Re: Detectable cash notes a fantasy
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Tim wrote: Faustine wrote: If, when I came here, I had made the deliberate choice to make an effort at getting along by emphasizing our similarities instead of differences, I dare say the motivation to dissect-and-destroy every last comment I ever make would be nonexistent. You haven't contributed anything interesting that I can recall. Oh of course not, heaven forfend. Even if you discount my comments, surely you must have noticed that rarely do your posts generate significant follow-up. (Which is a small blessing.) Who said generating a lot of follow-up was on my to-do list? Believe it or not, I'm perfectly fine with contributing here and there when I can and learning from everyone else when I can't. If I were as wrapped up in the pecking order dynamic as you seem to be, I'd really be putting a lot more effort into it. But as it is--given how incredibly busy I am--if my peculiar little set of toys is all I feel like bringing to share at sandbox right now, what concern is it of yours or anyone else's? Why not run along now and kick some sand on one of your boring asskisser friends, shake things up a little... Sometimes you natter about about (what) you think the RAND Corporation, your apparent ideal, would do things, Well is that a fact Grampy. Nattering about what interests me, alert the media. and sometimes you praise Herman Kahn Damn straight I do! Anyone interested in libertarian futurism really ought to check him out if they haven't already--and I'm assuming this description applies to quite a few people here...good starting links: http://www.alteich.com/links/kahn.htm I seem to remember your having a few kind words for a work or two of his yourself--so I do hope you won't go running down a great man just for the sake of getting at me. and other O.R. types. Hooey. But you have nothing significant to contribute about anything closely related to list themes. There you go again, defining what's acceptable for people what to talk about. Anyway, as always, it's not what you say or don't say on a list, its what you do. In the abstract, it would be kind of useful to talk to you about it, but in practice that's not really an option. A shame, really. You should think about some of the real issues and come up with some kind of incisive analysis or creative proposal As should we all. Fair enough, but I've written plenty I haven't felt like posting here for a number of reasons. Maybe I will, maybe not, who cares. Even if I left it to others to post significant ideas it hardly matters. even Choate is more on-topic than you've been. You know, I like arguing with Choate: too bad you pissed him off to the point he feels the need to post newslinks all the time. Did you catch how he didn't start up again until you said you quieted him down or whatever it was? Thanks a lot. The lectures from you about how we're a bunch of untrained amateurs are getting old. Oh come on, that's all in your head. Like you're one to talk about being condescending about what people know and dont know! Pot, kettle, look in the mirror. Looking forward to your next significant post, ~~Faustine. *** If you don't like 'em, ignore them or filter them. That's the Cypherpunk way of doing things. Tim May, on the Cypherpunks list, 1995 -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPLUJAfg5Tuca7bfvEQLdegCg+S2sDHGzsGOTBVPNMf9x8Bn3NWQAoOpF KG4JNBT8BOO+tK0+wjp6qVwn =tFxE -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: Bill Stewart is an alpha cat?
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Someone wrote: The actual meaning, less succintly phrased, is that those who define themselves by their position in a hierarchical organizational chart cannot conceive of a social structure (such as a discussion group) which is without a leader. The cypherpunks movement fnord and all that. (If there is a cp movement, it is the raising of the middle finger above the closed fist, in the direction of oppression.) Well put, actually. But don't forget, human beings didn't evolve from cats, we evolved from apes. Our ape nature peeks out in spite of the best of intentions in all social interactions, even here. The true greatness of the Constution as envisioned by the Founders is that it aims for something better than the law of the Yukon. The fact that it hasn't worked out as well as it might is a testament to just how strong our ape legacy is: the weak and stupid are at the mercy of the strong and cunning and always will be. Here there and everywhere, from anarchy to democracy to totalitarian state, like it or not. Read some Schopenhauer... ~~Faustine. *** He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. - --Thomas Paine -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPLXH8/g5Tuca7bfvEQIr7QCgpbGQqW3Gvas8Qld4Jqi52OGqLF8An3H1 1VQktn/Dy0CYXKgsBSrSkCnH =DmNZ -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: Detectable cash notes a fantasy
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Tim wrote: Everytime I comment on your citations, you go into a snit about how Gramps is insulting the whippersnappers. No, it's all about the condescending tone you take when you use your many years of experience as leverage against anyone who rejects their place in your pecking order. Whether you choose to admit it or not, you're incredibly easygoing on people here who kiss your ass, flatter you, and never dare contradict you out of a fear of retribution. Like the example from a few months ago when you related how somebody asked you if it would be okay to post certain kinds of articles to the group. Why does this please you--don't you want your friends and compatriots to have a fucking backbone? You think you're the only one here who gets to have a spine? Which isn't to say that if the group is set up a certain way, it's right to be inconsiderate of what most people want and expect: for instance, I stopped posting links to news articles when it was made plain to me that most people found it an annoyance. But it wasn't because anyone bullied me into line. If, when I came here, I had made the deliberate choice to make an effort at getting along by emphasizing our similarities instead of differences, I dare say the motivation to dissect-and-destroy every last comment I ever make would be nonexistent. But then, how interesting would that be. For all I know, in Real Life you're older than me, or you're some guy working a guard job at Lockheed. Or both. Ironically enough--but not that it matters--I haven't manufactured any of the details about myself I've given here. I suppose the prudent thing to do would be to encourage people to assume I'm a man (as if I'd have to do anything besides take a neutral nym!) and keep you all looking for the old Lockheed fart, etc. But I suppose it must the grandiosity or vanity or something that compels me to vent under the guise of myself. Which is a pretty funny way to put it actually, since what I say here is far more real than what most people see of me in the real world in a lifetime. Which is probably part of the point anyway. Not that I've given anyone the slightest reason to believe a word of it, but there it is. Yeah yeah, I know--go tell it to Oprah. Or you may be the grad student at Hoboken State College you appear to be. A slur, eh? Not bad. I suspect you're being a little disingenuous though. (If I really were at Hoboken, where's the sting in it?) Ah well, think what you want--I don't have anything to prove. Or shouldn't, anyway. Whatever, I know that your main method of argument is either a bunch of Bah comments followed with cites apropos of nothing you've dug up. Such as your refutation of category theory by digging up some of the usual computer vision and scene analysis junk that's been going around for 40 years. I did no such thing! You asked what happened to general systems theory and expressed a negative view of OR that, though entirely warranted thirty years ago, isn't true of what some people are doing today. So I gave a couple of cites to papers that show how these concepts have been evolving, I thought you might enjoy them. Entirely tangential to the main point of your post, but it's new and it's not junk, damn it. If it's not interesting to you, fine-- but there certainly wasn't any criticism of anything related to you somehow hidden in it. I stand by my comment that shielding a thread in a $100 bill, for example, is vastly easier than detecting it. Your cites about WiFi frequencies and 3 meter ranges and suchlike don't mean much. No of course not, since they were only meant to give a sense of the volume of related research people are doing--hence my only point that 20 years seems a little generous. ~~Faustine. *** He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. - --Thomas Paine -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPLSLY/g5Tuca7bfvEQLGigCeOjRDe4ApAZLoTIuGFWxdi/pVTTwAnjjx aObuLmF9JjD+8oGJj2Y2zBoX =lfHT -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: all about transferable off-line ecash (Re: Brands off-line tech)
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Mike Rosing[SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Tue, 9 Apr 2002, Ken Brown wrote: I'd rather have stiff cards than floppy paper ones. At least you can put them into the slot of a machine easily. But with an RF tag you'd not even have to pull it out of your pocket :-) Putting RF Tags in cash is one of those ideas with Unintended Consequences. Muggers would love having a way of determining which victims are carrying a wad, as would many salesmen (and JBTs looking to perform a 'civil confiscation' on 'a sum of currency'.) Not to mention the possibility of a surreptitious centralized database tracking purchases of people on a watch list. Sign up if you want to, but you might do well to remember a point Lt. Gen. Hayden (who really ought to know) once made: all SIGINT can be defeated and destroyed simply by putting the handset in the receiver. Something to keep in mind while you're thinking this through,anyway. As for the counterfeiting problem, nobody's said much about the kind of sophisticated countermeasures used in casino chips, for example. Seems workable. One of many interesting topics covered in a truly frightening pub you might not have come across: Global ID Magazine http://web.tiscali.it/homeglobal/issues.htm Global ID Magazine is a publication describing the activity and the products of the leading Identification (ID) Technology Suppliers in the world. Its scope encompasses state-of-the-art technologies, innovative concepts and trends within the automatic identification systems industry that will have the most significant impact on design and use of ID systems. The editorial focus of Global ID Magazine is on the use of identification systems based on radio frequency, biometrics, global positioning, multifunctional systems, data communication and similar. Global ID Magazine speaks to decision makers, both at a management and at a technical level, within companies that use or could leverage from using ID systems. It suggests innovative solutions, the improvement of existing applications, describing trends and future possibilities. ~~Faustine. *** He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. - --Thomas Paine -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPLNWGvg5Tuca7bfvEQLRzQCg2iSdcpbXf/K+FQRzVNGYa9voHToAn3Jd 35JycT/4X0aUnT7bzWycwYEe =sSz8 -END PGP SIGNATURE-
RE: mil disinfo on cryptome
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Eugene wrote: I have not followed this thread closely, So why bother to chime in with your two cents before spending the five minutes it would take to learn what's been going on? but could clueless posters please shut up, for a change? Instead of talking at length about topics they know nothing about? Sure. As long as you're referring to people who scream disinformation when they can't reconcile a badly-worded paragraph with equations they looked up in a chemistry book, I agree. I'm not an expert on this, Then why aren't you following your own advice? If anyone is interested in learning more about CW, a good intro: Chemical Warfare Agents: an overview of chemicals defined as chemical weapons http://www.opcw.org/chemhaz/cwagents.htm. Biological agents: USAMRIID's MEDICAL MANAGEMENT OF BIOLOGICAL CASUALTIES HANDBOOK http://www.usamriid.army.mil/education/bluebook.html RAND pdfs: Overview of Chemical and Biological Warfare http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.5/MR1018.5.chap2.html from: 2000 MR-1018/5 A Review of the Scientific Literature as It Pertains to Gulf War Illnesses. Vol. 5, Chemical and Biological Warfare Agents http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1018.5/index.html 1998 DB-189/1 Air Force Operations in a Chemical and Biological Environment. http://www.rand.org/publications/DB/DB189.1/DB189.1.pdf/ 2001 CT-183 Combating Terrorism: Assessing the Threat of Biological Terrorism. http://www.rand.org/publications/CT/CT183/ 2001 CT-186 Anthrax Attacks, Biological Terrorism and Preventive Responses. http://www.rand.org/publications/CT/CT186/ Detailed reference works you can dig up yourself. But hey, if you prefer to stick to your chemistry 101 books and advice from Uncle Fester, that's perfectly fine by me. Just watch out throwing the word disinformation around, that's all. ~~Faustine. *** He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. - --Thomas Paine -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPK96Ofg5Tuca7bfvEQKv9wCgkRJh/EtSTyECcvnhkoisTkpEtz4An1jg 5Eu6iUE9CLJuLAXgxTGDxMzY =Sot5 -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: mil disinfo on cryptome
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Richard Fiero wrote: Question for Faustine: Is what is, right? Or is it man-made and can be changed by men? Faustine may want to rethink this. Social Darwinism does not square with the Thomas Paine quote. There's a reason I contrasted the American conception of ideal justice with real justice: the latter has absolutely nothing to do with right or wrong, it just is. Read some Nietzsche. As for the rest, I'm a libertarian, not an anarchist: see also http://www.lp.org. ~~Faustine. *** He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. - --Thomas Paine -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPK3Jmfg5Tuca7bfvEQL8XACfQrEmti+LST9q0vOIOnOTjRA1qVAAn3Ox LkRCUcXnizNe4D0w9vEX1xUS =MASh -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: mil disinfo on cryptome
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 At 09:15 PM 4/4/02 -0500, Faustine wrote: And as long as you don't recommend that John call out the Snackycake Posse on the poor schmoe who sent him the manual thinking he was trying to help, I honestly couldn't care less. I don't think anyone has accused JY of intentional disinfo; he is largely a librarian--a very valuable one with enormous cajones-- not the author of the docs in question. Right, sure. Nor did anyone speak against the donor of said document. Well, given how hot he was last month about the idea of someone who seemed to be deliberately feeding him a line of disinformation, I just thought it was important not to throw an accusation like that around which reflects badly on the manual donor, especially when there's a fairly good explanation for the screw-up at hand. I have a hunch the DoD would like nothing better than to see leakees go totally apeshit on leakers as disinformation spreaders. Do their dirty work, save them the trouble: sounds perfectly in line with Rumsfeld's doctrinal emphasis on deterrence by denial to me. Google this phrase with information warfare and you can find some pretty interesting papers online. What we did find worth remarking on is the lethal sloppiness in a doc written by the largest manufacturer-of-, deployer-of-, and trainer-about- explosives in the world. Absolutely, these are often erroneous and badly written. Yes, you have every right to expect to see disinformation in them. But in this case, there's nothing lethal about adding sodium cyanide to a urea nitrate bomb-- and in fact would likely boost the lethality by at least an order of magnitude, maybe more. It's not as if this involved giving a precise formula or anything, just some hack content to put out a sloppy generality. Unfortunately, nothing new. ~~Faustine. *** He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. - --Thomas Paine -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPK3Gnvg5Tuca7bfvEQJTXACgs1xBE3CDgN/QgrFe/DKTg6xhyqMAn2di P5Hyd/q5Am7+cOCeGkEjvzL5 =5E7D -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: E-Gold
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 James wrote: It would seem far more sensible, since the US dollar is now far better accepted as a medium of exchange, to have something like e-gold, but providing convertibility to Federal Reserve dollars, based on fractional reserves. Interesting thought, but have you worked out what kind of mechanism you'd use to implement this without undermining your system? Seems problematic, but a lot better than nothing. What Would Mises Do? ;) More generally, it's seems you'll have an uphill psychological battle trying to convince your average gold bug with a closet-safe full of coins to buy into the non-tangible cypherspace version--warranted or not, just the mention of the phrase fractional reserve might be enough to spook them away. What advantages can you offer that will convince Joe Gold Bug he's better off trusting you than keeping his physical gold in his physical hands? Or is this yet another case of designing crypto systems for those who already know enough to appreciate them, the un-Elect be damned? As the owner of a portable closet-safe full of silver myself, I think the trust issues need a little more resolution before I start anonymously turning over my assets online. Actually, a lot more, in light of the recent news. Oh well, any links or pointers that deal specifically with the trust question would be welcome. ~~Faustine. *** He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. - --Thomas Paine -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPKZgx/g5Tuca7bfvEQInLACdFH/zqxTycxRMjTQFD+xicxhDsjYAn0ic FLQbzgbdcohUJBxYihgdTNNF =R0en -END PGP SIGNATURE-
Re: Homeland Deception (was RE: signal to noise proposal)
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Gil wrote: Faustine writes: best is write code, write code. The main thing is to DO something, whatever your skills and talents are. Spare everyone the hot air and just do it. What *you* say is hot air; what *I* say is policy analysis. But who's listening? It's all hot air until you start seeing results. I'm rather fond of the billions of taxpayer-dollars saved metric myself; others might be lives saved, strategic assets protected etc. Once again: what matters to you and what are you doing about it? I'll be the first to admit there are few things more intrinsically worthless and boring than policy analysis done for its own sake in a vacuum. It's just a tool to be put to USE, like any other. Tools can be shoddy or well-crafted, simple or complex--but at the end of the day, can you say you really got the job done with it or not. Despite anything certain people around here have said to the contrary, precision and accuracy in analysis matter: I'm sure they wouldn't have any confusion about whether it's better to arm themselves with a bag full of rocks or a FN Herstal 5.7mm Weapons System. Think about it. You have all these fucking idiots on Capitol Hill stumbling around making policy by the equivalent of whacking each other over the head with stones. Crude tools that--despite being messy, ugly and inefficient--get the job done, more or less. I say it's time for libertarians to step up to the plate and start training with the analytic equivalent of precision weaponry. ~~Faustine. *** He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. - --Thomas Paine -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: PGPsdk version 1.7.1 (C) 1997-1999 Network Associates, Inc. and its affiliated companies. (Diffie-Helman/DSS-only version) iQA/AwUBPKN+//g5Tuca7bfvEQIesACg7Hyysg/3KyAVw3+thCM/da1KS+4AoKIs kip/pU0+G5qlCzYTGTi90xTC =cdAv -END PGP SIGNATURE-
