January 2004 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Sources and Sinks
by Michael Kalus 09 Jan '04

09 Jan '04

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 > > Ever heard of toll roads? Yes, those things you drive on and pay for > their > use. They work quite well in many of the socialist European countries > so > they ought to work in the land of the free too. > Yes, the way this usually works is that the government builds the road, then sells it to a private company for some money and then the upkeep is handled by the company. It is rather seldom that someone builds a road for a business venture. > Where there is no governmental police force, their is demand for > private enforcement. And you know what? They regularly do their jobs > better than the police. Of course there is no oversight body, so if they use "excessive force" well, It's all part of doing business and after all they didn't smash YOUR skull so what do you care, right? > >> The business though benefits extremly from the infrastructure that is >> build with taxes. Plus a lot of companies can exempt even more money, >> so in essence a lot of companies don't pay a dime in taxes. > > Show me a company that doesn't pay a dime in taxes, please, make it one > that actually has employees and does something useful and makes profit. > Amuse me and try it out. I don't have a link ready right now, but there were several US corporations as well as some in Germany who did NOT pay any taxes for the past couple of years because of either "breaks" they got so not to leave, OR because they posted such high losses that they did not post any profit on the books, thus not pay any taxes. > >>> Alice, an engineer or pharmacist or perhaps a small business owner, >>> works between 40% and 70% of her time to pay money into government. >> >> And how much money does she get back by services? Say: >> Homelandsecurity? Say: Roadconstruction? etc.? > > A lot less than she would have to pay for those services in a free > society. This is very easy to determine from the fact that a big part > of > tax money goes into one social welfare scheme or another. > Assuming right now that you are living in Finland, i am wondering why you not move into the land of the free and do it without any social net? > Take that and in addition remember that goverments tend to do things > inefficiently (yes, that road building and security and other stuff > tend > to cost more than they'd have to) and that he gets a lot of 'services' > that have purely negative value to him (say tariffs, drug laws, > government > help monopolies [AMA is first to come to mind here], etc). > I guess it depends on which study you look. If the Army / Homeland security costs more when run by the government than when run by private firms the US Army should be highly efficent. After all WITHOUT private contractors none of the personell would be fed (that is done by a french catering company), without the likes of Halliburton and such the US Army would not be in Iraq, the support is pretty much "outsourced" for greater "efficency" and "cost saving". Of course companies tend to overcharge quite a huge amount, but hey, I am sure at the end they are still cheaper, right? What you fail to realize is that "you get what you pay for" and why would I want a company cut corners in things like social services, Security (i.e. police) or any other of these services only to save a buck or two? If that is the mentality no wonder companies attach a value to human life and don't really care if you burn up in your car or get killed as long as it is cheaper than to fix a problem. I guess that is also a reason why insurance rates for SUVs aren't up, while smaller cars are getting hit (Want to know why? Because if you die it is a one time payment and the insurance companies are off the hook. If you're just insured though, they pay a lot more to get you "fixed" again. SUVs tend to kill more people than maime them, thus by their logic they are cheaper). But all of you who seem to think that social services et al, should be run on a profit maximiation basis, tell me this: How much are you worth in Dollars and cents (or Euros)? I would like to know how much you think you are worth to your friends, family, kids, spouses etc.? Michael -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP 8.0.3 iQA/AwUBP/a/DmlCnxcrW2uuEQIkXACcC5x0ac8TJ+elTCJThFZlWwMnyQ0AoKkf Vy5kyDyc9Hq/uCDyOCgCUF6Z =e5W6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Engineers in U.S. vs. India
by Jim Dixon 08 Jan '04

08 Jan '04

On Tue, 6 Jan 2004, Declan McCullagh wrote: > http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-407043,curpg-3.cms "Today, Bangalore stands ahead of Bay Area, San Francisco and California, with a lead of 20,000 techies, while employing a total number of 1.5 lakh engineers." ek lakh = 100,000 I am sure that there are a lot of good engineers in India. However, the educational system has to be seen to be fully appreciated. When my wife and I last travelled in north India, admittedly quite some time ago, what began as a riot at the University of Lucknow -- students protesting over invigilation of exams, I believe -- escalated into a conflict that eventually involved the armed police on the one hand and the military on the other. The university campus was destroyed, burned down. I spent several months in Calcutta over a couple of years. During at least one visit there were riots at the university; the papers reported bodies hanging from trees. Many had been shot. Same story: students protested because they were stopped from openly exchanging papers, consulting books, or just chatting with friends during examinations. Many were also angry because invigilators were actually checking the identities of those writing the exam papers. The going rate for a degree at the time was several hundred dollars. Knowledge of the subject was not much relevant. Such education as occurred largely involved rote learning, often based on texts many years out of date. > Moreover, it is found out that the Americans are shying away from the > challenges of math and science. A recent National Science Foundation Study > reveals a 5 per cent decline in the overall doctoral candidates in the US > over the last five years. No telling what this actually means, given that a large percentage of doctoral candidates are foreign. It is becoming much harder for foreign students to get into the US, so many are going to universities in Europe. This change has occurred in the last five years -- more precisely, since 9/11. > The India side story: India produces 3.1 million college graduates a year, > which is expected to be doubled by 2010. The number of engineering colleges > is slated to grow 50 per cent, to nearly 1,600, over the next four years. My impression is that India has a few excellent institutions and a vast number of unbelievably bad schools. It seems likely that the flow of money into Bangalore and a few other centers will gradually improve this situation, but it is likely to take decades, and per-capita convergence with the US and Europe seems unlikely within the century. While 1.5 lakh (150,000) engineers may sound like a lot, you have to bear in mind that there are about 100 crore (1 billion) people in India. -- Jim Dixon jdd(a)dixons.org tel +44 117 982 0786 mobile +44 797 373 7881 http://jxcl.sourceforge.net Java unit test coverage http://xlattice.sourceforge.net p2p communications infrastructure

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Re: Engineers in U.S. vs. India
by Major Variola (ret) 08 Jan '04

08 Jan '04

At 01:27 PM 1/6/04 -0800, Steve Schear wrote: >Try building and finding a place to launch an amateur rocket (it can be >done, but now only with the greatest of regulatory red tape). I did. Some >of my group's rockets achieved heights over 100,000 ft (confirmed by >Edward's AFB radar.) Yeah, but could they track an IR source :-)

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Political Compass
by Steve Schear 07 Jan '04

07 Jan '04

A simple and interesting test to determine where people (its tuned to American issues) fit on a simple 2D graph of Left vs. Right, Authoritarian vs. Libertarian axis. http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/ Results are compared with estimates of current/recent political-religious leaders. No idea how accurate it is but my own results are pretty much in keeping with expectations: Left/Right 3.88 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.97 steve A foolish Constitutional inconsistency is the hobgoblin of freedom, adored by judges and demagogue statesmen. - Steve Schear

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WiFi Repeater?
by Tyler Durden 07 Jan '04

07 Jan '04

I'm thinking about a WiFi repeater... Imagine I work on a high floor in an office tower, but I know that very nearby, on the ground floor, there's a public WiFi hotspot. Now let's say I want to be able to access that hotspot, but I'm currently out of range due to the height. DOES THERE EXIST something like a WiFi "repeater", which will allow me to "reach" that public WiFi spot without my being within 200 feet or so? (I deploying one or more repeaters throughout our offices so that I can reach the public hotspot.) Of course, it's also better if that repeater masks who I am to the real hotspot, and terminates encryption on both sides. But of course, I don't want it to cost a ton, and I probably don't want anyone else to be able to use it either. One nice application of this is to be able to regularly send messages from this public spot, but without anyone every actually seeing me. And if the "last" repeater is in these (private) offices somewhere, it's doubtful anyone would ever be able to tell that this is occurring. Or so I believe... -TD _________________________________________________________________ Expand your wine savvy and get some great new recipes at MSN Wine. http://wine.msn.com

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Re: Small embedded computer board? (SLD PXA 255 DIMM)
by Thomas Shaddack 07 Jan '04

07 Jan '04

I was considering this avenue as well. Would be something between good and perfect, but the cost is prohibitive :( Also, there are security concerns with multi-purpose devices, as they are more complicated and more prone to exploitation; secure devices should have as few functions as possible without impairing the usability. Another concern is the ease of use. PDA interface is for high-tech-skilled users. A secure telephone shouldn't be significantly more difficult to use than a standard telephone. If a device has to be mass-accepted, it has to be simple and cheap. Which is why I look for cores for embeddable computer cores, like the PXA one. Thanks a lot for the suggestion, though. Implementations running on Zaurus could be a way to cover another segment of the secure telephony market. :) On Wed, 7 Jan 2004, shrevie(a)ntnation.com wrote: > > A much better choice would be a Sharp Zaurus C860... see specs here: > > http://www.dynamism.com/zaurus/ > > Has 64 meg of RAM, a CPU as fast as the one mentioned below, and a Linux > distro based on Debian..... also built in standard 2.5mm headphone out > and an EXTERNAL mic in.... hard to imagine a better platform for > SpeakFreely. > > If you want to get fancy, throw in a small form factor CF bluetooth card > (the 860 has a CF slot) and you could bond to a Bluetooth cellphone.... > Speakfreely without wires :) > > Moe > > Thomas Shaddack wrote: > > > http://www.hw-server.com/test/sld_hws.html > > Take a look at the DIMM modules. > > > > Looks like a good candidate for a battery-powered portable VoIP/GSM > > encrypted cellphone. Add a GPRS modem or a cellphone (or, for landline > > version, a modem), a small display/keyboard, and eg. SpeakFreely with > > suitable session key handshake, stir, serve warm. > > > > Does it look like an usable way to have open and reasonably cheap > > ($160+cellphone+some parts around) portable secure telephone platform? > > Does anybody here have any experience with embedded computer hardware, > > who could confirm or deny this kind of hardware as bearing hope for this > > application?

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Small embedded computer board? (SLD PXA 255 DIMM)
by Thomas Shaddack 06 Jan '04

06 Jan '04

http://www.hw-server.com/test/sld_hws.html Take a look at the DIMM modules. Looks like a good candidate for a battery-powered portable VoIP/GSM encrypted cellphone. Add a GPRS modem or a cellphone (or, for landline version, a modem), a small display/keyboard, and eg. SpeakFreely with suitable session key handshake, stir, serve warm. Does it look like an usable way to have open and reasonably cheap ($160+cellphone+some parts around) portable secure telephone platform? Does anybody here have any experience with embedded computer hardware, who could confirm or deny this kind of hardware as bearing hope for this application?

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Engineers in U.S. vs. India
by Declan McCullagh 06 Jan '04

06 Jan '04

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-407043,curpg-3.cms Moreover, it is found out that the Americans are shying away from the challenges of math and science. A recent National Science Foundation Study reveals a 5 per cent decline in the overall doctoral candidates in the US over the last five years. The India side story: India produces 3.1 million college graduates a year, which is expected to be doubled by 2010. The number of engineering colleges is slated to grow 50 per cent, to nearly 1,600, over the next four years.

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DoS-ing fatherland goons
by privacy.at Anonymous Remailer 06 Jan '04

06 Jan '04

If we put aside the probable and obvious cause for disrupting the air traffic - namely, introduction of the permanent emergency state (in the future 2-3% of all flights may be affected - small price for maintaining the power), I wonder what are the logistics of injecting false information into the snooping systems. Most of those are automated and prone to false alarms. Few ideas: - Orchestrated credit card purchases under proper "suspicious" conditions ("travelling without husband" - check today's news). - No shows at US-bound flights. Extremely efficient use of economy class fare. - Orchestrated telephone conversations using codewords ("thw worm will meet the apple on monday") - Ordering tens of almanacs, etc. Some simple scanning around these ports will reveal what is effective and what is not. Bearing in mind that basic TCP/IP protocols, servers and clients, after years of fixing, are still vulnerable to new attacs I doubt that pinheads on the TLA payrolls will be able to fix theirs. The beauty of these attacks is that they can be launched by any entity - from ragheads to governments, and next to impossible to trace if done properly.

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Re: WiFi Repeater?
by Tyler Durden 06 Jan '04

06 Jan '04

Well, I don't think the truly passive route is the most appropriate. At least, I can imagine the DHCP of Starbucks, for instance, will be "aware" of my computer's Ethernet address, or at least it can be 'modified' to look for me and report (to a TLA) when I'm online. (I'm no datacom guy so I may have fumbled the correct usage of the terminology.) With an active device "I" could be made to look different every time. (I suppose some of this could be done in my laptop, but let's just assume I don't own this computer and can't modify it.) And I'd prefer if it didn't cost me an arm and a leg (come to think of it, I could probably just buy a few cheap Linksys WiFi routers and scatter them around, but I was hoping for something even cheaper, smaller, and less obtrusive.) -TD >From: R/db <daryl.bunce(a)attws.com> >To: Tyler Durden <camera_lumina(a)hotmail.com> >CC: cypherpunks(a)minder.net >Subject: Re: WiFi Repeater? >Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 12:11:00 -0800 > >On Tue, Jan 06, 2004 at 02:20:15PM -0500, Tyler Durden wrote: > > DOES THERE EXIST something like a WiFi "repeater", which will allow me >to > > "reach" that public WiFi spot without my being within 200 feet or so? > >How about an antenna, instead? It would work if you have >line-of-sight. > >If you're really looking for a repeater, check the comments >from the community 802.11 groups, like Seattle Wireless: > >http://www.seattlewireless.net/index.cgi/PassiveRepeater > > _________________________________________________________________ Enjoy a special introductory offer for dial-up Internet access limited time only! http://join.msn.com/?page=dept/dialup

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