December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

No Subject
by patrickbc＠juno.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

what do you know about hackers

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American Imperialism, Firing Squads, and the Vincennes Shootdown
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 1:03 AM 9/2/96, Alan Horowitz wrote: >The Aegis ship in the Gulf wzs not in an exercise. It was in a war zone. > >If my memory serves, the Iranian jetliner had its squawker turned off, or >broken. The officer in charge in the CIC had about ten seconds to decide >if he was about to be locked-on by a missle. And no real information to >make the decision with. The U.S.S. Vincennes shot down an Iranian commercial airliner that was in its normal and well-known flight path out of Bandar Abbas. That the U.S. felt it was in a "war zone" was due to American imperialistic sentiments that say the U.S. can and should send its police forces to distant parts of the globe, even inside the Persian Gulf, no more than a few dozen miles from Iranian shores. (And the godless Jew Persians had the audacity to patrol its shorelines with gunboats! Jeesh. I'm sure the U.S. would not send the Coast Guard out to investigate or harass foreign warships cruising inside Chesapeake Bay, San Francisco Bay, or other coastal bays and inlets.) As to the "squawker" being turned off, this is not my recollection of the case (though it was nearly a decade ago, so memories fade...). (I just did an Alta Vista search to refresh my memory. Found this choice description: " Anderson's job in "Air Alley," the row of operators who handled air warfare, was to identify any air traffic within range of the ship. He told the Aegis system to query the incoming plane: Identify, Friend or Foe? By standard practice, all planes carry a transponder that automatically answers the IFF query with Mode 1 or 2 (military), or Mode 3 (civilian). Anderson got a Mode 3. "Commair" (commercial airliner), he figured. He reached beside his console for the navy's listing of commercial flights over the gulf. But as he scanned the schedule, he missed Flight 655. Apparently, in the darkness of the CIC, its arc lights flickering every time the Vincennes's five-inch gun fired off another round at the hapless Iranian gunboats, he was confused by the gulf's four different time zones." [http://www.waite.adelaide.edu.au/~aranjbar/Ali/pol/4] So, the Iranian jet's IFF module _was_ working...the U.S. ship just missed it. Fact is, the U.S. shot down a commercial airliner which was in its normal flight path! One can imagine the repercussions if TWA 800 was similarly shot down as it followed its ordinary flight path. The U.S. demanded sanctions against the Soviets in '83 for shooting down a Korean airliner which had strayed (maybe) deep into Soviet airspace and which refused to acknowledge several radio messages. Though I am no apologist for the Soviets, which event was the more egregious? That the U.S. demanded actions against the Sovs, but pooh-poohed and whitewashed the Iranian airliner shootdown, is evidence of imperialistic hypocrisy. That the U.S. demands trials for alleged terrorists while having no trial for Captain Rogers is further evidence of hypocrisy. (A military court martial and a firing squad for those found guilty might have sent a more consistent message.) Make no mistake about it: I cannot support the sending of American gunboats to the backyards of other countries merely for perceived notions about American rights to their oil. Hopefully, as crypto anarchy spreads, imperialism such as this will be undermined, destabilized, and ultimately be defeated. --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I 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: Los Angeles Times article on Helsingius and anon.penet.fi
by drose＠AZStarNet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Dear Ms. Dyson: As a result of my knowing something of your work and additionally having viewed your highly impressive performance on Bill Buckley's CDA debate program, I used to think a great deal of you. And, as a matter of fact, I suppose that I still do. I am frankly troubled, however, by my _impression_ of your beliefs in the abovereferenced matter. Perhaps I have misunderstood your recent post to Cypherpunks; indeed, I am certain that all will be elucidated after you have had an opportunity to review more fully the article in question. I look forward to reading your further thoughts. Sincerely, -David M. Rose

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Conservation Laws, Money, Engines, and Ontology
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Keywords: agoric systems, computational ecologies, resource auctioning, Mark Miller, K. Eric Drexler, Bernardo Huberman, contracts, distributed trust, metered usage, software objects, software ICs, superdistribution, Brad Cox, emergent order. In physics there are various conservation laws: conservation of energy, mass, charge, and whatnot. You all know about this... Conservation of mass says that mass is neither created nor destroyed. (For smart aleck quibblers, conservation of mass-energy.) How does this relate to our issues? "Abuse of Resources": Mail loops, infinite loops, spamming, overloads of networks, and congestion in general are cases where "unrealistic" models of costs are implemented in software. In the real physical world, infinite loops don't occur (at least not in the sense seen with mail loops, as a relevant example.) Conservation laws are related to the "cost model" of the universe. Real physical objects have costs, or ontological status, or presence.... (Please don't read too much into this point...I mean to be suggestive, not literal.) There are no "memory leaks" in the universe which suddenly fill it up with stuff, no perpetual motion machines, no creation and destruction of objects. Cyberspace Ontologies: There are several things which need to be done to make the cyberspatial world more like the spatial world: * payment for CPU cycles consumed (via contractual, permission-based access: "If you want access to this machine, here are the terms and conditions.") * metering mechanisms, such as e-stamps for e-mail (essentially a special case of the first point, where a machine says "I'll pass on your message if you pay me to.") * digital contracts, agreements on usage and payment (resource auctioning, or the "smart contracts" that Nick Szabo has written about) (you can all think of additional examples....) Cryptographic protocols have their uses here, but there are also some other measures which bear looking into. In the LISP community, for example, work has been done on "engines," which are building blocks that are "fueled up" with "CPU fuel" and allowed to run for some amount of CPU cycles. Thus, one could put an engine into a process and it would run for some number of ticks, then stop. (I'm sure there are Unix-level tools which do similar things, in terms of giving a spawned process so many ticks of the clock. The "engines" concept is somewhat more semantically clean, in that it's pushed down into the "ontology" of the thing being simulated or run, and is not at the "God level" (to use a non-technical term!).) Now, certainly I support the right of any person or machine to run programs freely and without charge, to pass on e-mail free of charge, to run remailers for no charge, to accept spam mail without complaint, and so on. What I'm suggesting is that many of the problems being seen with overuse of resources, spam, congestion, and denial of service are really due to a poor model of resource allocation. Unix and other modern operating systems offer various tools for helping to constrain such problems, but, I submit, better methods are needed. (Especially when multiple machines, networks, and even anonymous sites are part of the overall system....clearly the constraints must be managed locally, and via "contract," as part of a computational ecology, and not as a hierarchical, top down Unix-type operating system.) Economics is about the "allocation of scarce resources." Many of the existing models being used treat various scarce resources as _free_. Then, when the inevitable problems occur, calls for top-down regulation are heard (e.g., the frequent calls for illegalization of "unwanted mail"). In my view, building a consistent, distributed, "conservative" system is what Cypherpunks need to be thinking about. (I used the term "conservative" in the physics sense. A system in which various conservation laws are obeyed.) As I said before, this should not be compelled, but voluntary. However, those who give their resources away for free (choosing not to adopt a conservative ontology, in other words) should be in no position to complain or run to the government for top-down regulation because there freely-given resources are being overused or "abused" (in their thinking). And closely related to this whole issue--and something I've written about extensively--is the issue of "building walls in cyberspace." In the real world, persistent structures are build out of real materials, resulting in castles, forts, skyscrapers, bridges, houses, highways, etc. These objects have persistence, have controllable access (gates, doors, locks,...), and have "structural integrity." Cryptographic and distributed trust protocols are about the only means I can think of for constructing the equivalents in cyberspace. (And to a large extent, this is already happening: the Net and the Web have structure which cannot be demolished casually, or by top-down orders from any single national leader. Millions of machines, linked in various ways and implementing various protocols and "terms of service" with users and other machines....an early version of the "conservative" system I think we'll someday see.) Well, this gives the flavor of my points. I haven't rigorously argued all of the points, but the Cypherpunks forum is for presenting informal arguments. Thoughts? --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I 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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anon.penet.fi: URGENT REQUEST
by paul＠fatmans.demon.co.uk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

FAO: ALL CYPHERPUNKS & COMMUNITY LIST READERS I wish to gauge the response on something here: Following the closure of the anon.penet.fi remailer: If I can get enough funding to cover all expenses (I am a student and cannot unfortunately contribute much myself) I will install lines and hardware at my premises and run the equivalent to the anon.penet.fi remailer. I don`t know what the response to this will be, I need approximately 5000 UK pounds to set up such an operation (Yes, a leased line really does cost that much in the UK) and then a monthly income of around 3000 UK pounds. The service, I propose, would be free to the users, and maintained my by voluntary donation, no access restriction would be placed on non-paying users. Please send me mail at paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk with the subject as ANON.PENET.FI SERVER and the message body an ammount in UK pounds or dollars (approximate ammounts are OK) so I can guage the response. NO MONEY WILL BE TAKEN AT THE PRESENT TIME. As I said, I just want to see what teh response is like and to see if it would be possible, I also would be unable to set it up until I had some solid commintment from the people giving the money, I expect a large response to this and a measly one to the real appeal for hard cash if it goes ahead! - anyway, mail me and i`ll report the response back soon... Datacomms Technologies web authoring and data security Paul Bradley, Paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk Http://www.fatmans.demon.co.uk/crypt/ "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey" -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK----- Version: 2.6 mQCNAjH9j+cAAAEEAMBvREiQR0ot9dFCO0TiSCSunAYLv2g1Bc6I3bz8FzKXNH53 6mieJf/W4rD+CxJpT0q9RQaaoRtkHJLwbjfK2il3D7mEahMAyqvF/xRJNqkXfhM3 sRJM0Jh43l+W0M5vwokbEbk25/bxWWGspTsLD3YHbzKnG6pOcL5OPIRbv66xAAUR tCdQYXVsIEJyYWRsZXkgPHBhdWxAZmF0bWFucy5kZW1vbi5jby51az4= =riHc -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----

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No Subject
by patrickbc＠juno.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Please send me information on hacking bbs Hackmaster-p Patrickbc(a)juno.com

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RE: Desubscribe
by James A. Donald 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > deserves to be shipped to sweden where they shall be > > made into cheese by nuns. At 04:40 PM 9/1/96 DST, Johnny Eriksson wrote:> > No thanks, we do not want them. You are Swedish? I heard on talk.politics.guns somebody say that in Sweden they had banned knives with a sharp point at the end, and were going to ban sharp knives altogether. I think he was just engaging in hyperbole, that he really meant that gun control in Sweden was unreasonably strict, but on reflection I am not sure. What is the story? --------------------------------------------------------------------- | We have the right to defend ourselves | http://www.jim.com/jamesd/ and our property, because of the kind | of animals that we are. True law | James A. Donald derives from this right, not from the | arbitrary power of the state. | jamesd(a)echeque.com

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Re: FLT 800: From the Rumor Mill...But It Makes Sense.. (fwd)
by Alan Horowitz 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sat, 31 Aug 1996 21:29:56 -0400 From: Ralph Jennett <jennett(a)citicom.com> To: Alan Horowitz <alanh(a)widomaker.com> Subject: Re: FLT 800: From the Rumor Mill...But It Makes Sense.. The problem is, from my experience at Roosevelt Roads, the Navy never conducts live fire exercises without declaring the area of operation strictly off limits to non-military aircraft. Also, the 747 would have shown up WITH ITS TRANSPONDER DATA on the screens on an Aegis ship, so why would they fire? And, I didn't think that a P3 pilot would fly around in controlled air space with his transponder shut off, especially when he might become a target himself (or just a victum of a mid air collision) if he isn't squawking. I suppose the story that you sent could be true, but if it is, I'm surprised that nothing like that ever happened before, given the sloppy procedures being followed. The latest RELEASED data makes it sound like a bomb in the cabin (row 24, right side) is responsible. I'm not sure that I don't believe that, although I am quite suspicious of anything coming out of the justice department under the current President and Attorney General.

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Let's Nuke Singapore Back into the Stone Age
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 1:41 AM 9/2/96, Arun Mehta wrote: >At 10:35 31/08/96 -0700, Timothy C. May wrote: > >> If discussions of Lee Kwan Yew's dynasty are considered illegal, then >>Singaporans will have to choose not to carry the various newsgroups into >>which *I* post such messages! > >How long do you propose to carry on doing that? Soon, the others >in the newsgroups will be asking you very impolitely to stop, >just as you would if someone kept on and on posting such stuff to cypherpunks. Actually, we already have several examples of how this worked, including some cases I was directly involved in. During the Teale-Homulka trial in Canada, many of us (me, too) posted numerous articles about it to the various *.canada newsgroups, such as soc.culture.canada. Canada had the choice of instructing all ISPs to halt the *.canada newsgroups. There were no real complaints that I recall about messages being "off-topic," as they clearly were very much on-topic. (Not that a few complaints have ever stopped me. While I don't spam newsgroups with auto-generated spam, I figure any article I take the time to actually write and that deals with the newsgroup involved, by my own standards, is fair game. My ISP can cancel my account if he feels I have spammed newsgroups in some way.) My proposal is not to post anti-Singapore screeds to comp.lang.java or the like, but to post them to various groups Singaporans and their neighbors might read. If Singapore wishes to disconnect itself from soc.culture.singapore, this is there choice. Then, the attack can spread to various other groups Singaporans might want to read.... (I call this a _good_ use of "info-terrorism.") ... >True, but Usenet only functions because it works most of the >time. To the extent we subvert this consensus, we damage Usenet, >make it less useful. It shouldn't happen that in trying to save >or spread Usenet, we have to destroy it... Posting the Homulka stuff did not kill the Usenet. Posting the autopsy photos of Nicole Brown Simpson did not kill the Usenet. Posting the innards of RSA Data Security algorithms did not kill the Usenet. If Canker and Sludgewell spam cannot kill the Usenet, if "Make Money Fast" noise cannot kill the Usenet, and if "Babes will fuck 4 U" posts cannot kill the Usenet, then surely some informative posts about the fascist Yew posted to various newsgroups of relevance to Singaporans and Asians will not kill the Usenet! >>And _never_ has it involved determinations of "inappropriate" by >>_governments_! > >There I'm with you -- I'm merely suggesting that you find a way >to protest Singapore's actions in a manner that would be less >objectionable to most Internet users, in Singapore and outside. Why? What is "objectionable" about exposing the truth about Lee Kwan Yew, his feeble son, and their dynasty? What is "objectionable" about teaching them how to use Web proxies, remailers, and other tools of liberty? If the citizens find this stuff objectionable, they can simply not read the stuff! As with books, movies, and magazines. What could be more natural than this? But of course it is the _rulers_ of these Asian kingdoms and satrapies which want the distribution of certain thoughts controlled and denied to their serfs and citizen-units. --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I 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: Moscowchannel.com hack
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 01:23 PM 9/1/96 -0400, David Lesher wrote: >> > Write your web site to a CD-ROM and hard-code the base directory into the >> > webserver. >> A hacker who has root can forcibly unmount the cdrom and mount another >> directory on that node. Not a good solution. >Real hard disks such as RL02's & RK07's have WRITE DISABLE >switches.... Many modern SCSI drives have them also, though you may need to connect a switch to the appropriate jumpers. In Hugh Daniel's copious spare time, he's been working on hacking *bsd Unix to cope with a write-protected root drive (you mainly need to set up the swap partition and anything that needs writing in on a separate drive and build lots and lots of symlinks for random logfiles.) RM05s also let you connect them to two computers, though it was a really bad idea to tell both computers to mount them as writeable, since they'd scribble over the superblocks. (This was more useful before Ethernets became widely supported, since you could blaze away at full MASSBUS and/or disk speed instead of 19.2kbps UUCP.) You can play the same games with SCSI today, if you're careful. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> Reassign Authority!

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