December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Bloated Economies
by Timothy C. May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Totohomo has been a source of endless embarassments to his sympathizers on and off the net. o \ o / _ o __| \ / |__ o _ \ o / o /|\ | /\ ___\o \o | o/ o/__ /\ | /|\ / \ / \ | \ /) | ( \ /o\ / ) | (\ / | / \ / \

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anonymous credit
by Wei Dai 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I used to think that the problem of anonymous credit is hopelessly intractable. I mean, who would loan money to an anonymous entity that may disappear at any time without a trace? Reputation, which is useful for other types of anonymous cooperation, is not a good solution in this case, since typically you need to borrow money to invest in reputation. Recently, I came upon a solution, inspired by an essay by the economist Steven Landsburg. I have to admit however, that the solution is fatally flawed. But I present it here anyway in the hope that one of you can offer an improvement that would make the scheme practical. The idea goes like this. The government announces a new series of anonymous zero-coupon treasury bonds that mature in 10 years, backed by a special lump-sum tax to be collected when the bonds mature. The proceeds of the bond auction and the tax are distributed equally among everyone. So basicly, the government forces everyone to take out a loan on the credit market and guarantees its collection. Anyone who does not want the loan anonymously buys treasury bonds with all of his distribution, holds them for 10 years, redeems them at maturity and uses the proceeds to pay off the lump-sum tax. The fatal flaw, of course, is that there is no reason why the government would want to help people get anonymous loans. Can anyone find a way to fix this? BTW, if anyone is interested in Steven Landsburg's essays, they are available at http://www.slate.com/Code/Compost/Compost.asp?Sort=Section&Key=20. I also highly recommend his book, _The Armchair Economist: Economics and Everyday Life_. "All crypto is economics." - Eric Hughes

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Re: Jim Bell raid
by jimbell＠pacifier.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 03:43 4/10/97 -0400, Sergey Goldgaber wrote: >On Wed, 9 Apr 1997, Greg Broiles wrote: >- -> I realize that we're talking about net-time, but "long before" seems like a >- -> poor way to describe the 2-2.5 days between the appearance of the "IRS >- -> Inspection" report (which was, in fact, the transcription of newspaper story) > >Time flies fast on the Internet; or haven't you noticed? Three days of rather >heated discussion took place between the time the arrest was announced and >your message saying that you had the warrants, etc. For the record, I was never arrested and so far haven't been charged with anything. They're mightily pissed, however, and who knows what'll happen in the future. However, the local news was pretty embarrassing to them, and they've unintentionally alerted the media that there is actually a story to be covered, although it wasn't the one they wanted! The local newspaper is putting the essay on their website, or so I hear, so the public is going to be able to bypass all of the government hype and get to the real issue. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Re: Jim Bell raid
by jimbell＠pacifier.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 20:05 4/04/97 -0500, John Young wrote: >Now that's Assassination Politics to feed the lust of the best and brightest >of all nations, if not that of a few of the overmuch AP protestors here. > >Jim's telephone number: 1-360-686-3911 My _correct_ phone number is 1-360-696-3911. Sorry that I didn't notice the error until now. Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Re: "...markets are fundamentally chaotic, not efficient"? Really?
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Mr. Crispin? Fuck you. With a brick. Now, exactly what did that nasty little bit of vituperation have have to do with our admittedly equivocal discussions about the definition of randomness, and whether any given market was a random process -- definitional prestidigitation aside -- and thus as efficient as it was ever going to be? Something any finance major, and probably any electrical engineer, for that matter, is taught in the third week of school? Not a god-damned thing. A point, which, if you actually go back and *read* the asinine (woops!) bit of logical sophistry (so sorry!) you eventually found yourself in, you might have actually comprehended. If you didn't fancy yourself as God's Gift to Disputation (damn... another one; I simply *must* stop this). Which, of course, was my point in showing you all your ad hominems. A point you didn't actually get, insisting on piling on more instead, so you could "prove" your point with a veritable bestiary of informal fallacies. (The nadir of which, by the way, was asking me to clarify something I said in passing, and then calling it a "straw man" in reply. Remarkable.) Having watched you for a while, and having determined that you have nothing new to add to the discussions here, I have no compunction whatsoever about putting you into my killfile. With a brick, Mr. Cretin^h^h^h^hispin. <Plonk!> Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA Lesley Stahl: "You mean *anyone* can set up a web site and compete with the New York Times?" Andrew Kantor: "Yes." Stahl: "Isn't that dangerous?" The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/

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Fuck/god-damned/damn / Was--Re: "...markets are fundamentally chaotic, not efficient"? Really?
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Robert Hettinga wrote: > > Fuck you. With a brick. > god-damned > damn... As a long-time sufferer of Tourette Syndrome, I would like to thank all those on the list who have gone out of their way to make me feel at home. -- Toto "The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre" http://bureau42.base.org/public/webworld

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Re: "internet is ruining representative govt"
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Vladimir Z. Nuri wrote: > *To: Multiple recipients of list <info-policy-notes(a)essential.org> > *Subject: Cokie Roberts on How Internet Is Ruining Representative Government > For many parents, the idea of yet another influence in their children's > lives over which they have no control is threatening. Kookie Roberts is just another in a long line of parents who seem to think that control over their children's development is the responsibility of someone other than themselves. I have a wonderful idea. How about if those parents who don't want to assume responsibility for control over their children's lives pass custody of them to someone who will assume that responsibility, instead of arguing that everyone else's rights must be abridged because they are busy doing other things. I, for one, don't want to be forced to live in Kookie's world just because she is too busy being busy and important to properly supervise her children. -- Toto "The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre" http://bureau42.base.org/public/xenix/xenbody.html

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Re: Appeals to Authority and Herr Doctor Professors
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Kent Crispin wrote: > > my opinions are my own, and do not represent any agency > other than the ones involved in the murder of J.F.K. Uhh...OK. -- Toto "The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre" http://bureau42.base.org/public/xenix/xenbody.html

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[ADMINISTRATIVIUM] Degausser
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Embedded in Timothy C. May's babblings are preposterous lies, wild distortions, child pornography (both as graphic descriptions and in JPEG format), ethnic slurs, and racial epithets. <<<< o(0-0)o -ooO-(_) Ooo-- Timothy C. May

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the substrate
by *****Jay Jason LaBelle***** 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

What exactly happens to the substrate that causes data to be somewhat readable after a specific bit pattern has been stored there for a long time? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Jay LaBelle Amateur Radio Callsign: KB8ZAV Phone:(317)495-2836 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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