December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

possible solution to cyber S/N
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I've written many times on the problem of signal to noise here in cyberspace and have tried to think through some elegant solutions to this very vexing problem. moments ago I just came up with an intense brainstorm fully worthy of sharing with the list <g>. it's clear that the web functions very much like a directed graph in many ways. sites and traffic between them are one graph. however, another graph involves thinking of each page or "article" on the web as a single node in the graph, and hyperlinks as the edges between the nodes. what we have today is a directed graph in which one can follow the forward direction of hyperlinks very readily. however, it is much more difficult to follow the reverse direction, i.e. find "all the sites that reference this paper". of course this is part of the beauty of the web, that anyone can link to anyone without actually having to register or something like that. the "referrer log" feature on a server is a mechanism that does allow a server to get some idea of who is linked up to that site. the basic idea I have is that references are an excellent way of discriminating Signal to Noise and are used routinely in the scientific arena. a paper that is pivotal and influential is referred to ad infinitum. obscure papers are forgotten and never referred to in subsequent literature. taking this idea to the cyberspace arena, the application is immediately obvious-- pages that are linked to by a lot of other pages are valuable, those that are not are not as valuable. (another closely related idea is how much hit traffic a web site gets-- wouldn't it be a *tremendous* improvement in the current search engines if they returned the pages ranked according to how many hits they get per time?) there are some problems with all the above, however. currently only the site that actually houses the pages can keep track of hits, and referrers are not very well kept track of at all. in a robust system, cheating, such as reporting more hits than one is getting, would not be possible. anyway, I tend to think that future S/N problems in cyberspace are increasingly going to be solved in some particular ways that are just now being tried out: 1. rating agencies. agencies that both reject and find "cool stuff" (like Point Communications etc.) 2. hit statistics. how many people are hitting various pages? if we could get an arbitron-like system that works the same way that newsgroup readerships are now reported (each site compiles statistics and sends them to centralized databases) we could have search engines that rank results according to hit statistics. I'm not saying it would be perfect, and there are all kinds of obvious nitpicky things that people here will harp on, but I still insist it would be better than no statistics at all. eventually a system like this that involved voluntary submissions of hit counts to the centralized servers (or just some way of search engines to get hit statistics from servers about the pages they own/serve) may evolve into a more robust system that makes cheating impossible (such as falsely reporting a high hit count to attract people to the site). 3. linking statistics. again, I think this is an extremely powerful way of separating signal from noise-- how many other sites are linked to the page in question? if it has few links, it isn't as interesting, if a lot of other people point to it, it's far more interesting. I encourage system designers to keep some of these ideas in mind when they are working on the current generation of software tools such as search engines etc. in particular there is a tremendous amount of innovation going on right now between search engine designers, and adopting some of the above ideas into a search engine might be a very powerful way of distinguishing it from the "competition" by returning more useable search results to the end user. again, I suspect we will be seeing increasingly ingenious and efficacious ways of dealing with what today is the horrible S/N problem. perhaps today will be thought of as the dark age of cyberspace because of all the muck we are routinely wading through <g>

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Eudora 3 EMS API stuff
by Dave Del Torto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Anyone interested in creating plug-ins for Eudora 3.x that provide encryption/remailer/etc support needs this information. dave ................................. cut here ................................. ABOUT THE API The EMS API is one of several complimentary facilities available for integrating 3rd party applications and services with Eudora email. "Plug-ins" interface with Eudora via the EMS API. For Windows the plug-ins are DLL's and on the Macintosh they are Components. Abstractly speaking, the EMS API is most suited for performing transformations, conversions and some other forms of processing on email messages as they are sent and received by Eudora. In practice it is very useful for encryption, digital signatures, and compression. These are all processes that involve encapsulating a message attachments and all. The EMS API is also very useful for text processing and conversions. These might include simple formatting and sorting utilities, or human language translation, and some forms of text-based encryption. EMS API plug-ins can be used to do data format conversions on things ranging from graphic images in attachments to international character sets. Another interesting category are plug-ins that process messages in some way, but don't necessarily change them. For example, a plug-in could be set up so that it scans certain messages for updates to a database like a catalog and automatically makes the change in the local database. Another could be used to scan incoming message attachments for viruses. In a sense, plug-ins can function as filters. DOCUMENTS AND SDK As of the end of July we have documentation and support available at <ftp://ftp.eudora.com/quest/emsapi> as follows: emsapi1.pdf - Adobe Acrobat document describing API version 1 (current on Mac) emsapi2.pdf - Acrobat document describing the API version 2 (current for Windows) chngs2.pdf - Acrobat document showing changes between version 1 & 2 EMS-API-SDK-1.0b3.hqx - Macintosh developer's kit ems1b2.zip - The Windows software developer's kit The developers kit includes a number of support utilities and source code for four sample plug-ins. CURRENT STATUS As of the end of August, Macintosh Eudora Pro 3.0 is shipping and supports the EMS API version 1. The current Macintosh Eudora Lite (the free version) does not support the EMS API, but it will and a beta version is expected in early September if not sooner. Version 1.0b3 of the SDK for the Macintosh is currently available from our FTP site. Windows Eudora 3.0 is in beta test right now and supports EMS API version 2. A copy can be obtained from our ftp site. Version 1.0b2 (a public beta release) of SDK for the API is also now available from our ftp site. MAILING LIST AND MORE INFORMATION If you have specific questions about the API you can write to <mailto:emsapi-info@qualcomm.com>. If you'd like to keep up to date on the API you can join a mailing list we have for announcements and discussions. To join, send a message to <mailto:msapi-dev-request@qualcomm.com>. This mailing list is manually administered and is not a listserv, majordomo or listproc, so no special formatting is needed in the request message.

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BAA, BAA, SAY THE SHEEPLE
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 08:24:36 -0700 To: <other people>, rah(a)shipwright.com From: <somebody> Subject: BAA, BAA, SAY THE SHEEPLE COLORADO SENATOR CHARLES DUKE ON THE LOSS OF LIBERTY By Senator Charles R. Duke, September 16, 1996 Colorado District 9, (719) 481-9289 BAA, BAA, SAY THE SHEEPLE Who would have thought America would be where it is today? Earlier in the week, news stories appeared announcing that a proposal to do background checks on regular passengers came from a commission studying terrorism. This, of course, would do absolutely nothing to stop terrorism. Any decent terrorist knows enough to not travel under a real name. In any case, most airline terrorist incidents will likely be caused by someone who doesn't fly on the same plane for which the incident is planned. Since these ideas are patently obvious to the most casual observers, what, then, is the purpose of this tyranny? Is it simply to get the American sheeple so accustomed to government spying that we don't mind? To do this would require some sort of identification number and what better number to use than the Social Security number? Having the SSN flying around all these databases would also allow those who have access to such numbers to examine our bank records and credit history, along with many other records. Oh, nuts, I say. This proposal is just too depressing. So I pick up the Wall Street Journal for Friday the Thirteenth of September. Might as well read a little financial news to get in a better mood. I mean, our economy is really doing okay, or at least so the government would have us believe. I never got to the stock tables. There, on the front page, is a story from San Mateo, California, where den mothers, coaches, and other volunteers who work with children will now be subjected to fingerprinting and background checks. The idea, you see, is to keep our children safe from child abuse. Don't look now, Toto, but this doesn't feel like Kansas, anymore. This will be totally ineffective at curbing child abuse, but you probably already knew that. This writer knows something about child abuse and can assure everyone that the overwhelming majority of child molesters become neither den mothers nor coaches. We have a Fourth Amendment to our U.S. Constitution that flatly prohibits these unreasonable searches and seizures. Specifically, the Amendment states, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched and the persons or things to be seized." It means that our private effects and our private lives are none of any civil authority's business, unless they have probable cause, and can obtain a warrant, sworn to by an oath or affirmation before a judge. The only way any nosy government gets away with this open and flagrant violation of constitutional rights is if the sheeple allow it. Where is the hue and cry from everyone about these measures? Have we become so conditioned to prying eyes that we have forgotten what privacy is about? Why are you, who have the courage to read this column, just standing idly by and letting our God-given rights be stripped from us on a daily basis? Where are the letters to the editor and civil demonstrations about this blatant tyranny? Our forefathers paid for these rights with their lives and their blood. They must be churning in their graves with the lackadaisical attitude we have today about our Constitution. They fought a War for Independence because King George was allowing warrantless searches and incarcerations. It was considered by our Founding Fathers to be a sacrilegious violation of rights granted to us by our Creator and not subject to the rule of Man. Somehow, in 1996, we have been lulled into complacency and apathy by a government totally dedicated to the absolute subjugation of our free will. Most of us have never really been free. We have been enslaved so long it is not clear we would know how to behave if by some process we had our real freedom restored. It is possible the American people actually deserve what is about to happen to us. We deserve it because of our collective inaction, our collective morals, our collective set of values, and our collective embrace of a failed political process. There are many examples in history where societies created and led by moral and just people have lasted for long periods. Almost without exception, the collapse of these societies were preceded by a loss of character in the people governed. Where would you put America today? --- end forwarded text ----------------- 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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Snake Oil Lists, Blacklists, and Anonymity
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 4:16 PM 9/23/96, Mark Rogaski wrote: >An entity claiming to be Lance Cottrell wrote: >: I agree in principle, but for the foreseeable future I think the list will >: be a "good thing". >: > >As long as the descriptions of the products are comprehensive. Concern >about legal issues has been expressed from the beginning. But, I don't >think that libel/slander laws will be a stumbling block, as long as >the publication is similar in nature to "Consumer Reports" or somesuch. I have to agree with Lance that the "ratings list" is more important and more useful than the "FAQ." (My comments about the "Snake Oil FAQ" were directed towards the _educational_ aspects of the FAQ, which I believe are covering territory already well-covered by good books and existing FAQs. A list of thumbs ups and thumbs downs, dynamically changing, is another matter--it is _not_ something covered in published books, due to the time factor, and would be a contribution.) However, bear in mind that such a list of products could involve legal battles. The mention of "Consumer Reports" is apropos of this. CR has been sued many times, and has a staff of lawyers both reviewing all articles they post for any hint of litigatable (?) reviews, and for dealing with the corporate lawyers of companies whose products did not fare well in the CR reviews. (Recall certain high-profile cases such as the sport utility vehicle "roll-over" tests.) Also, one of the audio magazines (or possibly even CR itself...my memory has faded) was sued in the 1970s by Bose Corporation for an unflattering review of Bose's flagship loudspeakers, the Bose 901s. The magazine basically said Bose's "direct-reflecting" multipattern array of small cones was "snake oil." (I don't know if the mag used this term, but this is what they said. And "snake oil" is a term used a _lot_ in the audio community, where snake oil salesmen sell things like the "Tice Clock," an ordinary LED clock ($7 at Radio Shack) which has been "cryogenically processed" and which, Tice claims, when plugged in to any wall outlet in the listening room will improve the soundstage, improve the sound by interpolating bits into the harsh digital stream, blah blah blah. Of course, Tice charges $200 for their special snake oil clock.) Back to the list of products. It would be best to handle it through an anonymous remailer...what others do with it, in terms of reposting it to public newsgroups (where Deja News, Yahoo, Alta Vista, etc. could find it), is their business. Reviews should be digitally-signed, probably by pseudonyms. The "anonymous reviewers" would actually be pseudonymous, and reputations would develop over time. (TANSTAAFL) The BlackNet model (message pools) could be used to get responses (letters to the editor?) back from customers, so that one might see messages like: "My company bought 5 copies of the SnakeTronics ScrambleMatic product, and found the key is stored in plaintext in the scramble.config file! Needless to say, we have stopped using ScrambleMatic and have asked SnakeTronics for our money back! signed, DisgruntledUser." (In other words, a formal rating or evaluation, perhaps from A to F, or 10 to -10, etc., could be supplemented with "blurbs," both positive and negative, from users.) The reason I recommend anonymous remailer distribution, and pseudonyms, is because of the litigation issue. Even if reviewers are not sued often, the threat of a suit influences reviews, which is why most reviews in most mags are puff pieces (glowing reviews, often strongly correlated with who is advertising in the mag). One can imagine Matt Blaze, for example, choosing to say _nothing_ about SnakeTronics' ScrambleMatic, for fear (justified) that he might get letters from their lawyers, thus taking up his time and even eventually landing him in court. Also, this sort of "blacklist" paves the way for similar anonymously-situated blacklists of doctors, lawyers, etc., and you can bet your last dollar that a list of "bad doctors" would be aggressively pursued in the courts of all major countries! Hence the use of remailers and BlackNet-style message pools will be paramount for such things. --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, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Live Cybercast of GA lawsuit press conference
by camcc＠abraxis.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>X-Sender: rcostner(a)intergate.net >Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 11:48:46 -0400 >To: efg-action(a)ninja.techwood.org >Reply-To: efg-action(a)ninja.techwood.org > >Live Cybercast of HB1630 lawsuit press conference > >The ACLU, Electronic Frontiers Georgia, Mitchell Kaye (Georgia State >Representative), and others will hold a press conference on their lawsuit >against the State of Georgia, concerning HB1630, which is now law. The joint >press conference will be broacast live on the internet at 10:30 am on Tuesday >September 24, 1996. To listen to the press conference, see > > http://www.efga.org/realaudio/hb1630.htm > >A note about EFGA: Electronic Frontiers Georgia has a new website ><http://www.efga.org/>. We are now referring to ourselves as EFGA, rather >than EFG. Please update your websites accordingly. > > -- Robert Costner (770) 512-8746 > Electronic Frontiers Georgia > rcostner(a)intergate.net > http://www.efga.org/

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Re: TAG_ent
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> security issues are solved, he said. "The Internet is > fundamentally flawed in that regard right now," Reed > said. "At this moment in time at least, we at Citicorp > would feel very uncomfortable accommodating any > transactions on the Internet," he said. But then they thought Plus and Cirrus were bad ideas as well. DCF

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Another security problem reported in Microsoft's Internet Explor
by Peter Trei 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

(This is posted to both www-security and cypherpunks. Please be careful where you send responses). See: http://www.news.com/News/Item/0,4,3707,00.html at C|net's news site for the whole story. Short version: InfoSpace has released a program as an IE plugin, which, once the user has agreed to install it, registers InfoSpace as a 'trusted publisher' in Explorer. This apparently means that later requests to download Infospace programs would not trigger the dialog boxes requesting permission to download. InfoSpace describes this as a bug, and is releasing a corrected version. Commentary: I hope that all IE plugin (ActiveX, script, whatever) publishers are as responsive. Ideally, I suppose, a downloaded executable component should not be able to silently manipulate the security policies of the system it arrives on, but it's hard to see how to prevent this in Microsoft's active content model. The Java model is more robustly protected against this problem, but as a result is not as capable. The scary thing is that a clever author of Trojan horses could write an ActiveX control which does nothing but open the gates, and let other programs in without the Authenticode check. It could even let in another version of itself, which is also properly signed, but has no malicous code. Thus, it could cover it's tracks. Peter Trei trei(a)process.com Disclaimer: I do not represent my employer.

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Re: A daily warning regarding Tim ... [edited]
by laverty＠matrixNet.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Eudora Pro 2.2 will also filter out all of the crap... At 08:24 AM 9/23/96 -0500, you wrote: >>On Fri, 20 Sep 1996, John Anonymous MacDonald wrote: >> >>> Tim C[*] * studied yoga back-streching exercises for >>> five years so he could * * (*). >> >>Likely the NSA has nothing better to do these days. They got bored with >>just listening, so now they're spamming. Can we lock this fucker out of >>the list? Sure, he'll probably pick another nym to post from... >> > > >Can't lock him out of the list, but you can either set up a kill file, or find >something like the 3.0b version of Eudora, which has filters; you can set it up >where, if an incoming message has a certain From: string, it is transferred >directly into the Trash mail folder, which is, as a rule, cleaned up before >quitting. > >Daniel. > >-- >If in fact we are the only intelligent life on this planet, why the fuck are >we in this goddamn mess? >-- >Find my public key on the World Wide Web -- point your browser at: >http://bs.mit.edu:8001/pks-toplev.html > > > >

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Taking crypto out of the U.S.
by haggis＠brutus.bright.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Soon I am going to be going overseas to Japan, and I want to take my notebook with me so I can keep up with everything, however, I have encrypted my hard drive and usually encrypt my mail. Is this in violation of the ITAR to keep everything the same when I go over?

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No Subject
by camcc＠abraxis.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From cypherpunks-errors(a)toad.com Tue Sep 24 00:20:12 1996 Return-Path: cypherpunks-errors(a)toad.com Received: from toad.com (toad.com [140.174.2.1]) by oak.westol.com (8.7.5/8.6.9) with ESMTP id AAA16114 for <shadseek(a)westol.com>; Tue, 24 Sep 1996 00:20:11 -0400 Received: (from majordom@localhost) by toad.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id MAA24022 for cypherpunks-outgoing; Mon, 23 Sep 1996 12:43:09 -0700 (PDT) Received: from smtp1.abraxis.com (SMTP1.ABRAXIS.COM [206.155.199.210]) by toad.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id MAA23992 for <cypherpunks(a)toad.com>; Mon, 23 Sep 1996 12:41:23 -0700 (PDT) From: camcc(a)abraxis.com Received: from [206.155.199.39] by smtp1.abraxis.com (NTMail 3.01.03) id ua044324; Mon, 23 Sep 1996 15:44:56 -0400 Message-Id: <2.2.32.19960923194301.0069bebc(a)smtp1.abraxis.com> X-Sender: camcc(a)smtp1.abraxis.com X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 2.2 (32) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Mon, 23 Sep 1996 15:43:01 -0400 To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Reply-To: camcc(a)abraxis.com Subject: GA HB1630 Lawsuit: Press Advisory Sender: owner-cypherpunks(a)toad.com Precedence: bulk X-UIDL: 843538926.000 Status: U >X-Sender: rcostner(a)intergate.net >Reply-To: efg-action(a)ninja.techwood.org > >Joint Media Advisory: > >AMERICAN CIVIL LIBERTIES UNION >ELECTRONIC FRONTIERS GEORGIA >REP. MITCHELL KAYE > >Groups to Mount Legal Challenge to Georgia Cyberspace Law > >FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: See list below >Friday, September 20, 1996 > > ATLANTA, GA-- -The American Civil Liberties Union, Electronic Frontiers >Georgia, Georgia State Representative Mitchell Kaye (R-Marietta) and others >will be holding a news conference on Tuesday, September 24 at 10:30 a.m., >immediately after filing a lawsuit seeking a preliminary injunction against a >Georgia law barring communications in cyberspace. > > The suit names Governor Zell Miller and Attorney General Michael Bowers as >defendants, and will be filed on behalf of 13 plaintiffs. >------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >-------------------------------------- > > WHO: > >Attorneys Ann Beeson (ACLU) and Scott McClain (Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore) > >Plaintiffs Robert Costner (executive director, Electronic Frontiers Georgia); >Jeff Graham (AIDS Survival Project); Rep. Mitchell Kaye (GA House of >Representatives); Bonnie Nadri (The Page Factory); Teresa Nelson (ACLU of >Georgia); Eric Van Pelt (Atlanta Veterans Alliance); Josh Riley (individual >plaintiff); and Kimberly LyleWilson (Atlanta Freethought Society). > > WHAT: > >News conference to announce filing of legal challenge to Georgia >cyberspace law. > > WHEN: > >Tuesday, September 24, 10:30 a.m. > > WHERE: > >ACLU of Georgia >142 Mitchell Street SW (at Peachtree), Suite 301, Atlanta >(404) 523-6201 > >Note: Copies of the brief and plaintiff affidavits will be available at the >news conference and online at the EFGA website, <http://www.efga.org/> and >through the ACLU's website <http://www.aclu.org> and America Online site >(keyword: ACLU). > >Contacts: Teresa Nelson, ACLU GA Ann Beeson, national ACLU: 404-523-6201 > Robert Costner, EFGA: 770-512-8746 > Rep. Mitchell Kaye: 770-998-2399 > Scott McClain: 404-881-4138 > Emily Whitfield, ACLU Nat'l Press Office: 212-944-9800 x426 > > >

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