April 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Slashdot | More on Cisco Building Surveillance into Routers (fwd)
by Jim Choate 23 Apr '03

23 Apr '03

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/03/04/22/1656215.shtml?tid=158&tid=95&tid=137 -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Three Cheers for the State - RAH RAH RAH
by Tyler Durden 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

Thomas Shaddack wrote... "This is enforceable only with purely money-based economy. But there are activities that are done for non-monetary profit: knowledge, experience, fun. Or plain barter. I remove a virus from your computer, you later drop by to repair my TV; barter, no paper trail. Help me and I will help you when you'll need. Instead of shelving out money for expensive courseware, drop by and I'll explain you how TCP/IP works. Then do the same for me with SQL couple weeks later. Skills and knowledge are a kind of capital as well - the kind of ownership no IRS can audit you for." This is actually done systematically done in parts of the US. It's referred to by various names, including a "time bank". Basically, anyone in the community contributes X hours of their skill, which is counted purely as time in hours. They can then "withdraw" an equivalent number of hours from the bank in terms of the goods and services of the other bank memebers. Strangely, in some parts of the country the system has so proliferated some communities that they have issued "money" that can be spent in local shops. This money is "backed" by X hours in the time bank. There're some people who actually collect these time bank tokens. Now for some reason, there was a lot of talk about these time banks back in the mid 90s, but now I rarely hear about them. I wonder if the potential loss of tax revenue was a factor. Hum...it'd be interesting to look at securing one of those local time banks with financial cryptography. -TD >From: Thomas Shaddack <shaddack(a)ns.arachne.cz> >To: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah(a)shipwright.com> >CC: Patrick Chkoreff <patrick(a)fexl.com>, dgcchat ><dgcchat(a)lists.goldmoney.com>, <cypherpunks(a)lne.com> >Subject: Re: Three Cheers for the State - RAH RAH RAH >Date: Tue, 22 Apr 2003 22:16:05 +0200 (CEST) > >On Tue, 22 Apr 2003, R. A. Hettinga wrote: > > >- Opposing any war is treason. > > > > Well, if you're the de facto property of one nation-state or another, > > that's exactly true. Find me someone who isn't, these days. > >I refuse to be a property. Whoever handles me as such, gets open >disrespect and either my open refusal to obey, or, in compliance with >Czech national tradition, a hidden refusal to obey[1]. Unique concept of >sabotage by obedience. > >[1] Refer to "The Good Soldier Schweik", local national hero. ><http://my.core.com/~zenny/index.html> >See also http://www.rferl.org/newsline/1999/07/5-NOT/not-090799.html for >the international politics applications. > > > Isn't it already? Certainly I think that *nothing* should be done > > without profit, that nothing really *is* done without profit to > > somebody, no matter what its governmental designation, and that *all* > > economic activity should be taxed if any of it is, and it *will* be, > > directly in cash, or indirectly in regulation, since we're all the > > "property" of one nation state or another, whether we say we "own > > ourselves" or not. So, maybe you're right. > >This is enforceable only with purely money-based economy. But there are >activities that are done for non-monetary profit: knowledge, experience, >fun. Or plain barter. I remove a virus from your computer, you later drop >by to repair my TV; barter, no paper trail. Help me and I will help you >when you'll need. Instead of shelving out money for expensive courseware, >drop by and I'll explain you how TCP/IP works. Then do the same for me >with SQL couple weeks later. Skills and knowledge are a kind of capital >as well - the kind of ownership no IRS can audit you for. > >Tax this. Regulate this. Good luck. _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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Internet dies if GPS dies?
by Major Variola (ret) 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

[If GPS dies] "Internet activity would slow to a crawl, because many backbone operators rely on precise GPS time stamps to route data. " http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.05/start.html?pg=6 Sounds like bullshit to me, data clocks should be able to run without being fully synched externally, constantly. Maybe very occasional minor glitches at boundaries of clock domains. Any SONET Gurus wanna comment? [The article is full of hysterics like this. What it *doesn't* say is that the rockets have been used to launch OsamaSat, HusseinSat, etc., none of which exist of course, no such hardware here] --- Number theory makes my brain hurt.

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New Lawsuit from JimB
by Blanc 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

Jim Bell has sent a request that the list be notified of a new complaint to the WA. State Bar which he is composing, a new lawsuit he is filing (up on cryptome: http://cryptome.org/jdb-v-usa-ric.wpd - in WordPerfect format), and a message: "Fortunately, I am still allowed to write and I have learned enough law to write both the lawsuit and the complaint. But to do any good, that writing must be read and acted upon, and that's why I need your help. The news media must be told, and moreover it must be documented that they were told. And, it would help if a lawyer was available to represent my lawsuit, although as I learn more of the law that is becoming less critical. I invite all inquiries along these lines." his address: U.S. Penitentiary Atwater P.O. Box 019001 Atwater, CA 95301

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Re: Internet dies if GPS dies?
by Tyler Durden 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

Michael Shields wrote... "I'm not a SONET guru, but my understanding is that even with the internal clocks, you would see at worst an occasional error burst for a few ms. No credible engineer would make a network that fell over without GPS anyway, since it's just too easy for someone to accidentally knock over your antenna while installing another, or nick the cable with a saw, or who knows what. In a nutshell, this isn't something I'd worry about." SONET Synchronization is not a thing that can easily be discussed in any short amount of time. Synch in a SONET network is "provisioned", NE-by-NE, and if its done right then the chances of timing slips are very low. However, in certain cases you can have a big timing "island", and in this case over the course of days you'll start to see more and more slips until that whole Island pretty much disconnects from the rest of the network. (This can happen when the primary reference fails, and when the reamining NEs all get their timing from each other in a big loop, like a snake eating its tail. The whole clock for this island begins to drift wrt the rest of the network, and in some cases there can eventually be enough slips as to cause some NEs to declare AIS. However, if Synch was provisioned correctly this won't be seen.) The existence of possible timing islands, owever, should not be strongly associated with the loss of GPS. Traditionally, SONET networks use Cesium clocks as their primary reference source.GPSs have only started to proliferate in order to simplify synch. So in order for GPS cancellation to do anything at all to the internet, you'd have to have a network that has no access to ANY stratum1 clock (Cesium or GPS), you'd have to have old NEs in that network (ie, with a poor internal SONET clock), AND you'd have to have a timing island. And even then, only this island would be affected. If this island were in the middle of UUNet, you might see some slowdown. As for routers I'll take it that they can read timing out of the Synch Status Byte (S1 in the SONET overhead), so they'll "know" what the problem is at least (ie, that byte will tell them what the quality of the synch is). If the line clock is bad, I'd guess that the big Cisco routers will go into "holdover" (or whatever router heads call holdover), and that's the time they'll use to stamp the flows with. So, no problem I'm 99.9% sure. (And I'm rarely that sure of anything.) -TD _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your e-mail with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail

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TheStar.com - Pro-U.S. pundits should get real (fwd)
by Jim Choate 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Arti… -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Internet dies if GPS dies?
by Tyler Durden 22 Apr '03

22 Apr '03

Variola wrote... "[If GPS dies] "Internet activity would slow to a crawl, because many backbone operators rely on precise GPS time stamps to route data. " http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.05/start.html?pg=6 Sounds like bullshit to me, data clocks should be able to run without being fully synched externally, constantly. Maybe very occasional minor glitches at boundaries of clock domains. Any SONET Gurus wanna comment?" Sure, but I don't know enough about IP to tell you. SONET networks derive their timing from a STRATUM1 clock, which used to be Cesium but which are increasingly GPS-based. If the STRATUM1 clock "dies", the network can look for another high-quality clock. If it doesn't find one, each NE will go into hold-over, and time of of the internal STRATUM (likely 2e) clock until a good clock reappears. But the time stamps for SONET clocks are in the DS1 overhead, so the packets in the (other) DS1s/DS3s, etc...never "see" that timestamp, unless that timestamp is somehow read by a router and then put into the packets. But does a router even GET timing? (ie, is there a BITS interface on a router? I don't think so.) In any event, if the router gets its timing from the SONET network then there's no problem. If they don't get their timing from SONET, I doubt they get it directly from a GPS. So it sounds like bullshit to me. -TD >From: "Major Variola (ret)" <mv(a)cdc.gov> >To: "cypherpunks(a)lne.com" <cypherpunks(a)lne.com> >Subject: Internet dies if GPS dies? Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 21:35:43 -0700 > >[If GPS dies] "Internet activity would slow to a crawl, because many > backbone operators rely on precise GPS time stamps to route data. " >http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/11.05/start.html?pg=6 > >Sounds like bullshit to me, data clocks should be able to run without >being fully synched externally, constantly. >Maybe very occasional minor glitches at boundaries of clock domains. > >Any SONET Gurus wanna comment? > >[The article is full of hysterics like this. What it *doesn't* say >is that the rockets have been used to launch OsamaSat, HusseinSat, >etc., none of which exist of course, no such hardware here] > >--- >Number theory makes my brain hurt. _________________________________________________________________ Protect your PC - get McAfee.com VirusScan Online http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963

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Patches for SpeakFreely 7.5/Linux for handling of encryption keys
by Thomas Shaddack 21 Apr '03

21 Apr '03

In Linux version, the encryption keys are supplied to the sfspeaker and sfmike processes as commandline parameters. This is fundamentally insecure, as the keys are then available for every user and process that can do "ps -ef" or has /proc access. Also, it would be beneficial for many settings if the program could read the keys from an external file. Then the key can be protected on the level of the filesystem, or even by complete hardware removal when not used (eg, storing the keys on a smartcard, removable USB drive, or a floppy). They also can be easier automatically distributed, eg. by scp. I wrote some modifications for version 7.5, which solves both problems. If the key value begins with @, it's interpreted as a file name. After reading the key value, the parameters accessible via /proc and ps are overwritten in memory and destroyed. The patches are tested for only the IDEA encryption, but the code is identical for the other options. The patches for sfmike and sfspeaker are available from <http://213.246.91.154/patches/speakfreely/>. Enjoy. :) Shaddack, the Mad Scientist

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China's coders get into shareware - News (fwd)
by Jim Choate 21 Apr '03

21 Apr '03

http://asia.cnet.com/newstech/applications/0,39001094,39128484,00.htm -- ____________________________________________________________________ We are all interested in the future for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Criswell, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" ravage(a)ssz.com jchoate(a)open-forge.org www.ssz.com www.open-forge.org --------------------------------------------------------------------

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CDR: Labour to launch ID card - and it'll cost you �25 (fwd)
by J.A. Terranson 21 Apr '03

21 Apr '03

According to the article, "Mr Blunkett discussed his plan for a national ID card with Tom Ridge, the head of the US Department of Homeland Security, at a meeting in Washington earlier this month. Mr Blunkett agreed to develop a joint programme, using the same technology, with the US, which has already agreed a similar protocol with Canada." So, apparently Ridge has already decided that (a) Amerikkkans *will* carry ID cards, (b) these cards will be interoperable with cards from other countries, (c) that these other countries should be able to access information on US citizens at will, provided we can do the same to their citizens. Cute. Totally fascist, but cute. I wonder how long they are going to work on this before announcing the good news formally? -- J.A. Terranson sysadmin(a)mfn.org

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