- cypherpunks-legacy - lists.cpunks.org

Re: Voluntary Governments?
by dance＠cicero.spc.uchicago.edu 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Jim Choate says: >Can't speak for MIT but I can speak for UT Austin, they do have cells to hold >prisoners. The security forces at that school attend the Tx Dept. of Public >Safety training school and hold state law enforcement positions. The last >thing you want to do is really piss one of these guys, you would end up >in one of the state prisons for several years, Huntsville probably. > >Schools can use physical force against their students. I have personaly seen >assaults on the presidents office when a group of students took it over in >the late 80's because of UT Austin holdings in S. Africa. I have seen them >knock the holy shit out of students for nothing more than simply refusing to >move fast enough. The officers stormed the office in full riot gear with >M16 automatic rifles and smoke grenades. > >I suspect that MIT's security forces, even though it is a private school, >hold 'peace officer' ratings and this implies that they can carry weapons >at any time (though they don't usually). This holds for the small community >college that I work at now as well. The officers don't carry guns as a regular >part of their uniform except during registration when there are large amounts >of cash on campus or when important officials visit the campus(es). The University of Chicago's Security officers are sworn Chicago police; they are given full police powers, if only limited jurisdiction. Lucky for everyone here they choose not to exercise *any* authority. Trying to neither be foolish nor a lightweight.... _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ It's dangerous to be right _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/ _/ when the government is wrong. _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/ _/_/_/_/ _/ --Voltaire _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/_/_/ _/ _/ _/_/_/ _/

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Remailer-list pinging frequency
by Raph Levien 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi all, I believe that I am providing a useful service with my remailer list, but I have received one complaint about the frequency of pinging. I send hourly pings. This is helpful for quickly identifying remailers which have gone off the net. If you don't want me to do this, let me know. I apologize for not having brought this up before I started with the hourly pings. My pinging script can be configured to adjust ping frequency on a per-remailer basis. If you would like a greater interval between pings, I would be happy to do this. I already do this for penet. An anonymous poster from rebma criticized ping traffic as a way to improve remailer mix. It might be that the two goals (improving mix and collecting good statistics) are at odds, but I would be willing to modify my ping script to make the pings more like mix-improving traffic. Ideas include: 1. Encrypt the ping, so it looks like so much PGP traffic. 2. Pad it with a random amount of junk (but not _too_ much :-), so traffic analysis based on size will fail. 3. Chain it through other remailers. A good approach might be to choose two random remailers out of the "top five," and sandwich rebma between them. The drawback is that it penalizes rebma for their latency and failure rate, but this might be acceptable. 4. Randomize the time that the ping is sent. If the operator of the rebma remailer would be so kind, please let me know if and when I have been de-Detweilered, and whether you would like me to implement any of these suggestions. Also, I plan to autopost the remailer list every Monday, to both cypherpunks and alt.privacy.anon-server. This is my first experience with spamming the net, so if anybody has any objections or cautions, I would like to hear them. Raph Levien

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Re: Brands cash
by Rick H. Wesson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> From owner-cypherpunks(a)toad.com Wed Aug 24 08:20 PDT 1994 > Received: from relay2.UU.NET (relay2.UU.NET [192.48.96.7]) by ar.com (8.6.9/8.6.5) with ESMTP id IAA10560 for <wessorh(a)ar.com>; Wed, 24 Aug 1994 08:20:58 -0700 > Received: from toad.com by relay2.UU.NET with SMTP > id QQxeiv09436; Wed, 24 Aug 1994 11:15:13 -0400 > Received: by toad.com id AA11441; Wed, 24 Aug 94 08:08:47 PDT > Received: from newdaisy.ee.und.ac.za by toad.com id AA11434; Wed, 24 Aug 94 08:08:28 PDT > Received: by newdaisy.ee.und.ac.za (Smail3.1.28.1 #12) > id m0qdJvP-0007VlC; Wed, 24 Aug 94 17:07 GMT+0200 > Date: Wed, 24 Aug 1994 17:07:36 +0200 (GMT+0200) > From: Alan Barrett <barrett(a)daisy.ee.und.ac.za> > Subject: Re: Brands cash > To: Hal <hfinney(a)shell.portal.com> > Cc: cypherpunks(a)toad.com > Mime-Version: 1.0 > Sender: owner-cypherpunks(a)toad.com > Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset="US-ASCII" > Content-Length: 332 > > > Unfortunately, I don't think perl is suitable, as it has no facilities for > > multiprecision arithmetic. > > There is some multiprecision arithmetic in perl, but it's implemented as > user-level functions, not as a builtin feature. Look at the bigint.pl, > bigrat.pl and bigfloat.pl packages supplied with perl4. > > --apb (Alan Barrett) > > I'm in the process of adding the mpi library that comes with PGP in perl, Perl is fairly extensible... I just figured that it would be a good common ground for codeing... -Rick

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RE: dfloyd's faux pas :) :)
by Philippe Nave 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> I composed the reply > that Tcmay so generously posted for everyone to marvel at. I signed it, > but re-read it, and DID found it to be as one would put it "nitrogenous > cow waste." Amazing how that happens sometimes, hmmm? The half-life of an e-mail message is about 10 seconds; after a few minutes have passed, the bogon flux density goes clear out of sight. > > To make a long story short, I mailed the wrong file. > My God! A member of the glorious CryptoReich made a MISTAKE ?!? By now, it should be obvious that Real Cypherpunks(TM) **never** make mistakes... [wheee, ha, ha! ROTFL] > I apologize to you, Mr. May, but I find it rude for you to take something > out of private mail, and onto this list. I agree; reposting personal mail without prior consent is terribly rude. > > Unless there is some major change in circumstances, consider this > the last mailing from me on this as I will NOT trouble this list, > and go on personal flamewars. What the hell - if you walk erect and sleep indoors, you're as qualified to 'trouble the list' as the rest of us. Philippe "Anarchy means never having to put up with shit from your 'leaders'"

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DSPs (was: Nuclear Weapons Materials)
by Jim Dixon 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

In message <9408241340.AA03320(a)snark.imsi.com> perry(a)imsi.com writes: > > I've been wondering recently, by the way, about what advantages doing > some of this stuff on DSPs might have. DSPs are not magical chips, but > they are optimized for a few tasks, including, typically, fast integer > multiplies. More precisely, fast integer inner products. > IDEA and modular exponentiation both require lots of fast > integer multiplies. Would it make sense to use DSPs as co-processors > to things like Pentiums to speed up these processes? -- Jim Dixon

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Re: Nuclear Weapons Material
by shamrock＠netcom.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This thread is just too interesting... Mikolaj wrote: > > This also depends on the type of bomb. In a two-stage fusion >bomb, you are quite correct - the tritium-deuterium/tritium fusion >reaction gives the boom. However, in a three-stage bomb, there is an >additional fission reaction, this due to the fact that the neutrons >produced by the fusion reaction have the precise energy required to >fission U-238. Since U-238 is vastly easier to obtain than enriched >U-235, there is no great problem with sticking in half a tonne of it. >Around that you can add cobalt jackets, etc, for more interesting >effects. > What does the cobalt jacket do? -- Lucky Green <shamrock(a)netcom.com> PGP public key by finger

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Re: Nuclear Weapons Material
by usura＠vox.hacktic.nl 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

khijol!erc(a)apple.com (Ed Carp [Sysadmin]) writes: :> In a fusion, or H Bomb, the tritium (which is just hydrogen with an :> extra two neutrons) is that which produces the boom -- the main fuel, :> as it were. Its a "neutron source" only in the weakest possible sense :> -- the same way dynamite might be considered to need nitroglycerine as :> a "neutron source". (I'm not sure that people outside of the bomb :> building industry really know *for sure* what the geometries used in :> the atomic weapon that sets off the fusion reaction.) : : I don't understand your point. The earliest devices used a pie shape : with a wedge cut out. The actual geometry is rather unimportant to : getting a fission reaction - but it *is* important if you want to : maximize your yield. One doesnot need to detonate the Uranium/Plutonium one can poison the watersuplies and make havoc with The Simple Bear Necessities of life. -- Exit! Stage Left. Alex de Joode <usura(a)vox.hacktic.nl>

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Re: FCC Regulation (Challenging Majority Whim)
by blancw＠pylon.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

[more excruciatingly enlightening grandiloquence] Responding to msg by Phil Karn: . . . . how can one create a government that rises above the petty illiberalism of the people it governs to protect the rights of the individual? ................................................... It appears that being given a position in charge of upholding abstract ideals makes some people forget whose interest or which ideal it is that they are supporting, and they take too seriously the opportunity to lord over others. When someone has been given responsibility over others, they seem to suddenly lose their perspective and propose all sorts of things contrary to what they claimed to think prior to assuming that office. I think there will come a time when business enterprises will completely replace 'government' functions. Most people see both society and political systems as means to practical ends. These two organizations have pragmatic functions which individuals see as advantageous to their own comfort and advancement. When neither of these deliver on the promise of the desired benefits, all of those who were depending upon them complain that their expectations were betrayed. It remains to 'overthrow' these organizations or raise hell at least, but still conditions remain largely unsatisfactory. A business enterprise is more precisely a tool for the realization of the kind of benefits which people are looking for from each other. It also has the advantage of flexibility - it can be modified to suit or disbanded altogether without affecting uninvolved parties in the same way as must happen when attempting to "improve" a society or a government. A company does not recognize an individual in the same way that a society or a government does in terms of a comprehensive ideal, but it can better provide the means to achieve personal goals & ambitions, and I think is thus better suited as a tool for providing (read 'creating') what individuals could want from the world while living in co-existence with strangers. Blanc

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The Trouble With Crypto
by blancw＠pylon.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Responding to msg by nobody(a)ds1.wu-wien.ac.at: 1 >if [crypto] only >needs to be used once in a while, there will be no >good reason to implement some of the more interesting >protocols, or implement the "maximum strength" >possible. 2 >For the overwhelming majority of >people, the benefits of "digital cash" will not be >worth the time and trouble over "digital cash with >anonimity removed". . . 3 >As for encrypting all email, much like people use >envelopes? Be honest, there isn't sufficient cause to >warrant the time and trouble. 4 >Nor is there sufficient cause to warrant the time and >trouble of signing messages sent to mailing lists or >usenet. . . . 5 >Nor is there sufficient cause to warrant the time and >trouble of communicating via anonymous remailers, >except for say folks like Pr0duct Cypher. 6 >Nor is there sufficient cause to warrant the time and >trouble for banks and stores to offer digital cash. 7 >As for dc-nets, give me a solid example why you ever >need to communicate with one. 8 I see a limited deployment, and almost no >fundamental restructuring of society. 9 >. . . I suppose a discussion about >atomic bombs will likely be of greater impact on our >future than crypto anarchy will. 10 >Cypherpunks write code, but if there is sufficient >cause to warrant the time and trouble! ............................................................... You might be right, having accrued at least 10 reasons why the list discussions do not altogether convince of the importance of using encryption as a matter of course or for the re-structuring of society. The choice to use crypto is a little different from the sense of wanting to use it from desperation; I think it is the difference between determining factors: when it is the individual themselves who decide to employ the tool for whatever reason they have to either use it or not at their discretion, or when the circumstance seems to dictate for the person what they must do - that they must go to desperate means to ensure privacy, from a perceived threat which demands that they hide their communication. One of the important issues regarding the use of encryption is not necessarily whether it is used or not as a matter of course, but rather the controversy over the source of the permission to use it as well as the imposed obligation to participate in self-incriminating applications of it. i.e. do individuals have the sovereign right to use tools which result in a division between public & private existence, or are they obligated to keeping their lives accessible to intervening governing agencies? To me a cumbersome tool would require sufficient cause to use it. However, I would appreciate its existence in case of emergency, if there was no better one available, and I would protest the idea that it was anyone else's prerogative to decide for me when it was an appropriate occasion to do so. Is crypto only a toy with destructive implications for governments & societies, or a tool of subjugation with destructive implications for individuals? If only cypherpunks or only government officionados made the decisions about it the answers would be easier to predict. But they are not the only ones involved, and it is my understanding that not all future developments will be determined on this list. Blanc

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Re: In Search of Genuine DigiCash
by rah＠shipwright.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 7:45 PM 8/27/94 -0400, Perry E. Metzger wrote: >Eric Hughes says: >> >If there were already a fully identified digital money system, >> >> Is there one? >> >> I don't think there is any digital money system at all, neither >> anonymous nor fuly identified. >> >> There certainly are digital funds transfer systems, almost all fully >> identified. These are not digital money systems, although they may be >> precursors. > >The U.S. banking system is largely a "digital money system" in the >sense that the bulk of the money in the system is represented in book >entry form in computer systems and has no other existance. I suppose what I meant was is there any fully identified offline digital cash system in the literature. I haven't heard of any from secondary sources, like around here, or from my cursory reading of Schneier, for instance. The penalty for imprecision on a mail-list of scientists is blown bandwidth. My apologies. Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) "There is no difference between someone Shipwright Development Corporation who eats too little and sees Heaven and 44 Farquhar Street someone who drinks too much and sees Boston, MA 02331 USA snakes." -- Bertrand Russell (617) 323-7923

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