Re: Just to make your life more paranoid:) Re: Surreptitious Tor Messages?

[Steve Furlong]

On 10/4/05, gwen hastings <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Troll Mode on:
> TOR was originally developed as a result of CIA/NRL funding:)
..
> BTW running TOR makes you very visible that you are running tor even as
> a client.. its quite a noisy protocol

Well, of course that "feature" is built in. The NSA wants to be able
to easily find anyone who's running it.

The noisy protocol has the added benefit of causing the network cable
to emit lots of radiation, frying the brains of TOR users. The only
defense is a hat made of flexible metal.

--
There are no bad teachers, only defective children.

Re: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: Re: Hello directly from Jimbo at Wikipedia]

[Steve Furlong]

On 9/28/05, Roy M. Silvernail <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

A Wikiwhiner wrote

> > I have valid although perhaps unpopular
> > contributions to make, and not only is my freedom to express myself
> > limited, the quality of the material on Wikipedia suffers due to the
> > absence of my perspective.

Wow. Nice ego there.


> > The status quo is not acceptable and we
> > should work to find a solution.

> Leaving aside the qualitative discussion, let's remember that the freedom to
> express onesself does not imply the obligation for any other party to listen.

Nor the obligation for any other party to provide you with a soapbox.
Operate your own wiki if you don't like their decisions.


> Tor is transport layer.  Authentication for a specific service (such as
> Wikipedia) is the responsibility of that service and belongs in the session
> layer.

What Roy said. This Wikiwhiner might want to read up on the OSI model.
Conveniently, there's a Wikipedia article on it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OSI_model


> An authenticated network and an anonymizing network are mutually exclusive.

True enough, but to make it clear, an anonymizing network is not
exclusive with an authenticated application. (Not necessarily so,
anyway. I haven't checked into TOR, but there's no good reason an HTML
hidden field couldn't provide session continuity for an anonymous web
surfer.)


--
There are no bad teachers, only defective children.

Re: Fwd: Re: MIT talk: Special-Purpose Hardware for Integer Factoring

[Steve Furlong]

On 9/16/05, R.A. Hettinga <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Time travel aside (okay, innumeracy aside, some state-school philosophy
> majors can't count, either...), if I'm a reporter, this is "new
> journalism", since most of the missive is about *wonderful* *ME*...

Never mind the numbers. How does this special-purpose hardware make
you _feel_? Can you express the cost of the machine in terms of bags
of rice which could have been given to starving chldren in Nepal,
or wherever children are starving nowadays? How much higher could the
NOLA levees have been built if everyone who worked on this machine had
instead been working full-time pouring concrete and piling sandbags?
What does George Bushitler stand to gain from this machine?

-- 
There are no bad teachers, only defective children.

Re: Fwd: Re: MIT talk: Special-Purpose Hardware for Integer Factoring

[Steve Furlong]

On 9/19/05, R.A. Hettinga <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> At 2:29 PM -0400 9/19/05, Steve Furlong wrote:
> >What does George Bushitler stand to gain from this machine?
> 
> There you go again...

Just to be clear, that's what I'd expect the current wave of j-school
grads to be asking, not what I'd be asking.

(Not that I'm particularly fond of the Prez, but I'm not one of the
LLLs who say he's worse than Hitler, Pol Pot, Idi Amin, and Ronald
Regan combined.) (Stalin doesn't go into that equation because he was,
you know, a good guy whose actions have been misinterpreted.)

-- 
There are no bad teachers, only defective children.

Re: [EMAIL PROTECTED]: [IP] Internet phone wiretapping ("Psst! The FBI is Having

[Steve Furlong]

On 9/9/05, Eugen Leitl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Does anyone have a recent working email address? Does
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] still work?

You might try sending email to that address. If you don't get a
response, either it's not a good address or he thinks you're an idiot.
(Or he's dead, but he wasn't last I knew.)

-- 
There are no bad teachers, only defective children.

Re: New Drugs

[Steve Furlong]

On 8/23/05, R.A. Hettinga <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> -BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-
> 
> At 1:39 PM -0400 8/23/05, Trei, Peter wrote:
> 
> >"I [want] a new drug..."
> 
> I would request the irony-impaired actually look up the lyrics of this paen
> to endogenous ero-endorphins, written by a drug-hating San Francisco
> "acid-kindergarten" refugee.

Especially the closing line of the refrain. I think the point was that
if you get laid regularly you don't need drugs. Works for me.

-- 
There are no bad teachers, only defective children.

Re: Italy finally holds USA to the world standard!

[Steve Furlong]

On 6/24/05, J.A. Terranson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> http://www.masnet.org/news.asp?id=2560
> 
> Italian Judge Orders 13 CIA Agents Arrested Over Kidnapping

John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it.

-- 
There are no bad teachers, only defective children.

Re: "Word" Of the Subgenius...

[Steve Furlong]

On Wed, 2004-12-08 at 09:26, R.A. Hettinga wrote:
> At 9:17 AM -0500 12/8/04, John Kelsey wrote:
> > But once in awhile, even amidst the crazy rantings about useless eaters
> >and ovens, he'll toss out something that shows some deep, coherent thought
> >about some issue in a new and fascinating direction.
> 
> Yup.
> 
> Canonical Cypherpunk, and all that. Impossible to keep in a killfile, etc.
> 
> Like it or not, we live in a Maysian Universe...

All we need is a Bayesian Maysian filter to separate the wheat from the
(racist | deranged | anarchist | readthearchives) chaff.

On a related note, is it possible that Tim has syphillis and it went to
his brain? His earlier work was certainly insightful, well thought-out,
and useful. His later writings, generally useless and irritating though
they were, still had occasional relevance. Poor Tim, sharing Nietzsche's
fate.

Re: "Word" Of the Subgenius...

[Steve Furlong]

On Wed, 2004-12-08 at 10:47, R.A. Hettinga wrote:
> At 10:38 AM -0500 12/8/04, Steve Furlong wrote:
> >anarchist
> 
> Bzzt wrong answer.
> 
> Must filter that *in*, thankewverramuch...

I know what you mean, but (a) I didn't write what I meant, and (b) I
don't think a true anarchy would be the proper environment for your
anarcho-capitalism.

My complaints about Tim's anarchistic writings were about his desire to
watch DC detonate, or to watch a rampage against useless eaters of one
type or another, or the like. However, unless there were a mass uprising
against the current government, or the idea of any government, any
limited demonstration would simply be an excuse for the ratchet to turn
another few clicks. Viz the OKC bombing.

As for anonymous bearer transactions in an anarchy, I'm going to have to
bag on that for now. Not cowardice -- work to do. Later, if I remember,
which I won't because I'm a burnout.

Regards,
SRF

Re: "Word" Of the Subgenius...

[Steve Furlong]

On Mon, 2004-12-06 at 17:00, R.A. Hettinga wrote:
> At 3:34 PM -0500 12/6/04, Steve Thompson wrote:
> >I rather suspect that
> >the people who 0wn the upstream pipe from my points of access are toying
> >with their ability to interpose their data in place of quasi-authoritative
> >texts.
> 
> Oh, *my*...
> 
> Where is Detweiller, now that we need him?

That was bad enough, but for a real "oh my" moment, see elsewhere in
Thompson's missive:

> Any way you look at it, the phrase "tax money well spent" would seem
> to apply here.

I can't think of any way to use that phrase non-sarcastically.

Re: Immediate Exception

[Steve Furlong]

On Sat, 2004-12-04 at 18:24, R.W. (Bob) Erickson wrote:
> I''d dismiss the possibility that the universe exists for the express 
> purpose of confounding me.

Much evidence to the contrary. My life is sucking pretty bad lately, due
to either a long series of fairly unlikely and uniformly unpleasant
coincidences or else the machinations of a malevolent universe set up
specifically to piss me off. Another possibility is that suggested by
the other RAH, the cosmology which presents all of us as mere characters
in the stories told by Authors, the multifarious and nefarious gods.

Re: "Word" Of the Subgenius...

[Steve Furlong]

On Sat, 2004-12-04 at 20:42, R.W. (Bob) Erickson wrote:
> Bobhood is never a light burden, as I'm sure RAH can attest

Bobbittization would make the burden lighter. 

Re: Unintended Consequences

[Steve Furlong]

On Fri, 2004-12-03 at 00:30, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
> At 04:44 AM 12/2/04 -0500, R.A. Hettinga wrote:
> >John Ross' "Unintended Consequences" is a classic of the, um, gun
> culture,
> >:-) and a great read.
> 
> Made me want to name my first mulatto "Gonorreah" fer sure :-)

I tried, years before _UC_ came out, to get some friends to name their
daughter Chlamydia. They didn't know what the word meant, but for some
reason didn't trust my advice. Nor did they like Pudenda.

I also tried to get my wife to agree to a heroic name for our son. In
the tradition of Pericles and Sophocles, I present ... Testicles.

No, she didn't go for it.

Re: "Word" Of the Subgenius...

[Steve Furlong]

On Sun, 2004-12-05 at 09:30, R.A. Hettinga wrote:
> At 8:06 AM -0600 12/5/04, Neil Johnson wrote:
> >Where is Tim May when when you need him? :-)
> 
> Nah, this is mere Younglish wierdness.
> 
> You have to talk about useless eaters to be totally mayified...

Random racist ranting is also required. There are some racist assholes
currently posting on cpunks, but none have quite the May flavor.

Re: geographically removed? eHalal

[Steve Furlong]

On Tue, 2004-11-30 at 21:36, Major Variola (ret) wrote:

> Halal was deemed a terrorist weapon, and contrary to the treasury's
> policies, game over.

Hawala

Re: geographically removed?

[Steve Furlong]

On Sun, 2004-11-28 at 21:44, James A. Donald wrote:
> --
> On 27 Nov 2004 at 6:43, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
> > Internal resistance mediated by cypherpunkly tech can always
> > be defeated by cranking up the police state a notch.
> 
> You assume the police state is competent, technically skilled,
> determined, disciplined, and united.  Observed police states
> are incompetent, indecisive, and quarrelsome.
> 
> > This is eg why e-cash systems have anonymity problems.
> 
> The problem is that any genuinely irrevocable payment system
> gets swarmed by conmen and fraudsters.   We have a long way to
> go before police states are the problem.

Heh. When the stasi come a-callin' tell them they'll have to wait
because you've got bigger problems. Wonder how well that would work?

I see that an irrevocable payment system, used by itself, is ripe for
fraud, more so if it's anonymous. But why wouldn't a mature system make
use of trusted intermediaries? The vendors register with the intermedi-
ary *, who takes some pains to verify their identity, trustworthiness,
and so on, and to keep the vendors' identities a secret, if appropriate.
The sellers pay the intermediary, who takes a piece of the action to act
basically as an insurer of the vendor's good faith. If there's a problem
with the service or merchandise and the vendor won't make good, the
intermediary is responsible for making the buyer whole. Is there some
reason this wouldn't work? If not, why hasn't anyone tried it yet? Not
enough cash flow to make it worth their while?

* There's a proper word for "trusted intermediaries" in this context,
but hanged if I can remember it.

US-centrism

[Steve Furlong]

On Thu, 2004-11-25 at 16:16, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> Can we please get out of the regional fixation? The cypherpunks list isn't
> about the US, US pissant wars, and similiar boring backwater shit.

Response 1:
When the US sneezes, the world catches a cold.

Response 2:
The cpunks list isn't US-centric, but most of the regular posters are in
the US. Even if you don't count Bob Hettinga because he mostly forwards
news articles rather than write original content, and don't count Tyler
Durden and me because we're idiots, I think you still have mostly
Americans posting.

Re: Tin Foil Passports?

[Steve Furlong]

On Sat, 2004-11-27 at 09:36, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
> At 09:13 AM 11/27/04 +0100, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> >Link: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/27/0026222
> >Posted by: michael, on 2004-11-27 05:05:00
> >   low-cost solution: '[I]incorporate a layer of metal foil into the
> >   cover of the passport so it could be read only when opened.' Don't
> >   they know that the whole tinfoil hat thing is supposed to be a
> joke?"
> 
> What is most poignant about this post is the lack of education
> of /. authors.  Don't they teach Maxwell any more?  Is Faraday
> just the guy who said
> "Sir, I do not know what it is good for.
> But of one thing I am quite certain--someday you will tax it."
> 
> Put your cell phone in a metal tin, and call it.
> Wrap your access point or receiver or other radio in Al foil.
> Do you think Brin in _Enemy of the State_ was just a potato-chip
> fetishist?

But, but, but ... This is *government approved* metal foil. It's the
good stuff. You can trust them -- they're from the government, and
they're here to help.

On your broader point, yah. I'll check out /. once in a while for
pointers to news items and more rarely for the "ask slashdot" items, but
most of the comments are garbage and probably half of the posts are
garbage. The question is, has /. gotten worse since it was fresh, or
have I grown less tolerant of ill-informed, shoot-off-at-the-mouth
kiddies? (I have a 4-digit slashdot user id, to show how long ago I came
across them.)

Oswald

[Steve Furlong]

On Wed, 2004-11-24 at 20:31, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
> At 11:34 PM 11/21/04 -0800, Bill Stewart wrote:
> >Slsahdot reports that MSNBC reports http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6549265/
> >that there's a new video game "JFK Reloaded"
> http://www.jfkreloaded.com/start/
> 
> I'm waiting for Grand Theft Auto IV, Drunk Over the Bridge With the
> Secretary variant.  Wonder what Teddie will say about that one.
> 
> Oswald saved the world from nuclear conflict, thank the gods he
> offed the sex & drug crazed toothy one as soon as he (et al :-) did.
> 
> And a hell of a shot as well.   Gotta respect that, with a bolt-action,
> no less.

A piece-of-shit boltie. I don't believe the official story, myself.

Huh. Just realized, now that I'm spouting conspiracy theories I must
finally be a real cpunks list member.

Re: Patriot Insurance

[Steve Furlong]

On Thu, 2004-11-25 at 08:38, Will Morton wrote:
> How long have soldiers deployed in war-zones been able to get life 
> insurance?  Would love to see their actuarial process...

It's been a while since I was in the US Army, but I'm sure that the life
insurance we had didn't cover parachute-related deaths and I vaguely
recall it didn't cover combat deaths. Kinda serious omissions, from the
soldier's point of view.

Re: the simian unelected is blocking the world

[Steve Furlong]

On Wed, 2004-10-27 at 21:57, J.A. Terranson wrote:
> As for *kids*, we recently had an 11 year old bride (legal here with
> parental consent) who was on the news for being the youngest *divorcee* at
> 12!  Why not give her the vote?  She can't do any worse than the rest of
> these rednecks.

After the divorce, was she still related to her ex? Or am I thinking of
Mississippi?

Re: Turtles all the way down... (was Re: Attention Alif: RDNS is a bitch...)

[Steve Furlong]

On Wed, 2004-10-27 at 23:55, J.A. Terranson wrote:
> Nothings ever "regular"
> around here

On the contrary, there's a constant stream of shit on this list.
_Someone_ must be pretty regular.

Re: the simian unelected is blocking the world

[Steve Furlong]

On Wed, 2004-10-27 at 10:23, R.A. Hettinga wrote:

> Just for fun, I bet the reason is economics. No need to have yew furriners
> hammerin' our http ports, 'cuz ya cain't vote, here, anyway.

Not that the French or other dickless wonders would attempt to conduct a
DDoS on GWB's site, or anything.


> Okay. Except in Florida and Ohio.

Missouri and Illinois also have a good record for registering children,
the dead, and other people who would normally not vote. Why should
furriners be denied the chance to participate in these strongholds of
Democracy?

13yo arrested for kiddie porn

[Steve Furlong]

First saw the story linked from Drudge, then googled up a handful of
stories:

http://www.kptv.com/global/story.asp?s=2435549&ClientType=Printable
Boy,13. arrested on child porn charges

10-15-04

TACOMA, Wash. -- A 13-year-old Lacey boy is accused of child pornography
by taking pictures of himself and posting them on the Internet.

The boy was arrested Wednesday by investigators from the State Patrol's
Missing and Exploited Children task force. They also seized three
computers.

The boy is being held in juvenile detention without bail. Prosecutors
expect to file charges by Monday.


http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1246411/posts
http://www.theolympian.com/home/news/20041015/topstories/15049.shtml

Re: Printers betray document secrets

[Steve Furlong]

On Tue, 2004-10-19 at 16:14, Ian Grigg wrote:
> R.A. Hettinga wrote:
> > 
> 
> >  US scientists have discovered that every desktop printer has a signature
> > style that it invisibly leaves on all the documents it produces.
> 
> I don't think this is new - I'm pretty sure it was
> published about 6 or 7 years back as a technique.

I think you're thinking of color copiers.

Re: Airport insanity

[Steve Furlong]

On Mon, 2004-10-18 at 15:17, Thomas Shaddack wrote:
> Pentagon protects their people by distance - being it by bombing from high 
> altitude, or by using cruise missiles.
> 
> Everybody uses the technology available to them. What's bad on it?
> 
> Invariably, the side that uses the defensive measure - being it smart 
> weapons[1] or human shields - classifies it as tactical, while the other 
> side considers it cowardly.
> 
> A nice example of symmetry in asymmetry.
> 
> 
> [1] The defensive aspect here is to allow the attackers to attack from 
> distance beyond the reach of the other side's active defenses, thus not 
> risking anything more than a piece of overpriced electronics.

If some asshole is coming at you with a knife, it's cowardly to shoot
him before he's in range? Dumbass.

RE: Airport insanity

[Steve Furlong]

On Sat, 2004-10-16 at 00:43, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
> At 12:14 PM 10/15/04 -0700, James A. Donald wrote:
> >--
> >> >My profile is radically different from all those who killed
> >> >nearly 3,000 of my countrymen on September 11, 2001. My
> >> >"holy book" of choice is the Bible. My race is Caucasian. I
> >> >am a loyal, taxpaying, patriotic, evil-hating,
> >> >English-as-first-language, natural-born American.
> 
> As was Timmy McV, Zeus rest his soul.

The unidentified John Doe #2 looked awfully Arabic, though.

Re: RFID Driver's licenses for VA

[Steve Furlong]

On Sat, 2004-10-09 at 12:03, Major Variola (ret) wrote:

> When you get your driver's license, you should run a magnet over
> it to keep iron oxides from staining your wallet.  And apparently
> you should now microwave it to clean those DMV-employee pathogens
> from it.  Then it will be safe to carry, and you can see for yourself
> what it tells
> everyone else ---part of the definition of safety.

And rub that funny black and white smudge thing with nail polish remover
-- looks like someone with wet nail polish was handling the card, and
you don't want that smudge to cover up whatever was written under it.

Re: Implant replaces ID cards for access to restricted areas.

[Steve Furlong]

On Thu, 2004-10-07 at 02:20, Nomen Nescio wrote:
> Mexican Attorney General, Staff Get Chip Implants
> 
> Implant replaces ID cards for access to restricted areas.

I think I'd get the implant under my scalp somewhere. If the implant
gave access to a really critical place, I wouldn't want to risk losing
an arm or whatever. Also, I'd be able to block the implant's signals
with my nifty tinfoil hat. I've been waiting for a use for that thing.

Re: Quantum cryptography gets "practical"

[Steve Furlong]

On Thu, 2004-10-07 at 14:50, Dave Howe wrote:
> The "regular encryption scheme" (last I looked at a QKE product) was XOR

Well, if it's good enough for Microsoft, it's good enough for everyone.
I have it on good authority that Microsoft's designers and programmers
are second to none. (Microsoft's marketing department is a good
authority, right?)

Re: Quantum cryptography gets "practical"

[Steve Furlong]

On Wed, 2004-10-06 at 06:27, Dave Howe wrote:
> I have yet to see an advantage to QKE that even mildly justifies the
> limitations and cost over anything more than a trivial link (two
> buildings within easy walking distance, sending high volumes of
> extremely sensitive material between them)

But it's cool!

More seriously, it has no advantage now, but maybe something will come
up. The early telephones were about useless, too, remember. In the mean
time, the coolness factor will keep people playing with it and
researching it.

Re: Foreign Travelers Face Fingerprints and Jet Lag

[Steve Furlong]

On Sun, 2004-10-03 at 05:18, Peter Gutmann wrote:

> The US now has the dubious distinction of being more obnoxious to get through
> the borders than the former East Germany (actually even without this measure,
> the checks had become at least as obnoxious as the East German ones).  I
> wonder whether the next step will be building a wall...

Reign in the overheated rhetoric. The East German state built their wall
to keep the East Germans from leaving, while the US policies are meant
to keep out a demonstrated threat.

Now, we can productively discuss the effectiveness of the US
government's actions (ie, not very damn effective), but that's a
different topic.

Re: "ID Rules Exist, But Can't Be Seen"

[Steve Furlong]

Talking out his ass, Tyler Durden wrote:

> That's a good point. And those screeners ain't exactly the cream of the 
> crop, if ya' know what I mean. A year ago they were making minimum wage, so 
> if someone wanted a copy of those guidelines, it'd be easy as hell to con it 
> out of one of em. (INVOKE SPIRIT OF TIM MAY HERE)...dress all official-like 
> with a clipboard and some random badge, and start quizzing the locals about 
> the current rules. Maybe that wouldn't work at JFK, but go to the airport 
> at, say, Lexington So Carolina or Bumfuck Idaho and you'd get the 
> information faster than a hillbilly can skin a possum for dinner.

Have you ever done penetration testing? It would be harder at a small
airport because the people all know each other. It's the larger
organizations in which you're able to cloak yourself in anonymity.

You are correct, however, in your characterization of the screeners.
Sheesh, what a bunch of mouth-breathing imbeciles and petty thieves. I
haven't flown since 2001, but I bring people to NYC airports frequently,
and am always impressed with TSA's level of professionalism. Not
favorably impressed, mind you, but impressed.

Re: How to fuck with airports - a 1 step guide for (Redmond) terrorists.

[Steve Furlong]

On Tue, 2004-09-28 at 14:37, Roy M. Silvernail wrote:
> "The servers are timed to shut down after 49.7 days of use in order to 
> prevent a data overload, a union official told the LA Times."
> That would be 49.71026961805556 days, or (curiously 
> enough) 4294967295 (0x) milliseconds.  Known problem with Win95 
> ('cept they call Win95 a "server").

How the heck do they keep a Win95 machine up for 49 days? I think 1 day
is a more realistic MTBF.

Re: T. Kennedy == Terrorist says TSA

[Steve Furlong]

On Fri, 2004-08-20 at 09:54, Sunder wrote:
> http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/20/MNGQ28BM1O1.DTL
> 
> Washington -- Sen. Edward "Ted" Kennedy said Thursday that he was stopped 
> and questioned at airports on the East Coast five times in March because 
> his name appeared on the government's secret "no-fly" list.

It was a mistake, of course. Chappaquiddick-boy should have been put on
the "no-drive" list.

Re: Reputation Capital Article - 1st Monday: Manifesto for the Reputation Society

[Steve Furlong]

On Mon, 2004-07-19 at 13:43, Sunder wrote:
> Here's a paper/article/screed on reputation capital.  A subject we 
> discussed here a long while ago back when dinosaurs ruled the earth, 
> etc... well, not quite that long ago.  

It's ok, you can still say "Tim May" around here.

Re: BBC on all-electronic Indian elections

[Steve Furlong]

On Mon, 2004-04-26 at 11:34, Jack Lloyd wrote:
> Hmmm... that's a thought. Tim May as president. Election slogan: "You're *all*
> going up the chimneys."

I voted for Cthulhu -- why vote for the lesser of two evils?
http://www.cthulhu.org/

Re: BBC on all-electronic Indian elections

[Steve Furlong]

On Mon, 2004-04-26 at 12:58, sunder wrote:
> Al's prise pig of a wife, Tipper, helped found the PMRC 
> against lyrics in songs.

And, like all statists, they went widely astray of their goals. Frank
Zappa's _Jazz from Hell_ got a "Tipper Sticker", indicating obscene
lyrics. They didn't notice that _JfH_ was an instrumental album.

Re: Is there a Brands certificate reference implementation?

[Steve Furlong]

On Sun, 2004-04-25 at 16:25, David Crookes wrote:
> He started a new company called Credentica.
> 
> http://archives.abditum.com/cypherpunks/C-punks20020603/0053.html

Pretty amusing -- that link points to the achive I maintain. There's
probably a parable in there about having knowledge at your fingertips
but not knowing it's there.

Thanks.

Is there a Brands certificate reference implementation?

[Steve Furlong]

Does anyone know of a reference implementation for Stefan Brands's
digital certificate scheme? Alternatively, does anyone have an email
address for Brands so I can ask him myself? (I haven't gotten anything
back from ZKS's "contact us" address. But I don't know if Brands is
still at ZKS.)

Re: Real-world quantum cryptography

[Steve Furlong]

On Wed, 2004-04-21 at 21:49, Steve Furlong wrote:
> http://www.quantenkryptographie.at/

Gah. That's what I get for trying to do a Hettinga -- he beats me to it.
OK, Bob, you got me this time. 

Re: [Politech] John Gilmore on the homeless, RFID tags, and ki ttens

[Steve Furlong]

On Fri, 2004-04-02 at 12:55, Harmon Seaver wrote:
> Chickens ain't herbivores, they are omnivores, and, in fact, prefer meat,
> bugs, etc. to all else.

Yah, ducks and geese, too. But factory chickens, which is almost all of
the chicken most Americans eat, are fed mostly grain.


>A lot of old trappers I've know tell me they've eaten bobcat and lynx and
> that they were tasty, and a lot like chicken.

Huh. The carnivores I've eaten had a distinctive taste, bitter or
something. But I've never eaten any feline, so far as I know.

Re: [Politech] John Gilmore on the homeless, RFID tags, and kittens

[Steve Furlong]

On Thu, 2004-04-01 at 16:21, R. A. Hettinga wrote:

> Tastes just like chicken?

Can we change the subject? My girlfriend is Chinese, I've already eaten
things that I wouldn't have considered to be food, she doesn't like my
cat, and I don't want her getting any ideas.

However, to answer Robert's question, cat probably wouldn't taste like
chicken. Carnivore and herbivore meat tastes much different.

Career advise on entering the tech field

[Steve Furlong]

On Sun, 2004-03-14 at 07:36, Major Variola (ret) wrote:

> How are you going to land a sweet outsourced job
> if you ask others to do your homework?

If Sarath is, in fact, a student who will soon be looking for work, he
may do just fine. Getting a tech job has little to do with how much you
know or how well you can do the work. Most of getting a job, at least in
the US, has to do with putting together a resume that will get you a
call-back, and with impressing the HR guys during the first interview.
Neither of these need have any bearing on actual qualifications.

Once he has a job in the tech field, someone with people skills
sufficient to get others to do his work for him will get farther ahead
than the techie who actually does the work. Of course, it's easier for a
woman to pull this off in the typical tech-heavy company -- a woman just
has to chat with the guys, whereas a man will have to actively
brown-nose the bosses or ask favors of his co-workers.

Re: Earthlink to Test Caller ID for E-Mail

[Steve Furlong]

On Sat, 2004-03-06 at 10:32, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
> At 2:21 PM +0100 3/6/04, Eugen Leitl wrote:
> >Facultative strong authentication doesn't nuke anonynimity.
> 
> Perfect pseudonymity is functional anonymity, in my book...

No, pseudonymity lets others identify messages on, say c-punks, as
coming from a particular sender. Reputation can work here, even with no
meat-space identity attached. Anonymity means reputation can't work, so
each message has to be taken on its own, with no history to give clues
as to bias or reliability. I certainly wouldn't want to have to wade
through all the traffic, wondering which from Eugen and which from the
Australian-shithead-who-shall-not-be-named. Yah, it's easy enough to
tell once you've read the message, but I'd rather filter it out on the
"From:" level.

I realize that your, RAH's, "book" mostly deals with financial
transactions. In the very narrow domain of transactions which don't
require any trust, anonymity should be as useful as pseudonymity. In the
more general case, I'd think true anonymity would be a handicap. eg, I'm
certainly not going to send my hard-earned e-money to the account of
some untraceable joker in exchange for his promise to deliver me a
week's worth of groceries.

Re: Gentlemen reading mail part II

[Steve Furlong]

On Mon, 2004-03-01 at 10:42, sunder wrote:
> For example, one way to piss them off is to attempt to sing when you have 
> zero singing skills, and do it for hours on end, purposely off key, abusing 
> whatever instrument is available...

Ugh. I did _not_ want to think about Kofi Annan yodeling for hours while
abusing his skin flute.

Re: Gentlemen reading mail part II

[Steve Furlong]

On Sun, 2004-02-29 at 17:19, Major Variola (ret.) forwarded:
> Blix says US spied on him over Iraq
> ...
> It feels like an intrusion into
> your integrity in a situation when you are actually on the same side.

Begging the question of whether Blix was actually on the same side as
the Brits or the US.

Re: Authentification required. Read the attachment!

[Steve Furlong]

On Wed, 2004-02-25 at 22:00, Jim Choate wrote:
> > TO SUBSCRIBE to Cypherpunks, one should send a message to ONE of the following
> > addresses:
> >
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> > [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 
> There is no SSZ node anymore.

LNE, neither.

Try

[EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Re: Windows source leaked?

[Steve Furlong]

On Fri, 2004-02-13 at 19:02, Justin wrote:
> Case law on point?  I don't think that is true at all.  Trade secrets
> that are leaked are no longer trade secrets.

Incorrect. Trade secrets that are deliberately released by the owner are
no longer secret. Secrets that are carelessly released by the owner (eg,
wide-open path between their web server and their CVS repository) are
probably no longer secrets, but that's subject to finding of fact if it
goes to trial. Secrets that are stolen or illegally leaked are still
legally secrets. That's pretty clear, though things like developers
leaving a company and using their knowledge elsewhere can be
questionable. That's why most companies have non-disclosure forms for
you to sign when you start work.

Regarding case law cites, you can check google or findlaw as well as I.
Here, for the lazy or inept, is a useful page:

http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/openlaw/DVD/research/EFF_General_8.html

>   I think the issue would be
> copyright and/or patent violation.

That, too. In the case of IBM's PC-BIOS that I mentioned before, IBM
relied on copyright rather than trade secret. (Obviously, given that
they released the source themselves.) Note, also, that that happened in
the days before rampant software patents. If the same were to happen
today, they'd almost certainly get a patent on their BIOS, and Compaq
wouldn't have been able to do their clean-room reimplementation.

Re: Windows source leaked?

[Steve Furlong]

On Fri, 2004-02-13 at 14:45, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
> [sent to al-q; does [EMAIL PROTECTED] forward there?]
> 
> At 06:25 PM 2/12/04 -0500, Riad S. Wahby wrote:
> >Among others, /. is reporting that Win2k and WinNT source code may
> >have leaked.
..
> If you didn't steal it, its not your problem if you read it.
..
> How would M$ show that you had in fact read the code?
> And if you didn't copy it, why would a court care?

Eric is correct in his reply to MV's article. Joe Programmer isn't
necessarily obligated not to look at leaked trade secrets, but if he
implements anything remotely related to the leaked secret, he and his
employers or customers are subject to being sued for using the secret.
In principle they can prove that the secret didn't have any influence on
the work, but in practice they're stuck having to prove a negative.

Eric is also correct about the "Chinese wall" between the people who
look at or figure out the secret and the implementation group. Back in
the early days of the IBM PC, IBM released the source to the BIOS,
figuring they could use copyright to keep anyone else from implementing
a compatible BIOS. Compaq did the Chinese wall trick, with one group
developing a rigorous spec from the released code, then throwing it over
the wall to the implementation group. If push came to shove, the
implementors could have sworn that they had never seen the IBM code.

Re: US Finally Kills The 2nd Ammendment

[Steve Furlong]

On Mon, 2004-01-12 at 15:48, Tim May wrote:

> (Though of course this is only the _theory_. The fact that all of the 
> Bill of Rights, except perhaps the Third, have been violated by the 
> Evildoers in government is well-known.)

A few years ago I wrote a short paper looking at government-installed
snoopware in terms of the 3rd A. Given that the other BoR amendments
have been broadly interpreted in light of new technology, it's
reasonable to view software as "soldiers". In light of the Scarfo case
(keyboard sniffer software installed in a black-bag operation, ca. 1990)
I'd argue that the Fedz have violated the 3rd A. (My paper was before
Scarfo, so I claim some prescience. Alas.)

SRF

Re: US Finally Kills The 2nd Ammendment

[Steve Furlong]

On Mon, 2004-01-12 at 02:07, Tim May wrote:

> Read up on the Lawson case in San Diego.

Tim is referring to Edward Lawson, arrested repeatedly and convicted
once in the late 1970s for walking around without ID. The appeal made it
to the Supreme Court, as Kolender v Lawson, 461 US 352 (1983). Lawson's
conviction was overturned on grounds that the "identify yourself" law
was too vague. Not surprisingly, Justice "Actual Innocence" Rehnquist
felt that the law was good and Lawson's conviction was righteous.

The opinion, with some introductory material, can be found at
http://usff.com/hldl/courtcases/kolendervlawson.html

A web page discussing this case in relation to a national ID card is
http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/dept/polsciwb/page5.htm

Re: US Finally Kills The 2nd Ammendment

[Steve Furlong]

On Sun, 2004-01-11 at 14:18, Steve Schear wrote:

> Did you carry and present ID?

No. Once it was requested (strongly requested, just short of a demand
with threats), but when I demanded his justification he backed down. In
NY, at least at the time, citizens were not required to carry or present
ID, nor identify themselves on demand without cause. I believe that is
no longer the case.

Re: US Finally Kills The 2nd Ammendment

[Steve Furlong]

On Sat, 2004-01-10 at 19:02, J.A. Terranson wrote:
> What good is a Jury when the "judge" can pick and choose which arguments and
> evidence you can provide in support of your case?

I've occasionally handed out pamphlets on jury nullification outside the
local county courthouse. Never been arrested for it, but I've caught a
raft of shit from cops. The cops were acting, presumably, under
direction from the judges or maybe the DA. Those guys just hate jurors
thinking for themselves, you know.

Re: Engineers in U.S. vs. India

[Steve Furlong]

On Wed, 2004-01-07 at 18:36, Steve Mynott wrote:
> Jim Dixon wrote:

> > The term 'software engineer' is becoming less common in the States these
> > days.  I have watched the job title wax and wane for more than twenty
> > five years.  I think that it was most fashionable in the early 1980s.
> 
> Any Americans care to comment on this?

In the mid-1980s, the US Department of Defense, at the time the largest
software customer in the world, told its vendors that 10% (I think) of
their software development staff must be software engineers. Along came
the HR fairies with their magic wands and poof! almost all software
developers were software engineers.

The SE job title has ebbed and flowed, as Jim said. It means little
other than "programmer" in the US. As Jim said in another message,
almost all states restrict the use of the term "engineer" to those who
are licensed. But most don't really enforce that rule, so HR departments
are free to give their programming staff the glorious title. However,
contrary to Jim's statement, Texas does license software engineers. (See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_engineering .) I don't know if any
other states license SEs.


Regards,
SRF, degreed Software Engineer (hooray, me)

Re: Alt.cypherpunks will be where I do most of my posting

[Steve Furlong]

On Sat, 2004-01-03 at 02:19, James A. Donald wrote:

> And to get back to the topic of this thread.  I cannot see 
> anything but random deranged crap in alt.cypherpunks -- maybe I 
> need to adjust my filters, but there does not seem to be any 
> signal in the noise.

I don't see anything on alt.cypherpunks, except for a test message I put
up a couple of days ago. Alas, my ISP, having been bought out recently,
has become unresponsive. (Yah, I know there are work-arounds for
getting  newsgroups which are not carried by your ISP, but they are
_work_-arounds, which involve work, which involves time, which I have
only in short supply.)

Re: U.S. in violaton of Geneva convention?

[Steve Furlong]

On Tue, 2003-12-16 at 18:18, Jim Dixon wrote:

> I spent several years travelling in that part of the world.

Well, that just blew your credibility with this crowd. You're supposed
to spout off on topics about which you know nothing. Bonus points for
reflexive anti-state-ism [1] [2], and in particular antiamericanism. And
for idealistic crypto solutions to the world's problems, which
unfortunately will never work in a world inhabited by real people. (Not
that you're expected to admit that.)

The sheltered children on this list need to get out into the nastier
parts of the world. They need to see what life is like when the
government is _really_ bad, not just some warts on a mostly benevolent
institution. They also need to get a better feel for the cultural
differences around the world -- even though we're all humans, what seems
like a great idea in Berkeley might not fly in Baghdad or Beijing.

[1] As contrasted with anti-statism.

[2] Just let the market solve everything. And strong cryptography makes
your place of residence irrelevant. Unless, of course, the police goon
squad burst in and raped your children in front of you because you were
trying to change your place of residence.

Re: Ashcroft's bake sale, no questions allowed, gvt-issued photo ID required

[Steve Furlong]

On Wed, 2003-11-19 at 19:49, Bill Stewart wrote:
> Too bad it's past tomato season on the East Coast

Shit, we've (upstate NY, along the Mohawk River) already had our first
snow. Didn't stick, but the chill in the air is literal, not figurative.

Re: Chaumian blinding & public voting?

[Steve Furlong]

On Tue, 2003-11-04 at 11:01, Tim May wrote:

> When California was considering a lottery to 'help the schools,"
..
> Oh, and the "our children benefit, too!" never materialized. The 
> politicos took in the rakeoff from the deceptive odds, plus the more 
> normal rakeoff, and spent it on their usual stuff.

Three words: "Money is fungible".

Re: Chaumian blinding & public voting?

[Steve Furlong]

On Fri, 2003-10-31 at 23:55, Tim May wrote:
> Increasing voter turnout is, of course, a Bad Thing. For the reasons we 
> discuss so often.

Agreed. To the extent that I want a government at all, I support a
constitutional republic, not a democracy. Legions of bleary-eyed,
TV-addled, bigoted jackasses are not needed for determining the will of
the people. For that matter, I'd just as soon go a few steps closer to
the US's original franchise: leaving out the sex- and race-based
qualifications, you have to be an established citizen with some assets.
This method of setting the franchise would curb the excesses of the
bread and circuses crowd, and it would have the added benefit of pissing
off the activists and the populists.


..
> the list of 25 million in these united states who need to be sent up 
> the chimneys?

Only 25 million? Gotta disagree with you there, Tim. I'm with Sturgeon
on this: 90% of everything is crud. The correct statement is, 25 million
should be spared.

Re: "If you didn't pay for it, you've stolen it!"

[Steve Furlong]

On Sun, 2003-10-26 at 14:29, Ben Laurie wrote:
> Sunder wrote:

> > the elderly, lend it - or rent it to friends, use it as a paperweight,
> ^^^ this, I believe, there are laws
> about. At least here.

Aside from tax laws, I don't know of any US Federal or New York State
laws applying to renting books. A quick search didn't turn up anything
in the US, either. (Though there's so much law out there that 'quick
search of the law' is oxymoronic.) I don't have any resources other than
Google for checking English law.

Re: [mnet-devel] DOS in DHTs (fwd from amichrisde@yahoo.de)

[Steve Furlong]

On Thu, 2003-10-23 at 00:43, Morlock Elloi wrote:
> There are precedents. In Franko's Spain, all typewriters had to be registered
> with the state, and all had serial numbers. It was illegal and punishable to
> possess one without license.

What does that have to do with anything? We're talking about the United
States. There _is_ no other nation.

Re: Monkeys Control Robotic Arm With Brain Implants

[Steve Furlong]

On Mon, 2003-10-13 at 13:46, Steve Schear wrote:
> Monkeys Control Robotic Arm With Brain Implants

Which means that even armless retarded monkeys can post to c-punks.
Profr, call your office!

Re: Software protection scheme may boost new game sales (fwd)

[Steve Furlong]

On Sat, 2003-10-11 at 15:55, Tim May wrote:

> As the saying goes, the lessons of the past are learned anew by each 
> generation...

And each generation invents sex, too.

Re: What's up with the Cypherpunks archive?

[Steve Furlong]

On Friday 12 September 2003 09:36, Jim Choate wrote:

> Is it really so that there are no up to date archives? Venona seems
> to have stopped a while back.

http://archives.abditum.com/cypherpunks/

_But_ my server has been very unreliable lately. I'm planning on moving 
the archives to a different box soon, maybe this weekend.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

"If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using
their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that
these people have these weapons at all!"  -- Rep. Henry Waxman

Re: Digital cash and campaign finance reform

[Steve Furlong]

On Monday 08 September 2003 14:34, Ian Grigg wrote:
> Steve Schear wrote:


> How would you audit such a system?  I'm not that up
> on political cash, but I would have expected that there
> would be a need to figure out where money was coming
> from, by some interested third party at least.

Would you need to audit it? So long as the contributions can't be tied 
to a quid-pro-quo arrangement, let the candidates collect as much as 
they can.


> Also there would be a need to prove that the funds
> were getting there, otherwise, I'd be the first to
> jump in there and run the mix.  Or, the mint.

Yah, that's a bigger problem. I guess the first step is, establish a 
digital bank with at least the credibility and trustworthiness of an 
ordinary, audited and regulated bank. But without the auditing and 
regulation because, well, this is the internet age. 

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

"If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using
their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that
these people have these weapons at all!"  -- Rep. Henry Waxman

Re: Random musing about words and spam

[Steve Furlong]

On Tuesday 02 September 2003 19:00, Thomas Shaddack wrote:
> Spammers recently adopted tactics of using randomly generated words,
> eg. "wryqf", in both the subject and the body of the message.
..
> Could the pseudowords be easily detected by their characteristics,
..
> Presence of pseudowords then could be added as one of spam
> characteristics.

Wouldn't work for me. For one thing, I'm a programmer; as John Kozubik 
noted, identifiers in code look a lot like random strings. For another, 
I routinely receive email in non-English languages. Not only European 
languages, which probably have characteristics close enough to English 
to do matching, but also in Chinese and Korean. And Lojban, too, which 
itself looks an awful lot like random strings. (And getting legit mail 
from .cn and .kr prevents me from just blocking the entire TLDs of 
those national spam factories. My life sucks.)

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

"If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using
their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that
these people have these weapons at all!"  -- Rep. Henry Waxman

Re: Responding to orders which include a secrecy requirement

[Steve Furlong]

On Sunday 31 August 2003 19:20, James A. Donald wrote:

> Talk is cheap. ...
> Indeed, the one may be
> connected to the other -- the absence of stoolies may well be
> connected to the presence of hot talk.

Dunno. I'm not sure that mere talk of killing a librarian would dissuade 
the potential stoolies. As you say, talk is cheap. Actions, reported 
widely in the mass media, will grab people's attention.

On a related note, does anyone have a recommendation for a nice chianti?

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

"If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using
their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that
these people have these weapons at all!"  -- Rep. Henry Waxman

Re: "Terror Reading"

[Steve Furlong]

On Saturday 30 August 2003 14:46, Tim May wrote:
>
> Even the owner of my ISP is narcing me out.
>
> Read what he wrote recently to a Net.Nazi who wanted my speech
> limited:

(snip)

Huh. Did the ISP cc you on that, or did the would-be censor forward it 
to you as a warning that he held your access in his hands?


-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

"If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using
their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that
these people have these weapons at all!"  -- Rep. Henry Waxman

Re: "Terror Reading"

[Steve Furlong]

On Friday 29 August 2003 13:22, Tim May wrote:
> I am giving thought to visiting one of my local libraries and
> sauntering up the checkout desk and casually saying "So, what about
> this Patriot Act and librarians narcing us out to Big Brother?"
>
> Then, after hearing her explanation, just as casually saying "Well, I
> hope it never happens. Because if I ever learn that you have narced
> me out, I would of course have to lie in wait until you leave the
> library and then do what needs to be done."

Yah, good thinking. Push the local librarian from siding with the 
patrons against intrusive and unwarranted snooping, to thinking that 
Asscruft may actually have a point if there are all these dangerous 
wackos running around.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

"If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using
their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that
these people have these weapons at all!"  -- Rep. Henry Waxman

Re: "domestic terrorism", fat lazy amerikans & ducks

[Steve Furlong]

On Tuesday 26 August 2003 05:23, Bill Stewart wrote:

> Nah - who's afraid of Democrats?

Branch Davidians, perhaps. Elian Gonzales's Florida relatives.

Dems themselves tend to be pathetic wankers, but you gotta admit they're 
adept at using the state's monopoly power on force.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

"If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using
their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that
these people have these weapons at all!"  -- Rep. Henry Waxman

Archive mboxes

[Steve Furlong]

As per multiple request, the weekly mboxes for the Cypherpunks mailing 
list (LNE node) are available at my cpunks archive site:
   http://archives.abditum.com/cypherpunks/

The hypermail conversions are available as before, with new links to the 
.tgz mboxes.

These mboxes are exactly as produced by my mail client. In particular, 
email addresses are not munged. The consensus of those who answered by 
"concerns" mail seems to be that spammers wouldn't get any useful 
addresses from the mboxes that they couldn't get more easily by other 
means.

Annual sets will be added as appropriate to the bottom of the page. So 
far, there's only a 2002 set.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

"If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using
their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that
these people have these weapons at all!"  -- Rep. Henry Waxman

Re: The real ordeals of U.S. soldiers in Iraq

[Steve Furlong]

On Tuesday 12 August 2003 13:07, Steve Schear wrote:
> Through email and chat rooms a picture is emerging of day-to-day
> gripes, coupled with ferocious criticism of the way the war has been
> handled. They paint a vivid picture of US army life that is a world
> away from the sanitized official version.

Just bear in mind that it's the grunt's time-honored right to gripe. 
Gripe about the food, about the weather, about the sergeants, about the 
officers, about the weapons, about the mission, about anything under 
the sun. Doesn't mean anything of itself.

That said, they have more reason than usual to gripe. Not the overseas 
posting in a beastly climate, nor even the mission. It's the jerking 
around. "You'll be coming home next month." "Make that the month 
after." "Probably be a year, all told." If the pols and the brass had 
said up front that the troops would be there a year, there'd have been 
plenty of bitching by both soldiers and civilians but the overall 
effect would have been less than what's happening now. Army manning a 
year or two hence ought to be interesting.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

"If someone is so fearful that, that they're going to start using
their weapons to protect their rights, makes me very nervous that
these people have these weapons at all!"  -- Rep. Henry Waxman

Re: Duct-tape and tin foil nukular reactor?

[Steve Furlong]

On Tuesday 01 April 2003 15:16, Tim May wrote:

> This "Tyler Durden" nym claims to be a high school physics teacher,
> IIRC, and also claims to have once worked in industry. The high
> school part I find plausible, the industry part also plausible (given
> some of the folks I had to work with).
>
> And yet he posts at least a couple of credulous, recycled news
> stories or rumors each week.

I find nothing, in his credulity or his shallow understanding of topics 
or his shallow and flawed analyses, which is inconsistent with my high 
school science teachers or others I have known.


> He desperately needs to get up to speed. Maybe he can't.

Again, fully consonent with my high school science teachers. cf "A 
Nation at Risk".

If it weren't for momentum and brain drain from countries with decent 
schools for children, we'd be getting eaten alive by oriental nations.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Guns will get you through times of no duct tape better than duct tape
will get you through times of no guns. -- Ron Kuby

Re: Skeletons at the gates

[Steve Furlong]

On Sunday 30 March 2003 17:06, Harmon Seaver wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 30, 2003 at 04:56:00PM -0500, Steve Furlong wrote:

> > Hey, finally a legitimate use of SUVs for people who never go
> > off-road! My commuter bug would get hung up when I drove over the
> > protoplasmic speed bumps, but the big tires of a 4WD SUV would have
> > no trouble.
>
>Ever heard of caltrops? I hear it's a new growth cottage industry.
> Likewise the cheap EMP devices just talked about here. I've been
> thinking of building one of those for some time just to zap the loud
> bikes and boomboxes.

Good point. OK, use #2 for protestors who handcuff themselves en masse: 
large-scale BDSM porn flick, using semi-voluntary actors who tie 
themselves up. Get a bunch of HIV-infected deviants from the local 
lockup, hand them tubes of K-Y, and roll film!

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Guns will get you through times of no duct tape better than duct tape
will get you through times of no guns. -- Ron Kuby

Re: Skeletons at the gates

[Steve Furlong]

On Sunday 30 March 2003 15:13, Tyler Durden wrote:
> Uh...I don't think Tim May gets the picture here.
>
> Think a few dozen PVC-groups consisting of 100 or more each, lying in
> the middle of, say, 5th avenue, or at the mouth of the midtown
> tunnel. Oh, and say it happens at 8:00AM on a Weekday.
>
> The result is a significant impact on the local economy (at least),
> and a city that is partially paralyzed for half a day.

Hey, finally a legitimate use of SUVs for people who never go off-road! 
My commuter bug would get hung up when I drove over the protoplasmic 
speed bumps, but the big tires of a 4WD SUV would have no trouble.

I'm pretty sure the self-indulgent imbeciles who engage in this sort of 
infantile behavior would find another venue once the great mass of 
people stopped indulging their temper tantrums.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Guns will get you through times of no duct tape better than duct tape
will get you through times of no guns. -- Ron Kuby

Re: Quote of the Day

[Steve Furlong]

On Sunday 30 March 2003 11:37, Tyler Durden wrote:
> Hey, as for Sharpton, I'll quote my brother:
>
> "I'm gonna vote for Sharpton just to piss YOU off!"

I know someone who voted for Sharpton a few years ago (Governor? 
Senator? One of his no-chance campaigns.) because he figured he'd be 
the only one voting for the doofus in his very conservative county and 
he'd be able to point at that "1" entry and say "That's mine!". To his 
dismay, three or four others apparently though the same way.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Guns will get you through times of no duct tape better than duct tape
will get you through times of no guns. -- Ron Kuby

Re: Quote of the Day, Re: Usenet as solution to Al-Jazeera jamming problem

[Steve Furlong]

On Friday 28 March 2003 00:10, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
> "Sometimes  when you're in government you have to do things for the
> people
> whether they like it or not. That's what governing is all about,"
> said Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick.

Hitlary, Chucklehead Schumer, the now-deceased Pat "Old Drunk" Moynihan, 
George Pataki, Al Sharpton, and now Joe Bruno. Tell ya, I'm damn proud 
to be a New Yorker.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Guns will get you through times of no duct tape better than duct tape
will get you through times of no guns. -- Ron Kuby

Re: Unauthorized Journalists to be shot at

[Steve Furlong]

On Friday 14 March 2003 10:12, Trei, Peter wrote:

> If the US military does Really Bad Things to Iraqi civilians with
> any frequency,  I have little doubt we'll hear about it in time.
> There are journalists 'embedded' in many units.

Whether or not the US military does Really Bad Things to Iraqi 
civilians, I have little doubt we'll hear stories of atrocities. There 
are US-bashers (Noam Chomsky) and US-military-bashers (Marc Herold) 
embedded throughout the world.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Guns will get you through times of no duct tape better than duct tape
will get you through times of no guns. -- Ron Kuby

Re: Social democrats on our list

[Steve Furlong]

On Sunday 09 March 2003 11:52, Tim May wrote:

> Neither MegaCorp nor anyone else has property rights to the air.

MegaCorp doesn't have property rights to the air, but Amazon was 
recently granted a patent on "A Process for Bringing Oxygen into the 
Body".

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Guns will get you through times of no duct tape better than duct tape
will get you through times of no guns. -- Ron Kuby

Re: Give cheese to france?

[Steve Furlong]

On Thursday 06 March 2003 22:21, Tim May wrote:



* Except I think he made a typo: he wrote "shooing" but I suspect he 
meant "shooting".

Ditto, completely. Tim, you bring the matches and I'll get the gas.

(Now, when I find myself in complete agreement with Tim, is it time to 
adjust my meds? )

Really, some of you statist bastards need to look at the success of 
societies which respect and protect private property and compare with 
the success of those which do not. You can measure "success" by almost 
any criteria and get the same result. You'd think that watching statist 
nations self-destruct for more years than most of you have been alive 
would provide a clue, but I guess statist bastards' rock-like skulls 
and flabby, underdeveloped minds are clue-proof.

In the meantime, you stupid, statist bastards can keep hiding behind 
your remailers when you post your anti-property or anti-American 
screeds. You'd better --- after all, hundreds, even thousands, of 
protesters have been shot dead right in the street for protesting.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Guns will get you through times of no duct tape better than duct tape
will get you through times of no guns. -- Ron Kuby

Re: Give peace a chance?

[Steve Furlong]

On Tuesday 04 March 2003 21:08, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> Apparently "Give peace a chance" is dangerous, subversive speech, not
> to be tolerated in polite company
>
> http://www.msnbc.com/local/wnyt/m276307.asp?0ct=-302&cp1=1

>From the article, New York Civil Liberties Union President Stephen 
Gottlieb says, "We believe, most of us, in the Bill of Rights, and we 
believe that protects the freedom to speak." How is Constitutionally- 
protected freedom of speech imperiled when an agent of a private 
corporation asks someone to leave because his speech is offensive? 
Gottlieb is presumably a lawyer, since they tend to infest *CLUs. 
Either he missed Constitutional Law class the day they talked about 
scope of applicability of the Bill of Rights or else he's just a 
dumbass.


-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Guns will get you through times of no duct tape better than duct tape
will get you through times of no guns. -- Ron Kuby

Re: Say Bush is Nuts, Go to Jail

[Steve Furlong]

On Wednesday 26 February 2003 17:15, Tyler Durden wrote:
> Gulp. But then again, are they going to arrest all 250 million of us?

cf The Asylum from Douglas Adams' _So Long and Thanks for All the Fish_. 
Just turn the entire US into a jail with a few, small "not jail" 
locations.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Guns will get you through times of no duct tape better than duct tape
will get you through times of no guns. -- Ron Kuby

Re: Deutsch Jackboots

[Steve Furlong]

On Monday 24 February 2003 14:20, Greg Newby wrote:

> If he had weapons
> that non-soldiers can't get licenses for, I'd be more suspicious.

"Weapons that non-soldiers can't get licenses for" includes pepper spray 
in NYC.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Guns will get you through times of no duct tape better than duct tape
will get you through times of no guns. -- Ron Kuby

Re: mail?

[Steve Furlong]

On Sunday 23 February 2003 11:50, A.Melon wrote:
>   So is the list up or what?...
> Also see the cpunks archives are not there for the
> last week.

If you're talking about the archives I host 
(http://archives.abditum.com/), that's because the cron script 
mysteriously disappeared without my noticing.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Guns will get you through times of no duct tape better than duct tape
will get you through times of no guns. -- Ron Kuby

Re: patriot act and public key encryption

[Steve Furlong]

On Friday 07 February 2003 16:22, Mike Rosing wrote:
> On Fri, 7 Feb 2003, Michael Cardenas wrote:
> > If secret searches with secret warrants are legal now, what good is
> > it to use public key encryption and keep a backup of your private
> > key at home on a floppy?
> >
> > Is there a protocol to have a "blinded" private key, so you
> > wouldn't actually have access to your own private key?
>
> If you use ECC you don't need to keep anything but your pass phrase
> in your head.  It does help to not lose your head, so don't fly on a
> space shuttle :-)

I'd be more interested in a system in which I didn't have access to my 
own key. Warrant-proof, contempt-proof and preferably rubber 
hose-proof. Maybe a decryption program connected to a voice stress 
analyzer.

Legal question: If Alice selected and used a system in which she 
wouldn't be _able_ to provide the decryption key or the decrypted 
documents on demand, would she still be liable under contempt or 
criminal charges for not providing them? Maybe she used a dongle with 
the key, which erased itself if not activated every 24 hours. Emphasis 
on her not taking any action to delete files or erase a key after being 
served or arrested. I'm mainly interested in US law, but would be 
interested in other jurisdictions, too.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher
moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know
that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged.
--Michael Shirley

Re: Passenger rail is for adventurers and bums

[Steve Furlong]

On Friday 31 January 2003 12:40, Tim May wrote:
> On Friday, January 31, 2003, at 07:58  AM, Harmon Seaver wrote:
(snipped)

> I understand your politics is lefty...this has been shining through
> for years.
>
> But your analytical skills are lacking.

That's redundant in the modern US. Too bad; there needs to be a 
counterbalance to the right-wing control freaks, but the left just 
isn't up to it.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher
moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know
that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged.
--Michael Shirley

Re: [dgc.chat] When you try to pronounce "NGSCB"...

[Steve Furlong]

On Monday 27 January 2003 19:06, R. A. Hettinga wrote:
> ...it sounds like some place-name in Mordor: "Naagscab"

I will uninstall it...though I do not know the way.

Bill Gates to a home-made video: You shall not play! I am the keeper of 
the secret key of NGSCB. You -- shall -- not -- play!

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher
moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know
that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged.
--Michael Shirley

Re: Security cameras are getting smart -- and scary

[Steve Furlong]

On Wednesday 15 January 2003 18:09, Petro wrote:
> > Now, hunting black _helicopters_ is a different matter, you
> > realize
>
> What is the recommened minimum caliber for taking one, and how
> does one get it to the taxidermist?

I don't have a copy of _Unintended Consequences_ handy, but I think 
Henry used a 20mm. The heli was pickled, not mounted.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher
moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know
that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged.
--Michael Shirley

Re: Indo European Origins

[Steve Furlong]

On Tuesday 14 January 2003 15:23, Bill Stewart wrote:

> ...You might as well argue that Esperanto** is just
> a rapidly evolved Indo-European.

> ** You probably _can't_ argue that about Logban; hacking the grammar
>  to make it yacc-parseable is pretty radical surgery.

Allow me to introduce myself: coi rodo mi'e stivn. (Lojban: Hey, all, 
I'm Steve.) I might have something to contribute to this subthread.

Lojban (not Logban; that's a conflation of the names Loglan and Lojban) 
isn't LALR-1. The grammar can be parsed by yacc only through creative 
use of the error-catching mechanism. It's a very impressive feat of 
yacc-hacking, don't get me wrong, but it's a hack nonetheless. And the 
grammar was indeed crafted to fit in a hacked yacc parser. A real 
parser which can properly handle grammatical errors in a chunk of 
Lojban text needs a more powerful language.

Given that, Bill's point is correct: Lojban's gammar has practically 
nothing in common with any natural language.

co'o rodo
stivn.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher
moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know
that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged.
--Michael Shirley

Re: citizens can be named as enemy combatants

[Steve Furlong]

On Wednesday 08 January 2003 23:35, Michael Cardenas wrote:
> I think you're overreacting a bit. The actual case involves someone
> who was in a foriegn country for years, and was in the war zone at
> the time he was fighting the US.
>
> The ruling says that he was "squarely in teh war zone" and discusses
> the issue that he hda been out of the US for a long time.

And the court specifically said its ruling did not cover Jose P. 
Taliban, the (alleged) would-be dirty bomber.

But I strongly disagree with some of the dicta in the ruling: if there 
is any time that the courts need to let the administration have its 
way, it's during war time. (I paraphrased that.) My view is, if there's 
any time the courts need to keep a closer eye on the administration, 
it's during a popular war.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher
moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know
that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged.
--Michael Shirley

Re: The Culpability of the Conformist Criminal Choate.

[Steve Furlong]

On Wednesday 01 January 2003 09:28, Jim Choate wrote:

> ... If I as an individual can not
> decide to take anothers life at my whim (ie 'convicted' by individual
> ethics) how than can a group of men do it? Can a group of men have a
> right that as individuals they do not? No. Ergo, the state has no
> 'right' (which is another hole in the logic) to take a life through
> some process called 'conviction'.
...
> The positions are actually hold-overs from past despotic
> mono-authoritarian world views. They have no place in a democratic
> society.

I am in complete agreement with Jim on this.

Crap --- now I need to check my meds.


SRF

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher
moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know
that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged.
--Michael Shirley

Re: Suspending the Constitution

[Steve Furlong]

On Saturday 14 December 2002 18:18, Mike Rosing wrote:
> On Sat, 14 Dec 2002, Tim May wrote:
> > Lincoln's notion that the Constitution is suspendable during a war,
> > or other emergency conditions, was disgraceful. Nothing in the
> > Constitution says that it is suspended when a President declares it
> > to be suspended.
>
> Power is what power does.  He got away with it, that's all that
> counts.

Well, until April 14, 1865, anyway. Sic semper tyrannis.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher
moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know
that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged.
--Michael Shirley

Re: [IP] Dan Gillmor: Accessing a whole new world via multimedia phones (fwd)

[Steve Furlong]

On Friday 13 December 2002 23:30, Jim Choate wrote:
> On Mon, 9 Dec 2002, Mike Rosing wrote:
> > "Content is crap, conectivity is king"
> > A.M. Odlyzko at Univ. Wisconsin, early 2002 (May I think?)
>
> Bullshit, if there isn't content why do they want connectivity? What
> is it they are connecting to?

You don't have daughters, do you? If you did, the bill for the second 
phone line would answer your question.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher
moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know
that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged.
--Michael Shirley

Re: [IP] Dan Gillmor: Accessing a whole new world via multimedia phones (fwd)

[Steve Furlong]

Jim Choate, in a display of bad judgement and ill temper never before 
seen on the internet, spewed forth the following blood-libel:

> Nitwit, who are the daughters talking to, dial-tone? Not. They are
> solving two problems, entertainment and a problem (social
> connectivity).

The point was, the "content providers" aren't providing the 
entertainment. The daughters are talking (and talking!) to their 
friends with no help from the big companies other than providing the 
connectivity. I believe that was Olyzko's point in the first place, 
that people are more interested in being connected with other people 
(regular people, not entertainers) than in simply receiving 
entertainment or other content from canned sites.

I'm not sure I agree with Odlyzko's point about connectivity vs content. 
But your prior statement, "Bullshit, if there isn't content why do they 
want connectivity? What is it they are connecting to?", misses the 
distinction between the two.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher
moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know
that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged.
--Michael Shirley

Re: Extradition, Snatching, and the Danger of Traveling to Other Countries

[Steve Furlong]

On Friday 13 December 2002 11:44, Trei, Peter wrote:

> ... this sort
> of thing could give the Libertarian Party legs,
> if they handled it right.

Hahahahahahaha

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

You don't expect governments to obey the law because of some higher
moral development. You expect them to obey the law because they know
that if they don't, those who aren't shot will be hanged.
--Michael Shirley

Re: OPPOSE THE WAR! We are going to ruin Iraq to get the oil. Who's ne

[Steve Furlong]

On Thursday 14 November 2002 12:16, Harmon Seaver wrote:

>It's all relative -- what Dubbya and Asscruft have done to destroy
> freedom in the US is far worse than anything Saddam has done. Iraq
> had no freedom to lose.

So...When Iraqis are tortured to death, it's not really that bad because 
they're just wogs and don't know any better?


>Dubbya and Asscruft have millions of people in prison for doing
> nothing wrong, only violating their bullshit rules in the War On Some
> Drugs.

I agree that the WoSD is bullshit, but get some historical perspective. 
The WoSD has been in place for thirty years (Nixon), or for almost a 
century (vil blacks and hispanics using marijuana to seduce white 
women). Bush43 and Ashcroft have been in office less than two years, 
and neither was alive when _Reefer Madness_ came out..


> They have killed thousands of innocent Afghans

"Thousands of Afghans" has been thoroughly debunked. Only the very 
stupid continue to believe or propagate it.


>Not that Klinton was any better.

Bubba was much worse. He killed people to distract attention from his 
crimes. Bush43 at least has a supportable rationale, whether or not you 
agree with it.


Now, I am far from a Bush43 supporter. I have serious concerns about his 
interest in the rights of Americans. But idiots like Harmon Seaver make 
it more difficult to effectively oppose Bush43 and Asscruft (*) because 
their supporters need only point to the idiots to discredit all of the 
opposition.

(*) I'm the one who came up with that nickname, so you can assume that 
my opinion of him is not favorable.

SRF

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Vote Idiotarian --- it's easier than thinking

Re: eJazeera?

[Steve Furlong]

On Monday 11 November 2002 15:38, Major Variola (ret) wrote:
> > 3) stream via standardised protocol using (camouflaged) 8" 3db omni
>
> stick
>
> > antenna. Do this in AP mode.
>
> Camoflaging this in the obvious place we note that our metallicized
> underwear provides
> a nice ground plane reflector, adding a db or two.

Hey, that's a _good_ idea! And we can get side shielding by sticking the 
antenna between a fat guy's ass cheeks. The Fedz might notice that he's 
always keeping his butt pointed in one direction, but maybe that's 
normal at these events.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Vote Idiotarian --- it's easier than thinking

Re: Sending bricks through the mail

[Steve Furlong]

On Sunday 03 November 2002 17:17, Thoenen, Peter Mr. EPS wrote:
> Tried emailing direct but bounced so apologize to the list for the OT
> content :)

> > -Original Message-
> > From: Major Variola (ret) [mailto:mv@;cdc.gov]

Peter, you might want to google on "variola major" (not "major 
variola"), note Maj Variola's alleged host, and consider the 
possibility it's a nym.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Vote Idiotarian --- it's easier than thinking

Re: What email encryption is actually in use?

[Steve Furlong]

On Sunday 03 November 2002 12:53, Len Sassaman wrote:
> On Sat, 2 Nov 2002, Tim May wrote:
> > PK crypto has made a lot of things a lot easier, but expecting it
> > all to work with a click of a button is naive. Of course, most of
> > us don't actually have secrets which make protocols and efforts
> > justifiable. There's the rub.
>
> I expect it to work with the click of a button.
...
> crypto applications *must* be as easy to use as AOL.
>
> Sacrificing the level of security provided is a reasonable option.
...

Agreed. Setup should be pretty simple, but daily use for the unwashed 
masses has to be one-click. And version compatibility problems have 
_got_ to disappear. Actually, PGP's Outlook plug-in comes pretty close 
to this. It has just two usability shortcomings that I can think of 
right now: it needs an option to remember the passphrase (yah, it's a 
security hole, but not as big a one as not using encryption at all); 
the identification and fetching of other users' keys needs to be 
simpler (1); and the compatibility problems have _got_ to disappear. 
Yes, I know I'm repeating myself on that last bit, but it's the biggest 
show-stopper of the bunch.

The receiving side needs to be completely painless. Again, optionally 
remember the passphrase and optionally automatically decrypt and verify 
signatures. KMail is pretty good, at least with signatures: it shows a 
stripe down the side indicating a GPG/PGP message and it checks the 
signature if the signer is in my keyring.

I want copious use of crypto partly out of a slight regard for the 
interests of the average user but mostly as cover for anything I might 
want to do. And partly to make harder the lives of the kind of bastards 
who'd go into a career of looking at other people's mail.

1: I don't have any workable ideas on how to find the right person's key 
in the face of changing email addresses. But the selection of the 
particular key from those available for a given person needs to be 
automated; having to drill down through several levels and then 
choosing from several possible keys is too confusing and too much work 
even if it's not confusing.

-- 
Steve FurlongComputer Condottiere   Have GNU, Will Travel

Vote Idiotarian --- it's easier than thinking