December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

RE: Bernstein hearing reminder: THIS Friday 11:45AM, SF Federal Building
by Batman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

For the 200th time, unsubscrive me of your fucked mail lists.

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Counter "noise" with "signal" (please?)
by Douglas B. Renner 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

If a S/N ratio becomes irritating, by all means, don't increase the denominator! In other words, do your part to let undeserving threads die. Certain things can only be dignified with a response, but I imagine that goes without saying. -Doug Renner

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Morality, Responsibility, Technology.
by Douglas B. Renner 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Some previous thread mentioned the potential usefulness of a large database containing private medical information, and possibly genetic detail as well. While I agree on the tremendous constructive potential of such a hypothetical data-mine, I seriously doubt that Mankind has the moral integrity to use this type of knowledge responsibly. Supposing for example, a particular genetic "defect" were found with such a database to have a 90% correlation with the presence of epilepsy. Immediately, doctors & scientists would strive to find a way to gain some leverage against this "defect." We might for example see a testing procedure for human fetuses to determine whether a particular pregnancy "should be" terminated. People would become famous, and much money would change hands due to this "discovery." Generally people will conclude that Science has given them more control over their lives than they previously had. The problem is, nobody really understands just what this "defect" really means. Nobody understands why it is there, or what kind of a choice we are really making my attempting to remove it from our gene pool. Remember that Sickle Cell Anemia is caused by a genetic "defect". We are lucky enough to know that the carriers of this "defect" are uniquely able to survive certain plagues. This so-called "defect", as troublesome as it may be to some individuals, is really a latent strength, which is how natural selection reinforced it in the first place, and we may need it again. The term "defect" is therefore entirely out of line. We have no business placing judgements from our own limited material value sets onto something which has the definite potential of affecting all future generations of Humanity. It's none of our business. Further, when such a database is eventually created, I ask not "who" but "what" will have access to it? What kind of non-sentient group mentality will have sufficient authority and be presumptuous enough to declare itself morally objective? What kind of a larger process might such an entity be unwittingly serving? We already have many times more material knowledge than we are morally capable of handling as a species. Here's one tiny example. The most widespread use of the knowledge of psychology is guess what? Advertising and Marketing. Our average American sits entranced watching hours of television daily, unwittingly absorbing countless impressions by advertisers with more money than morality. Can he identify the "glittering generalities" or the "bandwagon appeals" or any of the other effective forms of propaganda? Does he know the truth from a lie when sexual titillation is part of the presentation? May he readily accept what is presented, and most of all: Does he see himself sitting there, absorbing these impressions? We don't see our selves in action. We can't know what we're doing. None of us have developed sufficient "presence" to know what we are really doing most of the time. We can't possibly be objective, except in extremely rare, life-changing moments, and even then only if we're lucky. Just thinking about yourself thinking isn't enough, because where are your emotions? Do you really understand why your thoughts are what they are? Did *YOU* put those thoughts in your head intentionally, or did they sort of happen on their own... one thought following another through some combination of association and external stimuli? And while you've been busy reading this, with your attention directed outward, why haven't you been aware of the sensation in your feet, or the tension in your face, or your posture, or your breath? As westerners we have directed so much of our attention "outward" that we develop little or no objective knowledge of what goes on within us. Can we break this cycle? If there really are esoteric schools, with disciplines and methodologies of obtaining self-knowledge, then this knowledge must be such that by its very nature, it cannot possibly be communicated successfully in any large, public manner. But I digress. As a reader of this list, have you ever asked yourself Why, why is it that you personally want strong encryption to be widely available? It's a very powerful emerging technology, and it's in the palm of your hands. Douglas B. Renner dougr(a)usa.globelle.com

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Re: 56 kbps modems
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:41 AM 9/17/96 -0700, Eric Murray <ericm(a)lne.com> wrote: >Crypto/security related: how hard is it to hack a Frame Relay >connection? My impression is that it requires access to >one of the telco's routing computers, which would make it >about equivalent in difficulty to hacking POTS. Frame Relay doesn't get handled by the telco's POTS routing (unlike ISDN) - it's handled by whatever frame relay switch the telco uses. I don't know what Pac Bell uses; AT&T uses Stratacom switches, I think MCI uses Cascade, USWest uses a mixture. Frame switches mostly use Permanent Virtual Circuits, though Switched Virtual Circuits will be coming out in the next year or so. PVCs are pretty tough to hack, because they mostly get provisioned from an administrative interface on the switch rather than in-band. SVCs will offer a bit more risk, since switching is switching. But it's probably pretty tough. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> # You can get PGP software outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto

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Re: Cryptologie: Conference internationale - 25 SEPT - Paris
by Remo Pini 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Date: Thu Sep 19 11:31:08 1996 > September 25, 1996 > > Centre de Conf=E9rence Internationale > 19 Avenue Kleber, Paris 16, France > > Program, registration and further information (English): > http://www.epic.org/events/crypto_paris > I'll be there, how about any of you out there (yes, I know some of you wi= ll be there as a feature)? - ------< fate favors the prepared mind >------ Remo Pini rp(a)rpini.com PGP: http://www.rpini.com/crypto/crypto.html - ----< words are what reality is made of >---- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: noconv iQEVAwUBMkES3RFhy5sz+bTpAQEzmAf/d1XqnIlGj3jgX/hgGLwom15WLsNvPjfZ YcQqOjP3e5pEeHjWWAUUjQ2dopTOI7+Kytb4ZCIgoI6TIFmkWj/jAMfpx/IYx89C Db3f7+jvEN19Q/NQUYdUXktqaMC7zFMjgX8U2LBfiuR7qloMMJV+O3pDTvdJCjln BumjKnk9NwebtBrcmMIw3Y1LZ1jjFfwbanUEYlKMUgp32XXxxe+q0HOWI4x9gb32 NvPlXSftPSkpHt2M8V52wZljbtnd9WfDTsqscEjaZ3e++IousAc2itkFSV3jvS72 XT2ZZrU3lJc0n8qOjKyYR19hMIfzQgzwmrbukK0/W8R923SSA01nGA== =ERW9 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: DL in exchange for fingerprint
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 9:13 PM 9/19/96, Gary Howland wrote: >Timothy C. May wrote: >> >> (Yes, I disliked being thumb-printed, but I could see no viable >> alternative. I'm sure Duncan has some scheme to declare himself a Botswanan >> exchange student, but I decided being thumb-printed was the lesser hassle.) > >Sure, it's always less hassle doing what they want. Privacy doesn't >come for free. It's easier to let the police search you in the street >than it is to make them arrest you so that you can make a formal >complaint. So, just what it is _your_ method of dealing with this? While it is noble to talk about fighting the system, just how do you go about doing it yourself? Do you simply drive without a valid driver's license? I know some folks who do, of course, but it's not something that's "worth it" to me. (This space reserved for your lecture about how I need to be prepared to go to jail to defend my right not to be thumbprinted, etc. On second thought, why don't you be the one to go to jail, and then you can let us know your experiences.) >> Paraphrasing that famous quote, just which part of "not for identification" >> don't they understand? > >Hmm - who are you paraphrasing here? (Just curious). "What part of "No" don't you understand?" and "What part of "Congress shall make no law" don't you understand?" --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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CIA hacked
by Mike van der Merwe 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi everybody Heh! This one's good for a laugh :-)) http://www.odci.gov/cia Seems the DOJ hack was a good inspiration. Heh! Life's good when you're willing to work at it. Later Mike ____________________________________________________________________ I'm sure we will find out in a few years that Microsoft invented the Net. Or brought it to the masses. Or saved it from a certain and early demise. Or all of the above. JAMES SEYMOUR

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Re: GAK, GAP, GAY
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:52 AM 9/18/96 -0700, Tim wrote: >It doesn't matter if cash is still allowed if one cannot interact with any >health care person without a proper citizen-unit data base entry. They've >got you tracked even if you pay in gold dust. > >(Putting on my Duncan cap--not to be confused with dunce cap--I wonder what >will happen the first time someone dies because a hospital wouldn't treat >someone without a proper citizen-unit health care card?) By definition, without a citizen-unit health card number, a Health Status Transition Event can't be recorded, therefore nothing will happen. It's possible that some auditor may notice a short-term increase in the amount of hazardous medical waste disposal at the facility that can't be properly allocated to health-services-consumption-units for cost recovery purposes, but there are overhead accounts for such things, which are simpler than creating fictitious accounts for "un-persons" or some such. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> # You can get PGP software outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto

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DL in exchange for fingerprint
by Jeff Barber 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Oh joy. You no longer need to be arrested to get fingerprinted in Georgia. On the front page of Wednesday's Atlanta Journal, under the headline "Now you can get driver's license in minutes": The average 45-day wait to get a new driver's license in Georgia will be a thing of the past under a new system that will churn them out while customers wait. "From start to finish it takes about 10 minutes," said chief examiner ... in charge of the Georgia State Patrol's driver's license office in Milledgeville where the system went into effect on Tuesday. Previously, drivers received a temporary paper license that was good for 45 days. ... ... Officials at the Department of Public Safety plan to have the new computer system in 82 locations across the state by Oct. 1. Georgia is the 32nd state with the system. After an eye exam, the applicant presses a finger down on a pad that registers the fingerprint in a state-wide memory bank. Then, the examiner confirms the name, address, and identifying information. ... The licenses have a hologram of the word "Georgia" behind the driver's name, age and address, and a bar code on the back that contains a laser recording of the driver's index fingerprints. "We keep a memory bank that matches your fingerprints with your license," [DoPS spokesman] said. "In other words, if you went to get a new license with a false birth certificate and your fingerprint didn't match the name, you wouldn't get a license. And you could also face possible investigation for fraud from the Public Safety's investigative division." ... "I think it's wonderful," said Katherine Kidd, the first Milledgeville driver to get the instant license. "It's a great idea. Now we don't have to wait forever." [ End quote ] Just what I would have called it: a great idea. Is it true that 31 other states take your fingerprint as part of the license application? I feel sick. -- Jeff

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SAB_tag
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

9-19-96. NYP: "New Method of Internet Sabotage Is Spreading." Markoff. Sabotage reported by Panix is spreading and has now occurred at least a dozen other World Wide Web sites around the nation. Officials concede that there is no easy defense against the attack. One said. "I think this is sick, but I guess that is what these guys do." "Regulators Turn Spotlight on Cybermoney." As concerns grow about electronic money laundering, cybercounterfeiting and bank runs on the Internet, regulators around the world are scurrying to catch up with the rapid development of electronic money. The US plans to announce today two initiatives intended to grapple with the new technology, and in another move, G-7 will examine the international cooperation needed as money moves through the borderless world of the Internet. ----- http://jya.com/sabtag.txt (14 kb for 2) SAB_tag ---------- Pipeline is sluggish due to transition to Mindspring operation. Responses may be slow or never. Try again after 2000, or forget about it, go Luddite.

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