- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Internet telephony (was Freeh slimes again)
by Arun Mehta 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 13:11 02/08/96 -0700, Lucky Green wrote: >The sound quality really isn't there, unless you have a fast machine or a >fat pipe. In addition, the vast majority of Intel based computers lack the >crucial (for user acceptance) full-duplex soundcard. Add to that the >physical impossibility of getting decent real time services over a >non-isochronous network, such as the Internet, I'net phones just don't >provide suffcient speech quality for business/serious personal use even >without the added overhead of crypto. What I'd like to see -- for which technology is all in place, and none of the shortcomings you mention apply -- is voice mail that functions seamlessly between people who only have a phone, and those with Internet connections on computers with a sound card. Many companies practically use voice mail as an alternative to long phone conversations. This might also help the Internet spread, because with a connection you would be able to save on long-distance charges -- and strong crypto could be used. I'm sure the software for this exists too -- the ISPs only have to run it on their servers. It would be nice, though, if the ISPs had a facility that when there is a voice message for you, it either phones or pages you... Arun Mehta Phone +91-11-6841172, 6849103 amehta(a)cpsr.org http://www.cerfnet.com/~amehta/ finger amehta(a)cerfnet.com for public key

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ANNOUNCE:- RSAEURO Version 1.03
by RSAEURO General 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

ANNOUNCE:- RSAEURO Version 1.03 =============================== What is RSAEURO? ---------------- RSAEURO is a cryptographic toolkit providing various functions for the use of digital signatures, data encryption and supporting areas (PEM encoding, random number generation etc). To aid compatibility with existing software, RSAEURO is call-compatible with RSADSI's "RSAREF(tm)" toolkit. RSAEURO allows non-US residents to make use of much of the cryptographic software previously only (legally) available in the US. RSAEURO contains support for the following: * RSA encryption, decryption and key generation. Compatible with 'RSA Laboratories' Public-Key Cryptography Standard (PKCS) #1. * Generation and verification of message digests using MD2, MD4, MD5 and SHS (SHS currently not implemented in higher-level functions to maintain compatibility with PKCS). * DES encryption and decryption using CBC (1, 2 or 3 keys using Encrypt-Decrypt-Encrypt) and DESX(tm), RSADSI's secure DES enhancement. * Diffie-Hellman key agreement as defined in PKCS #3. * PEM support support for RFC 1421 encoded ASCII data with all main functions. * Key routines implemented in assembler for speed (80386 and 680x0 currently supported). International Use ----------------- IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please do not distribute or use this software in the US it is 'illegal' to use this toolkit in the US, as RSADSI and Cylink hold patents relating to public-key cryptography. If you are a US resident, please use the RSAREF toolkit instead. On The Web ---------- RSAEURO can now be found at http://www.sourcery.demon.co.uk/rsaann.html Ftp Sites --------- RSAEURO can be found at ftp://ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/misc Author Details -------------- With comments and suggestions, please address them to Stephen Kapp, at 'rsaeuro(a)sourcery.demon.co.uk' ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- RSAEURO: rsaeuro(a)sourcery.demon.co.uk RSAEURO Bugs: rsaeuro-bugs(a)sourcery.demon.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 468 286034 Http: http://www.sourcery.demon.co.uk/rsaann.html RSAEURO - Copyright (c) J.S.A.Kapp 1994-1996. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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Re: Digital Telephony costs $2
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 05:09 PM 8/3/96 -0800, Jim Bell talked about mixing telephony, voice compression, and modem functions on future modems, and how doing a 28.8 modem uses up most of a DSP chip, while 2400bps voice coding and decoding also each use up about half, making full duplex tough. One advantage of higher-speed modems is that you can get away with 16kbps ADPCM coding, which is dirt-simple computationally; your 386 probably has enough horsepower to do it, though a PC's interrupt structure may make it tough to shove all the data in and out in real time. You still need a sound card that'll do the A/D and D/A conversion simultaneously if you want full-duplex; that wasn't part of the original market vision of Soundblaster, so vanilla sound cards don't all do it. It also has the advantage that the data is being moved through your CPU, so encryption is an easy add-on, rather than having one combined modem/voiceblaster card which doesn't have any hooks for crypto or other processing. >Sure, it may not be necessary to compress voice audio all the way down to >2400 bps, since the current modem standards allow 28.8kbps and beyond, but I >suggest that decreasing net traffic by a factor of 12 (28.8k to 2.4k) is a >desirable goal. One problem is that tighter compression methods are far more sensitive to network latency than crude ones, and need to process more milliseconds of speech before putting out a packet on the net (e.g. a 64-byte tinygram is 200ms of speech at 2400bps, vs. 32ms at 16kbps.) For modem-to-modem communications, this is no problem; for Internet random delays it is. Also, another big difficulty with full-duplex transmission is that you need echo-cancelling, especially with high-latency circuits. Half-duplex is annoying, but it doesn't echo, and it's more tolerant of delay because you're not expecting it to have natural timing... >The reason I think a system I've described has a future is that modem >manufacturers have a PROBLEM. Their problem is that they've pretty much run >out of room to improve the bit-pushing through a 3 KHz bandwidth. Given that the "3KHz" is almost universally transmitted over 64kbps digital channels, there's really no point in pushing past 33.6 with analog-based coding; better to just do ISDN. (You can still do analog-only calls if you're on an analog central office talking to someone else at the same exchange, but it'd be a flat-rate local call anyway. If there's anybody still using analog trunks between offices, it's some mom&pop rural telco, and you can't get 28.8 on barbed-wire...) # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> Defuse Authority!

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Re: More to be paranoid about...
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:14 PM 8/3/96 -0700, you wrote: >Take a look at: > http://www.spiritone.com/cgi-bin/plates >Feed it an Oregon licence plate number and it will feed you back all sorts >of info about the person/victim. It's interesting to know that Senator Hatfield's wife's birthday is 1/17/29, and that the title to the car is held with a security interest by the US SENATE EMPLOYEES FEDERAL CREDIT, and that (at least) Social Security Numbers weren't listed for the plates I checked. Also that, unlike many states, the Governor doesn't have License Plate #1. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> Defuse Authority!

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New Agers feeding at the porkbarrel trough
by Alan Horowitz 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Looking at page 98 of the August-September _Home Power_ magazine, I see the publisher, Richard Perez, saying about vendors of non-solar-generated electricity: "None of this money is billed via your electric meter, but instead concealed in taxes or paid out everywhere from supermarkets to hospitals." On page 76 of the same edition, in an article titled "The New Utility", we see the following statement: "If all goes well in November, voters in Davis, California will vote on implementing the first US rate based incentive (RBI) program. As discussed in previous issues of _Home Power_, RBI programs are are locally adopted programs in which communities assess utility bills a 1% surcharge. The surcharge is used to purchase PV [viz., photovoltaic solar-generated] power from participating homeowners at a premium rate. The incentive plus the benefits of net metering [a plan in which electric utilities are required to pay home-based electricity vendors, the full cost of a kilowatt-hour of power, notwithstanding that the homeowner didn't pay for the distribution losses, plant costs of the transmission grid, untimed-to-load-demand supply, etc] should allow recovery of 90% of system investment in 10 years." Now, call me politically incorrect, but I say that utility bills don't get assessed surcharges - *people* get assessed *taxes*. I say that if it's good for the non-solar vendors to be denounced for wanting to offload some of their costs onto taxpayers, then the sauce is good for the solarpower gander, too. I say that Richard Perez makes his living by encouraging the distribution of solarpower hardware and services. I say that Richard Perez has a circle of friends and business associates who are in that industry. I say that Richard Perez has a conflict of interest. I say that Richard Perez is a hypocrite. I will renew my subscription to the magazine.... the non-political articles are high quality and unmatched elsewhere. I will continue to purchase selected items from _Home Power_'s advertisers - they fill my needs. I will agitate strongly against the "establishment" of solarpower (and its lesser analogues, such as microhydro, windturbine, biomass) in the pantheon of pork barrel empires.

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Re: "And who shall guard the guardians?" [NOISE]
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Arun and Marin have been quoting from UN docs and the >International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights(ICCPR), >http://www.pluggedin.org/amnesty/rights4.htm > which the US *ratified* not so long ago. >2. Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; >this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart >information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, >either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or >through any other media of his choice. >3. The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 >of this article carries with it special duties and >responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain >restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law >and are necessary: >(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others; >(b) For the protection of national security or of >public order (ordre public), or of public health or morals. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^ Lots of UN declarations of rights have this sort of exception; "protection of public morals" is something so blatantly vague and broad that if a government contends that such a concept exists, as the covenant does, it could probably force the World Court to conclude that it permits them to declare as "necessary" just about anything short of burning witches and heretics, and humanely beheading heretics, drug dealers, and anonymous remailer operators is probably ok by this standard. The UN Declaration (or was it Convention) on the Rights of the Child is even worse - it strongly states the right to believe in and practice religion, except when the government needs to interfere to protect public morals or public order... On the other hand, it provides no such exception for the right to mandatory public education or identity registration. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> Defuse Authority!

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Re: Anonymous Message Broadcast
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:58 PM 8/3/96 -0400, Laszlo Vecsey <master(a)internexus.net> wrote: >Has anyone implemented a simple anonymous chat system (an anonymous irc) >using the technique described in Applied Cryptography 2nd edition? I'm >speaking of the Anonymous Message Broadcast documented in section 6.3, it >begins on page 137. A lot of people talk about Dining Cryptographers networks, but I'm not aware of more than an occasional test implementation - the concept is simple, but getting all the details right is a lot of work, including things like collision detection, and there aren't a lot of good uses for the things to motivate development, even though they are basically cool. One design approach is to use IRC; another is email. IRC probably requires that all the participants be on simultaneously, or requires a coordination system to handle whoever's on right now. >Can the same system be implemented using base256 (unsigned char, 8bit ASCII) >instead of the simple on/off binary method that is described in the >explanation? How would it differ. Rather than doing Base256, just XOR the bytes; you get the speed of doing things a byte or word at a time, while still getting bitwise changes. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> Defuse Authority!

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Re: WARNING: SecureDrive & PartitionMagic
by Geoffrey C. Grabow 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- At 15:47 08/04/96 -0400, Charley Sparks wrote: > > >where can I get a copy of SD and does it work with NT ?? > Check out: http://www.serve.com/ruccia/securedr.html for the SD. As for working on NT... I haven't the foggiest. I've got a kludgey way of using it under win95, but it mostly works. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMgUdrsr4ljoOgY7BAQGTpQP+IZXlrMJh3snU27ydLDcdzCOeDC813GYW ujHcDpHiItY7Uq4hgBW6qoHIhmrb8DRHgVJDWyfa/OAmwJzs6sAOEzQCP1ktPM7b LLn1oPphtoPCXN1RXB+s38jHZmzzY32sLidmAqgpMDRboUwDvKfczHs9Tik1PzgQ X3k3S43k0pc= =+lgv -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- G.C.G. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ | Geoffrey C. Grabow | Great people talk about ideas. | | Oyster Bay, New York | Average people talk about things. | | gcg(a)pb.net | Small people talk about people. | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | PGP 2.6.2 public key available at http://www.pb.net/~wizard | | and on a plethora of key servers around the world. | | Fingerprint = A6 7B 67 D7 E9 96 37 7D E7 16 BD 5E F4 5A B2 E4 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | That which does not kill us, makes us stranger. - Trevor Goodchild | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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Re: Internal Passports
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 10:02 AM 8/1/96 -0700, tcmay(a)got.net (Timothy C. May) wrote: >Question (a la "Wired"): "When will the United States introduce an internal >passport?" >May: "2005, but they won't call it that." Stewart: "Last week, but they didn't call it that." According to Alaska Airlines, the FAA's policy as of last week has switched to a mandatory policy that if you don't produce government-issued photo-id, you can't get on the plane; the previous policy had been more flexible. The folks stamped my ticket "Documents Verified" - looks suspiciously similar to "Papers In Order". (Which they actually weren't, on my return trip; I handed her my work ID in the same plastic carrier as my train pass, and handed her the credit card I'd bought the tickets with explaining that I wasn't on government business and asking when had the policy changed and commenting. And the nice Rent-A-Xray-Technician who asked if I minded if he searched my computer bag was totally confused when I said "Yes, of course I mind.") You can still travel in a car if someone else is driving, and you can still get on a train without identification, but without papers you can't fly or drive, and you can't ride a horse on the freeway except in the back of a horse trailer. Driver's licenses were the beginning of a long downhill trend. I wonder if they'll still accept an American passport; the country has obviously been taken over by Pod People while we weren't looking.... # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # <A HREF="http://idiom.com/~wcs"> Defuse Authority!

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Re: Stop the presses -- Anti-terrorism bill not that bad
by Hallam-Baker 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Oh dear oh dear.... First off people on cypherpunks seem to have the idea that the type of people who go blasting peoples heads off have brains. Without wanting to inflate people's egos too much the average reader of cypherpunks is an awful lot smarter than your average criminal. Fancy plans to disolve gun barrels etc are way too complex for your average criminal and in any case it is substantially easier to drop a gun in a lake or the sea and less likely to result in incrimination than to try disolving it, run 200 rounds through it or whatever. Vacuming up powder left over from a rifle range would not help very much. One of the problems of building a bomb is to make sure that all the explosive goes off. A gas chromatograph is able to differentiate spent and unspent explosive. It would be easier to go off and buy the stuff from multiple sources or to make ones own explosive from nitrates with oxidants. I would expect that anyone vacuming up the residue from a gun club is likely to have difficulty explaining what he is doing. After all one does not usually go off to play Rambo, then stick an apron on and start doing the housework. I personally think that tagants is an insuffieicent approach to the problem. Given the number of gun related homicides in the US it is not unreasonable to require each individual cartridge to be stamped with a serial number and for gun dealers to be required to record each individual purchase. That at least was my advice to the UK govt after Dunblane. If people go arround claiming that ownership of guns is necessary so that people can commit acts of treason against the US govt then it is inevitable that there will be pressure for greater regulation. The NRA has been playing a bad hand stupidly. By raising the militia argument they have played into the hands of abolitionists. It would be entirely foolish for the crypto lobby to allow themselves to be tied to the NRA. The NRA has no choice but to support civil liberties, there is no reason why the wider civil liberties movement needs to support the NRA. More significant for crypto policy is the recent revelations about US spying on the European Union by spoofing CISCO routers via SNMP. That act should be exploited to drive a wedge between US attempts to bar use of cryptographic security systems and the members of the EU. Phill

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