- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Anonymous stock trades.
by hallam＠Etna.ai.mit.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>I suppose it depends on what you call "open", eh, Phill? >If by "open", you mean financial markets where, as Milton Freedman says, >each new regulation raises the cost of entry and protects the surviving >firms by killing their smaller competion with red tape, then we have "open" >markets. Well, Milton Friedman's method for saving the whale is to leave it to the free market, if people want whales in the oceans they won't buy whale meat. The point that even if no US person eats whale, a few thousand "gourmets" in Japan can eat their way through the remaining stocks of many species in a few years escapes him. So forgive me if if find you authority somewhat less than compelling. Adam Smith makes the point rather better in his analysis of monopolies and how they affect the market. But remember that although regulations may be instituted as protectionist mechanisms that is not the only purpose that regulations are introduced. >If by "open", you mean that people can't purchase the attention of their >favorite politician fair and square, without having to play zero-sum games >with barnyard animals, then we have "open" markets. ;-). There are so many negatives in that sentence I can't figure out which way you are arguing. Certainly there are many senators, congressman etc who can be bought for a contribution to their election fund or a huge advance on their memoirs. >Nothing personal, Phill, but it does seem like it's more a question of what >you're afraid of, than what *is*, right? No, it is a case of whether you are applying ideological judgements or prepared to analyse the system itself. I do not believe in the idol of the free market. I do not consider ecconomists to have justified the level of inane self-satisfied certainty about their field that they exude. I was talking to a professor at the Sloane school yesterday who made precisely this point. Deciding what is right implies an ethical judgement. Are you basing your argument on Kantian or consequentialist assumptions? I can argue either but since most of my thesis is based on a logical positivist approach I'm far more sympathetic to the utilitarian point of view. The free market is not in itself an ethical basis - that would be creating an ought from an is. The problem which libertarian idelogues are affraid to face up to is that markets have required regulation to keep them open and free. Its all very well for people to jump up and down, stampt their feet and claim the opposite but this is what every government in the free world believes. The effects of deregulation in the savings and loans area make it unlikely any further experiments in that area will be tried for a while. Phill

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A.Word.A.Day--seigniorage
by Joseph M. Reagle Jr. 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From: Wordsmith <wsmith(a)wordsmith.org> >To: linguaphile(a)wordsmith.org >Reply-To: anu(a)wordsmith.org >Subject: A.Word.A.Day--seigniorage >Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1996 00:51:14 -0400 > >sei.gnior.age or sei.gnor.age \'sa-n-y*-rij\ n [ME seigneurage, fr. MF, > right of the lord (esp. to coin money), fr. s]eigneur : a government > revenue from the manufacture of coins calculated as the difference between > the monetary and the bullion value of the silver contained in silver coins > > > 1996 MARK BERNKOPF, Electronic Cash and Monetary Policy, > "The widespread adoption of electronic cash would deprive Federal > authorities of a substantial amount of seignorage, the margin > between the face value of currency issued, and the costs of issuing > that currency. In 1994, the Federal Reserve turned about $20 billion > in seignorage over to the Treasury." > > >........................................................................... >When you starve with a tiger, the tiger starves last. -Griffin's Thought > >To subscribe or unsubscribe, please send a message to wsmith(a)wordsmith.org >with "Subject:" line as "subscribe <Your Real Name>" or "unsubscribe". >Email anu(a)wordsmith.org if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. >Archives, FAQ, words and more at the WWW site: http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/ > > _______________________ Regards, Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present. - Albert Camus Joseph Reagle http://farnsworth.mit.edu/~reagle/home.html reagle(a)mit.edu E0 D5 B2 05 B6 12 DA 65 BE 4D E3 C1 6A 66 25 4E

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Fwd: subscribe cyberwire dispatch
by Chris Adams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

==================BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE================== >From: "Chris Adams" <adamsc(a)io-online.com> >To: "brock(a)well.com" <brock(a)well.com> >Date: Thu, 06 Jun 96 15:37:46 >Reply-To: "Chris Adams" <adamsc(a)io-online.com> >Priority: Normal >X-Mailer: PMMail 1.5 UNREGISTERED SHAREWARE >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >Subject: subscribe cyberwire dispatch > subscribe cyberwire dispatch If this account belongs to an actual human, my apologies for treating you like a mailerbot. This Message Was Sent With An UNREGISTERED Version Of PMMail. Please Encourage Its Author To Register Their Copy Of PMMail. For More Information About PMMail And SouthSide Software's Other Products, Contact http://www.southsoft.com. ===================END FORWARDED MESSAGE=================== /* From Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> on a Warped PC running a proudly unregistered (for now) PMMAIL 1.5! The Enigman Group - We do Web Pages! */ This Message Was Sent With An UNREGISTERED Version Of PMMail. Please Encourage Its Author To Register Their Copy Of PMMail. For More Information About PMMail And SouthSide Software's Other Products, Contact http://www.southsoft.com.

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Fwd: Re: Clipper III analysis
by Chris Adams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

==================BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE================== >From: "Chris Adams" <adamsc(a)io-online.com> >To: "cypherpunks" <cypherpunks(a)toad.com> >Date: Thu, 30 May 96 01:16:32 >Reply-To: "Chris Adams" <adamsc(a)io-online.com> >Priority: Normal >X-Mailer: PMMail 1.5 UNREGISTERED SHAREWARE >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >Subject: Re: Clipper III analysis > On 29 May 1996 14:53:30 pdt, tcmay(a)got.net wrote: >> A good Questioned Document Examiner will be able to demonstrate >> that the signed document in question was not authored by Joe >> Blow, even if it contains his digital signature. > >I was of course talking about digital signatures, not handwritten signatures. > >I would be very interested to hear how a "Questioned Document Examiner" can >possibly determine that a digital signature was not applied by a particular >person. I believe he was referring to document analysis. By closely comparing a questionable work with those of known authorship, a skilled analyst can hopefully find enough [dis]similarities to say whether a document was authored by a given person. This Message Was Sent With An UNREGISTERED Version Of PMMail. Please Encourage Its Author To Register Their Copy Of PMMail. For More Information About PMMail And SouthSide Software's Other Products, Contact http://www.southsoft.com. ===================END FORWARDED MESSAGE=================== This Message Was Sent With An UNREGISTERED Version Of PMMail. Please Encourage Its Author To Register Their Copy Of PMMail. For More Information About PMMail And SouthSide Software's Other Products, Contact http://www.southsoft.com.

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Fwd: Re: [crypto] crypto-protocols for trading card gam
by Chris Adams 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

==================BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE================== >From: "Chris Adams" <adamsc(a)io-online.com> >To: "ogren(a)concentric.net" <ogren(a)concentric.net> >Date: Thu, 30 May 96 02:30:30 >Reply-To: "Chris Adams" <adamsc(a)io-online.com> >Priority: Normal >X-Mailer: PMMail 1.5 UNREGISTERED SHAREWARE >MIME-Version: 1.0 >Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit >Subject: Re: [crypto] crypto-protocols for trading card gam > >Disadvantages: > >The entire integrity of the system relies on the security of the >game company's key pair. If the secret key is comprimised, either by >Cards are not transferrable. In order to make cards transferrable the >game company must be able to invalidate cards which have been traded >to others. In other words if Alice wants to give a cards to Bob she >must: I would just have multiple validators w/separate keys. sign w/each. This would not eliminate the problem but could reduce it... >1. Contact the game company and tell them she wants to give the card >to Bob. 2. The game company must issue a new card to Bob with a new >serial number and with Bob's public key rather than Alice's. 3. The >game company must invalidate Alice's old card. Since there is no way >that the game company can make sure all copies of the card have been >destroyed it must create a "invalid serial number list" and have the >players dial into that list everytime the game is played. > >Since step 3 is so costly to implement, I think it is unlikely that a >cryptography-based trading card game will have tradable cards. Much easier - with each card, store its ownership history. EACH time it is transfered, have it be signed by the previous owner. Originally, the game company signs it as a valid card. On selling it, they record the purchaser's identity (email address, etc)and seal the card with the company key (or set of keys - see above). Repeat as needed. This Message Was Sent With An UNREGISTERED Version Of PMMail. Please Encourage Its Author To Register Their Copy Of PMMail. For More Information About PMMail And SouthSide Software's Other Products, Contact http://www.southsoft.com. ===================END FORWARDED MESSAGE=================== /* From Chris Adams <adamsc(a)io-online.com> on a Warped PC running a proudly unregistered (for now) PMMAIL 1.5! The Enigman Group - We do Web Pages! */ This Message Was Sent With An UNREGISTERED Version Of PMMail. Please Encourage Its Author To Register Their Copy Of PMMail. For More Information About PMMail And SouthSide Software's Other Products, Contact http://www.southsoft.com.

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Re: FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS
by attila 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

jim bell writes: > My impression is that it is frequently the pacifist-types who get us into > war, because they start the process out by tolerating actions by others that > turn into more serious actions, etc. You know, the appeasers. > true, too true. unfortunately, the point is corrrect: the pacifist do tolerate actions that others would not thereby encouraging further aggression. after the pacifists have been attacked, they can be particularly violent --and incarcertated, they are defiant. Or, as I prefer to put it: there is nothing worse than a liberal whose ass has been bit. -- Hackers never stop hacking, they just get caught

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Re: whitehouse web incident, viva la web revolution
by Clay Olbon II 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Jonathon, > Statistical proof is only accepted in academia. Depending > upon your POV, this may or may not be a good thing, when > one is facing civil, or criminal charges. > > Finding proof for either civil or criminal charges is a > slightly different matter. IANAL, but your statements are misleading. Statistics are often used in both criminal and civil cases. Look at the DNA evidence in the OJ trial (OK, maybe a bad example), or the evidence that breast implants don't cause various ailments (probably another bad example :-). Both of these examples are based on statistics. IMO, part of the problem with juries (and public discourse in general) today is that anecdotal evidence is often accepted, when that evidence is clearly not statistically significant. The examples I cited previously illustrate this - the four horsemen are a similar example for public policymaking. Clay --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Clay Olbon II | Clay.Olbon(a)dynetics.com Systems Engineer | ph: (810) 589-9930 fax 9934 Dynetics, Inc., Ste 302 | http://www.msen.com/~olbon/olbon.html 550 Stephenson Hwy | PGP262 public key: on web page Troy, MI 48083-1109 | pgp print: B97397AD50233C77523FD058BD1BB7C0 TANSTAAFL ---------------------------------------------------------------------------

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[NOISE] Buying whales with digicash Re: Anonymous stock trades.
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:52 AM 6/7/96 -0400, Perry wrote: >hallam(a)Etna.ai.mit.edu writes: [...] >> Well, Milton Friedman's method for saving the whale is to leave it >> to the free market, if people want whales in the oceans they won't >> buy whale meat. [...] >Dr. Phill Hallam-Baker, PhD, however, does not understand economics in >spite of his PhD and thus attributes views to free market economists >that they do not hold, as in his whole cloth synthesis of a viewpoint >which he ascribed to Milton Friedman which Milton Friedman would never >in a million years espouse. Oh, come on now, Perry - while Friedman has more sense than that, you've been around the Libertarian party long enough to know people who call themselves free-market environmentalists who contend that whales will be best protected if they're owned property, that do-gooder environmentalists will be free to outbid Sushi Inc.* for them, and that initial ownership of the whales ought to be decided by the traditional initial land-ownership method of homesteading. Personally, I view this as rent-seeking by folks who ought to let the whales own themselves, and think they've got as little understanding of free-market environmentalism as the government bureaucrats who massively subsidize the logging of US National Forests, but they _are_ there. [*A wholly owned subsidiary of Taco Bell, but with digicash** and anonymous stock ownership, On the Internet, nobody knows that all restaurants are Taco Bell.] [**Ineffective attempt to pretend some relevance to cypherpunks...] # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # http://www.idiom.com/~wcs # Dispel Authority!

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BIO_nfo
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

A biocryptoanarchy link to Adleman's DNA work? 6-8-96. FiTi: "Bioinformatics: the jobs of the future." One of the biggest manpower shortages today is in bioinformatics, the area in which biology meets computer science. Biology is becoming a data-intensive science, in the same way that physics did almost 50 years ago when it became clear that computers would be needed not only to store information but also to process it. There's a great shortage of people, partly because a lot of organisations are simultaneously seeing the need for bioinformatics and partly because the skills required are changing so fast: + Search and analysis, including new mathematical techniques for finding patterns in data; + Knowledge management, including ways to integrate information from different databases; + Mapping and genomics, including approaches to identifying the genetic components of complex traits; + Sequence/structure/function including rapid methods to predict the biological function of a gene from its DNA. The mainstream computer and information technology companies are only just beginning to take an interest in bioinformatics. "There's a huge vacuum there." For an undergraduate scientist searching for a field in which to specialise, there are no better job prospects than bioinformatics or - cheminformatics. BIO_nfo

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Re: Clam Wars
by anonymous-remailer＠shell.portal.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> 2. The anti-scientologists have caused many cypherpunks > anonymous remailers to shut down via their egotistical > misuse of them, viz. criminally posting copyrighted Co$ > writings to Usenet. They did it knowing that the Co$ is > likely to harrass the remailer operators, causing them to > shut down and depriving everyone of their services. This scenario is beginning to sound suspiciously similar each time it happens: an anonymous individual or individuals utilize a remailer in a way that's deemed abusive, certain individuals complain loudly, and the remailer (or mail2news gateway) either shuts down or blocks the affected newsgroup. Thus far I've seen it happen with the alt.religion.scientology, alt.smokers, and alt.syntax.tactical newsgroups. This is setting a bad precedent. It sends the message that you merely have to fabricate a little "abuse" through one or more remailers to get what you want -- the elimination of your opponents' platform to dissent without fear of retribution. Whether the abuse in any of the aforementioned instances was actually fabricated or not is immaterial. If it wasn't, it very could have been, with identical results in either case. The problem being, with an anonymous attack through a remailer and/or mail2news gateway, how do you identify the intended victim? Was it the NG or the remailer/gateway itself? The first two NGs have one striking similarity: both involve a product or service where those who stand to profit from it have recently been plagued with "whistle blowers" and "defectors" from among their ranks -- the CO$ and the tobacco industry. In both cases, those who've come forward and divulged secrets have reported harassment. I'm at a loss to understand the blocking of the third NG, alt.syntax.tactical, however, unless the intent was strictly punitive. I can't imagine anyone from a.s.t. coming forward to complain about "abuse"! That would be like complaining about foul language on alt.blasphemy. <g>

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