December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

CL: The Economist on Giddens, Hayek & the LSE (fwd)
by Jim Choate 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 18:50:16 -0400 > From: Robert Hettinga <rah(a)shipwright.com> > Subject: CL: The Economist on Giddens, Hayek & the LSE > Beware of socialists pitching new paradigms. Or (the only good thing Reagen ever said), Trust, but verify. > must stand. This book is awesomely, magisterially and in some ways > disturbingly vacuous. ... > Prodi, the prime minister of Italy, plan to conduct in New York on September > 23rd. Is anyone going or know if the various discussions will be made available? > on "five dilemmas". In merciful summary, these are (i) that globalisation > is changing the meanings of nationhood, government and sovereignty. There > exists This is the definition of 'civilization', an effect that is clearly observable by studying history. The relationship between citizen and state depends on (among other things) speed of communication (or transport), and resource control. As the speed of transport increases nations have a tendency to homogenize or share cultural traits (not to mention genes). As time goes by the nations change size and number in relation to resource control, normaly you get a few large countries and lots of smaller ones. As time goes by you'll see more and more of the smaller nations forming combines, hegemonies, balkans, etc. This tendency drives the globalization of human culture. It is a basic aspect of human greed to want the whole shebang. That is a result of humans being social in nature, and having a fundamental neurosis about self. What finaly determines if one or more nations will exist is the general growth rates of each fundamentaly (and this is a bitch to describe to any precision) different national/social/psychological type. As long as none of them have a growth rate that is hyperbolic in nature (ie infinite magnitude in finite time) then a multiplicity of such 'nations' will continue to exist. A fundamental question should be what and how to measure the growth rates of nations within this context? There also needs to be a fundamental distinction between government and business, as is made with religions. Businesses need to be regulated but it should be by a indipendant political system from that defining civil issues regarding individuals. There should also be a distinct funding system which is also indipendant, but responsible for providing all funding for the other political agents. It would be regulated by some sort of representative system whereby people could elect various officials to select the process through a representative system. In short, every political entity in a government should consist of publicly elected officials with appropriate support staff. There should be strictly enforced and relatively short-lived term limits. A distinction in allowable forces for a government to use between exterior (army) threats and internal civil disturbance (militia), and nary the two should meet or ever be involved in day to day law enforcement. In regards the civil branch of the above (ie executive, legislative, judiciary) the executive branch should also be some sort of elected panel, the concept of an individual representative needs to die a deserved death. Personaly I like the idea of a panel of single representatives from each state. > (2) a "new individualism" that is not necessarily selfish but which > means that social solidarity can no longer be imposed in a top-down way. It's about time. I believe that a study of polyocracies would provide a much better model for a democratic system. I've come to the conclusion that the best way to deal with human culture is to base everything on the fundamental issue of individual distinction, this is what it means for all people to be created equal. > of problems-such as global warming, devolution, the future of the European > Union-about which it is unhelpful to think in terms of left versus right. That's because nature is by its very nature apolitical. Politics will regulate human society, it won't control it. > (4) Some jobs (defence, lawmaking) can be done only by governments, even No, they can only be done by a monopoly. If they don't then the sorts of social institutions we normaly talk about can't exist. > though politicians are becoming less influential and pressure groups more > effective. Which sortta balances out thankfuly... > should be no rights without responsibilities; that the protection of children > is the most important bit of family policy; Does he extrapolate this to some sort of all-encompassing social authorization for government intervention as is currently trying to be implimented? that society should be "inclusive" > but not "strongly egalitarian"; Which means what? We let people in but we don't treat them like they live here? that constitutions should aim for openness > and transparency; What the hell does that mean? > that there may be a case for a world criminal court; Only if nations aren't responsible for their own citizens... I'd like to see the day when one nation sues another in a world court for harms against their citizens...if the proposed system will require this as easily as a single nation dropping on a single individual then it won't work. > that there is a need to control excessive overshoots in financial markets > but that the nature of these controls is "problematic"; that . . Don't fall for the 'bigger is better' school of economics. Individualy stable markets should be highly regional, probably not national and most definitely not global. Stability comes from a voluntary long-term relationship between participants. ____________________________________________________________________ To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice. Confucius The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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"Annihilating less-than-useful contributors"
by Information Security 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

[ snipped, see full article at Declan's new site ] # http://www.wired.com/news/news/technology/story/15611.html # # 5:45 p.m. 14.Oct.98.PDT # SAN FRANCISCO -- Science fiction author Bruce Sterling # acknowledges that he isn't a programmer, or even a # contributor to the kind of openly developed software project # [Apache] that brought his audience together on Wednesday. # ... # Using a fictional example of people gathered online around # their interest in "freakish, left-handed mollusks," he said # collaborative software is needed that liberates the creative # power of the best people and "annihilates the counterproductive." # According to Sterling, the latter includes idiots, spammers, # and less-than-useful contributors. # ... # Sterling envisions an "online utopia" that would occur if # Web- and email-leveraging software were automatically # moderated. # ... # "If you could do this, you could advance knowledge," he said. # The Net and the collaboration it enables would be able to add # to the sum of human knowledge. # ... # Successful implementation of such a concept, Sterling said, # is critical to the success of the Net as a so-called "gift # economy".... [This] economy should function more like an # [actual] economy," he said. A differing set of rewards should # be returned for a differing set of efforts.

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Cyptography in the Information Age (fwd)
by Jim Choate 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 21:08:14 -0400 > Subject: Cyptography in the Information Age > From: steve.benjamin(a)juno.com (Stephen Benjamin) > My paper will contain a 6-line (perl) implemenation of > RSA. Is my report subject to current Encryption Laws? > If so, which ones? I plan on making a big deal out of > how a 15 page research paper can't be exported from the U.S.A. The paper itself isn't subject to export restrictions at this point in time as I understand it. Now if you included a barcode, floppy, or some other machine readable/executable then that media would be under restrictions. > Also, How can I generate RSA keys in perl? > I found a C program to do it, but I don't have C installed. Now you get to learn how to translate... ____________________________________________________________________ To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice. Confucius The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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"Annihilating less-than-useful contributors" (fwd)
by Jim Choate 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > From: Information Security <guy(a)panix.com> > Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1998 20:38:51 -0400 (EDT) > Subject: "Annihilating less-than-useful contributors" > # their interest in "freakish, left-handed mollusks," he said > # collaborative software is needed that liberates the creative > # power of the best people and "annihilates the counterproductive." > # According to Sterling, the latter includes idiots, spammers, > # and less-than-useful contributors. > # ... > # Sterling envisions an "online utopia" that would occur if > # Web- and email-leveraging software were automatically > # moderated. > # ... > # "If you could do this, you could advance knowledge," he said. > # The Net and the collaboration it enables would be able to add > # to the sum of human knowledge. Assuming, without statement of course, that we know what information is important *before* we know it exists and we need it...the same old failure of all utopianist...they assume one size fits all. ____________________________________________________________________ To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice. Confucius The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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Cyptography in the Information Age
by steve.benjamin＠juno.com 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

X-Posted: sci.crypt, cypherpunks mailing list For my Advanced Computer Science course in school I'm required to do a research paper each quarter. I have decided to do this quarter's paper on Cyptography in the Information Age. My paper will contain a 6-line (perl) implemenation of RSA. Is my report subject to current Encryption Laws? If so, which ones? I plan on making a big deal out of how a 15 page research paper can't be exported from the U.S.A. Also, How can I generate RSA keys in perl? I found a C program to do it, but I don't have C installed. Thanks for any help you can give me! and please reply through e-mail! ---------------------------------------------------------- Stephen Benjamin E-mail address: Stephen {DOT} Benjamin {AT} juno {DOT} com ----------------------------------------------------------

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CJ Indicted
by John Young 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

Court docket shows that CJ has been indicted for: 18:115A.F Threaten to Murder certain Federal Law Enforcement Officers and Judges This is in addition to the original complaint: For Violation of 18:115(a)(1)(B): Threatening to assassin IRA officers Yes, it says "assassin IRA." The other humor is that upon indictment for criminal charges on September 30 a bench warrant was issued for CJ's arrest. The arrest warrant was "returned unexecuted" on October 9, due to "warrant issued in error" by the same magistrate who issued the first arrest warrant on August 5, apparently forgetting or not knowing that CypherAssassin2 was mental evaluing with CypherAssassin1 in MO. See the docket: http://jya.com/cej101498.htm BTW, on why Jim Bell and CJ stopped over in OKC on the way to Springfield, we've learned that the Federal Transportation Center is in OKC. It so happens that the Bureau of Prisons issued a wad of rules and regs today just to handle the growing crowd of alleged IRA-Nobelists and international Chuckies: http://jya.com/bop101698.htm

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Disk (block device) encryption for Linux and *BSD?
by HyperReal-Anon 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

>Apologies for the interruption, > >I'm looking for disk / partition encryption for Unix-alikes, especially >Linux, OpenBSD and/or NetBSD. Good luck. We're in the same boat. I'm using Andrew Mileski's patches, but they're outdated, only implement CAST-128 and IDEA, and the user interface leaves a lot to be desired. Writing a new user interface is on my project list, but of course I can't export the thing. >My websearch has been less than satisfactory - I found outdated Linux >kernel patches for encryption loopback, and I distinctly remember reading >about a serious bug in the use (or lack thereof) of key material in this >code. Andrew Mileski <aem(a)netcom.ca> has patches available via FTP from fractal.mta.ca, but they're very outdated. I think they're against 2.1.64, but they'll run with kernels up to the 90s. Kernels after about 2.1.105 are hopelessly broken with regard to Andrew's patches, so I wouldn't advise even trying it. If you use his patches, use kernel 2.1.105 or below. I think those are in /pub/aem/crypto. >Do patches for a current Linux kernel exist, and have all the known >bugs been fixed? There are several different versions floating around. There was some set of patches on ftp.csua.berkeley.edu but they're outdated too. There was a hole in some DES code somebody was distributing. >Also, there seems to be no version of Marutukku about that I can actually >get to work on *BSD. Is Marutukku still being developed? Again, good luck. >Generally, is there a good page that tracks disk encryption for Unix? > >I'm currently using cfs here and there, and I have a specific question >about that package, too: > >Does the cypherpunks list trust the patches that add Blowfish support >to cfs? Every time I've used CFS it has locked up into some kind of recursive loop where it eats more and more CPU time until it finally takes all it can get. Other people have had the same problem on both Linux and BSD. Other people never have any problems. No clue why.

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PGP utils?
by mgraffam＠idsi.net 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

Is there a utility for Unix (or source available?) that reads a PGP encrypted message and displays some information on it, like what key ID the message was encrypted with, and what ciphers were used? Michael J. Graffam (mgraffam(a)idsi.net) http://www.mhv.net/~mgraffam -- Philosophy, Religion, Computers, Crypto, etc They (who) seek to establish systems of government based on the regimentation of all human beings by a handful of individual rulers.. call this a new order. It is not new, and it is not order." - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

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Off-Topic
by Marcel Popescu 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

Sorry for the off-topic, but does anybody know of a list related to militias, gun-control and the like? Thanks, Mark

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by root＠sf-dnpqi-012.compuserve.net 18 Dec '03

18 Dec '03

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