May 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Its Official: Stego to be demonized
by Major Variola (ret) 09 May '03

09 May '03

Investigators believe cell members were using a process called stenography, in which special software allows a text message to be hidden inside a small part of a computer photograph. U.S. investigators say many terrorists received instruction on the technique when they trained at al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan. http://www.nypost.com/news/worldnews/57502.htm

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Re: Underestimating long-term consequences of cryptoanarchy
by Major Variola (ret) 09 May '03

09 May '03

At 12:04 AM 5/9/03 -0700, Bill Frantz wrote: >There have been some proposals to build privately owned toll roads in >California. Proposals? You can *drive* on them now. Some are privately-owned lanes parallel to public lanes (91 in SoCal), some are entirely privately-owned novel tollways (241, 243, parts of 74, 133). You can drive most without a tracking/transponder (ie use currency) though they can photograph your plates on any lane. Financially they're not doing wonderfully, but the roads are there! [resent.. lne having a problem with batching submissions?]

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Re: Asperger's Syndrome
by Major Variola (ret) 09 May '03

09 May '03

At 07:48 AM 5/7/03 -0700, Mike Rosing wrote: >> chemicals in the environment today that mimic various hormones which then cause >> imbalances in animals, or, for instance, aluminum suspected in alzhimers. Al has been discredited, Alz is inherited, or inevitable if your hydraulics keep you ticking that long (a recent development). >It's more like the "publish or perish" syndrome. Some field of profs >needs to create a new thing so they can keep getting funding for "research". Yep. >Dumbing down of Americans has been going on for a long time. But I'm >not sure that's real either. How long have the majority of people been >going past 8th grade education? "Education" has been increasing, but industrial life means that people can be stupider, because they are more shielded. See J. Diamond, http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/diamond/diamond_p1.html >We used to think DDT was great stuff. It is. Malaria kills 3e6 a year. But that's not 3e6 industrials who die, and its industrials who make it. The cigars that indians smoked kept bugs away, and with an aboriginal life span the problems with smoking were insignificant compared to the dangers of bugs. What is adaptive depends on your environment. That probably applies to mental traits like ability to sit still, tolerate presence of others, concentrate on abstract lines of thought etc. 21st century schizoid man.

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Re: Asperger's Syndrome
by Major Variola (ret) 09 May '03

09 May '03

At 07:04 PM 5/7/03 -0700, Mike Rosing wrote: >A world without mosquitoes would be pretty bleak given how many other >things eat them. Better to wipe out the malaria and swat the mosquitos! Still, you're in the minority. If one could kill all the blood-biting mosquitoes without killing other bugs, birds, 'gators, etc it would be a good thing. Even if you eliminated malaria its not a good vector to have around. And I bet most people would accept losing a very few species, or reducing the productivity of mosquito areas (probably temporarily), to get rid of the mosquito. Throw in poison ivy/oak extinction to convince most of the greens who hike and you've got a winner :-) --- "When one tugs at a single thing in Nature, he finds it hitched to the rest of the Universe" - John Muir --- You can buy patented mice and you're not allowed to copy them. -the state of bio IP

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Re: Collectivism in "community gardens"
by Major Variola (ret) 09 May '03

09 May '03

At 06:03 PM 5/8/03 -0700, Eric Cordian wrote: >Yet, very little is done about the problem, because that would be >discrimination against a whole slew of people we are told are >disadvantaged. I once counciled a fellow grad student who was growing hot peppers on a little plot for student farmers. Seems he had problems with 'raccoons' that stole his peppers. I pointed out that phenolphlalein, a common pH indicator, was the active ingredient in ex-lax, and very effective, invisible. I suggested depositing some in a few growing peppers. He also posted a sign to that effect. Amazing that racoons can read.

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Fukt Nation Report
by Major Variola (ret) 09 May '03

09 May '03

Posse Comitatus dead, getting ready for military occupation of cities: http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20030526&s=dreyfuss Schoolchildren owned by Secret Service: http://www.kron.com/Global/story.asp?s=%20%201268949 "When one of the students asked, 'do we have to talk now? Can we be silent? Can we get legal council?' they were told, 'we own you, you don't have any legal rights,'" Felson says. Tool makers liable for tool abuse: Gun Companies Ordered to Pay Boy $50M http://www.kron.com/Global/story.asp?S=1271022

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Grid Computing and P2P (fwd)
by Jim Choate 08 May '03

08 May '03

;) I think we've already covered this sort of app in our 'tit-for-tat' approach with Hangar 18...though we've pretty much decided to opt out of the music/video side of the apps. We have a new webpage to wander through, more stuff soon! We'll be moving more material for the OAON and other references sometime next week. We'll also put an identical copy on the open-forge.org by then also. http://einstein.ssz.com/hangar18/ For the 'old' Hangar 18 page, http://open-forge.org We've also updated the SSZ page as well, http://einstein.ssz.com/ssz/ We'll be getting around to the CDR page one of these days ;) If you want to play, http://plan9.bell-labs.com ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 20:54:58 -0400 From: Tyler Durden <camera_lumina(a)hotmail.com> To: cypherpunks(a)minder.net Subject: Grid Computing and P2P Hey...I had a great idea today. So great that all will be forced to bow at the feet of Tyler Durden. Of course, I have a decent amount beer in me, and there are unresolved issues, but right now it's lookin' pretty "obvious" so here goes. Kids who currently share files via P2P should instead "earn" song download credits by making their computers available for grid computing. Comments? First let me state what I don't give a crap about... 1) Market for grid computing. For argument sake, let's assume it's there, and that there will increasingly exist compaines that need supercomputing-like capabilities but don't want to buy a Cray or whatever. 2) Kids won't bother. Bullshit. There will certainly exist a % of teenagers that would rather "legitimately" earn song downloads, and who have an "always on" broadband pipe. As for CPUs, those will otherwise be wasted at night. And in case I gotta explain it for the dim-witted, I'm talking about a big company wishing to purchase grid-computing facilities who come to the "P2P Grid Corp", and pay some $$$. These $$$ are then actually paid in part to entertainment companies for the rights to allow subscribers to download files in exchange for making their CPUs available for grid computing. Of course there are open questions. Like, how to value a CPU? (Hettinga?) Also, it would seem to me this system needs to be centralized, in order to control the file sharing. But it also occurs to me that a "song" might actually in itself act as a digibuck of sorts within the system (imagine...the 'gold' doesn't sit in a bank, it's actually encoded into the digibuck itself!) (There's also the issue of how to value the pipe-size into that PC's home...a big FAT-ASS computer within a tiny little 56K pipe might not be super valuable)... -TD _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus -- ____________________________________________________________________ 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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Grid Computing and P2P
by Tyler Durden 08 May '03

08 May '03

Hey...I had a great idea today. So great that all will be forced to bow at the feet of Tyler Durden. Of course, I have a decent amount beer in me, and there are unresolved issues, but right now it's lookin' pretty "obvious" so here goes. Kids who currently share files via P2P should instead "earn" song download credits by making their computers available for grid computing. Comments? First let me state what I don't give a crap about... 1) Market for grid computing. For argument sake, let's assume it's there, and that there will increasingly exist compaines that need supercomputing-like capabilities but don't want to buy a Cray or whatever. 2) Kids won't bother. Bullshit. There will certainly exist a % of teenagers that would rather "legitimately" earn song downloads, and who have an "always on" broadband pipe. As for CPUs, those will otherwise be wasted at night. And in case I gotta explain it for the dim-witted, I'm talking about a big company wishing to purchase grid-computing facilities who come to the "P2P Grid Corp", and pay some $$$. These $$$ are then actually paid in part to entertainment companies for the rights to allow subscribers to download files in exchange for making their CPUs available for grid computing. Of course there are open questions. Like, how to value a CPU? (Hettinga?) Also, it would seem to me this system needs to be centralized, in order to control the file sharing. But it also occurs to me that a "song" might actually in itself act as a digibuck of sorts within the system (imagine...the 'gold' doesn't sit in a bank, it's actually encoded into the digibuck itself!) (There's also the issue of how to value the pipe-size into that PC's home...a big FAT-ASS computer within a tiny little 56K pipe might not be super valuable)... -TD _________________________________________________________________ MSN 8 helps eliminate e-mail viruses. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus

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Re: Defense and Security Commentary Pundit Worth Reading
by Tyler Durden 08 May '03

08 May '03

SAIC? (A noted defense contractor, BTW..) Which company under the SAIC umbrella? (I used to work for one myself...) -TD >From: Bill Scannell <bill(a)scannell.org> >To: <cypherpunks(a)lne.com> >Subject: Defense and Security Commentary Pundit Worth Reading >Date: Thu, 08 May 2003 14:47:42 -0500 > >Paul Cox is now publishing a weekly commentary at: > >http://www.coxreport.com > >He's not only a first-rate analyst with SAIC, but an good friend of mine, >too. He's worth a read. > >Cheers, > >Bill >777 --- 777 777 --- 777 >"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary >safety >deserve neither liberty nor safety." >- Benjamin Franklin _________________________________________________________________ Help STOP SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail

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Defense and Security Commentary Pundit Worth Reading
by Bill Scannell 08 May '03

08 May '03

Paul Cox is now publishing a weekly commentary at: http://www.coxreport.com He's not only a first-rate analyst with SAIC, but an good friend of mine, too. He's worth a read. Cheers, Bill 777 --- 777 777 --- 777 "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin

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