLsKqDxstUYm8K5UrmBAO0yBARueVuees4wH8zd5gh42kDjbkWa7g owR5ivjX6BEzAw4m07XlFSrhkCG+Or+/By0AM36y5G6gkgTcHBv8wj1pN+IZLPxY INbU+SmIikA= =RMrj -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0

Re: F2 hash?
by Cerridwyn Llewyellyn 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>| At Defcon this year they promised to tell about some security flaws in >| SecurID tokens, anyone know more about that? > > My understanding is that the guy who was going to give the >talk had nda difficulties. Vin? Did you make it out? The talk was >going to be on race conditions, denial of service attacks, and the >like. According to Mudge (who gave the talk), he *was* going to speak specifically on SecurID, but they were harassing him or something, and was afraid of a libel suit if he spoke on it. Instead, he chose to speak on S/Key flaws, many of which are the same as SecurID flaws. All of the attacks were on the stupidity of the implementations and protocols, not on the cryptographic algorithms. Some stuff can be found at http://www.l0pht.com/~mudge . //cerridwyn//

1 0