December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: [off-topic] Re: US Power Outages
by Dave Farber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I dnt have the reference handy bit IEEE Spectrum published in about May 66 a real good description of why the Great Northeast Blackout happened.

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Re: National Socio-Economic Security Need for Encryption Technology
by Arun Mehta 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 19:36 11/08/96 -0400, Perry E. Metzger wrote: > >Bart Croughs writes: >> But there is another axiom of economics which the >> nationalist/socialist can use for his case against the free movement of >> capital. This axiom states that the wages of workers depend on the >> amount of capital invested. The more capital invested, the higher the >> wages are. > >This must be some new axiom of economics that I had not heard of. > >> If American companies are moving capital to Third World >> countries because of the low wages in these countries, then the workers >> in the Third World will of course be better off. But in the US, the >> amount of capital will be lowered. > >???? > >> So the American workers will be able to get other jobs, but these >> jobs will pay less, because of the diminished amount of capital in >> the US. > >This is truly one of the oddest economic theses I've seen in years. Indeed. Bart makes a very remarkable assumption, which is that the total amount of capital in the fastest growing industry in human history is constant. As I mentioned in my note (which was a bit long by my standards, so you are forgiven if you haven't read it) software producers are software consumers as well. So, if the software industry grows in the world, it can only benefit the producers in the US, who make most of the compilers and sophisticated utilities that programmers need in order to develop software. The danger to the US software writer comes from another direction, one which this list is thoroughly familiar with: government policies, such as ITAR. Gilmore, I believe, plans to get the software written for secure Internet routing outside the US, to not fall foul of ITAR. As security, internet commerce and other applications needing crypto become a more important part of software development, others might follow -- of course it won't hurt that the move reduces costs, but that will not be the prime motivation. This will not be the first industry that the US government developed and nurtured, only to hand on a platter to foreign competitors: CNC machine tools is an example I am familiar with. For long, the writing was on the wall, but when the debacle came, it was swift. If I'm not mistaken, the Japanese share in the US market of CNC machining centers increased from 2% to 51% over a 2-year period. The problem there, at least partly, was that government encouraged machine tool R&D and industry to cater to the needs of defense, rather than the rest of us. Sounds familiar? So, while US software isn't in any danger of losing quite that badly, as I have explained, if the US loses revenue and capital in this sector, it will only have its own government to blame. Arun Mehta Phone +91-11-6841172, 6849103 amehta(a)cpsr.org http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta/ finger amehta(a)cerfnet.com for public key

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Re: FCC_ups
by Brian D Williams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Disclaimer: All opinions are my own, I do not speak for Ameritech or it's alliance partners. Lucky Green writes: >I am glad to see some movement in this area. I designed a similar >system for a previous employer of mine. But the real choke point >is the local loop. As of this day, the local telos still have a de >facto monopoly in the local markets. The new competitors (the same >old Phone Company) that we will see in the near future seem to >show no desire to deliver the really interesting services that are >now possible. They long distance carriers about to enter the local >markets plan to offer the same old stuff at a (perhaps) somewhat >lower price. First I would like to mention Lucky that I always enjoy your posts. Second I would like to say that as I have mentioned previously, the RBOC I work for filed for complete unbundling of the local loop in March of 93. We are not the one's holding up the show. >The company I used to work for has technology capable of >delivering a 10 Mb/s Ethernet plus 100 ISDN B channels to your >home, using the very same wires already in your wall. Keep this in >mind next time you hear what great new services the local telcos >are about to offer. Then demand better. 10 Mb/s ethernet and 100 ISDN B channels (64k each)? I would certainly like to here more! Unfortunately as I have also previously pointed out, point-to-point copper is a thing of the past, it is rare and expensive now. The current fiber-to-the-curb standard involves "slick 96" muxes which use 4 framed T-1's (1.536 Mb/s) to provide 96 voice channels. Thanks for the info. Brian

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Re: US Power Outages
by ericd＠shop.internet.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:02 PM 8/11/96, Bill Stewart wrote: >It surprises me how little these systems appear to be monitored. >It took some hours for them to decide that the brush fire on the >California border didn't cause the system to shut down; >you'd think they'd know quickly that the subsystem shut itself down >or disconnected from the grid or whatever because of reason #17... The fire "story" was, I guess, a result of excessive media fodder. (whatever sells the headlines....) Example: This morning (Monday 7:00am PST) STATION A: Replayed a recorded press briefing, with a head from PG&E, stating that the cause is *not* yet known, however it *MIGHT* have something to do with the excessive loads/demands on the system during the high temp season. (AC units running, etc..) -- minutes later -- STATION B: A newsperson *read* the news. This person stated, "At a recent press briefing, a PG&E official said the outage *WAS* caused by excessive loads. (quoting the same briefing that I just heard, from the source, on STATION A) Thank you Mass Media! Eric Reminds me of the aftermath of the last large SF quake. I lived in Santa Cruz at the time. After the quake we all kicked back and had a large yard party to kill the time. An, un-named, news network was broadcasting, nation wide, live telephone calls from people in the SF area. One call was from a person in Santa Cruz, or so he said. He told the news network, and at the same time live to the nation, that Santa Cruz was completely leveled, dead bodies everywhere, and only a handfull of people seemed to have survive. Needless to say my Grandparents in Tennessee were not to excited... ----------------------------------------------------- Eric Davis ericd(a)cyberfarm.com Co-Founder MediaCast: http://www.mediacast.com/ -----------------------------------------------------

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Re: Unmetered Net Usage
by Yanni 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> So it seems to me that within 5 years or so, there ought to be a > powerful incentive to wire up apartment complexes and business parks > with alternative Internet/Internet-telephone connections, ones > which bypass the phoneco for at least the first few hundred feet. > This, possibly in concert with a ISDN-driving concentrator or > a cable-modem, should reduce the cost of the customer-to-the-ISP line to > a very low value. > > Jim Bell > jimbell(a)pacifier.com I can see it now. Apartments full of geeks because the apartments were originally built with 100BaseX to each place and a T3 in the basement going direct to the local ISP. Tack on another $200/month or whatever to the apartment cost ( geeks can afford that for sure ) and one might end up having a pretty nice online melrose place. I wonder if anybody has done that yet... -jon Jon (no h) S. Stevens yanni(a)clearink.com ClearInk WebMagus http://www.clearink.com/ finger pgp(a)sparc.clearink.com for pgp pub key We are hiring! http://www.clearink.com/clearink/home/job.html

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Re: Read; NOW
by Chris Adams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On 11 Aug 96 23:24:24 -0800, unix_code(a)geocities.com wrote: > Hi I'm Unix Code and have a few things to ask...(it may not go with >Cryptography but go ahead and read) I won't say anything if you won't... # Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> - Webpages for sale! Se habla JavaScript! # Automatically receive my resume or PGPKEY by sending email with a subject # of 'send PGPKEY' or 'send resume'. Capitalization counts so be careful! # Web site: http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp

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Re: US Power Outages
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:15 AM 8/12/96 -0800, jim bell wrote: >This morning, I read the new claim: extreme heat (presumably assisted by >heat dissipated in the power line itself) cause the power cables near The >Dalles (about 100 miles east of Portland, along the Columbia river) to >stretch and sag, eventually shorting themselves out to trees near the ground. The real cause was inadequate supply of nuclear power plants caused by technophobe agitation. DCF

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Name search -- Enigma owner
by David Lesher 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There was a person in .ch with with several Enigmas, including a four-rotor Naval model. I think his name was ?Fro....? Does anyone recall the person I mean? -- 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....................................20915-1433

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Re: Rumors of death of Anguilla Data are greatly exagerated.
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 07:22 AM 8/12/96 -0400, Vincent Cate wrote: > > >Think your lawyer would be willing to give his name and a statement on >this? If a cypherpunk ever got in trouble and could say, "I was told by >the lawyer XYZZY this was legal", it might help. :-) > > -- Vince I didn't say it was legal. I said it wasn't fraud. DCF

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Re: Article on Electronic Commerce with a few too many assumptions
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:32 PM 8/11/96 EDT, E. ALLEN SMITH wrote: >[Permit me to recommend that you read this very interesting draft paper >and send its author, Andrew Odlyzko, detailed comments.] > Andrew Odlyzko > AT&T Labs - Research > amo(a)research.att.com > Preliminary version, August 9, 1996 [lotsa stuff deleted] > >There are many examples in the marketplace of behavior that appears >even less fair. For example, in 1990, IBM introduced the LaserPrinter >E, a lower cost version of its LaserPrinter. The two version were >identical, except that the E version printed 5 pages per minute >instead of 10 for the regular one. This was achieved (as was found by >independent testers, and was not advertised by IBM) through the >addition of additional chips to the E version that did nothing but >slow down processing. Thus the E model cost more to produce, sold for >less, and was less useful. However, as Deneckere and McAfee show in >their paper [DeneckereM], which contains many more examples of this >type (referred to as "damaged goods"), it can be better for all >classes of consumers to allow such behavior, however offensive it >might be to the general notions of fairness. Consumers who do not >need to print much, and are not willing to pay for the more expensive >version, do obtain a laser printer. Consumers who do need high >capacity obtain a lower price than they might otherwise have to pay >since the manufacturer's fixed costs are spread over more units. I too find this concept offensive, at least to the extent that it is kept a secret from the marketplace. Even so, as a libertarian and free-market capitalist, I certainly see nothing wrong with "allowing such behavior," and indeed I'd see something wrong with NOT "allowing" it. Nevertheless, to the extent it occurs it should be well understood and identified for what it is. You might recall the Intel 386SX microprocessor, which was the 16-bit-bus version of the 386 DX, which itself had a full 32-bit bus. At the time the DX was selling for many hundreds of dollars, probably about $3-400 or so, Intel sold the SX for about $80. However, chances are good that the only difference internally between these devices is the bus interface unit, so the size and complexity of these two chips would have been virtually identical, and thus their costs would likewise be the same. The reason for their vast difference in price was this "damaged goods" concept. (A similar situation occurred with the 486SX versus the 486DX.) Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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