July 2018 - cypherpunks-legacy

None
by Ian G 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

<gold-silver-crypto(a)rayservers.com >, Cryptography <cryptography(a)metzdowd.com> Subject: Re: EU Directive makes it easier to print e-money The eMoney directive (1994) was originally written at the desire of the banks to clobber Digicash and the like. The Bundesbank led the charge by more or less writing it so that "emoney is reserved for banks (or approximations)." There was stiff opposition from Britain, Netherlands and one other (Denmark?), and the compromise that Bundesbank agreed to was that an institution could be "not a bank" in name but the barriers were preserved. IOW, an elephant, with huge inputs in capital, huge outputs in pollution and no value to the ecosystem. This was all justified on "monetary policy" which I showed to be just marketing blather in an old paper here: http://iang.org/papers/monpol.html In which I more or less predicted it would fail and issuance would be done in USA. Then, in late 1990s, the reality was reaching even the EU in that the original concept was a failure so the committee proceeded to rewrite it. That's all it needs, right? Of course, they had no actual experience in eMoney, they were a bunch of bureaucrats learning by watching what was happening in the press. Still with the banks behind them, and the impending euro to make them nervous, they essentially enjoyed a market-learning process in a committee, and predictably came out with the camel of 2000. This camel of course failed, and as the Paypal, webmoney and e-gold models showed themselves, they slowly came to the realisation that their camel had to be downsized. Now they have a shetland pony. It's nice and tight, definately cute, and probably doesn't eat more than is needed. There is probably a niche for them in the shetlands. It's actually almost doable, on paper, but would you want to take that risk? Why would you want to? The total equation is still impractical, and you are better off issuing eMoney (both inside and outside their definition) somewhere else. iang On 23/10/2009 15:24, R.A. Hettinga wrote: > <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/22/e_money/print.html> > > Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/22/e_money/ > EU Directive makes it easier to print e-money > Out with the old > By OUT-LAW.COM > > Posted in Financial News, 22nd October 2009 14:59 GMT > > The E-Money Directive has failed to help establish a market for > virtual > currency and will be replaced with a set of less onerous regulations. > The replacement E-Money Directive will come into force at the end of > this month. > > The European Council and European Parliament published the replacement > Directive in the Official Journal of the European Union on 10th > October. > It will come into force 20 days after publication and must be > transposed > into national law by the EU's 27 member states by the end of April > 2011. > > The Council said that it hoped that the new Directive would address > the > failures of the old one. > > "Its adoption follows an assessment by the Commission of [the old > Directive] which shows that electronic money is still far from > delivering the benefits that were expected when that directive was > adopted eight years ago," said the Council when it announced the new > law > earlier this year. "The number of newcomers to the market has been > relatively low, and in most member states e-money is not yet > considered > a credible alternative to cash." > Jacob Ghanty, an expert in finance law at Pinsent Masons, the law firm > behind OUT-LAW.COM, said that the new version of the Directive lowers > some of the barriers preventing companies from offering e-money > services. > > "There was some criticism of the prudential regime of the Directive, > which means the amount of money you have to hold to offer services," > he > said. "People who looked at it realised that to be an issuer you were > required to hold a lot of capital, which was quite onerous." > > "That will now dropped from 1 million to 125,000, which is a big > dip," > said Ghanty. > > He said that it will align the requirements relating to e-money to the > requirements that payment institutions will have to meet under the > Payment Services Directive, which comes into force on 1st November. > "It > will align it with the Payment Services Directive requirements, > which is > sensible because they are related concepts." > > Ghanty said that the new E-money Directive also clears up some > confusion > about what e-money actually is. "There were criticisms that under the > old Directive the definition of what e-money is was broad and vague, > and > that that made it difficult to determine what was and was not e- > money," > he said. > > "The new one actually simplifies the definition which makes it clearer > and also makes it more capable of coping with technology advances in > the > future," he said. > > The old definition of e-money employed by the EU law actually excluded > many kinds of services that service providers might have thought did > count as e-money. > > "Quite often a client would ask 'does it amount to e-money under the > Directive' and we were able to conclude more often than not that it > didn't amount to e-money, and this was not the intention of the > Directive," said Ghanty. "I think the new definition will clearly > capture the things the Directive was intended to catch."

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None
by Ian G 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

<gold-silver-crypto(a)rayservers.com >, Cryptography <cryptography(a)metzdowd.com> Subject: Re: EU Directive makes it easier to print e-money The eMoney directive (1994) was originally written at the desire of the banks to clobber Digicash and the like. The Bundesbank led the charge by more or less writing it so that "emoney is reserved for banks (or approximations)." There was stiff opposition from Britain, Netherlands and one other (Denmark?), and the compromise that Bundesbank agreed to was that an institution could be "not a bank" in name but the barriers were preserved. IOW, an elephant, with huge inputs in capital, huge outputs in pollution and no value to the ecosystem. This was all justified on "monetary policy" which I showed to be just marketing blather in an old paper here: http://iang.org/papers/monpol.html In which I more or less predicted it would fail and issuance would be done in USA. Then, in late 1990s, the reality was reaching even the EU in that the original concept was a failure so the committee proceeded to rewrite it. That's all it needs, right? Of course, they had no actual experience in eMoney, they were a bunch of bureaucrats learning by watching what was happening in the press. Still with the banks behind them, and the impending euro to make them nervous, they essentially enjoyed a market-learning process in a committee, and predictably came out with the camel of 2000. This camel of course failed, and as the Paypal, webmoney and e-gold models showed themselves, they slowly came to the realisation that their camel had to be downsized. Now they have a shetland pony. It's nice and tight, definately cute, and probably doesn't eat more than is needed. There is probably a niche for them in the shetlands. It's actually almost doable, on paper, but would you want to take that risk? Why would you want to? The total equation is still impractical, and you are better off issuing eMoney (both inside and outside their definition) somewhere else. iang On 23/10/2009 15:24, R.A. Hettinga wrote: > <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/22/e_money/print.html> > > Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/10/22/e_money/ > EU Directive makes it easier to print e-money > Out with the old > By OUT-LAW.COM > > Posted in Financial News, 22nd October 2009 14:59 GMT > > The E-Money Directive has failed to help establish a market for > virtual > currency and will be replaced with a set of less onerous regulations. > The replacement E-Money Directive will come into force at the end of > this month. > > The European Council and European Parliament published the replacement > Directive in the Official Journal of the European Union on 10th > October. > It will come into force 20 days after publication and must be > transposed > into national law by the EU's 27 member states by the end of April > 2011. > > The Council said that it hoped that the new Directive would address > the > failures of the old one. > > "Its adoption follows an assessment by the Commission of [the old > Directive] which shows that electronic money is still far from > delivering the benefits that were expected when that directive was > adopted eight years ago," said the Council when it announced the new > law > earlier this year. "The number of newcomers to the market has been > relatively low, and in most member states e-money is not yet > considered > a credible alternative to cash." > Jacob Ghanty, an expert in finance law at Pinsent Masons, the law firm > behind OUT-LAW.COM, said that the new version of the Directive lowers > some of the barriers preventing companies from offering e-money > services. > > "There was some criticism of the prudential regime of the Directive, > which means the amount of money you have to hold to offer services," > he > said. "People who looked at it realised that to be an issuer you were > required to hold a lot of capital, which was quite onerous." > > "That will now dropped from 1 million to 125,000, which is a big > dip," > said Ghanty. > > He said that it will align the requirements relating to e-money to the > requirements that payment institutions will have to meet under the > Payment Services Directive, which comes into force on 1st November. > "It > will align it with the Payment Services Directive requirements, > which is > sensible because they are related concepts." > > Ghanty said that the new E-money Directive also clears up some > confusion > about what e-money actually is. "There were criticisms that under the > old Directive the definition of what e-money is was broad and vague, > and > that that made it difficult to determine what was and was not e- > money," > he said. > > "The new one actually simplifies the definition which makes it clearer > and also makes it more capable of coping with technology advances in > the > future," he said. > > The old definition of e-money employed by the EU law actually excluded > many kinds of services that service providers might have thought did > count as e-money. > > "Quite often a client would ask 'does it amount to e-money under the > Directive' and we were able to conclude more often than not that it > didn't amount to e-money, and this was not the intention of the > Directive," said Ghanty. "I think the new definition will clearly > capture the things the Directive was intended to catch."

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[tor-talk] Shewstring v1.0.2 release
by Shew 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Hi everyone, Shewstring v1.0.2 is now being released! Here are the major changes: * I2P has been fixed, and support has been dramatically improved (with more than an order of magnitude increase in efficiency; wrapper and jbigi work), thanks mostly to the I2P devs. * Fix a major bug where wireless did not work due to a problem with PF. * Misc. XFCE improvements. * Pidgin is now allowed to keep 'pounces.xml' across reboots. * Added new Shew GPG key. * Misc. bugfixes, tweaks and updates. Regarding the regressions in the previous version: * I2P has been fixed and improved to work better than before the regression (see above). * The window lag bug is not reproducible on other test machines. This suggests to me that it is a FreeBSD driver regression, and not something that I can fix. Let me know if you experience it too. You can find more general information, and the actual release, here: http://xqz3u5drneuzhaeo.onion/users/shew2/shewstring/20110810-shewstringv1.… A little OT, for people who follow my blog: I have made a small post about the new F/LOSS movement taking place on one of the Onionland forums. Also my key has changed. More info reachable through the main page of my blog: http://xqz3u5drneuzhaeo.onion/users/shew2/ -- Shew _______________________________________________ tor-talk mailing list tor-talk(a)lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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Re: [Freedombox-discuss] Allied Efforts.
by Paul Gardner-Stephen 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Hi, As the founder of the Serval Project I can certainly confirm that while telephony is our head-line use-use that we certainly care about data, and are absolutely making data distribution tools that operate on our mesh layer, so I think you will find that our goals are even more compatible than it may first appear. We are also in the process of adding various other features that may be of interest to the FreedomBox community, such as: 1. strong cryptography that is not reliant on any global certificate authority. A key part of this crypto layer is that we are building a team that can perform a credible and open security analysis of the architecture, which is a step often omitted. 2. The Rhizome Retriever that you have already discovered allows the distribution of files, open-source maps (more on that in a moment) and messages (including updates to the Serval software) over the mesh. One of the interesting challenges we are addressing with this is how to secure the update process to prevent unlawful sabotaging of the Serval network through seizing or reverse engineering the signing key. I am happy to explain more of our thinking on this if there is interest. 3. The Serval Distributed Map Tool. This uses locally cached open street map tiles to provide mapping services without the use of internet. One of the really nice synergies of our platform is that we can use the Rhizome Retriever to automatically copy cached map tiles from other phones in the area. Not only does this really enhance the resilience of the mapping tool, but it also has the potential to get map data faster, and allow for updated map tiles in field. There are also other features that we are working on, but this is a selection of ones that I thought might be of particular interest. For further reading, I would recommend having a look at our white paper: http://developer.servalproject.org/site/docs/2011/Serval_Introduction.html It should also be said that while we are targeting Android initially, we are structuring the software so that it can run on any operating system, and we have preliminary work underway for porting to Linux, Symbian S60, iOS, and OSX. In terms of the requirement for root access on the phone, we have progressed the software so that for phones that can run as access points we can institute a kind of dynamic tiling approach to get AP and client devices to communicate in a kind of 2nd class mesh that is possible to form using almost any WiFi capable device. This allows mesh phone calls over one to two hops (AP->Client or Client->AP->Client), but more importantly it allows the Rhizome file dissemination process to occur without impediment, as that already spreads files one hop at a time to avoid the exponential decay in available bandwidth that occurs when sending data many hops on a mesh network. We are also actively engaging in the IEEE 802.11 standards process to get ad-hoc fixed (ask me if you need information about the problems with using ad-hoc WiFi to form mesh networks), and also to standardise the use of the cellular radio present in all phones to allow ad-hoc packet radio in the ISM915 band to allow long-range mesh networking. In terms of current progress for the Serval Project generally, we have alpha-quality developer releases that we are making periodically to help people find and report the glaring bugs and problems, as well as get a taste of some of the functionality we are providing. We have a dedicated community support engineer on the serval-project-developers list (Romain) who will do his best to respond to any issues, and we would welcome the FreedomBox community to take advantage of that resource if trying out our software, or suggesting feature enhancements. While Serval does not operate as a democracy, preferring the "benevolent dictatorship" approach to open source development while we undertake our initial build-out of core features to help maintain clear focus and keep development driving forward, we do have an intentional culture of listening to potential user's requests and, as far as is practical, taking them on board. For instance, aspects of the mapping service and Rhizome Retriever have been influenced by input we have received from humanitarian and aid organisations. We would thus welcome any input and suggestions from the FreedomBox community as we progress our development and planning activities. We do also welcome assistance from the open source community, and aim to work as cooperatively with others as we can. Paul. Founder, Serval Project, Shuttleworth Telecommunications Fellow, Rural, Remote & Humanitarian Telecommunications Research Fellow, Flinders University. On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 6:06 AM, ya knygar <knygar(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> We've been keeping an eye on the Serval Project for a while. B They >> have a slightly different but still compatible goal in mind >> (telephony, as opposed to a general purpose data network). B One of the >> ways we differ is that we are not designing custom hardware for >> Byzantium, preferring instead to make maximal use of commodity >> hardware already extant (namely, laptops, netbooks, and wi-fi enabled >> mobile devices). > > Hello, > > the Serval's site states "b& without infrastructure, without mobile > towers, without satellites, without wifi hotspots, and without > carriers. Use existing off-the-shelf mobile cell phone handsets. Use > your existing mobile phone number wherever you go, and never pay > roaming charges again." > > "Rooting the phone will allow for adhoc mesh network capability and is > required for > full functionality of the software. By choosing not to root the phone, > the software > will still be able to provide free calls to phones that are connected > to the same > Access Point." > > actually [ http://developer.servalproject.org/files/Serval_Manual_Prototype_v0.05.pdf > ] they provide > > " > b" Adhoc will enable you to participate in a mesh network. This option > will only be > B available if you have super-user privileges on the phone. > b" Client will enable you to connect to an access point. > b" Access Point will enable other phones in Client mode to connect to your phone. > " > > possibilities. > > It is Village Telco that sells it's own Mesh Potatoes, AFAIK because > they were willing to work with fully open source-able hardware and > existed variants weren't able to provide this. > > That all means - Serval Project isn't about designing a custom hardware. > > Also, apparently from their mailing list, they have > > "subproject ... to create an application that allows to spread files > over the mesh network by exchanging with servers that the handset can > see (could be peers and web servers). This app will eventually be > merged to batphone." > > some code here - https://github.com/rbochet/Rhizome-Retriever/ > > -- that is for the "data network" aspect. > > also they have the well grown support and organization IMO, > so i think - the allied efforts is a good idea. > > @The Doctor > >> Byzantium is a distribution of Linux which makes it easy to set up an >> ad-hoc wireless mesh infrastructure. > >> Byzantium, preferring instead to make maximal use of commodity >> hardware already extant (namely, laptops, netbooks, and wi-fi enabled >> mobile devices). > > That means - the users would need to install a separate Linux distro > on all these devices? > > Do you plan to provide the packages or virtual "images" to the existing OS's? > > Distribution for the routers? > > Applications for the poor mobile devices which are messed and would be > messed enough so user can't install another or replacing OS on them? > > Thank you in advance. > > _______________________________________________ > Freedombox-discuss mailing list > Freedombox-discuss(a)lists.alioth.debian.org > http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss _______________________________________________ Freedombox-discuss mailing list Freedombox-discuss(a)lists.alioth.debian.org http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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Re: [p2p-hackers] MixMinion vs. onion routing & GNUnet question
by seberino＠spawar.navy.mil 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

> These may be naive questions (I don't know GNUnet too well), but > hopefully I am about to learn something: GNUnet tries to achieve at > least three goals at the same time that are not perfectly understood > and should rather be treated individually: > > - anonymity > - censor resistance > - high-performance document distribution Performance is a secondary goal to the first 2 in GNUnet. The first 2 are related so I'm not sure how or why they need to be treated separately. > Also, don't the shortcomings of mix networks also apply to Freenet- / > GNUnet-style anonymization schemes? > I suspect that no matter what (existing) adversary > model you pick, plugging a good mix network into your design on the > transport layer gives you the highest anonymity possible. I don't know how GNUnet's architecture compares to mix networks. I *do* know that GNUnet attempts to protect against traffic analysis. If you think mix networks are better, they better have good protection against traffic analysis. Can you point us to any good URLs or papers on how mix networks protect against traffic analysis? Chris _______________________________________________ p2p-hackers mailing list p2p-hackers(a)zgp.org http://zgp.org/mailman/listinfo/p2p-hackers _______________________________________________ Here is a web page listing P2P Conferences: http://www.neurogrid.net/twiki/bin/view/Main/PeerToPeerConferences ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]

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[tor-talk] Shewstring v1.0.2 release
by Shew 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Hi everyone, Shewstring v1.0.2 is now being released! Here are the major changes: * I2P has been fixed, and support has been dramatically improved (with more than an order of magnitude increase in efficiency; wrapper and jbigi work), thanks mostly to the I2P devs. * Fix a major bug where wireless did not work due to a problem with PF. * Misc. XFCE improvements. * Pidgin is now allowed to keep 'pounces.xml' across reboots. * Added new Shew GPG key. * Misc. bugfixes, tweaks and updates. Regarding the regressions in the previous version: * I2P has been fixed and improved to work better than before the regression (see above). * The window lag bug is not reproducible on other test machines. This suggests to me that it is a FreeBSD driver regression, and not something that I can fix. Let me know if you experience it too. You can find more general information, and the actual release, here: http://xqz3u5drneuzhaeo.onion/users/shew2/shewstring/20110810-shewstringv1.… A little OT, for people who follow my blog: I have made a small post about the new F/LOSS movement taking place on one of the Onionland forums. Also my key has changed. More info reachable through the main page of my blog: http://xqz3u5drneuzhaeo.onion/users/shew2/ -- Shew _______________________________________________ tor-talk mailing list tor-talk(a)lists.torproject.org https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

1 0

Re: [Freedombox-discuss] Allied Efforts.
by Paul Gardner-Stephen 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Hi, As the founder of the Serval Project I can certainly confirm that while telephony is our head-line use-use that we certainly care about data, and are absolutely making data distribution tools that operate on our mesh layer, so I think you will find that our goals are even more compatible than it may first appear. We are also in the process of adding various other features that may be of interest to the FreedomBox community, such as: 1. strong cryptography that is not reliant on any global certificate authority. A key part of this crypto layer is that we are building a team that can perform a credible and open security analysis of the architecture, which is a step often omitted. 2. The Rhizome Retriever that you have already discovered allows the distribution of files, open-source maps (more on that in a moment) and messages (including updates to the Serval software) over the mesh. One of the interesting challenges we are addressing with this is how to secure the update process to prevent unlawful sabotaging of the Serval network through seizing or reverse engineering the signing key. I am happy to explain more of our thinking on this if there is interest. 3. The Serval Distributed Map Tool. This uses locally cached open street map tiles to provide mapping services without the use of internet. One of the really nice synergies of our platform is that we can use the Rhizome Retriever to automatically copy cached map tiles from other phones in the area. Not only does this really enhance the resilience of the mapping tool, but it also has the potential to get map data faster, and allow for updated map tiles in field. There are also other features that we are working on, but this is a selection of ones that I thought might be of particular interest. For further reading, I would recommend having a look at our white paper: http://developer.servalproject.org/site/docs/2011/Serval_Introduction.html It should also be said that while we are targeting Android initially, we are structuring the software so that it can run on any operating system, and we have preliminary work underway for porting to Linux, Symbian S60, iOS, and OSX. In terms of the requirement for root access on the phone, we have progressed the software so that for phones that can run as access points we can institute a kind of dynamic tiling approach to get AP and client devices to communicate in a kind of 2nd class mesh that is possible to form using almost any WiFi capable device. This allows mesh phone calls over one to two hops (AP->Client or Client->AP->Client), but more importantly it allows the Rhizome file dissemination process to occur without impediment, as that already spreads files one hop at a time to avoid the exponential decay in available bandwidth that occurs when sending data many hops on a mesh network. We are also actively engaging in the IEEE 802.11 standards process to get ad-hoc fixed (ask me if you need information about the problems with using ad-hoc WiFi to form mesh networks), and also to standardise the use of the cellular radio present in all phones to allow ad-hoc packet radio in the ISM915 band to allow long-range mesh networking. In terms of current progress for the Serval Project generally, we have alpha-quality developer releases that we are making periodically to help people find and report the glaring bugs and problems, as well as get a taste of some of the functionality we are providing. We have a dedicated community support engineer on the serval-project-developers list (Romain) who will do his best to respond to any issues, and we would welcome the FreedomBox community to take advantage of that resource if trying out our software, or suggesting feature enhancements. While Serval does not operate as a democracy, preferring the "benevolent dictatorship" approach to open source development while we undertake our initial build-out of core features to help maintain clear focus and keep development driving forward, we do have an intentional culture of listening to potential user's requests and, as far as is practical, taking them on board. For instance, aspects of the mapping service and Rhizome Retriever have been influenced by input we have received from humanitarian and aid organisations. We would thus welcome any input and suggestions from the FreedomBox community as we progress our development and planning activities. We do also welcome assistance from the open source community, and aim to work as cooperatively with others as we can. Paul. Founder, Serval Project, Shuttleworth Telecommunications Fellow, Rural, Remote & Humanitarian Telecommunications Research Fellow, Flinders University. On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 6:06 AM, ya knygar <knygar(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> We've been keeping an eye on the Serval Project for a while. B They >> have a slightly different but still compatible goal in mind >> (telephony, as opposed to a general purpose data network). B One of the >> ways we differ is that we are not designing custom hardware for >> Byzantium, preferring instead to make maximal use of commodity >> hardware already extant (namely, laptops, netbooks, and wi-fi enabled >> mobile devices). > > Hello, > > the Serval's site states "b& without infrastructure, without mobile > towers, without satellites, without wifi hotspots, and without > carriers. Use existing off-the-shelf mobile cell phone handsets. Use > your existing mobile phone number wherever you go, and never pay > roaming charges again." > > "Rooting the phone will allow for adhoc mesh network capability and is > required for > full functionality of the software. By choosing not to root the phone, > the software > will still be able to provide free calls to phones that are connected > to the same > Access Point." > > actually [ http://developer.servalproject.org/files/Serval_Manual_Prototype_v0.05.pdf > ] they provide > > " > b" Adhoc will enable you to participate in a mesh network. This option > will only be > B available if you have super-user privileges on the phone. > b" Client will enable you to connect to an access point. > b" Access Point will enable other phones in Client mode to connect to your phone. > " > > possibilities. > > It is Village Telco that sells it's own Mesh Potatoes, AFAIK because > they were willing to work with fully open source-able hardware and > existed variants weren't able to provide this. > > That all means - Serval Project isn't about designing a custom hardware. > > Also, apparently from their mailing list, they have > > "subproject ... to create an application that allows to spread files > over the mesh network by exchanging with servers that the handset can > see (could be peers and web servers). This app will eventually be > merged to batphone." > > some code here - https://github.com/rbochet/Rhizome-Retriever/ > > -- that is for the "data network" aspect. > > also they have the well grown support and organization IMO, > so i think - the allied efforts is a good idea. > > @The Doctor > >> Byzantium is a distribution of Linux which makes it easy to set up an >> ad-hoc wireless mesh infrastructure. > >> Byzantium, preferring instead to make maximal use of commodity >> hardware already extant (namely, laptops, netbooks, and wi-fi enabled >> mobile devices). > > That means - the users would need to install a separate Linux distro > on all these devices? > > Do you plan to provide the packages or virtual "images" to the existing OS's? > > Distribution for the routers? > > Applications for the poor mobile devices which are messed and would be > messed enough so user can't install another or replacing OS on them? > > Thank you in advance. > > _______________________________________________ > Freedombox-discuss mailing list > Freedombox-discuss(a)lists.alioth.debian.org > http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss _______________________________________________ Freedombox-discuss mailing list Freedombox-discuss(a)lists.alioth.debian.org http://lists.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/freedombox-discuss ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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[ZS] Gauss Cyber Espionage Threat Targets Banking Info
by Gary Mulder 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

Gauss joins the ranks of Stuxnet, Duqu, and Flame as an apparently state-sponsored tool ofcyber espionage. This latest threat appears to be built from the same code foundation as Flame, and specifically targets bank credentials and financial data. http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/260715/gauss_cyber_espionage_… -- -- Zero State mailing list: http://groups.google.com/group/DoctrineZero ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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Re: [liberationtech] Can HAM radio be used for communication between health workers in rural areas with no cell connectivity?
by The Doctor 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On 03/06/2013 05:41 PM, Sky (Jim Schuyler) wrote: > The Byzantium Project folks (wi-fi mesh) have some amateur > operators among their numbers and might also have opinions on how > easy it is to We do. > get folks licensed, and also on "edge" connections of mesh and > other I can't speak for Haxwithaxe, but I took two weekend classes for the Tech class licensing exam (total time: sixteen hours) and re-read the course materials twice (http://www.kb6nu.com/tech-manual/) and passed the exam on the first try. I'm friends with a couple of hams in the DC metroplex who aced all three exams (Technician, General, and Extra) in one shot and know more about amateur radio and RF theory off the tops of their heads than I do. > networks to amateurs (which is severely limited by law). My take is > that even though hams tend to think it's easy to get a license, > there are significant (maybe psychological) barriers to entry. > Maybe it's just I think it depends on the ham you talk to. Before taking the exam I studied the ARRL's official Tech class study guide off and on for a couple of years (and did the practice sets for every chapter) and it was easily the most difficult exam I've ever studied for. Then again, I'm a coder and not particularly skilled with electronics (I thought operating systems and compiler theory were easy). That one has to study to take the amateur radio licensing exams puts a lot of people off. They just don't want to put in the effort "to sit around talking to people." I got that a lot from non-hackers when I was studying for the exam in late 2011 and early 2012. There is also the (largely correct) perception that amateur radio equipment is very expensive. A lot of it is. HT's (hand-held portable units) are much less expensive (and getting cheaper - thank you, Baofeng) but the common response is still "I don't want to sit around studying when I could just talk on the phone." > that mobile phones provide so many of the same benefits without > the licensure hassle? One definitely has to put in much less work up front to be allowed to chat on a cellphone. > Some of the people on this list know how wi-fi can be provisioned > over fairly long distances using high-gain antennas and mesh > software. It Project Byzantium does. We've done it around DC and in New York City. Do you have any specific questions on this topic? Do you have any specific questions pertaining to amateur radio and wi-fi (because there is a bit of overlap)? > seems to me that this might be an interesting way to go about > getting real Internet connectivity. I've been on the list a couple > of years and That may be why so many community wireless projects in the States draw fire from telecom companies, but that's a rant for another mailing list (such as IS4CWN). - -- The Doctor [412/724/301/703] [ZS] Developer, Project Byzantium: http://project-byzantium.org/ PGP: 0x807B17C1 / 7960 1CDC 85C9 0B63 8D9F DD89 3BD8 FF2B 807B 17C1 WWW: https://drwho.virtadpt.net/ On the Internet, nobody knows you're a Perl script. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.19 (GNU/Linux) Comment: Using GnuPG with undefined - http://www.enigmail.net/ iEYEARECAAYFAlE4wigACgkQO9j/K4B7F8HJdgCeKhobX6jleUjl3Ze8bSomqR+A Ha8AnAjsBlpyOTzIUFEvP7MluTWQYBdc =//Qw -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- -- Too many emails? Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at companys(a)stanford.edu or changing your settings at https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07100, 11.36820 http://www.ativel.com http://postbiota.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE

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Dealing with the Washington media -- survivors speak out
by Declan McCullagh 06 Jul '18

06 Jul '18

[I first moved to Washington in 1991, and I've been living here off and on ever since. (Yes, this is sad.) Here's one view of what it's like to deal with the Washington media, with perspectives from those who have had run-ins with us before. It's from a very nice "Survivor's Guide for Presidential Nominees" just out from the Brookings Institution. --Declan] http://www.appointee.brookings.org/sg/c6.htm A Survivor's Guide for Presidential Nominees Dealing with the Media "The first rule of survival in Washington is never do or say anything that you dont want to read about on the front page of The Washington Post." If youve always hankered for closer attention from the news media, youve come to the right town. Washington is crawling with reporters nearly 5,000 are accredited by the House and Senate press and broadcast galleries and hardly a nook or cranny of the government goes unexplored by some branch of the media, from the national newspapers and networks to pricey newsletters and trade publications that are the bibles of their industries. Washington is a fish bowl, and if you want to make a name for yourself, this is the place to do it. But it may not be quite the name you had in mind. The Washington media are known more for the reputations they tear down than the ones they build up. Many prospective nominees have dealt with reporters before in state houses, the business world, the military or on Capitol Hill itself, where legions of assistants make a living trying to figure out how to get or keep their bosses in the spotlight. But now youre in a different situation. Be forewarned: No matter how much or how little you dealt with the media before coming to Washington, its usually a surprise when you stand in the batters box here for the first time to discover how fast they throw and how much those sliders break. For that reason, keep in mind three basic pieces of advice. First, be very careful what you say to reporters while yours is just one of several names the White House is considering. Second, dont say anything at all to the press, on the record or off, while the Senate is considering your nomination. And third, never lie to the media it will come back to haunt you. In this chapter, well look at the role that journalists play in the nations capital and its political process. Then well get practical advice from those who have gone through the nomination and confirmation process, as well as from those in the media who have watched and covered hundreds of important nominations. The Capital of the News World The capital of the country is also the capital of the news world. New York can still lay claim to being the headquarters of the three original television networks, two news magazines, the major news service and two of the nations finest newspapers (The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal), but the news organizations Washington bureaus are the crown jewels of their news operations. Two nationally recognized papers, The Washington Post and USA Today, are produced inside the Beltway. CNNs home may be in Atlanta, but much of its hard news originates from its bureau next to Washingtons Union Station. National Public Radio has its studios and nerve center here, and the Public Broadcasting System is across the river in Alexandria, Va. Reporters who ply their craft in Washington may be no more talented than their colleagues in state capitals and other major cities, but they have a singular advantage: More news happens here than in any other single city on the planet and the local scribes get to cover it. They get to see the world with the president from Air Force One and trudge through the snows of New Hampshire with the candidates. When they hold a banquet to salute (or laugh at) themselves, the guest of honor is not the mayor or the governor, but the president of the United States. Love them or loathe them, they are the publics eyes and ears. Your deeds and reputation in office will pass through the medias filters before they become known to the public at large. As frustrating as the media can be, Washington insiders keep close tabs on the news. Many officials read several major newspapers religiously, making sure to check the Federal Page in The Washington Post and the Inside the Beltway column in The Washington Times, among other regular features. If you want to prepare for a rigorous questioning, watch journalists pepper a White House official on one of the weekend talk shows. The latest scandals In recent years, the line between the tabloids and the mainstream press has blurred as news organizations rush to mine the latest political sex scandals, from John F. Kennedys Hollywood conquests to Gary Harts escapades on a yacht to Bill Clintons trysts with an eager intern. What once was fodder only for the Drudge Report is front-page news in the broadsheets especially since Matt Drudges most sensational morsels proved largely on target. The airwaves and Internet are saturated with news, but readership and viewership are flagging. Reporters can live without respect they almost relish being regarded as a royal pain but losing credibility and audience pains them deeply. Reporters take themselves seriously too seriously for some of their subjects taste. The quicker a newspaper or news broadcast is to expose a public servants failings and foibles, the thinner its own hide. Newspapers have gotten better in recent years about publishing corrections, but they are still quicker to confess error about dates or the spelling of names or identities in a picture than to own up to getting the whole thing wrong or lopsided. Reporters and editors also pride themselves on breaking news, even if their scoop remains exclusive only for hours or even minutes. A newspaper may devote 10 inches of space to an appointment if it is given the details exclusively, or pries them loose, one day in advance. Announce the appointment at the same time for all the media to see, and it may not rate so much as a paragraph. Many public officials today would subscribe to the sentiments that a character in a Tom Stoppard play expressed: "Im with you on the free press. Its the newspapers I cant stand." Reporters respond with their highest authority on these matters: Thomas Jefferson. The author of the Declaration of Independence observed in a 1787 letter: The basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter. But I should mean that every man should receive those papers and be capable of reading them. The papers of Jeffersons day boiled with shamelessly partisan rhetoric, barb and propaganda and were hardly deserving "of such high praise as agencies of public enlightenment," as Jefferson biographer Dumas Malone put it. But Jeffersons point stands: The press has an important role to play in a democracy. And when news erupts, those obstreperous reporters camped outside your office and sometimes on your lawn wont let you forget it. Although the press plays a critical role in our democracy, even some reporters admit misgivings about their techniques. Janet Malcolm, the author and contributor to The New Yorker, offered this ominous warning to the unwary in her 1990 book, The Journalist and the Murderer: "Every journalist who is not too stupid or full of himself to notice what is going on knows that what he does is morally indefensible. He is a kind of confidence man, preying on peoples vanity, ignorance or loneliness, gaining their trust and betraying them without remorse." That may be a gross exaggeration, but it has a kernel of truth. Journalists do want to gain your confidence and its not because they want to be your friends. "Reporters are professionals whose loyalty is to their media outlets or their profession, not to you," says Wayne Pines, former spokesman for the Food and Drug Administration and now a public relations counselor with APCO Associates. "Knowing them personally means you may get the benefit of the doubt in a difficult situation, and you may also get to go on background and influence a story anonymously but only after you have established a trusting relationship. In Washington, never lie to the media, dont mislead them, dont get angry with them and dont underestimate their influence. They will influence what most of the world, including your own employees, think of you." Get it first and right From the journalists perspective, there is one cardinal rule: Get it first, but first get it right. Early in the Clinton administration, Tim Russert of NBCs "Meet the Press" jumped on the air in advance of a presidential news conference to announce the name of the presidents new puppy. Unfortunately, his sources had led him astray and he got it wrong. Why risk being wrong on the name of a dog, much less the name of a nominee? Journalists generally wont take that risk unless they are certain of the story. They always want to show up the competition. Keep in mind that, even if the new administration is trying to keep the names of potential nominees under wraps, reporters by nature are extremely competitive and very clever. When Thurgood Marshall retired from the Supreme Court, reporters quickly found out who was on George Bushs short list. The White House managed to spirit Clarence Thomas up to Walkers Point, the presidents summer compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, for the July 1, 1991, announcement without anyones spotting the future justice or breaking the news of his selection. But Associated Press reporter Rita Beamish found out ahead of time who it wasnt. She called the other candidates at home where they were sitting by the phone awaiting a call from the White House and correctly deduced that "those who were still home with no flight plans were not the chosen ones." Barbara Bush, in her memoir, tipped her hat to Beamish for this "great ingenuity." Reporters have a knack for unearthing conflict, even within organizations that are paragons of harmony. The many things on which you and a Cabinet secretary or the president see eye-to-eye may be of little or no interest, but where you disagree is news. Reporters will mine the new administration for evidence of disputes between a president and the Cabinet, between the Cabinet and the Office of Management and Budget and, naturally, between the administration and Congress. Sources in Congress generally the most accessible and open-mouthed branch of the government often are eager to help reporters root around. Interest groups with ties deep into the bureaucracy will throw logs onto the fire as well. Puncturing a new enterprise When reporters are covering a new enterprise, including the start of an administration, they are like small children playing with balloons at a birthday party. Its great fun to fill them up with air, but even greater fun to puncture them. If you are new to Washington and public life, expect such treatment. Reporters will write introductory accounts that extol your talents and recite your exploits in ways so flattering that no one save your mother could possibly believe them. And later, if something goes wrong on your watch, you quickly may find yourself the almost unrecognizable villain of a piece written by the same hand that produced your hagiography. Lani Guinier, President Clintons unsuccessful nominee for civil rights enforcer in 1993, lamented afterward to National Public Radio, "Even my own mother couldnt recognize me in the press coverage that I received." The media are avid for news. Whether by friendly takeover (as when George Bush succeeded Ronald Reagan in 1989) or a hostile one (as when Bill Clinton ousted Bush in 1993), a change of administrations affords an ample supply of headlines for news-hungry reporters and editors. Newspapers will run stories by the score on who will get what post, devoting yards of space to programs and positions that wont rate a mention in the years that follow. The political masterminds of the victorious campaign, flush with success, will keep the press corps spinning with announcements and trial balloons, even as the new presidents team works frantically behind closed doors to get at least some of its act together by noon on Jan. 20. They will trade in names perhaps your name among them because journalists are hungry for scoops, and these are "secrets" that cost little to give away. Sometimes that is all you will actually get: your name mentioned on the insiders short list, a consolation prize if you are denied the actual nomination. The erstwhile campaigners may also run your name up the pole to see who salutes or shoots. Unless an administration comes in on the run as Ronald Reagan and his team did in 1981 the press soon will turn its attention to the disarray and vacancies throughout the government, as was conspicuously the case in 1993 for Bill Clinton and the gang from the war room in Little Rock. As political scientist James Pfiffner of George Mason University recounted in a 1996 update to his book, The Strategic Presidency, it took Clinton 8.5 months on average to get his executive branch appointees confirmed after the inauguration. That was six months longer than Kennedy, and probably "the slowest in history," Pfiffner found. It was easy pickings for a press corps always eager to unearth early signs of confusion. When in Doubt, Dont Talk You wont be surprised to hear that savvy confirmation hands such as lobbyist and former Nixon White House official Tom Korologos, former presidential appointees and those who work on Capitol Hill all agree: be very circumspect in talking with reporters before your nomination and even more so before your confirmation. But it might surprise you to hear prominent reporters echo the same advice. Broadcast journalist Brit Hume, who has watched administrations come and go for three decades, minces no words: "If they havent been named, and they havent been picked, and they havent been talked to, they really have no reason to talk to the press. When in doubt, dont talk to the press." Still, "you want to be pleasant to reporters, polite to them," says Hume, managing editor and chief Washington correspondent for Fox News and a former ABC White House correspondent. He adds: Treat them as if you know theyve got a job to do, that you understand and you sympathize, and if you cant comment, just say, "Look, I know youve got work to do, and Im sorry. I cant comment about this stuff at this time. I apologize. I just cant." And then dont. The right to remain silent Freedom of the press is a cherished right under the First Amendment. While there is no concomitant freedom from the press in the Constitution, you do have a right to remain silent or, better yet, to refrain politely from answering reporters questions. But many people fail to exercise that right. They often let their egos override their common sense. It is, as Samuel Johnson said of second marriages, the triumph of hope over experience. People beguile themselves into believing that for once a news report is going to spotlight their innocence, brilliance or cleverness instead of reminding us how adroit a questioner the reporter is. Dont make the mistake of thinking that you can enhance your chances of being appointed by talking openly and frankly with the press. As Hume observes, "the chances of your saying just the right thing and having it come out sounding just the right way are sufficiently remote that its not worth risking." Another White House press corps veteran, Gene Gibbons, says, "My two rules of life for people who find themselves in the media spotlight are: never lie, and dont be afraid to tell the media to take a hike." Gibbons, former White House correspondent for Reuters and now the managing editor of Stateline.org, the Web site for state house reporters, says, "The first rule of survival in Washington is never do or say anything that you dont want to read about on the front page of The Washington Post." He believes that a candidate who has been asked by the White House not to discuss an overture has only two choices in handling questions from the media: "Either say no comment or screen your calls." Diana Huffman, who observed the nominations process from the very different perspectives of managing editor of the National Journal and staff director of the Senate Judiciary Committee, says, "Youre ahead in the game if the first publicity comes when the White House actually announces its intention to nominate you." Others agree. Pines, the former Food and Drug Administration spokesman who specializes in crisis communication, says, "The only people who speak with the media in advance of being nominated are those who feel their nominations are on the ropes and they have nothing to lose, or who are not going to take the job and want the visibility that goes with having been considered. If I asked someone I was considering for a job not to speak with the media, and he or she did, I would cross that person off my list." Cheryl Arvidson, a longtime Washington political reporter, counsels, "It is extremely important for a potential nominee not to play favorites and not to engage in cat-and-mouse with reporters." If a reporter asks to talk with you off the record or on background, "caution should be the watchword," says Arvidson, now senior writer for the Freedom Forum, the free press and free speech foundation that operates the Newseum in Arlington, Va. If a reporter calls looking for background information, it may be possible for the prospect (or a surrogate) to point out things in the public record, but usually that isnt necessary, Arvidson says. "The good reporters will find those things on their own, and they will also find people who know the would-be nominee." The LBJ rule Stephen Potts, the director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics in the Bush and Clinton administrations, subscribes to the view that prospective nominees those not yet officially announced by the White House should talk to few people outside a tight circle of family and colleagues about an impending and still uncertain career switch. "In the Lyndon Johnson years, LBJ had a general rule that if it leaked to the press that you were going to be nominated by him, you therefore were not going to be nominated," he says. "It was that straightforward. So people in those years had a very powerful incentive to keep their mouths shut." That may sound imperious, but if the White House cant trust someone to keep a confidence before taking the job, how can it expect that person to be a team player once confirmed? The rules may not be so ironclad anymore. But presidential transitions inspire a lot of self-promotion, and much of that backfires. The hordes of reporters camped out in Little Rock with President-elect Clinton and his team during the 1992 transition were hungry for word of who was in the running for Cabinet posts. But they guffawed when one Democratic lawmaker and his staff let it be known that he was a candidate for everything from secretary of Defense to CIA director. "It didnt take reporters long to get Clinton insiders laughing about his audacity over drinks in various Little Rock watering spots," a scribe recalls. "And before he knew it, the congressman was a laughing stock." The congressman never got any of the jobs that he and his press agents talked about. Telling the Truth Agreement is universal on another rule of behavior for dealing with reporters: never lie. "Dont ever be in a situation of denying it if you actually know anything. You cant compromise your own integrity," says a Bush administration official, who adds with a laugh, "Of course, its possible that the press has heard about it before you have." Donald C. Alexander recalled that when word leaked out of the Nixon White House about his appointment as IRS commissioner, he followed the advice of George P. Shultz, then secretary of the Treasury, and "did the neither confirm nor deny bit." Alexander added: "George told me, You dont want to lose your credibility even before you get here wait to lose it when you get here." Alexander helped insulate the IRS from Nixon White House excesses during the aftermath of Watergate. He twice had to testify before grand juries, but the ordeal he remembered most is going before congressional oversight committees, where Democrats gave him a tough going-over: You could always tell if the hearing was going to be a total disaster if there were four or more stand-up cameras in the room. That meant the committee had told the press they were really going to go for the jugular. If there were no cameras, the press didnt care for the hearing, and that meant the hearing was likely to be constructiveYou could just tell as you were walking down the halls in Rayburn [House Office Building]. If the light coming out of the hearing room was very bright, it was "Oh, God, here we go again!" * When in doubt, dont talk with reporters. It could cost you an administration post. Regardless of the situation, youre under no obligation to answer reporters questions. * When you do talk with reporters, dont lie or mislead them. * Dont expect them to report everything you say. Print and broadcast reporters alike will cull what they consider your most interesting or salient comments. * Dont be rude or peremptory. Reporters have an important job to do. * Stay abreast of the news. ### ----- End forwarded message -----

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