December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Sierra On-Line FAQ
by Sierra On-Line 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Thanks for visiting SierraWeb! This message contains important information regarding your subscription, so we recommend that you keep a copy for future reference. In particular, you will need to know your username and password to access certain features of our web site: USERNAME: cypherpunks PASSWORD: cypherpunks We can't change your password or look up your existing information, so if you lose your password, you'll have to re-apply under a different name. The rest of this message contains an introduction to our site and answers to frequently asked questions. Thanks again for visiting SierraWeb! - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Questions! When you have a web site, you tend to hear the same questions from a lot of different people. And so your friendly webfolks at Sierra put together a list of questions that we hear on a regular basis, complete with the answers that we've typed so many times that we see them in our sleep. And we call it: THE SIERRAWEB FAQ (that's Frequently Asked Questions, not Frantic About Queensryche. Read on!) Q: Okay, I've managed to live this long without logging onto your really cool web site, but I just can't take it any more! How do I log on? A: Well, first you're going to have to go there. The SierraWeb address is: http://www.sierra.com/ This will take you to our main menu page. From this page, you can register to be a member of our site (which we'd probably like to call the Sierra Club, except that the name's already taken, and they don't do computer games). Click on Join to register, and you'll be asked to choose a user name and password, and write them down somewhere where the dog won't chew `em up. Q: I've spent the last six months in a freak time warp/in my aunt's house in Pittsburgh/in a pit/writing my thesis/on an archaeological expedition to Egypt/trying to solve the Chinese Checkers puzzle in Shivers, and in the meanwhile I've forgotten my username or password. Can you tell me what it is? A: Nope! We have no way to tell what your password or user name is. If you've forgotten yours, it's time to pick a new one. Just fill out the registration form again, this time choosing a different username and password. Q: You've got enough pages on your web site to keep Victor Hugo happy (cultural reference, here, folks ... French author, wrote Les Miserables, you could get a hernia lifting the unabridged version). So how am I supposed to find all the info I want about a specific product without having to dig through all those pages? A: You're in luck. The Search feature of our site will allow you to go to just the topics you're interested in and skip the rest, like picking through the dessert buffet and selecting only the stuff that has jell-o in it. So if you only like baseball simulations, or low-fat recipe programs, or computer games with robots in them, all you need to do is click on Search (always found at the bottom right-hand corner of each page), and type in the word you're looking for. This will provide you with a list of all the places on our site that your subject is mentioned. Look through the list, click on anything that looks interesting, and it'll take you there! Q: Okay, so I've looked through 97 different pages on your site, downloaded 8 demos and enough screenshots to fill a bucket of zip cartridges, talked for three hours with the folks in the Chat rooms, and, frankly, my brain is fried and I really don't want to hit "<- Back" about 183 times to get back to the index page. Isn't there an easier way? A: Yep. At the bottom of each page is a "Home" button. Click it. Q: I clicked to download a file, and it gave me an error message which said, "FTP anonymous access denied". What's up with that? I wasn't trying to be anonymous. Doesn't your system recognize me any more? This is starting to sound like an episode of "Nowhere Man"! A: Don't worry about it. It just means that the file you want can't be downloaded from the server at the moment. Our server is usually busier than a colony of ants at a Fourth of July picnic, so it may take several tries to get a file. Just try your download again later.

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

17 Dec '03

On Sat, Apr 12, 1997 at 04:57:57PM -0400, Robert Hettinga wrote: > Mr. Crispin? > > Fuck you. With a brick. [...] > 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 Well, you've probably all seen this before, but somehow it seemed appropriate for the occasion: Pierre, the French fighter pilot, takes his girlfriend, Marie, out for a pleasant little picnic by the river Seine. It's a beautiful day and love is in the air so Marie leans over to Pierre and says: "Pierre, kiss me!". So our hero grabs a bottle of red wine and passionately splashes it on Marie's lips. "What are you doing, Pierre?" shrieks Marie. "Well, my name is Pierre, the French Fighter Pilot, and when I have red meat I like to have red wine!" His answer is good enough for Marie and things begin to heat up. So she says: "Pierre, kiss me lower." Our hero rips off her blouse, grabs a bottle of white wine and starts pouring it all over her breasts. "Pierre, what are you doing?" "My name is Pierre, the French Fighter Pilot, and when I have white meat, I like to have white wine!" They resume their passionate interlude and things really steam up. Marie leans over once more and softly whispers into his ear: "Pierre, kiss me lower." Pierre tears off her underwear, grabs a bottle of Cognac and sprinkles it all over. He grabs a match and lights it on fire. Patting the flames out furiously, Marie screams: "PIERRE, WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!!?" "My name is Pierre, the French Fighter Pilot, and when I go down, I go down in flames!" -- Kent Crispin "No reason to get excited", kent(a)songbird.com the thief he kindly spoke... PGP fingerprint: B1 8B 72 ED 55 21 5E 44 61 F4 58 0F 72 10 65 55 http://songbird.com/kent/pgp_key.html

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Digi-Cash IPO! $1.60 per share
by chairman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Greetings: Our market research indicated that this information may very well be very interesting to you! As you may know, initial public stock offerings confer upon QUALIFIED INVESTORS huge profit potential opportunities, IF they understand risk. Millennium Interactive Technologies Corp., developer of the first ever advertiser funded system of digital cash is offering 625,000 common shares directly to the public at $1.60 per share, with a 625 share minimum. MITNET is an E-commerce startup which will offer Digital Cash and a FREE smart card to every user who retrieves advertising E-mail from its Internet web site. MITNET DCUs (Digital Currency Units) can be redeemed to pay for your on-line charges, Or converted instantly into the currency of any nation. MITNET ad-mail is the future of Internet advertising! OFFERING CAN ONLY BE MADE BY WAY OF PROSPECTUS QUALIFIED INVESTORS of full age can obtain a printed copy of this offering prospectus, demo software, and the website URL, by sending a reply with name, street address, and day or evening phone number. (please specify) =================================================== This is neither an offer to sell, nor the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities. =================================================== Dislike commercial e-mail? Let us put you on our master *DO-NOT-MAIL* list which we supply to 400+ bulk e-mail firms. Simply reply with the word remove anywhere in your message. =================================================== mailto:ceo@mitnet.com

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Re: LSL5 - Patty can't get into Studio 2
by tdls＠voyager.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

When you get to the bottom of the elevator, you have to go one screen to the right to get to the right studio. Then you can use the number from the blue stickum. -- (This message was sent to you automatically as a reply to a message you posted in "The Land of the Lounge Lizards" on Sierra's web site at http://www.sierra.com/messages/larry/.)

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None Zero-knowledge commit
by lucifer＠dhp.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim C. May styles his facial hair to look more like pubic hair. /_/\/\ \_\ / Tim C. May /_/ \ \_\/\ \ \_\/

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NSA on GAK
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Excerpts of remarks by NSA head William Crowell to NISSC96, October, 1996: Key recovery may prove essential in making encryption scalable on an international basis. We are not the only country wrestling with the public safety implications of unbreakable cryptography. France, Israel and Russia recently imposed import and domestic use restrictions. Several Asian, South American and African countries have had similar restrictions in place for years. Others may impose them as strong cryptography proliferates. For many overseas, as well as here, the logic of the need to balance business imperatives with public safety concerns argues for key recovery. The European Union and other confederations are considering key recovery-based KMIs. The world's major standards bodies are designing future standards so that key recovery can be accommodated. International standards and protocols for key recovery may prove essential to hand off national restrictions on strong encryption, to promote a broad export market for cryptography and to establish a key management infrastructure acceptable for general international use. This would accelerate the realization of the promise of information technology, and that would be in everyone's best interest. Working in partnership, government and industry together need to lay the foundation necessary to sustain and strengthen information security for America. I wish to emphasize that the infrastructure for key management will be built by industry as a commercial venture. This task is huge. Collaboration among many partners will be essential if we are to establish a KMI that promotes the use of encryption worldwide. ----- For full talk: http://jya.com/nsagak.htm

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Re: SSL weakness affecting links from pa
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 3:41 am -0400 on 4/13/97, Rich Graves wrote: >I've been told that the main reason > almost the entire MSN team left Microsoft about a year ago is that they > were prohibited from pursuing more efficient non-proprietary solutions. Hettinga's paraphrase of Gilmore's Law: "A geodesic economy sees monopoly as damage and routes around it." 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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Re: NSA on GAK
by geeman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[I think the other exceprt was based on this one, from Charles IX of France in 1563] Printing press registration may prove essential in making printing and literacy managable on an international basis. We are not the only country wrestling with the public safety implications of printing presses. France, Israel and Russia recently imposed import and domestic use restrictions. Several Asian, South American and African countries have had similar restrictions in place for years. Others may impose them as printing presses proliferate. For many overseas, as well as here, the logic of the need to balance business imperatives with public safety concerns argues for printing press registration. The European Union and other confederations are considering printing press registration-based infrastructures. The world's major standards bodies are designing future standards so that printing press registration can be accommodated. International standards and protocols for printing press registration may prove essential to hand off national restrictions on printing and literacy, to promote a broad export market for printing presses and to establish a infrastructure acceptable for general international use. This would accelerate the realization of the promise of information technology, and that would be in everyone's best interest. Working in partnership, government and industry together need to lay the foundation necessary to sustain and strengthen information security for America. I wish to emphasize that the infrastructure for printing press registration will be built by industry as a commercial venture. This task is huge. Collaboration among many partners will be essential if we are to establish a PPRI that promotes the use of printing and literacy worldwide. =========================================================================== At 10:47 AM 4/13/97 -0400, John Young wrote: >Excerpts of remarks by NSA head William Crowell to >NISSC96, October, 1996: > >Key recovery may prove essential in making encryption scalable >on an international basis. We are not the only country wrestling >with the public safety implications of unbreakable cryptography. >France, Israel and Russia recently imposed import and domestic >use restrictions. Several Asian, South American and African >countries have had similar restrictions in place for years. Others >may impose them as strong cryptography proliferates. > >For many overseas, as well as here, the logic of the need to >balance business imperatives with public safety concerns argues >for key recovery. The European Union and other confederations >are considering key recovery-based KMIs. The world's major >standards bodies are designing future standards so that key >recovery can be accommodated. > >International standards and protocols for key recovery may prove >essential to hand off national restrictions on strong encryption, to >promote a broad export market for cryptography and to establish >a key management infrastructure acceptable for general international >use. This would accelerate the realization of the promise of information >technology, and that would be in everyone's best interest. > >Working in partnership, government and industry together need to >lay the foundation necessary to sustain and strengthen information >security for America. I wish to emphasize that the infrastructure for >key management will be built by industry as a commercial venture. >This task is huge. Collaboration among many partners will be >essential if we are to establish a KMI that promotes the use of >encryption worldwide. > >----- > >For full talk: > > http://jya.com/nsagak.htm > > >

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PaleoAnthro: Mail List Life Cycle
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text X-Authentication-Warning: list.srv.cis.pitt.edu: majordom set sender to owner-paleoanthro using -f Date: Sun, 13 Apr 1997 01:06:22 -0400 (EDT) From: Matt Fraser <mattf+(a)pitt.edu> X-Sender: mattf(a)unixs2.cis.pitt.edu To: Paleoanthropology List <PaleoAnthro(a)list.pitt.edu> Subject: PaleoAnthro: Mail List Life Cycle MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-paleoanthro(a)list.pitt.edu Precedence: bulk Reply-To: PaleoAnthro(a)list.pitt.edu Hey All, Dug this up from another list that I've been on for a few years now. Thought it might be of interest. Matt ----------- THE NATURAL LIFE CYCLE OF MAILING LISTS Every list seems to go through the same cycle: 1. Initial enthusiasm (people introduce themselves, and gush alot about how wonderful it is to find kindred souls). 2. Evangelism (people moan about how few folks are posting to the list, and brainstorm recruitment strategies). 3. Growth (more and more people join, more and more lengthy threads develop, occasional off-topic threads pop up). 4. Community (lots of threads, some more relevant than others; lots of information and advice is exchanged; experts help other experts as well as less experienced colleagues; friendships develop; people tease each other; newcomers are welcomed with generosity and patience; everyone -- newbie and expert alike -- feels comfortable asking questions, suggesting answers, and sharing opinions). 5. Discomfort with diversity (the number of messages increases dramatically; not every thread is fascinating to every reader; people start complaining about the signal-to-noise ratio; person 1 threatens to quit if *other* people don't limit discussion to person 1's pet topic; person 2 agrees with person 1; person 3 tells 1 & 2 to lighten up; more bandwidth is wasted complaining about off-topic threads than is used for the threads themselves; everyone gets annoyed). 6a. Smug complacency and stagnation (the purists flame everyone who asks an 'old' question or responds with humor to a serious post; newbies are rebuffed; traffic drops to a doze-producing level of a few minor issues; all interesting discussions happen by private email and are limited to a few participants; the purists spend lots of time self-righteously congratulating each other on keeping off-topic threads off the list). OR 6b. Maturity (a few people quit in a huff; the rest of the participants stay near stage 4, with stage 5 popping up briefly every few weeks; many people wear out their second or third 'delete' key, but the list lives contentedly ever after) _____________________________ Robert Warner rwarner(a)electrotex.com I speak but for myself,.... _____________________________ --- end forwarded text ----------------- 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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A Rumor and Reputation Paradox...
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Here's something from cyberia which talks about the persistence of anti-reputation memes even in the presence of perfectly contradictory information. We've all heard about apocryphal stories, the $50 Corvette and the like, but here's a case which has financial reprocussions. It reminds me of the "satanism" claims about the Procter and Gamble moon and stars corporate symbol a while back. My first attempt at tackling this would be some kind of distributed reputation system, but it seems to me that if someone I trusted said something bad about Mr. Hilfinger, in the absence of any other respectable data, I would believe them. I guess that means the need for reputation "rental", like what financial intermediaries do, and also what we now call journalism, will increase, not deminish, in geodesic markets. Cheers, Bob Hettinga --- begin forwarded text Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Sat, 12 Apr 1997 23:58:30 -0400 Reply-To: Law & Policy of Computer Communications <CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM> Sender: Law & Policy of Computer Communications <CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM> From: Larry Kolodney <lkk(a)WORLD.STD.COM> Subject: Re: America Online and liability... the Horror To: CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM >Recall the libertarian maxim that the best response to >offensive speech is more speech. To anyone who actually believes this bit of 18th century enlightenment mythology, I would recommend the article "Dirty Linen: Why are they saying all those mean things about Tommy Hilfiger?" by Lakshmi Gopalkrishnan in the current edition of Slate (http://www.slate.com/TangledWeb/97-04-10/TangledWeb.asp) In essence, the article documents a number of vicious rumours which have been spread on the internet about the clothing designer Tommy Hilfiger and allegedly racist comments that he made on the Ophrah Winfrey show. Not withstanding the fact that 1) Mr. Hilfiger never appeared on the Winfrey show and never made the statements in question, and 2) Hilfiger Co. has engaged in an online P.R. campaign to counter these rumours, they are persistent and widespread. According to the article: BEGIN QUOTE A spotty paraphrase of the allegations appeared in a Nov. 13, 1996, article in the Philippine newspaper Isyu. Titled "Eat Your Clothes, Mr. Racist Designer," the piece has been excerpted on the Official Philippine Anti-Tommy Hilfiger site. The writer tiptoes around the charges, but is markedly less tentative when expressing her outrage. "I am shocked," she fulminates. "If [Hilfiger] really did insult my people, you can bet I will do every single thing I can in my power to make sure that his label never makes it here." Forums ranging from soc.culture.african.american to talk.rumors and Streetsound have been thick with anti-Tommy talk of late. When rumors of the designer's alleged racist outbursts filtered into the mainstream media, they were debunked by Time magazine, USA Today, and the Washington Post. But that didn't stem angry calls for a boycott of his products. Nor did the official response of the Hilfiger Corp. Claiming to have become aware of the brouhaha only recently, the company has posted a memo on various anti-Tommy sites detailing the "simple and incontrovertible facts": Hilfiger has never been on Oprah. Hilfiger has never been on Style. Far from wanting to limit his appeal, Hilfiger is on record about wanting to cross ethnic lines to appeal to everyone everywhere. *** In theory, the Web should be as good at eradicating legends as it is at cultivating them, but in practice, denials are quickly buried by new messages and updates. A week ago, Hilfiger's official response clogged newsgroup indexes. Today, it has been swamped by even newer anti-Tommy postings and returning favorites. END QUOTE Lest you think that such rumours are just a minor irritant and part of doing business, consider that, according to the article, "In the late 1980s, purported connections with the Ku Klux Klan so damaged the reputation of athletic-wear manufacturer Troop (whose name was rumored to be a Ku Klux Klan acronym for "To Rule Over Oppressed People") that it was forced into bankruptcy." So here we have vicious rumours being spread about a company with millions of public relations dollars at its disposal, and it is helpless in the face of a rumour that has not one grain of truth to it. After reading this account, how could anyone seriously argue beleive individuals such as the hapless Mr. Zeran have the slightest ability to counter defamation with "more speech" over the internet? (Note that Mr. Zeran did not even have an internet account!) Larry Kolodney --- end forwarded text ----------------- 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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