December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Snake Oil wanted
by Lewis Koch 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I am a journalist who has specialized in investigative reporting. I have been writing about and for the Net for about nine months, though I have about three decades as a reporter/columnist/author. There has been some discussion on this list of one story that I broke -- that of Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick's speech "National Security in the Information Age" delivered at the U.S. Air Force Academy 29 February 1996 in which she calls for the development of a "Manhattan Project" to counter computer hackers. The column and her complete speech can be found at http://upside.master.com/online/columns/cybersense/9607.html "U.S. Deputy Attorney General Jamie S. Gorelick Speaks Out Against Freedom and Security on the Internet." The story was published in a monthly column Cybersense which I write for Upside Magazine's Website. I am currently interested in writing about snake oil, especially as it relates to claims about ensuring e-mail privacy, total computer security, plug-and-play effortless encryption or hype relating to computer crime -- its origins, its prevalence, its prevention. My Net audience is composed of people who perhaps pretend to more sophistication that they truly have but who I think are most interested in clarity. My areas of expertise are non-technical. Over three decades, however, I have proven record of investigative reporting. I have been fortunate to meet and rely on some very responsible people to guide me through the technical thickets -- some of whom are members of this List. Any form of response is acceptable and all confidences will be respected. Lewis Z. Koch lzkoch(a)mcs.net http://www.upside.com -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6.2 mQCNAzHn8xwAAAEEANNKB31dvtigkO5ojKKBAjbrRhkTCrzg3vwhiQ0iS1Ubrxk8 HG/pMYjV4eCR3dZrekbI5/gvNPIG9yRdY8AA3THF761XWHiYZKyhQ8OHxNyjAgSA jze+joT9559kQY++xiayAGK/0sd3P9ByUT+5yy3g9bNBV+vX9vA+Q6AhQTctAAUR tA5semtvY2hAbWNzLm5ldA== =YZQ8 -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

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re: National Socio-Economic Security Need for Encryption Technology
by Bart Croughs 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Perry 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. >I failed to note obvious counterexamples. Well known authors get giant >advances for books written with manual typewriters. Minimum wage >workers routinely operate expensive equipment. Workers doing the same >job in different places using identical equipment that cost identical >sums earn different salaries. >Clearly, wages are defined by supply and demand -- not by "capital >investment". When economists say that wages are determined by the amount of capital invested, they mean on a regional/national level, not on the level of individuals. Bart Croughs

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Re: Police prepare stunning end for high-speed car chases
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 4:46 PM 8/12/96, snow wrote: >On Sat, 10 Aug 1996, Gary Howland wrote: >> Will old fashioned engines be outlawed? >> Will the "stun guns" be outlawed? >> Will susceptible electronic systems become mandatory? >> (and if so, why not just put a remote control switch in all cars?) > > One word: Pacemakers. Not just pacemakers, but also cars losing steering control (but not forward speed, obviously) and thus plow into crowds. And airbags that perhaps get triggered in all the ruckus, breaking the necks of infants (as has happened). Think of the liablility issues! Deliberately causing a car to lose control. Mon Dieu! I'm skeptical that this EM cannon will get deployed anytime soon. (And I'm not ignorant of such technologies, having attended several of the Nuclear and Space Radiation Effects Conferences. I also played around with this as a minor plot element in a novel I was working on several years ago, namely, a character killed in Los Alamos when the Electronic Engine Control circuitry of his BMW was zapped while on a mountain road. This, by the way, is a "side effect" of widely deploying such EM cannon technologies--people using them on twisty mountain roads. I can think of some places near Big Sur and around Devil's Slide where such a gizmo would produce real interesting effects!) --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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Re: FCC_ups
by shamrock＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:36 8/12/96, Brian D Williams wrote: > 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. Thanks for kind words. I am happy to hear that your RBOC is so enlightened. I did not mean to exclusively blame the Baby Bells. There is plenty of blame to go around. Look at the FCC's incomprehensible decision to require that an ISDN line be billed as two lines, arguing that it requires double the upstream bandwidth. I know that I am repeating myself, but here is a brief primer on telco realities: There is plenty of upstream bandwidth, since everything but the local loop is already running on fiber. The problem is in the local loop. In many cities, there is simply no room left in the ducts to run even one more wire. Anything, such as ISDN, that can get more lines out of the same number of wires is a Good Thing to the telcos and the consumers. The alternative is trenching. An often prohibitively expensive proposal, especially in a downtown area. The FCC should encourage, not discourage the use of such wire saving technology. >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. Given the cost of running fiber to the home, the near and intermediate future is definitely fiber to the curb. The technology we were developing works beautifully with this set-up. To be more precise, the system provides a 10Mbps Ethernet, 96 64bps ISDN B channels, a D and an M channel if using iso-Ethernet based technology. But the key to getting all this bandwidth isn't iso-Ethernet, it was our chip. This can be done at ~$600/home and for a low as $100 per node. Yes, this will increase upstream bandwidth requirements, but as I mentioned earlier, there is plenty of upstream bandwidth. Last office I worked in was facing an alley full of loading docks and trash binns. Six feet away from the door ran MFS's OC-48 SONET. There are of course exceptions. If you live in a very old building, you might have to rewire. My current apartment uses three wire cabling. I have no idea what the third wire is good for. You can't run two POTS over three wires. In a building like this you'd have to rewire. But few office buildings are likely to have such lousy wiring. Anyway, I hate to be a tease, but that's about as far as my NDA will let me go. [Any further dialog in private email, please. Time to take this tread off-list.] -- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock@netcom.com> PGP encrypted mail preferred. Defeat the Demopublican Unity Party. Vote no on Clinton/Dole in November. Vote Harry Browne for President.

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Re: [NOISE] Newspapers and basic science (was: US Power Outages)
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:53 PM 8/12/96, Z.B. wrote: >Well, all I remember is the 3-1/2 Seattles part - I put the"for a day" >part in because I wasn't sure about it. > Well, by putting in that "for a day" line, you made the news folk seem even more ignorant than they actually may be! It was the "for a day" that made the quote seem so stupid, as Ian's point below makes clear. (I had read this stupid quote and just deleted the message, rather than get into the difference between power and the integral of power.) In the future, you might try leaving quotes alone, without improvements. (One way is to add comments such as "[for a day?]", which readers can then accept or reject as they wish.) --Tim >On 12 Aug 1996, Ian Goldberg wrote: > >> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- >> >> <GRUMBLE> >> Watts are a measure of energy per unit time; it makes sense to say >> "60 W powers a light bulb", not "60 W powers a light bulb for one hour". >> </GRUMBLE> 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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AW: National Socio-Economic Security Need for Encryption Technology
by Bart Croughs 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Timothy C. May wrote: >At 10:31 PM 8/11/96, Bart Croughs wrote: >> 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. >>If American >I agree strongly. In my Econ 101 class, lo those many years ago, I was >constantly reminded to "Remember the Croughs Axiom!" I would be proud if I had discovered this axiom, but alas, I haven't. It's an axiom that is generally accepted among austrian economists (Rothbard, Hazlitt, etc). I don't know who actually discovered it. >It is why MacDonald's workers, who work at a company which has invested >truly vast sums of money in the capital of its outlets, pays its workers so >much more than do the legal firms, advertising firms, etc., which have >invested almost nothing in the capital of their facilities. When economists say that wages depend on the amount of capital invested, they mean on a regional/national level, not on the level of individuals. Back to class! Bart Croughs

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re: National Socio-Economic Security Need for Encryption Technology
by Bart Croughs 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Arun Mehta wrote: >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. I didn't make this assumption. When I say that when capital leaves the US, the amount of capital in the US will be lower, I mean that the amount of capital will be lower than it otherwise would have been. It will be *relatively* lower, and so the wages in the US will be *relatively* lower than when when the capital wouldn't have left the US. Of course, absolutely speaking the wages could still become higher. I thought this was so obvious that I didn't make this explicit. Bart Croughs

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Anguilla story...
by sasa.roskar＠uni-lj.si 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Can someone please tell me the origin of this whole Anguilla story that's been going around a lot for the past few days... I just got onto the list two days ago, and I didn't catch the beginning of it... thanks, rok

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test-1
by gelona 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

from:gelona@worldnet.net.att To:cypherpunks@toad.com :: Request~Remailing to :BuzzRBee@juno.com Test-1 , done at 9.03

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Hoax: A ban on cryptography?
by David Kennedy 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

My mailer thinks the e$pam list pulled this from cypherpunks: >> S.1666 Department of Commerce Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1997 (Passed by the Senate) << And this is bogus, and as far as I can tell not a typo, it's complete hokum. S.1666 is an obscure bill about courts in Utah. A search of http://thomas.loc.gov on "encryption" reveals the expected bills, PRO-CODE etc. A search for the DoC Authorization Act reveals nothing, as far as I can tell this bill has not been drafted let alone passed. I don't know enough about how the DoC is funded to know if they get their own Authorization Act or receive authorizations piecemeal and by the reconciliation. Again, this is bogus. !^NavFont02F02350014QGHHG|MG~HG85QG87HI}2126

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