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Fisk articles
by Harmon Seaver 23 Jul '03

23 Jul '03

Does anyone have access to the fulltext articles by Robert Fisk like this one on alleged torture in US internment camps in Iraq: http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/story.jsp?story=426520 that the Independant offers on a subscription basis? -- Harmon Seaver CyberShamanix http://www.cybershamanix.com

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curious about covert channels
by Adam Lydick 22 Jul '03

22 Jul '03

Had a random thought and was curious if anyone had an opinion on this: Would message-ID, and other realated mail headers that contain pseudo-random data, make a good covert channel? Eg: instead of choosing a pseudo-random value for the message ID, encrypt a block of data of the same length as the ID with a preshared secret key. Issues that spring to mind: * small, you would need quite a few overt messages to transfer anything sizeable over the covert channel. * Is it possible to tell the difference between pseudo-randomly picked values (typical mail client), encrypted data (depending on algorithm), and real randomness? (I suppose this could make the channel detectable) Thanks, Adam Lydick

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Re: A 'Funky A.T.M.' Lets You Pay for Purchases Made Online
by Tyler Durden 22 Jul '03

22 Jul '03

"Remember when the manufacturing jobs starting going south and they said "don't worry, this is an information economy now, and they'll all be information workers"? Not that I believed that at all, but now that all the information jobs are going south (or rather east and west), what are they claiming people will do here? Other than work at Hardee's, I mean." Well, there should be some Telecom contracts coming out of Iraq soon. And when those dry up maybe we'll find some more terrorists in, say, some of the 'stans. -TD >From: Harmon Seaver <hseaver(a)cybershamanix.com> >To: cypherpunks(a)lne.com >Subject: Re: A 'Funky A.T.M.' Lets You Pay for Purchases Made Online >Date: Tue, 22 Jul 2003 13:39:41 -0500 > >On Tue, Jul 22, 2003 at 10:25:59AM -0400, Sunder wrote: > > On Mon, 21 Jul 2003, Steve Furlong wrote: > > > > > (I won't be able to observe directly, > > > as I was fired from that company because I'm an incompetent slacker > > > (boss's view) or because the boss was a jack-booted jackass (my >view).) > > > > Shit happens. Just be happy you're not working at IBM. It was leaked > > that they're outsourcing to India, etc... > > > > see: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10613 > > Remember when the manufacturing jobs starting going south and they said >"don't worry, this is an information economy now, and they'll all be >information >workers"? Not that I believed that at all, but now that all the information >jobs >are going south (or rather east and west), what are they claiming people >will do >here? Other than work at Hardee's, I mean. > > >-- >Harmon Seaver >CyberShamanix >http://www.cybershamanix.com _________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail

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Re: A 'Funky A.T.M.' Lets You Pay for Purchases Made Online
by Major Variola (ret) 22 Jul '03

22 Jul '03

At 10:25 AM 7/22/03 -0400, Sunder wrote: >> I worked on a commercial digital money system a few years ago. One of >> their business models was almost identical to Amos': stick cash in a >> kiosk to get electronic money. It'd be interesting to see how that >> system plays with Amos' patent. > >It's not going to be anonymous at all. Remember, ATM's are always >protected by cameras. If the digicash isn't anonymous, it's worthless. Yes to all points. Of course, this is why a bandana/burkha/ski mask is a good thing to carry when approaching an ATM. Better if they're IR opaque. Best not to do this if the ATM is attached to a bank though, for the sake of the guards' underwear :-)

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Re: A 'Funky A.T.M.' Lets You Pay for Purchases Made Online
by Harmon Seaver 22 Jul '03

22 Jul '03

On Tue, Jul 22, 2003 at 10:25:59AM -0400, Sunder wrote: > On Mon, 21 Jul 2003, Steve Furlong wrote: > > > (I won't be able to observe directly, > > as I was fired from that company because I'm an incompetent slacker > > (boss's view) or because the boss was a jack-booted jackass (my view).) > > Shit happens. Just be happy you're not working at IBM. It was leaked > that they're outsourcing to India, etc... > > see: http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=10613 Remember when the manufacturing jobs starting going south and they said "don't worry, this is an information economy now, and they'll all be information workers"? Not that I believed that at all, but now that all the information jobs are going south (or rather east and west), what are they claiming people will do here? Other than work at Hardee's, I mean. -- Harmon Seaver CyberShamanix http://www.cybershamanix.com

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A tiny bit of karma for BA
by Major Variola (ret.) 22 Jul '03

22 Jul '03

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20030722/ts_afp/britain_… LONDON (AFP) - British Airways was battling to clear a backlog of frustrated passengers stranded at London's Heathrow Airport, some of whom had been stuck there for four days after a wildcat strike by check-in staff.

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A 'Funky A.T.M.' Lets You Pay for Purchases Made Online
by R. A. Hettinga 22 Jul '03

22 Jul '03

<http://nytimes.com/2003/07/21/technology/21PATE.html?pagewanted=print&posit…> The New York Times July 21, 2003 A 'Funky A.T.M.' Lets You Pay for Purchases Made Online By TERESA RIORDAN the 1997 science-fiction movie "The Velocity Trap," the interstellar banking system is so decimated by electronic crime that the only way to exchange money is in cold hard cash. Armored federal banking ships have to shuttle currency from planet to planet. Carl Amos, an inventor in Atlanta, also anticipates a return to the cash economy but without the computer-generated visual effects. Mr. Amos recently patented a way to pay for online transactions with bills and coins rather than credit or banking cards. "In upwards of three-quarters of the world, most money transactions are cash only," said Mr. Amos, who envisions a big market for his invention. Basically, what Mr. Amos has patented is a new combination of existing technologies. His patent, No. 6,554,184, covers a modified A.T.M. that not only dispenses money but, like a vending machine, accepts cash, which can be used to transfer money from one person to another or to pay for online purchases. "It's a method patent, a new way of doing business," Mr. Amos said. "These are off-the-shelf components. All I had to do was build the machine and write the software." Mr. Amos is a rare breed: an independent inventor who actually makes a living off his inventions. A former electrical engineer at I.B.M. , he left corporate life to develop his idea for a holographic lens. Since he patented the lens in 1994, he estimates, he has received about $1 million in royalties. Mr. Amos, one of six children, grew up on a farm in Ohio, where he set up his own skunk works in a shed. Not all his inventions were successful. One was a parachute to be worn while leaping off the garage. "I survived, obviously," Mr. Amos said. "My siblings survived, too, thank goodness." Mr. Amos said his latest invention, should it become widely available, would obviate the need for services provided by Western Union and other money-transfer companies. Another big market in the United States, Mr. Amos said, might be teenagers. Though they do not usually have their own credit cards, they usually have cash and are more than willing to spend it to download music or games. Mr. Amos also said his system should appeal to those who were worried about identity theft on the Internet or who simply wanted the privacy it provided. Gamblers may be interested in the technology. Many credit-card companies, for example, will not authorize payments to gambling sites. Nor will PayPal, the biggest third-party payment option on the Internet. Tom Turano, a law partner specializing in banking patents at Testa Hurwitz & Thibeault in Boston, called the invention a "cute idea." "It's like a funky A.T.M.," Mr. Turano said. But the patent itself, he said, is "fairly narrow" and may be easy for others to come up with similar inventions that do not infringe the patent. Mr. Amos, who is represented by a licensing firm in Connecticut, said he was approaching banks about licensing his patent. "Western Union and Moneygram haven't called me yet," Mr. Amos said. "But I don't expect them to." -- ----------------- 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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I remind everybody to drink a bottle of wisky a day ...
by Mark Saarelainen 22 Jul '03

22 Jul '03

You get a kind ofa good feeling then.... Need a new email address that people can remember Check out the new EudoraMail at http://www.eudoramail.com

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RE: Cypherpunks archive
by Trei, Peter 22 Jul '03

22 Jul '03

I'd very much like to see the archives in a downloadable form. Peter > ---------- > From: Steve Furlong[SMTP:sfurlong@acmenet.net] > Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 8:12 PM > To: cypherpunks(a)lne.com > Subject: Re: Cypherpunks archive > > On Monday 21 July 2003 19:49, someone wrote: > > Can you make the raw mbox archive available, or do you have that? > > If it's less than about 200 meg, I can also receive it as an > > attachment, if you're sadistic with your mail server. > > Let me think about it, and maybe ask some of the list members. The HTML > that appears on the web page is sanitized a bit to prevent address > harvesting. Not that c-punks' addresses are that hard to obtain other > ways, but when I started the archive several people emphatically stated > that they wanted the sanitizing. > > Maybe I'll write a short script to sanitize the addresses in the mbox. > That'll take a while to develop, to make sure I don't miss anything and > because my spare time is limited for the next month and a half. > > If I do make the mboxes available, they'll be available as .gz's off my > top cypherpunks page. I'll post to the list if I do it. > > > List members: any preferences? > > > SRF > > -- > Steve Furlong Computer Condottiere Have GNU, Will Travel > > "If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using > their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that > these people have these weapons at all!" -- Rep. Henry Waxman

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Re: Cypherpunks archive
by Steve Furlong 21 Jul '03

21 Jul '03

On Monday 21 July 2003 19:49, someone wrote: > Can you make the raw mbox archive available, or do you have that? > If it's less than about 200 meg, I can also receive it as an > attachment, if you're sadistic with your mail server. Let me think about it, and maybe ask some of the list members. The HTML that appears on the web page is sanitized a bit to prevent address harvesting. Not that c-punks' addresses are that hard to obtain other ways, but when I started the archive several people emphatically stated that they wanted the sanitizing. Maybe I'll write a short script to sanitize the addresses in the mbox. That'll take a while to develop, to make sure I don't miss anything and because my spare time is limited for the next month and a half. If I do make the mboxes available, they'll be available as .gz's off my top cypherpunks page. I'll post to the list if I do it. List members: any preferences? SRF -- Steve Furlong Computer Condottiere Have GNU, Will Travel "If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that these people have these weapons at all!" -- Rep. Henry Waxman

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