631 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
631 lines
29 KiB
Plaintext
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Computer underground Digest Sun May 3, 1998 Volume 10 : Issue 28
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ISSN 1004-042X
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Editor: Jim Thomas (cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu)
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News Editor: Gordon Meyer (gmeyer@sun.soci.niu.edu)
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Archivist: Brendan Kehoe
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Shadow Master: Stanton McCandlish
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Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth
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Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala
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Ian Dickinson
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Field Agent Extraordinaire: David Smith
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Cu Digest Homepage: http://www.soci.niu.edu/~cudigest
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CONTENTS, #10.28 (Sun, May 3, 1998)
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File 1--Critical information about the "Church" of Scientology
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File 2--Re: How to tag PhotoCopiers (CuD 10.25)
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File 3--REVIEW: "Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspac
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File 4--Library Internet Filters Held to High Free Speech Test
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File 5--Islands in the Clickstream. Humanity Morphing. May 2, 1998
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File 6--Re: Cu Digest, #10.25, Wed 22 Apr 98
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File 7--RE: Cu Digest, #10.25, Wed 22 Apr 98
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File 8--Re: technical solutions to spam problem
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File 9--India's INSAT hacked
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File 10--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 25 Apr, 1998)
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CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION ApPEARS IN
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THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE.
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---------------------------------------------------------------------
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Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 16:37:52 -0600
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From: toy.boat@MAILEXCITE.COM
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Subject: File 1--Critical information about the "Church" of Scientology
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Check out these sites for more critical information on Scientology:
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Watch the Xemu Cartoon: http://www.xs4all.nl/~xemu/xemurams/
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Visit Xemu's Home Page: http://www.xs4all.nl/~xemu/index2.html
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Also the incomparable Operation Clambake: http://www.xenu.net/
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The TRUE story of Hubbard: http://www.primenet.com/~lippard/bfm/
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Hubbard's "No Christ": http://www.xs4all.nl/~xemu/rams/Nochrist.ram
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The famous Xenu flyer: http://www.xs4all.nl/~xemu/flyers/Xemu.html
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FACTnet http://www.factnet.org
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LermaNet http://www.lermanet.com
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American Family Foundation http://www.csj.org
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------------------------------
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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 22:46:53 +0200 (MET DST)
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From: Ulrich Mayring <u@123.org>
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Subject: File 2--Re: How to tag PhotoCopiers (CuD 10.25)
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In cu-digest 10.25 someone wondered how the tagging of, for
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example, color copiers could be done unobstrusively. The way
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Canon does it is that they print a serial number in a very light
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yellow on the page. This is invisible to the human eye, but can
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be read with special scanners.
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------------------------------
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Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 15:42:35 -0800
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From: "Rob Slade" <rslade@sprint.ca>
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Subject: File 3--REVIEW: "Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspac
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BKOVRDRV.RVW 980220
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"Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace", James
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Wallace, 1997, 0-471-18041-6, U$24.95/C$34.95/UK#16.99
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%A James Wallace
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%C 5353 Dundas Street West, 4th Floor, Etobicoke, ON M9B 6H8
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%D 1997
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%G 0-471-18041-6
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%I Wiley
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%O U$24.95/C$34.95/UK#16.99 416-236-4433 lwhiting@jwiley.com
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%P 307 p.
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%T "Overdrive: Bill Gates and the Race to Control Cyberspace"
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Although it occasionally refers to earlier episodes, the book
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concentrates on Gates, and Microsoft, from 1992 (where "Hard Drive",
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[cf. BKHRDDRV.RVW] left off) until 1996. Since this period of the
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company's existence was marked by lawsuits and investigations by the
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US Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department, it is very timely
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as a backgrounder to the current legal woes at Microsoft.
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The book covers a lot of ground, moving from topic to topic in a
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logically connected style that makes the reading flow easily. The
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stories are very personal, in that they trace friendships and enmity
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across companies, products, people, and events. A number of the
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stories are a kind of trivia filler, developed in a paragraph and
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never heard from again. There are also some journalistic discoveries
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about the world's richest man. It makes for an interesting read,
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although sometimes the reader gets caught in an analysis of whether
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this item is important or not. Most of the time the text is quite
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authoritative, faltering mostly when the author is probably being most
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careful, such as when there are conflicting accounts of the
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involvement of a given individual in a given incident.
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Wallace's work is well-researched and witty, but not always
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technically informed. The Internet is half of the subject of the
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book, and yet Wallace seems unaware of the explosive growth the
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Internet enjoyed even before the availability of the World Wide Web.
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Also, Tim Berners-Lee did not just invent HTML (HyperText Markup
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Language): arguably his larger contribution was the HTTP (HyperText
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Transfer Protocol) specification which governs the interaction between
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Web browsers and clients, allowing HTML to function. Once again, this
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lack of accuracy in detail will raise flags in the technical reader as
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to the veracity of other parts of the account. Those who know
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something of the history of personal computers, however, will find
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sufficiently faithful retailing of other occurrences to restore trust.
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copyright Robert M. Slade, 1998 BKOVRDRV.RVW 980220
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------------------------------
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Date: Thu, 23 Apr 1998 17:16:07 -0400
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From: "EPIC-News List" <epic-news@epic.org>
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Subject: File 4--Library Internet Filters Held to High Free Speech Test
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Source: EPIC Volume 5.05 April 23, 1998
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--------------------------------------------------------------
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Published by the
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Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
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Washington, D.C.
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http://www.epic.org/
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*** 1998 EPIC Cryptography and Privacy Conference ***
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http://www.epic.org/events/crypto98/
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=======================================================================
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[3] Library Internet Filters Held to High Free Speech Test
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=======================================================================
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In the first court ruling on the use of Internet filtering software
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in libraries, a federal judge on April 7 rejected a motion to dismiss
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a lawsuit challenging the use of filters in public libraries in
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Loudoun County, Virginia.
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In a 36-page decision, U.S. District Judge Leonie M. Brinkema held
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that "the Library Board may not adopt and enforce content-based
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restrictions on access to protected Internet speech" unless it meets
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the highest level of constitutional scrutiny. Noting that public
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libraries are places of "freewheeling and independent inquiry," the
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court quoted extensively from Reno v. ACLU, the landmark Supreme
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Court decision on Internet free speech, and emphasized that the Court
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"analogized the Internet to a 'vast library including millions of
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readily available and indexed publications,' the content of which 'is
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as diverse as human thought.'"
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The Loudoun County decision comes as Congress is considering the
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Internet School Filtering Act, a bill that would require all public
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libraries and schools that receive federal funds for Internet access
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to install filtering and blocking software. The bill (S. 1619) has
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been approved by the Senate Commerce Committee and could reach the
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Senate floor as early as mid-May. Efforts are underway to revise the
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bill to provide for Internet education programs and acceptable use
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policies as more effective (and constitutional) alternatives to
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mandatory filtering.
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Information on Internet filtering, including the text of the Loudoun
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County decision, is available at the Internet Free Expression
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Alliance website:
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http://www.ifea.net
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=======================================================================
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Subscription Information
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=======================================================================
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The EPIC Alert is a free biweekly publication of the Electronic
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Privacy Information Center. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send email
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to epic-news@epic.org with the subject: "subscribe" (no quotes) or
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"unsubscribe". A Web-based form is available at:
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http://www.epic.org/alert/subscribe.html
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Back issues are available at:
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http://www.epic.org/alert/
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------------------------------
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Date: Sat, 02 May 1998 12:58:43 -0500
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From: Richard Thieme <rthieme@thiemeworks.com>
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Subject: File 5--Islands in the Clickstream. Humanity Morphing. May 2, 1998
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Islands in the Clickstream:
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Humanity Morphing
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A funny thing happened on the way to the grave: It disappeared.
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But first, as they say, a word from our sponsor.
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The primitive brain that has helped us survive does not easily
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release its grip. As much as we like to think that we live in the
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outer domain of our brains, we snap back into the reptile stem
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whenever we think we're threatened. Then we react to things that
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look or sound like other things as if they ARE those other things.
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I guess looking silly when you run from a car backfiring is better
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than dying the one time in a hundred the bang is really a gunshot.
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After a threat, it takes most brains a few hours to get back up to
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"flow" level and lose themselves again in the pleasures of
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creativity and selflessness. Reality has a way of interfering with
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our higher pursuits, and the brain thinks it knows which things to
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put first.
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Labeling or categorizing is one of those things. Labeling must
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have great survival value, must save time and energy, must not
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cost us much in the long run.
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After years of confronting black-and-white thinking, now I feel
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it's often a waste of time to suggest a more subtle
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interpretation. I used to think education would change all that,
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but sometimes I think education just makes our prejudices more
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subtle. The experience of living in the digital world will
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probably not percolate soon to that deeper reptilian brain that
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has, after all, our best interests at heart, even when we disagree
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with its conclusions.
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Life in the digital world is interactive, fluid, modular. When I
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first used the word "morph" in speeches, I asked who knew what it
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meant. A few hands went up, then more and more. Now most folks
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seem to know that images can change from one thing into another.
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But they change through stages, and that's important. As a
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metaphor of how individuals and organizations adapt to changing
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conditions, it's critical to know that we move from phase to
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phase, not all at once. Grandmother does not turn willy-nilly into
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a wolf. Grandmother turns into a gray grandmother, than a gray
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hairy grandmother, then a gray hairy grandmother with fearsome
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teeth, then a wolf.
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A young man from an evangelical Christian seminary asked to
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interview me for a project. His task was to talk to "others" so
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he knew how they thought. He had logged a Unitarian, a rabbi, and
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a Jew-for-Jesus when he came to me. He was genuinely interested in
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how I had morphed through careers and different religions. "What
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should I call you?" he said. "What are you now?"
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"I guess, as the Buddhists say, I am 'not this, not that.' I'm in
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process. I like to think of myself as open to possibilities."
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His pen halted on the pad and his consternation showed. Without a
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label, what was he to do? And what are we to do with reality
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itself, particularly when our interaction with the digital world
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(we are embedded in our time, after all, our historical context is
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the matrix of meanings with which we must wrestle) teaches us that
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life is fluid, interactive, and modular, and that ultimately there
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is only the light of our monitors momentarily illuminating pixels
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that we gestalt into symbols that seem so real?
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A friend recently criticized evolution, which for all its flaws as
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a Theory of Everything still seems to have some useful insights. A
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creationist, she spoke about species as if they were real things,
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rather than categories we invented. Taxonomy is an addiction, like
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the classification of knowledge itself. We need a map, but we
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know the map is not the territory. We know the territory
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intuitively by the immediacy with which it presses against us as
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we walk, alive and responsive and aware.
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Hard to maintain our moorings, when everything is going through
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the looking-glass. Intellectual property, a category invented in
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the past few hundred years, is as blurred as a headline in the
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rain. The "protean" self celebrated by some and described ruefully
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by others is morphing along: we can choose careers and grow into
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others, we can choose partners and grow into others, we can choose
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identities and grow into others, and even our illusory self can
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watch with amusement or anxiety as it creates and discovers
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various personae as vehicles for being in the world.
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Hemingway disdained adjectives because they diluted the aesthetic
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experience he intended to create. These days, we might be more in
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tune with Jorge Luis Borges who wrote about a culture that used
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verbs and adverbs to describe its perceptual world. Everything
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moved, nothing stayed slotted, and the world was a blur of
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temporary states.
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It is not news that this is how it is, but it is news that we
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can't withdraw easily as we did in the past into a consensus that
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the fixed and rigid categories of our minds, from religion to
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science to metaphysics, are "real." They're a way our primitive
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brains need to know, a modality good for survival.
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Oversimplification gets our feet (and our mouths) moving fast when
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there's danger or perceived danger, but we use the word "flow" to
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denote that most highly prized state in which we lose ourselves
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and all illusory attachments to which that self is anchored. The
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energies of love, creativity and generosity flow outward into a
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world that accepts our contribution without comment, other than
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the reflexive joy we feel at knowing that our contribution and
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participation is a privilege and a gift.
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In a network or web, we exercise power by contributing and
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participating. Life, whatever it may be, looks in these digital
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days more like a network or web than anything else. There, in that
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web, we allow ourselves to be woven into something we don't have
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to know or control. And even the grave, as I said when I started,
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vanishes into thin air whenever we flow in that direction.
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**********************************************************************
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Islands in the Clickstream is a weekly column written by
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Richard Thieme exploring social and cultural dimensions
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of computer technology. Comments are welcome.
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Feel free to pass along columns for personal use, retaining this
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signature file. If interested in (1) publishing columns
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online or in print, (2) giving a free subscription as a gift, or
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(3) distributing Islands to employees or over a network,
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email for details.
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To subscribe to Islands in the Clickstream, send email to
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rthieme@thiemeworks.com with the words "subscribe islands" in the
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body of the message. To unsubscribe, email with "unsubscribe
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islands" in the body of the message.
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Richard Thieme is a professional speaker, consultant, and writer
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focused on the impact of computer technology on individuals and
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organizations.
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Islands in the Clickstream (c) Richard Thieme, 1998. All rights reserved.
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ThiemeWorks on the Web: http://www.thiemeworks.com
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ThiemeWorks P. O. Box 17737 Milwaukee WI 53217-0737 414.351.2321
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------------------------------
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From: "Leandro Asnaghi-Nicastro" <leandro@CAPNASTY.ORG>
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Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 23:03:11 +0000
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Subject: File 6--Re: Cu Digest, #10.25, Wed 22 Apr 98
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On This Day, in the Year of Our Lord 26 Apr 98 at 17:09, thus spoke
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cu-digest@weber.ucsd.edu :
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Date--Mon, 20 Apr 1998 10:47:04 -0500
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From--Neil Rickert <rickert@CS.NIU.EDU>
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Subject--Re--proposal of technical solutions to spam problem
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> The alternative would be like having a "big brother" or "post
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> office nanny" machine attached to your mailbox, which
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> automatically shreds mail if it does not begin with "Dear
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> person" and end with "Yours sincerely." We don't need such a
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> machine. Automated rejection of email on the basis of header
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> information is *evil*. What is needed is some sort of
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> authentication information, including an estimation of the
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> degree of trust to be placed in the purported origin of the
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> message. This information should be transported in the
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> envelope (separate from the message content and headers), so
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> that it can be dynamically updated as the mail is tranferred
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> between machines.
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I'm not sure about this spam problem really being a problem. I don't
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mean to sound as if I live in a different world, however spam for us
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has ceased to be a problem. Take for example my zine. We publish
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our e-mail address just about everywhere a spammer (or those
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automated programs that collect addresses) would look: usenet and
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webpages. Yet we receive no spam at all.
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The system is simple, and apparentely it blocks 99% of all spam.
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First of all the program checks if the domain name is valid. If the
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e-mail is sent by make@money.fast, the DNS will look the name up and
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obviously it will not resolve. The mail is rejected.
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Also, many places have domains especially designed to send spam, and
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these are simply banned.
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Yes, there are disadvantages to this system: first of all, we cannot
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get harrasing e-mails from someone who particularly hated us and used
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a fake address. The domain will not solve, we will not get the
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e-mail. Also, but I am not sure about this since we haven't received
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any complains about not replying to an e-mail, if a DNS server is
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down that can prove the validity of the site or no IP update has yet
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been performed and a valid DNS server does not resolve, that mail
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might get rejected as well.
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Of course, one could use both an anonymous re-mailer with a domain
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that resolves or use a real domain (like yourfriend@aol.com). We
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haven't gotten any of these (yet) but so far the outcome has been
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quite successful.
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Lastly, before I get chewed by some computer competent people,
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please forgive me. I know very little about computers and how they
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work in general, so I most likely said something that makes no sense
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(technically speaking). My apologies if that's the case. It seems
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however, that this system we have adopted works wonders.
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In over a year and a half of service with the zine, we have never
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received one single piece of spam, while our mailboxes are always
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full of reader's comments..
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Thank you for your time and for the great service you provide with
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CuD.
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------------------------------
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Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 11:21:01 +1000 (GMT)
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From: Norman Widders <winspace@paladincorp.com.au>
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Subject: File 7--RE: Cu Digest, #10.25, Wed 22 Apr 98
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On Sun, 26 Apr 98 17:09 CDT
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Cu Digest (tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu) <TK0JUT2@MVS.CSO.NIU.EDU> wrote:
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The IETF and current work have produced ESMTP which _is_ an extension of
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SMTP. It already has authentication. Its called Authenticated-SMTP and
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requires a valid username and password to be able to send email (if
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enabled)
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> If Vladimir wants to criticize, he should get to the heart of the
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> matter, which is the SMTP protocol. This protocol requires no
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> sender
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> authentication (other than a simple syntax check), and could not
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> easily be extended to prevent spam.
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Authenticated-SMTP means no more spam, no more faking email, once vendors
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begin implementing it and it sees widespread deployment. Netscape
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Messaging and Microsoft Exchange already support it, and a few months ago
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I informed the folks at sendmail.org about it also.
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------------------------------
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Date: Wed, 29 Apr 98 21:40:20 -0700
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From: "Vladimir Z. Nuri" <vznuri@netcom.com>
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Subject: File 8--Re: technical solutions to spam problem
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Editor:
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In CuD #10.25, Neil Rickert responds to my post, "technical
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solutions to the spam problem" in #10.24. He writes that I have
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"misdiagnosed the problem" in referring to SendMail.
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I had a feeling the SendMail section would be the most controversial
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in the long essay. A reasonable disclaimer might have read, "none
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of this should be taken as criticism of SendMail, only as observations
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on its nature". Of course this would likely still not evade any
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"hard feelings" by anyone who has ever worked on it. SendMail represents
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perhaps many tens of thousands of man-hours of development time, and
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reflects this enormous labor in both depth of functionality and complexity.
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The nature of SendMail deserves virtually an entire essay. It comprises
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a very large and crucial part of Internet infrastructure. Yet it has
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been developed with the help of many volunteers. It seems paradoxical
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that something so valuable would have this degree of informality.
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Contrast it with say, a browser like Netscape, in which (at least for
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a time) there was enormous economic incentive to make it state-of-the-art.
|
|
Or, consider internet routers. Such a powerful incentive and demand
|
|
does not appear to be associated with SendMail, as evidenced by a
|
|
rather gradual rate of new releases.
|
|
|
|
Wired ran some recent headlines online in which it was announced that Eric
|
|
Allman, chief maintainer of SendMail, had added some anti-spam features. So
|
|
Rickert seems perhaps unaware of the fact that Allman sees SendMail as
|
|
a legitimate place for anti-spam components in his denial that
|
|
"it has very little to do with spam". Perhaps its design does not
|
|
intentionally create spam, but spam is a clear consequence. Also, it is
|
|
the obvious loci for any serious spam solutions.
|
|
|
|
At the end of the essay I refer to qmail, being developed by D.Bernstein.
|
|
(www.qmail.org). qmail has obviously been developed to make up for some
|
|
of the weaknesses of Sendmail in performance and internal structure.
|
|
That SendMail has weaknesses, or perhaps even (gasp) deficiencies,
|
|
is not a novel observation on my part. It is certainly not an indictment
|
|
of the maintainers. Many other rants on the subject can be found in
|
|
the book, "The Unix Haters Handbook".
|
|
|
|
The point of the "technical proposal" is not to attribute blame to some
|
|
specific aspect of the Internet as responsible for spam. As the essay notes,
|
|
it is a very nonlocal problem that resists local attempts at
|
|
solving it. The essay proposes that it is not so much poor design that has
|
|
led to it, but more like a lack of imagination so far. SendMail is unarguably
|
|
one aspect of an environment that is highly conducive to spam. I was on an
|
|
anti-spam mailing list, and the finger pointing seems even more shrill
|
|
than in most places in the computer industry in which vendor A accuses
|
|
vendor B, and vice versa ad nauseaum.
|
|
|
|
Rickert states that the SMTP protocol "cannot easily be extended
|
|
to prevent spam" via sender authentication. In fact, it is a tautology
|
|
that no part of the internet can easily be extended. The standards are
|
|
all in place, the software is already written! Even with the modernity
|
|
of the Internet, there are already huge legacy systems in place.
|
|
|
|
The essay seeks to make proposals that break this gridlock and stalemate.
|
|
It is a matter of semantics and imagination where they are perceived
|
|
to be applied: SendMail, SMTP, etc. It can be thought of as a new SMTP
|
|
proposal, a new SendMail proposal, or neither. Politically, I'm not
|
|
interested in how it is implemented, and neither, presumably,
|
|
would the average user. That's what so maddening about the spam problem--
|
|
it's nobody's responsibility or jurisdiction in particular to fix it.
|
|
|
|
We have a chicken-and-egg problem with many new internet standards.
|
|
People will not write the software without the standards, but often
|
|
the standards cannot be described without software models. Spam solutions
|
|
seem to fall into this category particularly. Software to clean up spam
|
|
would be something akin to a janitor's job-- highly necessary, but few
|
|
would care to be involved. And this is not even to mention the often
|
|
minimal economic incentives to create the software.
|
|
|
|
I tend to agree with Rickert's description of the internet as starting
|
|
out with tighter, trusted core of machines that were more carefully
|
|
guarded. Rickert proposes a new "central core of trustworthy machines",
|
|
calling it "the best solution". Actually within the SRN (self regulated
|
|
network) proposal there is much reference to creating virtual networks
|
|
of trusted machines based on the SRN protocols. But it doesn't insist
|
|
on a "master core"-- it considers that any number of different cores might
|
|
evolve with varying degrees of self-regulation by members. Generally,
|
|
I would disagree with Rickert that a single central core is palatable
|
|
or even possible.
|
|
|
|
Mr. Rickert melodramatically sets up a hollow straw man in suggesting that a
|
|
sendmail that could reject email based on header information would inevitably
|
|
lead to a "big brother" or "post office nanny" type system. The essay clearly
|
|
suggested that this header information could contain authentication
|
|
controls, precisely in a manner similar to what Rickert himself
|
|
proposes. The essay also mentioned digital cash being contained
|
|
in a header. Whether the information is traded "out of band" within
|
|
the protocol or within the message is a somewhat insignificant design
|
|
consideration. The hard part is setting up the overall protocol, system,
|
|
and infrastructure.
|
|
|
|
"Automated rejection of email on the basis of header information
|
|
is *evil*" quoth Mr. Rickert. A rather dogmatic pronouncement.
|
|
The idea of the essay was that the header information could contain
|
|
authentication information. I agree with what Mr. Rickert seems to
|
|
be trying to say, that any arbitrary rejection of email based on
|
|
elements that are easily forged would obviously be disastrous.
|
|
|
|
What are the odds that SRN type systems will evolve in the future?
|
|
I am both optimistic and pessimistic. As the essay notes, to a large
|
|
degree they already exist in informal mechanisms and procedures now
|
|
being practiced in cyberspace as we know it. Whether they can be
|
|
elegantly embodied or that anyone cares to do so are huge hurdles.
|
|
I think that spam will over time increasingly threaten the current
|
|
viability and practicality of internet email without any new measures.
|
|
|
|
------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 11:06:30 -0700
|
|
From: Jeremy Lassen <jlassen@AX.COM>
|
|
Subject: File 9--India's INSAT hacked
|
|
|
|
Space Age Publishing's India correspondent B. R. Rao reports that
|
|
"hackers" have succeeded in stealing transponder time on board
|
|
India's domestic communications satellite, INSAT. The Network
|
|
Ops. Control Center(NOCC)of India's Dept. of Telecommunications
|
|
is "...in the process of identifying the culprits".
|
|
|
|
The director of NOCC confirms that a reward has been offered to
|
|
anyone who can provide information that helps identify the
|
|
culprits. Reports indicate the NOCC is aware that "...anybody in
|
|
possession of the technical details of INSAT and its frequency
|
|
ranges can at regular intervals tap into its transponders and
|
|
transmit data free across the globe."
|
|
|
|
I know this is rather vague, but I hadn't read about this
|
|
anywhere else, and thought that the CUD's readers might find it
|
|
interesting. Anybody need some transponders time? :)
|
|
|
|
------------------------------
|
|
|
|
Date: Thu, 25 Apr 1998 22:51:01 CST
|
|
From: CuD Moderators <cudigest@sun.soci.niu.edu>
|
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Subject: File 10--Cu Digest Header Info (unchanged since 25 Apr, 1998)
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------------------------------
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End of Computer Underground Digest #10.28
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************************************
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