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Much Ado About Names
by mf＠MediaFilter.org 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Much Ado About Names The internet naming system, known as the "domain name system" has made the transition to the private sphere from the once taxpayer supported public sphere, under guardianship of the National Science Foundation. The current operator of the name registry, the InterNIC (internet network information center), is Network Solutions, Inc.who now enjoys a highly profitable monopoly. Network Solutions, Inc., who is owned by Scientific Applications International Corporation (SAIC) began charging for the once gratis name registrations in September 1995 as the internet was well on its transition to a commercial marketplace. Their registration fee of $100 for the first 2 years of service has richly lined NSI's coffers as the number of registrations reached around 50,000 per month during 1996. During this interval, the limitations of the current naming paradigm became obvious as companies discovered that they had to race, or in some cases litigate, to secure their internet identities, "their-name.com"--only to discover that it was already assigned. Some, like golf protege, Tiger Woods, became victims of name speculators who registered famous names in hopes of selling them back to their rightful owners. The holders of "tigerwoods.com" were said to be willing to give the REAL Tiger Woods his name back only if they could do his website! Part of the problem lies not just in human greed, but in the limited number of the so-called "top level domains" administered by the InterNIC, "com." "edu." "org." "net." and "gov.". Under this system, which has its roots in the US Dept. of Defense bureaucracy, was designed to identify the purpose or geographic location of computers on the internet. The "com." domain was the division given to commercial network addresses, who at the time the system was established, were a minority of networks on the interet--the majority being "mil." "gov." "edu." and "net.". Now that the number of commercial networks has grown beyond any scale ever imagined by the architects of the internet, the "com." domain has proven to have reached its limits. Users have been frustrated by the limitations, speculation, and buraucracy associated with registering an address on the internet with the InterNIC/NSI/SAIC monopoly. Pressure on the committee that assigns unique parameters on the internet, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) has pushed IANA to for an ad-hoc committee to decide how to deal with the domain name "shortages". IANA has put forth a controversial plan to license comapnies who wish to compete in the market for domain name service--in a market- place which was recently deregulated, and in which IANA has no congressional authority to impose regulation, or levy taxes --or as they frame it, collect license fees: a $1000 non-refundable application fee, a $2000 annual license fee, plus 2% of comapany revenues. IANA claims that these funds will be spent on maintaining the rootservers--the computers which hold the central name dabase. The computers holding the domain name database are currently run by an inner circle, most of whom are members of the IANA. The server at University of Southern California, USC, for example, is run by Mr. John Postel, the head of the IANA. The locations and operators of the current rootservers include: Defense Research and Engineering Network (DREN-DOM) Department of Defense High Performance Computing Modernization Working Group, Networking Subcommittee c/o Director U.S. Army Research Laboratory Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD 21005-5067 Domain Name: DREN.NET Administrative Contact: Reschly, Robert J., Jr. (RJR3) reschly(a)ARL.ARMY.MIL (410) 278-6808/8676 (DSN) 298-6808/8676 Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Fielding, James L. (JLF) jamesf(a)ARL.MIL University of Maryland (UMD-DOM) Academic Information Technology Services Network Operations Center Bldg 224, Room 1301 College Park, MD 20742 Domain Name: UMD.EDU Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Sneeringer, Gerry (GS307) sneeri(a)NI.UMD.EDU (301) 405-2996 Network Solutions, Inc. (INTERNIC-DOM) 505 Huntmar Park Drive Herndon, VA 22070 Domain Name: INTERNIC.NET Administrative Contact: Network Solutions, Inc. (HOSTMASTER) hostmaster(a)INTERNIC.NET (703) 742-4777 (FAX) (703) 742-4811 Technical Contact, Zone Contact, Billing Contact: Kosters, Mark A. (MAK21) markk(a)NETSOL.COM (703) 742-4795 (FAX) (703) 742-4811 Los Nettos (LN-DOM) USC Information Sciences Institute 4676 Admiralty Way Marina del Rey, CA 90292-6695 US Domain Name: LN.NET Administrative Contact: Postel, Jon (JBP) POSTEL(a)ISI.EDU <-----Mr. Postel is head of IANA****** (310) 822-1511 Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Woolf, Suzanne (SW145) WOOLF(a)ISI.EDU (310) 822-1511 Billing Contact: Anderson, Celeste (CA534) celeste(a)ISI.EDU (310) 822-1511 University of Maryland (UMD-DOM) Academic Information Technology Services Network Operations Center Bldg 224, Room 1301 College Park, MD 20742 Domain Name: UMD.EDU Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Sneeringer, Gerry (GS307) sneeri(a)NI.UMD.EDU (301) 405-2996 U.S. Sprint/NSF International Connectivity Project (ICP-DOM) VAHRNA0401 13221 Woodland Park Road Herndon, VA 22071 Domain Name: ICP.NET Administrative Contact: Kurt, Gastrock (GK368) gastrock(a)SPRINT.NET 1-800-230-5108 Technical Contact: Kilmer, Hank (HK468) hank(a)SPRINT.NET 1-800-230-5108 (FAX) 703-904-2292 Zone Contact, Alternate Contact: Sprint Network Info. & Support Center (SPRINT-NOC) noc(a)sprintlink.net (800) 669-8303 Billing Contact: Goel, Vab (VAB-US) vgoel(a)SPRINT.NET 7039042635 NORDUnet (NORDU-DOM) c/o SUNET-KTH S-100 44 Stockholm SWEDEN Domain Name: NORDU.NET Administrative Contact: Eriksen, Bjorn [System Manager] (BE10) BER(a)SUNIC.SUNET.SE +46 8 790 60 00 Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Liman, Lars-Johan (LL846) LIMAN(a)SUNET.SE +46 8 790 65 60 (FAX) +46 8 24 11 79 Vixie Enterprises (VIX-DOM) Star Route Box 159A Woodside, CA 94062 Domain Name: VIX.COM Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Zone Contact, Billing Contact: Vixie, Paul (PV15) paul(a)VIX.COM (415) 747-0204 DOD Network Information Center (NIPR-DOM) Government Systems, Inc. Attn: NSI (Hostmaster) 14200 Park Meadow Dr., Suite 200 Chantilly, VA 20151 Domain Name: NIPR.MIL Administrative Contact, Technical Contact: Government Systems, Inc. (HOSTMASTER) 703-802-4535 (FAX)703-802-8376 HOSTMASTER(a)NIC.DDN.MIL IANA's plan, which has no congressional mandate, is imposing regulation on a deregulated market, subsidizing corporations, and collecting double taxes on US and International companies, as evidenced by the identities of the networks who would reap the benefits of any fees imposed on other registries. To add insult to injury, is to examine the profile of SAIC, a 2 billion dollar company with strong ties to the Pentagon and the NSA. SAIC is an employee-owned company of 20,000 with about 450 offices around the globe. Its current board of directors include former National Security Agency chief Bobby Inman, Former Defense Secretary Melvin Laird, and the former head of research and development for the Pentagon, Donald Hicks. Ex-CIA director Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense William Perry and CIA Director John Deutsch have been past board members. Eighty-three percent of SAIC's $2 billion annual revenue comes from government contracts, including defense, intelligence and law enforcement contracts. SAIC is designing new information systems for the Pentagon, helping to automate the FBI's computerized fingerprint identification system, and last year won a $200million contract to provide "information support" to the IRS. (source: John Dillon, "Networking with Spooks", CAQ magazine, winter, 1996). Enter the free market. Individual comapnies cropped up in response to the command economy of artificial shortages that had been imposed by a US-centric, militaristic bureaucracy and created new networks of rootservers outside the "sanctioned" servers on which all connections on the internet depend. If your name does not appear in the "sanctioned" database (the rootservers detailed above), your name will not be found everywhere on the internet....only other computers who check the "outsider" database will be able to resolve the new domain names created by the independent companies.--and there are already around 200 new possible names under which one can register on these new services. This poses a problem for the independent upstart name registries because, although they may have a fully functional rootserver system in place, and a fully automated and operational registration service in place, they are essentially frozen out of service becuase the de-facto rootservers, controlled by members of IANA, decide which entries will be in the database of the "sanctioned" rootservers. Hence, the IANA has a vested interest in protecting their control over the "whos-who" list of internet networks, as do their compatriots at Network Solutions, Inc., SAIC, and the government agencies who do business with them. For an example of a fully functional, independent name registry, please go to http://namespace.pgpmedia.com. For some further information on the controversy, please go to http://www.packet.com/hotseat this is a "realaudio" webcast between John McChesney of NPR, Paul Garrin of name.space., and Simpson Garfinkel of WIRED magazine. Also see, "Rebellion Over Who Controls the Net" by Christine Biederman and Jamie Murphy (N.Y. Times, "Cybertimes", November 23, 1996) "Internet Domain Names: Whose Domain is This?" http://www.itu.ch/intreg/dns.html by Robert Shaw,Advisor, Global Information Infrastructure Information Services Department, International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Geneva, Switzerland (Presented at the workshop "Coordination and Administration of the Internet" held at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, September 9-10, 1996). the John Dillon article "Networking with Spooks" appears in the latest issue of CAQ, available soon at http://mediafilter.org/caq (or http://caq.mag.)

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Re: Redlining
by nobody＠huge.cajones.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:26 AM 12/11/1996, Matthew J. Miszewski wrote: >My original point, in fact, was taken out of context and so: > >At 10:50 AM 12/3/1996, Matthew J. Miszewski wrote: >>(snip) >>>(Just for the record, what the hypothetical insurance companies and >>>employers are doing by using data they have obtained should not, in >>>a free society, be illegal in any way. All information contributes >>>to decision-making, about loans, credit, insurance, employment, etc. >>>In a free society, it is up to people to not disclose that which >>>they do not wish remembered.) >> >>While the libertarians on the list have affected my way of looking at >>regulation I, and others, do not subscribe (suscribe ;)) to Tim's >>absolute theory. Unless, of course, by free society Tim is refering >>to one where corporations hold themselves to a level of "personal" >>responsibility, which in many realms is part of any definition of >>"free". >> >>Take, for example, the practice of redlining. How are people who live in >>"bad" neighborhoods supposed to not reveal that information. > >My question was a real one. The basis of it comes from my work with >the homeless in which they have a difficult time getting a job >because they have no "home address" to put on the forms, some do not >have or remember their SSNs, etc. This causes a cyclic problem for >the homeless. My question to Tim was, in the real world, how is the >protection of this data feasible. The way you protect your home address is by using another address for work which is not your home. The way I would do this is to find a mail box service which offers addresses that look like a home. A homeless person might find somebody with a home (like you) who will receive their work related mail for them. A "phone" is easy to get, too. You can get a telephone number which is linked to a voicemail box. You can even get this number listed in the telephone book, if you like. The cost of this service should be less than twenty dollars a month. If you want to go wild, you can get a pager linked voicemail number. This means your pager goes off when you get a message. Handy. But, even this small expense may be out of reach of a homeless person or a homeless advocate. What you can do is get a second line for your home and keep it unlisted. Then, give it to your homeless friends for work related purposes. If the number is only used for work messages, you could probably handle over a hundred people on this one line. As for the social security number, it has been claimed many times on this list that nobody checks them anyway. There are programs which generate real-appearing numbers. (I think one was called "ssn.exe".) And, you can go to the SSA to find out somebody's SS number or to have one issued. It will take awhile. >I do have responses to each of your "points" in your last post, but have >found the process of responding point-by-point tedious and non-productive >(maybe less productive than the time I have to give to the exercise, I was >not intending on placing a value judgement on it). This gives the appearance that you are avoiding the points I raised. My conclusion is that your views are indefensible. Having described my views on the poor as "idiotic", I think it is in poor taste to withdraw from the field without justifying your claim. >As the topic quickly wandered from the original post on privacy >concerns to racial discrimination, I will address that. I apologize >to the list (for those that find it irrelevant), but I can not reply >directly to Red. Cryptoanarchy is not friendly to schemes to prohibit racial discrimination. Indeed, it is unfriendly to any scheme which attempts to control the relationships between people. >I, personally, find racial discrimination to be a problem in the USA. It would be nice if everybody in the U.S. was not a racist. It would be nice if all the bad people just left. >Not only do I find it a moral problem, but it has adverse effects on >markets and the efficiency of these same markets. It is costly not >only in personal measures, but in economical terms as well. But, of course, I don't subscribe to the notion that market efficiency is the best means of determining policy. For one thing, concepts such as efficiency and production are politically defined. If I grow food for myself, it does not affect GDP figures. If I trade the food for money and buy something, then the same production increases GDP. This is not sensible. More importantly, I don't believe that market efficiency, however measured, is sufficient justification for dictating other people's actions. "Market efficiency" is a gambit to conceal dictatorial powers in a scientific cloak. Discussions of market efficiency typically overrule the preference that citizens have. One could imagine that a study that concluded alcohol consumption reduced national efficiency and should therefore be banned. Yet, this completely fails to take into account the strong preference many people have to drink. Some even consider it to be a religious sacrament. I don't believe such preferences should be ignored. They should be respected. Likewise, if somebody just cannot stand Albanians, we should respect their preference even though we may personally disagree with it and even though we may believe it makes the annual GDP number lower. I am not sure exactly what "costly ... in personal measures" means. If you mean that somebody who will not speak with Albanians is deprived of rewarding friendships they might otherwise have, that is probably true. On the other hand, the Albanian-hater will not see it that way. That is his or her tough luck. >I do expect many on the list to disagree with me....They will >disagree that it affects markets in any way. Just for the record, I can imagine that racial prejudice could have a slight effect on mortgage prices (i.e, interest). But, since the CMO revolution, I am inclined to believe that effect will be quite small and is probably unnoticeable. >They will assert that legislative restrictions are far worse than >industry self-policing. Just for the record, I am not advocating "industry self-policing". Policing is what I disagree with. >More will disagree that the government has any business regulating >the area. As I had stated simply before, I disagree. All you have really said is "I believe X." Should we take your belief on faith or are there reasons which underly your beliefs? >Thru painful learning experiences and reality checks - long arguments >over several months and too much coffee - I decided that I would not >want to live in a libertarian's ideal society. This decision was >based on my perception that it just wouldnt work in reality. >>I'm sure many readers of this list have had conversations which >>abruptly end with "Are you a Libertarian?", which is generally >>completely irrelevant to the point under discussion. What is >>happening is that the other person is more interested in knowing your >>tribal identification than what you believe. A pity. > >As strange as it may sound to you, most of my conversations go this >way. It is ironic to me that I have been placed on this side of an >argument. Yet, you are doing something very similar when you raise the issue of "a libertarian's ideal society". Likewise, you criticized Tim May for having (roughly) "too absolute a theory". In either case, you are avoiding substantive discussion, preferring to make prejudicial remarks. Here we are discussing some very specific policies and their ethical implications. There is no need to raise the specter of the "libertarian ideal society". One nice thing about Libertarian-style discussions is that most of the policies are separable; that is, we can discuss redlining without discussing highway privatization. This makes a nice contrast to other styles of discussion in which the proposed scheme only works if everybody participates. The most extreme example was Marxism where it was claimed that it would fail if the entire world was not Marxist. >Do you tend to think of me now as "less of a Libertarian" much as >your forewarned "In the House" black reference? "In the house"? This appears to be an American idiom which I haven't learned yet. I used the word "forewarned" once. I said that it would be hard to believe that even wealthy African-Americans were racist in their lending practices. I still find it hard to believe. It may surprise you to know that I am not all the interested in whether you call yourself a Libertarian. >>Do we then believe that we should outlaw the actions they take based >>on these beliefs? So long as the people in question are doing no >>harm, I propose we leave them alone to live their lives. > >This is the essence of, at least, my disagreement with you Red. I >dont agree that redlining doesnt harm people. You see no harm. I >do. Your reluctance to discuss the nature of the harm you perceive does not give the impression that you have good reasons for your perception. Red Rackham

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[CRYPTO] Sphere packings
by mixmaster＠remail.obscura.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Timmy May's police record is many times longer than his prick (well, that's not hard). /\ __/__\__ | 00 | Timmy May |: \ :| | \_/| \__/

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Re[2]: What's the "Human Interaction Institute" at CMU For ???
by ssalgaller＠CCGATE.HAC.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Dear Concerned Citizen, Am I the only one worrying about the use of technology to implement a "New World Order" ??? If not, where else can I post this message ??? Yes, AOL has a movie trivia board, but I'm serious ! A similar concern could be made about biotechnology: with gene splicing, it would be possible to create a race of "sub humans" to do slave labor and fight wars. This has been done in several Sci-Fi movies, but it's not going to stay fiction much longer. Stephen S. PS: Shouldn't these be the questions that CMU worries about? Which is worse, genetic slavery or "dirty duck" photos ?

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Re: RE: Java DES breaker?
by Remo Pini 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit To: cypherpunks(a)toad.com Date: Wed Dec 11 08:11:13 1996 > A few small bugs in this idea, at least for the masses -- > 1) This would only appeal to people who have unlimited usage > 2) ...and don't care about not having their phone available (I know > they're asleep at the time) > 3) ...and don't have an ISP that will kick them off when a timeout > period expires. AND don't have a phone system that charges for local calls (like for example almost everyone except americans... :( - ------< fate favors the prepared mind >------ Remo Pini rp(a)rpini.com PGP: http://www.rpini.com/crypto/crypto.html Fingerprint: 33F9B4E9 - ----< words are what reality is made of >---- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: noconv Comment: http://www.rpini.com/crypto/crypto.html iQEVAwUBMq5ekRFhy5sz+bTpAQHLRgf+NQY8XwrB+Fjdto+1bsr8M2vaH9GdNS9R PjjbNitAnXrqnoyeYHq4IyC4zkfr6wYce14McRyp5ePjNrfYO0n0rTFH3XBvpFwx usgDSeYNWrcXPuOB8WrPjHxy7OVv8kgnAp00PHImk+x9E5ppJHfSFUDzYlKProie 8CelWUb/EcKkwTJfMnH+s1S9HRPDwxiE7m2OlID1c/+ZobQr0B7BqbSnK9CIvPst cwpzzoAUjNOiSoOIHuUO7ud/Ie03ohPDF0bF4KiKJaeRUNZjLaK7V7DgpfgWv+Zk V2K14TLQ5gAFcFCDnLKo1qePLmZtu1F0YJcbYkQLBh7dhqQpoPtHrQ== =Xg6k -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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[ADMINISTRATIVIUM] Zero-knowledge interactive proofs
by nobody＠cypherpunks.ca 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Timothy May carries a turd in his wallet for identification purposes. ' ' ' ' ^-O-O-^ -ooO--U--Ooo- Timothy May

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Re: Virus?
by Psionic Damage 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Would you like a decompiled version of the Monkey_B virus, because I have over 6000 virii, including that one, if so, mail me personally. It corrupts your boot sector, and sooner or later, deletes your files. At 09:10 PM 12/10/96 EST, you wrote: > > >----------geoboundary >Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit > > > ><HTML> ><BODY> ><CENTER> ><A HREF="http://www.geocities.com">Postage paid by: <IMG SRC="http://www.geocities.com/pictures/newgeobt.gif"></A></CENTER> ></BODY> ></HTML> > >----------geoboundary > > > >Has anybody heard of the Monkey_B virus? If so what does it do exactly? >Also does anybody know where I could find a downloadable Win95 upgrade >upgrading Windows 3.x to Win95? > >----------geoboundary-- > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------- Zer0 Faith Inc. H/P/A/V/C UNDER-WORLD www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Heights/2608 MEMBERZ: GATEMASTER, VIRIZZ, KRASH, EVIL TWIN, KORRUPT, PHONEHAZORD, PSIONIC DAMAGE, ORPHEUS (the pirate), MANTICORE, ERADICATOR, PSYCHODROME, BIONIC SMURF, SONIK, §ILVER KAT, kOBRA, & KRYPTIK! EMAIL:zerofaith@nlights.net (headquarterz) hakker1(a)hotmail.com (Delious's Haus!) hackerz(a)juno.com (The Gatemaster'z palace) zerofaith(a)geocities.com (delivery/help/requests/suggestions)

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Re: What can the judge do to me?
by Duncan Frissell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 07:36 PM 4/12/96 -0400, Black Unicorn wrote: >I think it's clear, the court literally spells this out, that holding >a witness indefinitely until he complies with court orders is within >the discretion of a judge. Compelling through sanctions the >production of a "key" (though I'm not sure a crypto key is directly >contemplated) is likewise clearly permitted. In practice though, two years seems to be the limit. That was the duration for Dr. Elizabeth Morgan and for the guy in SF in the mid 70's who won the Irish Sweepstakes and refused to repatriate his winnings so they could be taxed. Is anyone aware of a contempt sentence longer than two years? If no examples exist, then two years is the limit. There is always more bluff than reality in enforcement. See the Transactional Records Clearing House (http://www.trac.syr.edu/) for real info on federal criminal referrals and filings. Total tax fraud and evasion filings were circa 1000 in 1994, for example. DCF

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RE: Virus?
by Brett Carswell 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> >Also does anybody know where I could find a downloadable Win95 upgrade >upgrading Windows 3.x to Win95? ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/^L^O^S^E^R

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RE: Are accountants smart or stupid?
by nobody＠replay.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Yes

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