December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Algeria & Censorship
by E. Allen Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

While I agree with the Algerian military in preventing an Islamic Fundamentalist takeover (it's one of my examples of situations in which democracy goes wrong), I definitely don't support many of their other actions. Lesser of two evils... -Allen > _________________________________________________________________ > PC Travel > _________________________________________________________________ > SUSPENDED ALGERIAN DAILY OFFERED INTERNET PAGE > __________________________________________________________________________ > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net > Copyright &copy 1996 Reuter Information Service > PARIS (Sep 30, 1996 1:24 p.m. EDT) - A press freedom watchdog on > Monday offered the suspended Algerian daily La Tribune a page on its > Internet site to give it an airing during the six-month ban. > "Thanks to this initiative, these journalists, banned from writing by > the Algerian authorities, will be able to practice their trade again," > the Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RsF) said. > An Algiers court suspended La Tribune for six months on September 3 > over a cartoon mocking the Algerian flag. [...] > Fifty-seven journalists have been murdered by suspected rebels. RsF > said authorities had suspended or seized newspapers on 55 occasions > and 23 journalists had been held for more than 48 hours since the > conflict broke out over the 1992 cancellation of a general election > fundamentalists were poised to win. > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net

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Re: Not reputation again! (Was: The Nature of the Cypherpunks List)
by E. Allen Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"gregburk(a)netcom.com" 25-SEP-1996 07:25:48.98 >You could contend that the Poster With Nothing Better To Do's reputation >is balanced precariously at exactly 0. I would find that a big stretch, >and as above, if that's 0, what's negative? A fully anonymous individual (not a pseudonym or otherwise trackable individual) is inevitably going to have a reputation of 0. It can't be negative; that would be saying that I could flame myself via remailers and _increase_ my reputation if I did it properly. The person can't exactly build up a reputation of above 0, since that would require multiple good postings and/or some form of escrow. -Allen

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Re: Internet 'terrorism' newsclips [CYPHER, but news]
by aaron sommer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[article in Parade] Love that in-depth technical reporting. >And from another piece of hard-hitting quote-the-official-source journalism >in PARADE, "A New Worry: Terrorism in Cyberspace" [snip] ><SNIP> > >>There were more than 250,000 attacks on Department of Defense computers >last >>year, and 65% were successful. Little is known about who launched them, >why, or >>what they found. In a recent test, Defense Department "red teams" admit to >>intentionally hacking into 18,200 systems, with only 5% of the attacks >>detected; only 27% of those attacks were reported. > >Wonder if the timing of these stories has anything to do with the end of >term legislative push on wiretapping. They're recycling an old USA Today piece. Turns out that figure was extrapolated by an internal investigation team trying to break into unclassified/non-secure systems. They just took the success rate for thier attacks and multiplied it by an arbitrary number to come up with an "annual" rate, according to the USA Today article.

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Diffie Speaks at Sun^h^h^hMIT: "Cryptology, Technology, andPolitics"
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text X-Sender: rah(a)tiac.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Mon, 30 Sep 1996 11:27:15 -0400 To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com From: Robert Hettinga <rah(a)shipwright.com> Subject: Diffie Speaks at Sun: "Cryptology, Technology, and Politics" ^^^ MIT, of course... Sorry! Cheers, Bob ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "'Bart Bucks' are not legal tender." -- Punishment, 100 times on a chalkboard, for Bart Simpson The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/

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Signs of Trouble in D.C.
by Black Unicorn 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Signs of unrest in the nation's capital. These signs began to appear all over yesterday. WARNING THIS AREA HAS BEEN DECLARED A DRUG FREE ZONE Any person congregating in a group of 2 or more persons on public space within the boundaries of this drug free zone for the purpose of participating in the use, purchase of sale of illegal drugs, and who fails to disperse after being instructed to disperse by a uniformed member of the Metropolitan Police Department, is subject to arrest. An arrest can result in a fine of not more than $300, Imprisonment for not more than 180 days or both. Boundaries _________________________ Dates and Times _________________________ Larry D. Soulsby Chief of Police (Act 11-278, Anti-Loitering/Drug Free Zone Emergency Act of 1996) -- I hate lightning - finger for public key - Vote Monarchist unicorn(a)schloss.li

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Re: Public Schools
by snow 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> On Sat, 28 Sep 1996, Adamsc wrote: > able to learn from their experiences, and will probably find working for > them less frustrating than working for a "Dilbert Zone" manager. Sooner > or later, though, you will encounter Dilbert's boss in the workplace, and > not everyone can leave to become a famous cartoonist. You may need to Well, there is always AP. > become (eeek!) a technical manager. You won't fare well if you've > completely neglected those non-technical skills. You'll be forced to > communicate with mundanes ... > Work to succeed in that creative writing course. Someday you will have a > Great Idea, and no matter how well you know you can implement the Great > Idea, you will need to convince others to believe, too. You will need > funding, or staffing, or equipment, and you will need to make others > understand the Great Idea, even if they do not have the technical > background to do so. You will be a sad and frustrated individual if you > cannot convince them. You get hold of a technical writer, explain it to them (they are use to translating geek to mundane). > Pack in all the math and comp sci you can, but take a real English course > or two, and not "pocket protector comp. 101", either. Dabble in eastern > philosophy, art history, or whatever catches your fancy, and see a bit of > the world outside the computer lab. Your technical skills will take you > much farther if you can understand their impact on the world. Good luck. While this is all true, most of it could be aquired in a competent High School. Petro, Christopher C. petro(a)suba.com <prefered for any non-list stuff> snow(a)smoke.suba.com

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Re: More proposals for European censorship
by E. Allen Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: IN%"trei(a)process.com" 24-SEP-1996 07:54:10.53 >Or are you suggesting that this particular gang of sub-humans was >exposed at this time in an attempt to influence policy, implying that >the Belgian LEAs knew about, but did not stop the ring until they >needed a publicity coup? How about "The LEAs put more effort into solving cases which can get a political benefit than ones that don't"? Given limited police resources (fortunately), they've got to prioritize somehow... and given politically-appointed higher-ups, some form of concentration on helpful-publicity cases is inevitable. -Allen

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Re: Utah as a Religious Police State
by Ryan Russell/SYBASE 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A couple of people have pointed out what he was talking about, one of which is below. I haven't been able to find an article on the web that does more than reference the event. I'll try to hunt up one of the books. If anyone cares, I'll post what I find later. Ryan ---------- Previous Message ---------- To: cypherpunks cc: From: mirele @ xmission.com ("Deana Holmes") @ smtp Date: 09/30/96 06:53:41 AM Subject: Re: Utah as a Religious Police State On 29 Sep 96 at 17:36, Ryan Russell/SYBASE wrote: > Hmm...never heard that one before. Care to produce > a reference? > > (Or am I supposed to be ignoring this guy when he > makes ridiculous claims?) > > Ryan I suspect that Dmitri is referring to the Mountain Meadows Massacre. It's not a pretty story and is one of the low points of Mormon history. The late historian Juanita Brooks wrote about the masscre, and about the leader, John D. Lee, in a couple of books. > ---------- Previous Message ---------- > To: cypherpunks > cc: > From: dlv @ bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM) @ smtp > Date: 09/29/96 05:54:09 PM > Subject: Re: Utah as a Religious Police State > > Ryan Russell/SYBASE writes: > > I guess that depends on your definition of liberty. The Mormons > > originally moved there to have a place to practice their religion, > > and have freedom from persecution. I suppose one could extend that > > to wanting a place to have the freedom to have a set of rules consistant > > with their beliefs. Should that include freedom from interferance from > > folks such as yourself who want to change their rules, even though > > you're not presently effected? > > It's worth noting that one of Utah mormons favorite pastimes was to ambush > the settlers heading for California, kill them all, and take their property. > However the mormons were dealt with much less severely than the local Indians > who tried the same tricks. Pity. ===end vulis rant=== Deana Deana M. Holmes April 1996 poster child for clueless $cientology litigiousness alt.religion.scientology archivist since 2/95 mirele(a)xmission.com

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Minor wording error in Snake Oil FAQ
by rjasonc＠pobox.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>Date: Mon, 30 Sep 96 11:05 EST >From: "Robert S. Powers" <@mcimail.com> >To: rjasonc <rjasonc(a)pobox.com> >Subject: Wording error in your email > >Minor wording error. Your paragraph: > > random session This is a temporary key that is generated specifically for > key one message. Typically, in public key cryptosystems, the > message to be sent is encrypted with a symmetric key that > was specifically generated for that message. The encrypted > version of that message, as well as the associated session Wording error here > < > key can then be encrypted with the recipient's public key. > When the recipient decrypts the message, then, the system > will actually decrypt the message it gets (which is the > ciphertext message and the symmetric key to decrypt it), > and then use the symmetric key to decrypt the ciphertext. > The result is the plaintext message. This is often done > because of the tremendous difference in the speed of > symmetric vs. asymmetric ciphers. > > >...says that BOTH the message and the secret key are encrypted >using the public key system. I'm sure it's just a wording error; >but clearly the public key system is NOT generally used to encrypt >the full message. That would take too long, as you point out; >and that's why the secret key is used at all! > >bp

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Lucent & Internet Phone
by E. Allen Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> _________________________________________________________________ > PC Travel > _________________________________________________________________ > LUCENT VOWS TO MAKE INTERNET PHONES EASY TO USE > __________________________________________________________________________ > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net > Copyright &copy 1996 Reuter Information Service > NEW YORK (Sep 17, 1996 7:53 p.m. EDT) - Lucent Technologies Inc., > vowing to make voice and video communication over the Internet as > easy-to-use and accessible as the telephone, unveiled Tuesday a new > business venture and several products designed to bring Internet > communication into the mainstream. [...] > The venture is charged with commercializing several ground-breaking > Internet software commpression technologies developed at Lucent's Bell > Laboratories research unit. Such technology shrinks the capacity > required to transmit information over communications networks. > Internet-based communications typically requires access to a personal > computer, but Lucent envisions using the telephone or other consumer > electronics device for the same purpose. > Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent said its new Elemedia Internet business > is now offering software that allows callers to hold > "telephone-quality" conversations over the Internet. Has anyone taken a look at this software with a view to an encryption patch? > Lucent said its strategy was to capitalize on software component > technology developed by Bell Labs by licensing it to other Internet > phone makers and established telephone carriers for use in their own > products. Lucent does not intend to sell its products directly to the > public. As I recall, Jeff Weinstein mentioned that he was looking into encryption for the Netscape Internet Phone. I would be curious if Netscape is considering integrating the Lucent software. > It said its products would be compatible with all major computer > operating systems and Internet browsers software. [...] > Lucent will introduce a means for callers using standard telephones to > place calls via the Internet to callers at conventional phones or to > newer PC-based phones. > "We believe voice communications between Internet PCs is much more > valuable if those voice conversations can happen with people who have > telephones," Pavarini said. > Lucent officials said these new business-oriented products will become > commercially available beginning in the first quarter of 1997 in the > United States and be rolled out to selected overseas markets through > the second quarter of 1997. [...] > Copyright &copy 1996 Nando.net

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