- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Re: provably hard PK cryptosystems
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 4:29 PM 9/23/96, Asgaard wrote: >On Sun, 22 Sep 1996, Timothy C. May wrote: > >> Suppose a tile is placed at some place on the grid, and another tile >> (possibly a different tile, possibly the same type of tile) is placed some >> distance away on the grid. The problem is this: Can a "domino snake" be >> found which reaches from the first tile to the second tile, with the >> constraint that edges must match up on all tiles? (And all tiles must be in >> normal grid locations, of course) > >Intuitively (but very well not, I'm not informed enough to know) >this might be a suitable problem for Hellman's DNA computer, the >one used for chaining the shortest route including a defined >number of cities? No, massive parallelism does not help with the _general_ case. (For any specific instance, especially for a finite grid, obviously the amount of CPU power is directly relevant.) Even assuming Adleman's "DNA computer" works and scales relatively well, its CPU power only goes up roughly with the volume of the computer. While it may sound impressive to speak of "moles" of computers, or "swimming pools" of computers, such volumes are utterly inadequate to solve combinatorially-explosive problems. (Remember, it doesn't take a very big RSA product before the 10^75 elementary particles in the Universe are not enough to factor it in a billion times the age of the Universe even if every particle were a Cray! So much for a tank full of DNA computers.) The domino snake or tiling problem is a similarly explosive problem. Try playing around with some tiles on even a 5 x 5 grid, and then contemplate how large 25! is. Then think about a 10 x 10 grid, and 100! Then a 100 x 100 grid. And it may be that the domino snake reaching from tile A to tile B snakes around and about in a far, far larger grid space than this! (Even if one is confined to a 100 x 100 grid, easily displayed on a sheet of graph paper, no intelligence in the universe will ever be able to find a snake reaching from A to B, except in special situations (e.g., the same tile, etc.).) This sort of problem is the essence of some "zero knowledge interactive proof systems" (ZKIPS) sorts of proofs. I present such a snake as proof that I am who I say I am. (Because I just "made up" some random snake, then announced only the starting and stopping points, A and B. Nobody else in the universe could ever find such a snake, but I can display my solution as proof I generated it in the first place. Of course, once shown I have given the proof away to everyone. The ZKIPS trick is in twiddling the grid and/or tiles in such a way that I can give _probabalistic_ information away. I don't know how to do this for the domino snake problem, but it's easy to understand the Hamiltonian cycle version.) --Tim May (Late News: I just heard (12:30 p.m., PDT) that Seymour Cray is in extremely critical condition after suffering head injuries in a car crash. It will be a sad day if he dies, or is permanently disabled. Though he started working for the Agency in the 1950s, in a precursor to Control Data Corporation, and worked for them on various contracts in the next couple of decades, he was a true pioneer. (The CDC 6600, 7600, etc., and the Cray-1 were funded by contracts from the AEC and NSA, and the first few of each were delivered to Fort Meade, Los Alamos, Livermore, etc.)) We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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US Govt. recent involvement in digital money & dig. signature issues
by Stanton McCandlish 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[Excerpted from Edupage.] ALL EYES ON E-MONEY Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin has formed a task force to examine what impact the move toward electronic money transfer and storage technologies will have on consumers. Specifically, the team will look at how these technologies will affect lower-income Americans, and assess standards for consumer protection. The task force also will come up with non-regulatory measures that can be taken to protect consumers while allowing the market to develop. "I want to be certain that we make the right decisions as we begin this new era so that the benefits of these developments are broadly shared and have a positive impact on our economy," says Rubin. (Investor's Business Daily 20 Sep 96 A19) Meanwhile, the Bank of Japan and Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp. have jointly developed a very advanced, secure electronic money system, using NTT's high-speed digital signature system and its patented E-sign algorithm. The new system allows a number of banks to issue the same type of e-money to customers, relieving them of the responsibility of developing their own proprietary e-money systems. NTT hopes its new system will become the de facto standard for e-money in the country. (BNA Daily Report for Executives 13 Sep 96 A2) [...] POSTAL SERVICE TESTS ELECTRONIC POSTMARK The U.S. Postal Service is testing a system that would place an electronic postmark on e-mail messages, verifying the date and time the message was sent, and guaranteeing that the content had not been tampered with. The new system would enable more business functions to be conducted electronically, and would also provide an archive service, maintaining copies of "e-postmarked" mail, should any questions arise later. The current test will determine what price people would expect to pay for such a service, and which features work best. (St. Petersburg Times 20 Sep 96 E6) -- <HTML><A HREF="http://www.eff.org/~mech/"> Stanton McCandlish </A><HR><A HREF="mailto:mech@eff.org"> mech(a)eff.org </A><P><A HREF="http://www.eff.org/"> Electronic Frontier Foundation </A><P> Online Activist </HTML>

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Factoring technique, faster than trial division?
by paul＠fatmans.demon.co.uk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

just an idea I came up with today, I don`t suggest it is a fast factoring method, but it would be interesting to know if it is faster than say trial division: Calcuate a composite number H such that H has a large number of prime factors (hundreds). now use the euclidean algorithm to try to find a gcd of X (the number being factored) and H, if there is none try a new H, if there is you have found a factor. It is hardly elegant but I would nevertheless be interested to see if it is apreciably faster than other kludge methods like trial division. Datacomms Technologies web authoring and data security Paul Bradley, Paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk Paul(a)crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul(a)cryptography.uk.eu.org Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/ Email for PGP public key, ID: 5BBFAEB1 "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"

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RE: SAK_net
by jya＠pipeline.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

On Sep 23, 1996 14:16:40, 'John Fricker <jfricker(a)vertexgroup.com>' wrote: >Didn't SAIC buy Network Solutions (registration part of the NIC) as well? Yes. This is part of the Administration's plan for government and industry cooperation to provide a secure information infrastructure for beneficial commerce and education and well-being of the commonweal, as well as joyful, healthy and even-tempered computer-addicted families in beautiful cyber-communities, even a tad of on-line virtual racial and gender justice, not counting assurance of a bountiful food and flowing spirits and languid afternoons of concupiscence and gluttony, overwatched by faith in a SupremeOrderliness, all arrayed along clean-wiped, info-streets and never-sweat GAK-global policies, just quiet, timely and comfortable transportation across speedbumpless borders, and, for the eyes and ears, lots of time left over for staring at the landscape rushing by and enjoying Tesh and Streisand and Julio and Jane's Addiction. Al Gore's office promised straight-jacketly.

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Re: Bernstein hearing: The Press Release
by R. J. Harvey 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 02:59 PM 9/23/96 -0700, Lucky Green wrote: >Yes, you can be sued for sexual harrasment for trying to pick up a >stranger in a bar, should that stranger still feel bothered by your >advances while at work the next day. > >The courts have ruled, > Let's see some citations. Only if the two people involved are employed by the same employer might such an argument apply, and even then it's a long stretch under a "hostile work environment" argument. Cite a case in which individuals working for DIFFERENT employers successfully brought such a ridiculous suit. There's no way. rj

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Re: We removed radikal 154 from xs4all :(
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 6:31 PM 9/23/96, tank wrote: >Hi all, > >We have temporary removed radikal 154 from xs4all. > >We did this because the german ICTF and BAW continued to stop IP-traffic >to and from xs4all. They not only blocked the web-server (with more than ... Unfortunately, this means that Germany wins. This will embolden Germany and other nations to apply similar pressures to other ISPs. While I don't fully understand the economic pressures the IP-traffic blockage may have had on your site, it is sad that a user account has been removed because some foreign government doesn't like it. My recommendation is that you restore radikal 154's account immediately, and post a message to all customers and on various Net forums indicating you will not remove user accounts for materials which do not violate your own national laws. --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: Bernstein hearing: The Press Release
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 9:59 PM 9/23/96, Lucky Green wrote: >As long as the person that you are speaking to is employed in any way, >workplace issues apply. Even if you talk to the person after work and away >from their place of employment. The courts have ruled that the speech does >not have to occur at the workplace to be prohibited. All that is required >is that the person is affected at the workplace. > >Yes, you can be sued for sexual harrasment for trying to pick up a >stranger in a bar, should that stranger still feel bothered by your >advances while at work the next day. > >The courts have ruled, I don't believe this is so. Oh, I believe anybody can sue for anything, but the courts don't have to allow the case to proceed. In this example, it wouldn't get far. While I have objections to the overbroad (no pun intended) way many "sexual harassment" cases have been handled, essentially all of the cases I have heard about have involved employees and/or management within a company. For example, women feeling put upon by "tool girl" calendars in some offices, or women being "looked at inappropriately" by fellow employees. (Plus the more-legitimate complaints, such as being groped in the hallways, being told to hit the sheets or hit the streets, etc.) I don't for a nanosecond believe your example would ever reach a court, civil or criminal. Whom, for example, would the offended party sue? The employer, who had absolutely no involvement, or the stranger in the bar? While there are _stalking_ laws, if the stranger's behavior got extreme enough, there are no laws about trying to get a date. Nor are there any grounds for a person claiming a casual question provoked a mental trauma, blah blah blah. If this topic comes up again in ten years, things may've changed, of course. I'm not hopeful about the direction things are going. --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Re: AP [was: Re: Kiddie porn on the Internet] [NOISE]
by jim bell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 05:48 PM 9/23/96 -0400, hallam(a)vesuvius.ai.mit.edu wrote: > >So Jim Bell is opposed to "truly random attacks on ordinary citizens" >Its this type ofappoligia for terrorism that disgusts me utterly. >He is calling for murder but wants to dress it up in whatever psychotic >justifications he can. >He is also completely wrong. When the IRA attemoted to assasinate my cousin >I was in no way intimidated and neither was he. He continued as a senior >poitician for over a decade despite continued danger. I can think of no >less effective method of bringing about change in attitudes. And he, along with others, failed to solve the problems as well. Is this progress? >I am in no way intimidated by Bell either. He is a kook and I don;t think it >he is worth further consideration. > Phill For the record, if an AP-type system were to operate it would: 1. Make it impossible for the British to continue to station troops in Northern Ireland, an eventuality that I suppose Phill resists. However, it would also: 2. Make it impossible and unnecessary for the British to have any troops anywhere, because it would eliminate its government and military. It would no longer be a country, merely an island with people living there. 3. Make it unnecessary in Northern Ireland to protect the Catholics from the Protestants, or the Protestants from the Catholics, because the trouble-makers from both (all?) sides would be quickly erased from the scene. Nobody would rule anybody. Nobody COULD rule anybody. All factions would either be peaceful or dead, their choice. No political advantage could be gained by violence, because all politics would have ceased. 4. Make it unnecessary and pointless for Northern Ireland to re-unify with Ireland, because likewise the government and military of Ireland would dissolve, as well as all political structure in that land as well. In short, the only reasons that the current problems are maintained in Northern Ireland and Britain would be eliminated by the advent of AP. So who is the "kook," really? Jim Bell jimbell(a)pacifier.com

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Re: We removed radikal 154 from xs4all :(
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 9:22 PM 9/23/96, sameer(a)c2.net wrote: >> Unfortunately, this means that Germany wins. > > How does this mean that Germany wins? "radikal 154" is still >available all over the world, at almost 50 mirror sites, I beleive >(including http://www.c2.net/radikal/) which are *not* blocked by >Germany. Germany went after the most visible site, the _original_ site. That other sites were mirroring the verboten material did not stop them from blocking access to xs4all, so Germany clearly still wanted to make an example of xs4all. That xs4all eventually capitulated has to be seen as a win for Germany. (Certainly within the government of Germany, they must be viewing this as a victory.) They will probably now turn their sights on other sites (no pun intended), hoping to pick off each one in turn. I guess it's the domino theory all over again. --Tim May We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Has the list sunk this low?
by tcmay＠got.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 9:04 PM 9/23/96, Wayne H. Allen wrote: >At 08:45 AM 9/23/96 -0400, Wearen Life wrote: >>The CIA has many powers both great and small. If the can cover up findings >>of UFO's > > > > Has this list sunk that low? The list is like a social club, except with more than 1000 members all able to speak up at any time, on any subject. The random babblings of any one person mean little about what other people think. It's a cognitive error to assume the list has some "level" it can sink to, or rise to, or whatever. The best way to improve the S/N ratio is to post good signal, to find topics of interest and then write about them. --Tim May (P.S. I've removed these names from the distribution list: firewalls(a)GreatCircle.COM, Wearen Life <runnerfx(a)octet.com>, Shane Brath <sbrath(a)froglit.scitele.com>, Skeeve Stevens <skeeve(a)skeeve.net>. I again urge people to try to trim the distribution list.) We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, I know that that ain't allowed. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1,257,787-1 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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