November 2013 - cypherpunks - lists.cpunks.org

Re: [Cryptography][Law] Jeremy Hammond Banned from using Cryptography
by John Young 16 Nov '13

16 Nov '13

Still, the USA's description of how its Cooperating Witness (presumably Hector Sabu Monsegur) allegedly induced Hammond to ply his fine mind and technical skills indicates that ban on the use of encryption is the least hazard facing hackers and confrontational comsec wizards: http://cryptome.org/2013/11/hammond-060.pdf Self-serving insiders of the comsec industry, black, white or gray, continue to be the Achilles heel of comsec. Government use of these trusted allies reminds that it is not only nations who fuck their friends. Now, this is not news, but also reminds that protestations of injustice, outrage and anger, is all too often a conventional cover for betrayal by cooperating witnesses. Unfortunately, the same goes for eager participants in payback, fault correction, workarounds, vengeance, product upgrades to defeat the bastards. These exact means and methods were allegedly used by Sabu to ensnare and imprison a batch of confederates. An ancient practice effectively used on Julian Assange: followers can be lethal. Encryption offers squat protection from this kind of legal, political and social engineering whose history is much older and more effective than top coding, math, engineering, ethics and brave challenges to authority. Usually, offer of an irresistable plea deal, job contract, witness protection, PR outpouring, turns a valiant outsider into a handsomely rewarded insider. Mudge one of hundreds, perhaps thousands, who got the warning message. Then what to avoid the looming scythes the various Sabus (he is surely not alone) have provided law enforcement to gradually take down the opposition, not all at once but in the Snowden-Greenwald manner, to slowly dribble prosecutions for maximum effect, promising "much, much more to come?"

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re: passwords! (p7)
by brian carroll 16 Nov '13

16 Nov '13

// two other techniques not yet mentioned... consider the previous example once again: [pass]-[wo]-[r]-[ds] ---> [mo]-[sp]-[ssap]-[J] there could be multiple transformations (a->b->c) that could involve switching the sequence of the set, and other such ~operations, whether to the entire password in aggregate (as string) or inside the separate 'bit' sets, each potentially having overlapped or different changes due to symmetry with alphanumerics (hiox), usually the reference is to vertical, horizontal mirroring and rotation of 180 degrees, though this could also involve 90/270 degrees, such that a pass could filter the entire string for 90 degrees, as in the example below, or in other instance, only set 1, etc. [mo]-[sp]-[ssap]-[J] ---> [3o]-[иp]-[ииap]-[J] in this example, the letters 's' when rotated 90 degrees turn into the russian lowercase 'и' via substitution. likewise the letter 'm' turned into a '3' via its partial rotation. another rule for bit set transformation could involve the contraction and expansion of what is inside the set or the string en total... such that in the original example, the duplicates letters in a given set are dropped into a single letter... though this could then double the other letters within the set... [ssap] ---> [sap] ---> [saapp] therefore, a starting password string could in a given instance change from nine to ten characters... [mospssapJ] ---> [mospsaappJ] a different take on this same technique of expansion and contraction is more deconstructive, in that that the 'intra-sign' or 'infra-sign' structure itself could be tapped into as its own layer of character abstraction. consider once again the basic example already used... [pass]-[wo]-[r]-[ds] ---> [mo]-[sp]-[ssap]-[J] it is possible to modify what is within each bit set in a range of ways, this transformative process equivalent in some sense to calculus, relying on geometric ordering as it relates to typography though could extend further into linguistics (phonetics, meaning, grammar, syntax) variables. the focus of consideration is what could potentially happen to meaningfully transform a bit set or bit string and then use this as a framework or basis for a ruleset for such processing take the first bit set in the transformed version: [mo] it can be broken down or opened up via its correspondence with other structuring, so for example the issue of rotation is such that 3,w,E,m are variables for rotation while o is the same: [3o|wo|Eo|mo] so in that particular range of parameter, the superposition for the original letter 'm' is more varied than for the letter 'o' in the same set further though, the structure of the sign itself (at the intra-bit set level of measurement), that of a single letter, could also be the basis for such transformative rulesets that further expand or contract 'variables' in that through their "options" or optionality, provide various structures that may or may not be used in given bit set permutations at multiple levels of the letter sign, intra-bit set, inter-bit set, and bit set string [mo] again, consider the potential letter-based structuring that could be broken apart and merged/fused together to either expand or contract the given alphabetic and likewise other alphanumeric example... [mo] ---> [rno] ---> [rn()] the letter 'm' is fragmented into a letter 'r' and letter 'n' which combine back into the letter m via proximity or adjacency, and the letter 'o' can be abstracted into paired symmetric parentheses. what this also does is take the bit set and expand it from two letters to four characters the takeaway is that the length of a password could be variable given what rules are involved, such that a base password could expand and- or contract and itself be variable across many of its attributes, existing in a potential state or superposition, that is more the parameters of a Schrödinger scenario than a pattern-match in a dictionary context for any given [password] that could be a million potential permutations consider the following example of a bit string instance, again... [mospssapJ] just making one transformation could change it from pw1 to pw2, say using a 180 degree rotation first, then a repeated letter function that drops a letter and expands others in the set (in this case string)... mospssapJ ---> wosdssedr ---> wwoossddseeddrr notice the original password ~instance expanded from 9 characters to 15 characters and has actually changed 'variables' of the password, so that even if the original password is known, (and then: outdated), without knowing the rules, it would not be easy to establish pw2 due to potentially infinite variability, whatever the hidden rulesets may be another example going further into this transformation via expansion is to breakdown the sign-structures, again exampled at the bit string level. mospssapJ ---> rn()s|oss|oJ not much is occuring in this example, it expands from 9 to 12 characters. though to make it more elaborate, lets rotate the letters 's' ninety degrees... moиpииapJ ---> rn()VI|⁰VIVI|⁰J this instance transforms the 9 character pw1 into a 15 character pw2 and also introduces special characters that could be mapped to alphanumeric structures. and this could go anywhere, to pw3...pwᴺ for example, further mirroring, symmetry, rotation, duplication, substitution... rn()VI|⁰VIVI|⁰J ---> L⁰|IVIV⁰|IV()nr ....horizontal mirroring of the string, and its further 180 rotation.... L⁰|IVIV⁰|IV()nr ---> ju()^I|ₒ^I^I|ₒ7 another pass could again recombine letters, such as substituting a letter 'b' for '|ₒ', and turning each letter within the set 180 degrees, if it can be mapped into another character structure... ju()^I|ₒ^I^I|ₒ7 ---> rn()VIpVIVIpL so the idea here is that it is possible to move from pw1 to pwᴺ and have a running password that is a transmutation of some original or seed password that is itself autonomous, changing and variable across a range of parameters; in this way, the password could have involve aspects of superposition in its bounded local interactions as its variability is encountered mospssapJ ---> rn()VIpVIVIpL in other words, pw1 and pw2 and pwᴺ could be a continual process of transformation, and this variability could fill time, and expand and contract and change characters, languages, inter and intra-sign structures, and likewise could include other variables as mentioned (temperature, other relativistic variables- moon phase, number of sunspots, UV index, etc) thus, pw1 could be 15 characters in one moment, 38 the next, and potentially even strengthened if more than five attempts at access occur, dropping gates and walls and further parameters, or spawning a false basic password as entry into the labyrinth... x⁽ xⁿ x⁾

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re: passwords! (p6)
by brian carroll 16 Nov '13

16 Nov '13

additional layers of transformation could also be included that use symmetries or other calculus-like transformations. consider the previous example... [1][2][3][4] ---> [2][4][1][3] now consider if within each subset additional characteristics could be modified, such that set 2 is mirrored by vertically by the letters that obey these principles... and set 1 has its letters in reverse... and sets 3 and 4 are rotated 180 degrees [pass]-[wo]-[r]-[ds] ---> [mo]-[sp]-[ssap]-[J] and that this could also be dynamic and change, for a given instantiation of the base password as it is mediated for login, as an ever-changing password with its own variability which could change daily given, say, a range of 30 such criteria that may or may not be accessible in various combinations then rulesets would be important, what if some letters can be transformed and others cannot, are substitutions chosen or are only some characters changed, or how to deal with a character with multiple options for superposition translation this kind of exponential potential for passwords in a context where the simple model is so simple to allow easy hacking, what if systems were designed to be significantly more difficult to access and that /time/ was leveraged to limit unauthorized access and to limit, via relativism, what can be seen in a given threshold or timeframe, to potentially make it impossible for automated attacks of logins via brute-force via zombie-nets, by making the odds more the opposite of what they are today, given access, enough time and dictionaries, versus limiting the exploitable window, limiting the time frame, and use of dictionaries via increased variability that is never static, and thus each login could tend more towards 1 in a million guess, by chance, and have that be the repeated situation encountered at login, versus allowing 10 million attempts to gain illegal access it just seems common sense that perhaps it is made to be broken and that without such introducing or allowing parameters of such increased difficulty, that perhaps it is the design of the ecosystem itself versus its merit in terms of 'actual security' versus what is allowable, thus making the password issue itself that of a false perspective, as if 8-12 alphanumerics w/special characters is maxing out possibilities when instead limiting the questions to those parameters may force another approach prematurely, which could be even worse, policy-wise 😺 😶 😈

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re: passwords! (p5)
by brian carroll 16 Nov '13

16 Nov '13

// incompleteness of completeness, additional oddity... if considering [password] as a bit-set instead of linear string, such that [p|a|s|s|w|o|r|d] could itself be variable, per bit, ex. [pass|word|1234|bluegreen] then, if a password service used this principle, instead of requiring just 8-12 alphanumerics plus allowed special characters as the basis for /security/, instead what if it was 3-4 sets instead, themselves having special rules... [set1|set2|set3|set4] in this way, a 'rolling password' could be developed in that the sequence could be arbitrary or change, given the instance or interaction, which may or may not include changing variables (months till b-day, temperature in zipcode, etc) in other words: [password] ---> [pass][wo][r][ds] whereby, via its continual dynamic state, could exist in multiple versions by default, and then have this managed between client/server [1][2][3][4] ---> [2][4][1][3] [pass]-[wo]-[r]-[ds] ---> [wo]-[ds]-[pass]-[r] this could extend into sequences of not only alphanumerics through also icons (picked amongst many on the server, thus creating more unknowns), say choose 1 of available 20 icons, which is not included in stored password, nor its place in sequence knowable to attacker... [pass][icon13][wo][r][ds] ---> [icon13][wo][ds][pass][r] thus a changing string made up of subsets rearranged that may even have non-stored variables [#], icons or other approach [3b]-[alphanum1a]-[5e]-[32^F]-[4d]-[icon]-[2c] [2c]-[3b]-[alphanum1a]-[4d]-[icon]-[67^F]-[5e] then the probabilities and computation is upped exponentially even if accessing some part of the correct code, which may not be reliably reused, seemingly the more subsets, more security from an initial attack-- thus even if one instance of passwords were found, they could be changed or even transformed into another set and detach from those lost, locking out else deactivating the previous versions. a lot could seemingly be done with this though a secure environment would be required which seems difficult to guarantee if not allow for sake of someone elses interests, known & unknown 𝓶 𝟡 𝑤

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[tor-talk] USB Sticks for TAILS
by Moritz Bartl 15 Nov '13

15 Nov '13

Hi, I know there is a dedicated mailinglist for TAILS, but I figured I would reach a larger audience here, and it might be of interest to many who are not subscribed to the TAILS list. Ideally, you use TAILS from a read-only medium. CD is best, but many devices these days don't have an optical drive, and handling CDs is not as convenient as a USB stick. For quite some time, people kept recommending the TrekStor CS USB stick [ https://geizhals.de/trekstor-cs-8gb-50324-a240853.html ], one of the few sticks available in Germany with write-protection switch. Turns out they use a new firmware, and now don't support booting from it in read-only mode. The company confirmed this via email. There are roughly no alternatives, and I figured I'm not the only one looking for USB sticks with write protection switch. Via alibaba.com, a "wholesale Chinese ebay", I contacted various Chinese suppliers, and ended up ordering two samples. Even there, the selection of sticks with write protection is very limited. I ended up paying paying 60€ for the 2 samples because of shipping and Western Union fees. The sticks are not very fast, but acceptable, and boot in read-only mode. They are not as slim as I hoped for, but the supplier is friendly, production and shipping was very fast. (less than 2 weeks altogether). Logo printing is cheap ($0.15 per stick), so to try the quality I also had them print a logo on the samples. I am still undecided whether I want the final sticks to have a logo, or simply be blank to not attract too much attention. If you have a nice idea for a logo, let me know. I want to order 100 sticks in time for Chaos Communication Congress 30C3. The production cost is $4 per stick (8GB), the final price (taxes, GEMA, shipping) will likely be around $15. Pictures: http://share.pho.to/48Egt # dmesg [55679.884123] usb 2-1.2: new high-speed USB device number 5 using ehci_hcd [55680.051089] usb 2-1.2: New USB device found, idVendor=058f, idProduct=6387 [55680.051092] usb 2-1.2: New USB device strings: Mfr=1, Product=2, SerialNumber=3 [55680.051094] usb 2-1.2: Product: Mass Storage [55680.051095] usb 2-1.2: Manufacturer: Generic [55680.051096] usb 2-1.2: SerialNumber: B6BA8F3F [55680.051459] scsi9 : usb-storage 2-1.2:1.0 [55681.051827] scsi 9:0:0:0: Direct-Access Generic Flash Disk 8.07 PQ: 0 ANSI: 4 [55681.053860] sd 9:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0 [55681.055544] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] 15937536 512-byte logical blocks: (8.16 GB/7.59 GiB) [55681.056665] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off [55681.056676] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 23 00 00 00 [55681.057742] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA [55681.176618] sdb: sdb1 [55681.179808] sd 9:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk # hdparm -t /dev/sdb /dev/sdb: Timing buffered disk reads: 54 MB in 3.07 seconds = 17.60 MB/sec # dd if=tails-i386-0.21.iso of=/dev/sdb bs=1M 891+1 records in 891+1 records out 934471680 bytes (934 MB) copied, 170.058 s, 5.5 MB/s -- Moritz Bartl https://www.torservers.net/ -- tor-talk mailing list - tor-talk(a)lists.torproject.org To unsubscribe or change other settings go to https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-talk

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Re: [tor-talk] BitMail.sf.net v 0.6 - Secure Encrypting Email Client
by Ulex Europae 15 Nov '13

15 Nov '13

At 09:04 PM 11/13/2013, grarpamp wrote: >On Tue, Nov 5, 2013 at 2:38 AM, <rwest(a)countermail.com> wrote: > > Hello, > > > > can BitMail.sf.net as a p2p email tool for encrypted Email (and > hybrid with IMAP-Email) be regarded as a reference model for > research to create a secure Email Client? as it uses both, gnupg and openssl! > > > > http://bitmail.sourceforge.net/ > > https://sourceforge.net/projects/bitmail/files/BitMail_0.6_2088RC1/ > > > > Does anyone know, if it runs over Tor? > > > > Sincerely, Robert > >So... 'Robert', who do you work for? NSA? Financial crime? >I mean, with the net moving to encrypt everything >we'd expect to see many new and unknown yet seemingly >polished tools being dropped on unsuspecting first time >users just to collect their key material. >Surely someone will have fun with your windows binaries. Hmm, lots of lists I'm not subscribed to on the To: line, bad juju on someone's part for the initial crosspost. Hopefully, those other list maintainers will see and approve my comment, even though I'm not subscribed to all those other lists: I'm replying because, Sourceforge? They fell out of vogue when they started bundling binary downloads with other executables, they deserve to die a quick death for that as users flock to safer environs. 'Robert' should upload his binaries to Github. Along with his source code. Then, if the MD5 checksum on his compiled binaries matches the MD5 checksum on the source code when it is compiled independently, he's golden. That is how that works, how it is supposed to work. Accept no substitutes. --

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<nettime> Google wins book-scanning case: judge finds “fair use,” cites many benefits
by Felix Stalder 14 Nov '13

14 Nov '13

[I'm somewhat conflicted about this. While I'm generally glad to see fair use expanded, I think the judge misunderstood Google's business model when citing in favor of favor of that Google "does not sell the scans" as evidence of its benign character. They clearly wouldn't do it if they were not convinced that making these books searchable is adding to their bottom-line by refining user profiles. Felix] http://gigaom.com/2013/11/14/google-wins-book-scanning-case-judge-finds-fai… Google wins book-scanning case: judge finds “fair use,” cites many benefits By Jeff John Roberts The long-running copyright fight between Google and the Authors Guild is over: Judge Denny Chin issued a resounding ruling in favor of fair use. tweet this Google has won a resounding victory in its eight-year copyright battle with the Authors Guild over the search giant’s controversial decision to scan more than 20 million books from libraries and make them available on the internet. In a ruling (embedded below) issued Thursday morning in New York, US Circuit Judge Denny Chin said the book scanning amounted to fair use because it was “highly transformative” and because it didn’t harm the market for the original work. “Google Books provides significant public benefits,” Chin wrote, describing it as “an essential research tool” and noting that the scanning service has expanded literary access for the blind and helped preserve the text of old books from physical decay. Chin also rejected the theory that Google was depriving authors of income, noting that the company does not sell the scans or make whole copies of books available. He concluded, instead, that Google Books served to help readers discover new books and amounted to “new income from authors.” The ruling is being hailed on Twitter by librarians and scholars, who intervened in the case to urge the court to declare that Google Books was fair use — a four-part test that seeks to balance the rights of authors against broader interests of society. “This has been a long road and we are absolutely delighted with today’s judgement. As we have long said Google Books is in compliance with copyright law and acts like a card catalog for the digital age – giving users the ability to find books to buy or borrow,” Google said in an emailed statement. Author’s Guild Executive Director Paul Aiken said by email that the group would appeal the decision. He added: “We disagree with and are disappointed by the court’s decision today. This case presents a fundamental challenge to copyright that merits review by a higher court. Google made unauthorized digital editions of nearly all of the world’s valuable copyright-protected literature and profits from displaying those works. In our view, such mass digitization and exploitation far exceeds the bounds of the fair use defense.” The decision itself comes as a volte-face for Judge Chin, who expressed major skepticism about the project in a highly-publicized 2010 ruling that blew up a three-part deal between Google, publishers and the Authors Guild that would have created a market for the scanned books. Chin also agreed last year to allow the cases to proceed as a class action — but the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision and ordered Chin to instead rule on the fair use question. Thursday’s ruling is effectively an acknowledgment by Chin that the higher court (on which he now sits) wanted him to find fair use. The ruling is unlikely to sit well with some authors, including Scott Turow, who have decried Google’s scanning as an indignity and a money grab. The latter idea — that Google is profiting off the books at the expense of authors — has been a rallying cry for opponents of the book scanning. Chin’s ruling, however, takes care to reject the notion in detail, and states that Google “does not engage in the direct commercialization of copyrighted works.” <...> Chin’s ruling is also likely to be decisive in a companion case between the Authors Guild and the HathiTrust, a group of university libraries that have created a shared corpus of digital books for scholars and students. The HathiTrust case is on appeal, but the group’s victory at the lower court stage may have paved the way for today’s decision: The HathiTrust case really clinched this. "If there is no liability… on the libraries' part, there can be no liability on Google's part."— Tim Carmody (@tcarmody) November 14, 2013 The ruling is below with key portions underlined. For more perspective, see Mathew Ingram’s “Whatever you think of Google, the book-scanning decision is the right one.” (For more background, see my ebook The Battle for the Books: Inside Google’s Gambit to Create the World’s Biggest Library.) -- ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| http://felix.openflows.com |OPEN PGP: 056C E7D3 9B25 CAE1 336D 6D2F 0BBB 5B95 0C9F F2AC # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: http://mx.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/nettime-l # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: nettime(a)kein.org

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superconductivity (urls)
by brian carroll 14 Nov '13

14 Nov '13

// what about indoor light pollution from little LEDs on various equipment // that create an ambient glow everywhere. dark skies initiative for indoors! Computers and phones in children's bedrooms 'can cause anxiety and sleep loss' (via drudgereport) http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/10448123/Computers-and-p… "The paper’s lead author, psychologist Dr Jennifer Vriend, of Dalhousie University in Canada, said: “One of the biggest culprits for inadequate and disturbed sleep is technology. " Dark-sky movement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark-sky_movement // presumably like dams, wave power could also have ecosystem // consequences for marine life, likewise underwater comms, sonar // as potentially related to mass beachings of whales, dolphins, etc. Solar Panels Frying Birds Along Major Migration Path (via drudge) http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/11/12/Oops-Solar-Energy-Plants… [Birds dying in two ways... crashing into mirage-like 'areas of water' and having feathers torched via reflected sunlight] Accidental discovery dramatically improves electrical conductivity http://phys.org/news/2013-11-accidental-discovery-electrical.html "Quite by accident, Washington State University researchers have achieved a 400-fold increase in the electrical conductivity of a crystal simply by exposing it to light. The effect, which lasted for days after the light was turned off, could dramatically improve the performance of devices like computer chips." ... re: holographic memory, data storage inside crystal vs. on surface [&] Electrons with a "split personality" // anisotropy, metal, & lifetimes http://phys.org/news/2013-11-electrons-personality.html "Conventional or unconventional – depending on momentum" " Up until now, the interaction of the electrons has generally been assumed to be isotropic. " "In terms of electrons, resistivity corresponds to the mean free path of the electrons, i.e. the distance an average electron covers before bumping into something – the shorter the mean free path, the higher the resistivity. Generally, the higher the temperature the higher the resistivity because the particles the electrons can collide with are moving faster at higher temperatures which makes collisions more likely." {what is metal} // amateur astronomy is in need of a massive technological upgrade, // this tied to light pollution, environmental & urban planning issues. How a Superconducting Camera Could Revolutionize Astrophysics http://gizmodo.com/how-a-superconducting-camera-could-revolutionize-astrop-… film --> semiconductors --> hyperspectral superconductors "Mazin's imaging device... dubbed the ARray Camera for Optical to Near-infrared (IR) Spectrophotometry (ARCONS), sees all of the wavelengths all of the times. It is literally the first imaging device to ever actually see in color. It is also the first imaging device to utilize Microwave Kinetic Inductance Detectors (MKIDs), a superconducting photon detector used to measure energy across the electromagnetic spectrum." [also waiting for this tech in consumer digital & video cameras, going beyond visual parameters, using IR and UV imaging vs. stylized filters- why not multispectral wavelength options. hell, what if there was an 'electromagnetic signals' setting, to visualize EM signaling in space as if kirlian photography] Evelyn Glennie: How to truly listen (video) http://www.ted.com/talks/evelyn_glennie_shows_how_to_listen.html description: In this soaring demonstration, deaf percussionist Evelyn Glennie illustrates how listening to music involves much more than simply letting sound waves hit your eardrums. "... Allow your body is open up, to allow your body to be this resonating chamber..." "... please take note of the life of the sound after the initial strike..." [bio] Evelyn Glennie http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evelyn_Glennie // in approaching music independently i enjoyed this documentary a lot. // her approach is unique, educational, instructive, and inspirational... // about tuning into events, learning to ~listen with all the senses Touch the Sound documentary http://www.touch-the-sound.com/ Battle Cry -- from the album: Shadow Behind The Iron Sun https://myspace.com/variousartists-45950709/music/song/battle-cry-28420027-… // if only geometry could be taught through these techniques, // including origami tesslations, platonic solids, into music... The Handheld Mathematics of Geometer Ron Resch (video) http://gizmodo.com/the-handheld-mathematics-of-geometer-ron-resch-1463859152 "testing out posed solutions..." [bio] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Resch note: the expandable structures seem ideal both for satellite or spacecraft and also lunar habits or robotic missions, such as a small format expandable base camp tent, etc. likewise, emergency tents or shelters, perhaps even windtunnel testing of the dome to consider if anchored structures could short-circuit hurricane winds via acting more like ground vs walls; for instance, with certain hi-tech fabrics perhaps flexibility and deformity is a strength. also, potential antennas, collapsible or not, or even portable radio telescope/telemetry arrays. how to fix any computer - The Oatmeal http://theoatmeal.com/blog/fix_computer ∰ ≉ ⊊

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[IP] My blog today on "Permissionless Innovation"
by Eugen Leitl 14 Nov '13

14 Nov '13

----- Forwarded message from Dave Farber <dave(a)farber.net> ----- Date: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 11:28:48 -0500 From: Dave Farber <dave(a)farber.net> To: ip <ip(a)listbox.com> Subject: [IP] My blog today on "Permissionless Innovation" Message-ID: <CAKx4triMv4zeA6mV_POaLfyosZk_1qumW7m+=1Fw37zVs9mC_A(a)mail.gmail.com> Reply-To: dave(a)farber.net ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: *Young, David E* Date: Thursday, November 14, 2013 Subject: My blog today on "Permissionless Innovation" To: "Dave Farber (dave(a)farber.net)" <dave(a)farber.net> Dave, Perhaps of interest… http://publicpolicy.verizon.com/blog/entry/permissionless-innovation-on-the… Permissionless Innovation On the Internet *David Young <http://publicpolicy.verizon.com/experts/david-young>* Nov 14 | David Young <http://publicpolicy.verizon.com/experts/david-young> In a story posted yesterday – A Remedy to Clueless Tech Lawyers<http://venturebeat.com/2013/11/13/a-remedy-to-clueless-tech-lawyers/>– my old friend Jonathan Askin describes some work he did as a young lawyer for another good friend of mine, tech innovator Jeff Pulver<https://twitter.com/jeffpulver>. In the mid-90s, Jeff was trying to create a peer-to-peer communications service called Free World Dial-Up (FWD)<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_World_Dialup> . Jonathan beats himself up in his essay because, as Jeff’s lawyer (or “wartime consigliere <http://www.fundraisers.com/ideas/charitypoker.html>” as he called himself), he “put the reins on FWD” and advised Jeff to ask the FCC for permission “to launch FWD free of regulatory constraints.” Jonathan rightly understood that the FCC could decide to regulate FWD as a *telephone service*, and sought to protect his client from that risk. “Permissionless Innovation<http://techliberation.com/2013/03/04/who-really-believes-in-permissionless-…>” may be one of the key features of the Internet, but as Jonathan rightly understood, regulated companies and service providers too often have to ask permission from their regulators before innovating, or else face potential consequences. After more than a year, the FCC agreed that FWD was an “information service” not subject to common carrier telephone regulation. Unfortunately for Jeff Pulver, the many months it took to get permission from the FCC allowed a non-US company <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skype> to innovate freely and capture the market opportunity. In 2013, you may not have ever heard of Free World Dial-Up, but you’ve certainly heard of Skype. In retrospect, perhaps Jonathan would have advised his client to “just do it,” as the delay waiting for permission was indeed a very bad thing for FWD. However, the eventual FCC decision – the “Pulver Order<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-04-27A1.pdf/>” - was a critically important precedent. Jeff’s sacrifice helped pave the way for innovators everywhere to offer new services in the US (and we owe him our heartfelt thanks!). As a young phone company engineer trying to get into broadband and VOIP in the 90s, I experienced firsthand the problem of needing regulatory permission to try new, innovative things that don’t fit into the existing regulatory buckets. That is why decisions like the Pulver Order that protect some new services like FWD from common carrier regulation, the “Vonage Order <http://www.techlawjournal.com/topstories/2004/20041109.asp>” protecting VoIP services from state telephone regulators, the FCC actions protecting cable modem broadband service from regulation by 30,000 local franchise authorities <http://www.techlawjournal.com/telecom/19990616.htm>, and the FCC orders confirming that traditional common carriage regulation doesn’t apply to broadband<http://www.techlawjournal.com/topstories/2005/20050805a.asp>services, were so important to enabling innovation without the regulatory overhang that early innovators like Pulver and Askin faced. Permissionless innovation shouldn’t be reserved for just certain types of innovators (like software developers) and not others. Given the dynamism, innovation and competition that are the hallmarks of today’s Internet ecosystem, the ability to innovate without having to seek permission from regulators at every step along the way is critical to the continued success of the Internet, and must be preserved. ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/25094221-ddf8422b Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com ----- End forwarded message -----

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(Times of Israel) Stuxnet, gone rogue, hit Russian nuke plant, space station (fwd)
by Tomasz Rola 14 Nov '13

14 Nov '13

Hi, I guess this is news? They say it happened few years ago, but I see it being reported right now. Regards, Tomasz Rola -- ** A C programmer asked whether computer had Buddha's nature. ** ** As the answer, master did "rm -rif" on the programmer's home ** ** directory. And then the C programmer became enlightened... ** ** ** ** Tomasz Rola mailto:tomasz_rola@bigfoot.com ** ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2013 20:30:11 +0100 (CET) From: Tomasz Rola <rtomek(a)ceti.pl> To: <info(a)postbiota.org>, Transhuman Tech <tt(a)postbiota.org> Cc: Tomasz Rola <rtomek(a)ceti.pl> Subject: (Times of Israel) Stuxnet, gone rogue, hit Russian nuke plant, space station [ http://www.timesofisrael.com/stuxnet-gone-rogue-hit-russian-nuke-plant-spac… ] (... links deleted all the way down ...) * Tuesday, November 12, 2013 * Kislev 9, 5774 * 12:43 am IST * Site updated 2 minutes ago Stuxnet, gone rogue, hit Russian nuke plant, space station A cyber-security expert says several ostensibly secure facilities became victims of the virus that struck Iran's nuclear program By [30]David Shamah November 11, 2013, 4:21 pm [36]Eugene Kaspersky (Photo credit: Courtesy Tel Aviv University) Eugene Kaspersky (Photo credit: Courtesy Tel Aviv University) A Russian nuclear power plant was reportedly "badly infected" by the rogue Stuxnet virus, the same malware that reportedly disrupted Iran's nuclear program several years ago. The virus then spread to the International Space Station via a Stuxnet-infected USB stick transported by Russian cosmonauts. Speaking to journalists in Canberra, Australia, last week, Eugene Kaspersky, head of the anti-virus and cyber protection firm that bears his name, said he had been tipped off about the damage by a friend who works at the Russian plant. Kaspersky did not say when the attacks took place, but implied that they occurred around the same time the Iranian infection was reported. He also did not comment on the impact of the infections on either the nuclear plant or the space station, but did say that the latter facility had been attacked several times. The revelation came during a question-and-answer period after a presentation on cyber-security. The point, Kaspersky told reporters at Australia's National Press Club last week, was that not being connected to the Internet -- the public web cannot be accessed at either the nuclear plant or on the ISS -- is a guarantee that systems will remain safe. The identity of the entity that released Stuxnet into the "wild" is still unknown (although media speculation insists it was developed by Israel and the United States), but those who think they can control a released virus are mistaken, Kaspersky warned. "What goes around comes around," Kaspersky said. "Everything you do will boomerang." The Stuxnet virus came to light in 2010, having attacked Iranian nuclear facilities by hitting the programmable logic control automation systems that control them. The PLC system, manufactured by German conglomerate Siemens, runs the centrifuges used to enrich uranium at Iran's Natanz facility. Variants of Stuxnet have affected the facility's centrifuges in various ways, mostly by changing the activity of valves controlled by the PLC software that feed the uranium to centrifuges at a specific rate required for enrichment, Kaspersky said in several presentations last year. It's not known when Stuxnet began its activities, but researchers at anti-virus company Symantec said that they had gathered evidence that earlier versions of the code were already seen "in the wild" in 2005, although it wasn't yet operational as a virus. Stuxnet, said Symantec, was the first virus known to attack national infrastructure projects, and according to the company, the groups behind Stuxnet were already seeking to compromise Iran's nuclear program in 2007 -- the year Iran's Natanz nuclear facility, where much of the country's uranium enrichment is taking place, went online. Now that the plague has been unleashed, said Kaspersky, no one is immune -- and that includes its originators, who are no longer in control of it. "There are no borders" in cyberspace, and no one should be surprised at any reports of a virus attack, no matter how ostensibly secure the facility, he said. (... links deleted ...) Š 2013 The Times of Israel, All rights reserved. Concept, design & development by [188]RGB Media Powered by [189]Salamandra Quantcast References (... all deleted, ouch ...)

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