December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Anti-Bayesian algorithms for Montgolfiering reputation capital
by abostick＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Reputation capital is becoming increasingly important in the online community. A key problem facing new entrants to cyberspace, as well as the people who deal with them, is how much capital these new entrants can be said to posess. A typical solution proposed might be described as "Bayesian", whereby new entrants to the community are assigned a quantity of reputation capital that reflects the expectation value of their future reputation capital. This is unsatisfactory, because, like all Bayesian statistical methods, it ultimately relies on the very fallible judgment of the entities who make such assignments (or that of the implementors of the automated agents which make such assignments). It is clear that an effective measure of the initial reputation capital of new entrants to the online community is greatly to be desired. It is felt by the author that anti-Bayesian methods, methods that make no *a priori* assumptions about the reputations of new entrants, show great promise as means for achieving this result. The pioneering work of Parry et al. in the use of test messages to inspire rapid responses from a community's new entrants. This method, which Parry and his colleagues name in their typically colloquial style as "trolling for newbies", is described in detail in a review article by Suter (1994). In this article the author proposes the use of Parry test messages and the responses generated thereby as a means of rapidly establishing initial reputation capital for an online community's new entrants. By evaluating new entrants' responses to the test messages, messages which can be carefully designed to virtually guarantee that a useful response will be elicited. These responses can be reviewed by individuals or tabulated and evaluated by software agents to estimate the new entrants' most likely reputation capital without resorting to arbitrary assignment of an initial value. Established members of a community may use existing filtering agents to eliminate Parry test messages and the responses thereto from their own datastreams; or they may elect to allow these messages through and review the Parry tests and resulting responses themselves. There are indications in the literature that other researchers are at work on this technology. For example, messages that resemble Parry test messages have appeared recently which contain coding very similar to work of May's (1993, 1994, 1995, 1996) that have generated responses that are ideally suited for reputation capital establishment from new community members. This fertile field for study holds significant promise, and the author welcomes further developments from any who chooses to work here. - -- Alan Bostick | "Dole is so unpopular, he couldn't sell beer on mailto:abostick@netcom.com | a troop ship." (Ohio Republican Senator William news:alt.grelb | Saxbe on Bob Dole's early career in the Senate) http://www.alumni.caltech.edu/~abostick http://www.theangle.com/ The first site with a brain. Yours. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQB1AwUBMneUvuVevBgtmhnpAQEE4wL+PnPHAIjYv77ad3xDYUM/WMFMqGubduyH vs5veTK0BlqdFSChvponVpXGmP9fHXBnTVxlipj8To12DfFgFzYy1gqkQ0NgUrud UHygCOU503ZIx2u5FpifLY95VR0u5HqG =EU+x -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Internet Expert John Hardie on ISP-TV's "Real Time"
by ISP-TV Main Contact 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

*** ISP-TV Program Announcement: Internet Expert John Hardie Interview *** *** Monday, Nov. 4 *** *** 9:00 PM ET *** Internetworking expert John Hardie will be the guest on ISP-TV's "Real Time" interview series this week. Hardie has helped magnage the MAE East, one of the major Internet access points where Internet service providers peer and exchange traffic. He has also spent four years managing national Internet sales for MFS Communications, and helped the company to become a major pvider of Internet infrastructure. Hardie is currently Director of Sales for DIGEX's Private Networks Group. We will be asking Hardie questions about the history and growth of the Internet, what the MAE's and other NAPs do to exchange Internet traffic, and questions about the Internet business. This video interview can be viewed on the ISP-TV main CU-SeeMe reflector at IP 205.197.247.33, or other ISP-TV affiliate reflectors listed at http://www.digex.net/isptv/members.html See URL http://www.digex.net/isptv for more information about the ISP-TV Network To obtain Enhanced CU-SeeMe software, go to: http://goliath.wpine.com/cudownload.htm

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Re: ITAR / S 1726 / Civil Disobedience
by Alexander Chislenko 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Cypherpunks wrote: > > 1) Software is writing, so it is protected by the first amendment, > so the ITAR is unconstitutional. The idea that only paper books > are first amendment protected, and electronic books are not, is just > plain wrong. > [ I don't usually CC: my messages to 'president(a)whitehouse.gov', but since it popped up there, I'll leave it. Feels funny though. ] Writing is expressing yourself in the external medium, in order to influence other people. So is any other non-coercive action/work. There has never been a fundamental functional difference between different forms of expression, but since low technology allowed only a few of such forms, and they stood apart from each other, it *looked* like there was a difference. Now the space of possible ways of expression is getting increasingly populated, which confuses the decent thinkers who are trying to fit the richness of the new world into the old conceptual frameworks. Most people are not "decent thinkers" though - and the issues debated are not semantic. "Books", electrons (that, BTW, play a much greater role in keeping paper together than in transmitting data over optic cables), and references to Constitution are just traditional incantations that people use to express their positions on who they want to have control over what. These issues are decided by social forces and available technologies. Distinctions in semantics and delivery methods between books and speech, electrons and photons, descriptions, imitations or snapshots of reality, feelings delivered through drugs or through art, etc. have little to do with the *effects* of these actions - and that's what everybody is fighting to control. Making sneaky semantic constructs (e.g., "electronic books") to make positions look more "legitimate" is a usual tactic on both sides, but everybody is just being hypocritical pretending that these things matter. This hypocrisy may work - a little - for both sides. However, I think that for serious practical purposes, people should engage in direct social action and implement necessary technologies that may change the battleground. Philosophically, there are lots of interesting things to discuss here as well - and I would be very happy to take part in the debates - but electrons, books, and Constitution have little relevance here. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Alexander Chislenko <sasha1(a)netcom.com> www.lucifer.com/~sasha/home.html Firefly Network, Inc.: <alexc(a)firefly.net> www.ffly.com 617-234-5452 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: FDA_dis
by Gary Howland 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hallam-Baker wrote: > > Regulation is not necessarily anti-commerce. UK beef farmers would be > better > off today if there had been more regulation, a weak "free-market" > attitude > to public health has destroyed the entire industry. Really? Nothing to do with EC MPs preventing them from selling the stuff to willing buyers outside of the EC then? Do you really believe the government "knows better" than the farmers? Do you believe regulation is free? And how can you honestly call the UK agricultural industry a "free-market"? Gary -- "People who love the law and sausages should watch neither being made" - Otto Von Bismarck pub 1024/C001D00D 1996/01/22 Gary Howland <gary(a)systemics.com> Key fingerprint = 0C FB 60 61 4D 3B 24 7D 1C 89 1D BE 1F EE 09 06

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Montgolfier was a JOKE
by peter.allan＠aeat.co.uk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The Montgolfier post sent anonymously was a joke and I thought quite a good one. (It wasn't me and I don't know who it was.) It was poking fun at the QED pest at cyberstation who really was writing drivel. So far 2 people have missed the point and let us know about it. -- Peter Allan peter.allan(a)aeat.co.uk

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Financial Cryptography 1997 (FC97): General Announcement
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Financial Cryptography 1997 (FC97): The world's first financial cryptography conference, workshop, and exhibition! General Announcement Conference, and Exhibition, February 24-28, 1997 Workshop for Senior Managers and IS Professionals February 17-21, 1997 The Inter-Island Hotel Anguilla, BWI The world's first peer-reviewed conference on financial cryptography, FC97, will be held Monday through Friday, February 24-28, 1997, from 8:30am until 12:30pm, at the Inter-Island Hotel on the Carribbean island of Anguilla. In conjunction with the conference, the Inter-Island Hotel will also be the site of an intensive 40-hour workshop for senior managers and IS professionals, during the week preceeding the conference (February 17-21), and an exhibition for financial cryptography vendors, from 10am-6pm during the week of conference itself. The goals of the combined conference, workshop, and exhibition are to provide a peer-reviewed forum for important research in financial cryptography and the effects it will have on society, to give senior managers and IS professionals a solid understanding of the fundamentals of strong cryptgraphy as applied to financial operations on public networks, and to showcase the newest products in the field. In addition, plenty of time has been left open in the afternoon and evening for sponsored corporate functions and activities, for business networking, and, of course, for recreational activities on Anguilla itself. As one of the principals of the conference joked, "We hope that people will treat the conference and the other activities more as a working vacation, rather than, er, vacating work." Conference participants are encouraged to bring their families. The Conference Ray Hirschfeld, the conference chair, has picked an outstanding group of professionals and researchers, in financial cryptography, and in related fields, to review the papers for this conference. They are: Chairman: Rafael Hirschfeld, CWI, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Matthew Franklin, AT&T Laboratories--Research, Murray Hill, NJ, USA Michael Froomkin, U. Miami School of Law, Coral Gables, FL, USA Arjen Lenstra, Citibank, New York, NY, USA Mark Manasse, Digital Equipment Corporation, Palo Alto, CA, USA Kevin McCurley, Sandia Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USA Charles Merrill, McCarter & English, Newark, NJ, USA Clifford Neuman, Information Sciences Institute, Marina del Rey, CA, USA Sholom Rosen, Citibank, New York, NY, USA Israel Sendrovic, Federal Reserve Bank of New York, New York, NY, USA Some of the names may be recognizable to you. But, if they're not, included in that list are the inventor of Millicent, the head of EU's CAFE digital cash project, the holders of Citicorp's digital cash patent, two famous scholars in cryptography and digital commerce law, the Chair of Eurocrypt '96, and the Chairman of the Taskforce on the Security of Electronic Money for the Bank for International Settlements. If we'd gotten any more talent, we couldn't have had a conference, because the committee can't review the work of it's own members! The actual agenda of the conference will be determined by the papers the program committee selects, so we won't have a final schedule for the conference until the middle of January. However, the conference committee is selecting papers in what it considers the union, and not the intersection, of the fields of finance and cryptography. Examples of topics it will consider are: Anonymous Payments Fungibility Authentication Home Banking Communication Security Identification Conditional Access Implementations Copyright Protection Loss Tolerance Credit/Debit Cards Loyalty Mechanisms Currency Exchange Legal Aspects Digital Cash Micropayments Digital Receipts Network Payments Digital Signatures Privacy Issues Economic Implications Regulatory Issues Electronic Funds Transfer Smart Cards Electronic Purses Standards Electronic Voting Tamper Resistance Electronic Wallets Transferability Financial Cryptography '97 is held in cooperation with the International Association for Cryptologic Research. The conference proceedings will be published on the web by the Journal for Internet Banking and Commerce. <http://www.arraydev.com/commerce/JIBC/>. For further information on submitting a paper to the FC97, and other details about the program of the conference, please see program committee's web-page at <http://www.cwi.nl/conferences/FC97>. On the lighter side, the conference will be covered by Wired Magazine, and will be the featured conference in it's January 1997, (ahem...) "Deductible Junkets" section. So, you might want to register, and make your plane and hotel reservations, before the rush begins... The price of a pass to the conference sessions and exhibits is $1,000 U.S. (Since we're on Anguilla, and there are no taxes of any kind, we thought we'd keep prices in nice round numbers, just to make things interesting. :-).) The price includes breakfast at the conference, some stipends for presenters who need them, and the logistics of having a professional conference with high-bandwidth internet connectivity in a location like Anguilla. In looking around, however, the conference organizers *did* notice that FC97 price is in keeping with other business and professional technology conferences of similar total session length, so everything seems to work out. The market *is* efficient, after all. You can register, and pay for, your conference ticket at: <http://www.offshore.com.ai/fc97/> The Exhibition Concurrent with the conference will be the the FC97 Exhibition, a small trade show for financial cryptography products and services. Each booth will have high bandwidth access to the internet (yes, there *are* T1s in Anguilla), and will get 2 conference passes. Booth prices start at $5,000 US. Please contact Julie Rackliffe at <mailto: rackliffe(a)tcm.org> for further information . As space is limited, please register as soon as possible if you plan to be there. The Workshop We are especially honored to have Ian Goldberg as the leader of the FC97 Workshop, which will run one week prior to the conference, February 17-21, 1997. Ian, the cryptographer at Berkeley who was made famous last year (in articles in both the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times) for breaking Netscape's transaction security protocols, will be running an intensive, 5-day workshop for senior managers and technology professionals. While the workshop is still being developed, and will depend on the skills of the planned participants, workshop topics will include, but not be limited to: The Internet (depending on the background of the participants) Overview and background of cryptography Survey of existing and proposed Internet payment systems Details on some specific payment systems Issues involved in setting up a secure Internet site And, depending on whether Ian finishes coding it (it looks likely), a step-by-step walkthrough of setting up an ecash-enabled Web server. Ian has recruited strong roster of instructors with credentials similar to his own, and, as he plans to maintain a 5-1 student/teacher ratio, the size of the workshop will be restricted and 2 months advance registration well be required. Further information about the workshop can be found at: <http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~iang/fc97/workshop.html> The planned price for the workshop is $5,000. This covers lab space, hardware, network access, software, and, of course, 40 hours of instruction and structured lab activity. The lab itself will be open 24 hours a day, if demand warrants it. Sponsorship Opportunities FC97 offers many exciting sponsorship opportunities at all levels. Corporations are encouraged to to be an exclusive sponsor for lunch or dinner, each of which will be followed by a recreational activity of some kind. Sponsors will have the opportunity to permanently attach their name to these important networking functions, which the organizers hope will be a large part of the conference experience. There are 10 such events being planned, and 10 corporations will be accepted for sponsorship. Corporate sponsors of these events will also get a substantial initial discount on exhibit space, and complementary conference tickets. In-kind sponsorship is available at all levels of support, with opportunities for companies to provide networking, bandwidth, hardware, radio pocket modems and equipment, as well as design and print services, transportation, entertainment, catering, sunscreen and, well, if you've got it and you think we'll need it, let us know about it -- we probably do. Please contact Julie Rackliffe at <mailto: rackliffe(a)tcm.org> for further sponsorship information. Air Transportation and Hotels Air travel to Anguilla is typically done through either St. Thomas for US flights, or St. Maarten/Martin for flights from Europe. Several non-stop flights a day from various US and European locations can be made to either destination. Connection through to Anguilla can be made through American Eagle, or through LIAT. See your travel agent for details. American Eagle Airlines has agreed to increase their flights as needed to accomodate any extra traffic the conference brings to the island. Anguilla's runway is 3600 feet, with a displaced threshold of 600 feet, and can accomodate business jets. Obviously, you should talk to your own FBO for details about your own aircraft's capabilities in this regard. Anguilla import duties are not imposed on hardware or software which will leave the island again, so, as long as you take it with you when you leave you won't pay taxes for leaving it there. Hotels range from spartan to luxurious, and more information about hotels on Anquilla can be obtained from your travel agent, or at <http://offshore.com.ai/>. Why Anguilla? We picked Anguilla for two reasons, both of them mildly political. The first is, of course, the US ITARs, which classify cryptography as a "munition" and restrict it's export. Thus, every effort will be made to highlight the absurdity of these regulations through the use of foriegn software, "leaked" software, and, of course, where necessary, US-exportable "crippleware", in the networking and server software of the conference and workshop. Of course, the conference content itself is not a violation of the ITARs, as the "munitions" being exported are in the heads of the attendees, or on paper, and thus not (typically!) subject to the US ITARs. Consider it a mild tweak on the nose of the Clinton Administration, in an era of 56-bit exportable keysize maxima. The other mildly political reason is that Anguilla is a tax haven. There are no taxes except import duties. None. No income, capital gains, sales, excise, or property taxes -- none. Anguilla's banking secrecy laws are about the finest there are anywhere. This is important to the organizers of the conference because most of the other proposed regulations of financial cryptography, particularly those of "token", or "note" based systems, are because they enable cash settlement, even perfectly anonymous cash settlement, of transactions of practically any size. Economic reality is not optional; if, in fact, the significantly reduced cost of these technologies make auditable "book-entry" transaction settlement obsolete, then there isn't much that the taxation or law-enforcement authorities of the world's nation-states can do about it. We consider countries like Anguilla an existance proof of the concept. Any attempt to restrict these technologies will only backfire on nations attempting to do so. Nation-states will simply have to develop taxation and law enforcement methods other than auditing book-entries. In fact, most central bankers and financial crime enforcement professionals who understand the technology also realize this, so, of course, our point is only *mildly* political, at this stage of the argument, anyway. Of course, the fact that Anguilla's average daytime temperature in February is in the low 80's farenheit, and that of, say, Boston, is in the low 20's, and the fact that cyclonic storms are in the *other* hemisphere that time of year, has *nothing*, we say, *nothing* to do with our decision to hold a conference there. We're simply shocked you would suggest such a thing. Neither, for that matter, does the fact that the average water visibility on Anguilla's coral reefs can be measured in hundreds of feet (if you can see that far for the blinding riot of color, that is...). Registration for FC97 Again, if you're interested in coming to FC97 see: <http://www.offshore.com.ai/fc97/> For information on presenting papers at FC97 see: <http://www.cwi.nl/conferences/FC97> If you're interested in Exhibit space, please contact Julie Rackliffe: <mailto:rackliffe@tcm.org> If you're interested in sponsoring FC97, also contact Julie Rackliffe: <mailto:rackliffe@tcm.org> If you're interested in the FC97 Workshop for Senior Managers and IS Professionals, see: <http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~iang/fc97/workshop.html> See you in Anguilla! The FC97 Organizing Committee Vince Cate and Bob Hettinga, General Chairs Ray Hirschfeld, Conference Chair Ian Goldberg, Workshop Chair Julie Rackliffe, Conference, Exhibit, and Sponsorship Manager ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "The cost of anything is the foregone alternative" -- Walter Johnson The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/ ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "The cost of anything is the foregone alternative" -- Walter Johnson The e$ Home Page: http://www.vmeng.com/rah/

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Re: ITAR / S 1726 / Civil Disobedience
by stewarts＠ix.netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 08:03 AM 10/30/96 EST, you wrote: >Would it be appropriate for other users to forward this >message to the prez with their signatures? The message was sent from "cypherpunks(a)toad.com" and signed "Cypherpunks", which was highly inappropriate. (Wasn't a bad message, but cypherpunks is a bunch of individuals, it's not an anonymous collective...) # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # You can get PGP outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk Imagine if three million people voted for somebody they _knew_, and the politicians had to count them all.

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mailing list
by captain_loogie＠juno.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

put me on your mailing list

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Re: slander and call for lawyers. :)
by Michael Mattsson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Armenia never entered the war (whether they were sympathetic or not is another matter), Japan (although i believe never formally 'declared war') pushed USA's button i guess, something to do with an incident at Pearl Harbor <g>.Canada likewise decided to move Canadians of Japanese decent into 'holding' camps for reasons of national security... those were enlightened times....I'll end this before we slid further off topic, ----------Michael Mattsson - ProgrammerMomentis Systems michaelmattsson(a)momentis.com - http://www.momentis.com ----------> From: Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM <dlv(a)bwalk.dm.com>> To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com> Subject: Re: slander and call for lawyers. :)> Date: Wednesday, October 30, 1996 7:16 AM> > Note: I am not subscribed to this mailing list. I've been forcibly> unsubscribed and not permittecd to resubscribe.> > frantz(a)netcom.com (Bill Frantz) writes:> > I am quite willing to transfer my pledge of $50 (which was given in the> > hope that the event would attract Attila, not Dimitri) to Ray's legal> > defense fund.> >> > I want to be clear that this transfer is only valid for defense. If the> > fund will be used to legally attack Dimitri, I'd like my money back. That> > falls in the category of inviting the courts to rule on net-disputes,> > something I would like to discourage. (Attacking Dimitri seems also to> > fall into the category of bullshit suits, something else I would like to> > discourage.)> > You seem to be confused. No one suggested that I have any plans to sue> Ray Arachelian. Some of the lies he and Tim May posted to this mailing> list are probably actionable, but I don't believe in suing over something> said on the net.> > Ray Arachelian has repeatedly threatened to sue me over my posts to this> mailing list, and that's what his legal fund is for. It is by no means a> legal "defense" fund.> > A related question: when persons of Japanese descent (including 3rd generation> U.S. citizens) were rounded up during WW2 and confined to concentration camps,> where many died from deprivation and disease, why weren't persons of Armenian> descent similarly "interned"? Weren't they even more sympathetic to the Nazis> that persons of German descent?> > --->

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[NOISE]Re: Sex, drugs, and libertarianism
by Jim Ray 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: SAlanEd(a)concentric.net, cypherpunks(a)toad.com Date: Thu Oct 31 06:51:05 1996 Steve Edwards writes: ... <snip> >I agree that the war on drugs is useless, and that prohibiting > prostitution is even more mindless. Still, the libertarian ideal seems > even > worse. Think about Thailand, where sex is bought and sold openly. The > AIDs > infection rate has gone from near zero to 2.5% in a couple of years, and > promises to devastate the whole country. Burmese kids are sold into sex > slavery. Is this the future? People make choices every day, but few > people make INFORMED choices, and a lot of people, believe it or not, > have > very little choice. They are caught between the Devil and the Deep Blue > Sea. 1. Prostitution is (nominally) illegal in Thailand. 2. So, what would you do? (I'd still make it legal.) The issue is more complex than many would make it out to be. Where prostitution is legal in this country (Nevada) the marketplace seems, without the help of Dr. Kessler and his minions, to have dictated the universal use of condoms, and the spread of all STDs is slower than in other areas, like here in Miami (where prostitution is (nominally) illegal. JMR Regards, Jim Ray -- DNRC Minister of Encryption Advocacy "They never say: 'Please vote for me because I have an obsessive, all-consuming need, bordering on mental illness, to live in the White House and fly around in Air Force One and have a vast entourage of lackeys.'" -- Dave Barry, describes Bill, Bob, and Ross in the Miami Herald, September 22, 1996 Defeat the Duopoly! Vote Harry & Jo http://www.HarryBrowne96.org/ ___________________________________________________________________ PGP id.E9BD6D35 51 5D A2 C3 92 2C 56 BE 53 2D 9C A1 B3 50 C9 C8 I will generate a new (and bigger) PGP key-pair on election night. jmr(a)shopmiami.com ___________________________________________________________________ -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMniSrm1lp8bpvW01AQGGxAP/b72K+0PXT9xxE1E2KCgls5iXSvVvlnoa aqG3mJuVjPDbPLVCav5ajHjdO8IoNyk7B6LnoBRH0haTn+3yd0tHYI/yMRKwmaJR 4FjmoTKDOF45obWtynqalfHetkAfZtBzVfyM4iLHG5YHnGiEgKg8baiffr6AGxYp me6gehTq1p8= =296o -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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