December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: The Purpose of the List
by Dale Thorn 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Blanc Weber wrote: > If the cpunk list discusses only crypto, then mathematician-programmers > will do their cold work in an isolation which eliminates the need to > think about the consequences of their actions. > So discussions on philosophy, society, etc., are important, to remind > everyone of the context within which this subject operates. > However, if "community feeling" is the only thing created on the list, > and crypto is no longer the focal topic, then what is to be > accomplished: the list will become just a playing ground for wayward > KOTM PhDs who are not welcome in most other cyberspaces. > So the question of "how will this impact society", must maintain > association with "but how does this relate to crypto?". (unless the > list has changed its stripes, evolving into something completely > different, which many will agree it has). It can be said 100,000 times, but it still comes out the same: Just as in "The only cure for bad speech is more speech", "the only cure for 'list-focus-drift' is more on-focus postings".

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Re: Dr. Vulis' social engineering experiment
by Dale Thorn 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Alec wrote: > :Jane Jefferson wrote: > :> The heart and soul of the problem is that "sin", "freedom", "good", > :> and "evil" are abstract concepts which fluctuate from individual to > :> individual. > Not only from individual to individual. > Please consider the changes in the concepts of "sin", "freedom", "good", > and "evil" which occur over time even within the same individual; to > wit the on and off again love affair with our nation's past "enemies; > individual responses to drug use especially alcohol; premarital sex > (ok for me but not my daughter). > This constant flux within both society and individual makes creation > and implementation of rules extremely difficult and hazardous. The idea that "sin" and "evil" are abstract and somewhat arbitrary is merely a human (and therefore faulty) perception. If God can be perfect by definition (for sake of argument), then "sin" is taking one's attention from God's intent and turning to man's intent, which is inherently selfish. "Evil" is the selfish thing you do, when you should do the unselfish thing. These are not that difficult to understand, but are easily twisted by selfish minds. A gentleman wrote to Southern Partisan magazine a few years ago and said "Real freedom is not the license to do whatever you want, but rather the liberty to do what you ought to do".

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Nikola Tesla
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 22:39:48 -0500 > From: John Young <jya(a)pipeline.com> > Subject: Seismic Crypto > > In a NYT report today on a "mysterious" blast in the > Australian outback in 1993, there's mention of "seismic > weapons" and research on them by Nicholas Tesla > in the 1930s. First, it's Nikola Tesla. At least do the man the honor of getting his name correct (he is a personal hero of mine), I mean he ONLY invented the AC power system we use today, the first commercial power generation plant at Niagra Falls in the world, the first torpedo which he sold to the Russians because the USN was too stupid to buy it, radio, remote control via radio, wireless power transmission, etc... Second, there is a LOT of hogwash attributed to Nikola which he in actuality never worked on (ie death rays, flying saucers to the interior of the Earth, etc.). If you would like to learn more about him then check out "The Writings and Inventions of Nikola Tesla", it was proofed by him prior to its publication. You will also find in most bookstores a copy of all his American patents in "The Collected Patents of Nikola Tesla". I apologize for not providing ISBN's but my copies are 30 miles away in my shop being used to build Tesla Coils. I would strongly suggest avoiding the Tesla Society as it is, in my opinion, populated by a bunch of UFO and conspiracy crazies (though a small percentage of their articles are useable). His work on 'artificial earthquakes' dealt with his studies on mechanical coupling between tuned oscillators. He was finaly 'asked' to leave because he would get 4-5 square block areas of New York rocking, much to the chagrin of the residents, by coupling pile-driver like oscillators to the building he lived in. Jim Choate CyberTects ravage(a)ssz.com

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FBI Gets 500 Mil to Tap Your Communications
by Ross Wright 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

||| FBI moderates its communications-surveillance request ||| TBTF for 5/4/95 [6] In 1995 the FBI asked for and was granted $500 million to augment the government's ability to tap communications (of this total $100M has been released to the FBI so far). Privacy advocates expressed outrage at the FBI's stated capacity goal: to be able to listen in on 1% of installed telephone lines at any time. This translates to about 1.6 million taps simultaneous of all kinds: pen registers, trap-and-trace, and wiretaps. The FBI withdrew its initial proposal under fire and on 1/14 submitted a revised proposal -- press release at [7], analysis at [8]. Unlike the earlier draft, this essay lays out its assumptions and straightforwardly projects needed capacity growth. The result is a capacity figure of fewer than 60,000 intercepts, less that 4% of the original request. This level of capability would allow the FBI simultaneously to monitor more than 500 phone lines in an area with the population of Manhatta still an enormous increase on historical numbers of intercepts. [6] <http://www.tbtf.com/archive/05-04-95.html> [7] <http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/tele/telephon.htm> [8] <http://www.cdt.org/publications/pp_3.01.html> Fuck the FBI. Ross =-=-=-=-=-=- Ross Wright King Media: Bulk Sales of Software Media and Duplication Services http://www.slip.net/~cdr/kingmedia Voice: 415-206-9906

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Fighting the cybercensor. (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Tue, 21 Jan 1997 13:50:15 -0500 > From: "Phillip M. Hallam-Baker" <hallam(a)ai.mit.edu> > Subject: Fighting the cybercensor. > > Singapore and China are blocking certain net groups. I think > this is a bad thing, question is how can we stop it? 'We' shouldn't, it is their own country and it is up to their populace to stop it. Do you really want Singapore or China having a say in how we run our web? I certainly don't, and won't support any move to force any particular view on them. If Billy-Bob wants to shoot himself in the foot, let him. Might be purty funny to watch. > The Web was conceived as offering despots and dictators a choice > between remaining in the dark ages and allowing freedom of > speech. Blocking and filtering schemes threaten this ideal. Bull, the web was conceived so physicist and other researchers could share data in a easily digestible format. The web and technology in general have no more ethics or morality intrinsicly in them than a 5/8" open end wrench. Blocking and filtering are an expression of human choice and the implimentation thereof. You don't like it, don't live there and don't try to call there. You or I have no more right to be on a Chinese or Singapore Internet than they have in coming into yours or my home without an invitation. Jim Choate CyberTects ravage(a)ssz.com

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Re: Encrypting ZIP drives?
by David E. Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:35 PM 1/21/97 -0800, you wrote: >I am looking for a transparent (strong) encryption of ZIP drives. >Any advice would be appreciated. IBM or Mac? Methinks (and I haven't tried it, but I think I will soon) that at least on the IBM side, the usual realm of existing software (SecureDrive/SecureDevice are the first things that come to mind) ought to work. After the Iomega ZIP drivers are in place, the Zip drive is 'just another drive' as far as most applications can see. dave

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Re: Dr. Vulis' social engineering "experiment"
by Bill Campbell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sean Roach <roach_s(a)alph.swosu.edu> wrote: > At 02:22 AM 1/21/97 -0800, Toto wrote: > >Bill Campbell wrote: > > > >> I feel we at a *critical* crossroads in this debate, and one of the > >> more important voices has *very* effectively been silenced. > > > > Dr. Vulis? There was an 'attempt' to silence him, but it hasn't > >worked, to date. > > > I believe he is referring to silencing the list, not Vulis. As long as the > members of this list are argueing over semantics, the government has one > less challenger in the fight over our rights. > Remember, one of the oldest tactics of war is to turn the enemy against itself. I thought my meaning was obvious, but thanks for pointing it out to those who didn't get it. When I first began reading this list, I realized that a lot of important information was being put out; and it certainly raised my awareness of issues that I had not previously thought about. I believe that many other subscribers to the list also were exposed to many of these concepts, and that many subscribers to the list were people who could make a difference. I fear that many have now left the list, since it now seems to resemble, in many ways, a list consisting of high school age "wannabes" who think it's really cool to attack people just because they can. The downward spiral into inconsequential meaningless postings began with posts containing the word "fart". So cool, dudes. =Bill=

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ADSL (Was: GSM technology
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 09:43 AM 1/20/97 -0500, Nurdane Oksas wrote: > Does anyone use ADSL lines? or are they still very expensive? They're not widely available yet; I don't know if any of the (US) phone companies offer it as more than trials. One limitation is that the technology works over copper wire, so it has to be offered at your local telco wire center. Of course, your local telco has to have something useful to do with the bits once the user sends them to the telco, and has to have some useful bits to send the user. This means they've got to haggle about standards for 5 more years (or just do the right thing and deploy IP, with some respectable bandwidth to the outside world) (or deploy ATM to get a layer 2 connection to something outside.) Don't know if the telcos have a clue about pricing, either. It's obviously got to be more than cost, but they'll probably thrash around a lot the way they did with IP.... # 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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Re: Wow.
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:58 AM 1/19/97 -0500, Amanda Walker wrote: >I'm off to look for a mailing list where people are ACTUALLY DISCUSSING >CRYPTOGRAPHY AND IMPLEMENTING CRYPTOSYSTEMS. This list may still be >called "cypherpunks", but it doesn't have much cypherpunk left in it, as >far as I can tell. To some extent it's bad timing - there's been enough flaming on the list (including a few bad apples really harassing it) that John Gilmore decided it was time to start moderating the list, and that's led to a bunch of flames about moderation. But it was getting pretty bad. About a year ago the coderpunks(a)toad.com list got started; it's just for discussing code and related issues, not politics. It's moderated by the "Please be nice, and we'll kick you off for abuse" method, and it's worked out fine, though it's usually quiet. Also, a month or two ago, Perry Metzger started cryptography(a)c2.net , which is a bit more general but not for flaming. Perry moderates it. Both use -request to find the listbot. # 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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Re: mailing list
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 02:54 AM 1/18/97 -0500, roamer.fau wrote: >Please place me on your mailing list. > Thank You, > Mark > > cypherpunks-request(a)toad.com "help" # 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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