- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Re: Searchable Crypto Paper Archive?
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 4:45 PM 9/6/95, David J. Bianco wrote: >S'ok with me. It's not like I'm dead set on doing this or anything. It's >just an observation, and an offer of service if anyone thinks it'd be >useful. > >Oh, BTW, another thing I probably should mention that seems obvious to me: > I'm offering to do this for free. That is, the database would be a public >service, with no charge to list papers, add another database to the >searching list or to query/retrieve abstracts. I'll look forward to seeing this, then. I was just noting some issues which seem likely to arise. But if you plan to do this "if anyone thinks it's be useful," then I think it would be useful, so you've met your criterion for doing the project. Good luck! Keep us posted. --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Symbols on the net :)
by Steven Calabro 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

If you know of any symbols or acronyms used on the net, please mail them to me. Thanks

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cryptography eliminates lawyers?
by Cortland D. Starrett 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As a follow-up to the article reference I posted, I pose the following question: Will cryptographic technology and information (communication) technology reduce the need for legal services in the future? (especially regarding contracts, buying/selling, patent law, etc.) Will legal services just look different? Will they be more efficient (cheaper)? Put bluntly, will cryptography put lawyers out of business? Any comments would be appreciated. Cort.

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Re: Growth of actions definded as crime. Which math formula?
by alt＠iquest.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 02:00 AM 9/6/95 -0400, Black Unicorn wrote: >Created crimes are few and far between. You mean like buying a 30 round magazine, or putting a different stock of your choice on a rifle, or owning an automatic weapon, or mailing crypto out of the country, or hiring someone due to their race, or not hiring someone because they are "fat?"

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Re: Growth of actions definded as crime. Which math formula?
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:32 PM 9/6/95, Al Thompson wrote: >At 02:00 AM 9/6/95 -0400, Black Unicorn wrote: > >>Created crimes are few and far between. > >You mean like buying a 30 round magazine, or putting a different >stock of your choice on a rifle, or owning an automatic weapon, >or mailing crypto out of the country, or hiring someone due to their >race, or not hiring someone because they are "fat?" Or drinking alcohol, or owning gold, or possessing a copy of a Traci Lords video, or selling bullets recently declared illegal, or having a "men only" gym (but "women only" gyms are legal), or making condoms available, or not making condoms available, or teaching women how to use birth control, or denying a Satanist a job at a child care center on the basis of his religious beliefs, and so on. Too many transient, created crimes. To answer Lucky's original question, one way to measure the total number of new laws--most of them covering "created crimes"--is to measure the total number of volumes of statutes at the Federal, state, and local levels. I've seen figures on the "linear feet" of regulations, and how they are growing exponentially, but I don't recall the numbers. Something like the total number of laws doubling every 10 years or so, but don't quote me on this one. Whether these are "created crimes" in most cases is unclear, but certainly the really basic crimes (murder, assault, rape, theft, etc.) were adequately covered 20 years ago, or 50 years ago, etc. I can see some reasons for refining the definitions in the light of new situations, but I have to conclude that _most_ of the vast number of new laws and statutes deal with "created crimes," as I understand the term. --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Collection of personal info
by David Neal 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I sent this to the risks moderator some time back, but I guess he didn't like it. For those of you who think that perhaps people advocating cybercash are just a bunch of paranoid lunatics. -------------- As advertised in the trade magazine "DM News" (Direct Marketing News), Apr. 24, 1997, V. 17 N. 16. I've typed the entire text of the advertisement, any typos are mine. >From the huge number of people in the database, it would seem that TRW is now marketing a subset of their credit records they keep on everyone. Does anyone else remember the flap over Lotus' product (Magellan) that was going to allow something similar? The risks? This is the perfect database if you want to red-line your offerings. I'm sure others will have more creative answers. -------------- TRW DISCOVERED Some very smart people are uncovering exciting ways to increase response rates, find profitable customers, and develop new market niches. It's been a well kept secret. Now it's out. It's TRW. It all started with the search for more creative information solutions. Solutions that help you discover hidden markets and unique ways of using ordinary data to target qualified prospects. The result: a proven and massive database in the hands of people with real data management know-how. So far the findings have revealed: o A database of 170+ million consumers o 100+ demographic, psychographic and geographic selects o A full range of computer services. o Comprehensive motor vehicle data >From this comes an array of products and services to intrigue even the most seasoned direct marketer. One of these is called the TRW Smart Targeting Tools (SM). It links 98 million households with the goods and services they are most likely to buy. Choose consumer names by 50 neighborhood or 3600 household level clusters, by 56 broad product categories or by 516 specific product or brand preferences. Looking at all the advantages, TRW may be the direct marketer's find of this century. And the next. Energize your marketing. Contact your TRW representative or call 800.527.3933 Ext 640. You have a great find ahead of you. TRW Target Marketing Services Your one source for reaching all the right people. 701 TRW Parkway Allen, TX 75002-3717 800.527.3933 David Neal <dneal(a)usis.com> - GNU Planet Aerospace 1-800-PLN-8-GNU Unix, Sybase and Networking consultant. "...you have a personal responsibility to be pro-active in the defense of your own civil liberties." - S. McCandlish

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Re: Scientology and police visit XS4ALL Amsterdam
by cg＠bofh.lake.de 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> > This is the second or third time I've seen descriptions of such > raids where cult (no, I'm not trying to be diplomatic) > representatives were present and participating. Is this legal in > Amsterdam? How about in the U.S.? Britain? > Probably. Amsterdam isn't exactly the wild west, and they didn't take the computer equipment with them, they just inventoried everything so to have something to sell when their claims prove valid. Which I doubt (shit, I will be moving to this country in a couple of weeks...) > If a police officer has a warrant then I really don't have much > choice about letting him in. Am I also under an obligation to > allow the people who filed for the warrant into my home or > business? > I don't know whether this is valid. I assume so. I also think it is about time we develop some ideas about anonymous web publishing. Probably some chained cgi scripts could do, but how to get around traffic analysis? -- Cees de Groot, OpenLink Software <cg(a)bofh.lake.de> 262ui/2048: ID=4F018825 FP=5653C0DDECE4359D FFDDB8F7A7970789 [Key on servers] http://www.lake.de/sonst/homepages/s2449/index.html

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Re: Collection of personal info
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 8:39 PM 9/6/95, David Neal wrote: >From the huge number of people in the database, it would seem that TRW >is now marketing a subset of their credit records they keep on everyone. >Does anyone else remember the flap over Lotus' product (Magellan) that >was going to allow something similar? > >The risks? This is the perfect database if you want to red-line your offerings. >I'm sure others will have more creative answers. About the Lotus Marketplace product of several years ago, many of us thought at the time that the furor was misdirected, and the result ultimately damaging to privacy concerns. Why? Because the ZIP code data is _already_ available to the mass marketers, etc. The Marketplace produce merely made it available to "the rest of us," allowing many people to have their eyes opened about what exists. By getting Lotus to pull the product, the public went back to sleep, lulled into the false sense of privacy that their ZIP codes were once against private. Privacy needs to be protected by keeping some things secret, not by passing laws limiting the records others can collect from public or voluntarily offered information. Don't get me wrong--I don't like TRW Credit, Equifax, TransUnion, or anyone else compiling "dossiers" on my spending habits, my travel itineraries, etc. But by using my VISA and MasterCard cards, and by agreeing to their terms and conditions, I am tacitly accepting that credit reporting agencies will have access to my transactions. If there is a "market for privacy," and this is something we've talked about before, then someone will offer "The Privacy Card." We can debate what this card might offer, randing from complete unlinkability (ecash protocols of various sorts) to non-reporting of records to the Big Three of credit reporting agencies. Even cards issued in the name of pseudonyms, of various sorts and backings. Should there be laws _against_ this kind of Privacy Card, we should fight these laws. But we should not lull ourselves into a false sense of security by adopting the unconstitutional and anti-liberty approach of having "Fair Credit Reporting Act" and "Data Privacy Act" sorts of laws. In my opinion, of course. --Tim May ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^756839 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: fast modular reduction
by cman＠communities.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I was very distressed when Josh gave this presentation; apparently patents have been filed, etc., and someone from another company in Europe was claiming they'd _already_ patented it. What is the story here? From my pov, the performance increase doesn't justify the ramifications of dealing with yet another potentially surly patent holder (either Microsoft in your case, or whoever the irate European fellow was who claims to have already patented it.)

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fast modular reduction
by Wei Dai 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

During the Crypto' 95 Rump Session, Josh Benaloh of Microsoft Corp. presented a new modular reduction algorithm that he and I developed. It is faster than the Montgomery method by about 10 to 15%, and is more general and easier to understand. The central idea is that it is easy to reduce a number to an equivalent one that's just one "block" (machine word) longer than the modulus, by repeatedly subtracting off the highest block, and adding back something that's equivalent, but smaller. In the following pseudocode, B is the radix in which the numbers are represented (2^32 for a 32-bit machine), n is the length of modulus in blocks, U is B^(n+1) mod the modulus, X is the number to be reduced, k+1 is the length of X, and Y is the result. 1. Y = X 2. For i from k down to n+1, repeat steps 3 and 4 3. Y = Y - Y[i] * B^i + Y[i] * U * B^(i-n-1) 4. If Y >= B^i, then Y = Y - B^i + U * B^(i-n-1) Tricks can be used to eliminate step 4, and to reduce Y to n blocks using one single precision division, and n more single precision multiplications. The algorithm will hopefully be written up more completely soon. Wei Dai

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