From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #1
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-01-04 21:14:33 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Thursday, 5 Jan 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 1
Today's Topics:
Administrivia - Testimony of Willis Ware,
Query - The Plethora of Networks,
Input Devices - Keyboards (5 msgs),
Computer Security - Passwording (2 msgs),
Computers and People - Augmented Global Consciousness
News Article - Doomsday Clock
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 4 Jan 84 13:21:47 EST
From: Charles
Subject: Testimony of Willis Ware
I have received a transcript of testimony of Mr. Willis Ware on
Information Systems, Security and Privacy before a Congressional
Subcommittee that may be of interest to Human-nets readers. The file
containing the testimony is too large for digesting (40,000
characters), so I offer it to human-nets folks for FTPing. For
ARPAnet readers, the file is on RUTGERS, in:
testimony.txt.
To FTP it, you should use login name ANONYMOUS, with any password.
For those who receive the digest on through a redistribution gateway,
you can FTP the file from your gateway. Consult the following table.
Gateway File
-------- ------------------
SU-SCORE TESTIMONY.TXT
OFFICE-3 TESTIMONY.TXT
MIT-OZ SRC:testimony.txt
Login with name Anonymous, any Password. Those who receive digests
via DEC-MARLBORO have already received a copy. Due to some sort of
unfortunate mix-up at PARC-MAXC, those who receive digests via that
path will have a delay being able to FTP the file.
Thanks,
Charles
------------------------------
Date: Wed 28 Dec 83 21:59:55-PST
From: David Rogers
Subject: plethora of networks
Um, excuse me if this has already been asked, but would someone
care to take a stab at the multitude of networks, given a 1-2 line
explanation of who is connected to who, who pays the bills, types of
institutions on it, etc? Or is there some central network "document"
that can be FTP'd? I find myself lost with ARPAnet, MILnet, USEnet,
CSNET, BITNET, UUCP, ... (And is there a simple way to decode those
arf!woof!rowf!etc addresses I keep seeing?)
David Rogers
------------------------------
Date: 28 Dec 1983 22:47:08 PST
From:
Subject: Keyboards ...
This recent talk about qwerty vs dvorak keyboards makes me think
of another kind of keyboards that you-all see every day ...
Have you ever noticed that there are two flavors of numeric only
keyboards: The kind you have on the right side of your terminal
and the kind you have on your phone ?
Apparently the guy who designed the phone keypad way not aware
of the existence of calculators, so he laid out a keypad that
he felt was nice - and it ended up becoming an international
standard for touch-tone telephones.
In my native Denmark, however, they did not get touch-tone tele-
phones until AFTER the japanese pocket calculator revolution,
and a smart guy at the phone company insisted that the new telephones
be in accordance with the numeric keypads people were used to,
so in Denmark, a telephone keypad looks like this:
7 8 9
4 5 6
1 2 3
* 0 #
(When these phones are sold in the US, however, they are
fitted with crazy AT&T keypads).
Lars Poulsen
------------------------------
Date: 29 Dec 1983 05:22-PST
Subject: DVORAK Keyboards
From: CDR Jeff Ackerson (ACKERSON@USC-ISI)
The January 1984 issue of "Digital Review", a relatively new
magazine for DEC microcomputer users, has an article on keyboard
ergonomics in it. Page 121 has a picture of a DVORAK keyboard
layout (mapped to the DEC standard keyboard). You should be able
to find the magazine at a local computer store at $3.95 (if they
won't let you browse).
------------------------------
Date: Thursday, 29 December 1983 10:22 est
From: Chris Jones
Subject: Dvorak keyboards
The following is taken from "New England Business" magazine (sorry,
all I have is a copy which doesn't include date or page numbers).
[begin article]
Farewell to Qwerty
Just when you thought you had finally mastered the standard
typewriter keyboard, what do they do to you? They change the location
of the keys. The standard location of keys is called Qwerty, named
after the first six letters on the keyboard, and dates back to the
19th century. On a Qwerty keyboard, the most frequently struck keys
were spread out. That was designed to purposely slow the operator
down so the arms of the old typewriter wouldn't jam. But there's no
need for that anymore with modern computers. The new keyboard layout,
called the Dvorak after August Dvorak, isn't really new. Dvorak, a
time-motion scientist, copyrighted the design in 1936. It places the
most frequently used keys on the same row ("home row"), greatly
reducing the distance the fingers must travel, and therefoby
increasing speed.
Virginia Russell, president of the Dvorak International
Federation, said the current interest in going Dvorak and the large
number of computer makers that are including Dvorak capability, leads
here to believe conversion will be swift and widespread. The leading
support for conversion, she says, comes from the American National
Standards Institute--those folks who bring us 8-1/2 by 11 paper and
all the other common standards in use. Members include
manufacturers, technical societies, consumer groups and government
agencies. "Every day, I hear about someone new using it," she said.
Harvard University has equipped all of its computer keyboards with the
capability to convert to the Dvorak system. She estimated that there
are now 10,000 people nationwide who use it.
"We're not shoving it down anyone's throat," she said. But the
Dvorak is so much faster, gives the operator so much less fatigue, and
produces so few errors that its use is inevitable, she said. A person
using Dvorak can type 32 times more words on its home row than on
Qwerty's home row (A, S, D, F ...).
Russell estimates that a person who now types 100 words a minute
will increase speed to 120 words a minute. (An average person types
closer to 60 words a minute.) It will take a typist who has converted
to Dvorak about 40 hours of typing to get back to original speed, she
said, and then the improvement comes after that. A beginning typist
using Dvorak, she said, will reach 40 words a minute in 18 hours. The
best way for a typist to convert is to start all over, to start from
scratch as if you never typed before.
[end of article]
There is a diagram which goes with the article which I've attempted to
reproduce below. It gives the layout of the Dvorak keyboard. My copy
is blurred, but it looks like the number keys are in the same place
and have the standard Selectric symbols over them (although I don't
know if Dvorak copyrighted that or not). I can't tell what's to the
right of the zero or to the left of the comma. The diagram has + over
=, ? over /, _ over -, and : over ;.
Dvorak Keyboard layout
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 =
, . P Y F G C R L /
A O E U I D H T N S -
; Q J K X B M W V Z
------------------------------
Date: Thu 29 Dec 83 18:11:28-PST
From: David Rogers
Subject: DVORAK keyboards
For you DEC20 hackers, there is a hidden command in the standard
DEC PTYCON program which is (you guessed it!) DVORAK. It makes the
standard QWERTY keyboard emulate a DVORAK keyboard, so that you can
"talk" to your pseudojob with a pseudo-DVORAK keyboard. I would guess
that this kind of front-end would be simple to write for almost any
computer system... well, ALMOST any....
David
------------------------------
Date: 2 January 1984 02:49 EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: DVORAK Keyboards
You exaggerate the gains made by switching to Dvorak keyboard.
They're impressive, but not anything (on average) like 100%;
more like a constant 25% gain in productivity. The problem is
not learning Dvorak but in going back to qwerty if you have to
alternate.
------------------------------
Date: Thu 29 Dec 83 23:29:23-PST
From: Ken Laws
Subject: Re: Passwords - An alternative
I once read that the inter-character timing profile (suggested by
Paul Bame) was being investigated by the Pentagon; it was reported
to work well. Telegraphers and ham operators can similarly be
identified by their "fists".
-- Ken Laws
------------------------------
Date: 30 December 1983 04:09 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Passwords
Your claim that a 4-letter password is as good as a 9-letter password
is false. Your claim is equivalent to saying all possible passwords
are equally likely so any is as good as any other. But in fact most
people are lazy and pick meaningful and/or short passwords, so
password crackers start with short and/or meaningful passwords when
guessing, because it improves their odds in general, so if you pick a
long meaningless password they are less likely to guess it than if you
pick a short or meaningful one. If everyone else in the world picked
totally random maximum-length passwords, there'd be no advantage to
guessing short or meaningful ones first, in fact there'd be a
disadvantage guessing short ones, so the longer ones would be tried
first, and in random order, when guessing. Then your claim that
4-letter passwords are fine would be valid (providing you never opened
your mouth or fingers that you were using a short password of course;
lest the crackers modify their program to guess short passwords just
for your account). But as things stand now, being lazy like others is
the best way to let a cracker into your account.
------------------------------
Date: 26-Dec-83 16:59 PST
From: Kirk Kelley
Subject: why a self-referential collaboration?
In response to the message proposing an augmented global consciousness
project, someone wanted clarified why the lifetime of the project was
chosen rather than some other topic for simulation. I can think of a
few motivations off the top of my head.
* the focus for the simulation must start somewhere.
* all of the technology on which a tele-collaborated simulation
would depend makes it a nice springboard out to other issues.
* it would be a worthy first goal and test if the collaboration
could justify its own existence.
* pulling itself up by the bootstraps gives the collaboration a
form of self sufficiency (local dependency, really) that
accelerates viable development.
* self reference may be an essential ingredient of consciousness.
Also requested were details on how the simulation would be formed and
run, and how people would interact to refine it. Any ideas?
-- kirk
------------------------------
Date: Mon 2 Jan 84 05:07:41-CST
From: Werner Uhrig
Subject: DOOMSDAY CLOCK at 3 minutes to midnight !!
DOOMSDAY CLOCK NOW 3 TICKS TO HOLOCAUST
--------------------------------------
Washington (AP) - In a gesture of despair and with a prediction that
worse is yet to come in 1984, the editors of the Bulletin of the
Atomic Scientists have advanced the minute hand of their famous
"doomsday clock" as a symbol of humanity's advance toward the nuclear
abyss.
The movement of the hands as they appear on the face of each issue of
the magazine symbolize the editors' evaluation of the danger of
nuclear warfare.
The hands are now fixed at 3 minutes to midnight. They have been
closer to midnight only once in their 37 year history - in 1953, after
the development of the hydrogen bomb by the US and the USSR.
The 1-minute advance Thursday was the first change since 1981, when
the editors cited the development of nuclear weapons designed for
fighting war instead of deterring war as a dangerous step.
At a news conference here, James Cracraft, an expert on the Soviet
Union and a professor of history at the University of Illinois at
Chicago, said, "1983 was a bad year for US-Soviet relations and 1984
promises to be even worse."
He cited the suspension and possible breakdown in all American-Soviet
negotiations and the prospect that progress will be frozen in 1984 by
the imponderables of leadership questions, with a new election in the
US and a succession struggle likely in the Kremlin.
The doomsday clock was created when the magazine was started in 1947
by scientists who had worked on the Manhattan Project, which developed
the atomic bomb.
The hands were then set at seven minutes to midnight. They have been
moved 10 times since, mostly to move closer to midnight.
They were pushed back in 1960, with a thaw in the Cold War; in 1963
with the signing of a partial test ban treaty; in 1969 with the
ratification of the non-proliferation treaty; and, for the last time,
in 1972 with the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty.
The setting is changed in consultation with a committee of 47
sponsors, including 18 Nobel prize winners.
In an editorial, the magazine, which has a circulation of about
25,000, explained the reasoning for advancing the minute hand:
"The point is not simply that discussions have proved difficult, that
negotiations have been slow and protracted, that talks have been
impeded by distrust. It is, rather, that the US and the USSR seem,
for the moment at least, to have given up on the possibility of
serious talks. They are, it appears, at the point of abandoning
altogether the effort to seek accommodation through negotiation."
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #2
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-01-05 02:50:43 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Thursday, 5 Jan 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 2
Today's Topics:
Computers and the Law - Big Computer is Watching You (2 msgs) &
How "High Society" gets its two cents,
Computers and People - Japan and US on New Generation computing &
Augmented Global Consciousness
Computer Security - Passwording (2 msgs),
Computer Networks - Usenet
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon 2 Jan 84 05:08:51-CST
From: Werner Uhrig
Subject: the IRS welcomes you to 1984 ... (a true story)
*** IRS OBTAINS LIST OF INCOMES TO TRACK DOWN TAX EVADERS ***
-------------------------------------------------------------------
(NY Times Service) -- The IRS has obtained a computerized list of the
estimated incomes of 2 million American households and has
begun to test if the list can track down people who fail to
pay their taxed.
IRS is conducting the test despite the refusal of the 3 major
companies that develop such information to give the government
a list, and over the objections of their trade organization,
the Direct Marketing Association.
In the test, a commercially prepared list of 2 million
households in Brooklyn, NY [exclusive Manhattan]; Wisconsin;
northern Ohio; Indiana; and Nevada will be matched against an
IRS list of people who filed income tax returns for 1982.
All those whose names appear on the commercial list but not
the IRS list will be notified that they are subject to a
revenue service inquiry about their tax liability. The
notices will start going out next spring.
If the test identifies people who file no taxes at all, the
service will try to determine if the same technique can be
used to track whose who underpay. The decision on wether to
use the technique nationwide will be made after 1985.
[ BTW - the company which decided to provide the data to the IRS, the
Dunhill Company of Washington, DC, is not a member of the
Direct Marketing Association, so getting the DMA address from
your local BBB and writing them to request removal of your
name from the files of all their members would not have
helped]
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 2 Jan 84 14:39:25 EST
From: Jonathan Dreyer
Subject: Thoughtcrime
FBI BOARD CONSIDERS FILE ON SUSPICIOUS PEOPLE
Associated Press
NEW YORK--An FBI advisory board is considering whether to
recommend expanding a national computerized file to contain
information on people who aren't wanted for crimes but are considered
suspicious, the New Your Times reported yesterday.
Under a proposal under consideration, the National Crime
Information center would have information on whether someone was
suspected of organized crime connections, terrorism or narcotics or
was a "known associate" of a drug trafficker, the Times said.
An unidentified top FBI official told the Times a decision on
the matter, first discussed Oct. 6 by the center's policy board, would
not be made for some time.
The proposed enlargement of the FBI's system would, law
enforcement officials said, improve their ability to fight crime,
track wrongdoing and help protect police against dangerous criminals.
According to the agenda of the October meeting, the new
"investigative applications" would represent "a logical progression"
of the national crime center's efforts.
The Times said the most controversial of 15 such applications
was the proposed use of the FBI computer to track "known associates"
of people who are named in warrants for arrest.
Lee Colwell, executive assistant director of the FBI, said FBI
director William Webster wouldn't act on the proposals until he had
carefully and systematically reviewed them, according to the Times.
The policy board has 28 members--21 state and local
enforcement officials, three prosecutors, two judges, a prison
administrator and a probation officer, the Times said.
(from the Boston Globe, January 2, 1984 (!))
------------------------------
Date: 2 January 1984 02:50 EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: How "High Society" gets its two cents
I can see how High Society can get paid for calls made to their
number, because the customers are paying; but I am told that
Club Magazine also gets paid for calls made to their 800 number
for "Free Phone Sex". I've been unable to figure out how anyone
makes money by giving out the number for "Free Phone Sex".
------------------------------
Date: 2 January 1984 03:07 EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: New Generation computing: Japanese and U.S. views (2 msgs)
Perhaps I have missed your point?
1. Is it your contenton that the United States shold disarm,
or, failing that, simply not provide modern weapons to the armed
forces?
2. Was it your point that the Defense Advanced Redearch Projects
Agency should be engaged in pure research for purely civilian
purposes?
3. Is it your point that defense of Western Civilization is not
"for the good of mankind"? I should have thought that had we
the military power to do so, we might consider it a benefit to
all to dismantle the Gulag, and perhaps guarantee a "freedom of
exodus"; and that would "benefit mankind".
4. Is it your contention that only DARPA is working on advanced
computers in the US?
5. I should have thought that one advantage the Japanese have is
their reliance on the US military for their protection, allowing
them to keep their Self-defense forces comparatively small and
thus inexpensive. Perhaps the US should adopt this policy? Or
is it possible that wealthy nations simply don't need defense?
------------------------------
Date: 4-Jan-84 23:20 PST
From: Kirk Kelley
Subject: Augmented Global Consciousness working definitions
How exactly is a self-referential tele-collaborated simulation to be
modeled? A model for the augmented global consciousness project needs
working definitions. Here are some suggestions.
tele-collaboration, a process of working together from a distance
on a project.
self-referential tele-collaboration, a tele-collaboration on a
model of itself.
For the model, simple difference equations with a time unit of one
year would go pretty far.
model, a set of difference equations designed to compute the values
of a set of variables representing the state of a system for one
unit of time.
simulation, the computation of the equations in a model over time.
change-message, a message that changes the computation in a
tele-collaborated simulation.
life-time (of a tele-collaborated simulation), the number of time
units between the times when the total change-messages are zero.
Collaborators work together from a distance to formulate equations and
compute the life-time of the process. Would such a "consciousness"
ever begin? End?
-- kirk
------------------------------
Date: 30 December 1983 04:20 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Passwords: Is there a better way?
Being required to manually permute whatever the computer throws at you
has several problems. First, it's very painful and prone to error and
frustration. Second, it makes you type slowly so somebody watching you
can see what you're doing, jot it down (with the challange) and figure
out offline your permutation algorithm. Third, it's awful hard to
remember a particular permutation unless it's a trivial one that would
be easy to guess (such as simple rotation or pair-swapping), whereas
even ridiculous passwords like aleminco are relatively easy to
memorize after a little practice. Forth it's considerably harder to
program your microcomputer to log in on your behalf using a
permutation scheme because it must parse the challange-sequence given
by the host in order to figure out what sequence to send. Fifth, just
try documenting this to novice users who never had a math course past
Algebra 1 (haven't the foggiest what a permutation is) and are afraid
of computers!
I think we're stuck with passwords/numbers for direct human
confirmation, or some physical characteristic like fist size when
jammed down on the keyboard or typing speed or fingerprint etc., and
public-key encryption for intelligent-terminal access to host via
packet protocol.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 83 13:36:57 EST
From: Adam Moskowitz
Subject: Passwords: Is there a better way ? (V6 #87)
In Response To: Randy Saunders' message of 23 Dec 1983 01:03 CST
Such a scheme has been discussed for use on such networks as the
ARPA-net and the MILNET. However, the idea was taken, at least on
paper, one step further. Each user would be issued a credit-card-
sized 'encryptor'. When the user logged on, the system would present
him/her with a challenge. The user would then type this challenge
(most likely a 10-12 digit number) into his/her 'encryptor'. The
'encryptor' would permute the challenge via an UNKNOWN algorithm ans
display a reply. The user then types in this reply. Ths system then
permutes the same challenge with the SAME UNKNOWN (except to the
system) algorithm and compares the user's reply to the answer it gets.
This method, if it ever gets implemented, has several advantages: 1)
The user cannot divulge his/her algorithm because s/he DOES NOT KNOW
what it is ! If the user gives away the 'encryptor', s/he now has no
way of gaining access to the system. 2) New 'encryptors' can be
issued when if security is ever breached. Old 'encryptors' then
become obsolete.
I don't know if/when this scheme will ever come to life. I hope I
haven't breached any security restrictions by talking about it, but I
heard it at aa 'open' meeting. It must be OK to talk about it.
AdamM
(adamm @ bbn-unix)
------------------------------
Date: 3 Jan 1984 1618-PST
From: Chuck McManis
Subject: Passwords etc
The state of the art in terminal design is such that what used to be a
small minicomputer is now regularly included in the terminal as
"smarts." These rather sophisticated microcomputers are capable of any
number of physical parameter analysis given the hardware or even
limited voice recognition capabilities. For instance, if one were to
include a 256K buffer (additional 8 chips) and an Analog to Digital
converter (one chip) And a rather simple Fourier transform algorithim,
you could program your terminal to only go "online" when *you* said
"open sesame!". Also a computer could verify your login by asking the
terminal for the results of its fourier analysis (probably 10 to 20
floating point numbers) and compare them to its files. We all know how
tough it is to get a voice interface to recognize the same word from
more than one person now so I don't see how even a good impressionist,
even if he/she new your passphrase could duplicate it. One might
additionally place a ETM type card reader on any RS232 line for access
verification. Simply slip in your card and login as yourself (with
your password) and poof! you must be physically there or your card
wouldn't be there. If you lose you card, cancel it, and you should be
able to do that before anyone who found it had guessed your password.
Both of these systems are implementable today, in the future I think
we can look forward to a simple thumbprint scanner for verification,
this is a bit tougher due to the image processing constraints and
equipment cost restraints.
--Chuck
P.S. Note that in the above Voice suggestion the floating point
numbers could be encrypted as character strings and the
encryption sent. you could still defeat it by trying to guess
the numbers but 20 10 digit numbers with floating decimal point
could be hard to crack.
------------------------------
Date: 3 Jan 1984 1724-PST
From: Chuck McManis
Subject: Usenet messages
Another point to consider on the relative quality of usenet vs.
Arpanet messages might be that a large fraction of the ARPA computers
are based in "think tanks" and colleges. Whereas a usenet computer can
be anything from a research computer at some large company to an IBM
pc in someones home. Giving access to an entirely different sort of
computer user.
--Chuck
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #3
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-01-06 03:05:32 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Friday, 6 Jan 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 3
Today's Topics:
Responce to Query - Networks, Networks Everywhere
Computers and the Law - The IRS welcomes you to 1984
Input Devices - Keyboards
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 84 01:34:37 pst
From: fair%ucbarpa@Berkeley (Erik E. Fair)
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #1
Re: The Plethora of Networks
Since I have been at an ARPANET site for about three years, and a
USENET site for the same amount of time, I think I can comment on some
of the Networks that exist out there. Particularly since Berkeley has
become a gateway for several of them.
ARPANET
Brought to you by the fun folks at DARPA, it was one of the very first
experiments with computer networking, and certainly the first on a
national (and later international) scale. It is centrally controlled
and implicitly routed (i.e. the network figures out how to get from
point a to point b). To join, you have to have a gov't sponsor and it
is for the execution of official gov't business & research. (sure it
is...)
In so far as I am aware, all links are faster than 9.6Kbaud, and a
good number of them are 56Kbaud. All appear to be dedicated. Number of
sites is somewhere between 250 and 300. If you choose to count the
whole internet, things get a little bigger. Anyone have any ideas
about the number of internet sites? Three basic services are offered
by the ARPANET:
FTP File Transfer Program (fetch/send files anywhere)
telnet Interactive access to other hosts on the network
MAIL Electronic Mail
MILNET
Stepchild of the ARPANET (or perhaps goosestepping child?), MILNET is
where the military sites gather to do the same things ARPANET does,
without disruptions caused by networking reseach (i.e. it is a
production version of the ARPANET). It split from the ARPANET in
October of 1983.
CSNET
This is a network funded (initially, although they will be
self-sufficient later on) for the purpose of Computer Science Research
by the National Science Foundation (and probably many others). By
`self-sufficient', I mean that the individual member sites of CSNET
will pay the full cost of central control, administration, and ARPANET
access. Last price I was quoted was $30K/year. Presently seems to be
between 50-100 sites.
I'm a little shaky on what this network has in terms of services, but
here goes: Services seem to be limited to MAIL, but FTP is coming.
Mail is handled with the MMDF software, which operates over the phone.
There are two ARPANET gatways: UDEL-RELAY and RAND-RELAY. These two
sites handle the phone traffic to the rest of the net (??) from the
ARPANET. Network addressing is implicit. To get to a CSNET site from
the ARPANET:
mail person.site@RAND-RELAY (or UDEL-RELAY)
BITNET
This is a network of IBM hosts, and seems to be built along the same
lines as the ARPANET (implicit addressing, dedicated lines, central
control) but not all the sites have the same capabilites. Services
supported: MAIL, and FTP (for those sites that have RSCS). Presently
is about 50-60 sites. Founded by CUNY, after they got IBM to cough up
the software that is used in the IBM internal VNET. I have no idea how
fast it goes. Scope: national. To address someone on the BITNET from
the ARPANET:
mail person%site.BITNET@BERKELEY
BERKELEY's mailer converts this to
G:SITE=PERSON
and it gets sent to UNIX G (in the UCB Computer Center), which in turn
sends it to the IBM 4341 (UCBVMA on the BITNET), and from there it
goes where it's supposed to...
DEC Engineering NET (E-NET)
This is DEC's internal network of engineering machines (now you know
where VMS comes from!). It is centrally controlled, semi-implicitly
routed (they are converting from an explicit routing scheme) and is
composed of somewhere between 2000 and 2100 sites. Primary service
seems to be MAIL, but there is no doubt some form of FTP as well.
Speed seems to be somewhere in the higher ranges (4800+ baud), but I
infer this from speed of mail propagation alone. This network is
international in scope, with several European sites. For ARPAnauts,
you can mail to the E-NET:
mail decwrl!rhea!site!person@BERKELEY
The site `decwrl' talks to `ucbvax' with UUCP. `ucbvax' is the ARPANET
site BERKELEY. The mailer at decwrl converts address syntax to
RHEA::SITE::PERSON
and away it goes...
There is a DEC site on the ARPANET (DEC-MARLBORO) which appears to do
gatewaying duty now and again, but by hand only. This would be an
ideal point to establish a real gateway (hint, hint...)
(and now, for the grand finale... {drum roll please})
UUCP/USENET (ta da!)
These two networks are forever intertwined, and from the ARPANET point
of view, there is little difference between the two. By the nature of
the beast they must be discussed together. UUCP is an acronym for
Unix-to-Unix Copy, a file transfer and remote execution facility which
operates over a direct line (max 9600baud) or over the phone lines
(typically 1200 baud).
Mail is transmitted through the network on a pass it on basis, and at
present, only the mail software knows how to transfer stuff beyond a
site's immediate neighbors. The UUCP network exists because some of my
neighbors talk to some of your neighbors, so through them we can send
mail to each other. The network has no central control, and no one
knows how many sites there are, or how far the network extends. Anyone
can join the network, all it takes is a UNIX system, and another site
willing to talk to you. After four months of traffic analysis, I have
found just over 2000 UUCP sites.
USENET is a subset of the UUCP network. On top of the existing UUCP
software, sites in this network run `netnews', which is a bboard
system, also on a pass it on basis. Imagine a bboard system in which
you post something, and you pass it on to the other USENET sites you
talk to (and so on, and so on, ad nausem), until the whole network has
seen the item you posted. The discussions are separated by topic, and
if you thought that the ARPANET had a wide range mailing lists, the
USENET has currently somewhere between 150-200 active network wide
newsgroups discussing things as esoteric as UNIX bugs to mundane
things like cooking. There are approximately 600 USENET sites covering
the continental US, Canada, Europe, and Australia. There is a USENET
directory kept by Karen Summers-Horton (cbosgd!map@BERKELEY), and it
is posted monthly on the first of the month to net.news.map.
The anarchy of the network is interesting. Among other things, it
means that you must have an educated network community (ever try to
educate people at 600 sites??) and punitive actions are very nearly
impossible on a unilateral scale. It makes path routing difficult,
however. The directory includes information about links that a
particular site has, but it is up to the site to provide and maintain
that information. Since the network is in a constant state of flux,
it is very hard to map the whole thing. Unlike the ARPANET, usually
the best you can do is get a snapshot.
(finis)
Now. Where I err, please correct me. Most of the networks mentioned
get HUMAN-NETS in one form or another, so I expect that corrections
will filter in over the next few days. However, on the whole, I don't
think I have missed anything major.
For the networkingly confused, I hope I have been of some help. This
got just a touch longer than I had anticipated.
Erik E. Fair ucbvax!fair fair@ucb-arpa.ARPA
RHEA::DECWRL::"amd70!dual!fair"
{ucbvax,amd70,zehntel,unisoft,onyx,its}!dual!fair
Dual Systems Corporation, Berkeley, California
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 84 09:01:53 pst
From: unisoft!pertec!bytebug@Berkeley
Subject: the IRS welcomes you to 1984 ... (a true story)
.
.
All those whose names appear on the commercial list but not
the IRS list will be notified that they are subject to a
revenue service inquiry about their tax liability. The
notices will start going out next spring.
.
.
I'm sure that I'm not the only one that always gives a slightly
different name on give-away offers, subscription requests, conference
registrations and the like. That way, I have some idea about who gave
my name to whom and whether or not some important looking envelope is
actually just junk mail.
I also wonder how many other people are entirely truthful on all the
forms we fill out. After all, if I register for a computer conference
as the president of BYTEBUG CONSULTING, I'm certainly going to lie and
tell them my income is at least six figures (else, how could I
possibly afford the VAX/780 that I say I own?).
I'd really be surprised if such lists are worth more than the paper
they're printed on to the IRS. They'll probably pay several hundred
thousands of tax-payer's dollars checking out "leads" their computer
program generates. I'll really be surprised if they come out ahead.
-roger long
pertec computer corp
-richard long
bytebug research foundation
-ralph long
system software servies
.
.
.
------------------------------
Date: Thu 5 Jan 84 09:53:01-PST
From: Ken Laws
Subject: Keyboards ...
In reply to Lars@ACC: The "guy who devised the phone pad" was Bell
Telephone Laboratories. They did human factors studies on the many
numeric keypad arrangements in use on adding machines as well as on
their own designs, then chose the arrangement leading to the fastest
data entry with the fewest errors. These studies were specifically
for telephone use by novices, and might not apply to calculator or
computer applications. I wonder, though, whether the calculator
manufacturers were as careful in designing their own layouts.
On the subject of DVORAK keyboards: I am reprinting below two messages
from the Editor-People discussion on this subject. [I have not
cleared this with the authors: facts or opinions may have changed in
the intervening two years.]
-- Ken Laws
Date: 10 Dec 1981 1928-EST
From: GILBERT at MIT-XX (Ed Gilbert)
Subject: Re: Moran's Comments
I just want to comment on an aside you made in your message to
editor-people.
The QWERTY keyboard wasn't designed to slow people down. I don't have
my reference materials here so I must hedge the details, but here is
what really happened:
In about the late 1870's Glidden and Sholes were working on a
typewriter which would eventually evolve into the popular and
long-lived Remington line. People operated the machine so quickly
that the type bars would jam. They needed an arrangement of the type
bar "basket" in which common sequences of two letters would have those
two letters on opposite sides of the basket. In the most
straightforward design of a manual typewriter this would have a direct
effect on the keyboard layout, but they were interested in the type
basket, not the keyboard. The brother of one of the two men, a high
school principal, determined the arrangement.
I do not consider myself an expert on the history of the typewriter,
but I believe this to be true. The only person I have talked to who
has done a lot of reading on the subject also feels that this is the
correct story.
It would seem that if all other variables were fixed and we only
addressed the issue of whether two letter sequences appeared on the
same or opposite side of the keyboard, then putting them on opposite
sides would allow for faster typing. Other factors, such as which
fingers type which keys, were probably not addressed at the time and
may be the cause of the QWERTY keyboard's being slower than some other
designs.
Sorry for the long note about a minor point, but the myth that Glidden
and Sholes were trying to slow people down is rather widespread and I
thought people might like to hear the true story.
By the way, it appears that touch typing was an invention; it didn't
always exist. Its merits, in fact, were quite vigorously debated.
Ed Gilbert
From: sdcsvax!norman at NPRDC
Date: 24 February 1982 0731-PST (Wednesday)
Subject: qwerty, alphabetic, and dvorak keyboards
Sigh, the Sholes versus Dvorak myth rises again. [...]
I believe Borden [not reprinted -- KIL] is talking about the linotype
keyboard, which uses the "shrdlu" arrangement. The Sholes keyboard
(aka "qwerty") was designed for a typewriter so as to minimize the
jamming of typebars as they moved to the platen. This caused the
placement of frequent pairs as far from one another as possible. In
fact, this SPEEDS typing because typing on alternate hands is faster
than on the same hand (list of references and reprints of papers
available on demand: see, for example Rumelhart & Norman in the next
Cognitive Science). This point wasn't appreciated at the time because
nobody thought of using all ten fingers, and typing without looking at
the keyboard was unheard of; as someone else said, touch typing was a
heroic, unexpected invention (and required a national typing speed
contest to prove that it worked).
There have been hundreds of studies comparing Dvorak arrangements with
Sholes arrangements. Dvorak fans claim massive improvements in speed.
(We have an old movie -- made by Dvorak in mid 1900's that makes
remarkable claims.) However, experiments done by neutral parties tend
to put the improvement around the 5 to 10% range -- not worth the
effort. Card and Moran at Xerox Parc have a computational method of
computing speed that yields numbers in that range and Rumelhart and I
have a full fledged typing simulation model that, when given the
Dvorak keyboard, only speeds up by 5%. As others have pointed out,
you can get a far greater improvement in typing speed by moving the
RETURN key, either to where it can be reached without distorting the
hand (say by the left thumb which our studies show is not used by
typists) or by having automatic RETURNs (as in various text editors).
Kinkead put it this way: elimination of the RETURN key gives a minimum
of 7% improvement in speed and "up to 30% when the original copy is
not properly formatted."
A while ago, I decided that alphabetically arranged keyboards would
surely be better for first time typists, so we did some experiments.
I was wrong. Randomly arranged keyboards and alphabetically arranged
keyboards were equivalent. (Sholes arrangements were better, but that
is probably because everyone has had some exposure to keyboards, even
though we tried to study only non-typists.) On the typing simulation
model, alphabetic keyboards were all slower than Sholes, confirming
the fact that putting frequent pairs on opposite hands speeds up
typing rate. Why wasn't alphabetic better? Because the mental effort
to make use of the alphabetic arrangement is too much -- and most
people don't know the alphabetic that well anyway (how far away -- and
in what direction-- is "p" from "u"?, or even "e" from "i"?).
If you want to improve typing speed, don't tinker with the current key
layout, but do dramatic re-arrangements, as in the new 5 key hebrew
keyboard (by Gopher) or the various chord keyboards suggested by
***Sender closed connection***
=== brl netread error from RUTGERS at Fri Jan 6 05:58:18 ===
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #4
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-01-06 03:26:10 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Friday, 6 Jan 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 4
Today's Topics:
Administrivia - House testimony on MIT-MC,
Responce to Query - Networks, Networks Everywhere,
Computers and the Law - Ma Bell and Privacy,
Computer Security - Voice Recognition Passwording (3 msgs),
Input Devices - Keypads and Dvorak Keyboards (3 msgs),
Computer Networks - Usenet
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 5 January 1984 02:03 EST
From: Christopher C. Stacy
Subject: House testimony
The Willis Ware (on Information Systems, Security and Privacy) and the
Geoff Goodfellow (on Telecommunications Security and Privacy)
Congressional Subcommittee testimony transcriptions are also available
on MIT-MC in the file COMMON;HOUSE WARE and COMMON;HOUSE GEOFF,
respectively.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 84 16:11:36 pst
From: dual!fair@Berkeley
Subject: Two more comments on the DEC E-net
--- BEGIN FORWARDED MESSAGE
>From ucbvax!decwrl!rhea!lipman Thu Jan 5 12:33:42 1984
Date: Thursday, 5 Jan 1984 09:48:41-PST
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #1
To: ucbvax!ucbarpa:fair
Erik,
That was a very useful note and I enjoyed reading it. I can give you
a little more detail on the DEC-Enet.
The DEC-Enet provides services via DECNET to a number of different
operating systems on 3 different machine architectures. The DECSYSTEM
10's and 20's run TOPS-10 and TOPS-20 (nee TENEX). The PDP-11's run
RSX, RSTS, and RT. And of course the VAXes run VMS. Though there are
(a growing number of) VAXes within DEC running UNIX, they do not
support DECNET and are not actually on the DEC-Enet.
All of the above systems provide MAIL service. I am unsure about the
DECNET capabilities of the TOPS-10 operating system, so the rest of
this discussion does not apply to it. All the remaining systems
provide remote terminal (TELNET) and file transfer (FTP) support.
Some number of these systems provide a new "on line DEC Phone Book"
service which looks very promising indeed.
The VAX VMS operating system provides a significant set of additional
capabilities that only operate between VMS systems. There is a PHONE
program that provides the ability to call a user at another site and
hold a conversation. I believe it can handle "conference calls" as
well. A bulletin board like service is available called NOTES. And
there is a very general capability to execute a program at the remote
site and send results back.
Peter
>From ucbvax!decwrl!rhea!lipman Thu Jan 5 12:33:57 1984
From: ucbvax!decwrl!rhea!lipman
Date: Thursday, 5 Jan 1984 09:49:21-PST
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #1
To: ucbvax!ucbarpa:fair
By the way, decwrl has a relatively new CSNET connection and in the
not too distant future we should be providing a direct gateway to the
ARPA and CSNET communities without first using uucp to get to Stanford
or Berkeley.
As I understand it, we are waiting for some software being developed
at Purdue (and possibly Rice?) to allow 4.2 BSD UNIX to send mail
using SMTP on top of TCP/IP out CSNET.
Peter
------------------------------
Date: 5 January 1984 15:03 est
From: TMPLee.DODCSC at MIT-MULTICS
Subject: SocSecNumbers, Ma Bell, and Privacy
For what it's worth to anyone: I had just finished reading Willis'
testimony to Congress when I went to return a used telephone to one of
the AT&T "Phone Centers" today (so I can buy my own and don't have to
rent it.) I had to fill out a monstrous long form, part of which
(yes!) asked for my social security number. I vaguely remember that
that is if not illegal, certainly not recommended practice. I asked
what it was for, and the clerk replied, to guarantee it gets credited
to the right account. (Isn't the phone number -- including area code
-- good enough?) And when I objected, she, (working for AT&T) said I
should call Northwestern Bell (the operating company for our area) --
it appears that Northwestern Bell uses the SSN as the way of tallying
the leasing and long distance charges it handles for AT&T; if not, I
can't think of any reason I would have been answered that way. Funny
thing, though, is that I'm sure I have NEVER told NW Bell my SSN, so I
can't see what they'd correlate it with.
I do know that when the U.S. Government asks for your SSN it is
required to give a reason why and explain what will happen if you
don't give it; I think Minnesota has a similar law, but I can't
remember for sure, but then, I'm not sure either one applies to
private industry.
Something ironic about this all happening because AT&T was busted up
for free enterprise and competition, and yet by asking for the SSN it
is heading in exactly the opposite sort of direction.
Ted
------------------------------
Date: 5 Jan 1984 1015-PST
Subject: voice recognition as password
From: Dave Dyer
Sorry to throw cold water on a good idea, but voice recognition
won't provide security. No one need ever do "impressions"
of you to gain access, because of a little known device
called a tape recorder.
------------------------------
Date: Thu 5 Jan 84 13:59:24-PST
From: Richard Treitel
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #2
Re: voice recognition for login
OK, so what happens when I catch a cold? or when there are a bunch of
people talking in the background while I try to login? This kind of
objection seems to me to apply, more or less, to all "personal
characteristics" that can be used for authentication: what you are
authenticating is the body, not the mind, and either can change
independently of the other.
Gee, I just had a thought. What if DoD develops a system that will
only let you login if it can determine that you are still loyal to the
Alliance (i.e. if you became a Moonie last week, forget it, bud)?
- Richard
------------------------------
Date: 5 January 1984 20:33 EST
From: Andrew Scott Beals
Subject: Passwords etc
Isn't there a problem with analyzing your voice patterns that they
may change, esp when you're sick?
Let's face facts: your computer's secure only when you controll all
access to it.
andy
------------------------------
Date: 5 Jan 1984 14:40:23-EST
From: csin!cjh@CCA-UNIX
Subject: phone vs calculator pads
It has been put to me that the phone pad design mimics the dial
design, in which 0 and 1 are farther apart than any other number pair;
the reasoning behind this being to minimize the chance of misdialing
area codes, in which the middle digit is always 0 or 1. (It is also
argued that most pairs of codes m{0,1}n are geographically far apart,
to minimize the number of confusable pairs people would want to
remember, e.g. relatively few people will want to roughly know the
area codes for Connecticut and Los Angeles.)
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 84 19:27:24 pst
From: decwrl!qubix!msc@Berkeley (Mark Callow)
Subject: Re: Keyboards
The phone keyboard was designed before small electronic calculators
existed. Extensive research went in to its layout. I can't quote any
because I've been away from this area of work for too long. Contrary
to the previous message, it appears to be the person who layed out the
calculator keypad who was unaware of the research done by the phone
companies not vice-versa.
I'm happy to see the current discussion of the Dvorak keyboard.
I'd love to get one for my terminal.
An even more interesting keyboard is the "Maltron" keyboard.
This features a block of keys for each hand and a central group
to be worked by the thumbs. It is not flat but is shaped to
match the way the hand lies. I first saw this described in Time
about 2 years ago.
------------------------------
From: andyb%dartvax@BRL-BMD.ARPA
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 84 22:28:33 est
From: Andy Behrens
Subject: Keyboards ...
The designer of the (U.S.) push-button telephone keyboard didn't just
go ahead and ignore the calculator keyboard. Both keyboard layouts
were tested, and they found that most people made fewer dialing errors
with the "1-2-3 on top" design.
Remember that back then calculators were expensive enough that not
many people owned them. Maybe the phone company assumed that with so
many phones in existence, the calculator makers would change *their*
design.
Doesn't the IBM keypunch have yet another layout? I think the zero is
above the digits.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 84 15:37:46 CST
From: Robert.S.Kelley
Subject: Input devices-- Dvorak and numeric
Re. the Dvorak keyboard-- Although there is still considerable
controversy over its merits (some say the improvement from automatic
carriage returns is greater) there is a considerable body of
literature (and data) on the subject in the field of psychology. We
need to be careful not to reinvent the wheel here. Incidentally, I
know of no data supporting the claim that it is hard to return to
qwerty after learning Dvorak; was that Dr. Pournelle's personal
opinion or does he know something I don't?
On the subject of numeric keypad ordering, the Bell people went to a
lot of trouble in designing their phone layout. As I recollect, they
discovered that even ten-key adding machine operators who expressed a
preference for the lower-numbers-at-the-bottom arrangement,
nonetheless made fewer mistakes with the current arrangement. I don't
have the reference at my fingertips, but I think I could dig it out.
------------------------------
Date: 5 January 1984 20:35 EST
From: Andrew Scott Beals
Subject: Usenet messages
True there are losers in usenetland, but there are just as many per
population out there as there are in here (arpa) ... The population is
just larger, that's all, and there isn't the spectre of DARPA hanging
over everyones head about what you say and have said (sure, a site can
be flushed out, but what generally happens is that sites leave the net
when something ``offensive'' happens).
andy
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #5
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-01-08 03:48:00 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Sunday, 8 Jan 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 5
Today's Topics:
Computer Networks - Networks, Networks, Everywhere (5 msgs),
Input Devices - Dvorak Keyboards &
Keypads (2 msgs)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 06-Jan-1984 1256
From: John Covert
Subject: A bit more info on Digital's ENET
First I'd like to thank the author of the compendium on networks.
And second, I'd like to give a little more information on the Digital
ENET. It is composed of systems running our DECNET software products,
first introduced about nine years ago.
DECNET is much more than a mail network. It is a product built on a
layered network architecture (DNA) with lower, non-programmer
accessible data-link and routing layers, and higher, programmer
accessible, session layers.
It is similar to the ISO model on open systems interconnect. Since it
is older than that model, it does not correspond exactly, but will,
more and more, as time goes by and as the worldwide networks develop.
At the data-link level it can use synchronous or asynchronous lines of
any speed running DDCMP, public network lines running X.25, parallel
links running protocols specific to those devices, and Ethernet.
Using gateway products it can create gateway links into an IBM SNA
network.
At the user accessible layer, it is possible for any program to open a
transparent, full-duplex, channel to any other program on the same or
any other node in the network. Programmers can take advantage of this
"network logical link" to build any application they wish.
Various Digital supported protocols running on logical links are
host-to-host terminal connections, allowing a user at any node to act
as an interactive terminal on any other node, Mail, the Data Access
Protocol, (see next paragraph) and several others.
The DAP protocol is used to copy files, but it is much more than a
file copy protocol. It permits a program on any system to access a
file on any other system as though that file were a local file. In
fact, VMS and RSX using the DAP routines buried in RMS permit a
nodename to be simply a part of a file spec used by any program.
DECNET does a bit more than implicit routing; it does dynamic path
routing. As a result, given sufficient alternate paths, the loss of
an intermediate node does not affect the operation of traffic
currently routing through that node. Dynamic path routing was first
made available in DECNET Phase III, offered for sale almost five years
ago.
For example, since our network has three transatlantic links, a few
months ago, we had a serious failure of the links between
Massachusetts and the remainder of our engineering and marketing
headquarters 30 miles to the north in New Hampshire. But due to the
fact that some of our transatlantic links go into New Hampshire and
others into Maynard, we did not immediately notice the problem.
Things got a bit slower, since we were no longer using several 56Kbps
links but were pushing all traffic through some 9600bps links to the
U.K., down to Geneva, and back.
The reason there occasionally appears to be some implicit routing in
our node strings is that the Phase III version of DECNET had a maximum
of 256 addresses. This restriction has been lifted in Phase IV.
However, as a result of the restriction, it was necessary for us to
partition our network.
Reassigning node numbers will not be complete for several months, and
not all systems will upgrade, so there may be a few systems which
require one intermediate hop from RHEA. Many of these will have
definitions on RHEA making that transparent to the sender (though a
recipient would see the hop). The rest should be directly addressable
from RHEA, whether located in the U.S., Canada, the Caribbean, Europe
(13 countries now), the Middle East, the Far East, or Australia.
(Remember, IBM is the only computer manufacturer larger than Digital.)
/john
------------------------------
Date: Friday, 6 Jan 1984 10:34-PST
Subject: More on CSNET
From: obrien@rand-unix
Compliments to Mr. Fair - an excellent summary article. Would
that Human-Nets had more such.
To expand on CSNET: It is currently funded by the NSF, and
expects to become self-supporting during the next few years, based on
member fees. These fees are:
$ 30,000 - commercial sites
10,000 - government and not-for-profit
5,000 - educational
These fees may be reduced by petitioning for a reduction in
the case of small outfits, and are lower for people who already have a
net connection via Arpanet.
The CSNET membership list as of Dec. 1 shows:
85 Phonenet sites
6 Telenet sites
18 Arpanet sites
4 CSNET-owned hosts
Not all of these sites are operational yet, though most are.
Phonenet sites are served by two Relay machines, which call them up
nightly to exchange mail. Text files may be automatically transferred
using MMDF-based mail-receipt programs, though this is obviously not
the best way to do business. Bandwidth here is limited by the
1200-baud phone lines as well as by the capacities of the Relays.
Mailing-list stuff can be handled OK, but Usenet traffic breaks the
Relays by sheer load.
Telenet sites run TCP/IP on top of X.25 virtual circuits,
using software developed for CSNET at Purdue. Personally I think this
is hot stuff. If your phone bills are $1500/month, you can run
equivalent traffic over Telenet for about $1200/month, last time we
figured it out. And, you get full Internet connectivity and services
into the bargain. Because the drop lines from Telenet to the host are
really only 9600, 4800, or 1200 baud dedicated phone lines,
instantaneous bandwidth is not as good as Arpanet, but it's not bad.
And, you and the rest of the world will be hard-put to tell that
you're not on Arpanet directly, except you don't have to deal with the
DoD. This software really works, and works well.
Arpanet sites run standard Arpanet software - no change.
In addition to simple net connectivity, CSNET brings the
benefits of centralized network management. Basically this means that
if your mail isn't moving, you have experts to scream to, and they
really will work hard to fix the problem. There are other benefits
such as ongoing mail system development, an automatic nameserver, and
so forth.
Management of CSNET has recently been transferred away from
the contractor committees which built the net to a newly-formed
Executive Committee, which is overseeing the move from a research to a
service organization. The two relay machines are moving to BBN - it's
cheaper and easier to run a single computer center and communicate via
WATS lines than to spread out the Relay operations.
------------------------------
Date: 6 Jan 1984 1808-EST
From: John R. Covert
Subject: DECNET and ENET
Just to clarify something... DECNET is the name of a product sold by
Digital which any customer can use to build their own network.
DECNET is used to build Digital's internal network. The internal
network name has been a hotly debated subject (what's in a name?) but
the most commonly used name is the ENET, since the largest internal
use was within Engineering.
Now the whole company is being interconnected, and Engineering Network
is not really an appropriate name. But the E in ENET doesn't
necessarily have to stand for Engineering.
We think it can stand for Everthing, Employee, Everywhere, or whatever
anyone wants it to stand for.
The lack of any serious central control (other than a nodename
registry) makes things like this not really matter.
------------------------------
Date: 6 Jan 84 11:08:50 EST (Fri)
From: Chris Torek
Subject: Re: CSNet
CSNet ARPA relays are currently Rand-Relay and CSNet-Relay (not
UDel-Relay).
Chris
------------------------------
Date: 6 Jan 84 17:53:05 PST (Friday)
From: Jef Poskanzer
Subject: Re: The Plethora of Networks
Here's a network you left out: the XEROX Internet. Most outsiders
tend to overlook the XEROX Internet, for various reasons:
o only a small proportion of the traffic is gatewayed to or from
other networks;
o what little gatewaying there is gets done almost invisibly;
o the name difficulty. (I'm told that XEROX used "Internet" first,
but that doesn't matter much now.)
The XEROX Internet only has about 2000 users, but it is widely
distributed, with users in Europe and Japan.
The mail transport mechanism within the XEROX Internet is called
Grapevine. Grapevine addresses look like ".". If the
registry you're sending to is the one you are in, you can leave it
off, and the address becomes merely "". Registries are
geographic - the two largest are "PA" (Palo Alto), for Northern
California, and "ES" (El Segundo), for Southern California.
To send mail in from the ARPAnet, the address looks like
".@PARC-MAXC". If the registry is PA, you can leave
it off, giving "@PARC-MAXC". This is what I mean by invisible
gatewaying - to outsiders, it looks like all 2000 of us Xeroids
receive our mail on poor little PARC-MAXC. Not so - it's just a
gateway. I think the source of the confusion is that people are used
to explicitly specifying a host for the mail to be delivered to, as
well as a user on that host. Grapevine's mail servers are politely
invisible.
Sending mail out to the ARPAnet is as easy as pi. "ARPA" is just
another registry, so I just say "@.ARPA". Or if I'm
really lazy, I can just say "@", since anything with at
atsign automatically goes to the ARPAnet.
---
Jef
------------------------------
Date: Thursday, 5 Jan 1984 19:32:56-PST
From: Jim Burrows
Subject: Re: Dvorak keybords again (and again)
The following is a re-working of a message sent a few months ago to a
DEC in-house mailing list about the same topic. I have seen a couple
of other messages that get resubmitted again and again as the DVORAK
lengend is recounted.
--------------------------------
It's amazing how legends grow. There are two bits of misinformation in
the discussion of Dvorak keyboards, and one bit of information left
out.
First, the QWERTY (Sholes) keyboard was not the product of reverse
human engineering. Speed of typing was not the problem they were
trying to solve. Rather, they were trying to get keys that were typed
successively and fast to be as far away from each other as possible.
Therefore the layout was designed to seperate common letter pairs so
that the two letters were typed with different hands. Beyond that they
put the letters of the name of the device in the top row. There is no
evidence either that slowing down the rate of typing was the intent of
the design or that it was achieved.
Second, it was not mentioned that in the 50 years since the Dvorak
keyboard was created, no definitive experimental evidence of its
superiority has been established. There are about an equal number of
studies showing small improvements, and showing small degredations of
performance. Most studies have showed no signifigant difference.
However the keyboard layout has become a religious issue, and both
sides cast aspersions on the accuracy of the others tests. An
explanation of why the Dvorak layout doesn't work as well as you would
expect is the designed in pattern of alternating hands. The one thing
that has been demonstrated is that both alphabetically organized and
randomly organized keyboards are much worse than either QWERTY or
Dvorak.
Finally, the assertion that Touchtone (TM) keypads were intentionally
badly laid out is absolutely false. Bell undertook a massive effort to
layout the numeric pad, and produced one that is clearly and
demonstrably better than the adding machine layout used on many
numeric keypads, and to every other numeric layout tested. It is in
fact a classic study, and one of the examples of a company taking
great care to look before they lept.
I doubt I'll ever see the death of these bits of misinformation, but
as an active member of a human engineering research group I feel its
worth a try.
--------------------------------
I find it particularly interesting that the note about the telephone
keypad is appropriate to the Human-nets discussion as well as to the
original.
/s/ Jim Burrows
------------------------------
From: onyx!bob%amd70@BRL-BMD.ARPA
Date: 5 Jan 84 22:56:10 PST (Thu)
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #1
The reason that the Touch Tone phone keyboard is the opposite
from calculators is that on The Touch Tone the keys are 1 - 9
followed by "O" for operator from left to right, top to bottom
the way ordinary citizens read. This was the reasoning of AT&T at
the time. They did consider making the Touch Tone keyboard the
same as business machines such as calculators.
Bob Toxen {ucbvax,decwrl,ihnp4,dual,fortune}!amd70!onyx!bob
Onyx Systems, San Jose CA
------------------------------
Date: 6 Jan 1984 0821-PST
From: SOROKA@USC-ECLC
Subject: telephone vs calculator keyboards
As I recall ...
When push-button telephones first appeared in the US, accountants
asked why they the keyboard differed from that of existing adding
machines. Calculators, which came later, simply took their keyboard
arrangement from that of the adding machine.
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #6
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-01-09 23:59:47 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Tuesday, 10 Jan 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 6
Today's Topics:
Adminstrivia - Testimony of Willis Ware for Xerox folk,
Input Devices - Keyboards &
The Original Question &
DVORAKs,
Computers and the Law - Big Computer is Watching you (2 msgs),
Computer Networks - Networks, Networks, Everywhere (2 msgs),
Computers on TV - Whiz kids
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 5 Jan 84 15:16:25 PST
From: Charles
Subject: Testimony of Willis Ware for Xerox folk
Willis Ware's testimony (announced in a previous digest) is
available for people with access to Parc in
[Ivy]Testimony.Txt
Charles
------------------------------
Date: 7 January 1984 00:12 EST
From: Jacob Moskowitz
Subject: Keyboards
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 84 19:27:24 pst
From: decwrl!qubix!msc at Berkeley (Mark Callow)
To: HUMAN-NETS
The phone keyboard was designed before small electronic
calculators existed.
What about mechanical adding machines ? didn't they have the same
keypad layout as modern calculators ?
------------------------------
Date: 7 January 1984 01:29 est
From: Makey.DODCSC at MIT-MULTICS
Subject: The Keyboard as an Output Device
Thanks to everyone who responded with info on Dvorak keyboards,
and especially to Chris Jones for the layout diagram. Moving back
toward the subject that started all of this (input devices in general
and when/why/how you would use them), Greg Davidson (in Human-Nets,
vol. 6 no. 80) said:
I believe that the question of how to support non-standard
keyboards, such as DSK keyboards and chord keyboards, has a
simple answer: Make a standard interface which is
independent of which one is used. People should be able to
plug their favorite keyboard into any system.
I have a similar answer for the support of various pointing
devices, including mice, tablets with pens, tablets with
pucks, touch screeens and light pens. A standard port on
terminals and workstations should accommodate any such
system, even if something else is built in.
He is basically correct about the need for a standard interface.
But, which standard? Will all input devices have the same interface
or will there be a different one for each type (i.e., keyboard, mouse,
joystick, etc.) of device? The computer industry seems to recognize
the value of standardization so I think it is a question of how and
not whether the standardization will occur.
Just a couple of questions: Is a standardized plug-in interface
enough? For example, how do you interface a one-button mouse to a
system that really wants a three-button mouse? When you plug your own
keyboard with its own arrangement of special function keys into a
system, how do you know which keys do which functions?
I have an interesting solution to this last problem: Have the
design on each key change in real time under host (or local) control
so it always displays its current function. For example, when editing
the function keys would show what editing functions they do, but when
you run the mail program the keys automatically display mailing
functions. If you want to go all out, the alphabetic keys would
normally display lowercase letters, but when you press the "shift"
key, they would all immediately display uppercase letters.
The difficult part of doing this is the per-key displays. LED
arrays or LCDs would work, but I suspect that these would add
significantly to the mass of each key, thus affecting the "feel" of
the keyboard (I don't think I would like it). Some form of visual
projection system, where the top of each key is a tiny rear-projection
screen, could eliminate the key mass problem, but the rest of the
apparatus is likely to be bulky and I'm not sure how well it would
work in high ambient light situations.
Any other ideas?
:: Jeff Makey
------------------------------
Date: 7 January 1984 03:11 EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: DVORAK Keyboards
In response to the inquiry on where I got my figures: they're
hazily recalled from the days when I worked for August Dvorak
back at the University of Washington. He was no longer doing
keyboard studies, but he had never given up, and every now and
then would haul out his studies, movies, and recordings (actual
old records; no tape recorders in the 30's, or if there were, he
didn't have one) of the sounds of people typing (faster under
his keyboard).
The problems of going back to the standard when you
learn Dvorak are reported from personal experience: we had a
Dvorak typer at UW and I worked with it for a while just to see;
I didn't notice a lot of improvement in typings speed, and had a
HELL of a time returning to Qwerty when I decided to give up.
------------------------------
Date: 7 January 1984 02:58 EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: the IRS welcomes you to 1984 ... (a true story)
Wonderful news. In my case there are at least twenty different
names under which I get magazines, junk mail, etc., including
some really unlikely spellings like Dournelle and in one case
Dear Mr. pournelle Photography, you may have won a prize... thnk
of what your neighbors in North Hollywood will think when they
see y ou, Mr. Photography, in a new LeBaron..." (My son had
some business cards printed once listing this as "Pournelle
Photography." I get mail to Dear Dr. PhD, and I once filled out
a consumer survey form for Dr. PhD, listing his income as, as I
recall, "over $50,000"; that ought to get the IRS excited...
Ye gods.
------------------------------
Date: 7 January 1984 19:04 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Thoughtcrime
If a database includes only information that is based on solid
evidence, and continually/recurrently rechecks information cleans up
typograhpical errors that creep in and deletes any data that turns out
not to be correct or which is based solely on opinion rather than
fact, then I don't think we have much to worry about. On the other
hand, if a database isn't cleaned up, if it has garbage that came from
unknown source at unknown time which has never been substantiated or
checked, then it should be easy for the citizenry to flood the
database with so much random cruft that the database becomes obviously
worthless to everyone involved even if there's enough mass-storage to
keep it all.
Well, now I'm probably on the FBI's list as somebody who might
sabotage their database by feeding it more GIGO than it can stomach.
[puns deliberate]
------------------------------
Date: 9 Jan 1984 1311-PST
From: Chuck McManis
Subject: Networks
Of course following such a glowing report on the joys of DECnet by
John Covert I find it necessary to mention that I like decnet between
my RSX and VMS system but I hate trying to use it between my TOPS-20
and either RSX or VMS. Seems the old 2060XE got left off the
distibution list of compatiblity. Are you listening DEC ?
--Chuck
------------------------------
Date: Mon 9 Jan 84 15:52:34-MST
From: Walt
Subject: Yet More Networks
In addition to the networks previously described, there are five
public data networks actively serving the US and more in the works.
The five national PDNs are all common carriers, like Greyhound - that
is, anybody whos pays the fare can use them. They all provide an X.25
interface, which gives a virtual circuit service - there is as yet no
international standard for mail or FTP. All provide a virtual
terminal capability via the X.3/X.29 PAD standards. They all compete
vigorously for business, and I'm sure I'll hear about it immediately
if I have left out anybody's capability. Here (in alphabetical order)
are the five established PDNs:
o ADP Autonet
175 Jackson Plaza
Ann Arbor, MI 48106
(313) 769-6800
Besides the US, has satellite links to London, England and Delft,
The Netherlands. Maximum internal speed is 9600 bps. Nodes are
PDP-11s with KMC-11 front end microprocessors. Internal protocol
was described to me as derivative of the old ARPAnet protocols.
o CompuServe Incorporated
Network Services Division
5000 Arlington Centre Blvd.
P.O. Box 20212
Columbus, OH 43220
(614) 457-8600
Internal speeds to 56k bps. Nodes are PDP-11s with 6809
microprocessor front ends. Internal protocol is DDCMP.
o GTE Telenet Communications Corp.
8229 Boone Boulevard
Vienna, VA 22180
(703) 442-1000
Internal speeds to 56k bps. Nodes are arrays of 6502s in a
redundant, load sharing configuration. Internal protocol
conforms to CCITT Recommendation X.75. Supports automatic
recovery of virtual circuit when a node fails during a call.
Built by some of the folks from BBN who built the ARPAnet
originally. Provides a mail service called Telemail.
o Tymnet, Inc.
2710 Orchard Parkway
San Jose, CA 95134
(408) 946-4900
Internal speeds to 56k bps. Nodes are arrays of "Tymnet Engines"
in a redundant, load sharing configuration. The Tymnet Engine
is a Tymnet-built 32-bit processor derived from the Interdata 732,
re-engineered for extremely high MTBF. Internal protocol is a
unique Tymnet design which repacketizes inside the network and
does flow control at the byte level, like TCP. Supports automatic
recovery of virtual circuit when a node fails during a call.
Provides a mail service called OnTyme.
o Uninet
United Telecom Communications, Inc.
2525 Washington
Kansas City, MO 64108
(816) 221-2444
Internal speeds to 56k bps. Nodes are Modcomp 7830s. Internal
protocol is a Uninet-designed virtual circuit protocol, on top
of HDLC.
In addition there is, of course, the new AT&T offering, NET/1000.
Nodes consist of arrays of VAXen with a Series/I for line handling.
They see the function of their network as storing information, rather
than just forwarding it like the other networks. The internal
protocol is X.25, but they don't support an X.25 user interface! (No,
I don't know why). For further information, call Mr. John M. Finn,
their San Francisco account executive at (415) 452-7292.
Graphic Scanning and Computer Sciences Corp. are in the process of
spinning off their internal networks, as GraphNet and InfoNet
respectively I believe. There will probably be X.25 interfaces, if
they don't exist already.
GE Information Services Company has an internal network called
MARK*NET. There is not as yet an X.25 interface to it.
And, how could I forget, the State of Utah boasts its own Public Data
Network! It is called ComWest and is being spun off by Blue
Cross/Blue Shield of Utah, which needed a good way to get claims data
from places like Panguitch, Utah up to Salt Lake City. The internal
circuits are leased from Mountain Bell (no, they're not barbed wire,
skeptics) and run up to 9600 bps. Nodes are Dynatech Packet
Technology Multi-Switch.25 packet switches, which are based on the Z80
micro. There are several sites besides BC/BS, one of them being the
University of Utah DECSYSTEM-20.
Outside the US, there are public data networks operating in about
forty foreign countries, basically the ones that are industrialized.
We have a user who logs in regularly from Stockholm via the Swedish
PDN <-> Telenet <-> ComWest. He says he gets good response.
Cheers -- Walt
------------------------------
Date: 8 January 1984 00:17 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Whiz kids - remote intrusion into nuclear-war
Subject: scenerio database
Tonight's episode of Whiz Kids is awfully scary, in more ways than
one. Start with some "famous hacker" with nickname/moniker "wrench"
who posts a message on lots of public/school bulletin boards giving
the dialup number and password (a very long pseudo-random-looking one,
I think they've been reading Human-Nets lately), which turns out to be
an NSA computer. Next, when Ritchie succeeds at figuring out how to
get past additional security safeguards, like if you don't precede
each normal character with a hex C2 prefix (mark-parity quotes;
erroneously referred to as a non-ASCII character) it hangs up
instantly, about ten NSA people swarm around his house, swarm into it
right after they shut off the circuit breakers, confiscate *all*
computer equipment and *all* magnetic and non-magnetic media they can
find, and arrest everyone in the room with the computer, arraigning
them as adults because their knowledge of NSA access methods means
they have knowledge of adults... I won't spoil the plot by telling
the surprise of 28 minutes into the program nor the additional
surprise of 41 minutes into the program, but it's almost as scary as
WarGames and more realistic.
Sigh, I can't resist, the bad guys gain control of the whole
communications satelite and microwave network that the telephone
company and TV networks use, and shuts the whole thing down in unison.
You scared? I am. Remember that simple high-school people with
blueboxes made a practice of gaining control of individual central
offices. I think they once shut down a whole section of Los Angeles as
a demonstration several years ago and threatend to shut down all of
California or somesuch, I forget the details, perhaps Lauren can
refresh my memory.
End with the gullability of people, who can be led far astray if they
don't check what people tell to them to find out if it's really the
truth.
I hope this particular episode is shown on reruns soon so lots of
people who missed it this time can see it.
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #7
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-01-10 19:31:51 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Tuesday, 10 Jan 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 6
Today's Topics:
Book Review - "Rise of the Computer State"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 9 Jan 1984 0128-PST
From: Rob-Kling
Subject: Review-Rise of the Computer State
Rise of the Computer State by David Burnham
Published by Random House, New York - 1983.
Review by Rob Kling
Department of Information and Computer Science
University of California, Irvine
(KLING.UCI@RAND-relay)
This book examines the ways that Federal agencies and elected
officials have employed computer-based information systems (CBIS) to
increase their power unfairly. Burnham's main theses are: 1) that
CBIS have often been effective media for extending the surveillance
potential of the host organization; 2) overall, citizens have lost
substantial power in their routine dealings with computer-using
organizations; 3) attempts to regulate the use of CBIS containing
personal records have been frail and largely ineffective relative to
the scale of operations that should be regulated; 4) some
organizations which employ sophisticated CBIS for intelligence, such
as the National Security Agency, are unaccountable to the larger
public.
These theses have a sinister tinge. As we enter 1984, the United
States is far from a police state. However, Burnham fears that the
slow, steady, consistent adoption of new surveillance systems and the
expansion of existing ones is eroding democratic political processes
in the United States. If he is correct, these are arguably the most
important consequences of computerization in the United States.
This is a trade book aimed at the same audience that reads
"Megatrends", "The Third Wave", or "Fifth Generation". Unlike these
highly popular books which are permeated with happy talk about the
social possibilities of widespread computerization, "The Rise of the
Computer State" examines the seamy underside of organizations that
employ CBIS to collect, manipulate, and communicate sensitive data
about all of us.
Burnham, a New York Times reporter, has written this book for a
popular audience. Its strengths lie in Burnham's sensitivity to the
civil liberties issues in practices that might simply appear
"expeditious" and in his eye for graphic detail in explaining how
organizations employ CBIS to make their operations efficient and
"effective."
Burnham examines two themes that link computerization with a
certain kind of organizational power: surveillance of "targeted"
people or groups and opinion polling. In a separate chapter he
examines the National Security Agency which he labels "the ultimate
computer bureaucracy."
Page 2
SURVEILLANCE
Some organizations act under legislative mandates that many
people would label "pro-social". For example, the Bureau of Child
Support of the Los Angeles District Attorney's office uses CBIS to
seize California State tax refunds from certain runaway fathers who
are delinquent in their child support payments. A second group act
within the boundaries of legal, but unduly permissive information
practices. For example, a company called U.D. Registry provides
landlords with histories of disputes with previous landlords,
maintains records which are usually unknown to tenants and does little
to insure that they are treated fairly. A third group of
organizations engage in action that are either illegal or nearly so.
For example, U.S. Army's surveillance of liberal and leftist activists
in the late 1960's, extended well beyond the scope of "national
security." Burnham portrays these activities with sharp detail that
give color to routine practices and their participants.
Burnham is a staunch civil libertarian and sees all social
surveillance as problematic. It is easiest to criticize organizations
like the U.S. Army when they intrude upon political minorities and
thereby threaten First amendment rights. It is also easy to criticize
some of the "holes" in CBIS such as those operated by U.D. Registry,
which are unknown to people on whom records are kept, and who are not
legally obligated to enable people to see their records, correct
errors, or annotate their files case of disputes.
Burnham's criticisms reach much further than identifying the
problems with CBIS employed by the second and third groups of
organizations. He questions the first group as well. Burnham's
questions about organizations and systems for tracking runaway fathers
who leave their children on welfare illustrates of his concerns about
social strategies which depend upon extensive surveillance for
enforcement: 1) will the original target group be slowly enlarged
until it is much larger than originally intended in the enabling
legislation? 2) can the information system be extended by local
officials for surveillance upon "others who fall into disfavor?"
Burnham reports how the scope of these systems has expanded from
locating parents who were avoiding child support payments and whose
children were receiving funds from Federal welfare programs to include
any parent whose (ex)spouse seeks the other parent of their children.
Burnham notes that there are few constitutional limits on the scope of
such an surveillance system. Why not, for example, expand its scope
so that creditors can track down their debtors? Or why not expand it
expand it so that people can locate lost relatives and old friends?
While these "information needs" are less heart wrenching than the
situations of women who turn to public assistance when their
ex-husbands refuse to pay court-mandated child support, they are also
"pro-social." Burnham argues that little prevents surveillance systems
such as this one from being slowly expanded to track ever larger
groups of people than legislative sentiment and a fragile coalition of
legislators who are sympathetic to civil liberties values.
Page 3
Burnham uses this example to illustrate another key feature of
recent surveillance systems: records systems which are set up for
rather narrow purposes of one organization are used by investigators
in another organization. The Parent Locator System, for example, is
not a particular, specialized CBIS. Rather, it is a set of procedures
and arrangements which enable certain investigators to send lists of
"missing parents" to the Internal Revenue Service, the Social Security
Administration, the Defense Department, the Veterans Administration,
and the National Personnel Center. Each of these organizations honors
these requests, searches its CBIS for the current locations of the
"missing parents" and returns the information to the requestors on
magnetic tape.
While many CBIS could be operated as manual systems, these
searches would be prohibitively expensive add-ons with manual record
systems. However, the marginal costs of search are affordable with
computerized record systems. The Parent Locator "System" is one of
many "matching programs" in which public agencies use existing files
to search for deviants. Organizational payroll files have been
"matched" against welfare files to find gainfully employed people who
are committing welfare fraud. State Department of Motor Vehicle files
have been matched with Selective Service files to identify eligible 18
year olds who have not registered for the draft. In each of these
cases, the records of thousands of people who have broken no laws are
matched to find the few that have. Burnham finds the principle
offensive, even though the applications are expedient and have so far
have been aimed at lawbreakers. In his eyes, expediency and
efficiency should not be preeminent values for administrative action.
PRIVACY REGULATIONS
Burnham briefly examines some of the Federal privacy initiatives
of the last decade, including the Privacy Act of 1974, the proposals
of the Privacy Protection Study Commission, and the 1978 Financial
Right to Privacy Act. These laws have provided minimal protections,
and important protections of the Federal Right to Privacy Act have
been undermined in implementation by Federal agencies under Ford,
Carter, and Reagan. Only a few of the 155 recommendations reported by
the Privacy Protection Study Commission in 1977 have been enacted in
law.
Burnham mentions these laws and examines some of their
limitations. However, he doesn't evaluate their potential. Would
many of the problems of CBIS operated by firms like the U.D. Registry
be ameliorated if they were brought under laws like the Fair Credit
Reporting Act? Would civil liberties be better protected if the
remaining recommendations of the Privacy Protection Study Commission
were enacted in law? Unfortunately, Burnham is mute about these
possibilities.
Burnham is strongest in identifying concrete problems. Most
serious there is no permanent institutional counterweight to Federal
agencies when they propose new, more efficient, or enlarged personal
record systems. Agencies such as the FBI, the IRS, or the Social
Page 4
Security Administration can return to Congress every few years with
proposals for massive CBIS which have problematic privacy aspects and
expect that sooner or later, the civil libertarians who restricted
their last proposal will be weaker or pre-occupied with other matters.
POLLING
Burnham examines opinion polling as another form of
organizational intelligence which has been rendered substantially more
efficient and sophisticated by computers. He views opinion polling by
elected officials and organizations which are campaigning for specific
legislation as selective intelligence which places the target public
at an unfair disadvantage. The main problem he sees in market
research in the service of electoral politics is the extent to which
it helps make propaganda less transparent and the public more
manipulable by marketing strategists who target different messages to
different groups. While there is nothing new in political actors
tailoring their appeals to different audiences, Burnham fears that the
modern versions of sophistry are less obvious and consequently far
more successful for those who can afford to employ them.
He also views opinion polls as easily subject to manipulation by
politicians seeking legitimacy or publicity. Polling is not simply a
reporting device. Pollers gain leverage relative to the larger public
since much of the audience for polls will read headlines and short
news items which distort the scientific meaning of a poll by
neglecting to explain the nature of the sample, the detailed
distribution of responses, or the questions asked. Political polling
is not only "information gathering;" it can be a devise for persuading
larger publics about the popularity of one's position.
NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY
In a dramatic chapter, Burnham reports how the National Security
Agency (NSA) has operated under a charter which has remained secret it
was initiated by President Truman in 1952. The NSA specializes in
electronic surveillance. A large fraction of its efforts probably go
to observing military force deployments and strategic resources
worldwide. Burnham reports how the NSA has also illegally
eavesdropped on a significant fraction of international telephone
calls and telex messages which leave the United States.
Burnham reports on the character of specific programs of domestic
surveillance which were illegal. According to Burnham, the NSA
developed files on political dissidents including civil rights
activists, antiwar activists, members of Congress, and ordinary
citizens who were critical of official government policies. While
most of the domestic political surveillance appeared to take place in
the late 1960's through mid-1970's, the shroud of secrecy that
surrounds the NSA makes it difficult to have significant Congressional
oversight of its policies and practices.
During the last 5 years, the NSA has moved to control
cryptographic research in the United States. Recently developed
encryption schemes are based on sophisticated algorithms which require
Page 5
digital circuits for rapid coding and decoding. Some of the new
schemes even allow the code keys to be public, rather than secret. As
more business operations in the United States is computerized,
organizations seek ways to protect the privacy of data such as large
funds transfers. Thus the market for efficient and effective data
encryption devices has expanded beyond the intelligence community to
include financial institutions.
The NSA has recently taken control of this research out of the
hands of the National Science Foundation, even though it has no
publicly documented legal mandate for its action. There are deep
policy questions about whether national security is well served by the
availability of cheap encrypting devices which are effectively
unbreakable. These questions are not being raised in public debates,
nor does Burnham shed much light on them. Rather he simply adopts the
libertarian critique of surveillance. Like other political labels
with strong moral content, it has been abused as a cover for unsavory
actions carried out by government operatives. The term in not wholly
vacuous and Burnham glosses most of the knotty policy issues.
TOWARD A POLICE STATE?
Burnham's theses are loosely fabricated from dramatic examples.
He does not offer explicit hypotheses, strong organizing concepts, and
a way of placing his examples in a context which enables a reader to
understand their overall significance. Examples of bad outcomes can
elicit sympathy for "victims." But systematic information about the
frequency and extent of problems and abuses are necessary to
demonstrate that the overall social setup within which they happen is
badly flawed, corrupt, or perverse. Some of his examples of people
victimized by slips in CBIS and organizational practices suggest that
Kafka has provided better guiding images than Orwell for appreciating
a computer-based, mobile, organizational society.
Burnham has little taste for irony, and explores Orwellian abuse
rather than Kafkaesque happenings. Do the events Burnham describes
indicate that Federal agencies and other large computer users are
pushing the the US along a path of political development that is
leading to a much less democratic form of Federal government?
Unfortunately, Burnham does not describe the changing nature of
Congressional oversight and public accountability sufficiently well to
provide a clear answer to that question. He succeeds in generating
sentiments in favor of this hypothesis by his accumulated cases of
organizational seaminess and occasional abuse. But he relies heavily
upon a reader's distrust of elected officials and large bureaucracies
to help cement his case. He also relies upon general theses about
power, such as Lord Acton's maxim. Unchecked power often corrupts and
organizations are often less willing to be fair to their clients than
efficient and autonomous. But general principles do not make the
particular case since the variations in actual organizational
practices are significant and vast.
One peculiar feature of contemporary police states, such as those
in Eastern Europe and Latin America, is the extent to which they have
relied upon low technologies for extensive social control and even
Page 6
mass terror. Many abusive ruling cliques rely upon neighborhood
informants, secret trials, and mysterious disappearances to maintain
control. They don't need database management systems, teleprocessing,
and spy satellites. Low technology strategies are especially
effective in "small town" societies.
Burnham's implicit argument is that less obtrusive forms of
surveillance and social control can harm the political culture of
liberal democracies. CBIS are attractive to administrators and
politicians because they promise heightened efficiencies and sometimes
enhanced fairness in providing services to large mobile populations.
However, the anecdotes of errors with a human cost and even abuses
which Burnham piles on the reader, illustrate problems but do not make
his case.
Burnham's strongest case is his critique of the NSA's abuses of
authority. Like, the secret Law Enforcement Intelligence Units, much
of the problem with the NSA comes from its shroud of secrecy and
freedom from significant legislative oversight. It's use of
computer-based monitoring systems is incidental to its problematic
place in American political life.
I suspect that one basic issue is accountability of these
agencies to the public through the legislatures. At times this is no
easy task when the administrative agencies can shroud their actions
with the complexities of high technologies. There is a strong case to
be made that in the clashes between branches of government,
administrative agencies have found legal and technological loopholes
to temporarily free themselves from regulatory restraint.
Congressional actions are not always right. But there is an argument
that administrative agencies have been able to exploit computer-based
technologies to shift the balance of governmental power away from
elected officials. This systematic shift of power has been best
documented in the case of local governments. It is likely to be
happening at other governmental levels as well.
COMPUTERS AND POLITICS
Burnham is sensitive to the shifts of power to executive
agencies. But he is at a loss to explain them very well. He misses
the deeper politics of computing. I find a clue to his misperception,
a very common one, in his reference to "the computer's system of
thinking." For Burnham, CBIS are simply highly structured, logical,
possibly hierarchical information processing "tools." He misses the
ways in which CBIS designs often reflect the "systems of thinking" of
those who propose them. CBIS promoters may label their preferences as
"required by computers" to help their case, but they often ignore or
discourage many technical and administrative alternatives.
Many CBIS are usefully viewed as forms of social organization.
Those who oversee them need some ability to appreciate technical
alternatives and also have some substantive expertise in the
organizational functions which have computer support. This dual
expertise is rare, particularly among elected officials at all levels
of government. As a consequence, they have trouble in providing
Page 7
sensible guidance to executive agency staff.
QUALITY OF BURNHAM'S ANALYSIS
I would like to like this book more than I do. I like Burnham's
eye for detail and his relentless questions about the underside of
computer-based surveillance systems. Some new data brokering
organizations start up each year. Each year, many existing
organizations expand the scope and scale of their record keeping.
Laws and administrative practices also change slowly each year. Over
ten year periods, these gradual small scale changes accumulate.
Periodic reviews of these practices are useful. As a consequence of
continuing changes in organizational practices, legal arrangements,
and technology, studies published in the early 1970's such as Westin
and Baker's "Databanks in a Free Society" or James Rules' "Public
Surveillance and Private Lives" have become dated. Both of these
studies pre-date the use of computer matching, and several Federal
privacy initiatives.
Unfortunately, this book is weak in analysis. Even the chapter
headings don't guide the argument. The first three chapters are
labelled "surveillance," "data bases," and "power." However, themes of
power, surveillance, and data bases are strong elements in each of
them. The chapter labelled "power" primarily examines political
polling. This lax labelling of chapters signifies the way that
Burnham eschews tough analysis in favor of easy sentimentalizing.
It should be hard for Burnham, a reporter and hence a kind of
intelligence agent, to find observation, reporting, and persuasion to
be inherently sinister acts. However, Burnham colors his narrative so
that people who administer a CBIS are stigmatized in descriptions such
as "(speaking) in the quiet monotones of many long-time government
employees," or are "slightly Mephistopholean." People who sympathize
with civil libertarian values are portrayed without any frailties.
Burnham is deeply suspicious of pollsters and politicians who
manipulate the public with numbers, but he is very adept at
manipulating his audience with images. These images which equate
personal goodness with political philosophy grossly mislead.
Despite these limitations, "The Rise of the Computer State" is
particularly important because it helps articulate and illustrate
important questions about computing and social power. Unfortunately,
there is no other up-to-date inquiry into organizational surveillance
and high technology.
"The Rise of the Computer State" is an important contribution to
the tiny stream of literature which examines the political dimensions
of computer-based technologies in public life. I hope that many
***Sender closed connection***
=== brl netread error from RUTGERS at Tue Jan 10 22:21:06 ===
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #8
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-01-10 23:34:55 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Wednesday, 11 Jan 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 8
Today's Topics:
Input Devices - Typewriter Keyboards, History and Development,
Computers and the Law - Known Associates,
Computer Security - Passwording,
Computers and People - DOOMSDAY CLOCK
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sat 7 Jan 84 15:13:56-EST
From: Janet Asteroff
Subject: Typewriter Keyboards, History and Development
Since there seems to be some interest in typewriters, keyboards, etc.,
I thought it was time I dig back into my notes and get some documented
information. As a rule, I oppose long messages, so I will try to boil
everything down. Those not interested in this please skip it. Those
interested in it might send mail to me directly. There is a diagram
of the Dvorak keyboard further on, for those who are interested in
seeing the arrangement.
My M.A. essay several years ago was about the typewriter. Decided not
to do it for a dissertation since there were bigger fish to fry. My
focus was mainly on the typewriter and its role in print culture, its
place in social history in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Still, I have done much research on the more technical aspects of the
field, and culled my notes to see what I could contribute to this
discussion.
Historians and other scholars doing research about the past cannot
present "the truth," so I offer some of these research findings for
further exploration. Most scholars of the typewriter, Richard Current
(the only bona fide scholar) Bruce Bliven, and Wilfred Beeching,
present contradictory information on the keyboard, development,
marketing, etc. It is a tough area to research; the primary material
is incomplete, most of it is in Wisconsin (Sholes worked in
Milwaukee/Madison). Richard Current has the best book, The Typewriter
and the Men who Made It--he is a good historian. Bliven's book, That
Wonderful Writing Machine, well, the title speaks to its reliability.
Funded in part by Royal, it is good for little known facts that must
be documented elsewhere. Beeching runs a typewriter museum in England,
and his book, The Century of the Typewriter, is mostly all pictures,
and his information must be documented from other sources. He does
have lots of keyboards however--different languages, arrangements,
etc.
* The Sholes Keyboard and Some General Notes on the Typewriter
There were several different types of keyboards before QWERTY came
into being. Mentioned most was an alphabetic arrangement. The 1873
Sholes only typed in capital letters. The Caligraph, in 1883, had
separate rows of keys for upper and lower--about 8 rows in all. In the
first Sholes model, you could not see the type because of the
arrangement of the platen and basket. According to Current, the
problem was with the way the type bars hung in the basket, but he
offers no further explanation of this. He then goes on to state that
being a printer, Sholes and his partner Densmore arranged the keyboard
in the spirit of the printer's case. Not true, as my research shows.
The job case used in the 1870's was alphabetic. In the 1880's a new
job case came into being, and is used still today (where they still
exist). The principal is frequently used caps and then smaller
letters, i.e., b c d e i s f y and l m n h o p w -- are two of the
rows. So, Current is incorrect that it was modeled on the job case.
Current also continues that Sholes did not find it hard to switch from
an alphabetic arrangement to QWERTY. Then again, he wasn't typing for
20 years. He does point out that they did not study finger movements.
The major consideration was to have all the keyboards ALIKE--for
production, manufacture and sales. They had to standardize the
keyboard. To digress for a minute, the typewriter was not a popular
machine in the 1870's. Remington almost went broke trying to sell it,
and eventually sold their rights to it. Sholes and Densmore also were
continually without funds, and they were not the first to try to
perfect the machine. It was only with the rise of big business in the
1890's (a need), and, a method of permanent inking, that the
typewriter found a considerable market. Hard to believe isn't it?
The typewriter was overshadowed by the telephone--which came out a few
years later.
Beeching presents some information about the alphabetic keyboard
jamming, so, Sholes' brother-in-law, a mathematician, came up with
QWERTY. This is a popular story, but I can't find any real
documentation for it.
So, it would appear that Sholes and Densmore, to solve technical
problems with the basket, as well as to keep the keys moving freely,
adopted the present arrangement. Home row, or second row, three other
rows, including numbers at the top. It has changed slightly, the X and
the Z used to be in different places, and the shift key was added
later. Essentially, the 1873 keyboard is what we have now.
* Dvorak Keyboard (with diagram)
Reference: "Business Week," October 16, 1933.
August Dvorak was a time and motion expert working at the Univ of
Washington and other places. He continued his work in the Navy during
the 1930's.
He first developed his keyboard in 1933, and the Navy used it. Divided
the labor just the opposite of the Sholes model-- 44% left hand 55%
right. The article claims the most frequently letters in the English
language are E T A O S I N R H L D C U. I have read elsewhere claims
that do not agree with this.
The arrangement of the DVORAK keyboard is, top row to bottom row:
bckspace ! 7 5 3 1 9 0 2 4 6 8 tab
? , . P Y F G C R L marel
shftlock A O E U I D H T N S -
shftkey ; Q J K X B M W V Z return
The illustration in Business Week differs from Beeching's slightly,
but the letters are all in the same place.
Another keyboard, just for fun, was the Fitch keyboard, c. 1886
X B M R N G T L P
J W O A E I U K Q
V S D H O Y F C Z
Look at Beeching to get an array of arrangements.
* General Observations
There are lots of interesting topics about the typewriter. One is the
method of inking. The Federal government did not start to use the
machine until the method of inking made permanent copies possible.
The newly-implemented civil service procedures allowed women to enter
government jobs, and they quickly became the typists because less
educated men did not have the proper literacy levels, and men as
educated found better jobs. The development of paper to fit into the
machine. The adding of the carriage return. Sholes 1873 model worked
with a foot tredle, like a sewing machine. What would he have thought
of the Selectric I wonder. Remington added the shift key--Sholes
models was all caps. The Caligraph, and several other models,had
separate keys for upper and lowercase.
Most of these are pretty technical, and deal with the nature of
invention. Our sophisticated analyses of hand-eye movements will
allow us to design better keyboards, although judging from the PCjr,
IBM really blew it in a different direction. I think we will move from
qwerty to programmable keyboards before we see any change in the
qwerty layout for regular crt terminals (not graphics or text
processing terminals perhaps).
My main area of interest has been the the path of social acceptance
and adoption. The resistance of the literati, the quick adoption in
business in the 1890's, the public's weariness, and interest in the
telephone. Much of the history of the role and use of the typewriter
is tied to the spread of literacy through the rise of public
education. Also, it was in competition with photography, phonograph,
etc. All what Daniel Boorstin calls 'the repeatable experience.'
The typewriter was the first personal interest of print culture--it
allowed people to make print themselves--for the first time. It will
be replaced by the computer terminal, so the typewriter is the ONLY
personal instrument of print culture. Combined with later
technologies, like carbon paper (very important--easy duplication),
the mimeograph machine, and much later, Xerography, one person could
be their own newspaper publisher, bookseller, or printer.
All the writers and others (humanist scholars) complaining about
computer print, word processing, etc. would do well to understand that
writing was once rightfully considered, at least by Plato, to be
external to the mind. We do not have the proper apparatuses to be
writers--we need pens and paper. Thought is the primary entity;
language is extension transference, and writing extends that. We have
the physical equipment for speech, but it took millions of years to
develop. Writers and scholars, particularly historian Barbara
Tuchman, who scream to the N Y Times about the death of the book and
writing, and what we computer types are doing to hasten it, are
probably using a typewriter anyway. I hope their keys jam.
I suppose as we move from print to electronic print, just as others
moved from an oral to a written society, or from one based on monastic
manuscripts to printed books, there will be lots of complaints,
yelling and screaming, as people happy with the way things are see
their way of life passing too quickly. Our research is sophisticated,
how well we will do with it is another matter. Transitions are
exciting times--also very difficult, since I suppose that are the
beginning of the revolution.
-- Janet Asteroff
------------------------------
Date: 7 January 1984 19:20 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Thoughtcrime / known associates
If the use of the known-associates database will be to get a list of
persons who may be able to supply evidence then I don't see anything
wrong. Like if Vicki, with whom I danced at folk dance last week, is
accused of dealing drugs, the FBI comes to my place and shows me her
picture and I say "Yeah, she's cute, I met her at folk dane" and the
FBI says "We think she may be dealing drugs" and I say "She seems
normal to me, doesn't talk about drugs or act funny or anything" and
the FTP says "Thank you for your time" and leaves to interview the
other hundred people she dances with or works with or plays tennis
with or whatever.
But if they think because I danced with her and she deal drugs that I
probably deal drugs too, they're off their gourd!!
Probably this database will actually help eliminate guilt by
association. In the past, it was difficult to get a complete list of
associates, maybe you had one or two, so it was easy to pretend the
one or two associates were in fact accomplices in crime, and to
violate those people's civil rights. It wasn't obvious you were being
selective, picking on just those one or two associates you happened to
know about and ignoring hundreds of equally-associative others. But
when the computer spills out five hundred "known associates" of Vicki
the dealer, maybe the FBI will be a little disciminating, bothering
the three or four who were themselves involved in drugs via another
route, and leaving alone the 496 or 497 other associates for which
there's absolutely no drug connection except being an acquaintance of
Vicki the dealer.
Rebuttal welcome.
------------------------------
Date: 7 January 1984 20:20 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Passwords: Is there a better way ? (V6 #87)
To: adamm @ BBN-UNIX
That's a very bad idea. First of all, you have to carry around your
encryptor. That means it can be stolen from you (it's called "mugging"
except in the past it's been cash and credit cards that were stolen,
each of limited value, $30 or whatever you carry plus something like
$50 per credit card if you don't cancel the quickly), and now you
propose that your access code to all your work and private files be
stealable on the street! Second, if you lose it or it gets stolen, you
lose all your computer access until it's replaced.
I propose a different idea. You have such an encryptor box, but all
boxes are the same, you can replace them at Radio Shack if they get
lost or stolen. To activate one, you type a very long passmessage
nobody in a hundred years would ever guess, which gets converted into
a random public-key encryption key. (The passmessage is used to seed a
random number generator which is used to invent new pseudo-random
prime numbers or whatever, so with the same seed you get the same
key.) You can use that set-up plus a short verification key to make it
log you into any of your systems. If somebody steals your box and
can't guess your short verification key in three guesses, it erases
the encryption key, requiring the full passmessage to re-create it.
Meanwhile it scrambles memory with random numbers so the bias in
static RAM that makes it sometimes "remember" after power-off won't
enable an electronics-technician turned thief to read out the last
thing in memory before it was zeroed. Of course for your protection,
whenever you deliberately set your encryptor box aside you
deliberately give it a false verification key (a string of zeroes will
do, unless you were idiot enough to use all-zeroes as your
easy-to-guess verificatin key). Since nobody except you and your box
ever see either the long passmessage or the short verfication key, not
even the computers and modems you use, which see only your public key,
nobody can tap the phone or spy on system databases to reveal your
keys, and unlike the original proposal your box isn't a target for
theft except for its original purchase value (5 dollars? Your leather
or velcro wallet or wristwatch is worth more.)
------------------------------
Date: 7 January 1984 03:15 EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: DOOMSDAY CLOCK at 3 minutes to midnight !!
If talks prevent war, how did Pearl harbor happen?
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #9
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-01-11 20:51:27 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Wednesday, 11 Jan 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 9
Today's Topics:
Computer Security - Account Security,
Computers and the Law - Big Computer is Watching You,
Computer Networks - More Networks,
Input Devices - Keypads (2 msgs) &
Keyboards (2 msgs)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 8 January 1984 23:46 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: HOUSE WARE testamony on c.security
I think it's a fine introduction to the myried problems involved. I
have one complaint, the proposed algorithm for preventing
password-guessing.
If the algorithm is to deactivate the account, requiring personal
presence befor reactivation, anybody with the dialup number and a
listing of account names (without password), easily obtainable from
FINGER or from a survey of electronic mail eminating from that site,
can sabotage the system by deliberately faking a failed-login for
first one account then another etc. so instead of getting work done
everybody is making trips in to reactivate their accounts and try to
explain why penetration of their account was attempted. In fact the
legitimate user is in somewhat of a "guilty until proven innocent"
situation, since there's no real evidence that person mistyped hs
password wrong or gave his acount name (without password) to some
random, yet he is punished (being forced to get dressed and commute
and be subject to harassment by his boss) until he convinces them he
knows nothing about it. -- The followup algorithm of deactivating it
again on second saboteur fake-failed-breakin and forcing the
supervisor to file a report with a higher security official, means the
victimized legitimate user will really be harassed next time!
I propose simply hanging up and updating a failed-login account file
after each 3 incorrect passwords. For direct connection terminals,
hanging up is meaningless. I suggest freezing that particular acount
for all hardwired ports after 3 consecutive incorrect passwords and
freezing that particular hardwired port completely after 3 consecutive
account-freezings, both actions to be permanent until such time as a
security person can investigate that port to verify the dumb terminal
(not a "Ralph" computer that has been brought in) is still connected
to that port. After the situation has been investigated an the port
has been reactivated, a decision can be made whether to have increased
surveilance at that port. Alternatively, a security camera can take an
image and FTP it to the security office whenever any wrong password is
entered, and the office can keep any process all such images after
several such attempts, while discarding any random isolated instances
after a few hours.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 84 11:33:16 EST
From: Stephen Wolff
Subject: [Robert Elton Ma: Thoughtcrime]
To: rem@mit-mc
If a database includes only information that is based on solid
evidence, and continually/recurrently rechecks information,
cleans up typographical errors that creep in and deletes any
data that turn out not to be correct or which are based solely
on opinion rather than fact, then I don't think we have much
to worry about.
I.e.,
"Well, if you're not doing anything wrong, why do you care if
somebody watches everything you do and writes it all down?"
Hmmmmm.......
------------------------------
Date: 10 January 1984 22:40 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: [Robert Elton Ma: Thoughtcrime]
To: steve @ BRL-BMD
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 84 11:33:16 EST
From: Stephen Wolff
"Well, if you're not doing anything wrong, why do you care if
somebody watches everything you do and writes it all down?"
If I commit a crime and am convicted of it, I would expect that fact
to be in the FBI database. I wouldn't expect to be able to claim that
such inclusion is an invasion of my privacy. If I haven't been
convicted of any crime, I should be able to challange any database
entry that claims I have been so convicted. That's what I was getting
at, this legal info is proper business of the FBI, providing it
contains only true&authenticated claims.
When we get into stuff that's my own personal business in the first
place, I agree with your point, the FBI has no business having *any*
of it, regardless of its correctness, except temporarily during
investigation of me for some crime where I'm a suspect. (Like what
time I usually leave home to go to folk dance may be useful in
planning a stakeout.) But after the case is closed, the info should be
flushed from the FBI database.
------------------------------
Date: 9-Jan-84 19:59 PST
From: Kirk Kelley
Subject: Re: the proliferation of networks
Here's an interesting one. The AUGMENT Mail Network consists of about
fifteen large hosts (last count) supporting tens of users each. About
half the hosts are on the Arpanet and all but a few are on Tymnet.
The primary gateway host is called "Office" on the ARPANET. Addresses
are of the form user.org, where user is one of your identifiers and
org is usually a short name for your employer. The org database keeps
track of where users want their mail delivered, among other things.
Addresses with at-signs are assumed to go out to the Arpanet.
Addresses on other mail systems (e.g. OnTyme) are enclosed in curly
braces with the mail system name appended. AUGMENT is publicly
available from the Office Automation Division of Tymshare.
-- kirk
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 6 Jan 84 7:05:17 EST
From: Chuck Kennedy
Subject: IBM 0
To: andyb%dartvax@brl-bmd
Yes, I just checked the IBM model 026 next door and it does indeed
have the 0 above the other digits. Cards, yuck!!!
-Chuck Kennedy
------------------------------
From: dciem!ntt%utzoo@BRL-BMD.ARPA
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 84 09:43:44 est
Subject: Telephone keypad
A point which has not been mentioned is that the telephone keypad is
not only a numeric pad, but also has letters, which are in
alphabetical order. If the rows were permuted, so would be the
alphabet.
Incidentally, the assignment of letters to numbers is not the same
wherever letters are used; I have seen British telephones with O and Q
assigned to 0, whereas in North America M, N, and O are assigned to 6.
Mark Brader
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 84 13:42:58 CDT
From: Doug Monk
Subject: Re: The Keyboard as an OUTPUT device
With 'soft' keyboards ( i.e., programmable keyboards that can
be made to send any given character or sequence of characters when any
given key is hit ) a rapidly approaching possibility, I may be able to
solve a long-standing problem of my own : on a QWERTY keyboard it
*always* takes me at least two tries to type 'change' instead of
'chnage', and 'the' comes out 'teh' a lot. With programmable
keyboards, we might all come up with our own designs, customized for
our own personal idiosyncracies, muscular and tendon faults, and
vocabularies.
Make the keyboards read and store the key design from little
magnetic strips... Hmm, but how to get the imprint on top of the key
to reflect what the key will transmit when hit ? Little LED arrays
that read the key design as well ? Suddenly the keyboard is an OUTPUT
device.
As far as the problem of per-key displays : ANY sort of
intelligent key-cap display is EXPENSIVE, no matter what type of
technology you use. So perhaps the answer is as simple as individual
plastic key-cap overlays. You just keep a set with you and customize
the keyboard after you have programmed it. Of course, this will have
far greater usefulness if every individual is guaranteed his own
keyboard, as just sticking 57 - 80 key caps on is terribly
time-consuming, not to mention hard to remember. Another possible
answer is to have the overlays be joined together so that you just put
it in place over the whole keyboard at once. Of course, this is
predicated on all keyboards being designed exactly alike : the same
number of keys, each key in exactly the same spatial relationship to
every other key, etc. This is one of the things I dislike in typing on
a new machine ; the only key sequences guaranteed are 1234567890,
qwertyuiop, asdfghjkl, and zxcvbnm. The capital letters are of course
the same, but the shifted characters on the numbers are not. To have
to unlearn my speed typing habits of for <"> and
for <'> just because a newly encountered keyboard has a dedicated
<"/'> key is repulsive, especially if I am forced to switch between
the keyboards frequently.
( Another, similar gripe I have is with the ( backspace )
vs. ( delete ) keys. On one computer system I deal with,
deletes backward on the line you are typing, and deletes forward only
if you are on a line already containing characters on both sides,
as in a line editor or full screen editor. Otherwise, just
produces on the screen. On the other computer system,
operates exactly as on the first system ( except it
doesn't even erase the character, it just ignores it ) and
does absolutely nothing. There needs to be a standard meaning for
and that terminal drivers for all types of computer
systems to which to adhere. End of parenthetical statement. )
Having given my practical side a chance to suggest
something cheaper, I now will discuss the technological things
that are more fun.
A rear-screen projection system might be made more feasible by
the use of fiber-optics. It could also theoretically be managed by the
use of a complex mirror and prism system projecting upward from below
and behind each key. For technical reasons, it might be more practical
( there I go again ) to project the key legends on the front side of
the key, rather than the top. On most ordinary keyboards, this is
perfectly possible, but I recall seeing some low-profile keyboards
( by Olivetti I think ) where the front of the key would be too small.
I also agree with your reservations about the usefulness of
such a system in areas with a lot of light. I myself am looking
forward with great anticipation to the reflected light video
terminal. Presumably based on high speed LCD technology, it
would replace the light ( and radiation ) producing CRT with
a flat panel which can be read by reflected light. It could be
made to look like printed paper merely by adjusting the color
of the display and the background, and in fact, just about
any contrast of display and background colors could be arranged,
either by adjusting the display unit itself, or by ordering
your preference from the factory.
The technology of such a display could be what we are looking
for for the key legend displays. Embed a small display of this type
under a durable clear protective cover in the key itself, and feed it
the appropriate signals under the keyboard's microcomputer control.
Voila.
Doug Monk
------------------------------
From: sdcsvax!davidson@Nosc (Greg Davidson)
Date: 10 January 1984 1113-PST (Tuesday)
Reply-to: Greg Davidson
Subject: Re: The Keyboard as an Output Device
To: Makey.DODCSC@MIT-MULTICS
I'm afraid I don't agree with Jeff Makey that standardization for
keyboard interfaces is likely to happen through current industry
practices, though I hope to be proven wrong here. If standardization
does not come, then nontraditional keyboards won't make it as long as
people don't own all their own equipment.
The problem with how many function keys are assumed to be on the mouse
is solved when you realize that programs don't have any business
knowing how a user wants to emit a given function code. A user might
emit codes from function keys mounted on keyboards or mice, by doing a
pendown on a stylus, by striking a two handed chord, or by typing a
sequence of keys with the control/meta/super/hyper shifts down.
A good keyboard/mouse/etc. has locally and remotely programmable keys
to adapt to a given program's needs. A good keyboard interface would
just be a telephone modular jack for a serial line over which one can
send 8 bit bytes. It simply needs to be standard.
Finding the right level of abstraction for pointing devices is much
harder. Leaving off light pens, which need to be built in anyway, my
thought is just to send movement vectors using arbitrary units. The
unit should be adjustable by twiddling something on the device.
Rather than plugging the pointing device into the computer, it might
be better to plug it into the keyboard. Thus, the computer can't tell
whether the user used vector keys or a mouse to send a movement code.
Many programs read up descriptions of the input devices. For example,
in UNIX part of a terminal description is how many function keys
exist, the codes they emit, and what string describes them to the
user. However, there's no need for a user to be constrained by some
programmer's idea of the user's equipment or usage of it. A
programmable keyboard with a mouse plugged into it should be able to
emulate anything intended to point and generate text and function
codes.
-Greg
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #10
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-01-11 23:47:39 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Thursday, 12 Jan 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 10
Today's Topics:
Computers and People - New Generation Computing,
Computers on TV - Whiz Kids (3 msgs)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 10 Jan 1984 1313-PST
From: Ted Shapin
Subject: New Generation Computing
Postal-address: Beckman Instruments, Inc.
Postal-address: 2500 Harbor X-11, Fullerton, CA 92634
Phone: (714)961-3393
I think Ron Newman's quotes on Japan's and the U.S. views on
new generation computing are very much to the point.
Since I haven't seen much discussion in Human-Nets on the subject,
here are some references:
"The Fifth Generation: Artificial Intelligence and Japan's Computer
Challenge to the World", by Edward A. Feigenbaum and Pamela McCorduck,
Addison-Wesley, 1983.
Aside from being written as though it was dictated but never edited,
and as Stewart Brand says having the flavor of "the Japanese are
coming", this book describes the purpose of computer-based expert
systems and the Japanese plan of a huge national effort to develop
them.
Somehow I can't imagine a U.S. government agency telling IBM, Amdahl,
Apple and Apollo that they must send a few of their brightest young
technical people to work on a joint project for three years, which is
essentially what is happening in Japan.
- - -
"The Mind of the Japanese Strategist" by K. Ohmae, McGraw-Hill, 1982.
This book describes how long-range planning can be done and how it was
successful in helping Japan in steel, in auto production and other
areas where Japanese industry is a leader.
- - -
The nearest thing the U.S. has done similar to the 5th generation
project is to set up the Microelectronics and Computer Technology
Corp. with Admiral Bobby Inman (retired) as head. This is a
consortium of 14 computer and semiconductor companies that was formed
to compete head-on with advanced Japanese research. It is privately
funded. If you read the interview with Inman in the May 23, 1983
issue of Computerworld you will see the same emphasis on military
applications even though this is a commercial venture.
Q. "What role, direct or otherwise, will the U.S. government play
in MCC and if there is a role, what should be the government's
return on investment?"
Inman: "First, when you look at the era of great economic growth
in the U.S. in the late '40s and '50s I believe you will find the
impetus was in a very large measure [U.S. Defense Department]
funding of basic research and grants to graduate education,
without strings attached, that played a very major role not only
in finding things that were useful in defense, but in stimulating
tremendous commercial growth.
Much of that was cut back in the '60s. It wasn't cost-
effective as one looked for ways to pay for the cost of VIetnam.
Nobody else moved to fill the gap.
Defense today remains the only single part of the government
that has both the size and the scope to impact across a very
broad range of research in the country. So, I have watched with
interest Defense's effort to refocus on the whole area of
computers and software."
To answer Pournelle's question, of course DARPA is properly
interested in military applications. Unfortunately, all of the
main funding agencies in the U.S. for advanced computer research
have this as their driving interest.
- - -
Infoworld, Jan. 23, 1984, pg. 99 has an interview with Feigenbaum.
Q. Have you seen any signs of change in the federal government's
commitment to high-tech research and development in the areas you
identify in the book as critical?
Feigenbaum: There has been one very dramatic development: the
announcement of DARPA's Strategic Computing initiative. The
Defense Department has, through this project, directly taken on the
challenge of the Japanese Fifth Generation project.
- - -
The Jan. 1984 issue of IEEE Computer has a letter by Ben G.
Matley "And now, a US National computer policy?", pgs. 87-88.
"In 1972, the Japan Computer Usage Development Institue
published 'The Plan for an Informatin Society -- A National
Goal Toward the Year 2000', in which it targeted nine areas for
computer-based societal developments that would call for a $65
billion national investment by 1985. Four tasks in the JCUDI
plan are of particular interest:
- Build an experimental 'Computopolis' city of the future,
complete with computer-controlled transportation systems and
home telematics services for work, education, and
entertainment.
- Build a comprehensive 'think tank' center providing
databases with computer simulation and modeling facilities
to be shared among both government and private researchers.
- Organize a labor redevelopment center for the retraining and
reeducation of older workers.
- Implement a 'Computer Peace Corps' for transferring computer
technology to underdeveloped countries, with the expectation
of peace through improved economic development.
Such ambitious plans for a totally new computer-based society
obviously require equally ambitious plans for the development
of a domestic computer industry. Little wonder, then, that the
first $250 million of the $65 billion investment went to
establishing a domestic Japanese chip industry. Of the nine
areas targeted for computer-based developments under the
JUCDI's plan, significant progress had been made in eight areas
by 1980."
The letter goes on to mention the response of the French government
and then Matley says:
"Clearly the 'computer problems' in our society now are not apt
to yield to solutions from entrepreneurships in Silicon Valley
nor venture capital along the HiTech Hiway North of Boston. As
aviation passed from Kitty Hawk to the government's NASA, so
computing has passed from Shockley Semiconductor to sovereign
nations."
A statement I agree with!
------------------------------
Date: 10 Jan 1984 0109-PST
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #6
From: Ian H. Merritt
I was somewhat less impressed with the Whiz Kids episode on which REM
was commenting. I don't often watch TV at all; much less that
particular program, but I happened to be switching channels and
stumbled upon it, and out of curiousity, I watched perhaps the last
3/4 of it.
As for shutting down the entire communications network in the US, I
won't say it couldn't happen; just that it is \\HIGHLY UNLIKELY//, and
I am indeed aware of what happened here in LA. Furthermore, the story
portrayed a disjoint sequence of events presumably leading up to the
climax of the naive 'Ritchie' (was it?) breaking into what? A payroll
system somewhere in or near the NSA? (I suspect that his account and
password from the first break-in wouldn't have worked in anything
else; his 'magic' is certainly nothing special. Presumably, the NSA
would better protect its secure information than it would its payroll
systems).
In the first place, it is not clear what purpose was served by
shutting down communications networks in the story, despite the
unlikelihood of any single entity being able to simultaneously shut
down the combined resources of every one of the probably more than 100
communications carriers in the United States.
Let's assume for a moment that the kid could indeed get into some
top-secret NSA system. It would seem to me that it would take the
'bad guys' a considerable amount of time to figure out what was where
within this system, or even how to use it. Time, in which the NSA
would undoubtedly discover the unauthorized access and plug the hole.
Incidentally, if someone managed to knock off the whole country's
communications systems, just how long do you think it would take
before personnel at the many administration centers around the country
NOTICED?
I think we indeed need to be prepared and aware of potential problems,
but running off and getting SCARED every time some Hollywood TV
producers decide to portray a catastrophe accomplishes nothing.
Some historical (hysterical?) notes on the LA 'demonstration'. In
fact, the entire 'operation' involved a single, albeit important
switching system: the Los Angeles 4E tandem, which provides
connections to and from the long-distance network. Actually, less
substantial shutdowns occurred many times on local switches and TSPS
systems over the years. This (I speak of the more significant event,
which has, in fact, occurred several times for different reasons, and
with varying consequences, but I think REM was referring to a specific
time), as with most such manipulations was in fact not so much an act
of any technical wizardry, as one of great command of the Bureaucracy.
Somebody telephoned the central office, pretending to be Western
Electric personnel (the names of whom were most likely researched
before-hand), and instructed the craftperson at the console to install
a software patch that was itself a fairly serious bug, not, I might
add, of the phone-freak's own invention. Then, as soon as the
situation that invoked the module into which this patch had been
installed was invoked, all hell broke loose.
On other occasions, such simple methods as exercising an existing bug
in the standard software has been known to bring down an office, often
quite unintentionally.
In your efforts to not underestimate the power of a high-school kid,
you often seem to overestimate that power and danger. We needn't be
alarmists about these things; as long as we learn from mistakes,
irrespective of who makes them.
<>IHM<>
------------------------------
Date: 11 January 1984 01:24 EST
From: Andrew Scott Beals
Subject: Whiz kids - remote intrusion into nuclear-war
To: REM @ MIT-MC
Date: 01/10/84 22:56:37
From: REM at MIT-MC
To: BANDY
Re: Whiz kids - remote intrusion into nuclear-war
Maybe some NSA person wanted to work at home and figured a
20-character pseudo-random password would be enough?
Nah, you're right, anything that crucial hooked to the phone
network for home work would use encrypted packet protocol, not
just a password.
Anything even pretending to be secure hooked into a public network
wouldn't use just >one< password .. I've talked to someone who had to
access a `top secret' computer to get something off for him to work
on... He had to go thru a long (>20 challenges/reply) sequence, and if
he got one of the wrong, or took too much time, it wouldn't boot you
off then ... it would boot you off when you were done with the
challenges ... then it'd just hang up the phone ... no "Invalid
response" or anything like that, just hang up the phone. (the file
that he got was a speech that he was supposed to work on ... I don't
think it was of a very highly secret nature)
Anyone who keeps crucial data on a system hooked to a public network
had better be more paranoid than our friends in the NSA, as there is
likely to be someone just a little bit more cleverer than the person
who made your system "secure" trying to crack your system.
andy
ps. Down with ascii! Why don't we all use funny encrypting terminals?
(for `secure' applications)
------------------------------
Date: 11 January 1984 05:04 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Whiz Kids 1/7 (re: human-nets msg) / show mostly
Subject: realistic, but
To: urban @ RAND-UNIX
From: trw-unix!trwspp!urban@Berkeley (Mike Urban)
Date: Tuesday, 10 Jan 1984 08:34-PST
Reply-To: Mike Urban
1) "Wrench" is smart enough to come up with a 20-letter
random password for the NSA system, but (faced with hangup
when a zero-parity character is typed) isn't smart enough
to try 256 different characters. Sure.
Haven't you ever had a blind spot? You work on a computer-program bug
or a math problem or a puzzle (crossword, numerical, whatever) for
hours and can't figure out what's wrong or what the solution is; then
you ask somebody else and the answer turns out to be trivial and
you're embarrased you didn't think of it? Although the writers
probably goofed, they accidently invented the way things really are!
2) THE BIGGEST LOGIC GAFFE: Richie is convinced that he's
dealing with the real NSA because they take him into a big
room (that the bad guys managed to COVERTLY stock with
20-foot high situation monitors, etc. Right.) AND SHOW HIM
RALF, WHICH THE FBI HAD CONFISCATED. When Richie looks at
the room and breathes "Ralf!", it sure had ME convinced...
When he entered that room, he already knew (incorrectly) the fellow
was an NSA agent, because the fellow showed him his ID the day before
when they first met.
3) The NSA knows about "Wrench"(es) but the FBI doesn't.
Possible, but a little weird...?
This is based on the true premise that the National Security Agency
(NSA) is even more secretive than the FBI and CIA combined. Of course
they know things the FBI doesn't know, especially if it deals with
National Security.
5) The NSA gurus know someone's penetrating their system
(early scene in computer facility). They don't change the
password. Makes sense if "wrench" is really an NSA
audition, preposterous otherwise.
Yeah, you're right, I doubt the NSA would be so dumb. Almost anybody
in industry or government could be that dumb (anybody dumb not to
change the system-maintenance password after accepting delivery on a
brand new computer system; to whit a certain hospital and a certain
labratory near Livermore), but not the NSA!
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #11
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-01-16 03:22:06 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Sunday, 15 Jan 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 11
Today's Topics:
Queries - Dvorak Documentation &
Silicon Gulch &
Terminal Elbow,
Computers and the Law - Thoughtcrime / known associates (2 msgs),
Input Devices - Toddler keyboard &
Programmable keyboards (2 msgs),
Computer Networks - Telex and Teletex,
Computers and People - Global Consciousness Model
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 8 Jan 84 19:52:24 PST (Sunday)
Subject: Re: Dvorak keybords again (and again)
From: Bruce Hamilton
Would someone PLEASE supply this list with citations into the
human-factors literature re: Dvorak vs. Sholes keyboards, instead of
hearsay?
--Bruce
------------------------------
Date: 13-Jan-84 00:52 PST
From: testing
Subject: Silicon Gulch
Could someone tell me where the "gulch" is? Thanks, --Bi<<
------------------------------
Date: 14-Jan-84 20:23 PST
From: William Daul - Tymshare Inc. Cupertino CA
Subject: Am I the only one?
I have been developing VERY sore elbows. I think it is due to
terminal usage. Anyone others suffer from it...anyone have any clever
ways of dealing with it...outside of changing professions, having my
arms amputated, a perpetual anesthetic, bandaging my elbows or
meditation? Thanks, --Bi<<
------------------------------
To: REM@MIT-MC
Date: 11 January 1984 05:32 EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: Thoughtcrime / known associates
Your scenario is reasonable, but the way police tend to think,
it's more:
Someone deals drugs; they find it out; watch them; and if you
spend a lot of time associating with their known dealer, they
begin to watch you too. This isn't necessarily an evil
practice; it's about the only way they could get evidence.
I'm not myself sure we ought to try to keep people from
taking drugs; it uses a lot of police resources, and puts a very
great deal of money into illegal activities, when otherwise the
stuff would cost less and could be taxed.
Ah, well. but I do tend to think of it as evolution in
action.
------------------------------
To: Robert Elton Maas
Date: Wed, 11 Jan 84 13:08 EST
From: MJackson.Wbst@PARC-MAXC.ARPA
Subject: Re: Thoughtcrime / known associates
The database expansion being considered is rather ambitious:
Under a proposal under consideration, the National Crime
Information Center would have information on whether someone
was suspected of organized crime connections, terrorism or
narcotics or was a "known associate" of a drug trafficker, the
Times said.
Note that the NCIC is rather more than the "local" resource your
hypothetical case envisions. According to the NYT News Summary (Jan.
1, 1984):
The computer system is now used mainly to advise police
officers that an individual has been named in an arrest
warrant in another state.
The implication is that when the police apprehend someone for a minor
crime, they run that individual through the NCIC to check for "wants
and warrants." Are you comfortable with the thought that in future
they may run them for "wants, warrants, suspicious associates, and
terroristic or narcotized appearance"?
Frankly, I'm not particularly happy even with your scenario. When the
police are investigating a specific crime they now have to go around
talking to people, asking "Who was friends with Bob the Terrorist?"
and "Who did Ralph the Junkie room with at MIT?" This is not a casual
act--it requires effort, and more important it is subject to challenge
("Why, what's he supposed to have done?"), so that it is unlikely to
be widespread without justification. Casual tracking of *everyone's*
associations, as a matter of course, is not a legitimate police
function, in my view. Besides, what if it turns out you are one of
the few of Vicki's known associates who happens to have associated
with Sue, another suspected dealer (that folk dance club is a real
den. . .).
Incidentally, on what evidence was Vicki, "accused of dealing drugs",
convicted of being "Vicki the dealer" between the beginning of your
message and the end?
Mark
------------------------------
Date: 11-Jan-1984 0826
To: rhea!usc-eclc!telecom@Shasta
From: (John Covert)
Subject: As long as we're on keyboards; here is the keyboard used in
Subject: France
The following is the new DEC standard French keyboard, which should
correspond to the most common keyboards in France. All French type-
writers will have the letters in the same layout as shown. Note that
A, Z, Q, W, and M are moved from the positions the English QWERTY
keyboard uses. The French speaking parts of Canada use the QWERTY
keyboard with a few dead keys and only c cedilla and e acute directly
on the keyboard.
The key with the tilde and grave accent is a "dead" key, used for
combination with the next character (to generate those symbols
without a combined letter, the key must be pressed twice. Likewise
with the diaresis/circumflex key, though a stand-alone diaresis may
not be generated.
Since I doubt that you have a terminal which would represent the char-
acter codes of the DEC multinational set, I won't send those codes to
you. The letters will be represented by the base letter followed by
the mark. The section sign (under the 6) and the degree sign (over
the right parenthesis) will be represented as s and o.
The keyboard can be switched between normal mode and data processing
mode. In data processing mode, the section sign and e accent grave
go away and are replaced with left and right square bracket, and the
u accent grave goes away and is replaced with backslash.
Any codes not on the keyboard can be created using either the two dead
keys or the compose key followed by a two character sequence. In
France, the upper case versions of the accented letters must be
created with compose.
Standard French typewriters would correspond to this keyboard without
the compose (only the dead keys), without data processing mode, and
without the */$ and @/# key.
In France, you shift to get the numbers; the symbols are in the base
position.
~ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 o _ DEL
` & e' " ' ( s e` ! c, a` ) -
TAB A Z E R T Y U I O P .. *
^ $
CT LO Q S D F G H J K L M % @
RL CK u` #
SH > W X C V B N ? . / + SHI
FT < , ; : = FT
Compose S P A C E
------------------------------
Date: 11-Jan-84 22:10 PST
From: Kirk Kelley
Subject: Toddler keyboard translation
When Shannon was two she loved to type her name on the 'puter. It is
extremely laborious to write legibly with a pencil at that age. But
is it moral to ingrain QUERTY into the mind of a two year old? Since
it is easy with AUGMENT to make an arbitrary character mapping from
one set to another, and then change the key caps correspondingly, I
decided to design an alphabeticly ordered keyboard. Unfortunately the
alphabetical order does not map at all directly into a typeable
spread, so I ended up fudging alot. Luckily Shannon likes fudge.
This is the best I could do. It is in alphabetical order, but you
have to find the sequence. It has the nice effect of giving the
vowels to the left hand for quick two-handed alternation with the
consonents. I dont use it myself. Too hard to unlearn QUERTY.
; :\A B C D , - 1 2 3
TAB Z Y\E F G H / + 4 5 6
CAPS X W\I J K L M N 7 8 9 RETURN
SHIFT V U\O P Q R S T . 0 SHIFT
-- kirk
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 12 Jan 84 01:46:39 CST
From: Scott Comer
Subject: Programmable keyboards...
It seems to me that we are moving in the direction of defining a
terminal keyboard and other input devices to be user supplied, like
calculators, favorite pens, etc. With a standard connector on
terminals (like the phone jack suggested by Greg), it would be a
simple matter for me to carry my favorite keyboard around with me, and
my mouse, light pen, etc, should plug into it.
Of course, that still leaves display technology in the realm of "what
you find is what you must use", and making the local system understand
what your keyboard is sending is left up to you.
Scott
------------------------------
Date: 12 Jan 1984 1518-EST
From: Wang Zeep
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #10
It would appear that the solution to everything concerning keyboard
layouts, portable computers and encryption would be a standardized
system for slaving portables to host computers which would allow for
encryption, etc. This way wou would walk around with your favorite
style keyboard, with your encryption setup, etc. Terminals would
evolve into big monitors with hookups for your portable to provide
intelligence. Funky gadgets like mice, trackballs, etc. would be
supported by your computer, not the terminal.
To some extent, this is already happening: Xerox's 1810 and Toshiba's
t100 portables both hook onto stationary computers and then serve as
smart keyboards.
Now all we need is a good distributed editor which takes advantage of
all the capabilities of a portable.
wz
------------------------------
Date: 11-Jan-1984 1532
From: (John Covert)
Subject: Telex and Teletex
Telex will soon be passe if Teletex catches on. Teletex is a
new service similar to Telex but which operates at significantly
higher data rates (Telex is 50 bps asynch; Teletex is 2400 bps
synch) and using a much larger character set.
Sending Teletex messages is much less expensive than Telex (for
example, from the U.S. to Germany compare MCI Mail's Telex mini-ounce
(400 characters) at $1.82 with a Teletex full page (8 1/2 x 11 or
DIN A4) for $1.00).
But the equipment is more expensive, and it may be (I'm not sure)
part of the requirement that the equipment have the full character
set defined in the CCITT recommendation for Teletex service which
includes the alphabets of all the European languages and a large
number of special characters.
I've asked for more details on the service in the U.S. Western
Union is the carrier which is providing the service today. There
are very few machines in service, though several contracts are in
effect waiting for installation.
All Telex terminals are reachable from any Teletex terminal, and
vice versa. I've communicated with a Teletex terminal located in
Germany from MCI Mail. Of course, since MCI Mail is considered
Telex, all the nice upper/lower case available on both MCI Mail
and Teletex disappears in the converter.
Last week I received the following statistics on the status of
Teletex in Germany:
Relatively shortly after the W-German Teletex Service has been
implemented by the DBP the number of network termination points
(NTP's) reached 3335 Ttx connections.
The growth rate within 2 months (Aug. to Oct.83) was 12%. The
highest connection density we will find in Munich with 502 NTP's
and Frankfurt with 375 NTP's. Above statistics are from Oct.83
and are representing DBP figures.
The list of DBP approved Ttx equipment is growing too. DBP informed
me that presently 35 different Ttx terminals or stations are permitted
for connection to the Teletex Service (General Connection Licenses
only; trial licenses are excluded). The above number reflects at
least 24 different manufacturers.
------------------------------
Date: 12-Jan-84 16:22 PST
From: Kirk Kelley
Subject: time increment for global consciousness model
This refers to the working definitions in V7 #2 for the augmented
global consciousness project.
From: Robert Elton Maas
I think one year is too coarse a step in a model of self-referent
network communications. An awful lot of bootstrapping can be done
in a month, after which previous extrapolations are invalid. ...
I agree that one year is too coarse. Unfortunately, the most
available (for incorporation) existing world models use one year
increments. Also, changing from a year to a month multiplies by
twelve the total simulation time for one run. We may not have CRAYs
at our disposal.
On the other hand, retrofiting the model to a shorter time increment
may not be trivial at a later time. Ideally we would be able to start
short and get long as the simulation gets further into the future, but
wouldn't that too much encumber expressing the relations as equations?
-- kirk
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #12
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-01-17 01:44:36 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Tuesday, 17 Jan 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 12
Today's Topics:
Query - E-COM mail,
Response to Query - Terminal Elbow,
Computer Security - Telephone Circuit Security,
Computers and the Law - Cracker's-Eye View &
SSN Information Proposal,
Input Devices - Keyboards (3 msgs),
Computers and People - Augmented Global Consciousness
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 84 07:59 MST
From: Kubicar.Multics@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA (Mike Kubicar)
Subject: E-COM mail
Reply-to: Kubicar@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Does anyone know anything about the post office's E-COM mail? I
noticed an ad in Byte which allowed you to use this service from your
personal computer (if you bought the somewhat expensive software
package). How would I go about rolling my own?
Mike Kubicar
Kubicar @ MIT-Multics
------------------------------
Date: Monday, 16 Jan 1984 12:57:17-PST
From: decwrl!rhea!glivet!zurko@Shasta
Subject: sore elbows
DEC human factors folks have done some research on keyboard
characteristics and suggest 1) The distance from desktop to the middle
of the key cap surface at the home row shouldn't be over 30 mm (1.18
in). If yours is higher, work up a palm rest to counteract that with
about the same slope, etc. as the keyboard. 2) The recommended slope
of the keyboard is max 15 degrees, and min 5 degrees. For folks that
use the new DEC VT200 series terminals (they're the kind that come
with the various PCs DEC puts out), use those little black plastic
legs! They're designed to give you the right height, slope, etc.
Mez
------------------------------
Date: 16 Jan 1984 2229-PST
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #6
From: Ian H. Merritt
Thanks for the description of the phone company CO or
tandem carrier shutdown. Hmmm, accepting a patch from a
random voice on the phone claiming to be so and so is
rather dangerous! I wonder whether every system
operator is immune to that now, or if the word still
needs to be passed around some more?
I'm afraid your latter speculation that the word still needs to be
passed around is more correct. In Los Angeles, sufficient abuse has
occured that the telephone company has grown wiser and made it much
more difficult for telephone vandalism to take place. It is still
possible, although it requires more ingenuity. Most other areas,
however, are substantially more vulnerable, since the word has
typicaly not spread very far out of the LA area.
Many computer system operators have not been exposed to these abuses,
and may not make the wisest decisions in such situations. Again, the
LA area has been the target of much of this kind of vandalism,
although it has been more widespread than the telephone problems.
Many sites have no official policy for dealing with a voice on the
telephone claiming to be 'so-and-so', and instructing the operator to
do something with a computer. I highly recommend such a policy for
all computer centers utilizing operator services.
A good policy which can significantly improve the security of a site
is to always require a call-back number before executing any
instructions given over the telephone. This, however, is not
fool-proof, and a second consultation is advised to determine the
validity of these instructions.
<>IHM<>
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 16 Jan 84 08:58:51 pst
From: John Foderaro (on an h19-u)
Subject: computer breakin
Those of you who remember last summer's computer breakins by Ron
Austin and the interesting description of tracking him down by Brian
Reid (published on various bboards) may be interested in reading the
article in the January issue of 'California' magazine. It describes
the incident from the point of view of Austin (and Poulsen, the other
kid involved). I think the article is too sympathetic to Austin, and
breaking in in general. The way I measure this is to ask myself, "If
I were a teenager just learning about computers, then after reading
this article would I be more or less likely to try breakins myself?".
I feel that this article would encourage me to try breakins.
Its conclusion:
"As to the fourteen counts of ``malicious access'', Ron has pleaded
not guilty, contending that the spirit in which the deads were
committed was not really malevolent. As he points out, he could
have wreaked untold havoc all across the Arpanet, and he didn't"
By this same argument, if I break into a house and steal things, I
shouldn't be charged because I could have killed the occupants, but
didn't.
- john foderaro
------------------------------
Date: 14 January 1984 01:15 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Review-Rise of the Computer State
I propose the following law: Once a year, any maintainer of a database
that contains information on people indexed by social security number
must inform each person so indexed (except those whose records haven't
been modified since the last notification) of the existance of such
records and of the means for examining them, either directly by
sending mail or telephoning them, or indirectly by passing the list of
SSNs to another database maintainer who promises (by sworn affidavit)
to inform the people, again either directly or indirectly. Most
database maintainers would pool their notifications to reduce
overhead, but private databases which don't want "big brother" to
know, just the individual persons to know, may opt for direct
notification, and of course the place where the buck stops will
directly notify on behalf of the whole consortium that feeds into it.
Debate on my proposal?
Right now there's no way to find out all the places that have data on
me, although if I happen to accidently find out one place I have
thelegal right to ask to see that data. But finding out who has data
about me is rather like guessing a password, you have to ask a lot of
people at random if they have data on you before you have a hit.
But would pooling of lists of SSNs tend to excite pooling of the data
itself? Maybe if we then had the right to examine the data and force
the deletion of incorrect and none-of-your-business data, we'd win
more than we'd lose? As it is now we can't even find out if the data
exists and if so where it is kept, and so we can't really inspect it
or correct it.
------------------------------
Date: 12 January 1984 1449-cst
From: Paul Stachour
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #9 , Doug Monk, Keyboard ...
Date: Tue, 10 Jan 84 13:42:58 CDT
From: Doug Monk
Subject: Re: The Keyboard as an OUTPUT device
... and 'the' comes out 'teh' a lot. With programmable
keyboards, we might all come up with our own designs, customized for
our own personal idiosyncracies, muscular and tendon faults, and
vocabularies. ...
One of my friends, who uses Multics EMACS in almost
exclusively, has bound the end-of-word keys (like space, ...) to
look for the sequence 'teh' preceding the space and change it to
'the'. He says that's been quite helpful to him. ...Paul
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 13 Jan 84 11:46 MST
From: "Charles Spitzer"@HIS-PHOENIX-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: Re: Keyboard as an OUTPUT device
Reply-to: Spitzer%pco@CISL-SERVICE-MULTICS.ARPA
This has gotten out of hand, with people thinking up all these neat
whiz-bang goodies.
Re: Changing keycaps under micro control: If someone gave me a
keyboard where the letters got shuffled around or changed from under
me while I was using it, I'd through it out the window! I can't
imagine anything less "user-friendly", and I don't know about anyone
else but I very infrequently look at the keyboard, being a
touch-typist. How many "computer professionals" do you know who
aren't (or who aren't very fast with only a few fingers)? I'd bet
they would be in the minority. This might be marginally useful for
function keys, but even then they should be able to display much more
than is possible to display on a keycap.
Re: Having personal overlays: Where would you put them? On the
keyboards I've used, there is no room between the keys for any kind of
overlay.
Re: Mirrors or display devices in front or back of the keys: Where do
you get the room for these? There is a standard for keyboards in
Europe, and it calls for a very flat keyboard (I've seen some
Norwegian keyboards where the key is only about 1/8 inch high with
very short travel). Yes, I know that there are existing terminals
that do use the front of the keys (Tektronix APL/ASCII keyboards come
to mind). How many people who have actually used them find them
usable? I find it bothersome in the highest degree to move my hands
away from the keyboard to hunt for a key, as I don't often use the APL
set.
Charlie Spitzer
------------------------------
Date: 15 Jan 1984 02:13:15-EST
From: ima!inmet!tower@CCA-UNIX
Subject: The Keyboard as an Output Device
The submission in V 7 # 6 by Makey.DODCSC at MIT-MULTICS spoke of
having the keyboard display the current function each key had. This
reminded me of a keyboard described in a sci-fi story of a few years
back. The keyboard was a 3-D space above the typing surface, with the
areas designated holographically, and there being some (undescribed)
method for sensing the position of the fingers. The nifty part was
that the system guru type was dynamically changing the keyboard as she
worked to get the exact functionality she wanted (BTW she was
attempting to break into a machine, and it killed her a few mintutes
later). Can't remember the title or author. Apologies.
-len tower harpo!inmet!tower Cambridge, MA
------------------------------
Date: 12-Jan-84 16:28 PST
From: Kirk Kelley
Subject: simulation for decision analysis vs prediction
This refers to the augmented global consciousness project (V6 #83, V7
#1 and #2).
From: Robert Elton Maas
I don't see how the behaviour of a communications/conferencing
network can be predicted more than about one step ahead, thus the
model must run in real time with respect to the system (itself)
it's modeling, making the exercise rather moot. Maybe I don't
understand the mode of your proposed self-modeling.
I agree with your premise and the last sentence. I think "prediction"
is too hard a word to use on the results of a long-term simulation in
the current state of the art. Instead, what I imagine is a decision
analysis. Given (1) all of the project's best justified guesses about
what interrelationships might hold true (and might appear) in the
future, and (2) alternatives which the project could help decide;
determine which alternatives most significantly affect the simulated
total lifetime of the project. It would NOT be trying to predict the
future, just augmenting the ability of humans to account for a
multitude of justified relationships when deciding between
alternatives. And in the process, focusing and structuring research
on what ever appears to be the most significant problems.
-- kirk
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #15
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-01-25 22:08:08 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Thursday, 26 Jan 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 15
Today's Topics:
Response to Query - (nf),
Computers and the Law - Malicious Access (4 msgs),
Computer Security - Re: Discouraging Password Guessing (2 msgs),
Computers and the Media - "hacker": Somebody Gets it Right,
Computers and People - Telecollaboration Model,
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 24 January 1984 01:50 EST
From: Andrew Scott Beals
Subject: "(nf)" at end of subjects of messages
To: decwrl!rhea!elsie!insinga @ SU-SHASTA
This (nf) at the end of subjects of messages means "Notesfiles" ...
Notesfiles is a system that is used for reading and composing
messagaes sent on usenet.
It has been rumored on net.jokes (a jokes newsgroup, of course) that
the "(nf)" means "not funny". :-)
andy
------------------------------
Date: 24 January 1984 05:04 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: rude / malicious / illegal
To: Reynolds @ RAND-UNIX
Why should our society care more about the rights
of computers with modems on telephone lines than about people with
audio units on phone lines?
This is just a guess. A computer with modem is vulnerable in the same
way as a child or mentally-retarded individual and needs special
protection. I think if you have a 3-yr-old child and some stranger
keeps calling up your 3-yr-old and commanding him to do things like
unlock your door or throw your wallet in the fireplace or stick your
jewlry in a bag out by the curb, and your nieve 3-yr-old believes it's
"daddy" telling him to do these things so he obeys, and despite your
attempts to get this caller to stop calling your 3-yr-old he keeps
calling and you suffer financial loss because of it... You get the
idea? Surely you'd want that caller charged with some crime?
Now just imagine you run a business in your home, and this fellow on
the phone impersonating "daddy" is getting your kid to give out
business secrets and make changes in the accounting books to the point
of transferring thousands of dollars of money into the caller's
account which the caller then withdraws in cash before you notice
what's going on... That should be a felony (grand theft or whatever),
shouldn't it?
Computers are even more adept than a child at playing havoc with your
business if a random caller manages to impersonate somebody with
priviledged access to your "books" and start modifying them.
------------------------------
Date: Tuesday, 24 January 1984, 13:47-PST
From: Reynolds at RAND-UNIX
Subject: rude / malicious / illegal
To: Robert Elton Maas
Date: 24 January 1984 05:04 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
From: Reynolds
... Why should our society care more about the rights of
computers with modems on telephone lines than about people
with audio units on phone lines? ...
This is just a guess. A computer with modem is vulnerable in the
same way as a child or mentally-retarded individual and needs
special protection. I think if you have a 3-yr-old child and some
stranger keeps calling up your 3-yr-old and commanding him to do
things like unlock your door or throw your wallet in the fireplace
or ... Now just imagine you run a business in your home, and this
fellow on the phone impersonating "daddy" is getting your kid to
give out business secrets and make changes in the accounting books
...
I think you are setting up a "straw man". You postulate a kid who
understands how to answer the phone and carry on a conversation with a
stranger but does not understand that he/she should not unlock the
door for strangers. I would make darn sure that my 3-year-old or my
retarded friend or my stupid computer either:
(1) knew how to intelligently deal with all phone calls
(2) knew how to spot and ignore "questionable" calls
(3) did not have access to a telephone line
My origninal point about crackers and computers is that if you answer
the phone, you have to take some responsibility for dealing with the
call. We cannot simply make it a crime to call into a computer. On
the other hand, it is obviously a crime to damage someone's property,
it doesn't matter if you did it by calling in on a modem or by aerial
bombardment. If the people who run computer centers are going to both
allow remote logins AND store valuable information on the computers,
they had better make darn sure that they trust their login security
protocols. I think such a facility manager has a pretty weak case if
they go crying to the FBI after a penetration which was allowed
because they didn't "lock the door". If you think this puts an unfair
burden on the system adminstrator, ask the police. They will laugh at
you just like they laughed at me the time my apartment was
burglerized. Its a long story but the gist of it was that the "door
was not locked". To paraphrase the cop: "... ha ha ha, what a jerk
you are, ho ho ho ..."
-c
------------------------------
Date: 24 Jan 1984 2003-EST
From: John R. Covert
Cc: reynolds at RAND-UNIX, pourne at MIT-MC
Subject: "Rights" of people and computers
I agree that our society should care as much about the rights of
people as about the "rights" of computers. However, I don't agree
that the difference is audio vs. data; I suggest that it is the type
of access. There should be no difference between a phone conversation
and a data conversation.
In regards to the following discussion:
Date: Friday, 20 January 1984, 15:00-PST
From: Reynolds at RAND-UNIX
Subject: rude / malicious / illegal
To: Jerry E. Pournelle
I think that is that double standard that bothers me. When
some jerk (with whom I want no contact) calls at my home
phone, it is just "rude". When the same jerk calls into the
modem on my computer it becomes "malicious", it is illegal,
and I can probably get the FBI to hassle the guy. Why should
our society care more about the rights of computers with
modems on telephone lines than about people with audio units
on phone lines?
Consider the following: (this is a restatement of my philosophy on
access which I have stated in the past)
Someone you don't know calls your home phone and says, "I understand
you are an expert on xyz, and I'd like to learn more about xyz from
you," and continues to engage you in a conversation. Though you may
consider this rude, if you continue the conversation, you are
permitting the access. If you inform the caller that you don't want
to talk to him, and he goes away, fine. If he continues to call you,
that is harrassment.
But if he calls you and claims to be someone he is not in order to get
you to continue the conversation, that is impersonation, and
potentially fraud if he gains any benefits from it.
Likewise some random person calls your computer and says (using the
command language of the system) "Can I have a demo, do you allow
tourists, guests, unamed users" or at least does not misrepresent
himself.
If the system allows the login and allows the access to proceed, then
the caller has done nothing wrong.
If the system informs the caller that no guest access is allowed and
the caller goes away, then there is still nothing wrong. However,
repeated calls are harrassment. If the caller claims to be someone he
is not (by hacking for passwords belonging to authorized system users)
then this is impersonation. And if the caller succeeds in logging in
and gains any benefit (the use of a computer system is a marketable
commodity) then this is fraud.
/john
------------------------------
Date: Tuesday, 24 January 1984, 21:09-PST
From: Reynolds at RAND-UNIX
Subject: "Rights" of people and computers
To: John R. Covert
Cc: Reynolds at RAND-UNIX, Pourne at MIT-MC
Date: 24 Jan 1984 2003-EST
From: John R. Covert
I agree that our society should care as much about the rights of
people as about the "rights" of computers. However, I don't agree
that the difference is audio vs. data; I suggest that it is the
type of access. There should be no difference between a phone
conversation and a data conversation.
Yes, I agree with you on all points. The discussion in the rest of
your message is well thought out and crisply stated. I did not mean
that the law should treat audio or data communications differently.
Rather I was pointing out that public reaction to recent system
crackings DID seem to make that distinction, and that that was wrong.
That is, I think the tendency in our society today is to under-react
to abuse of people's home phones and to over-react to abuse of a
computer's dial-in lines.
-c
------------------------------
Date: 24 January 1984 02:02 EST
From: Andrew Scott Beals
Subject: A simple technique to discourage password guessing
To: HAGAN.Upenn-1100 @ RAND-RELAY
Ahh, but this simple technique can cause moby headaches for the users
of a system -- if I get a list of >all< the users of a system (let's
say, the equivalent of /etc/passwd), and then set my program loose on
all of those names, trying 10 times each (overnight (2^10secs is 17
minutes - an acceptible figure)), then noone will be able to login
within a `reasonable' amount of time to the system and the security
system will get flushed.
Now, if one id (say, root) doesn't have this scheme enforced for it,
the crackers will probably find out about it and shoot for breaking
that account.
andy
ps. True, you may not have broken >into< the system, but you have
prevented people from using it, which may be more satisfying to a
cracker -- esp when you haven't done any `permanent' damage.
pps. If you make it so that the delay time gets reset to 1 second
every time the cracker hangs up the phone, no problem -- an autodialer
is standard equipment these days for crackers.
ppps. It would seem to me that the current generation of crackers are
`Junior High School Hackers (to the extent that they pirate fairly
well)' who were given modems by their parents for some obscure reason
or another.
------------------------------
Date: 24 January 1984 05:14 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: A simple technique to discourage password guessing??
To: HAGAN.Upenn-1100 @ RAND-RELAY
Doubling the time before the failed password can be retried is a nice
idea, but it has a fatal flaw. Suppose the smart intruder gets wind of
this method, after all it should be obvious that it's taking longer
and longer to respond and careful timing should reveal the doubling
algorithm. So the intruder programs his computer to double the time
then rdial and try again etc. Only the intruder knows when this
process of doubling started and hence when the next valid time to try
will be, thus has an immense advantage over the legitimate user in
logging in. The legitimate user is permanently locked out while the
intruder can toy with the account forever. Of course the intruder
can't actually get in unless the password can be gussed in a
reasonable number of tries, but he can sabotage the whole system by
doing this hack on every account, interleaving all the retries. In
fact the doubling works to his advantage because the longer he has
toyed with each account the longer he can inactivate it with just a
single fake retry, so eventually he can inactivate the whole system
with just one fake retry per day at such random times nobody can
predict his call and set up to trace it.
We must find security systems that not only prevent intruders from
gaining access, but also prevent intruders from preventing access by
legitimate users, in fact in most cases the latter is more important.
------------------------------
Date: 25 Jan 84 1309 PST
From: Robert Maas
Subject: "hacker" - Horay for As The World Turns
A couple minutes ago on the soap opera "As The World Turns", Craig was
intently working on a computer given to him as a gift a few weeks ago,
and when his wife Betsy came in she remarked that he was really taking
to the terminal and he replied something to the effect that he was
becoming a hacker! I.e. the original correct AI-jargon definition of
"hacker" as a compulsive computer-wizard was used, instead of the new
media-newspeak definition as electronic intruder.
------------------------------
Date: 24 January 1984 02:54 EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: simulation for decision analysis vs prediction
To: KIRK.TYM @ OFFICE-2
how many megatons was Tamboura?
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #17
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-02-08 21:48:29 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Thursday, 9 Feb 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 17
Today's Topics:
Queries - Denying Access to Computers &
The "World" of Computer Science &
The Wolfe Computer Exam,
Response to Query - Silicon Gulch Gazette,
Computers and the Law - Notification of Database Entry (2 msgs),
Computer Security - Access Criteria,
Computers in the Media - Other uses of the name "WORLDNet",
Computers and People - Telecollaborated Simulation
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 30 Jan 1984 0032-EST
From: Greg Skinner
Subject: Denying access to computers
Does a legal precedent exist for denying someone access to a computer?
For example, say a computer facility is in the habit of granting guest
users accounts on their machine on a person-to-person basis, in other
words, they can deny certain persons accounts if they so desire. Is
the facility acting legally? May the person who is being denied the
account sue the facility for a violation of civil rights?
You may respond to me in person or via this newsgroup.
--greg
Gds@XX (ARPA)
{decvax!genrad, ihnp4, eagle!mit-vax}!mit-eddie!gds (UUCP)
------------------------------
Date: 30 Jan 1984 0044-EST
From: Greg Skinner
Subject: the "world" of computer science
I had a discussion with a friend of mine about the world of computer
science. I described it as a "world" in the sense that it has
everything the outside world has (media, politics, religion of a sort,
art, etc.) plus a degree of romanticism, fantasy, etc. I elaborated
on that aspect of computer science by giving examples of the language
of a computer hacker (grokking the monitor, moby code),
descriptiveness (having a magic program that guns people), and its
relationship to other works of sf and fantasy (many computer systems
model themselves after Lord of the Rings, The Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy, The Wizard of Oz, etc. in their host and/or device
nomenclature).
If you're not sure what I'm getting at, what I'm trying to do is
solicit your opinions on whether or not the world of computer science
is in fact a world within a world, or if it is a fantasy world, or
both, or neither. I'd appreciate serious responses to this (although
humorous ones won't be unwelcome) as I may use your ideas
(anonymously, of course) in my argument.
--greg
Gds@XX (ARPA)
{decvax!genrad, ihnp4, eagle!mit-vax}!mit-eddie!gds (UUCP)
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 1 Feb 84 01:46:12 CST
From: Stan Barber
Subject: wolfe computer exam
I need to find out about the Wolfe Computer Competency Exam. It is
produeced by the Wolfe Computer Testing Co in New Jersey. If anyone
has heard about it, I would appreciate your comments and help in
locating any research or resources concerning this exam (or similiar).
Thanks
Stan Barber
Department of Psychology
Rice University
Houston TX
sob@rice (arapnet,csnet)
sob.rice@rand-relay (broken arpa mailers)
...!{parsec,lbl-csam}!rice!sob (uucp)
BBS:(713) 660-9252 (Bulletin Board)
------------------------------
Date: 30-Jan-84 10:41 PST
From: Kirk Kelley
Subject: Silicon Gulch Gazette
The name of the advertising newspaper Jim Warren put out for the
original West Coast Computer Faires, and sundry related projects down
in Silicon Valley, was called the Silicon Gultch Gazette. That may be
because it came from his rustic home up in the Santa Cruz mountains.
-- kirk
------------------------------
Date: Wednesday, 1 Feb 1984 13:56-PST
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest, various ones
From: willis@Rand-Unix (Willis_Ware)
In HUMNETS (vol. 7 # 12), the following (partial) message appeared
from R. E. Maas.
Date: 14 January 1984 01:15 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Review-Rise of the Computer State
I propose the following law: Once a year, any maintainer of a
database that contains information on people indexed by social
security number must inform each person so indexed (except those
whose records haven't been modified since the last notification)
of the existance of such records and of the means for examining
them, either directly by sending mail or telephoning them, or
indirectly by passing the list of SSNs to another database
maintainer who promises (by sworn affidavit) to inform the people,
again either directly or indirectly. Most database maintainers
would pool their notifications to reduce overhead, but private
databases which don't want "big brother" to know, just the
individual persons to know, may opt for direct notification, and
of course the place where the buck stops will directly notify on
behalf of the whole consortium that feeds into it.
I'd like to offer the following comments. The idea of notifying all
entrants in a database has been around a long time. It was first
talked about during the early 70s in the deliberations of the
Secretary's (HEW) Special Advisory Committee on Automated Personal
Data Systems; this was the group whose report formed the intellectual
foundation for the Federal Privacy Act of 1974. Later the Privacy
Protection Study Commission, chartered by the Privacy Act and working
during 1975-77, also considered it. While the idea is appealing on
the surface, the big problems would be the practical ones, notably the
cost of preparing and mailing the notices plus the difficulty of
making a strong positive cost-benefit argument.
Consider two of the largest databases at the Federal level: the Social
Security Administration and the IRS; both of them are indexed by SSN.
Most entries in each will change each year; SSA will make payments and
receive deductions and the IRS will receive tax returns. The
population of the country is now about 225 million, so there is
probably 125 million or more taxpayers and a correspondingly large
number of individuals who contribute to or receive funds from the SSA.
Even if these two agencies combined their notices, a mailing or any
other process of notification would be a massive undertaking.
Furthermore data processing installations in the government generally
do not enjoy the most recent state-of-art; for the most part they will
not have the level of technical sophistication that most readers of
HUMNETS would automatically expect. Thus, for many Federal databases
(also organized by SSN), the system would not be able to ascertain
which records had been changed during the year. To add another
practical problem -- the address-of-record may very well be different
from one database to the next; the amount of address-change activity
is surprisingly large and in many cases, differing addresses are used
for legitimate but legal purpose. So, combining notification across
agencies would not necessarily work well. And one more difficulty:
identification of individuals is not consistent across databases; this
is one of the better unplanned but effective protections against
computer matching of files. It would also inhibit the combining of
notifications from several sources.
Whatever one thinks about the Postal Service, many mailings of large
size would be a non-trivial additional burden. The only such large
mailing that comes to mind is the annual IRS outpouring of tax forms
to all taxpayers but these are mailed from the many regional
processing centers that IRS has. Nonetheless, the example is the
existance proof that it can be done -- at least once per year by the
USPS.
The private sector pales when such suggestions are made to it. The
position generally is that the cost of such notifications is not
warranted by the threat to people nor the expected benefit to be
received.
It is dreadfully easy in a forum like HUMNETS to assume that the views
of its participants are a proper representation of the views of the
country. No way!! We who read this Digest are a minority group, and
even if one adds all the others who are likely to be well informed and
to have sound opinions on privacy matters, it is still a minority
group and by no means a cross-section of the country. For the most
part, most recipients of such notifications would be disinterested and
could care less about whatever they revealed. It is for reasons such
as this that it is so hard to create an advocacy position for privacy
issues of various kinds.
The basic point is sound though; one does not have a good mechanism
for knowing where records about him exist or what they contain. It's a
hit and miss proposition and even individuals who are well informed
and adroit in tracking down things will occasionally be startled to
uncover a new and unexpected collection of data.
Willis H. Ware
Rand Corporation
------------------------------
Date: Fri 3 Feb 84 10:38:40-PST
From: Richard Treitel
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #16
To: dehn@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
In repsonse to Dehn's questions:
How do you feel about the fact that at this very moment my
computer has your name in it, together with several other
facts about you? How am I supposed to go about showing my
legal right to keep it? WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?
If I can't keep information about other people in my computer,
what can I keep?
That depends on what the other facts about me are! If they include,
for example, my checking account balance, then I am quite annoyed. If
they only include facts which I have made public myself, or which are
an inevitable result of my use of this system, then fine.
I don't think you should have any legal right to keep information
about me other than that which I have chosen to make available. Of
course, I can't do anything about it at the moment; that is what I
would like to see changed.
This may surprise you, but I don't keep files of information about
other people in my computer; I keep programs, output data, drafts of
papers, and so on. However, I've got no objection to your keeping
information about other people, provided they consent to this, or
indeed about me, within certain limits. I'm willing to be reasonable
(??!?) about data which are not too personal.
Information stored in your head does not worry me nearly so much as
information on a machine, because it is not (yet) the case that N
million people can tap into your head and read the data at high speed
-- and you probably can't sort and index it the way a machine could,
mapping from (say) my driver's license number to my mailing address in
a millisecond (unless I was the only person in your database ...).
- Richard
------------------------------
Date: Wednesday, 1 Feb 1984 13:56-PST
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest, various ones
From: willis@Rand-Unix (Willis_Ware)
Two people have commented in recent issues of HUMNETS [e.g., v 7 #9]
that suspending a login attempt after several failed tries can
seriously intrude on the capability of a system by denying access to
legitimate users. These observations were made in response to my
testimony before Congress on October 14 [published in HUMNETS some
issues ago]. The point is well taken, but clarification is in order
as to what I really said.
First of all I did not propose that this approach be universally
applied, nor did I take a position with regard to its effectiveness or
desireability. My testimony is quite explicit that I was only
describing one installation that has used such a scheme; it was an
illustration (for Congress) of what can be done. Moreoever, one must
understand that the Los Alamos National Laboratory undoubtedly did a
careful examination of its circumstances, including the perceived
threat from penetrators and the risk of service denial and the
inconvenience to users, before implementing it. For one organization
in one set of circumstances guarding against one perception of threat,
it was judged an appropriate approach. For other organizations in
different circumtances, it might well not be. Especially it might not
be appropriate for facilities that primarily support dial-in users.
This discussion prompts me to stress a point that I don't recall
appearing in HUMNETS. The HUMNETS discussions have focussed on small
parts of the problem whereas the security protection issue is one of
many dimensions. No security safeguard is a panacea nor is any one
absolute. For every installation, its managers must decide what
threat exists and what part (or all) of it is serious enough to
warrant safeguards. Then they must decide on an economic/technical
basis what array of safeguards -- technical (hardware, software),
managerial, administrative, procedural.... -- provide the desired
protection at an affordable or acceptable cost, and what policies are
essential to enforce them. In the end, the choice of security
safeguards is basically an engineering-economic analysis at the system
level.
The point is not new; it is often called risk analysis or risk
management. It partially explains the quite different views held by
managers within government and those in the private sector; the
perception of the threat and its details are quite different in the
two places. At the Federal level, a series of documents called
Federal Information Processing Standards provide guidance and insight
to government agencies faced with the issue of implementing safeguards
in computer systems. In the private sector, a variety of specialized
consultants and companies have materialized to assist with the matter.
Willis H. Ware
Rand Corporation
------------------------------
Date: 3 Feb 84 16:17:43 EST
From: Dave
Subject: Other uses of the name "WORLDNet"
Seems that someone has used the term WORLDNet in another manner
before we could get a world-wide computer network up of the same
name. Oh, well....
n100 2027 02 Feb 84
AM-NEWSSUMMARY
c.1984 N.Y. Times News Service
The New York Times news summary for Friday, Feb. 3, 1984:
WASHINGTON - A advanced USIA news service was announced by the
Reagan administration. The USIA said it planned to use communications
satellites to enable reporters around the world to question officials
in Washington or wherever they might be. The system, to be called
Worldnet, would provide three hours a day of two-way television news
conferences.
nyt-02-02-84 2314est
------------------------------
Date: 30-Jan-84 22:08 PST
From: Kirk Kelley
Subject: telecollaborated simulation
This refers to the model of&for a world-wide telecollaborated
simulation in HN #14. The equation directly measuring the existance
of the project was represented for one time unit in the simulation as:
change_messages = student_changes + modeler_changes.
Assuming
student_changes = students * changes_per_student
modeler_changes = modelers * changes_per_modeler
an important focus becomes how people become students, then become
modelers, and finally cease to participate. It is unclear exactly
what will be the most important factors, but a few of the most obvious
can be identifed.
students = lasttime's students + new_students - lost_students.
new_students = lasttime's non_players * new_interest.
lost_students = lasttime's students * (graduation_rate +
disinterest_rate + disable_rate).
modelers = lasttime's modelers + graduates - lost_modelers.
lost_modelers = lasttime's modelers * (disinterest_rate +
disable_rate).
disable_rate = human_death_rate + discommunication_rate.
The human death rate could be modeled initially by integrating one
of the existing world models. These telecollaborated simulation
equations could be placed into the service-capital sector of such a
model.
Thus the human death rate would affect this project's simulation of
its own life time. Is it possible for this project, in turn, to also
significantly affect the human death rate? What if it encouraged the
design and implementation of systems that teach skills for living well
while focusing research on global survival issues?
-- kirk
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #18
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-02-11 01:46:03 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Friday, 10 Feb 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 18
Today's Topics:
Query - Programming Aptitude Tests,
Computers and the Law - New Access Law (2 msgs) &
Database Entry Disclosure (3 msgs),
Computers and People - Big Computer is Watching You &
Hackers & Telecollaboration Simulation,
Computers and the Media - Hacker/ing,
Information - CMU Interaction Program
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 8 Feb 84 19:26:38 CST
From: Stan Barber
Subject: Testing Programming Aptitude or Compentence
To: AIlist@SRI-ai, telecom@mit-mc
Cc: stan@RICE, wert@RICE, va@RICE, fbag@RICE, rbbb@RICE, dave@RICE,
Cc: dbj@RICE,
I am interested in information on the following tests that have been
or are currently administered to determine Programming Aptitude or
Compentence.
1. Aptitude Assessment Battery:Programming (AABP) created by Jack M.
Wolfe and made available to employers only from Programming
Specialists, Inc. Brooklyn NY.
2. Programmer Aptitude/Compentence Test System sold by Haverly
Systems, Inc. (Introduced in 1970)
3. Computer Programmer Aptitude Battery by SRA (Science Research
Associates), Inc. (Examined in by F.L. Schmidt et.al. in Journal of
Applied Psychology, Volume 65 [1980] p 643-661)
4. CLEP Exam on Computers and Data Processing. The College Board and
the Educational Testing Service.
5. Graudate Record Exam Advanced Test in Computer Science by the
Education Testing Service.
Please send the answers to the following questions if you have taken
or had experience with any of these tests:
1. How many scores and what titles did they used for the version of
the exam that you took?
2. Did you feel the test actually measured your ability to learn to
program or your current programming competence (that is, did you feel
it asked relevant questions)?
3. What are your general impressions about testing and more
specifically about testing special abilities or skills (like
programming, writing, etc.)
I will package up the results and send them to Human-nets.
My thanks.
Stan Barber
Department of Psychology
Rice University
Houston TX 77251
sob@rice (arapnet,csnet)
sob.rice@rand-relay (broken arpa mailers)
...!{parsec,lbl-csam}!rice!sob (uucp)
(713) 660-9252 (bulletin board)
------------------------------
Date: 3 Feb 1984 1939-PST
From: CAULKINS at USC-ECL.ARPA
Subject: California Computer Crime Bill
To: human-nets at RUTGERS
A new computer crime bill just introduced in Sacramento could shut
down all free, public access computer-based bulletin board systems
(BBS) in California. The bill (AB2551) makes it a misdemeanor to
knowingly access a computer "without authorization" for any reason,
even with no malicious intent. The reason for the misdemeanor is to
make it easier to prosecute "hackers" who break into computers but do
no damage. Vandalism, theft of information, etc. are already felonies
under an existing California crime bill.
The problem free and open BBSs is that users cannot know if they are
committing a crime until they log on a BBS, and by then the crime has
occurred. The BBSs have neither $ nor personnel to mail notices to
users; even if they did there is no list of user addresses for the
mailing.
The bill was introduced by Sam Farr (D, Carmel). For more info
contact John James (author of the Communitree software used on many
BBSs), PO Box 1807 Los Gatos, CA 95031 (408))335-9250
The above appeared on the BBS I operate in Palo Alto, CA.
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 4 Feb 84 13:33:19 PST
From: Matthew J. Weinstein
Subject: More Laws?
[L A Times 2/3/84 p. 2]
``Computer "hackers", experts who electronically infiltrate
private computer systems, would be charged with misdemeanors
under legislation proposed in the state Assembly. The measure,
proposed by Assemblyman Sam Farr (D-Monterey) and backed by Atty.
Gen. John Van de Kamp, is aimed at youthful computer enthusiasts
who enter computer systems without malicious intent. Current
laws provide felony penalties for those who infiltrate malicious-
ly. In recent months, authorities have investigated several
cases in which teenagers have gained entry into private computer
banks.''
------------------------------
Date: 6 February 1984 03:53 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Laws about keeping info about people in databases
Cc: DEVON @ MIT-MC
[MESSAGE FROM DEVON at MIT-MC 3:15am]
... I'd say that such laws generally only address information that
you give out to other people, not info that you keep for yourself.
Good point, and a relief if correct. So it's perfectly legal to keep
my personal name&address list on a computer, providing I don't start
distributing it to outsiders (especially if I sell it to anybody with
the money!!) and providing I take reasonable measures to read-protect
it.
That would seem to answer the fears about somebody raiding his prsonal
computer just because he keeps his personal mailing list on it.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 9 Feb 84 08:38 EST
From: MJackson.Wbst@PARC-MAXC.ARPA
Subject: Re: Database notification and privacy
To: willis@Rand-Unix.ARPA
Cc: REM@MIT-MC.ARPA, MJackson.Wbst@PARC-MAXC.ARPA
In response to Willis Ware's comments on the cost-benefit aspects of
REM's proposal for mandatory, annual notification of individuals by
database maintainers:
Your points are interesting, but I'm not sure that they are
convincing. Granted that a mailing of ~150 million is nontrivial,
it's not obvious to me how serious the incremental burden on the mail
system would be. (The IRS forms mailing is indeed similar; how about
Publishers' Clearing House or Reader's Digest promotions? Remember,
too, that we're talking about at most one or two additional pieces of
mail per household--how many do you get in a day already?)
The basic point is sound though; one does not have a good
mechanism for knowing where records about him exist or what
they contain. It's a hit and miss proposition and even
individuals who are well informed and adroit in tracking down
things will occasionally be startled to uncover a new and
unexpected collection of data.
Perhaps we have a basis for a clearly feasible proposal. If in fact
the burden of annual individual notification is determined (how?) to
be excessive relative to the {benefit of | public demand for} such
service, how about the establishment of a central facility, to which
all individual databases are required to make themselves known, which
forwards requests by individuals to all such databases, to which they
must respond (directly, or through some sort of pooling) "yes, we have
you/no, we've never heard of you"?
Mark
------------------------------
Date: 10 February 1984 05:23 EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #16
To: TREITEL @ SUMEX-AIM
Cc: dehn @ MIT-MULTICS
people wioth eidetctic memories shall be lobotomized if they
learn anything about you...
How's that agin?
------------------------------
Date: 10 Feb 1984 1150-EST
From: Wang Zeep
Subject: A frightening Thought
The latest issue of "Infoworld" mentions that a think tank believes
that in a few years, all students will be required to have portables.
These (lap-sized, I guess) portables would have a "write-only memory"
recording all test scores and exams. Only school officials would be
able to read the results in the WOM and would use these results to
determine competency and graduation. They predict that this will
eventually replace SAT's and such; universities would recieve
transcripts of all this data and decide admissions on such a basis.
wz
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 3 Feb 84 16:52:51 PST
From: Matthew J. Weinstein
To: ddern@bbn-unix
Subject: A Hacker by Any Other Name ...
Other locales have developed names for the same (sane?) type of
behavior. When I was an undergrad, (real) hackers were often called
`munchers', and the verb was `to munch' (of course, we might have had
`munchkins', and you know what we did when we had `the munchies')...
- Matt
------------------------------
Date: 9-Feb-84 00:36 PST
From: Kirk Kelley
Subject: Re: nuclear winter simulation collaboration
To: Robert Elton Maas
Cc: Arms-D@MIT-MC
This refers to a dialogue in Human Nets V7 #14 - #16.
From: Robert Elton Maas
Or quicker, just write one of those early-type BASIC programs that
simulates the volcano and WW3, so kiddies can play with the
parameters and get flamboyant printouts of the results.
World III (Limits to Growth) simulations in BASIC and Dynamo have
existed for Apples and TRS-80s for a few years now. But it is not
clear that, for disseminating simulations, the disk/cartridge
technology by itself is the best way to encourage user
support/collaboration on the simulation. Computer networking may need
to play an important part in such an augmented global consciousness.
At least, that is one of the things I would expect to find out from a
telecollaborated simulation project like the Gaia Adventure.
I went to the Palo Alto CPSR meeting tonight and listened to the talk
by one of the NASA Nuclear Winter modelers that published in Dec 23
Science. In a private conversation after the talk, I learned some
interesting facts. It is impossible to get any public funding to
build or improve a model because results take a year or more. They
had NO official support for any of their work! They even got their
budget cut because NASA decided they must have too much money if they
had time for such a project. Any future research may be done
exclusively by the DoD at Livermore (classified?). Their model takes
60 seconds on their Cray for one run but they have very primitive and
flaky network access to the Cray. None of the people on the project
have access to an electronic mailbox.
The effort it would take to make their simulation available for use
and collaboration by a paying (EM) public, such as in the Gaia
Adventure, would be great, but it could be the only way it will ever
get the resources necessary to produce convincing results.
-- kirk
------------------------------
Date: 5 February 1984 00:59 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Correct use of "hack" on "Whiz Kids" tonight, and wiretap
Ritchie said "I'm going to try to hack something
together in 5 minutes" meaning he was going to do a rush job of
programming, not care about subtle bugs or user interface or
structured programing etc., just try to get it working in an
emergency. Indeed he found a way to transfer a digitized photo from
the Aethena-society computer over the phone to the newspaper
reporter's portable computer with printer. The Aethena-society fellow
whose computer he was going to do this on looked worried, and Ritchie
assured him he wasn't going to damage anything.
It sounds like the script writer is making some attempt to bring back
the correct definition of "hack" at least.
By the way, earlier in the program a maidservice pretended Ritchie's
mother had won a prize, a monty's maid service, and the "maid" planted
bugging devices including on Ritchie's phone, used for his modem. I
was thinking this would develop into some kind of plot to record the
data when Ritchie logs into remote hosts, obtaining login procedure
and passwords, but that part of the plot was dropped for no apparent
reason.
------------------------------
Date: Friday, 03 Feb 84 23:41:02 EST
From: reiser (brian reiser) @ cmu-psy-a
Reply-to: Brian Reiser < Reiser%CMU-PSY-A@CMU-CS-PT >
Subject: CMU Human-Computer Interaction Program
***** ANNOUNCEMENT *****
Graduate Program in Human-Computer Interaction
at Carnegie-Mellon University
The field of human-computer interaction brings to bear theories and
methodologies from cognitive psychology and computer science to the
design of computer systems, to instruction about computers, and to
computer-assisted instruction. The new Human-Computer Interaction
program at CMU is geared toward the development of cognitive models of
the complex interaction between learning, memory, and language
mechanisms involved in using computers. Students in the program apply
their psychology and computer science training to research in both
academic and industry settings.
Students in the Human-Computer Interaction program design their
educational curricula with the advice of three faculty members who
serve as the student's committee. The intent of the program is to
guarantee that students have the right combination of basic and
applied research experience and coursework so that they can do leading
research in the rapidly developing field of human-computer
interaction. Students typically take one psychology course and one
computer science course each semester for the first two years. In
addition, students participate in a seminar on human-computer
interaction held during the summer of the first year in which leading
industry researchers are invited to describe their current projects.
Students are also actively involved in research throughout their
graduate career. Research training begins with a collaborative and
apprentice relationship with a faculty member in laboratory research
for the first one or two years of the program. Such involvement
allows the student several repeated exposures to the whole sequence of
research in cognitive psychology and computer science, including
conceptualization of a problem, design and execution of experiments,
analyzing data, design and implementation of computer systems, and
writing scientific reports.
In the second half of their graduate career, students participate in
seminars, teaching, and an extensive research project culminating in a
dissertation. In addition, an important component of students'
training involves an internship working on an applied project outside
the academic setting. Students and faculty in the Human-Computer
Interaction program are currently studying many different cognitive
tasks involving computers, including: construction of algorithms,
design of instruction for computer users, design of user-friendly
systems, and the application of theories of learning and problem
solving to the design of systems for computer-assisted instruction.
Carnegie-Mellon University is exceptionally well suited for a program
in human-computer interaction. It combines a strong computer science
department with a strong psychology department and has many lines of
communication between them. There are many shared seminars and
research projects. They also share in a computational community
defined by a large network of computers. In addition, CMU and IBM
have committed to a major effort to integrate personal computers into
college education. By 1986, every student on campus will have a
powerful state-of-the-art personal computer. It is anticipated that
members of the Human-Computer Interaction program will be involved in
various aspects of this effort.
The following faculty from the CMU Psychology and Computer Science
departments are participating in the Human-Computer Interaction
Program: John R. Anderson, Jaime G. Carbonell, John R. Hayes, Elaine
Kant, David Klahr, Jill H. Larkin, Philip L. Miller, Alan Newell,
Lynne M. Reder, and Brian J. Reiser.
Our deadline for receiving applications, including letters of
recommendation, is March 1st. Further information about our program
and application materials may be obtained from:
John R. Anderson
Department of Psychology
Carnegie-Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #21
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-02-22 17:58:45 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Wednesday, 22 Feb 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 21
Today's Topics:
Query - Whiz Kids??,
Computers and the Law - Person Numbers (2 msgs) &
Database Information Reporting (2 msgs),
Computers and People - Security Backdoors (3 msgs),
Information - Satellite Insurance
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thursday, 16 Feb 1984 03:45:17-PST
From: dave porter
Subject: Whiz Kids ??
Human-Nets occasionally refers to a TV programme called "Whiz Kids"
which seems to have a plotline dealing with computer hackers and the
like.
Anyone care to send in a brief outline of the programme, for the
benefits of any readers in parts of the world that don't get it?
(Since my net address is probably meaningless to most of you, let me
point out that I'm in Reading, England.)
dave
------------------------------
Date: Thursday, 16 Feb 1984 08:10-PST
Reply-to: imagen!geof@shasta
Subject: National Databases and National Socialism - lest we forget
In European countries under occupation during World War II, government
offices were ``burgularized'' with such information as social security
files and tax information stolen shortly before the rounding up of
Jews and other ``undesirables.'' Sometimes even the most well-meaning
government assurances don't help. If the data is there, the potential
for abuse exists.
- Geof
------------------------------
Date: Thursday, 16 Feb 1984 08:50:47-PST
From: decwrl!rhea!krikit!porter@Shasta
Subject: Person numbers
Interested to see comments on `person numbers' in a recent hnt. In the
UK there has been a recent move to introduce plastic cards with
magnetic stripes as a replacement "National Health Service card".
An individual has an NHS number, which is sort of like a social
security number. However, this number doesn't seem to get used all
over the place. The only place I can remember seeing mine written
down is on my "National Health Card", and THAT's only a piece of thin
card that I present to the doctor when I register with a new doctor,
and I think that's only useful to him so that he can claim me as a
registered patient and ask the Government for some money for looking
after me.
My pay slip does have a slot labelled "NI Number". However, the
contents are blank. This might be because I didn't tell them my NI
number (well, how would I know what it is anyway?) or because they
didn't ask me; I can't remember.
Excuse the rambling aside... anyway, the protagonists of the plastic
cards say that there's no big deal about it, the cards merely contain
the same information that the old cards did, just encoded differently.
I see it another way; I see it as the first move towards establishing
a unique, easy-to-digest handle on an individual. Just like an
American social security number now is. No, thank you. I prefer my
bent piece of cardboard which I lose all the time anyway (each time I
move and register with a new doctor, I am indeed unable to find my NHS
card).
A final historical note: apparently, we used to have some numbering
scheme for people, probably introduced to control rationing during
WW II. However, the system was dismantled in 1951 (I believe) owing
to abuse of it.
dave
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 1984 09:55:01 EST
Subject: Database Access and Reporting
To: wmartin@office3
In regard to the discussion about the contents of databases, I'd
just like to relate a true story that is, in fact, still in progress.
About a year ago, one of the people I live with was the victim of
a purse-snatching. Like any sensible person, she immediately reported
the loss of the contents -- credit cards, checkbook, driver's license,
library card, and so on. Within a few weeks, everything except the
$40 or so in cash had been replaced. The criminal was never caught,
and she assumed after some months that the case was closed.
Unfortunately, this was not the case. About nine months after
the crime, she began to receive dunning letters from various chain
stores located 30-60 miles from our home, claiming that she had
written bad checks in payment of bills. None of these were placed
she'd ever stopped.
After some investigation, it was determined that what had
happened was this: several months after the original robbery, someone
took several of the pieces of id found in her handbag, split them
open, and replaced the photos with different pictures. They then went
to several local banks and opened checking accounts using my friend's
name, but a different address (claiming that she was awaiting new id
after a recent move, according to one of the banks involved). These
accounts, which had my friend's social security number as the tax id
on them, were used to write the bad checks.
The various stores found my friend by hiring dunning agencies,
which, in turn, used private detectives to locate her. She had to
take several days off from her job to go and personally visit the
banks to prove that the accounts were not really opened by her, and
also had to do a fair amount of letter writing to explain all this to
the credit departments of the stores.
In one case, the store used one of the national
check-verification-by-phone services to approve the bad check. This
service has its "local" branch located about 45 minutes drive from our
home, and has repeatedly told my friend that unless she makes a
personal visit to them, they will not clear the record they hold on
her, since her various notarized statements are, apparently, not
sufficient. She is, needless to say, having her lawyer look into the
legality of this behavior. In the meantime, her credit rating is, in
part, impaired through a set of actions that were in no way her
responsibility or fault. The incorrect info remains in a
nationally-accessible database used by a fair number of
check-verification firms, and she has no access to it, even to correct
clearly untrue statements. (In my opinion, she may have grounds for a
suit under the Fair Credit Protection Act, but I'm waiting to see what
her lawyer says...)
Clearly, there is a problem with the way this database is being
maintained, a problem which the existing law seems not to be
correcting (unless, that is, the check-verification firm is merely
flagrantly violating the law, believing that nobody will bother to
prosecute them...). Any suggestions for improving the way databases
are handled should, clearly, deal with such situations.
--Dave Axler
------------------------------
Date: 19 February 1984 08:59 EST
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Notification of individuals re database entries
To: WMartin @ OFFICE-3
Credit-extending organizations (like department stores or bank
card offices) should be required to include a summary of the info
they have on file with the statement once a year -- thus this
would be NO added mailing cost.
Unfortunately unless you receive your mail at a locked box and nobody
else, even in your family, has access to that box, it's too easy for
such mailing to go astray, especially since somebody wanting that info
knows (could easily find out) when it'll be mass-mailed, and stage a
sweep of all mailboxes in a geographic area. This is worse than
sending 4-digit ATM passwords in the mail, which might get stolen, but
which are sent at random times when a privacy-invader wouldn't know
when to look for it and certainly couldn't conduct a sweep.
On the other hand, if the info is sent out only on request, it would
complicate the system too much to send it in the same envelop as some
monthly billing, so it would have to be sent under separate cover the
way 4-digit ATM passwords are now, voiding your claim of no additional
mailing cost.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 84 10:53 EST
From: TMPLee@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: WarGames & Backdoors
Cc: mrc@SU-SCORE.ARPA
Perhaps the allegation about backdoors was slanderous if it implied it
to be a common phenomenon (I don't remember exactly what it said), but
in fact they do exist and for the sort of purposes hypothesized in the
movie. It turns out that all the computer security vulnerabilities
used as plot devices in the movie WERE IN FACT BASED ON REAL-WORLD
EVENTS. Admittedly there was a lot of artistic license, the human
factors were unbelievable, and the AI stuff at the end horrible
science fiction, but the security stuff wasn't all that bad for a
popular portrayal. I know of at least two incidents really involving
backdoors or "time bombs"; one moderately serious, the other not.
Don't ask me for details, however -- it is common courtesy NOT to
discuss them in public.
Ted
------------------------------
Date: Thu 16 Feb 84 22:14:46-PST
From: Mark Crispin
Subject: Re: WarGames & Backdoors
To: TMPLee@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
While "backdoors" or "time bombs" may exist, the implication
of their being commonplace is grossly exaggerated. Some of these
"real world events" may be totally blown out of proportion. For
example, how many of these "backdoors" turn out to be merely that
a former employee's account was not deleted when that employee
left? Just because that account wasn't deleted doesn't mean the
ex-employee left a "backdoor". An explanation both for a
"backdoor" or a "time bomb" could be a legitimate design flaw
which, after later reflection, the designer recognizes but is
unable to repair.
The most absurd thing about "Wargames" was the suggestion
that a "red" system would be accessible on the public telephone
network. The US military isn't *that* foolish. Reports on how
"red" systems are secured are unclassified. If you want to know
about "red" systems on Milnet, read BBN Report 1822, with special
attention to the section on Private Line Interfaces. To be
brief, "red" systems can only talk to other "red" systems; they
cannot talk to "black" systems nor can "black" systems talk to
"red" systems. Any Milnet site you can Telnet, FTP, or Mail to
is "black", not "red".
------------------------------
Date: 18 February 1984 06:07 EST
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: "Wargames"
To: MRC @ SU-SCORE
uh -- truth is an absolute defense at libel and slander suits --
are you ssure "back doors" aren't fairly traditional?
------------------------------
Date: 14-Feb-84 02:51 PST
From: William Daul Tymshare OAD Cupertino CA
Subject: Satellite Insurance
To: space@mit-mc
Cc: DIA.TYM@OFFICE-2, SGK.TYM@OFFICE-2, PAMV.TYM@OFFICE-2
>From COMPUTERWORLD (Feb 13, 1984 p. 11)
Will mishap hike insurance rate?
NEW YORK -- The insurance industry is feeling repercussions from
the failures to properly launch two $75 million communications
satellites from the space shuttle Challenger this month.
The Westar VI communications satellite owned by Western Union
Co. was insured for $105 million; Western Union had paid a
premium of about $5.5 million for the policy. Alexander &
Alexander Services, Inc., a New York brokerage company, was the
underwriter for the policy, according to a Western Union
spokesman. ...
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #22
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-02-22 18:33:41 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Thursday, 23 Feb 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 22
Today's Topics:
Response to Query - Computing Worlds,
Computers and the Law - Person numbers (3 msgs)&
Database Information Reporting,
Computers and the Media - "The Computer for the rest of Us"
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 18 Feb 1984 2051-PST
From: Rob-Kling
Subject: Computing Worlds
Cc: uc.gds%mit-eecs%MIT-MC%UCI-750a@csnet2
Sherry Turkle is coming out with a book that may deal in part with the
cultures of computing worlds. It also examines questions about how
children come to see computer applications as alive, animate, etc.
It was to be called, "The Intimate Machine." The title was
appropriated by Neil Frude who published a rather superficial book
with an outline very similar to that Turkle proposed to
some publishers. Frude's book is published by New American Library.
Sherry Turkle's book promises to be much deeper and careful.
It is to be published by Simon and Schuster under a different
title.
Turkle published an interesting article
called, "Computer as Rorschach" in Society 17(2)(Jan/Feb 1980).
This article examines the variety of meanings that people
attribute to computers and their applications.
I agree with Greg that computing activities are embedded within rich
social worlds. These vary. There are hacker worlds which differ
considerably from the worlds of business systems analysts who develop
financial applications in COBOL on IBM 4341's. AI worlds differ from
the personal computing worlds, and etc. To date, no one appears to
have developed a good anthropological account of the organizing
themes, ceremonies, beliefs, meeting grounds, etc. of these various
computing worlds. I am beginning such a project at UC-Irvine.
Sherry Turkle's book will be the best contribution (that I know of) in
the near future.
One of my colleagues at UC-Irvine, Kathleen Gregory, has just
completed a PhD thesis in which she has studied the work cultures
within a major computer firm. She plans to transform her thesis into
a book. Her research is sensitive to the kinds of langauage
categories Greg mentioned. (She will joining the Department of
Information and Computer Science at UC-Irvine in the Spring.)
Also, Les Gasser and Walt Scacchi wrote a paper on personal computing
worlds when they were PhD students at UCI. It is available for $4
from:
Public Policy Research Organization
University of California, Irvine
Irvine,Ca. 92717
(They are now in Computer Science at USC and may provide copies upon
request.)
Several years ago I published two articles which examine some of the
larger structural arrangments in computing worlds:
"The Social Dynamics of Technical Innovation in the
Computing World" ^&Symbolic Interaction\&,
1(1)(Fall 1977):132-146.
"Patterns of Segmentation and Intersection in the
Computing World"
^&Symbolic Interaction\& 1(2)(Spring 1978): 24-43.
One section of a more recent article,
"Value Conflicts in the Deployment of Computing Applications"
^&Telecommunications Policy\& (March 1983):12-34.
examines the way in which certain computer-based technologies
such as automated offices, artificial intelligence,
CAI, etc. are the foci of social movements.
None of my papers examine the kinds of special languages
which Greg mentions. Sherry Turkle's book may.
Kathleen Gregory's thesis does, in the special setting of
one major computing vendor's software culture.
I'll send copies of my articles on request if I recieve mailing
addresses.
Rob Kling
University of California, Irvine
------------------------------
Date: Fri 17 Feb 84 05:48:36-EST
From: Marc Shapiro
Subject: Person numbers
Marc Shapiro/CMIRH/22, ave Matignon/75008 Paris/France/
tel. (1)(33)268-11-00
French Social Security numbers are very indiscreet.
Mine is 1530199404003, meaning:
1 = male (2 for female)
5301 = born Jan. 1953
99 = in a foreign country (if born in France, number of department of
birth, 1:95)
404 = born USA (if in France, number of city within department)
003 = to ensure uniqueness
------------------------------
Date: 17 Feb 1984 0719-PST
Subject: Person Numbers
From: WMartin at Office-3 (Will Martin)
To: ole at NTA-VAX
Quite an interesting discussion on "person numbers" -- it brought
a few questions to mind:
What information besides sex is known at birth in order to
compute the "control digits"? Eye and/or hair color? (Or are
90% of the individuals covered blond with blue eyes anyhow, and
it isn't enough of a distinguishing factor to include?)
Handicaps? Or am I wrong in assuming that the number is assigned
at birth -- maybe not until the child is some months or years
old?
Idle speculation -- does the number change if the person gets a
sex-change operation?
Please don't go to any trouble to locate the entire algorithm,
but it would be interesting to know what sort of data are
considered valuable enough and worthwhile to store in this coded
number.
Will Martin
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Feb 84 07:10:32 -0100
From: ole@NTA-VAX (Ole Jorgen Jacobsen)
To: WMartin@Office-3
Subject: The Person Number Algorithm
Here is the description I found in my old high-school Computer
Science book ("EDB for videregaaende skoler", NKS-Forlaget,
1974):
Each person is assigned a number N consisting of a 6 digit
birthdate and 5 additional digits labelled as follows:
d1 d2 m1 m2 a1 a2 n1 n2 n3 k1 k2
\--------------/ \------------/
Birth Date Person Number
The first six are obvious. n1 through n3 are used to dis-
tinguish people with the same birth date. The first, n1,
is used to indicate whether the person was born before or
after 1900. If it is >= 5 then the person was born before
1900, if < 5 then he/she was born after 1900. The last, n3
is the "sex indicator", female = 0, 2, 4, 6 or 8, male =
1, 3, 5, 7, 9.
Examples:
d1 d2 m1 m2 a1 a2 n1 n2 n3 k1 k2 Birth Date Sex
--------------------------------------------------------
0 2 0 6 6 5 4 7 8 7 9 June 2 1965 F
2 6 0 8 2 7 4 9 4 5 3 August 26 1927 F
2 5 0 7 9 2 6 7 5 2 2 July 25 1892 M
2 5 0 7 2 9 6 7 5 2 2 ------bogus------
Now for the fun part, to check N's validity, first compute
t = 5*d1+4*d2+3*m1+2*m2+7*a1+6*a2+5*n1+4*n2+3*n3+2*k1
Secondly compute the remainder: r = t - [INT( t/11 )]*11
If r = 11 - k2
then OK
else BOGUS!
(I discovered that if r=0 then k2 must be zero as well, this condition
seems to have been omitted in the above)
According to the text, no other information is extractable
from these numbers, boring isn't it? There are only a total of 4
million people in this country by the way which accounts for the
relatively short magic number.
------------------------------
Date: 21 Feb 1984 0707-PST
Subject: Re: Notification of individuals re database entries
From: WMartin at Office-3 (Will Martin)
To: REM at MIT-MC
I must admit to being mystified by the stated objection (that
"privacy-invaders" could conduct a sweep of mailboxes to steal
summaries of credit ratings sent out with bill mailings once a
year).
This seems so far-fetched as to be meaningless to me. Of course,
they COULD. (Whoever "they" might be.) But why on earth WOULD
they?
If someone wants credit histories/data on a large group of
people, all they have to do is to become a business, either for
real or fraudulently (and only a business or government would
have any such desires, I think). Then they can much more cheaply
simply BUY the data from the credit bureaus like any other
business does.
Areas where mailboxes are stolen from are traditionally ghetto
and slum neighborhoods. Nobody cares about the credit histories
of the mass of the inhabitants of these areas anyway. So no
"privacy invader" (sounds like a video game) would bother
"sweeping" such an area. It is much harder to do this in the
neighborhoods where people live whose credit histories would have
some value; I'm not claiming that the mailboxes are secure --
they probably are much LESS secure if nobody ever steals from
them! But the little old ladies are watchful, being nosy, and
the cops come when called, and the USPS pays attention to reports
or complaints more promptly. (You should see the newspaper
debates about carriers walking across lawns! What they would do
about organized thefts from the mailboxes I shudder to
conjecture!)
And what good would it do somebody/some organization to get all
this info in this obvious manner (someone will notice if all the
bills from Grubb's Department Store are missing in this square
mile...). What are they going to do -- blackmail people? What
would they do that the credit bureau people don't do now?
(Another thought -- at least around here, mailings are staggered
by the first initial of the last name, not geographically, so I
can get my department store bill two weeks before (or after) my
next-door neighbor anyhow.)
Sorry, not convinced. So far, I stand by my original posting...
Will Martin
------------------------------
Date: 20 Feb 1984 1703-PST
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #20
From: Ian H. Merritt
To: RSaunders.TCSC@HI-MULTICS
Subject: No documentation is a feature???
I have just seen the most interesting commercial on the TV.
I feel it is for the new Macintosh but the story line goes
Look at this IBM pc and its 200 pages of instructions, Look
at this cute new Macintosh with its 30 pages of
documentation, Which is more advanced. Is this an IBM
comercial in disguise?? It presents an interesting concept,
that a computer can get by with 30 pages of documentation,
but I wonder who the pitch is aimed at.
The point of the commercial, unless I misinterpret it, is that a
layperson (not a genius, but not entirely stupid either) should be
able to learn how to use the computer with only the ~30-page manual
shown in the ad. Presumably, that's not the only documentation
provided with the system, however. You and I tend to look at a
computer system as a scientific tool, and tend to expect gobs of
complex detailed documentation. J. Random BusinessPerson, however,
wants a box that just does what he needs.
We in the computer business could learn to work the
Macintosh from 30 pages, because of experience with similar
systems, but would never buy a system that did not have the
background information to tell us HOW it works. John Q.
Public couldn't care how it works, but having nowhere to
turn but his Apple dealer when he is confused doesn't sound
like something I would be advertizing. Maybe Apple feels
that people are so stupid that they will shell out $2500 (or
whatever it costs) for a machine that does 30 pages of
tricks, but I doubt it (but I could be wrong).
We in the computer business could probably sit down in front of the
thing and learn to use it with no documentation at all, as I did with
the first version of the Lisa when it was introduced. The little
~30-page manual is nothing more than an introductory and quick
reference document. Having spent considerable time trying to teach
non-computer people how to use various software for among other toys,
the IBM-PC, I am painfully aware of the difficulty introduced by
excessive documentation as a subsitute for well written,
self-explanatory software. I think the average home/small-business
computer user will fully understand and identify with what the ad is
saying.
<>IHM<>
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #23
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-03-03 02:48:14 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Friday, 2 Mar 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 23
Today's Topics:
Administrivia - Article w/o From: field,
Queries - Setting Reading Time &
Electronic Publishing of "Consumer Reports"?,
Computers and the Law - Computer Access Law &
Person Numbers & National Databases,
Computers and People - No Documentation is a Feature,
Information - New Magazine
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 23 Feb 84 05:49:08 EST
From: Charles
Subject: Article w/o From: field
In the V7 #21 the appeared an article with the header:
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 1984 09:55:01 EST
Subject: Database Access and Reporting
To: wmartin@office3
In regard to the discussion about the contents of databases, I'd
just like to relate a true story that is, in fact, still in progress.
From: Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP
(Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #24
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-03-09 21:22:19 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Friday, 9 Mar 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 24
Today's Topics:
Response to Query - Computer Culture,
Computers and the Law - Person Numbers,
Computers and the Media - PCs hit Corporate America,
Information - Communications Policy Panels from MRI
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 9 March 1984 03:04-EST
From: Steven A. Swernofsky
Subject: Sherry Turkle's book on computing culture
To: Kling%UCI-20B @ UCI-750A
Date: 18 Feb 1984 2051-PST
From: Rob-Kling
Sherry Turkle is coming out with a book that may deal in part with
the cultures of computing worlds. It also examines questions about
how children come to see computer applications as alive, animate,
etc. It was to be called, "The Intimate Machine." . . .
Sherry Turkle's new title is ``The Second Self: The Computer and the
Human Spirit'' (Simon & Schuster, May 1984). It is excerpted in ``The
Intimate Machine (Eavesdropping on the secret lives of computers and
kids.),'' which appears in the April issue of Science 84.
If this excerpt is typical, the book should be very good indeed. The
article is very readable and informative, telling the story of several
children who encounter computer games and computer programming. It
pays particular attention to the difference between an "engineer's"
and an "artist's" viewpoint, and to the difference between a boy's and
a girl's view. Read it!
-- Steve
------------------------------
Date: Tue 6 Mar 84 01:31:33-PST
From: David Roode
Subject: personal i.d. numbers
All of this discussion of personal i.d. number makes me think of the
laughable amount of non-use to which the government puts social
security numbers when used as taxpayer i.d. numbers. They apparently
do a very poor job of cross checking amounts reported by payers
against amounts declared as taxable income. It seemed ludicrous for
withholding on interest payments to be proposed as a means of applying
some tax to cheaters. Wouldn't that encourage more people to cheat?
The implication was very strong that cheaters were not going to get
tapped otherwise. I don't see how any further invasion of privacy
could be used to improve the information the government had at hand.
Yet seemingly no use is being made of the data.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 84 10:02:22 EST
From: Mark S. Day
Subject: Computer ad - stranger than fiction
The following (condensed) ad was in TWA Ambassador for February 1984.
It presents an interesting image of a computer as the concealed weapon
of the truly macho financial analyst:
THE COMPUTERS WHIRRED ALL NIGHT. BY DAWN THE COMPANY WAS OURS.
(The following is based on a true story as told by a financial
analyst. Names and places have been changed to insure
confidentiality.)
IT WOULD BE A TOUGH FIGHT.
Takeover battles always are. We knew we were in for a grueling
negotiation with a tough, elusive quarry. So we burned the midnight
oil, doing extensive computer modeling and analysis. And when we
boarded the plane for New York, my computer was tucked
into my briefcase.
FIRST WE GOT THE WORD FROM MAHOGANY ROW.
[The orders from financial execs.]
OUR BATTLEFIELD? THE PARK LANE HOTEL.
[Setting the scene.]
WE WERE EVENLY MATCHED -- ALMOST.
It was their senior vice-president vs. our senior vice-president.
Their corporate counsel vs. our corporate counsel. Their investment
bankers vs. our investment bankers. But that's where the match came
apart. Because their was their financial analyst vs. me and my . Sure they had a "portable" computer installed in their
strategy room. But they didn't have the power of a --
the one in the briefcase right at my feet.
THE BATTLE BEGAN.
Right off, their analyst flourished a ream of printouts, demonstrating
their position was so solid they could repulse our advance. Or maybe
drive up our bid price? We replied with our own analysis, modeled on
my . "We've been through your entire operation with a
fine-toothed comb," our chief negotiator said. "Your capital
investments have been compromised by two years of inadequate return.
The weakness has been obscured by your highly diversified portfolio,
but we've found it and analyzed the consequences. Therefore we're
forced to devalue your projected worth. And the cash part of our
offer now comes in at $200 million, not $285 million." They were
annoyed. But quickly recovered to say contemptuously, "Of course, you
can substantiate your claim."
ALL EYES FOCUSED ON THE FLAT BLACK BOX.
I had pulled out my , placed it square on the table and
plugged it in. Their analyst said, "What's that, a computer?" Then
his boss halted him with a stern glance. Meanwhile, I raised the flat
electroluminescent screen into position, and rotated the
so everybody on their side of the table could see the bright amber
display. First I modeled the performance of all their capital
investments. It wasn't near where it should have been. Next I broke
it out by basic industries. There was the culprit. Their forestry
investments had pulled down the entire division. I modeled the
performance without forestry, and I modeled forestry alone. The two
graphs could not have been more divergent. "If we do a regression
analysis," I said, "we can predict the effect of these investments
over the next five years." I showed them the intricate formula for
the analysis. With two keystrokes it turned into a simple graph with
an obvious trend. "Our projections show the true value of this
segment to be 30% less than the value initially presented," I said.
The amber glow from the reflected in the glasses of their
analyst as he peered at the screen.
THE TIDE OF BATTLE HAD TURNED.
[The ability of the computer to plug into the Dow Jones news service
further disconcerts the bad guys, and leaves our hero feeling
momentarily sorry for his counterpart.]
THE COMPUTERS WHIRRED ALL NIGHT.
The rest of that day and all that night the computers whirred. While
they crunched the numbers on their under-powered portable, I put
together ten more models covering every angle, every stratagem, every
possible avenue of escape. I used the to access our
corporate computers to capture the very latest data. I produced
graphs to illustrate our analysis. And I wrote a summary document
substantiating our position. As dawn approached, I knew we had them
where we wanted them.
WE CLOSED THE DEAL.
My boss told me that just one of the models I created on my computer saved the company $85 million. Their analyst came over
and asked me about that black box in my briefcase. I told him it was
just another business tool.
"More like a concealed weapon," he said. I didn't reply. You never
talk about the edge you have over someone else.
--Mark Day
ARPA: mday@BBN-UNIX
UUCP: ..!ihnp4!decvax!bbncca!mday
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 84 07:49 EST
From: Kahin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
To: Telecom@USC-ECLC.ARPA, *bboard@MIT-MC.ARPA
Massachusetts Research
Institute Program on
of Technology Communications
Policy
THE
CENTRAL SERVICES ORGANIZATION
(BELL COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH)
THURSDAY, APR. 5, 1984
MARLAR LOUNGE, 4 - 6 PM
BUILDING 37-252, MIT
70 VASSAR ST., CAMBRIDGE
ROCCO MORANO, BELL COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH
ERWIN DORROS, BELL COMMUNICATIONS RESEARCH
MANLEY IRWIN, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE
A "central services organization" for the Bell Operating
Companies (BOCS) was mandated in the AT&T Consent Decree as a "point
of contact" for national security and emergency preparedness
coordination and planning. What has been created is a 10000 employee
organization, Bell Communications Research, Inc. -- primarily drawn
from Bell Labs -- providing research, product evaluation, standards
coordination, and a host of other services to the BOCS.
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 5 Mar 84 07:47 EST
From: Kahin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
To: Telecom@USC-ECLC.ARPA, *bboard@MIT-MC.ARPA
Massachusetts Research
Institute Program on
of Technology Communications Policy
THE EFFECT OF REPRODUCTION
TECHNOLOGIES ON
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY
THURSDAY, MAR. 22, 1984
MARLAR LOUNGE, 4 - 6 PM
BUILDING 37-252
70 VASSAR ST. CAMBRIDGE
STANLEY BESEN, THE RAND CORPORATION
CAROL RISHER, ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN PUBLISHERS
MARIO BAEZA, DEBEVOISE & PLIMPTON/HARVARD LAW SCHOOL
New reproduction technologies -- photocopiers, videocassette
recorders, computers -- threaten copyright owners with loss of control
over their product. But it is difficult to calculate actual or
potential losses, or to determine whether these losses actually impair
the incentive to create intellectual property. Regulatory solutions,
such as redistribution of compulsory license fees on copying equipment
and materials, have been proposed but involve additional costs and
raise difficult administrative and policy problems. Dr. Besen is
finishing an NSF-funded project that develops economic models for the
problem of "home" copying and analyzes the production, distribution,
and pricing policies of firms that face the problem..
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: Human-Nets-Request@rutgers (Human-Nets-Request%rutgers@brl-bmd.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #25
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-03-16 19:06:20 PST
HUMAN-NETS Digest Friday, 16 Mar 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 25
Today's Topics:
Query - Employee Environments,
Response to Query - Setting Read Times,
Information - Bell National Security Group In Operation
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 9 March 1984 1800-pst
From: Jerry Bakin
Subject: Employee Environments
Cc: Bakin @ HI-MULTICS, WORKS @ RUTGERS
I am trying to change the "Standard Cube" where I work on the basis
that it is too small, provides insufficient resources, and hence
depresses employee productivity.
To prove this, I am trying to write a small research paper showing the
effects of certain resources on worker productivity.
I have only one small problem:
I know nothing about this.
I have developed two lists to help me, a list of questions I would
like to answer, and a list of places to look for answers. I would
like to include these two lists here, and ask for the net response.
Any other questions that need to be answered? Any more places to look
for responses? Do you know of any specific studies (hopefully
supportive) that respond to these questions. While I have a vested
interest pertaining to software engineering, I am looking for any
information that is available.
While I would also like to know what the standards are at your company
is, I would first like to make a standard machine analyzable
questionaire which I hope to post to the net in two weeks.
Of course, a summary will be posted in human-nets, but don't expect
one soon. Also, I would appreciate mail sent to:
Bakin @ HI-Multics
In all of this I am trying to show that Maximum Productivity does
imply a need for employee comfort.
List of Questions to be examined:
o What is Productivity?
o What is Efficiency?
o How are creature comforts taken into place in
Productivity and/or Efficiency?
o What is the Productivity Equation?
o What is the Efficiency Equation?
o How much floor space is needed per employee for maximum
Productivity/Efficiency?
o How much unoccupied floor space?
o How much table/desk space?
o How much clear table/desk space?
o How much storage space? (bookshelves, filing cabinets)
o What questionaires have been designed for these studies?
o What questions should be included in such studies?
Software Engineering adds the following Questions:
o How much computing power per engineer?
o How many engineers per terminal?
o How much table space near each terminal?
o What kind of hardcopy power?
o Power of Terminals?
o How should terminals be arranged? Terminal Rooms, or A Terminal
on every Desk?
List of Places to Look for Answers: (Note how blank these are, do you
know where I should look for
these?)
Productivity Studies: (Where would I find these?)
Human Factors Studies: ""
Quality of Work Life Studies: ""
Work Station Justifications: ""
Are there studies specific to:
Engineers? ""
Software engineers? ""
Okay, where would YOU begin?
Jerry.
------------------------------
Date: Sat 10 Mar 84 15:24:17-PST
From: Lynn Gold
Subject: Read times in presentations
To: US.JFA%CU20B@COLUMBIA-20.ARPA
Funny you should mention this...I'm working on a film project in which
I'll be shooting crt screens and printer output for a class out here.
I was once given the following formula which I intend to use:
Time yourself as you read the passage slowly out loud to yourself.
Add 3-5 seconds to that time, depending on how much information is on
display (i.e., if it's less than five words, go on the light side; if
it's a screenful of credits, go on the heavy side), or just count to
four.
Ideally, you want the info to stay on the screen long enough for
people to read it, but not so long that they get bored. When in
doubt, you're better off making them wait, rather than causing them to
lose information.
Good luck!
--Lynn
------------------------------
Date: 12-Mar-84 18:40 PST
From: William Daul Tymshare OAD Cupertino CA
Subject: Bell's National Security Group In Operation
To: TELECOM@MIT-MC
Cc: weeks@ames-vms, ARC.TYM@OFFICE-2
>From MICROWAVE SYSTEM NEW (Feb. 1984)
The Central Services Organization of the seven Bell Regional Holding
Companies said that its National Security and Emergency Preparedness
(NS/EP) Group, located in Washington D.C., is now operating to meet
the nationwide telecommunications planning and response needs of the
Bell companies.
In order to meet NS/EP requirements after the split-up of the Bell
System the federal court agreement requires that the company establish
and maintain a centralized communications group as a single point of
contact for all national security and emergency preparedness matters,
Marvin Konow, director of the group said.
The group will advise and provide coordination to the Bell Operating
Companies (BOCs) in the development of national security and emergency
preparedness technical standards and nationwide telecommunications
planning. An emergency alerting and respone center has been formed to
alert the BOCs in the event of an emergency or crisis, the
spokesperson said. The group will also participate in national
industry-wide groups sponsored by the government to coordinate
emergency and crisis communications activities and nationwide network
planning.
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: daemon@ucbvax.UUCP (daemon@ucbvax.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #44
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-08-05 11:22:11 PST
From MCGREW@RUTGERS.ARPA Sun Aug 5 11:21:02 1984
HUMAN-NETS Digest Sunday, 5 Aug 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 44
Today's Topics:
Administrivia - Silence is Golden?,
Queries - NEXIS, NEWSNET and XANADU &
Crackers/Hackers &
Computer Assisted Technical Documentation &
Algorithms Library,
Response to Query - Database of Algorithms,
Computers and People - Multi-Language Documents and Mail (2 msgs)
Chess - Request for Players
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun 5 Aug 84 14:00:00-EDT
From: Charles
Subject: The Long Silence
Rutgers has been off the Arpanet (our connection was being changed)
and so there has unfortunately been a long delay in putting out a
digest. Anyone who has sent a message to be included in the digest in
the past two weeks (that isn't in this digest), please resend it.
Thanks,
Charles
------------------------------
Date: Sat 21 Jul 84 10:10:37-EDT
From: Wayne McGuire
Subject: NEXIS, NEWSNET & XANADU
Two questions:
1) I would like to know if anyone here has searched occasionally,
or searches regularly, NEXIS and/or NEWSNET (two commercial databases
which store the full text of many leading U.S. magazines and
newsletters). Has anyone found either database to be a particularly
useful source of information about developments in artificial
intelligence, WorldNet and related topics? Opinions, impressions,
evaluations, tips, gripes, etc. would be appreciated.
2) Would any of the Xanadu experts on the list describe for those
of us who are only superficially familiar with Ted Nelson's work what
the project is all about? What functions and powers would Xanadu/
Hypertext include that are not present in such currently operating
full-text databases as NEXIS and NEWSNET?
-- Wayne McGuire --
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 31 Jul 84 19:40:15 cdt
From: David Wilson
Could someone please explain the difference between a "hacker" and
a "cracker" as described in Vol 6, #68 for an ignorant undergrad?
------------------------------
Date: Thursday, 2 August 1984 10:16:52 EDT
From: Purvis.Jackson@cmu-cs-cad.arpa
Subject: rhetorical software
I am interested in developing computer assisted writing tools for
producing technical documentation, and I would appreciate any info on
the topic of "Computer-Aided Invention" software. I am familiar with
Hugh Burns's approach, but I want to approach the problem from a
somewhat more task-oriented perspective. Also, is anyone out there in
netland familiar with the software marketed by PromptDoc of Denver?
If so, what are the strong and weak points of their package?
Replies to pmj@cmu-cs-cad.arpa
Thanks. --Purvis Jackson
------------------------------
Date: Sat 28 Jul 84 21:37:46-PDT
From: Kenneth Brooks
Subject: database of algorithms
[Forwarded (with permission) from the Stanford bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]
I have just come back inspired from Siggraph. At one of the panel
sessions there, Alan Kay showed a demo film of Sketchpad, the first
interactive computer graphics editor. It has a lot of really
excellent features, not seen in many graphics editing systems now
being written and sold. He commented, we ought to be standing on the
shoulders of others. We ought to be doing AT LEAST as well as systems
of the distant past.
Why don't we? Why do we keep on reinventing the wheel, in the process
neglecting to reinvent such amenities as the rubber tire? I can
answer for my own case: I have reimplemented many a standard textbook
algorithm, and have reinvented several algorithms that might have been
learned from a textbook, because I did not know where to look. Other
such programs may exist, yes - but buried how deep? How long might it
take to dig up the program from a thesis done in '72?
I think we could do something very effective about this problem: apply
some database technology and come up with an on-line database of
algorithms. What I would like to be able to do is come up and type in
a key phrase like "balanced 2-3 tree" or "b-tree" or "command parsing"
or "hidden surface". The database should then come up with one or
more headers, each of which could be delved into at will. Entries
might be of several forms:
1. The source of a program, or a module or fragment of a program, that
implements an algorithm for this purpose. The program should be
moderately well-commented, though it need not be extremely
general-purpose. I can translate programs; seeing a real
implementation with bugfixes for the nitty little bugs would be
immmensely valuable.
2. A pointer to a program on-line here or elsewhere. This is much
worse than direct retrieval, as it quite likely adds 24 hours or
more to the effective retrieval time; however, it is alot better
than nothing.
3. An exerpt from a standard text, discussing the topic and hopefully
presenting the algorithm in pseudocode. Where we can get the
author's permission, that would be great.
4. A reference to a standard text. Once again, slow retrieval
problem, the user probably cannot use this reference until tomorrow
when the library is open.
5. A pointer to a commercially available product that handles the
problem. Probably not useful in many cases, but in some it might
be.
If we had such a database with material for all the interesting
algorithms implemented at Stanford, it would be a treasure; if we
could get code from elsewhere as well, even better. If we could get
funded to provide this service to the CS community as a whole, in the
same way that MIT has provided MACSYMA as a service, it would be
really wonderful, and would well repay the funders (could we ever get
them to understand that?)
Any comments?
Kenneth
------------------------------
Date: Sun 29 Jul 84 04:33:39-PDT
From: Ethan Bradford
Subject: CS: Database of algorithms.
[Forwarded from the Stanford bboard by Laws@SRI-AI.]
The ACM publishes a reference book (with periodic supplements) called
"The Collected Algorithms of the ACM", which has most of the
information you ask for, though it is on paper. It does not point to
net-available implementations of the algorithms, however, and on-line
lookup has many advantages. One problem with providing pointers to
implementations is protecting against sloppy code and Trojan horses.
-- Ethan
------------------------------
Date: 20 July 1984 09:12-EDT
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Sci.Am. article on multi-language computer-documents
To: TREITEL @ SUMEX-AIM
Neither. It's infeasible to do automatic translation or to develop a
new lingua franca (Latin, Esperanto and Interlingua all failed to
become a common business language), thus we must allow multiple
languages to exist in a single document so that the language of origin
can be used whatever it is but translations (by humans) can be added
later and the reader can always compare the original with the
translations to verify the translations are correct. At least that's
my interpretation/suggestion.
------------------------------
Date: 21 July 1984 05:40-EDT
From: "Marvin A. Sirbu, Jr."
Subject: Multilingual text and electronic mail
The PTT's of the world have been working over the last 8 years to
develop a standard for an electronic mail system which would be able
to handle all the world's languages. Introduced about four years ago
beginning in Germany and Scandanavia was a system called Teletex or
"super telex". A key feature of Teletex is an alphabet with 256
characters which allows for all the diacritical marks (umlaut,
cedilla, etc) of ALL of the latin-based languages.
In revisions over the last four years, the standard has been expanded
to provide for negotiated character sets. This allows two terminals
to decide before file transfer that the incoming bytes are to be
interpreted as from an Arabic or Persian font as opposed to latin.
Extension to a two-byte font code even allows the terminals to
negotiate the use of Kanji (Japanese and Chinese ideograms).
See CCITT standard S.70.
Marvin Sirbu
------------------------------
Date: 14 Jul 84 10:53-PDT
From: mclure @ Sri-Unix.arpa
Subject: Delphi Experiment: group play against 8-ply machine
[Please read the note at the end of this message before replying to
this message. Thanks. - Charles]
I would like to conduct a Delphi Experiment with this list. The
format of the experiment is as follows. All interested chess players
will vote for their choice of move in an on-going game between them
(the group) and the Fidelity Prestige which will be set to search a
minimum of 8-ply deep (like Belle and Cray Blitz). This Prestige has
the ECO opening modules (80,000 variations).
A move with the most number of votes will be chosen above others
and made in the current position. A couple days will be given for
gathering the votes. In the event of a tie between two or more moves,
the move will be selected randomly.
The resulting position will then be handed to Prestige 8-ply which
will conduct a brute-force search to at least 8-ply. Its move will be
reported (the search usually takes about 3-15 hours) to the players and
another move vote will be solicited. This process will continue until
the Prestige mates the group or the group mates the Prestige or a draw
is declared.
The moves, as they are made, will be reported to this list.
Please include the move number and the move in either Algebraic
or English notation.
>>>>>>>>> Prestige 8-ply will play White.
>>>>>>>>> Prestige 8-ply moves 1. e4 (P-K4)
BR BN BB BQ BK BB BN BR
BP BP BP BP BP BP BP BP
-- ** -- ** -- ** -- **
** -- ** -- ** -- ** --
-- ** -- ** WP ** -- **
** -- ** -- ** -- ** --
WP WP WP WP -- WP WP WP
WR WN WB WQ WK WB WN WR
Your move, please?
Replies to Arpanet: mclure@sri-unix or Usenet: sri-unix!mclure.
DO NOT SEND REPLIES TO THE ENTIRE LIST! Just send them to one of
the above addresses.
[Moderator's note: Due to the loss of our Arpanet connection, I have
not received several moves. Currently I beleive Stuart is up to move
5. I will have the most up-to-date move I can in the next digest.
-Charles]
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: daemon@ucbvax.UUCP (daemon@ucbvax.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #45
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-08-08 19:53:20 PST
From MCGREW@RUTGERS.ARPA Wed Aug 8 19:52:29 1984
HUMAN-NETS Digest Wednesday, 8 Aug 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 45
Today's Topics:
Query - Latitude and Longitude,
Response to Query - Program Specification Database (2 msgs) &
Hacker vs. Cracker,
Chess - The Delphi Experiment
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 8 Aug 84 16:07:07 PDT (Wednesday)
From: Hodges.pa@XEROX.ARPA
Subject: Latitude and Longitude encoding question...
To: Astronomy^.PA@XEROX.ARPA,
cc: Kluger.pa@XEROX.ARPA
Hi,
I need to keep latitude and longitude information in a record
containing information about a network. The initial values will be in
ascii text contained in a string (e.g. "109 26 33" ). I expect the
units of the initial values will always be degrees, minutes, and
seconds. I want to find out if anyone is aware of standard latitude
and longitude encoding (packing?) schemes. Are there reasons other
than economy of storage to encode latitude and longitude? Why?
(comparison operations, etc?)
Thanks for your help,
Jeff Hodges
------------------------------
Date: Mon 6 Aug 84 11:05:13-PDT
From: WYLAND@SRI-KL.ARPA
Subject: Program Specification Database
I think the following interchange talks about a good idea but
just manages to miss it:
Cc: cwr at WHITE
Date: Sat 28 Jul 84 21:37:46-PDT
From: Kenneth Brooks
Subject: database of algorithms
[Forwarded (with permission) from the Stanford bboard by
Laws@SRI-AI.]
I have just come back inspired from Siggraph. At one of the panel
sessions there, Alan Kay showed a demo film of Sketchpad, the
first interactive computer graphics editor. It has a lot of
really excellent features, not seen in many graphics editing
systems now being written and sold. He commented, we ought to be
standing on the shoulders of others. We ought to be doing AT
LEAST as well as systems of the distant past.
Basically, of course, I agree with what you are trying to say --
avoiding duplication of effort is like Mom and apple pie. Alan (and
Mark Vickers who showed that tape in the session I was in) state a
good GOAL, but no one has discovered how to achieve it. The library
of algorithms is of no real help at all.
Not all things get better through time, look at air quality. We
cannot automatically expect that if program X is written before
program Y that Y is necessarily better than X. The issue is more than
simple ignorance of what has gone before. Program Y is likely written
under very different constraints (different CPU, different display
device type (eg vector/raster), different graphical input devices).
This is not just a matter of "device independence" but rather of
different user interface techniques being more appropriate for
different types of hardware. (Newer faster hardware make fancier user
interaction styles practical.)
Sketchpad was a very large system (especially for its day), very few
of its algorithms were particularly unique. A library of algorithms
would not address this problem -- its just one of software bulk and
non-trans-portability.
-c
------------------------------
Date: Sun 5 Aug 84 14:50:46-PDT
From: Richard Treitel
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #44
re: Crackers and Hackers
A nice simple easily memorisable definition is the following:
"A cracker is a CRiminally inclined hACKER"
Some people may take exception to the implication that even a minority
of hackers have criminal inclinations, and others may argue that most
crackers are not talented enough to deserve to be called hackers. I
get more and more sympathetic to Mark Crispin's fondness for the plain
old word "vandal".
- Richard
------------------------------
Date: 7 August 1984 07:41-EDT
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: hacker vs. cracker
To: wookie @ RICE
A "hacker" is somebody who has a penchant for understanding how
computer systems really work instead of the misleading or incomplete
descriptions that occur in documentation, and using such knowledge for
making things work more efficiently than by advertised means or for
making things work that seem impossible based on published
information.
A "cracker" is somebody who has a penchant for violating the security
of computer systems.
It used to be the two were related, if you were an expert at the
security aspects of a system you could possibly figure out how to
violate them. But now with thousands of random people banging away at
a security system until one person accidently discovers a flaw in it,
and that one person advertising a recipe for violating the security on
hundreds of bulletin boards arond the country, then thousands of
random users of those bulletin boards using that recipe to violate
that one system, you don't have to know anything about a system to
break into it using a recipe you happen to see on a bulletin board, so
crackers aren't necessarily (or even usually) hackers any more.
------------------------------
Date: 7 August 1984 08:05-EDT
From: Robert Elton Maas
Subject: Delphi Experiment: group play against machine -> just people
To: mclure @ SRI-UNIX
I'd be more interested in a delphi experiment with Go instead of
Chess. Pick some starting position (probably not start of game, there
are too many good ways to play the fuseki) and see if we can converge
on the optimum way for both sides to play through to the end. Allow
backtracking at any time, thus if you suddenly see where one side made
a mistake you can change your vote at that point. If changed vote(s)
cause an alternate branch to have largest vote, the experiment shifts
to explore that branch instead of the one that had largest vote
before. Either allow everyone to vote for both black and white moves,
or divide the membership into two teams and have them select only
their own moves not opponents.
Note that my method doesn't require a go-playing program/machine to
play one side of the game.
To speed up the experiment, allow a voter to specify a whole sequence
of moves in advance, contingent on the opponent choosing the same move
as in the sequence. (For example: now I move ..., if he replies ...
then I conterreply ..., etc.; abbreviated of course.) So long as the
first move agrees with the voted move and the reply agrees with the
voted reply then the next move will be counted as a vote.
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: daemon@ucbvax.UUCP (daemon@ucbvax.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #46
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-08-15 18:42:31 PST
From MCGREW@RUTGERS.ARPA Wed Aug 15 18:41:36 1984
HUMAN-NETS Digest Wednesday, 15 Aug 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 46
Today's Topics:
Responses to Queries - Latitude and Longitude Encoding &
Hacker vs. Cracker (2 msgs),
Computers and People - People who want mail contacts,
Chess - 7th move
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu 9 Aug 84 09:39:29-PDT
From: Ken Laws
Subject: Re: Latitude and Longitude encoding question...
To: Hodges.pa@XEROX.ARPA
Cc: Astronomy^.PA@XEROX.ARPA, Kluger.pa@XEROX.ARPA
Jon Bentley presents a case for encoding latitude and longitude
as 3-D x, y, and z coordinates in his Programming Pearls column,
CACM, February 1984. The application involved finding, for each
of 20,000 points, the nearest neighbor in a set of 5,000 points
on the surface of a sphere. This computation could be carried out
far faster in rectilinear coordinates than in spherical coordinates.
-- Ken Laws
------------------------------
Date: 9 August 1984 03:21-EDT
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: hacker vs. cracker
To: REM @ MIT-MC
Cc: wookie@ RICE
Right on. Hackers can be bu are not necessaril crackers, and
usualy are not; crackers in general cannot be hackers, and only
in exceptional circumstances know how to hack anything.
------------------------------
Date: 9 August 1984 03:40-EDT
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
To: wookie @ RICE
A hacker is admirable. A cracker is contemptible. On these two
definitions hang all the Law and the Profits.
Pournelle"s Fourth Law.
------------------------------
Date: 14 Aug 84 18:37 +0200
From: Jacob_Palme_QZ%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: People who want mail contacts
Please forward the list below to all users of your CBMS
List of some users of the COM computer conferencing system at the QZ
University Computing Center in Stockholm, Sweden, who are interested
in communicating via mail networks with people with similar interests
overseas.
To send a message to any of the people below, take the name of the
person, replace spaces with underlines, and add
"%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA", at the end, e.g.
Trevor_Smith%QZCOM.MAILNET@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
+---- NAME -------+ +--- WORK --------+ +--- INTERESTS --------------+
Trevor Smith Computers Inc. Expert systems, multi-micros
Ingemar Joelsson Medical Univ. Obstetrics, Gyneology,
Message systems
Roy Goodman MacNeal-Schwendler Teleseminars,
communication design
Orjan Ekeberg NADA Techn. Univ. AI, Interactive programming
Arne Kannel RIT Techn. Univ. Synthetic fuels from biomass
Mats Ohlin Datakul Consultant SIMULA, The future
Bo Einarsson LIDAC Univ. computing Director, numerical software
Gisle Hannemyr University Cognitive ergonomics,
multi-media CBMS
Rick Blake Essex Comp. service DEC-10/20, Networks, systems
Eng-Leong Foo Medical univ. Microbiology, biocas,
nitrogen fixation
Bertil Hansson ADB University Computer science
Richard Friedman Scientific consult. Supercomputers,
array processors
B. Mahon Comp. networks Networks, human interfaces,
services
Bj|rn Larsen UiO University CBMS, LAN,
Network standards, OS
Arne Franse'n FOA1 Military Research Operations res.
Extreme values distr.
Les Hewitt ICI UK Computer Center TOPS-10, VAX/VMS
Per Lindberg QZ Univ. computing Personal comp., OS, Simula,
C, KERMIT
B.Svante Eriksson Consultant Comp. netw., protocols,
WAN, LAN, PABX
Torbjorn Lindelof CERN Program libraries, games,
AI, workstat.
Bj|rn O Fabricius University Microbiology,
Microcomputer databases
Yrjoe Solantausta Techn. research Biomass conversion
Bjorn Danielsson Univ. computing TOPS-20, LISP, PROLOG
KPJ Jaakkola QZ Univ. computing OS, error-free software
Robert Harper University Nitrogen fixation,
comp. conferencing
Willie Black Oxford University Networks, TEX,
high energy physics
Dennis Jennings University EARN, Networks,
Univ. computing
Ulf Beyschlag CERN CERN Networking, CBMS
Kari Raiha Univ. University Database theory, algorithms
Bo Janzon Military research Terminal Ballistics,
weapons effects
Gillis Een Consultant Food technology, Biotechnology
Petri Kutvonen University Comp. architecture,
perf. evaluation
Paul Bemelmans UiO University TOPS-10/20, Photography,
Scandinavia
Robert L. Fink Univ. comp. center Local networks,
remote networks
B Pehrson COSYL University Computer system design,
architecture
Hans Eriksson Tek Techn. university DEC and Nord computers
Klaas Lingbeek Agricult. univ. TOPS-10/20, VMS, UNIX,
CPM, RSX-11
Anatole Klyosov Academy of Science Biochemistry, Enzymes,
Carbohydrates
Tomas Baiget CIDC University Online systems,
micros for libraries
Hans Albertsson SUF P.T.T. VAX-11
Olle Andren SLU Agricult. univ. Soil microarthropod activity
Daniel Karrenberg University UNIX
Jacob Palme QZ Univ. comp. center Computer conferencing,
Comp. games
------------------------------
Date: 11 Aug 84 2:47-PDT
From: mclure @ Sri-Unix.arpa
To: chess @ Sri-Unix, ailist @ Sri-Ai.arpa
Subject: number-cruncher vs. humans: 7th move.
The Vote Tally
--------------
Folks, the moves are in and have been tallied.
The winner is: 6 ... a6.
The runner-up was 6 ... e5.
We had a narrow mix of moves.
One person recommended the pawn stab 6 ... h5.
I made this a somewhat faster vote so only a total of 11 votes were
cast. Please relay this message to any friends you have who might be
interested in participating. This includes non-net people. If you
are in a chess club, take along a copy of this message and get a group
vote from your club.
The Machine Moves
-----------------
The Prestige 8-ply replied 7. Bf1 from book in 0 seconds.
Humans Move # Votes
BR ** -- BQ BK BB -- BR 6 ... a6 5
** BP ** BB BP BP BP BP 6 ... e5 3
BP ** BN BP -- BN -- ** 6 ... d5 1
** -- BP -- ** -- ** -- 6 ... e6 1
-- ** -- ** WP ** -- ** 6 ... h5 1
** -- WP -- ** WN ** --
WP WP -- WP -- WP WP WP
WR WN WB WQ WR WB WK --
Prestige 8-ply
The Game So Far
---------------
1. e4 c5 6. Re1 a6
2. Nf3 d6 7. Bf1 ???
3. Bb5+ Nc6
4. o-o Bd7
5. c3 Nf6
Commentary
----------
Brad Merrill, Rtillson.Merrill@DEC-MARLBORO, USCF 1902, said:
I recommend 6 ... a6. This will greatly restrict whites options.
Solicitation
------------
Your move, please?
Replies to Arpanet: mclure@sri-unix or Usenet:
sri-unix!mclure. DO NOT SEND REPLIES TO THE ENTIRE LIST! Just
send them to one of the above addresses.
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: daemon@ucbvax.UUCP (daemon@ucbvax.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #47
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-08-22 09:58:45 PST
From MCGREW@RUTGERS.ARPA Wed Aug 22 09:56:08 1984
HUMAN-NETS Digest Tuesday, 21 Aug 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 47
Today's Topics:
Computers and the Law - Tapping lines to halt software smuggling,
Information - Low level Microwaves and Cancer,
Chess - Delphi: Move 7
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 20 Aug 84 14:39:11 PDT
From: Rutenberg.pa@XEROX.ARPA
Subject: U.S. may tap lines to halt software smuggling by phone
The following is from a recent issue of the San Jose Mercury News.
Besides the obvious potential impact on network users, it also has
significance for censorship & restrictions of foreigners from
conferences (they want to be able to place "intellectual property" on
restriction lists).
Some issues that the article raises include:
- How are they going to spot a restricted program being sent?
The NSA already does interception based on keywords for international
Telex traffic so obvious keywords in plain text should be easy, but
what if the restricted program is scrambled before being sent (e.g.
compiled for a specific machine or encrypted).
- Is tapping phones really going to stem the flow of software
out of the country? Surely it is rather trivial to physically smuggle
it out; a tape holds 150 MBytes and even a tiny Macintosh diskette
holds almost half a megabyte.
In any case, it is rather obvious that solid encryption is going to
become a necessity. It also brings up the issue of DES's security
again since the government apparently doesn't see DES as an easy way
to avoid their monitoring.
I'm confused!
Mike
-------------
U.S. may tap lines to halt software smuggling by phone
The Washington Post
The Reagan administration may expand electronic surveillance activity
to prevent sensitive computer software from being smuggled overseas
through international telephone calls, according to U.S. officials.
The effort to control software exports is part of the administration's
drive to deny the Soviet bloc access to high technology that could be
used for military purposes. Software - the instructions that tell
computers what calculations to perform - can be used for a wide
variety of military applications, ranging from designing weapons to
keeping track of materials.
However, unlike main-frame computers, machine tools, or other pieces
of hardware that can be physically inspected before export, computer
software and data not only can be exported on disc or tape, but they
can also be transformed into electronic impulses and sent at the speed
of light to virtually any country over the international telephone
network. Commerce Department officials and Pentagon analysts say they
need a way to monitor the flow of international computer
communications to detect illegal exports.
Devising such a surveillance policy poses special problems for law
enforcement and intelligence agencies. Existing criminal wiretap laws
and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 were designed
primarily for monitoring voice communications and generally require
court approval. The extent to which the National Security Agency and
Justice Department monitor conversations under those laws is not
known.
A key issue to be resolved is whether those laws allow monitoring of
data communications without court approval.
"We don't believe that (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act)
constitutes a statutory prohibition against all warrant-less
surveillance involving non-aural acquisition of communication," a
Justice Department official said in response to an inquiry from Sen.
Patrick Leahy, R-Vt., earlier this year. Several Justice Department
officials believe that the wiretap laws also do not prohibit
monitoring of data communications without a warrant.
"Exporting of controlled technologies through signals and modems" -
devices which let computers "talk" with one another over telephone
lines - "does create problems for us," said Theodore H. Wu, deputy
assistant secretary of commerce for export enforcement. He
acknowledged that discussions pertaining to wiretap technology as a
means to aid enforcement "have taken place."
"This is going to present a real problem, not just in the context of
computer programs but in the context of an open society, because the
need is there," he said.
Intelligence sources indicate that the National Security Agency, which
has the technology to monitor the transmission of data from the United
States, is involved in analyzing the software export issue for an
interagency export control group.
The effort to deal with potential software-smuggling by wire reflects
a major push by the Defense and Commerce departments to place various
kinds of intellectual property - especially computer software - on the
lists of technologies that face export restrictions.
To date, there have been no reported cases of software being exported
illegally over phone lines.
It would be technologically feasible for the owner of a personal
computer in Washington, for example, to make a five-minute phone call
to London and "export" a computer aided design program that would be
useful to a weapons engineer.
Many companies such as International Business Machines Corp.,
Hewlett-Packard Co. and Texas Instruments Inc., reportedly transmit
computer data and software internationally over phone lines. Such
transfers usually require export licenses or a "letter of assurance"
from the Commerce Department.
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 16-Aug-84 14:29:03 PDT
From: Lauren Weinstein
Subject: Low level microwaves and cancer
a212 1114 16 Aug 84
AM-Microwaves-Cancer, Bjt,730
Study Finds Microwave Exposure Linked With Higher Rates of Cancer
By BARTON REPPERT
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Glandular changes and a higher rate of cancer
were found among laboratory rats chronically exposed to low-intensity
microwaves, according to a study by University of Washington
researchers.
Results emerging from the $4.5 million study sponsored by the Air
Force, have prompted substantial concern among researchers
investigating the biological and health effects of non-ionizing
radiation, according to Microwave News, a specialized scientific
newsletter.
''In addition to a general increase in cancer incidence, the
experimental results suggest that microwave exposure is responsible
for wide-ranging effects related to the adrenal glands and the entire
endocrine system,'' the publication reported.
The adrenal glands, adjacent to the kidneys, and other glands of
the endocrine system produce chemical hormones vital to the regulation
of many bodily functions.
The Microwave News account noted that the findings could provide
an experimental basis for widely reported complaints of headaches,
dizziness, memory loss and fatigue from workers chronically exposed to
microwave radiation
Microwave radiation is emitted by a wide variety of sources
including thousands of military and civilian radar installations,
satellite ground stations, relay towers for long-distance telephone
links, television transmitters, as well as microwave ovens and
citizens band radios.
Environmental Protection Agency surveys have found that 99.4
percent of the people in 15 major cities were exposed to microwave and
radiofrequency radiation at power levels of 1 microwatt per square
centimeter or less.
Government microwave-oven regulations mandate that at the time of
sale, radiation emitted from the devices must not exceed 1,000
microwatts per square centimeter, measured at a distance 5 centimeters
from the oven's outside surface. For older ovens, the limit rises to a
maximum of 5,000 microwatts per square centimeter.
Although the University of Washington study utilized the same
frequency used in many microwave ovens, the experiment also exposed
the rats to special pulsing and modulation characteristics that are
not found in the consumer cooking devices.
If confirmed by other researchers, the test results ''would
undermine the 1982 American National Standards Institute
radiofrequency and microwave radiation exposure standard,'' according
to Microwave News. This voluntary standard sets safety levels of 1,000
to 5,000 microwatts per square centimeter for human exposure to
microwave radiation.
The research team, headed by Professor Arthur W. Guy at the
university's School of Medicine in Seattle, exposed rats up to 25
months to pulsed microwaves at a level of 480 microwatts per square
centimeter.
The EPA has prepared draft ''guidance'' for establishing a legally
enforceable safety standard for exposure to mirowave and
radiofrequency radiation.
But the document's release - originally set for June - has been
delayed, reportedly due to an internal dispute within the agency. EPA
Assistant Administrator Joseph Cannon has said the agency is
considering a number of options, including abandonment of the draft
standard.
Results of the University of Washington study were presented at a
scientific conference last month in Atlanta.
The researchers disclosed that there were 16 malignant tumors
among 100 exposed rats, compared to four tumors among 100 control
animals. The 16 tumors in exposed rats included seven involving the
endocrine system - two thyroid, two pituitary and three adrenal gland
tumors.
The average weight of the adrenal glands in the exposed animals
was double that of the control animals, the researchers said.
In addition, there were six benign adrenal tumors - known as
pheochromocytomas - in the exposed rats, but none among the controls.
This type of tumor has been associated with high blood pressure,
headaches and stress in human patients.
Dr. Samuel Milham, an epidemiologist for the Washington State
Health Department, said results of the study appeared to point to a
''stress reaction'' in the exposed animals.
''It looks like the microwave radiation may have been a tumor
promoter,'' he said in a telephone interview. ''It didn't initiate the
cancers, but once some cancer cells got going it promoted growth of
the tumors.''
Milham has conducted statistical reviews that found increased
rates of leukemia among power-station operators, aluminum workers,
power and telephone linemen as well as other workers chronically
exposed to electric and magnetic fields.
''The scientific data suggest the need for further epidemiological
studies involving workers exposed to microwave and radiofrequency
radiation,'' said David LeGrande, director of occupational safety and
health for the Communications Workers of America. ''Many thousands of
workers may be exposed to hazardous levels, and they need to know what
the dangers associated with such exposure might be.''
------------------------------
Date: 15 Aug 84 20:46-PDT
From: mclure @ Sri-Unix.arpa
To: chess @ Sri-Unix, ailist @ Sri-Ai.arpa
Subject: Delphi: number-cruncher out of book
The Vote Tally
--------------
Folks, the moves are in and have been tallied.
The winner is: 7 ... e5.
The runner-up is 7 ... g6.
A total of 17 moves were cast. Please relay this message to any
friends you have who might be interested in participating. This
includes non-net people. If you are in a chess club, take along a
copy of this message and get a group vote from your club.
The Machine Moves
-----------------
Depth Move Time for search Nodes Estimate
8 ply d4 10 hours, 6 minutes ~3.6x10^7 -=
I will delay publishing the principal variation and the evaluation
score, because these might be a boon to the humans. These will be
published at the game's end. Note that the machine thinks it is at a
positional disadvantage.
Humans Move # Votes
BR ** -- BQ BK BB -- BR 7 ... e5 8
** BP ** BB ** BP BP BP 7 ... g6 6
BP ** BN BP -- BN -- ** 7 ... Bg4 1
** -- BP -- BP -- ** -- 7 ... e6 1
-- ** -- WP WP ** -- ** 7 ... b5 1
** -- WP -- ** WN ** --
WP WP -- ** -- WP WP WP
WR WN WB WQ WR WB WK --
Prestige 8-ply
The Game So Far
---------------
1. e4 c5 6. Re1 a6
2. Nf3 d6 7. Bf1 e5
3. Bb5+ Nc6 8. d4
4. o-o Bd7
5. c3 Nf6
Commentary
----------
George Eldridge, , USCF ???
Once we get this thing out of the book it should be an interesting
game. The style of play should be very similar between a group of
humans voting and a chess program. For both it is difficult to
develop a long term strategy, therefore the game is guided by
tactics rather than stratetgy. Blunders by the human side should be
eliminated by virtue of the group vote. Of course, the computer
algorithm is assumed to be good enough to prevent blunders. It
should be a close match.
Solicitation
------------
Your move, please?
Replies to Arpanet: mclure@sri-unix or Usenet: sri-unix!mclure.
DO NOT SEND REPLIES TO THE ENTIRE LIST! Just send them to one of
the above addresses.
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: daemon@ucbvax.UUCP (daemon@ucbvax.UUCP)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #48
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-08-23 21:25:34 PST
From MCGREW@RUTGERS.ARPA Thu Aug 23 21:24:26 1984
HUMAN-NETS Digest Thursday, 23 Aug 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 48
Today's Topics:
Computer Networks - Telephone Taps on Int'l Calls (2 msgs) &
Crack the Data Encryption Standard?
Information - Re: Low level microwaves and cancer
Chess - Number-Cruncher vs. Humans: 9th Move
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 84 22:06:39 pdt
From: fair%ucbarpa@Berkeley (Erik E. Fair)
Subject: Re: Telephone Taps on Int'l Calls
The USENET link to Europe goes at 1200 baud from Merrimack, NH to
Amsterdam, Holland. Do you think the NSA will be interested in
huffman coded netnews? Only 16Mbytes per month!
curious,
Erik E. Fair ucbvax!fair fair@ucb-arpa.ARPA
P.S. Among other things, this digest goes over that link...
------------------------------
Date: 23 August 1984 03:56-EDT
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: U.S. may tap lines to halt software smuggling by phone
To: Rutenberg.pa @ XEROX
What did the article SAY? It is rotten journalism. one
official is named; he is quoted as saying that "discussion took
place", not that he thought tapping phones would be any use. he
is also quoted as saying that "it will be a problem to us."
All the rest of the article is speculation, or quuotes
ananymous sources, with no possible verification.
It may be that they're planning to do something about
telephoned software, but you sure can't prove that by anything
in the article, which seems to be pure spec.
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 22 Aug 84 14:33:45 pdt
From: E. Howard Alt
Subject: Crack the DES?
I don't remember if the DES and cryptography have been brought
up here before (I was probably asleep or somthing), but I guess
I'd like to comment about the DES, etc.
The effort to develop the DES (Data Encryption Standard) was a
joint effort between the No Such Agency and the Incredible Bowel
Movment. IBM developed a cryptographic scheme that is fairly
changable (key length, internal variables, etc). NSA specified the
various parameters (key length, internal variables, etc).
There are 2 ways to break a cryptographic system. The first
is to discover the key that was used to generate the ciphertext.
The second is to break the system itself so you don't need the
key. The first situation is easy to solve (in theory), all you
have to do is make the key so big that it would take too long
to run through all possible combinations (and protect it... but
that is a different sort of attack). The other method is based on
finding a shortcut through the algorithm so you can find the key.
There are people in the (non government) cryptographic world that
believe one could (today) spend $20 million and build a machine that
could mount a known plaintext attack and discover a key. Note that
the requires the bad guy to have some plaintext-ciphertext pairs. Also
note that a ciphertext only attack is not possible under this machine.
The idea is that we went out and stole some messages that were sent,
and we also have a copy of the encrypted version of the message. We
are assuming that further messages we might want to read are encrypted
under the same key. The way we discover the key is to do an exaustive
search over the 10^17 possible keys. If we could check one key every
microsecond, we could do all of the keys in 10^11 seconds (or 10^6
days). Now, if we build a million of these little machines (10^6),
and each are checking one key, it only takes one day to solve for a
key. If the key were 128 or 256 bits, it would cost $2 X 10^25. In
fact, quantum mechanical and thermodynamic considerations rule out
exhaustive searches on keys of several hundred bits.
The DES is pretty complicated, and I don't feel like looking
in the fips pub and describing it here. In a very general way,
here it is:
There are 3 user supplied part to the DES, the plaintext, the
ciphertext and the key. The plaintext is split up into
64 bit chunks to be applied to the 56 bit key, and out pops
the 64 bit ciphertext (this is encryption if you haven't guessed).
Between the popping in and popping out, the 64 bits gets shifted,
permuted and xored according to various parameters.
The parameters are all variable are set by the NSA for the
standard. According to the cryptographic heavys, the NSA chose
very funny numbers for these parameters. In fact, they say that
one could just about pick the parameters at random, and chances
are very good that they would be better than the ones NSA chose.
These people are pretty much convinced (at least this is what they
say) that NSA didn't pick these parameters to create a trap door
in the DES (although they did believe this at one time).
Oh yes, I should mention something else. I have been mumbling a
lot about NSA, but you chould know (if you don't already) that
NBS (National Bureau of Standards) is the group that is the
official part of the government responsible for DES. I doubt
NSA is officially responsible for anything (other than keeping an
eye on things like this... hi guys).
If some company wanted thier encrypted data to be secure (although
non standard), all they would have to do is change the DES parameters
around a bit, or do a more sophisticated application of DES (there are
several well known methods that make DES much more secure).
Pretty exciting, eh? I always fall asleep in talks about this sort
if thing... I almost fell asleep writing it...
Howard.
------------------------------
Date: 23 August 1984 04:00-EDT
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: Low level microwaves and cancer
To: vortex!lauren @ RAND-UNIX
So that's why the Russians were beaming microwaves at our
Embassy?
------------------------------
Date: Thu Aug 23 14:47:43 1984
From: mclure@sri-prism
To: ailist@sri-ai
Subject: number-cruncher vs. humans: 9th move
The Vote Tally
--------------
Folks, the moves are in and have been tallied.
The winner is: 8 ... cxd4.
A total of 20 moves were cast. Please relay this message to any
friends you have who might be interested in participating. This
includes non-net people.
The Machine Moves
-----------------
Depth Move Time for search Nodes Machine's Est
8 ply cxd4 18 hours, 7 minutes 6.5x10^7 +=
Humans Move # Votes
BR ** -- BQ BK BB -- BR 8 ... cxd4 8 8 ... Qe7 1
** BP ** BB ** BP BP BP 8 ... Qc7 3
BP ** BN BP -- BN -- ** 8 ... Be7 3
** -- ** -- BP -- ** -- 8 ... Qb6 1
-- ** -- WP WP ** -- ** 8 ... e6 1
** -- ** -- ** WN ** -- 8 ... b5 1
WP WP -- ** -- WP WP WP 8 ... d5 1
WR WN WB WQ WR WB WK -- 8 ... Bg4 1
Prestige 8-ply
Note that the machine now thinks it is ahead positionally.
The Game So Far
---------------
1. e4 c5 6. Re1 a6
2. Nf3 d6 7. Bf1 e5
3. Bb5+ Nc6 8. d4 cxd4
4. o-o Bd7 9. cxd4
5. c3 Nf6
Commentary
----------
Goodell@xerox, USCF ?
I think 8 ... Be7 would be a good move now to prepare for castling
to the strong side. My second choice would be g6 followed by Bg7,
but I think it would take too long.
BLee.ES@xerox, USCF ?
8 ... Qb6 a) develops the queen, b) attacks d4 again, c)
discourages movement of white's queen bishop, d) prepares castling
long.
Tli@Usc-Eclb, USCF ?
Unfortunately, the voting will also keep out the inspired moves.
So we get an average game of all playing....
SLOAN@WASHINGTON
8. ... b5
It is worth noting a classical problem here in building a chess
program:
1) The machine was following its book until this move,
2) As White, the machine should enjoy AT LEAST EQUALITY in the
first position following "book" recommendations,
3) However, having switched from "book" evaluation to its own
opening/middle game evaluation, the machine now decides that it
doesn't much like this position after all!
There are several possibilities:
0) Black is superior in the starting position (unlikely!)
1) the book (at least this line) is inferior, and the machine
should discard it (anyone out there think that the Prestige will
do this?)
2) the book is (objectively) correct, but this line does not match
the playing "style" of the machine (i.e., the position is OK, but
the machine doesn't know the correct thematic continuations, and
hence will indeed find the position to be difficult.)
This last possibility is most likely, and is not limited to machine
play. Many human players have the same problem when they memorize
columns and columns of analysis without understanding the REASONS
for the evaluations at the ends of the columns. This leads to
post-mortem conversations of the form "That master isn't so strong;
I had him CRUSHED in the opening...but he SOMEHOW escaped to a dead
drawn ending - he didn't even know that it was theoretically drawn-
he refused my draw offer! - I was so mad at him for that that I
lost my concentration for 1 move and hung a piece."
CMP.WERNER@UTEXAS-20, USCF ?
Qc7 risky, but requiring a non-trivial evaluation by white.
JPERRY@SRI-KL, USCF 1893
I vote that Black's eighth move should be 8... cd
The reason I voted for this move is that Black
can occupy the thematic QB file sooner than white by
taking with the QBP. The move 8...ed seems to be a
blunder because white can try to prepare favorable
complications on the K file with e5. 8... Be7
seems plausible but allows 9. d5 and then Black has
no counter play on an open file. All in all, 8...cd
seems like Black's most logical retort to the bold
8. d4.
tpeters@BBNCCP, USCF ?
I vote for 8. ...Be7. I disagree with the
computer's assessment. Black may have equalized or
white may have a slight advantage, but there is no
reason to think that black is better. The following
is taken from Sizilianisch II by Rolf Schwarz. It
should be viewed as a guideline and source of ideas,
not as infallible gospel.
8.d4:
A. 8. ...Be7 9.d x c5! d x c5 10. Na3 slight advantage to white
[but why not 10. ...b5 equal? TP]
B. 8. ...c x d4 9. c x d4 Bg4 10. d5 Nd4 11. Be3! N x f3+
12. g x f3 Bh5 with slight advantage to white
I picked 8. ...Be7 because white's advantage in B.
seems small but quite clear. He (it?) has pressure
down the c file and the white light-square bishop
can become very active on h3. Moreover, his doubled
pawns are nowhere near as weak as they may seem to
some. At any rate it just doesn't seem reasonable
to open the center by 8. ...c x d4 while the
kingside is underdeveloped.
Schaer.dlos@XEROX, USCF ?
I vote for 8 ... cd
Cannot stand d5. Don't know what I intend to do after 9. cd, but
probably 9 ... Be7 and worry about 10. d5 later.
EWG@Cmu-Cs-Ps1, USCF ?
The comment that the group of humans won't have a
long term strategy is, I think, naieve. It is just
as easy for us to analyze lines of play (e.g.
kingside vs queenside attack, try to trade off and
queen a pawn, etc.) as it is for us to analyze the
single position. If anything it's somewhat easier,
since we think about that anyway. Why not solicit
votes on that level as well and at least report the
judgement (if not allowing it to directly choose the
move at hand, which would be rash). A suggestion
for later in the game, at least. This harkens back
to memories of 10 or so years ago when I was still
reading the chess books, and ran across a comment by
one of the grandmasters (Sam Reshevski, I think?)
who liked to play blitz and always used the style of
spending a significant time thinking about lines of
play at the start of the middle game.
His strategy was to have the lines firmly in
mind for later play. The comment was that his
opponents often got bored waiting for him to reply
at that time and wasted the real time; he could then
play at blitz pace much better as the game
progressed and the opponent struggled for the right
line(s) of play. It also had the surface appearance
of him putting himself deliberately
in time trouble, which wasn't the case.
rod@Maryland, USCF 2115
My rating is USCF 2115. I didn't want to enter until you were
in the middle game but 7....,e5??? is a mistake. Now, either
you allow 9. d5 in which case your queen-knight will be
difficult to develop, or you open the game which is very
dangerous becouse your king is in the middle and it will
take some time to 0-0.
If the machine plays right you will end up with an
isolated pawn or with d5 which will constraint you. Now here are
some of my thoughts:
if 8....,cxd5
9cxd4 Nc6
10 Nc3! (no yet d5 so your bishop-king will not go out)
and now you are almost forced to get an isolated pawn and the
machine is in much better posiiton.
In this position oyu may try
10....Qb6
but after
11 dxe dxe
12 Be3!
you can't play 12....Qxb2 because of 13 Nb5!+-
Let's get back to our initial position.
You may try
8...., Nc6
9 Bg5 Rc8 (no 9....,Be7 10d5 Nb8 and the rook can't go out)
10 Na3 Nc6
11 dxe dxe
12 Nc4 Qc7
13 Bxf6 gxf (no 13...,Bxf6 14Nd6+)
14 Ne3
and you are in a very difficult position in spite of
the pair of bishops. As you can see is very easy to
get out of the book but is much difficult to play
well. It much better to think that you are playing the
game of your life and that you have to play
the best you possible can. Find the best move in
every position, no matter who you are playing with.
Let's go back again. An interesting move although a little
dangerous is the following:
8...., Bc6!?
if 9 d5 then 9....,Bd7 you have lost one move but you have close
the position so it doesnt matter that much. You will then develop
your Q-Knight via a6-c7 and then try b5, a5 and c4. Here comes
the interesting part
9 dxe Nxe4
10 exd Qxd6
and no 10...,Bxd6 11 Qc2!! (no 11Kfd2 0-0! 12Kxe4 Bxe4
13Rxe4 Bxh2+! FORGET the last line.
10...., Bxd6 is good!
11 Ng5 0-0!!
12 Bf4+ Kh8
13 Kf7+ Rxf7
14 Bxf7 Bxh2+!+-
You will end up much more developed than the machine. So I think
she'll play safely 9 d5.
Solicitation
------------
Your move, please?
Replies to Arpanet: mclure@sri-unix or Usenet: sri-unix!mclure.
DO NOT SEND REPLIES TO THE ENTIRE LIST! Just send them to one of
the above addresses.
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA (human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #49
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-09-07 18:38:30 PST
From: Charles McGrew (The Moderator)
HUMAN-NETS Digest Friday, 7 Sep 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 49
Today's Topics:
Query - BBoard/Database Pointers,
Computers and the Law - Tapping lines to halt software smuggling
Chess - Should we have it? &
Algebraic -> Descriptive Notation Algorithm?
Information - MIT Communications Forum
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Thu, 6 Sep 84 14:37:02 edt
From: gvax.kevin@Cornell.ARPA (Kevin Karplus)
To: laws@sri-ai
Subject: message for ai and human-nets lists
This message is being sent for an acquaintance who does not have
access to a network. Please do NOT reply to me but to
Bob Parks
(607)257-7895
I'm not certain of the address, but I think it's
Political Science Dept
Elmira College
Elmira, NY (zip-code?)
He is looking for assitance in setting up a bulletin board/database
system (for political scientists) using microcomputers. Anyone who
has good ideas or pointers to good ideas on what such a system should
include or how it should be implemented should talk to him. I don't
know exactly what the system is supposed to do, nor how much money
that have to set it up, but they may be able to pay for some
consulting help.
I assume (from the discussions I've seen) that someone reading the ai
or human-nets newsgroups will have the information he needs.
Thanks,
Kevin Karplus
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 84 08:56:04 edt
From: chris@maryland (Chris Torek)
Subject: Re: U.S. may tap lines to halt software smuggling by phone
Oh good grief!
I'll bet the Reagan administration has never heard of USENET. (For
those of you who haven't, it's a network that is somewhat similar to
ARPAnet, except that it (a) isn't high speed; (b) isn't centrally
administered, and (c) isn't really all that well defined anyway.
However, it has links into Europe and Australia and Korea -- all sorts
of places.) Among lots of other stuff, software is broadcast over
this net.
Let me make a few medium-range predictions:
- WORLDNET will happen, eventually.
- There will be lots of effort to stop it on the part of those who
have vested interests in the current situation, especially
governments.
- The nature of computer networking (simultaneous broadcast and
point-to-point communications) will have as dramatic an effect on
society as the printing press.
Just think: if you have a worldwide network and want to start some
subversive activity, just broadcast two messages. The first contains
instructions (or code) for decrypting the second; the second is the
subversive message. You can't catch the second by keyword search
because it doesn't have any keywords until it's decrypted. (The
encryption can be as simple as a Caesar cipher.)
Here's another thing to think about. Right now, we can't discuss and
vote on ordinary happenings because the information and votes can't
happen fast enough. That's why we (the U.S.) have a representative
democracy for a government; we're (theoretically) paying these guys to
do what we would have done. Now stick in a high-speed computer
network. Voila! We *can* discuss and vote on the issue! [Not that
we *would*, just that we *can*.]
Naturally there are problems with these, but what I'm saying is that
*things are going to change*, providing we don't blow ourselves to
smithereens first. It won't happen instantly and it probably won't be
painless either, but that's the way I see it. Trying to ``put a lid''
on software going out of the country is going to be expensive, and
won't succeed, though it will have an effect. The question now is,
``is the effect worth the cost?'' Personally, I doubt it.
------------------------------
Date: 24 Aug 84 13:41:20 PDT (Fri)
Cc: mclure@sri-prism
Subject: Chess in Human-Nets
From: Martin D. Katz
Maybe the chess "Delphi" should be its own mailing list?
I don't think that Human-Nets is a good forum.
------------------------------
Date: 26 August 1984 06:17-EDT
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: number-cruncher vs. humans: 9th move
To: mclure @ SRI-PRISM
Cc: ailist @ SRI-AI
query: is there a program that can convert from the algebraic
notation to descriptive notation? I learned P-K4 and like that,
and there is no possibility that I will ever have an intuitive
feel for cxd4 and the like. Can it be converted for those of us
who are algebraic cripples?
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 7 Sep 84 09:22 EDT
From: Kahin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: Communications Forum
To: Telecom@USC-ECLC.ARPA, *bboard@MIT-MC.ARPA
MIT COMMUNICATIONS FORUM
National Media Policymaking
September 20, 1984 4-6 p.m.
Marlar Lounge, E37-252, 70 Vassar St., MIT
speakers:
Jeremy Tunstall, City University of London
Jack Lyle, Boston University
Rapidly developing mass media technologies have ended a relatively
stable, "classical" era of national and international policy.
Familiar concerns about cultural integrity are now mixed with
desire to participate in advanced technologies as a matter of
economic policy. The policymaking process has attracted many
newly interested parties and engendered much debate, sometimes
between government agencies.
Professor Tunstall has undertaken a study focusing on the policy
making process in the United States, Britain, and France, and the
prospective effect on the relationships between the United States
and the countries of Western Europe.
******
Multichannel MDS: Wireless Cable?
October 4, 1984 4-6 p.m.
Bush Room, Bldg 10-105, MIT
speakers:
Howard Klotz, Contemporary Communications
Peter Lemieux, Information Architects/ MIT
A new band of television has been created which may provide for as
many as 28 different television channels. The FCC has reassigned
eight channels in the ITFS band to MDS and is permitting the leasing
of "excess capacity" on ITFS channels to commercial users. In effect,
This service has been termed Multi channel MDS (or MMDS) and is seen
as potential competition for cable television. MMDS would be free
from local regulation and would not have to carry broadcast signals.
To be successful, however, it may require creative arrangements
between commercial entrepreneurs and nonprofit educational
institutions.
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA (human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #50
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-09-16 17:22:09 PST
From: Charles McGrew (The Moderator)
HUMAN-NETS Digest Sunday, 16 Sep 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 50
Today's Topics:
Queries - Errata-Exchange Mailing List? &
Arts Database,
Computers and the Law - Export Control of Software &
Privacy vs. Commercial Databases,
Information - ACM'84 Conference Announcement,
Chess - Chess in Human-Nets &
Move No. 11
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 9 Sep 1984 0801-PDT
From: Rem@IMSSS
Subject: Humorous typo, errata-exchange mailing list??
Sometimes typographic errors can be funny. For example, the latest
issue of RAG (Random Access Guide, a computer-faire publication) says
on page 3 that the Altair 8800 was the first computer. (They probably
meant to say the first microcomputer.)
I'm interested in starting an errata-exchange mailing list, whereby
people like myself who find typos and other errors in printed or
online media can exchange listings of errata. When two people read the
same document/article, the errata from the first person's reading can
save the second person the trouble of bumping into the errors again.
Even when only one person reads a particular item, others can get a
sample of the accuracy of that kind of item from that source, and use
that info to evaluate whether they should trust that source in the
future. -- Anybody else interested in such a mailing list?
------------------------------
Date: Sun 9 Sep 84 12:49:16-EDT
From: Janet Asteroff
Subject: Arts Database Query
Reply-to: us.jfa%cu20b@columbia-20.arpa
I am trying to find out if there is a database service that deals with
film--specifically film periodicals, for the purpose of keeping up on
a wide range of film criticism without collecting boxes of paper.
Something like Dialog or ABI/Inform, where abstracts can be looked at
and complete copies can be ordered.
If anyone knows of such a database, information would be appreciated.
/Janet
(US.JFA%cu20b@columbia-20.arpa)
------------------------------
Date: 16 Sep 84 16:57:09 EDT
From: DIETZ@RUTGERS.ARPA
Subject: Export control of software
I'm sure the NSA will conclude that controlling software export is
impossible. If the USSR wants to export a piece of code they need
only send it to one of their satellites, either by microwave or laser.
The former could be camoflagued as a satellite TV receiver, the later
could use a small IR laser and would be nearly invisible.
Controlling the physical export of software is also difficult. I need
only encrypt the software and carry it on my person. If stopped, I
could refuse to divulge the password (5th amendment). Could the
government then confiscate the diskette (or whatever)? They'd have no
proof it was restricted.
------------------------------
Date: 16 Sep 84 19:42:22 EDT
From: DIETZ@RUTGERS.ARPA
Subject: Privacy vs. Commercial Databases
The best way for me to make sure inaccurate personal information about
myself isn't transmitted is for me to distribute the information
directly. One can imagine a system in which each person maintains or
hires someone to maintain a personal database. There is no point in
making such a database available to others unless it is autenticated,
but at least that reduces the role of credit agencies from that of
sole sources of information to that of accuracy checkers.
If detailed information about my finances is useful to others, it
could be extremely valuable to me. A comprehensive financial
database, including a list of all my expenditures, would make possible
a computerized tax advisor program that could potentially save
thousands of dollars a year (not to mention saving time and hassle if
you're audited).
The big problem here is data entry. Some sort of EFT is desirable for
electronic receipts (using a public key signature scheme?). Failing
that, you'd want some sort of poortable data entry device to record
expenditures, such as a "smart credit card" or a portable voice input
device (it wouldn't have to operate in real time if sufficient
recording capacity were available, or if the recorded input could be
dumped periodically to a stationary computer). In the shorter term, a
machine readable bank statement would be useful.
------------------------------
From: Eugene Miya
Date: 13 Sep 1984 1528-PDT (Thursday)
Subject: ACM'84 Conference Announcement
Please send information requests to Lew Bornmann
(bornmann@ames-nas-gw), not me.
--eugene miya
NASA Ames Research Center
======================================================================
ACM-84: The Fifth Generation Challenge
What: ACM-84, the Association for Computing Machinery's 1984 Annual
Conference.
When: October 8 to 10, 1984, with an "Early Bird" reception on
Sunday, October 7.
Where: At the San Francisco Hilton and Tower, Mason and O'Farrell
Streets, San Francisco
Theme: The Fifth Generation Challenge
The Conference will examine:
The Impact of the Fifth Generation.
Specifically, the effect that Fifth Generation
computers will have over the next decade on society,
industry, the professions, and computer science.
The Building Blocks of the Fifth Generation.
An examination of current developments, new
techniques, and new products which will take computing
into the 1990s.
The Character of Integration...
in the Fifth Generation. How the Fifth Generation
building blocks will fit together, and the impact of
integration.
The technical conference program will complemented by:
o Professional Development Seminars.
o An exhibit program.
o An educators' program.
o A computer chess championship.
Social events will include a "Themes of San Francisco" gala evening
and an awards luncheon.
Special travel arrangements have been made with Corporate Travel
Services of Sunnyvale, Ca. These include discounted air fares and
pre- and post-conference tours. (CTS toll-free phone number:
800/851-3478; in California: call 408/734-9990 collect.)
Advance Registration Fees:
$110.00 ACM Members
$150.00 Non-ACM Members
Accommodations: Blocks of rooms for ACM-84 have been reserved. Please
contact the Hilton directly for reservations. When calling, specify
ACM-84 for reduced rates.
Director of Front Office Operations
San Francisco Hilton Tower
Mason and O'Farrell Streets
San Francisco, Ca. 94102
(415)771-1400
Room rates:
Singles begin at $67
Double begin at $87
For any additional information, contact:
(415)948-6306
------------------------------
Date: 7 Sep 84 22:21:56 EDT
From: Dave
Subject: Re: Chess in Human-Nets
To: Katz@UCI-750A.ARPA, mclure@SRI-PRISM.ARPA
There is a digest in which the "Delphi" chess experiments also
appear. That is the Chess digest. This is not to say that the
Human-Nets community is not also interested.
ds
------------------------------
Date: Mon Sep 10 22:12:57 1984
From: mclure@sri-prism
To: chess@sri-unix, ailist@sri-ai
Subject: number-cruncher vs. the world
The Vote Tally
--------------
The winner is: 11 ... Nxe2 (NxB).
A total of 11 moves were cast.
The Machine Moves
-----------------
Depth Move Time for search Nodes Machine's Est
8 ply Qxe2 5 hours, 43 minutes 2.06x10^7 +=
(QxN)
Humans Move # Votes
BR ** -- BQ BK BB -- BR 11 ... Nxe2 7
** BP ** -- ** BP BP BP 11 ... Nxf3 1
BP ** -- BP -- BN -- ** 11 ... b5 1
** -- ** WP BP -- ** -- 11 ... Nxe4 1
-- ** -- ** WP ** BB ** 11 ... Qb6 1
** -- ** -- ** WN ** --
WP WP -- ** WQ WP WP WP
WR WN WB -- WR -- WK --
Prestige 8-ply
The machine still thinks it is ahead positionally. Its evaluation
dropped from 13% of a pawn to 8% of a pawn.
The Game So Far
---------------
1. e4 (P-K4) c5 (P-QB4) 11. Be2 (B-K2) Nxe2 (NxB)
2. Nf3 (N-KB3) d6 (P-Q3) 12. Qxe2 (QxN)
3. Bb5+(B-N5ch) Nc6 (N-QB3)
4. o-o (O-O) Bd7 (B-Q2)
5. c3 (P-QB3) Nf6 (N-KB3)
6. Re1 (R-K1) a6 (P-QR3)
7. Bf1 (B-KB1) e5 (P-K4)
8. d4 (P-Q4) cxd4 (PXP)
9. cxd4 (PXP) Bg4 (B-N5)
10. d5 (P-Q5) Nd4 (N-Q5)
Commentary
----------
JPERRY@SRI-KL
I vote for NxN rather than NxB because White's king bishop is a
bad bishop (as is Black's). We would rather give up our,
heretofore, inactive queen's knight for White's active king knight
rather than his KB which is hampered by his own pawns. If white
replies BXN (likely), then Q-Q2 would be a better reply than BXB
because the Queen can cause more damage on White's vulnerable
light squares.
AVG@SU-AIMVAX
Please put avg@diablo on the list for this game.
I vote 11 .... Nxe2.
Move 11 looks obvious, but what should our plan be for the future?
White has the Q-side, so our chances lie on the K-side and the theme
is to attack the base of White's pawn chain with f5.
Two development plans are:
(A) Be7 and retreat Bd7 if the bishop is kicked. Then O-O and Ne8,
preparing f5. This keeps our d-pawn well guarded, but offers
little scope for the B on e7. Also, White can capture exf5 and
gain e4 for a knight, leaning on the d-pawn. We might play g6
before f5 so we can recapture gxf5.
(B) Like (A), but retreat Bh5 if the bishop is kicked with h3. This
may well provoke g4, inhibiting our f5.
(C) g6 and Bg7 and retreat Bd7 if the bishop is kicked. Then O-O and
Ne8 or Na5, preparing for f5. Now if exf5, we have gxf5, with
control of e4 and a mobile pawn center; thus White is unlikely to
capture exf5. The drawbacks are the weakness of the d-pawn and
the pin after Bg5.
I would favor (C) against a person because it is more active.
I dont think White can build enough pressure on the
d-pawn to cause serious problems. If Bg5 h6, Bh4 we can break the
pin at the right moment with g5 and get in f5 soon after. This
furthers our overall plan of a King-side attack.
However against a computer, (A) is probably better. Without any
obvious targets, the computer may have trouble forming a plan.
Meanwhile we can prepare quietly for f5.
(B) maintains a pin, but I dont see any value in the pin for us, and
dont care to provoke g4.
ACHEN.PA@XEROX
11 ... Nxe2 is the only sensible move.
White's Be2 is just a set up for possible 12 Nxd4 and threatening
with Bxf4. for the same reason, Black can't 11 ... Nxe4. I thought
White's 10 d5 was too conservative, this move took the most of the
pressure off King file. If 10 Be2 ... Black would be forced to
retreat the lone bishop else stand a chance of either losing it or
King's pawn. I am willing to agree with Prestige that the current
position does favor the White, since Black's attack seem to be
stalling.
Solicitation
------------
Your move, please?
Replies to Arpanet: mclure@sri-prism or
Usenet: ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!sri-prism!mclure
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA (human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #51
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-09-24 18:37:47 PST
From: Charles McGrew (The Moderator)
HUMAN-NETS Digest Monday, 24 Sep 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 51
Today's Topics:
Query - Function keys vs. Escape keys &
Looking for a Book,
Computers and the Law - Privacy vs. Commercial Databases (2 msgs),
Computers and People - Big Brother is Watching Visalia CA,
Chess - Delphi: Move 14
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 84 01:40 EDT
From: TMPLee@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: Function keys vs. escape keys
This has probably been asked before, and this is also probably not the
right forum, but here goes anyway. Having finally installed a
flexible enough communications package on my Apple that I can use it
as a terminal to EMACS, I began to wonder whether anyone has done a
competent study comparing editors (special-purpose terminals) with
lots of function keys to ones using the ordinary touch-typing keyboard
and escape keys. Now I admit it would be difficult to make an exact
comparison: EMACS supports something like around 130 different
functions (that number is a bit too big, since it includes a few
duplicates and a few very special purpose ones), where a function is
invoked with either one (ctrl-key) key-stroke or two (escape, ctrl-x,
or ctrl-z followed by another), all derived from the 96 or so ASCII
characters -- I don't think I've seen a special-purpose (i.e.,
function-keyed) terminal with more than say 30 function keys
(including cursor movement), where a upper/lower shift also applies.
Now I don't want to bring in mouses etc. -- just small keyboards vs.
big ones, and the groundrules are that we are talking about
experienced users, although they admittedly do get rusty. Anyone seen
such a comparison (accuracy, speed, learning time, retention of
skills, etc.)?
Ted Lee
------------------------------
Date: Thu Sep 20 18:05:08 1984
From: mclure@sri-prism
To: sf-lovers@rutgers
Subject: book query
Does anyone out there know more about the book called
How to Enjoy Yourself During the Decline of Western Civilization
--- -- ----- -------- ------ --- ------- -- ------- ------------
I don't know who the author is. I am wondering if anyone out there has
read it and if so, what you thought of it.
Stuart
------------------------------
Date: Mon 17 Sep 84 09:53:49-PDT
From: Ken Laws
Subject: Re: Privacy vs. Commercial Databases
Dietz' suggestions about maintaining our own financial databases are
interesting, but I disagree that a computerized tax advisor would save
people thousands of dollars per year. (I refer to average savings for
a large population, which I admit was not his thesis.)
Assume that such an advisor existed. It could undoubtedly be mass
produced for a few hundred dollars or less per copy, making it an
essential purchase for anyone paying taxes. (It would even
be a deductable expense.) The result would simply be that the
government would raise everyone's taxes to compensate for its
decreased revenue.
What of people too poor or illiterate to buy (or rent) such an advisor
and to keep their own records? There is no way that our government is
going to shift such an enormous tax burden onto such people. It will
either provide the financial services gratis or will adjust the tax
rates for each tax bracket to maintain current levels of taxation.
You will still have a choice of whether to be wise or foolish in the
handling of your own finances. Assuming that most people choose to
be wise, the necessity to maintain records and use an advisory program
will simply be an added burden (or tax) on each citizen. This is
similar to the current situation in which most taxpayers are forced
to provide their own accounting and tax preparation services to the
government (rather than pay the additional tax due if they don't keep
records or seek out deductions).
The only way to reduce taxation is to reduce government spending.
-- Ken Laws
------------------------------
Date: Tuesday, 18 Sep 1984 15:51:53-PDT
From: vickrey%coors.DEC@decwrl.ARPA
> Date: 16 Sep 84 19:42:22 EDT
> From: DIETZ@RUTGERS.ARPA
> Subject: Privacy vs. Commercial Databases
>
> The best way for me to make sure inaccurate personal
> information about myself isn't transmitted is for me
> to distribute the information directly . . . .
It occurs to me that this is also a good way to make sure
that inaccurate information >IS< transmitted. Saying that
it would have to be authenticated doesn't make much sense -
it means that some independent agency must confirm every
entry you make, which means they have to have that information
already, so why bother?
Now, I want to be able to see & challenge anything anybody
has recorded about me. But I'm neither a Pollyanna nor a
wizard - I know that all that information isn't accessible
to me, and life's too short to work up an ulcer about it.
Susan
------------------------------
Date: 17 Sep 1984 13:19 PDT
From: Lars Poulsen
Subject: Who's afraid of Big Brother (1984 and beyond)
Reply-to: LARS@ACC
I was visiting friends in the SF Bay area Labor Day weekend, and
the Sunday, Sept 2nd SF Examiner had an article about life in
Visalia, CA that I found scary. The following is summarized from
memory.
Visalia is a small town with only eight full-scale supermarkets,
and a market research firm (in Chicago, I think) has signed them
all up to collect data for a market research experiment via their
checkout stands.
2500 households are paid about two dollars a month to always take
a little red card with them when they go to the supermarket, and
the research firm then get machine readable complete lists of all
purchases, identified by household.
But this is just where it begins. Newspapers delivered to these
families are doctored with special versions of coupon sections
that allow researchers to experiment with just what amount of
rebates will induce people to use the coupons. The experiment
families get a special two-way cable TV converter, that reports
back to the system who has their TV on and what channel. If I
understood the description correctly, the converter is also
capable of selectively doctoring the commercial breaks ....
---
Does anybody else get scared ??
/ Lars Poulsen
------------------------------
Date: Sun Sep 23 00:03:31 1984
From: mclure@sri-prism
To: chess@sri-unix, ailist@sri-ai
Subject: Delphi: number-cruncher vs. the world, part XIV
The Vote Tally
--------------
The winner is: 13 ... O-O
There were 17 votes, all except one for Castles. The lone hold-out
voted for Qa5 (Q-QR4).
The Machine Moves
-----------------
Depth Move Time for search Nodes Machine Est.
8 ply Be3 9 hrs, 48 mins 3.5x10^7 -=
(B-K3)
Humans Move # Votes
BR ** -- BQ ** BR BK ** 13 ... O-O 16
** BP ** -- BB BP BP BP 13 ... Qa5 1
BP ** -- BP -- BN -- **
** -- ** WP BP -- ** --
-- ** -- ** WP ** BB **
** -- WN -- WB WN ** --
WP WP -- ** WQ WP WP WP
WR -- ** -- WR -- WK --
Prestige 8-ply
I showed this game to a master who works here at SRI. He said that
Black has played much the better game and has good prospects.
Congratulations humans!
The Game So Far
---------------
1. e4 (P-K4) c5 (P-QB4) 11. Be2 (B-K2) Nxe2 (NxB)
2. Nf3 (N-KB3) d6 (P-Q3) 12. Qxe2 (QxN) Be7 (B-K2)
3. Bb5+(B-N5ch) Nc6 (N-QB3) 13. Nc3 (N-QB3) O-O (O-O)
4. o-o (O-O) Bd7 (B-Q2) 14. Be3 (B-K3)
5. c3 (P-QB3) Nf6 (N-KB3)
6. Re1 (R-K1) a6 (P-QR3)
7. Bf1 (B-KB1) e5 (P-K4)
8. d4 (P-Q4) cxd4 (PXP)
9. cxd4 (PXP) Bg4 (B-N5)
10. d5 (P-Q5) Nd4 (N-Q5)
Commentary
----------
TLI@USC-ECLB
Yeah, it's time to castle all right. 13 ... O-O. Some other
interesting thoughts: 14 ... Qd7, preparing for 15 ... Bh3 (this
is for those unsubtle of mind and thought). How about 14 ... Nh5,
15 ... Nf4, 16 Pg3 Nh3. Well, light on the strategy and heavy on
the arrogance, but definitely interesting.
Solicitation
------------
Your move, please?
Replies to Arpanet: mclure@sri-prism, mclure@sri-unix or
Usenet: ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!sri-prism!mclure
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA (human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #52
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-09-28 20:06:06 PST
From: Charles McGrew (The Moderator)
HUMAN-NETS Digest Friday, 28 Sep 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 52
Today's Topics:
Worldnet - Telebox,
Computers and People - Big Brother is watching Visalia CA (2 msgs),
Computers and the Law - Privacy in Data Bases &
Unions Muscling in on Computer Users?,
Information - Communications Forums (2 msgs)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 24-Sep-1984 2225
From: covert%castor.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (John Covert)
Subject: The Deutsche Bundespost brings up the German part of Worldnet
The Deutsche Bundespost has brought the Telebox electronic mail system
on line in Germany. Due to the Post Office monopoly on all
communications this will be the only mail system in Germany.
Based on CCITT X.400, it will allow interconnection to other national
email systems and will allow connection, under the rules of X.400, to
local User Agents. (For now it is accessed from any terminal, usually
via X.25.)
What follows is output from the help text for rates, which I will not
translate in entirety, but will just summarize: DM 65 set-up charge,
DM 40 monthy charge, initial-phase flat usage charge of DM 40,
eventual rate schedule as shown, but subject to a DM 40 minimum, rates
are given for per minute connect time, daily storage charge, charge
per addressee, and the statement of the minimum.
For volume users who are not bothered by the hefty minimums, this is
very inexpensive, as long as you prepare off line. Compare the
standard mail service where the "20 cent stamp" costs DM 0,80.
Finally, the planned rates for messages outside Germany are given,
first number is the first 2048 characters, second is for each
additional 1024 characters. They state that they will connect only to
public systems.
DIE GEBUEHREN FUER DIE T E L E B O X
------------------------------------
Fuer das Bereitstellen oder Aendern einer (oder gleichzeitig mehrerer)
Adresse(n) berechnet die Post einmalig 65,-DM. In der Testphase kommen
keine weiteren TELEBOX-Gebuehren auf, es sind nur die
Verbindungsgebuehren in den Zugangsnetzen zu entrichten.
Ab 01.10.84 kostet jede Adresse monatlich 40,-DM Grundgebuehr
zuzueglich 40,-DM pauschale Nutzungsgebuehr, insgesamt also 80,-DM.
Erst mit Beginn des Wirkbetriebes werden die Nutzungsgebuehren voll in
Rechnung gestellt. Folgende Nutzungsgebuehren sind vorgesehen:
-Belegungsgebuehr (Anschaltegebuehr)
je Minute........................................0,30 DM
-Speichergebuehr je Einheit und Tag...............0,03 DM
Eine Einheit umfasst 2 K (= 2048 Zeichen)
-Adressiergebuehr je Adresse......................0,10 DM
Mindestnutzungsgebuehr je Abrechnungszeitraum
(ca. 30 Tage) und Adresse........................40,00 DM
Die Aufnahme des Uebermittlungsdienstes in oeffentliche Systeme
anderer Laender ist vorgesehen. Die Uebermittlungsgebuehr je
Mitteilung wird dann betragen:
- in Europa..................................0,70/0,10 DM
- in den USA.................................1,20/0,25 DM
- in Kanada..................................1,25/0,25 DM
- in der uebrigen Welt.......................1,45/0.35 DM
Die erste Zahl gibt die Mindestgebuehr fuer eine Mitteilung
mit maximal 2048 Zeichen an, die zweite Zahl die Gebuehr fuer
jede weitere angebrochene oder volle Einheit von 1024 Zeichen.
------------------------------
Date: 25 Sep 84 09:23:02 BST (Tue)
Subject: Re: Big Brother is watching Visalia CA
From: Nkb%maths.hcig.nott.ac.uk@ucl-cs.arpa
Reminds me very much of a science fiction short story I read a couple
of months ago in a collection called "The Golden Age of Science
Fiction". I forget the title, but the basic idea was of a city which
had been totally destroyed by an explosion, but then rebuilt as a
micro minituarised robot city. Each day, however, was exactly like the
last day before the explosion, with the single exception that
different advertising strategies were attempted. Makes you wonder
whether or not Saatchi and Saatchi (or your American equivalents)
wouldn't like to catch something like that.
Just think, however, when all that adverstising gets too much
for you, there's always the remote control to hand!
NKB
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 26 Sep 84 9:16:22 EDT
From: Ron Natalie
Subject: Visalia CA
The QUBE cable system installed in Cincinnati (or was it Cleveland)
and other places already keeps track of your viewing. There was quite
a furor over the privacy of this. More concerning is the phone
company who already keeps track of everyone you telephone.
-ROn
------------------------------
From: Willis Ware
Date: 25 Sep 84 08:13:40 PDT (Tue)
Subject: Re: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #51
Appropos of the recent dialogue among Dietz @ Rutgers.arpa, Laws @
SRI.arpa and Vickery%coors.DEC on the subject of privacy in data
bases, may I just make the following historical observation.
Honest injun, the idea is not a new one -- either that of one keeping
his own records or of having a disinterested 3rd party authenticate
them. When privacy first became a national issue in the early 70s, I
chaired the Secretary's (DHEW) Committee on Auotomated Personal Data
Systems; it's report led to the Privacy Act of 1974 which in turn led
to the Privacy Protection Study Commission of which I was a member.
In the unrecorded discussions of both groups, especially the HEW one,
many ways of circumventing centralized recordkeeping were talked
about, ways that would hopefully give the individual more control over
the accuracy and use of his records. In the early 70s, technology
could not of course support the Dietz proposal, but nonetheless the
idea was talked about.
I personally am partial to the philosophy that a third party is not
automatically entitled to personal information about myself; so to
speak, a 3rd party should not have it without a need-to-know that in
some way is beneficial to me, that would not constitute a latent
threat to erupt in the future, and that would not escalate in some way
to damage me indirectly. A very tall order to be sure and probably
not achievable, but it is of course diametrically contrary to the view
of "let it all hang out, I have nothing to hide". Thus notions such
as that of Dietz are in the right direction, although troubled by
practical problems such as "how to get there from here", or "how do
you persuade lawmakers that such an approach is approriate."
Don't stop thinking though. New ways of handling privacy are always
welcome and someday, we may get the one that will really handle the
issue..
Admittedly the protection that we all have from the Federal Privacy
Act of 1974 and various other privacy-oriented laws (Fair Credit
Billing Act, Fair Credit Reporting Act, etc.) together with
corresponding ones in many states is far from perfect and far from
doing a comprehensive adequate job. But if you don't like the
coverage which those laws are designed to provide, worry a little
about the scene that isn't covered at all; e.g., electronic mail,
checkout stand records, voice mail, electronic communications, 2-way
TV records -- to name a few.
Willis H. Ware
Rand Corporation
Santa Monica, CA
------------------------------
Date: 28 Sep 84 16:31:28 EDT
From: Mike
Subject: Government on the move: Home computer use
To: Poli-Sci@RUTGERS.ARPA
Cc: Carter@RUTGERS.ARPA
Recently, there has been some discussion in the net.general newsgroup
on Usenet about last Sunday's edition of Sixty Minutes. Since I did
not see this program, I can only paraphrase what I have read and toss
this out as a topic for discussion. Maybe someone out there is
watching this situation closely and can comment and be a little more
specific about what is going on?
What I read: Appearantly, the International Ladies Garment Workers
Union (ILGWU), a branch of the AFL-CIO, has been fighting to make it
illegal for people to do piece-work type work in their homes somewhere
in the New England area. Sixty Minutes interviewed some women who
were doing some sort of sewing work at home and earning about $8 per
hour. The claim is that these moves against home piece-work are part
of a bigger plan to move in on/crack down on the computer business in
which many people work at home. It is further claimed that unions
have been losing members lately and that muscling in on the computer
business seems like a good way to bolster their ranks (though attempts
so far have not been too successful).
Personally, I wouldn't want anything to do with a union. At best, it
would be a waste of money. At worst, it helps feed a bunch of thugs
who should be exterminated. I certainly hope this government movement
- if indeed it is one - is quickly stiffled.
-- Mike^Z Zaleski@Rutgers [allegra, ihnp4] pegasus!mzal
------------------------------
Date: Mon, 24 Sep 84 14:34 EDT
From: Kahin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
Subject: Communications Forum
To: Telecom@USC-ECLC.ARPA
Cc: Esther@MIT-XX.ARPA
MIT Communications Forum
THE MIT COMMUNICATIONS PROBLEM
October 11, 1984 4:00-5:30
Marlar Lounge, 37-252 (70 Vassar St.) MIT, Cambridge
David Clark, MIT Laboratory for Computer Science
A plan to provide a data communication network for MIT has been
evolving over the last several years, and implementation of the
network is now in progress. Since the MIT campus has a rich set of
requirements, the design of this network provides insights for the
design of other sophisticated networks.
------------------------------
Date: Fri, 28 Sep 84 14:58 EDT
From: Kahin@MIT-MULTICS.ARPA
To: Telecom@USC-ECLC.ARPA
MIT Communications Forum
COMPETITION FOR INTELSAT
Thursday, October 18, 1984, 4-6 p.m.
Marlar Lounge, Bldg. 37-252, 70 Vassar St., MIT, Cambridge
For two decades INTELSAT has had a near monopoly of international
satellite telecommunications. This was justified on many of the same
grounds as AT&T's monopoly of domestic telephony: the merits of
uniformity and standardization; cross-subsidy of less-developed by
more developed areas; and economies of scale.
Orion Satellite and several other potential competitors have recently
applied to serve the lucrative North Atlantic routes. This has
touched off intense debate about "cream-skimming," the value of
INTELSAT, and America's international communications policies.
Christopher Vizas, Orion Satellite Corporation
Joseph Pelton, INTELSAT
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA (human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #53
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-10-01 23:59:51 PST
From: Charles McGrew (The Moderator)
HUMAN-NETS Digest Monday, 1 Oct 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 53
Today's Topics:
Query - E-mail to distribute telephone messages?,
Computers and the Law - Unions muscling in? (2 msgs),
Computers and People - Say What?,
Chess - Move 15
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Fri 28 Sep 84 22:56:42-PDT
From: Richard Furuta
Subject: Anyone using electronic mail to distribute telephone
Subject: messages?
To: Tops-20@SU-SCORE.ARPA, Unix-Wizards@BRL.ARPA
Is anyone out there using electronic mail to distribute telephone
messages? The system we use now is to write the message on a little
green piece of paper which is subsequently filed for the recipient.
We are interested in switching to an electronic mail based system.
However, it's unfair to ask the already busy person answering
telephone calls to switch to a system for message taking that will
increase the workload. It seems to us that using a vanilla mail
interface will increase that workload particularly since the
information that comes in on the message often doesn't arrive in a
linear form (e.g., the telephone number may be given before the name
of the caller and each might precede the name of the intended
recipient). What I hope is that someone has already solved the
problem and can point me to a piece of software (preferably running on
Tops-20 or on Berkeley Unix) to aid in this process. In any case, I'd
be interested to hear from anyone whose organization is using
electronic mail for the telephone messages with details of how it is
done and how well it is working.
Since the amount of information on Human-Nets and Unix-Wizards
overwhelmed me long ago, I'd appreciate it if responses could be
mailed directly to me.
--Rick
Furuta@Washington (Arpanet, CSnet)
ihnp4!uw-beaver!furuta (Usenet)
------------------------------
Date: Sat, 29 Sep 84 12:49:10 EDT
From: John R Ellis
Subject: Re: Government on the move: Home computer use
To: Mike
The claim is that these moves against home piece-work are part of
a bigger plan to move in on/crack down on the computer business in
which many people work at home.
According to the most recent issue of National Review, the AFL-CIO
considers "telecommuting" the same as "home work" in traditional
manufacturing and wants to ban it.
------------------------------
Date: Monday, 1 Oct 1984 06:46:49-PDT
From: taber%kirk.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (Patrick St.Joseph Teahan Taber)
Subject: Re: Governement on the move: Home computer use
I think the case you are talking about deals with people in Vermont
who are knitting ski caps at home for various large retailers. The
union has been pressuring the feds for many years now to put a stop to
it. So far, the feds have been smart enough to stay out of it, but
with an election coming up the knitters are at a great disadvantage
because they are a small number of individuals in a single state, and
the unions are organized across the nation. Obviously, a union can
spend more money, send more letters to more congressmen, and sway more
votes than a few folks working independently out of their homes in
Vermont.
Politians are not usually nasty people, but they make their living by
winning a popularity contest every few years decided by large groups
of single-issue voters. If these individuals send letters to their
respective congressfolks saying, "Stop the Vermont knitters or I won't
vote for you" then there can be little question that the pols would
rather put some faceless people in another state out of work, than be
out of work themselvs. (Especialy given that their replacement will
probably pass the law anyway.)
Skillful statesmen get through issues like this by keeping legislation
from getting out of committee and by distracting unions and other
special interest groups with other, hopefully more generally
beneficial, legislation that they want more. But time is against the
knitters. Sooner or later the unions will make it more of a priority
to stop independent workers. The polititians will be faced with the
choice of doing something they know is wrong, and getting thrown out
of office (where they might do some good later) while the wrong gets
done anyway. It's a classic problem in philosophy. Probably they'll
pass some sort of compensation bill for the knitters (drawn out of
social security, no doubt) and close them down.
The only way to stop the unions is with a larger, more organized
force. There are no signs that such a force is likely to form.
National Right To Work laws never get enough support to make it to the
floor. The majority of individuals support the concept, but they are
not motiviated to make the effort of a special interest group.
This screed should not be taken as a blanket condemnation of unions.
Unions have helped form our present society. You wouldn't like your
life quite so much if it weren't for the gains that unions bought: the
40-hour week, paid vacation, company-paid medical insurance, the list
goes on to include virtually every benefit we take for granted in
high-techdom. The unions have also screwed up the economy, made poor
quality a hallmark in American manufacturing and have earned the image
of "thugs." I think unionism is like communism... a good theory, but
difficult to translate into practice.
As to unions in the computer trade, they really aren't a good fit. A
union is at its best when it is protecting workers from an
exploitative management. At the present, it is the skilled workers
who are exploiting the companies. We don't need unions yet. When it
is no longer a seller's market in the computer biz, then organization
might be a better idea. Remember, most people who sit on one
company's board of directors, also sit on others. It's a very small
world at the top; everyone knows everyone. They have de facto
organization. It's still not uncommon to hear of price-fixing and
non-competitive agreements made between large companies at "secret"
meetings. That's really all unions are about. Wage-fixing at the
bottom of the pyramid.
>>>==>PStJTT
------------------------------
Date: Wed 26 Sep 84 16:49:19-EDT
From: Janet Asteroff
Subject: Luddite Theory
From the "No Comment" department:
"What is the effect of the flat, two-dimensional, visual, and
externally supplied image, and of the lifeless though florid
colors of the viewing screen, on the development of the young
child's own inner capacity to bring to birth living, mobile,
creative images of his own? Indeed, what effect does viewing the
computer screen have on the healthy development of the growing
but unformed mind, brain, and body of the child?"
-- Douglas Sloan
Teachers College Record
Summer, 1984
------------------------------
Date: Sun Sep 30 16:02:03 1984
From: mclure@sri-prism
To: ailist@sri-ai, human-nets@rutgers
Subject: Delphi 15: cruncher nudges bishop
The Vote Tally
--------------
The winner is: 14 ... Ne8
There were 16 votes. We had a wide mixture. The group seemed to have
difficulty forming a plan. Many different plans were suggested.
The Machine Moves
-----------------
Depth Move Time for search Nodes Machine Est
8 ply h3 6 hrs, 4 mins 2.18x10^ +4% of a pawn
(P-KR3)
Humans Move # Votes
BR ** -- BQ BN BR BK ** 14 ... Ne8 4
** BP ** -- BB BP BP BP 14 ... Rc8 3
BP ** -- BP -- ** -- ** 14 ... Nh5 3
** -- ** WP BP -- ** -- 14 ... Nd7 2
-- ** -- ** WP ** BB ** 14 ... Qd7 2
** -- WN -- WB WN ** WP 14 ... Nxe4 1
WP WP -- ** WQ WP WP ** 14 ... Qb6 1
WR -- ** -- WR -- WK --
Prestige 8-ply
The machine's evaluation turned from negative to slightly positive.
Apparently it likes this position somewhat but still considers the
position even.
The Game So Far
---------------
1. e4 (P-K4) c5 (P-QB4) 11. Be2 (B-K2) Nxe2 (NxB)
2. Nf3 (N-KB3) d6 (P-Q3) 12. Qxe2 (QxN) Be7 (B-K2)
3. Bb5+(B-N5ch) Nc6 (N-QB3) 13. Nc3 (N-QB3) O-O (O-O)
4. o-o (O-O) Bd7 (B-Q2) 14. Be3 (B-K3) Ne8 (N-K1)
5. c3 (P-QB3) Nf6 (N-KB3) 15. h3 (P-KR3)
6. Re1 (R-K1) a6 (P-QR3)
7. Bf1 (B-KB1) e5 (P-K4)
8. d4 (P-Q4) cxd4 (PXP)
9. cxd4 (PXP) Bg4 (B-N5)
10. d5 (P-Q5) Nd4 (N-Q5)
Commentary
----------
BLEE.ES@XEROX
14 ... Ne8 as
14 ... Nh5?; 15. h3 B:f3 (if 15 ... Bd7?; 16. N:e5
and white wins a pawn) 16. Q:f3 Nf6 (now we've lost
the bishop pair, a tempo and the knight still blockades
the f pawn and the white queen is active...)
(if 16 ... g6?; 16. Bh6 Ng7; 17. g4 and black can't support f5
because the light square bishop is gone) while
14 ... Nd7?; 15. h3 Bh5; 16. g4 Bg6; and black has trouble
supporting f5. I expect play to proceed:
15. h3 Bd7
16. g4 g6
17. Bh6 Ng7
18. Qd3 f5 (at last!)
19. g:f5 g:f5
JPERRY@SRI-KL
In keeping with the obvious strategic plan of f5, I
vote for 14...N-K1. N-Q2 looks plausible but I would
rather reserve that square for another piece.
SMILE@UT-SALLY
14 ... Nh5.
Paves the way for f5. Other possibility is Qd7 first. Either
way I believe f5 is the key (as it often is!).
REM@MIT-MC
I'm not much for attacking correctly, so let's prepare
to double rooks: 14. ... Q-Q2 (Qd7) (It also helps a
K-side attack if somebody else can work out the details.)
VANGELDER@SU-SCORE
14. ... Nxe4 (vote)
In spite of what the master says, White can indefinitely
prevent f5 by h3, Bd7, g4. Will the computer find this after
Ne8 by Black? Stronger over the board is 14 ... Nxe4. If 15.
Nxe4 f5 16. N/4g5 f4 and Black regains the piece with
advantage. The majority will probably not select this move,
which may be just as well, as attack-by-committee could
present some real problems. Nevertheless, the computer
presumably saw and examined several ply on this line and
it would be interesting to see what it thinks White's
best defense is. An alternate line for White is 15.
Nxe4 f5 16. N/4d2 e4 17. h3 Bh5 18. Bd4 Bg4!? 19.
Nxe4 fxe4 20. Qxe4 Bxf3 21. gxf3 Rf4.
There are many variations, but most are not decisive in
8 ply, so the computer's evaluation function would be
put to the acid test.
ACHEN.PA@XEROX
13 ... Nh5 (keep up the pressure)
this might provoke 14 g3 Bd7, either 15 Nd2 or h4 to
start a counter attack. the black is hoping to exchange
the remaining knight with queen's bishop 16 ... Nf4
then maybe attempt to encircle the white with Qb6
attacking the weakside behind the pawns. (note: if 13
... Nh5 can't 14 ... f5 for the obvious reason)
Solicitation
------------
Your move, please?
Replies to Arpanet: mclure@sri-prism, mclure@sri-unix or
Usenet: ucbvax!menlo70!sri-unix!sri-prism!mclure
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA (human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #54
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-10-02 18:55:58 PST
From: Charles McGrew (The Moderator)
HUMAN-NETS Digest Tuesday, 2 Oct 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 54
Today's Topics:
Response to Query - E-mail for telephone messages? (2 msgs),
Computers and People - Re: Lifeless Screen?,
Computers and the Law - Unions muscling in? (6 msgs),
Computer Security - Use of Excessive Force,
Chess - Computer Chess Tournament
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue 2 Oct 84 04:58:05-EDT
From: Michael Rubin
Subject: Re: Anyone using electronic mail to distribute telephone
Subject: messages?
To: furuta@WASHINGTON.ARPA
The receptionists here in the Columbia CS Dept. often distribute phone
messages using vanilla MM on TOPS-20. Message recipients don't
especially care about formatting, and the -20 is used for most
departmental word processing and memos anyhow, so the secretaries know
about MM and Emacs.
The load is light because the front desk doesn't answer individual
office phones when people are out. The department chairman has his
own secretary and probably gets his messages on paper (he's a
mathematician, not a hacker). Paper messages for other people aren't
too practical because the front office is far away from most
everything else, and people don't pass by it often.
The ordinary mail program should be fine for all but the really
busiest receptionists (the kind who spend 120% of their time answering
the phone -- they must do it with pipelined architecture!) as long as
it's always up on their terminal (or easy to invoke). A proper set of
aliases and a good MM.INIT (or .mailrc) might help. This assumes the
receptionist is reasonably familiar with the operating system.... But
if you want something specialized for phone messages, it's easy to
write your own mail program on Unix. It might use keywords or
terminal function keys to distinguish the fields of the message, then
arrange them in a standard order before feeding everything to
sendmail.
--Mike Rubin
------------------------------
Date: Tue 2 Oct 84 02:01:21-PDT
From: Richard Furuta
Subject: Re: Anyone using electronic mail to distribute telephone
Subject: messages?
To: RUBIN@COLUMBIA-20.ARPA
I guess the problem here is that the receptionist fields phone calls
and also fronts for the academic advisors and so has a bunch of
students coming in at the same time. I tend to favor the keyword or
function key approach to using vanilla MM because it allows one the
flexibility to enter parts of the message in random order (including
the intended recipient). Lots of places seem to be using vanilla MM,
though.
--Rick
------------------------------
Date: 2 October 1984 06:15-EDT
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: Luddite Theory
To: US.JFA @ CU20B
well, what is the effect of the flat lifeless printed page?
Date: Wed 26 Sep 84 16:49:19-EDT
From: Janet Asteroff
To: HUMAN-NETS
Re: Luddite Theory
From the "No Comment" department:
"What is the effect of the flat, two-dimensional, visual, and
externally supplied image, and of the lifeless though florid
colors of the viewing screen, on the development of the young
child's own inner capacity to bring to birth living, mobile,
creative images of his own? Indeed, what effect does viewing the
computer screen have on the healthy development of the growing
but unformed mind, brain, and body of the child?"
-- Douglas Sloan
Teachers College Record
Summer, 1984
------------------------------
Date: 2 October 1984 06:11-EDT
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: Government on the move: Home computer use
To: Ellis @ YALE
Cc: ZALESKI @ RUTGERS
for intelligent people, labor union policy is to labor as bird
shot is to birds.
They do not know how to organize the electronic cottage;
therefore, it must be banned.
Date: Sat, 29 Sep 84 12:49:10 EDT
From: John R Ellis
To: HUMAN-NETS, Mike
Re: Government on the move: Home computer use
The claim is that these moves against home piece-work are part
of a bigger plan to move in on/crack down on the computer
business in which many people work at home.
According to the most recent issue of National Review, the AFL-CIO
considers "telecommuting" the same as "home work" in traditional
manufacturing and wants to ban it.
------------------------------
Date: 2 October 1984 06:14-EDT
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: Governement on the move: Home computer use
To: taber%kirk.DEC @ DECWRL
obviously people who want to do productive work without
government permission must be stopped. First forid them; then
try court orders; then fine them; and if they do not pay fines,
then do jail or shoot them. Workiing without permission indeed!
------------------------------
Date: 2 October 1984 06:39-EDT
From: Jerry E. Pournelle
Subject: Government on the move: Home computer use
To: ZALESKI @ RUTGERS
Cc: Carter @ RUTGERS, Poli-Sci @ RUTGERS
it is already illegal under federal law to make ladies garments
for sale if you work in your own home. ilgwu doesn't need to
get a law; they only need to (1) keep the one they have and (2)
get marshals to jail the women who use their home kniting
machines to make ski caps, underwear, etc, if intended for
women. If intende for men it's legal; women are EXPECTED to
make clothing for men, apparently. ILGWU strikes again. Sing,
sing the praises.
------------------------------
Date: Tue 2 Oct 84 06:52:13-PDT
From: Mark Crispin
Subject: 40 hour weeks
Where in the computer industry do 40-hour-weeks exist? Certainly
not in Silicon Valley, where the norm is 50-60 hours.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 2 Oct 84 9:44:25 PDT
From: hibbert.pa@XEROX.ARPA
Subject: reply to PStJTT on Unions
To: taber%kirk.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA (Patrick St.Joseph Teahan Taber)
One aspect of unions that you neglected to mention is that they are no
longer voluntary organizations. The government (NLRB) has done much
to reinforce the power (economic and political) that unions wield.
The problem isn't so much that unions aren't useful in the current
economy as that they are using their power to exploit some of the
people who are forced to pay dues to them in order to hold whatever
job they've chosen.
The extent to which the government is interfereing in the situation is
illustrated to some extent by the effect the Reagan administration has
had on the situation. Now that he has gotten his hooks into the NLRB,
and some rulings have started going against the unions, they have
started saying that maybe the NLRB has outlived its usefulness.
Chris
------------------------------
Date: Tuesday, 2 Oct 1984 11:18:43-PDT
From: minow%rex.DEC@decwrl.ARPA
Subject: telecommuting may not be so good after all
A recent collection of messages on Human Nets and the Unix USENET
presented the case for telecommuting and against the ban against
working at home (the Vermont knitters) proposed by the trade
union movement.
The issues are somewhat more complex than the "they just want to
regulate us out of existance" messages I have been seeing. There
are several disadvantages to working at home -- the work environment
may not be as safe as in an office or factory (poor lighting and
seating arrangements, for example).
More importantly, when you work alone at home, you may lose some
important aspects of work:
Social status -- your peers don't see the value of your efforts.
Sense of community -- you don't see the relevance of your work in
a greater context. Also, you lose the socializing aspects of
work: especially the "old-boy" network that many feel is important
for advancement.
Use and development of one's resources -- at-home jobs are likely
to be repetitive dead-end work, such as data-entry (or knitting).
Working at home will make it more difficult for you to locate a
more challanging job.
While it is certainly true that turning labor into a collection of
cottage industries will erode union control and power, it would be
unwise to ignore other aspects of the situation.
Martin Minow
decvax!minow @ berkeley.arpa
------------------------------
Date: Tuesday, 2 Oct 1984 12:23:25-PDT
From: taber%kirk.DEC@decwrl.ARPA (Patrick St.Joseph Teahan Taber)
To: hn%kirk.DEC@decwrl.ARPA
Subject: Use of excessive force
I was just reading in EE Times about a product that is supposed to
stop software piracy by damaging the disk of people who use a pirated
s/w product. The interesting part of the article is:
"When detected, Prolok-plus warns the user to remove the
illegally duplicated diskette. If the user continues to try
to use the program, then Prolok-plus performs the retributive
act of using a so-called programming "worm" to randomly
destroy data until the system is shut down. This sort of data
loss is particularly catastrophic for hard-disk users who
store most of their information on one large disk."
I'm no lawyer, but it seems to me that the pricipal of "use of
excessive force" applies here. This is the same law that says a shop
owner is in the wrong if he shoots someone who steals a candy bar.
Given that you can't know who is using the pirated copy (a kid runs it
on his parent's bookkeeping computer, for example) and you can't know
what data you're destroying (lab results, data used to control a
dangerous machine, etc) I don't think you can be justified in randomly
destroying things.
I give the idea an "A" for effort, but an "F" for common sense. I
have great sympathy for anyone trying to stop pirates. (I make my
living as a software engineer.) But I can't say I'll feel sorry for
this outfit if they lose their shirts in court.
>>>==>PStJTT
------------------------------
Date: Tue Oct 2 12:24:29 1984
From: mclure@sri-prism
To: ailist@sri-ai, sf-lovers@rutgers, chess@sri-unix
Subject: reminder of upcoming computer chess tournament in San
Subject: Francisco
This is a reminder that this coming Sunday (Oct 7) will herald the
beginning of the battle of the titans at the San Francisco Hilton
"continental parlors" room at 1pm.
Cray Blitz the reigning world champion program will attempt to
squash the vengeful Belle. Nuchess, a perennial "top-finishing
contender" and descendent of Chess 4.5, wants a piece of the action
and would be very happy to see the Belle/Cray Blitz battle cause both
to go up in a puff of greasy, black smoke, leaving Nuchess as the top
dog for the entire year.
It promises to be as interesting as it is every year. You don't
have to be a computer-freak or chess-fanatic to enjoy the event.
Come on by for a rip-roaring time.
Stuart
------------------------------
End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
************************
From: human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA (human-nets@ucbvax.ARPA)
Subject: HUMAN-NETS Digest V7 #55
Newsgroups: fa.human-nets
Date: 1984-10-04 19:07:22 PST
From: Charles McGrew (The Moderator)
HUMAN-NETS Digest Thursday, 4 Oct 1984 Volume 7 : Issue 55
Today's Topics:
Query - Biofeedback Instrument Link,
Information - MIT Communications Forum Update
Computers and the Law - Unions/Working at Home (7 msgs)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: 3-Oct-84 23:53 PDT
From: William Daul / Augmentation Systems Div. / McDnD
From: