December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

PGP 2.1
by Larry Johnson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hello, Can any;one tell me how to get a version of PGP 2.1? Thanks

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RE: Cyphernomicon by Tim May
by blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Toto I am not speaking of the sheep-mentality in regard to moderation or any other single issue on the list. I am speaking of the tendency of many list-members to fall into common ruts of thought wherein the comments and opinions of others are auto-files as this-or-that, and interpreted in that light, no matter what the actual content of their messages. ................................................ Hm, well, what's an anarchist to do about other people's psychological makeup? = I regard Igor and yourself, and a number of others, in the same light. I'm reluctant to bend over and drop my pants, waiting for you to kiss my butt, because I realize that I am just as likely to feel the sting of your toe-nailed boots instead of soft lips. .......................................... Hm, well, I'm not in the custom of doing either of those things, but thanks for the compliment! = But, under the New List Order, any strong opinion risks being thrown in the crapper as a 'flame'. ............................................... Not that I'm condoning centralized management, but I bet I could flame anyone pretty good yet by-pass the moderator. It's all in the style, you know. Some people are very delicate about what offends them - I know I could get on some particular people's nerves any day without trying. An opportunist can take advantage of another's infirmity by being perfectly polite while yet excruciatingly annoying. = Yes, but there are always members to whom these treatises and orientation of thought are 'new', and people only notice the repetiveness when they are, indeed, following these posts, which means that they must be getting some value out of them. ............................................ Oh, I wasn't condemning Tim's posts as being repetitive and boring - it's commendable that he would write about the same ideas in fresh new ways, for the benefit of the newbies and the entertainment of the oldies. But not everyone is as interested & willing (or have the time) to re-iterate this way, and with only one or a few "holding up the ship", so to speak, it leaves a lot of room for wayless bickering degenerating into unproductive ad hominems - ad absurdum, ad nauseam. You, know, Toto, I heard that there's a vacancy in the Cypherpunk Division of History & Philosophy .... .. Blanc

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IRS Can't Compete
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Note proof that government agencies are running up against serious problems competing with market actors even though they have the guns. - From today's NYT: February 1, 1997 Leaders of I.R.S. Panel Urge Sweeping Overhaul of Agency By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON The IRS had publicly defended its management of computer modernization until Thursday, when Arthur A. Gross, who was hired last year as an assistant commissioner of the agency to rescue the effort, told the restructuring commission that the new systems being developed "do not work in the real world." Gross also said the IRS lacked the "intellectual capital" to modernize. ["intellectual capital" = brains] Kerrey said that although the modernization project was bigger than any corporate computer system the government would have a hard time hiring the necessary talent to manage the project. "The market is bidding up the price for people who have these skills, and we just can't dole out big salaries," he said. Executives who oversee information systems make as much as $378,000 in salary and bonuses, according to William M. Mercer, the nation's largest pay consulting firm. That is more than twice the highest federal salary and bonus, and corporate information executives typically also get options and other incentive payments. ****************** Translation - since the Feds can't afford to pay CIOs what they're worth, and governments don't offer stock options, they can't get the talent they need to keep up with the market. We are talking about senior management here. If they try and respond by contracting senior management out, eventually the institution disappears as a government institution. DCF -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 4.5 iQCVAgUBMvSCgYVO4r4sgSPhAQHhYAP+N80RhT0efc2seO+P99WLVYMJ8/1Q1R7e CkLY8guJw2PnuQlaGG3lj14mYvTPMitZFsQ4pFnkSzzyF57QN4nXPbXajkNeWao+ Kcr2T3TJa5gZcGv309/I7FbZp2MfaugEjyNoielY12q9qsyuJyCv1l4Uh1L/tq9c wEKoLyMoh5U= =orfk -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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RE: Libel, Times v. Sullivan
by blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Attila T. Hun, member of the Early Bird Consortium of Stray Cats, quoting from the Pages of History: did not the Magna Carta guarantee the right of free speech? Of course, there was not full suffrage at that time, but the Magna Carta is the basis of our common law. [and...] which gets down to just what the hell did my forefathers, and maybe yours, fight for in 1776 if it was not for freedom of speech and assembly, the right to bear arms, to be free from unreasonable search and seizure; and enjoy the protection of law? ................................................ Yes, if the Magna Carta guaranteed a right and the forefathers fought to secure it, why should any of us ever have to lift a finger in our own defense. My contribution to this thread from the Cpunk History & Philosophy Division: a Jewish saying from a book I glanced through of couple of weeks ago, something like: "What good is it to a man who has lost his sight that his ancestors had perfect vision." .. Blanc

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IRS Can't Compete
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Note proof that government agencies are running up against serious problems competing with market actors even though they have the guns. - From today's NYT: February 1, 1997 Leaders of I.R.S. Panel Urge Sweeping Overhaul of Agency By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON The IRS had publicly defended its management of computer modernization until Thursday, when Arthur A. Gross, who was hired last year as an assistant commissioner of the agency to rescue the effort, told the restructuring commission that the new systems being developed "do not work in the real world." Gross also said the IRS lacked the "intellectual capital" to modernize. ["intellectual capital" = brains] Kerrey said that although the modernization project was bigger than any corporate computer system the government would have a hard time hiring the necessary talent to manage the project. "The market is bidding up the price for people who have these skills, and we just can't dole out big salaries," he said. Executives who oversee information systems make as much as $378,000 in salary and bonuses, according to William M. Mercer, the nation's largest pay consulting firm. That is more than twice the highest federal salary and bonus, and corporate information executives typically also get options and other incentive payments. ****************** Translation - since the Feds can't afford to pay CIOs what they're worth, and governments don't offer stock options, they can't get the talent they need to keep up with the market. We are talking about senior management here. If they try and respond by contracting senior management out, eventually the institution disappears as a government institution. DCF -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 4.5 iQCVAgUBMvSCgYVO4r4sgSPhAQHhYAP+N80RhT0efc2seO+P99WLVYMJ8/1Q1R7e CkLY8guJw2PnuQlaGG3lj14mYvTPMitZFsQ4pFnkSzzyF57QN4nXPbXajkNeWao+ Kcr2T3TJa5gZcGv309/I7FbZp2MfaugEjyNoielY12q9qsyuJyCv1l4Uh1L/tq9c wEKoLyMoh5U= =orfk -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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RE: Libel, Times v. Sullivan
by blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Attila T. Hun, member of the Early Bird Consortium of Stray Cats, quoting from the Pages of History: did not the Magna Carta guarantee the right of free speech? Of course, there was not full suffrage at that time, but the Magna Carta is the basis of our common law. [and...] which gets down to just what the hell did my forefathers, and maybe yours, fight for in 1776 if it was not for freedom of speech and assembly, the right to bear arms, to be free from unreasonable search and seizure; and enjoy the protection of law? ................................................ Yes, if the Magna Carta guaranteed a right and the forefathers fought to secure it, why should any of us ever have to lift a finger in our own defense. My contribution to this thread from the Cpunk History & Philosophy Division: a Jewish saying from a book I glanced through of couple of weeks ago, something like: "What good is it to a man who has lost his sight that his ancestors had perfect vision." .. Blanc

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Re: Cyphernomicon by Tim May
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

blanc wrote: > From: Toto > Hm, well, what's an anarchist to do about other people's psychological > makeup? Hold up a mirror. > Not that I'm condoning centralized management, but I bet I could flame > anyone pretty good yet by-pass the moderator. It's all in the style, you > know. Some people are very delicate about what offends them - I know I > could get on some particular people's nerves any day without trying. An > opportunist can take advantage of another's infirmity by being perfectly > polite while yet excruciatingly annoying. What constitutes a 'flame' seems to depend heavily on whose mouth it comes out of. Jim Choate called me a schizophrenic, and it seemed to be acceptable enough to make the censored list. He tends to call people "Bessie", basically saying they are a Cow, and that also seems acceptable. Personally, I could care less when people want to play footsie-games with flaming, but I think it points out the ludicrousness of having a moderator limiting people to 'childish' insults. I prefer someone screaming at me what a cocksucker I am. Ray Hettinga forwards these long, literate missives advertising this-or-that million dollar a plate conferences, but when he chose to insult me with his own words, the result was an immature blathering which showed questionable literary skills. > Oh, I wasn't condemning Tim's posts as being repetitive and boring - it's > commendable that he would write about the same ideas in fresh new ways, for > the benefit of the newbies and the entertainment of the oldies. > But not everyone is as interested & willing (or have the time) to > re-iterate this way, and with only one or a few "holding up the ship", so > to speak, it leaves a lot of room for wayless bickering degenerating into > unproductive ad hominems - ad absurdum, ad nauseam. There are some good socio/politico posts by a variety of list members who are highly knowlegeable about a range of topics surrounding crypto, but they tend to come sporadically. I suppose that this is because they actually have real lives. > You, know, Toto, I heard that there's a vacancy in the Cypherpunk Division > of History & Philosophy .... I suppose that Sandy might nominate me, just for the pleasure of sitting back and enjoying the flood of, "A Vote of FUCK OFF for Toto" postings. It would be nice, however, to try to twist the rest of the list around to my own world-view. It gets lonely here in the 'rubber room' at the Home, and I could use some company. Toto

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Re: Trigger-Words...
by Cynthia H. Brown 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On Wed, 29 Jan 1997, harka(a)nycmetro.com queried: > Actually, I might not have chosen the correct words for what I > wanted... > I am looking for sniffer-programs, that analyze e-mail traffic on > the Net and filtering out all e-mails potentially interesting for > _intelligence services_. For example, I've heard, that if an e-mail > contains the words: "assassinate President" (DISCLAIMER: I hope, our > President lives a long and happy life, even after his > impeachment...:)), it will automatically get filtered and checked > out by the Secret Service. > Different intelligence agencies might have similar things in place. > Where could I get some more information about that? Many Un*xes (SunOS, Solaris, IRIX, Linux, and probably others) have included their own versions of sniffers, supposedly for network debugging. These are typically called something like "tcpdump", "etherfind", "snoop", etc. You would need to run a sniffer at a "choke point" of an organisation, for example the external router to the Internet, to capture all of the packets to / from that organisation. Putting a sniffer on some arbitrary router out there in cloud-land would probably not be all that productive, since there's no guarantee that all of the IP packets carrying a given TCP connection would take the same route. Cynthia -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3ia Charset: cp850 iQCVAwUBMvSyq5Og7xGCJGQtAQFJPwQAiXbxtfdfVEDL5ZHdktdy6bfH/Wmio3oU J1bYKpfwY4H4NnIoXipGF+oo48Pe4j8x46UneVZ8d4ZsSy93/JsvmQw38TxSj/8o cPbtIaagBw9eofsdimzlwx9Y0VvaTRWt+2Cjd8aQKmG5nwUBSF9BlFoX2/TU3QZY IP+hiecLaag= =rHlB -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- =============================================================== Cynthia H. Brown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada E-mail: cynthb(a)sonetis.com Home Page: http://www.sonetis.com/~cynthb/ PGP Key: See Home Page Junk mail will be ignored in the order in which it is received. It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to care how you got your money as long as you have got it. - Edmund Way Teale, "Circle of the Seasons"

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Re: Key Security Question
by Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

ichudov(a)algebra.com (Igor Chudov @ home) writes: > Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM wrote: > > Bill Stewart <stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com> writes: > > > On the other hand, if the "repairman" replaced your pgp executable > > > with version 2.6.3kgb, which uses your hashed passphrase as the > > > session key, you're hosed. Or if he installed a keystroke sniffer, > > > or added a small radio transmitter to your keyboard, or whatever. > > > Depends on your threat model. If you need to be paranoid, > > > they've already gotten you.... > > > > If you're really paranoid, you can boot from a clean floppy and > > reinstall everything from your backup tapes. You do have a > > contingency plan in case your hard disk goes bad, or gets a > > virus, don't you? Well, if you're in doubt, exercise it. > > And what if the repairman replaces BIOS ROM chips with KGBios? On some computers it's possible to add executable code to the boot sequence without replacing the actual ROM chip because they're rewritiable. Examples: most Sun boxes; intel motherboards with 'flash bios'. --- Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps

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Re: Trigger-Words...
by Cynthia H. Brown 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- On Wed, 29 Jan 1997, harka(a)nycmetro.com queried: > Actually, I might not have chosen the correct words for what I > wanted... > I am looking for sniffer-programs, that analyze e-mail traffic on > the Net and filtering out all e-mails potentially interesting for > _intelligence services_. For example, I've heard, that if an e-mail > contains the words: "assassinate President" (DISCLAIMER: I hope, our > President lives a long and happy life, even after his > impeachment...:)), it will automatically get filtered and checked > out by the Secret Service. > Different intelligence agencies might have similar things in place. > Where could I get some more information about that? Many Un*xes (SunOS, Solaris, IRIX, Linux, and probably others) have included their own versions of sniffers, supposedly for network debugging. These are typically called something like "tcpdump", "etherfind", "snoop", etc. You would need to run a sniffer at a "choke point" of an organisation, for example the external router to the Internet, to capture all of the packets to / from that organisation. Putting a sniffer on some arbitrary router out there in cloud-land would probably not be all that productive, since there's no guarantee that all of the IP packets carrying a given TCP connection would take the same route. Cynthia -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3ia Charset: cp850 iQCVAwUBMvSyq5Og7xGCJGQtAQFJPwQAiXbxtfdfVEDL5ZHdktdy6bfH/Wmio3oU J1bYKpfwY4H4NnIoXipGF+oo48Pe4j8x46UneVZ8d4ZsSy93/JsvmQw38TxSj/8o cPbtIaagBw9eofsdimzlwx9Y0VvaTRWt+2Cjd8aQKmG5nwUBSF9BlFoX2/TU3QZY IP+hiecLaag= =rHlB -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- =============================================================== Cynthia H. Brown Ottawa, Ontario, Canada E-mail: cynthb(a)sonetis.com Home Page: http://www.sonetis.com/~cynthb/ PGP Key: See Home Page Junk mail will be ignored in the order in which it is received. It is morally as bad not to care whether a thing is true or not, so long as it makes you feel good, as it is not to care how you got your money as long as you have got it. - Edmund Way Teale, "Circle of the Seasons"

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