- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Re: Citizenship silliness. Re: e$: crypto-expatriatism
by Ryan Lackey 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> [gun control laws in other countries being even worse than the US] Does anyone know of any countries with more reasonable gun laws than the US? I vaguely think Israel and Switzerland are better, at least for citizens. It is one of the major problems I have with Anguilla -- "guns are bad". I miss my M1A. I mostly have two classes of guns I'd like to have: air pistol, for practice and competition, and military-style semiautomatic rifles, for practice and long-term defense. Self-defense handguns and shotguns are somewhat optional. A country like Switzerland seems ideal, at least as a citizen, given the reserve requirements. Mmmm, a nice Hammerli air pistol and a shiny new HK PSG-1 would make me forget about the M1A I left behind, very quickly. Especially with a good daylight scope and an IR scope... Only $30k or so for the package with 10k rounds of national match ammo. -- Ryan Lackey rdl(a)mit.edu http://sof.mit.edu/rdl/ <-- down

5 14

radio net
by Ryan Lackey 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Is anyone else interested in setting up a radio net (probably packet radio relay) to relay small quantities of data in the event the telecommunications infrastructure becomes unavailable (either technically or legally/politically/ militarily)? There are existing packet relay nets, but in my experience amateur radio people, especially in the US, are very willing to roll over for the government at the slightest cause. I think the cost would be something like $1-5k per station, and it could be done in a fairly turnkey fashion. Exactly how to handle routing and what protocol to use on the network is kind of an open question -- there are a lot of solutions, none of them optimal.

6 6

Re: computer implant in 1997
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Nothing surprising about it - just implant your basic lost-pet ID chip, and set up a detector to read it. All commercially available except perhaps the computer interface to the detector, which isn't all that complex either. The more interesting journalism question isn't the lack of archive-checking by the journalist or this year's claimant to firstness, but what political spin the professor tried to push with his press release and interviews and whether it was accepted blithely or skeptically. >> > READING, England -- Professor Kevin Warwick claimed Tuesday to be the >> > first person in the world to have a computer chip surgically implanted >> > into his body. >> [...] >> > Warwick demonstrated the chip in action by walking through the front >> > door of his department. "Good morning, Professor Warwick. You have five >> > new emails," said a computerized voice activated by the inserted chip. >> [...] > >Kac implanted a computer chip in his body last year [...] >i wonder to what extent journalists fact-check these "firsts". Thanks! Bill Bill Stewart, bill.stewart(a)pobox.com PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639

1 0

BXA TAC meeting in Portland yesterday
by Greg Broiles 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

As noted previously by John Young <http://www.jya.com/bxa082597.htm>, the Department of Commerce's Bureau of Export Administration's Technical Advisory Committee held a meeting yesterday in Portland, OR. C2Net paid for me to fly up to Portland and attend the meeting. The following are notes re what happened - It was difficult to determine precisely who is on the Committee and who isn't; the meeting room had a table with seats for (approx) 15 people; at that table were seated approx. 10 people who were representing hardware/software manufacturers, law firms, 2 people from BXA, two "special guests" from European companies (whose names I didn't recognize), and two "special guests" from Japanese companies - Susumi Hirai for Sony, and Kobashi Toduchi for NEC. (apologies for the spelling re Japanese names, those are my guesses at the correct spellings, but I bet they're wrong.) There were seats in an "audience section" for another 30 people, all of which were occupied. Among the companies represented (either in the audience or on the committee) were Tektronix, Boeing, Dept of Energy, Motorola, Intel, Rockwell, Novell, McDonnell-Douglas, Boeing, Cisco, and Sun, and C2Net. The attorney who spoke at a Cypherpunks meeting this spring re export control was there, don't know if he was there on behalf of PGP and/or other clients. (arrgh, didn't write his name down because I remembered it, now I can't remember it.) There was an attorney representing a consortium of manufacturers. The meeting opened with a short summary/discussion of current events - this part produced the most information relevant to crypto and export control issues. Eileen at BXA (didn't get her last name), who seems to be in charge of drafting regulations and granting/denying export licenses, said that they've been slow recently re actions on crypto-related licenses because they're understaffed, but they have recently hired 10 people to process crypto-related applications, 8 of whom are in public-contact positions. She said that they don't have a technical background, but are considered policy analysts; that they've been receiving technical training from "other agencies", but their technical training (and their ability to get straight to work) has been hampered by the slowness of getting security clearances for them. 2 of the 10 have already been cleared/approved. She said that they've been learning about the "history of encryption". The public-contact positions will each handle a section of the alphabet - so, for example, the first person will handle export applications from individuals/companies with names starting from A through F, and so on. Eileen said that they have been circulating a new draft of encryption regulations relating to/concerning financial institutions; a draft of it was apparently circulated (I think) to a closed-session meeting of the Committee previously. One of the committee members asked her for a ballpark estimate of the date when those regs will be released for public comment, and she deferred, saying that there were "so many agencies" that had to look at them that it was too difficult to guess. Apparently, the most difficult/controversial part of these regulations concerns the definition of a financial institution (FI); she said that they've been granting licenses to applicants who are clearly FI's, and that organizations who think that they might qualify as an FI should write to BXA and request an advisory letter or opinion letter about whether or not they qualify. She also said that they've been drafting and circulating export regulations designed to implement the Wassenaar Arrangement; they've been circulating inter-agency. She said that they anticipate having the final draft finished at the end of this week or the beginning of next week, at which point it'll be sent to the Federal Register for publication; and that FR publication will take 2 more weeks, so these ought to be available to the public sometime in mid-October. She also noted that BXA has been relatively inactive with respect to enforcement actions re cryptography, but that the enforcement/compliance section of BXA has also made new hires, and that they anticipate ramping up enforcement. 5-6 people from the enforcement section were at the meeting (turns out I sat right next to them) but they all left at 10 AM for another meeting - among them a DOC/BXA attorney I recognized from the Bernstein hearings. After that, the committee spent approx. 2 hours discussing nonproliferation controls (related to nuclear/biological/chemical weapons) - I didn't bother with a lot of notes about that, since it's not especially interesting to me right now. There was a lot of discussion about how difficult it is to determine whether or not an export is allowed or not - as I understand the regs it's not permissible to export *anything* which will be used in aid of producing N/B/C weapons, even otherwise unassuming things like lightbulbs or ballpoint pens or carpeting or whatever. (I don't know much about this area of export law, so please don't take my impressions as especially informative, haven't done reading/research re this and I may be full of shit. caveat emptor.) Everyone who doesn't work for the government expressed frustration re the difficulty of figuring out how much effort they need to put into tracking down the ultimate user(s) and purpose(s) of otherwise innocuous exports - the BXA folks weren't very helpful, pointing out that they're going to exercise their discretion not to enforce/punish exporters who really weren't at fault, but that there were no hard and fast rules available, either. The discussion here reminded me very much of recent testimony by the Commerce Dept before Congress - they're more concerned with intelligence (collecting data re who's buying what, in what quantities, and when) than they are with preventing people from gaining access to goods. There was also some discussion about foreign implementations of crypto export controls and Wassenaar - apparently Jim Lewis (the name isn't familiar to me) and David Aaron are currently in London, lobbying re crypto export control/key escrow, and a delegation will go to France, Bonn, and Tel Aviv later this month on a similar mission. One speaker said that he expects the UK to adopt controls re "intangible" items - by this he seemed to mean control over the export of "technical data" and "technical assistance" related to controlled items, similar to the US' control over providing data/information/assistance to foreigners related to export-controlled items. It was also noted that there are a lot of "informal contacts" in the UK between universities and employers and the visa office, such that the UK has been able to control some access by foreign people to technical data and information, by refusing them a visa or otherwise making their desires clear to the people in the UK who they expect would have contact with the foreign person. Re Japan, it was noted that Japan began enforcing much stricter export controls at the end of 1996, shortly after NTI developed a 3DES chip; MITI (Japan's "technology" ministry? perhaps someone can provide more data here) has concluded that exports of crypto stronger than 56 bits should be subject to strict export control. Japan does not have a "general license" scheme, whereby some products are generally considered eligible for export, which would apply to crypto - apparently all exports equire a license. About 100 Japanese companies have applied for or been granted (couldn't tell from the context) export licenses for crypto. Japan does not have special "financial institution" exceptions to its crypto export control laws; but it does implement the "mass market software" exception for crypto which is part of the Wassenaar Arrangement. There was some discussion re crypto export control in the EU; the speakers noted that crypto control laws apply to GSM phones, which (potentially) would have made them non-portable across national borders, which everyone (including governments) thought was a stupid result, so GSM phones are (formally? informally? couldn't tell) exempt from the export control laws. Similarly, it is now legal to have/use crypto on a laptop for personal use; at one time, this was not the case, but large companies' policy was that crypto should be used anyway, regardless of the export control laws. EU countries are also (apparently) writing the "mass market software" exception to the WA's control over crypto into their regulations; one speaker commented that the EU countries are "working on" key recovery. (the term used was "key escrow"). The consensus of the speakers seemed to be that the TTP/key escrow draft legislation for the UK is effectively dead, due to the shift in power to Labor. It was also noted that the Walsh Report re crypto in Australia recommends that purchasers of crypto equipment in Australia avoid depending solely on US-based sources for crypto, because of the danger that the US may implement mandatory key recovery. I'm on the mailing list to get formal minutes from the meeting, but that can apparently take up to 90 days. The next meeting will be 12/9/97 in D.C.. -- Greg Broiles | US crypto export control policy in a nutshell: gbroiles(a)netbox.com | Export jobs, not crypto. http://www.io.com/~gbroiles | http://www.parrhesia.com

1 0

bombs
by JuanPyro＠aol.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

im writing a screenplay and need very detailed instructions on how to make a bomb

3 2

Shor's Algorithms: Mad, Bad and Dangerous (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Thu, 07 Aug 1997 21:12:15 -0400 > From: John Young <jya(a)pipeline.com> > Subject: Shor's Algorithms: Mad, Bad and Dangerous > >From a WSJ nook review today of "The Fabirc of Reality," > by David Deutsch (Allan lane, 390 pp., $29.95): > > Using something called "Shor's algorithm," a quantum > computer can factor giant numbers and thereby break > secret codes that no conventional computer could touch. > > The only way it could do this, Mr Deutsch argues, is by > distributing its operations over many parallel universes. > "To those who cling to a single-universe world-view," > he writes with evident asperity," I issue the challenge: > *explain how Shor's algorithms works.*" The Many Worlds Hypothesis was developed by David Bohm and is an alternate way of looking at the Uncertaintly Principle, which gets its origin from the collapse of wave functions used to describe the potential states of a wave. The advantage of using a Many Worlds Hypothesis is that it allows you to do away with Bohms, Schroedinger, Einstein, etc. objections to the standard model, God playing with dice. >From an existential perspective it is simply another way of viewing the Hamiltonian of the wave equation. In short the Many World theory says that all possible outcomes are available in parallel, you only get to experience one of them. The standard model says the Hamiltonian collapses from its n-element state to a single valued state at the time of measurement (ie the system is in no state unless measured). Which was Schroedingers explicit complaint, in his cat model the question he was asking (that gets dropped by modern physicist because it is so subversive to the Standard Model) is "Doesn't the cat know what state it is in?". The implicit (and never stated) assumption in the Standard Model is that a particle's state is defined by the particles and their interactions that surround it AND the particle is comletely unaware of it. Which brings questions like "How does the electron know to be in the S1 orbital if it doesn't have any way of knowing its energy state?". This is especialy problematic since a base assumption is that the only way to effect an electron is through a photon. A good extension is consider the insanity of the Moon disappearing when you aren't looking at it. Look at the Moon and the tides appear, look away from the Moon and the tides go away... > Combining the many-universes notion with quantum probablity, You can't combine them, the whole point of the Many Worlds theory is to explicity eliminate quantum probability and bring the mechanism into the deterministic model used at higher levels of scale (ie Newtonian Mechanics). The goal is to build a system that is consistent across questions of scale. > and adding elements of Darwinism and Karl Popper's theory > of knowledge, Mr. Deutsch apsires to nothing less than a > complete understanding of "the fabric of reality." Arrogant > in tone and marred by leaps of logic, his book nonetheless > bristles with subversive insights about virutal reality, > time travel, mathematical certainty and free will. > Intellectually speaking, Mr. Deutsch is mad, bad and > dangerous to know. Sounds like a bunch of wishfull thinking and serious misunderstanding of Bohm, Schroedinger, etc.'s work. ____________________________________________________________________ | | | Participation requires more than just bitching! | | | | _____ The Armadillo Group | | ,::////;::-. Austin, Tx. USA | | /:'///// ``::>/|/ http:// www.ssz.com/ | | .', |||| `/( e\ | | -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- Jim Choate | | ravage(a)ssz.com | | 512-451-7087 | |____________________________________________________________________|

2 1

news story in the SD Daily Transcript
by John Kelsey 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Some of you might find an article in the San Diego Daily Transcript (I think it will appear tomorrow in the print version; it's up now at their website) interesting. It's an article about today's moderately good news from Congress, and I'm quoted extensively in it. (The reporter is an old friend of mine, and he knows what I do for a living, so he called me for a quote.) It's currently at http://www.sddt.com/files/library/97headlines/09_97/DN97_09_24/DN97_09_24_tb c.html and I *think* they will keep it up for a while. --John Kelsey, Counterpane Systems, kelsey(a)counterpane.com PGP 2.6 fingerprint = 4FE2 F421 100F BB0A 03D1 FE06 A435 7E36

1 0

Re: consensus on pgp? can we consolidate for action?
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Lucky Green wrote: > I encrypt both my SMTP and POP links using SafePassage Secure Tunnel. > 128 bit SSL v3 with client certs. You can download a free eval copy of > SPST at http://www.c2.net/products/spst/ Without the certs, it shouldn't > take longer than 15 min. to set this up at your site. > > Disclaimer: I work for C2. Will these constant lies from C2Nut employees never stop? I've been at C2 for three months, now, and I haven't seen Lucky do any work, yet. CorporateSpyMonger

1 0

Cypherpunks Related (?) or merely about DC in general?
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Q. How did Sir Alexander Fleming change Spain's bullfighting? A. Before he invented penicillin, countless toreros died of infected wounds. After, even the smallest arenas were equipped with penicillin syringes. And the performances became much more exhilarating. Said one cape artist: "Now I can stand closer to the bull." http://www.LMBoyd.com/postscript.htm

1 0

Dark is faster than Light
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Bell Labs Proves Existence of Dark Suckers For years it has been believed that electric bulbs emitted light. However, recent information from Bell Labs has proven otherwise. Electric bulbs don't emit light, they suck dark. Thus they now call these bulbs dark suckers. The dark sucker theory, according to a Bell Labs spokesperson, proves the existence of dark, that dark has mass heavier than that of light, and that dark is faster than light. The basis of the dark sucker theory is that electric bulbs suck dark. Take for example, the dark suckers in the room where you are. There is less dark right next to them than there is elsewhere. The larger the dark sucker, the greater its capacity to suck dark. Dark suckers in a parking lot have a much greater capacity than the ones in this room. As with all things, dark suckers don't last forever. Once they are full of dark, they can no longer suck. This is proven by the black spot on a full dark sucker. A candle is a primitive dark sucker. A new candle has a white wick. You will notice that after the first use, the wick turns black, representing all the dark which has been sucked into it. If you hold a pencil next to the wick of an operating candle, the tip will turn black because it got in the path of the dark flowing into the candle. Unfortunately, these primitive dark suckers have a very limited range. There are also portable dark suckers. The bulbs in these can't handle all of the dark by themselves, and must be aided by a dark storage unit. When the dark storage unit is full, it must be either emptied or replaced before the portable dark sucker can operate again. Dark has mass. When dark goes into a dark sucker, friction from this mass generates heat. Thus it is not wise to touch an operating dark sucker. Candles present a special problem, as the dark must travel in the solid wick instead of through glass. This generates a great amount of heat. Thus it can be very dangerous to touch an operating candle. Dark is also heavier than light. If you swim deeper and deeper, you notice it gets slowly darker and darker. When you reach a depth of approximately fifty feet, you are in total darkness. This is because the heavier dark sinks to the bottom of the lake and the lighter light floats to the top. The immense power of dark can be utilized to mans advantage. We can collect the dark that has settled to the bottom of lakes and push it through turbines, which generate electricity and help push it to the ocean where it may be safely stored. Prior to turbines, it was much more difficult to get dark from the rivers and lakes to the ocean. The Indians recognized this problem, and tried to solve it. When on a river in a canoe travelling in the same direction as the flow of the dark, they paddled slowly, so as not to stop the flow of dark, but when they traveled against the flow of dark, they paddled quickly so as to help push the dark along its way. Finally, we must prove that dark is faster than light. If you were to stand in an illuminated room in front of a closed, dark closet, then slowly open the closet door, you would see the light slowly enter the closet, but since the dark is so fast, you would not be able to see the dark leave the closet. In conclusion, Bell Labs stated that dark suckers make all our lives much easier. So the next time you look at an electric bulb remember that it is indeed a dark sucker.

1 0