December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: [NOT NOISE] Jena Remailer
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 04:10 PM 9/28/96 -0700, anonymous wrote: >My first thought was to have them sent to a non-autopinging *.test ng >via a well-tested parsing mail2news gate, but some autopingers ping ALL >*.test traffic passing through a site. If these ping messages didn't >get automatically bitbucketed at the remailer site, this could be a >problem for the operator. Most of the autopingers will ignore messages with "ignore" in the Subject: line. # 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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sophie germain primes
by Serge E. Hallyn 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Could anyone direct me to an online list of small (less than 800-digit) Sophie Germain primes? (actually any list would do) many thanks, -serge hallyn(a)cs.wm.edu

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Re: active practice in America
by attila 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In <199609290133.UAA00319(a)smoke.suba.com>, on 09/28/96 at 08:33 PM, snow <snow(a)smoke.suba.com> said: A Person going by the name Attila said: > to put it another way: in criminal procedings: I would rather >be considered guilty, until proven innocent; than I would be >presumed innocent, until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. If you were the person being _tried_ for a crime, you would rather have to prove that you COULDN'T POSSIBLY have commited the crime as opposed to having to have the government PROVE that you DID DO it? you bet --the objective of the defense is to cast aspersions on the government prosecuters --in other words, create that doubt. you do not need to prove your innocence unconditionally, just "taint" the prosecuter a bit. however, in many cases you are guaranteed a trial by a jury of your peers. as for peers --look at OJ, and the reverse weighting of the Santa Monica jury v. downtown. > a nation whch can base a conviction on conspiracy to commit a >crime, or permits circumstantial evidence to close the gap towards >'beyond a reasonable doubt,' has lost any pretense of understand- > ing the heritage of common law: the Magna Carta. Of that, there is no denying. the example I have always used: three men were drinking in a bar across the street from a ripe looking bank. they sit there and plot a knockoff. one gets stinking drunk and passes out on the floor. the other two go across the street to be arrested for the attempted heist. the police arrest the drunk on the floor. why? "conspiracy to commit the crime!" and the penalty is the same: 7-20 years in the federal slam. --unless you are socially disadvantaged and claim heroin addiction; then you make it to the street in as little as 18 months and wipe the tail within 7 years, not 20. the rule was the offender must be less than 25, it may have been raised. or, you could hire an expensive member of the boys' club and might trade someone elses body for your freedom.... that's justice in Amerika, folks! you like it, right?

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Re: Public Schools
by Adamsc＠io-online.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Fri, 27 Sep 1996 09:22:05 -0400, ronsimpson wrote: >I hate to burst any bubbles but, the school with the highest number of >National Merit Finalists and highest number of 1600 SATs is a Public >High School (Jefferson High in Fairfax, VA) This probably just means that they have a good SAT cram course. Ditto for the NMS. I've run into people who've done well on the SATs and have been rather underwhelmed. In my opinion it's like MIPS: Meaningless Indicator # Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp # <cadams(a)acucobol.com> | send mail with subject "send PGPKEY" "That's our advantage at Microsoft; we set the standards and we can change them." --- Karen Hargrove, Microsoft (quoted in the Feb 1993 Unix Review editorial)

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Re: Public Schools
by Adamsc＠io-online.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Fri, 27 Sep 1996 09:20:10 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote: >(Seriously, my view is that schools are not very important. All success, >academic or technical, derives from one basic determining factor: those who I always liked Robert Heinlein's comment: "It's possible to get a good education anywhere, if you are willing to work for it". Unfortunately not many people want to work for anything... >read for pleasure, succeed, and those who don't read for pleasure, don't. ++agree. >taught usable trades. Seriously. Our "ideal" that all children should >attend college is absurd, given the lack of academic preparation, desire, >and reading skills that so many high school students lack. Most community Not only that, what are all these college grads going to do? Only a small percentage are going to be making waves in a given field. Many are just going to lower the overall average... Worse yet, many become lawyers <g>. A society with such a high percentage of parasites (those who don't add value sufficient to cover expenses) isn't healthy. >colleges are essentially becoming Grades 13-14, with most of the Grade Why are they going to college? Well they weren't learning it in HS. They did however learn to feel good about themselves, use a condom and handle complex social situations (see: gossip. Or, for the average guy, see: wedgie). What use this serves is an excellent question. >13-14 students reading at the 9th-grade level (which most of us on this >list were reading at when we were in the 7th-grade, or earlier).) That's putting it mildly. . . I read 200+ pages/hour with a very high retention rate. Needless to say, this means I move through books at high speed. Quite a few times I've had the experience of summarizing a "Great Work" to a college-educated teacher. Almost scary. Equally bad are the people who read but do not understand. The term functionally illiterate comes to mind. We may joke that people switch into "Idiot Mode" (Apologies to the BOFH author) around computers but I've run into a number of people who are apparently stuck in it. # Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp # <cadams(a)acucobol.com> | send mail with subject "send PGPKEY" "That's our advantage at Microsoft; we set the standards and we can change them." --- Karen Hargrove, Microsoft (quoted in the Feb 1993 Unix Review editorial)

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Re: Workers, Public Schools, Tradesmen, and Justice
by Adamsc＠io-online.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Fri, 27 Sep 1996 13:01:13 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote: >My conclusion is simple: Tell people if they don't work, they won't eat. If >they do something others are willing to give them money to do, they won't >get money. They won't get "entitlements" from the government (= taxpayers, >= those who are working, = me and thee). Tell them that a college education >should only be pursued if one has a "calling" to be an engineer, a >programmer (and probably not even that, judging by what I see), a doctor, a I've noticed that many places are concerned more with things like creativity, adapability, drive, etc when hiring a CS grad. I've found that having a resume that shows these kind of traits well overcame the lack of a degree (I'm working on that). There was a thread about this in comp.lang.cobol awhile back. >lawyer (on second thought, don't ever suggest they become lawyers), and so >on. The old way was that your HS provided what the mythical average person needed to go about life. College was for the more "complex" careers. >And make it easier to hire people, instead of harder. (And if one hires a >maid, and the maid steals, cut off her hand. We've lost sight of justice, >and people think that ripping off the rich is their kind of justice. This >needs to change.) You don't even need to be that harsh. Chain-gang work to pay off stolen property would be more effective, if for no reason other than that you'd get your money (or property) back. >Psychologists and similar psychobabblers call it "tough love." If one >always "enables" an addict, a layabout, a shiftless worker, with excuses >and handouts, the behavior does not change. To save a person, sometimes >harshness is needed. >This is why crypto anarchy's starving of the tax system is good. It may >"kill" some number of people, as nearly any new idea does, but ultimately >it will put things back on track. And you have to look at it from another point of view: If it would ameliorate the problems in the future for the majority of the population, it'd be worth a bit of discomfort now. # Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp # <cadams(a)acucobol.com> | send mail with subject "send PGPKEY" "That's our advantage at Microsoft; we set the standards and we can change them." --- Karen Hargrove, Microsoft (quoted in the Feb 1993 Unix Review editorial)

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Re: Public Schools
by Adamsc＠io-online.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Fri, 27 Sep 1996 22:36:57 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote: >> a very unusual situation --but I live in rural southern utah >> where the regional middle school of 1200 can support 4 bands, the >> top 2 being very impressive, and provide full AP classes, and ACT >Wow! Utah is teaching AP? Is Jim Bell being brought in as a Special Lecturer? >(I knew Idaho has special Militia classes, but to hear that Utah is now >teaching Assassination Politics is pretty impressive.) Now, ignoring the humorous parts, wouldn't that be a scary thought? Pro-AP high school students? I could just imagine the death toll rising as the "popular" students are knocked off by jealous rivals, as the dumped [boy/girl]friend gets even, etc. It'd be hard for any non-homeschooled student to live to 18. # Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp # <cadams(a)acucobol.com> | send mail with subject "send PGPKEY" "That's our advantage at Microsoft; we set the standards and we can change them." --- Karen Hargrove, Microsoft (quoted in the Feb 1993 Unix Review editorial)

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Re: Public Schools
by Adamsc＠io-online.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Fri, 27 Sep 1996 22:36:57 -0800, Timothy C. May wrote: >> a very unusual situation --but I live in rural southern utah >> where the regional middle school of 1200 can support 4 bands, the >> top 2 being very impressive, and provide full AP classes, and ACT >Wow! Utah is teaching AP? Is Jim Bell being brought in as a Special Lecturer? >(I knew Idaho has special Militia classes, but to hear that Utah is now >teaching Assassination Politics is pretty impressive.) Now, ignoring the humorous parts, wouldn't that be a scary thought? Pro-AP high school students? I could just imagine the death toll rising as the "popular" students are knocked off by jealous rivals, as the dumped [boy/girl]friend gets even, etc. It'd be hard for any non-homeschooled student to live to 18. # Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp # <cadams(a)acucobol.com> | send mail with subject "send PGPKEY" "That's our advantage at Microsoft; we set the standards and we can change them." --- Karen Hargrove, Microsoft (quoted in the Feb 1993 Unix Review editorial)

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Re: Making Remailers Widespread
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 01:06 PM 9/28/96 -0400, "Mark M." <markm(a)voicenet.com> wrote: >Since maintaining a block list is probably one of the most time-consuming tasks >involved with operating a remailer, it would be a Good Thing to add an option >to the remailer cgi program to operate as a "middleman" remailer. This would >only require the remailer operator to add or remove entries from a list of >allowed destinations. The operator wouldn't have to deal with disclaimers and >would only receive complaints from other operators if the remailer is >malfunctioning in some way. That's another good approach, though a second-string objective compared to having full-scale terminal remailers running everywhere. But it's clearly a strong fallback position, and might be easier to get people to adopt and not turn off. It does depend on the availability of a list of working remailers with the correct feature sets, plus adequate distribution of either PGP keys or some S/MIME-related equivalent. One way to do that is to parse Raph's list appropriately (and check signatures on that); another is to have some centralized (sigh) DNS server do a round-robin distribution so that random.remailer.net picks a random known-good remailer to deliver through, perhaps also delivering a PGP key. I'd far prefer a distributed solution, but this does let people volunteer to take heat for a little while and dispose of their remailers if they have to. In particular, it may be useful for winsock remailers that are willing to connect up and be a delivery remailer when they're connected and disconnect when they're unavailable. # 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: Public Schools
by Adamsc＠io-online.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Sat, 28 Sep 1996 20:53:51 -0500 (CDT), snow wrote: >> = . There is a solution. Trade Schools, >> The problem was simple: we have only the now retiring >> toolmakers who make it all possible. engineering graduates will >> not observe the manufacturing floors since it is above their >> dignity to roll of their sleeves. > I knew too many engineering students to believe this. I knew one >(Civil Engineering) who had been a Paramedic, he wanted grease and >dirt on his hands, it may be harder to wash off, but much easier to >sleep off. Nice point, BTW! I think he was engaging in a bit of hyperbole but he still had a point. How many people (in any profession) have had to use what they produce? How many hardware engineers types have had to actually hook up a mission critical network with the router they designed? More likely, how many of you on the list work for someone who has done the same work you're doing? How many of the programmers have to use their own programs on a daily basis? Now, compare with the rest of the world (particularly on that last one). > Prove? I don't know, but it is some pretty solid evidense. Communism >at it's finest. A community of people who work together and take care of >each other voluntarily for the common good. <hee hee> Communism should sound familar to any Jew or Christian. The idea of caring for others in the community is a key part - it's hard to say that you have love for your neighbor if you can't give him a meal while he's out of work (assuming of course you have food yourself - although many in the great depression did anyway). It's when this kind of activity is state-mandated that you have this problem. # Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> | http://www.io-online.com/adamsc/adamsc.htp # <cadams(a)acucobol.com> | send mail with subject "send PGPKEY" "That's our advantage at Microsoft; we set the standards and we can change them." --- Karen Hargrove, Microsoft (quoted in the Feb 1993 Unix Review editorial)

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