December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: OCR and Machine Readable Text
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 08:06 PM 1/2/97 -0800, Bill Stewart wrote: >It's really embarassing to have to pay salaries of "public employees" >who can't come up with better arguments than the paper/magnetic/OCR nonsense >but don't have the guts to stop trying and admit they've wrong. >Does the President still make $200K/year salary? You'd think he'd either >read what he signs or tell his employees to only ask him to sign >at least half-way credible stuff. The old regulations used to pretend that >foreigners were too dumb to implement computer programs from algorithms; >now they're pretending that foreigners are too dumb to type.* >People used to say we have the best politicians money can buy, >but you ought to be able to buy better politicians than that. Or beter excuses. >At 10:31 AM 12/30/96 -0800, Tim May wrote: >>And not only is OCR able these days to handle general fonts easily enough, >>but almost all printed code is in fixed-width fonts, i.e., non-proportional >>fonts. This makes OCR easy. > >The basic difference between "easily OCRed source code" and "not easily >OCRed source code" is pretty much limited to two things >1) Half-decent print quality (black on white in Courier at 300dpi should do....) > As Tim says, this stuff is child's play. Back when OCRs were > $10,000 machines with cutting-edge 68010 processors, > reading Courier was pretty easy but it helped to put in checksums; > these days you don't really need that. (It also didn't like > wet-process 240-dpi laser printing or faxes, but modern OCR software > can generally deal with good-quality faxes and >2) Bound pages vs. loose pages (printing with perforated pages > or selling the source code in loose-leaf might count as an > "attractive nuisance" :-), but a band-saw can solve that problem > for the OCR user unless it's printed on Tyvek or something silly :-) Even an exacto-knife would work. For proportional fonts it depends on how nasty the kerning gets and the shape of the characters. (And a san serif font without too many kerning pairs should go though fine.) The technology for this has progressed quite a bit in the last few years. Next thing you know, OCR software will be export controlled as well. (Or they will require something silly, like having all code samples in caligraphy fonts.) >In the Karn case, the Feds made the silly argument that the >floppy disk version had the files neatly separated, while the >paper version split files between pages and had page numbers at the >bottoms of the pages that weren't part of the source code. >Even the $10K 68010 wonderbox could handle page headers/footers and margins, >and modern software can do decent translations into different >word processor formats. And even if it didn't, just selecting and deleting the margin areas would not be all that difficult. (Ooohhh... A couple of extra hours is really going to slow someone down.) >>For just the amount of money we've spent (in our consulting fees) on >>discussing just this issue of OCRing, the entire content of the MIT PGP >>source code book AND Schneier's AC could have been manually inputted by >>Barbadans or Botswanas, or probably even by Europeans. I used to work for a company that would transfer entire archives of medical journals. Much of it we would just OCR. Some of it we would send off shore. The OCR software was about 95% reliable and this was over 5 years ago. (And we were using 286 boxes for much of the OCR work. Not a heavy technoligical investment.) I am sure that things have improved a great deal since then. (My new scanner included OCR software. I will have to run a test and report the findings. >There's one German university that OCRed the MIT PGP source code book. >The PGP folks passed out copies of their new 3.0 Pre-Alpha and an update >at a recent Cypherpunks meeting. See >http://www.pgp.com/newsroom/sourcebook.cgi >for ordering informaiton. It's been donated to some local libraries, >such as San Jose CA, and I hope they'll send it to the Library of Congress >and various non-US university and other public libraries - the recent >rules change clarifying that it's ok to export source code should make >this much easier. The page listed does not contain order information. Do you know costs and/or order info? >[* OK, it's not really possible to type or proofread perl code accurately :-) Yeah, just look at what happened with John Orwant's _Perl 5 interactive Course_. The book is being recalled due to all the typographical errors from the pubisher. Reading some Perl code is also quite impossible. (For the reasons behind this, i recommend Charlie Stross's article on the tpoic on page 36 of _The Perl Journal_ #4.) >More to the point, OCRs aren't always real good about `backquotes' and other >little blotchy marks that some languages use, and even humans don't always >get them right.] Many character sets are not very good at displaying "little used" characters clearly. (Some of the cheaper fonts do not even include them.) Backticks are a special problem. The latest Camel book has all sorts of problems with hard to recognise backticks. BTW, there is an article on Perl and randomness in The Perl Journal #4 by John Orwant. Pretty basic for most Cypherpunks, but good reading none the less... --- | If you're not part of the solution, You're part of the precipitate. | |"The moral PGP Diffie taught Zimmermann unites all| Disclaimer: | | mankind free in one-key-steganography-privacy!" | Ignore the man | |`finger -l alano(a)teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com/~alan/ |alan(a)ctrl-alt-del.com|

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[IMPORTANT] One-time pads
by nobody＠zifi.genetics.utah.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Timmy Maya styles his facial hair to look more like pubic hair. _ >@) Timmy Maya (V(_ ^^\<

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Re: Crypto reg clarification from Commerce Department
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://jya.com/bxa123096.txt has the Federal Register text of the interim export administration rules. I haven't waded through all the comparisons of which interim amends what paragraph of what subplot of the revised prohibitions, etc., but there's one paragraph that may be relevant to the SWAN project. "This interim rule also amends part 744 to add a general prohibition in Sec. 744.9 with respect to technical assistance in the development or manufacture abroad of encryption commodities and software controlled for EI reasons and makes conforming changes throughout the EAR." Lucky Green has been talking with Commerce to try to get clarification of some of the requirements on a related issue; they say not to worry about some of the paragraphs because they only apply to missiles, nukes, and similar Real Munitions, but the paragraph above sounds like it's still talking about crypto. I'm not sure if "technical assistance" is clearly defined, and I'm not sure if hiring some foreigner to build something for _you_ counts as providing technical assistance to _them_, but it makes it more difficult to do the right thing while debugging non-US systems. Excerpts from Lucky's post: >From: Lucky Green <shamrock(a)netcom.com> >Subject: Crypto reg clarification from Commerce Department >Date: Mon, 30 Dec 1996 15:14:56 -0800 >To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com >.... >I just got of the phone with Bruce Kutz, Export Policy Analyst, Office of >Strategic Trade and Foreign Policy Controls. (202) 482-0092. He seems to be >the contact person for the new regs. > >I pointed Mr. Kutz to the section that alarmed me: >Sec. 736.2 General prohibitions and determination of applicability. [stuff you can't do about financing, supporting, proliferation etc.] >Mr. Kutz seemed surprised. Apparently he had not been aware that this >section was included in the new crypto regs. He then assured me that >1. Proliferation in the context of this paragraph applies only to >proliferation of >a) nuclear (bomb) technology b) missile technology ... >2. The Department of Commerce has no intention of banning the financing and >contracting of non-US crypto development. >3. Technical assistance to non-US parties requires a license. # 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/pub/crypto/pgp # (If this is a mailing list, please Cc: me on replies. Thanks.)

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How to Reach The Most People
by staff＠optimalmethods.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Targeted E-Mail Lists Will Get Your Message Out You probably have a special offer to make to many people over the internet. At ATS Publishers, Inc., we maintain a database of over 450 groups of e-mail addresses sorted according to the groups' demographic, psychographic, geographic, benefits-sought, and individual description. If you have a book, product, announcement, or service to advertise in a specific area, your greatest response rates will come from targeting these niche lists. You must have these addresses, as you will save money while no longer mailing your sales message to unqualified prospects. We absolutely guarantee your success with these lists. Here is a small sample: Opportunity Seekers, General Business, Sports (all), Entrepreneurship, Fitness & Exercise, Accountants, Health, Lawyers & Legal, Nutrition, Single Moms, Fashion, Outdoors, Dresswear, Computers, Math & Sciences (all), Finance, Investing, Fishing, Hunting, Hunting Dogs, Financial Markets, Race Boats, Wealth, Taxes, Languages, Millionaires, Divorced Parents, Gay & Lesbian, Kids, Teenagers, Adults, Seniors, Racial-Ethnic-Cultural (all), Criminal, Pornography, Shopaholics, Alcoholics, Virgins, Politics, Overweight, Paranormal, Psychology, Literature, Technical, Painters & Artists, Doctors & Medicine, Religion & Atheism, Government, Taxation, Food and Beverages, Wines & Spirits, Restaurants, Working Women, Geographical U.S., Sex, Physically Challenged Persons, Drugs, Hippies, Music and Musicians, Firearms, Militias, Students, AIDS, Disorders, Child & Baby Care, Feminists, Body Painting & Piercing, Massage, Activists, Homeowners, Real Estate, Automotive, Health Care, Insurance, Educa! tion, Infertility, Architects, Dating, Love, Telecommunications, Hardware & Tools, Homes & Gardening, S&M, Housekeeping, Spirits & Wines, Home Business, Star Trekkies, Athletes, Authors, Store Owners, Job Hunters, Photography, Plants, and another 350 groups targeted even further... If you do not see your group in these listings, don't worry! Even if they are not in our database, we will create one for you within 24 hours. Here's how to order: Write us a brief description of the groups you want to target. We will then ship you, via e-mail, a listing of the 1,000 - 5,000 most targeted prospects for your product. These are people who have PROVEN beyond any doubt that they are interested in the service you are offering. Each e-mail listing of 1000 names costs only $12.95. And although $12.95 is our minimum order, you may buy in odd lots also, say, 1,500. Each additional name after 1,000 costs only 1/2 of a cent; in this 1,500 name case, you would pay only $15.45! For 2,000 names,you would pay $12.95 plus an extra $5 (1,000 X .5 cents) for a total of $17.95. All orders are shipped via e-mail the same day, if paid by credit card (Amex/Visa/Mastercard/Diners). Or, mail your check or M.O., in the amount of $12.95 plus any additional charges, along with your groups' description, to: ATS Publishers, Inc. 3811 Ditmars Blvd. Astoria, NY 11105 Tel: (718) 274-9060 If the line is busy, keep trying! We're trying to keep up with the enormous demand, since Thursday the 26th, our first mailing. Thank you so much for your time.

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Security & Hackerscene site
by Markus H|bner 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

During the last days the site "Security & Hackerscene" has been expanded. New sections specialized on intrusion detection, IP-spoofing, ... will help you to protect your site from break-ins and will give you an insight into the latest methods and tricks used by hackers to break into obvious secure computers. Furthermore many CERT advisories and other security related text files were redesigned and are now available in HTML format. You will also find links to the best information resources (files, e-zines, texts) on the net regarding Internet-Security. URL of the "Security & Hackerscene" site: -------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.geocities.com/capecanaveral/3498/security.htm -------------------------------------------------------------- Some of the items you will find: + IP-spoofing demystified + Intrusion Detection Checklist + CGI Security Holes + How hackers cover their tracks + Compromise FAQ + Protecting Yourself from Password File Attacks + The Ultimate Sendmail Hole List + An Architectural Overview of UNIX Network Security + Essential Security Information + UNIX Backdoors + UNIX System Security Issues + Tips for Improving Your Security + as well as files commonly found in the underground scene. I would be glad to receive your feedback. Markus H|bner ====================================================================== E-Mail: matic(a)bau2.uibk.ac.at WWW: http://bau2.uibk.ac.at/matic Working as a freelance WEB-programmer and security-consultant.

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How to Reach The Most People
by iwlkos＠ix.netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Targeted E-Mail Lists Will Get Your Message Out You probably have a special offer to make to many people over the internet. At ATS Publishers, Inc., we maintain a database of over 450 groups of e-mail addresses sorted according to the groups' demographic, psychographic, geographic, benefits-sought, and individual description. If you have a book, product, announcement, or service to advertise in a specific area, your greatest response rates will come from targeting these niche lists. You must have these addresses, as you will save money while no longer mailing your sales message to unqualified prospects. We absolutely guarantee your success with these lists. Here is a small sample: Opportunity Seekers, General Business, Sports (all), Entrepreneurship, Fitness & Exercise, Accountants, Health, Lawyers & Legal, Nutrition, Single Moms, Fashion, Outdoors, Dresswear, Computers, Math & Sciences (all), Finance, Investing, Fishing, Hunting, Hunting Dogs, Financial Markets, Race Boats, Wealth, Taxes, Languages, Millionaires, Divorced Parents, Gay & Lesbian, Kids, Teenagers, Adults, Seniors, Racial-Ethnic-Cultural (all), Criminal, Pornography, Shopaholics, Alcoholics, Virgins, Politics, Overweight, Paranormal, Psychology, Literature, Technical, Painters & Artists, Doctors & Medicine, Religion & Atheism, Government, Taxation, Food and Beverages, Wines & Spirits, Restaurants, Working Women, Geographical U.S., Sex, Physically Challenged Persons, Drugs, Hippies, Music and Musicians, Firearms, Militias, Students, AIDS, Disorders, Child & Baby Care, Feminists, Body Painting & Piercing, Massage, Activists, Homeowners, Real Estate, Automotive, Health Care, Insurance, Educa! tion, Infertility, Architects, Dating, Love, Telecommunications, Hardware & Tools, Homes & Gardening, S&M, Housekeeping, Spirits & Wines, Home Business, Star Trekkies, Athletes, Authors, Store Owners, Job Hunters, Photography, Plants, and another 350 groups targeted even further... If you do not see your group in these listings, don't worry! Even if they are not in our database, we will create one for you within 24 hours. Here's how to order: Write us a brief description of the groups you want to target. We will then ship you, via e-mail, a listing of the 1,000 - 5,000 most targeted prospects for your product. These are people who have PROVEN beyond any doubt that they are interested in the service you are offering. Each e-mail listing of 1000 names costs only $12.95. And although $12.95 is our minimum order, you may buy in odd lots also, say, 1,500. Each additional name after 1,000 costs only 1/2 of a cent; in this 1,500 name case, you would pay only $15.45! For 2,000 names,you would pay $12.95 plus an extra $5 (1,000 X .5 cents) for a total of $17.95. All orders are shipped via e-mail the same day, if paid by credit card (Amex/Visa/Mastercard/Diners). Or, mail your check or M.O., in the amount of $12.95 plus any additional charges, along with your groups' description, to: ATS Publishers, Inc. 3811 Ditmars Blvd. Astoria, NY 11105 Tel: (718) 274-9060 If the line is busy, keep trying! We're trying to keep up with the enormous demand, since Thursday the 26th, our first mailing. Thank you so much for your time.

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yawn
by ·Acid.Rain· 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Someone please tell be what i must do to be banned from this list. I will refrain from describing the obvious idiocracy here. ----==······· ·Acid.Rain· ·······==--- http://www.scott.net/~acidrain/

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Re: Crypto reg clarification from Commerce Department
by Richard L. Field 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

To follow up on Lucky Green's conversation with Bruce Kutz on Sec. 736.2: The General Prohibitions (1 - 10) in the EAR preexisted these new crypto regs. What was changed in General Prohibition Seven (which previously applied only to nuke and missile technologies) was the addition of a subpart (ii): "You may not, without a license from BXA, provide certain technical assistance to foreign persons with respect to encryption items, as described in Sec 744.9 of the EAR." Sec. 744.9 is a new addition. It says: "(a) General prohibition. No U.S. person may, without a license from BXA, provide technical assistance (including training) to foreign persons with the intent to aid a foreign person in the development or manufacture outside the United States of encryption commodities and software that, if of United States origin, would be controlled for "EI" reasons under ECCN 5A002 or 5D002. [...] Note in addition that the mere teaching or discussion of information about cryptography, including, for example, in an academic setting, by itself would not establish the intent described in this section, even where foreign persons are present." [...] When it comes to financing and contracting, it's General Prohibition Ten you ought to be looking at. That hasn't changed under the new rules and it doesn't just apply to nukes and missiles. It says: "Sec. 736.2(b)(10) General Prohibition Ten -- Proceeding with transactions with knowledge that a violation has occurred or is about to occur (Knowledge Violation to Occur). You may not sell, transfer, export, reexport, finance, order, buy, remove, conceal, store, use, loan, dispose of, transfer, transport, forward, or otherwise service, in whole or in part, any item subject to the EAR and exported or to be exported with knowledge that a violation of the Export Administration Regulations, the Export Administration Act or any order, license, License Exception, or other authorization issued thereunder has occurred, is about to occur, or is intended to occur in connection with the item. Nor may you rely upon any license or License Exception after notice to you of the suspension or revocation of that license or exception. There are no License Exceptions to this General Prohibition Ten in part 740 of the EAR." Furthermore, in the Violations section (Sec. 764.2) it says: "(b) Causing, aiding, or abetting a violation. No person may cause or aid, abet, counsel, command, induce, procure, or permit the doing of any act prohibited, or the omission of any act required, by the EAA, the EAR, or any order, license or authorization issued thereunder." "(e) Acting with knowledge of a violation. No person may order, buy, remove, conceal, store, use, sell, loan, dispose of, transfer, finance, forward, or otherwise service, in whole or in part, any item exported or to be exported from the United States, or that is otherwise subject to the EAR, with knowledge that a violation of the EAA, the EAR, or any order, license or authorization issued thereunder, has occurred, is about to occur, or is intended to occur in connection with the item." In the past, some banks worried about this when financing letters of credit. I'm told they were assured back then that this sort of financing was not going to be prosecuted....but it's still in the regs so I wouldn't bet the ranch on it never happening. - Richard Field

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E-commerce Spying
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

MSNBC today features E-commerce: http://www.msnbc.com/news/46897.asp With sidebars on how E-payment systems require money-tracking spies. In the cause of consumer security, at the cost of privacy. Kalliste reported yesterday on the White House's spying on global bank transactions: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ In the cause of national security, at the cost of privacy. Defense into commerce, GAK privatized.

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Modified Token Posting Scheme
by ph＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The proposal to limit "noise" posts by using re-usable tokens is interesting because it has the effect of filtering and at the same time remains responsive because the "moderator" passes judgement after posting has occurred. In essence, the poster is betting that the moderator will approve the post retroactively. The purpose of limiting the tokens available is to give them value so that there is a cost associated with losing the bet. However, distribution of the tokens has the same problems that centrally planned economies have distributing bread. Should people wait in line, receive bread at random, or get their bread through connections? None of these solutions is attractive. The right way to implement the scheme is to use dollars for tokens because the USG has already solved the problem of giving the tokens value. The "moderator" returns the money to people when posts are worthwhile and keeps it otherwise. This means that the "bet" can be quite a bit larger than a dollar because responsible posters will get their money back. Starving graduate students will not be discouraged from posting. Abusive posters, anonymous posters, or spam artists will have to pay a substantial fee for the privilege. Of course, there's no reason to have just one moderator on the list. A moderator could just be an e-mail account that forwards mail to the list if valid payment is received. (Moderators should PGP sign their messages so mail forging won't work.) Readers could filter on which moderators have approved the kinds of posts they want to read. The effect of this scheme is to allow newcomers, infrequent posters, or anonymous posters to get through killfiles without taking the time and effort to develop a reputation. Peter Hendrickson ph(a)netcom.com

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