September 2004 - cypherpunks-legacy

CFP: Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PET 2005)
by R. A. Hettinga 01 Oct '04

01 Oct '04

--- begin forwarded text

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Are horrific means justified by utopia?
by R. A. Hettinga 30 Sep '04

30 Sep '04

<http://www.townhall.com/columnists/GuestColumns/printFlynn20040929.shtml> Townhall.com Are horrific means justified by utopia? Daniel J. Flynn (back to web version) | Send September 29, 2004 If you believe the fulfillment of your cause will create Heaven on Earth, anything done in its name is justified. Grasping this basic concept helps one to better understand the present-day beheadings by backward fundamentalists hoping to create Allah's Kingdom in the temporal world. It also helps one understand the mass killings of the past in Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union supported by cultured intellectuals promising to make men perfect. This is why utopianism is so dangerous. It rationalizes horrible crimes done to attain the unattainable. The intellectual morons discussed in my book by the same name get blinded to reality by the causes that they serve. The loftier the ideal, the baser their actions become in its name. Examples abound. Idealism unchecked by reality fueled the worldwide eugenics movement of the first half of the twentieth century. English intellectual Herbert Spencer articulated the lofty goal of eugenics by announcing that "all imperfection must disappear." Toward this end, Margaret Sanger called for forced sterilization, concentration camps, and birth control for the "creation of a new race." In America, the ideals of Planned Parenthood's founder were partially realized through the sterilization by state governments of nearly 70,000 people. In Germany, these same ideals-"a new race"-resulted in something far more horrible. W.E.B. Du Bois, a founder of the NAACP, believed Karl Marx a "colossal genius." Du Bois's fanatical devotion to Communism's triumph made a liar out of him. To the esteemed professor, Stalin was a "great" and "courageous" man, while the "sinister" Churchhill was the primary leader bringing the "death and destruction of human civilization." Amidst the mass killings of Maoist China, Du Bois detected "a sense of human nature free of its most hurtful and terrible meanness." America, fresh from victory over Nazism and immersed in a cold war against the Soviet Union, was to him "the greatest warmonger of all history." Deluded by an ideology that promised utopia, Du Bois confused statesmen for murderers and murderers for statesmen; free nations for totalitarian ones and totalitarian nations for free ones. Novelist Ayn Rand hated Nazism and Communism, but this didn't stop her from imitating many of the unattractive aspects of those ideologies in both her fiction and in her real life. The high priestess of Objectivism established a cult of personality, held show trials against followers, denied reality (such as the success of Sputnik) when it didn't conform to her theories, and demanded the submission of individual judgment to her own. In Rand's books, she fantasized about the destruction of the portion of humanity standing in the way of her ideals. Examples of this include the holocaust that concludes Atlas Shrugged and the words of We the Living's heroine: "What are your masses but mud to be ground underfoot, fuel to be burned for those who deserve it?" The damage done by Objectivism, thankfully, rarely went beyond the movement's ranks. Ideologies promise to save the world. They fail. Instead, they breed fanaticism, justify dishonesty, and cloud reality. They do this by keeping adherents transfixed on the unreachable goal: human perfectibility. The focus on the impossible keeps the actual out of sight. Thus, crimes, lies, and even murders committed on the ideology's behalf are ignored, excused, and denied. Rather than demonstrating that men can be made perfect, ideologues show us how fallen man can be. This is as true today among al Qaeda's followers as it was eighty-five years ago among the Bolsheviks. Most of the evil committed is done in the name of the good. Aristotle, for instance, observed in the Nicomachean Ethics that "every action and decision, seems to seek some good." Crucially, he added, "But the ends appear to differ." Do they ever. When you're providing earthly deliverance, all is permitted-the gulag, the gas chamber, beheadings, etc. After all, ends that glorious will always justify means that horrific. Unfortunately, utopian ideologies never succeed in their ends or spare in their means. The road to heaven on earth invariably detours to a dead end more closely resembling a much hotter place. Daniel J. Flynn is the author of Intellectual Morons: How Ideology Makes Smart People Fall for Stupid Ideas -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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[IP] Carry Umbrella in DC (fwd from dave@farber.net)
by Eugen Leitl 30 Sep '04

30 Sep '04

----- Forwarded message from David Farber <dave(a)farber.net> -----

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ADV: Announcement To All Staff
by Admin 30 Sep '04

30 Sep '04

Attention All Nonprofit Organizations: Members, Staff and Associates: You Must Respond By 5 P.M. Friday, October 1, 2004. Through a special arrangement, Avtech Direct is offering a limited allotment of BRAND NEW, top of-the-line, name-brand desktop computers at more than 50% off MSRP to all Nonprofit Members and Staff who respond to this message before 5 P.M., Friday, October 1, 2004. All desktop are brand-new, packed in their original boxes, and come with a full manufacturer's warranty plus a 100% satisfaction guarantee. These professional grade Desktops are fully equipped with 2004 next generation technology, making these the best performing computers money can buy. Avtech Direct is offering these feature rich, top performing Desktop Computers with the latest Intel technology at an amazing price to all who call: 1-800-884-9510 by 5 P.M. Friday, October 1, 2004 The fast and powerful AT-2400 series Desktop features: * Intel 2.0Ghz Processor for amazing speed and performance * 128MB DDR RAM, --- Upgradeable to 1024 * 20 GB UDMA Hard Drive, --- Upgradeable to 80 GB * 52X CD-Rom Drive, --- Upgradeable to DVD/CDRW * 1.44 Floppy disk drive * Next Generation Technology * ATI Premium video and sound * Full Connectivity with Fax modem/Lan/IEE 1394/USB 2.0 * Soft Touch Keyboard and scroll mouse * Internet Ready * Network Ready * 1 Year parts and labor warranty * Priority customer service and tech support MSRP $699 ........................................ Your Cost $297 How to qualify: 1. You must be a Member, Staff or Associate of a Nonprofit. 2. All desktop computers will be available on a first come first serve basis. 3. You must call 1-800-884-9510 by 5 P.M. Friday, October 1, 2004 and we will hold the desktops you request on will call. 4. You are not obligated in any way. 5. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed. Call Avtech Direct 1-800-884-9510 before 5 P.M. Friday, October 1, 2004 Visit our website at http://www.avtechdirectcomputers.com If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, please go to: http://www.computeradvice.org/unsubscribe.asp Avtech Direct 22647 Ventura Blvd., Suite 374 Woodland Hills, CA 91364

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More Convenient Use of Electronic Gold Payments
by Bill Stewart 30 Sep '04

30 Sep '04

I've used E-Gold in the past, and found that the hardest part of the process is buying the stuff to put in your account - setting up an account and paying people with it are both easy, but to buy the gold, you need to find some way to give somebody some other kind of money so they'll give you electronic gold. If you want $10000 worth, or want to transfer physical gold, it's not hard, but if you just want small quantities it was annoying. Jim Davidson's article talked about E-Gold and other currencies, and almost all of them operate under a model in which the gold service transfers gold credits between accounts, but buying the gold credits with other types of money is handled by third-party retailers, and almost none of the retailers will accept credit cards or Paypal without long delays, though they'll happily accept other gold currencies. There's now a much more convenient way to buy online gold - goldage.net. To pay them cash, you do an online form, then go to a bank they use, and fill out a deposit slip with their account number from the form, and hand the bank your cash, and then do another form to say you did it. They use banks in USA, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and South Africa. Their US banks include Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and three or four others. You don't need to set up an account with them - they mostly do transactional business, though their fees are a bit lower if you're a large frequent customer. The gold currency payment isn't instant - it can take a couple of days for Goldage to see that the deposit was made. They seem to be a small operation, so they're very responsive to email. A couple of months ago, I wanted to pay for some services using an online gold currency, and the merchant accepts E-gold, Pecunix, and several other gold currencies. I didn't want to use E-Gold itself, because there are too many spammers phishing for people's e-gold account information the way they do for credit cards, and I didn't want to have to miss any _real_ email from them mixed in with the spam. Pecunix was one of the gold currencies that my merchant's online payment system Goldcart accepted, and they were easy to use. So I did the online form at Goldage, deposited the cash at the bank, checked Pecunix a couple of days later, and paid the merchant. I think the total fees were about $6-7 between the different service providers, mostly the $5 minimum fee at Goldage, and I may have a buck or two of round-off-error money sitting in Pecunix, but the percentage costs would be lower if I were using it more frequently rather than a one-shot transaction. It worked very well, and was much simpler than a few years ago.

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October meeting announcement for SV2600
by T.R. Fullhart 30 Sep '04

30 Sep '04

This Friday is the October meeting of the Silicon Valley chapter of 2600. 2600 meetings are local gatherings to learn and discuss the information infrastructure of our society. This includes problems with the infrastructure and it's affects on our modern society. Chapters of 2600 are registered with 2600 magazine, http://www.2600.com/. Topics covered include: wired and wireless communications technology, secure computing platforms, open-source and free software movement, cryptography, how-tos, information security, and electronic civil rights. The Silicon Valley chapter of 2600 meets at 6:00PM on the first Friday of each month. We meet in the cafe patio at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Library at 4th and E. San Fernando in downtown San Jose: 150 E. San Fernado St. San Jose, CA 95112 Our web site is at http://www.sv2600.org/. -- T.R. Fullhart kayos(a)genetikayos.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo(a)metzdowd.com

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Federal judge rejects part of Patriot Act
by R. A. Hettinga 29 Sep '04

29 Sep '04

<http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6131670/print/1/displaymode/1098/> MSNBC.com Federal judge rejects part of Patriot Act Provision giving FBI access to business records overturned Reuters Updated: 12:11 p.m. ET Sept. 29, 2004 NEW YORK - A federal judge Wednesday found unconstitutional a part of the United States' anti-terror Patriot Act that allows authorities to demand customer records from businesses without court approval. U.S. District Judge Victor Marreo ruled in favor of the American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the power the FBI has to demand confidential financial records from companies as part of terrorism investigations. The ruling was the latest blow to the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies. In June, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that terror suspects being held in places like Guantanamo Bay can use the American judicial system to challenge their confinement. That ruling was a defeat for the president's assertion of sweeping powers to hold "enemy combatants" indefinitely after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The ACLU sued the Department of Justice, arguing that part of the Patriot legislation violated the Constitution because it authorizes the FBI to force disclosure of sensitive information without adequate safeguards. The judge agreed, stating that the provision "effectively bars or substantially deters any judicial challenge." Under the provision, the FBI did not have to show a judge a compelling need for the records and it did not have to specify any process that would allow a recipient to fight the demand for confidential information. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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How to fuck with airports - a 1 step guide for (Redmond) terrorists.
by Sunder 29 Sep '04

29 Sep '04

Q: How do you cause an 800-plane pile-up at a major airport? A: Replace working Unix systems with Microsoft Windows 2000! Details: http://www.techworld.com/opsys/news/index.cfm?NewsID=2275 ----------------------Kaos-Keraunos-Kybernetos--------------------------- + ^ + :"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. /|\ \|/ :They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country /\|/\ <--*-->:and our people, and neither do we." -G. W. Bush, 2004.08.05 \/|\/ /|\ : \|/ + v + : War is Peace, freedom is slavery, Bush is President. -------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Cryptography regulations threaten OSS in SA
by R. A. Hettinga 29 Sep '04

29 Sep '04

<http://www.ebcvg.com/news.php?id=3852> eBCVG - Cryptography regulations threaten OSS in SA Published on: Tuesday, 28 September 2004, 19:40 GMT South Africa's Electronic Communications and Transactions (ECT) Act of 2002 is a controversial piece of legislation. It attempts to address a whole lot of issues at once, without seeming to do a good job of any of them. Sections include a national e-strategy, e-government, electronic documents, cryptography, authentication, consumer protection, the .za domain name authority, and cyber crime. Chapter 5 deals with cryptography. It specifies the compulsory registration of all "cryptography providers" with the Department of Communications. The Act states in 30(1): "No person may provide cryptography services or cryptography products in the Republic until the particulars ... in respect of that person have been recorded in the register..." -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Re: How to fuck with airports - a 1 step guide for (Redmond)
by Major Variola (ret) 29 Sep '04

29 Sep '04

Personal aside. I've started working for a medical device company. This is not so far from security programming, as checking your inputs, robustness, and being able to justify time spent inspecting and testing are all common to both domains. But today I learned that a device that keeps you heart going, should it forget how, has a field that rolls over in about 40+ days. But hey, euthanisia is underappreciated. Reboot that pacer! ------ People who are willing to rely on the government to keep them safe are pretty much standing on Darwin's mat, pounding on the door, screaming, "Take me, take me!"--Cael in A.S.R. Sunder wrote: >Q: How do you cause an 800-plane pile-up at a major airport? >A: Replace working Unix systems with Microsoft Windows 2000! "The servers are timed to shut down after 49.7 days of use in order to prevent a data overload, a union official told the LA Times." That would be 49.710269618055555555555555555556 days, or (curiously enough) 4294967295 (0xFFFFFFFF) milliseconds. Known problem with Win95 ('cept they call Win95 a "server").

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