Date: Mon, 8 Feb 93 18:40:08 PST Reply-To: Return-Path: Message-ID: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain From: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (ab fzbxvat va gur nhgbabzbhf mbar) To: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (SURFPUNK Technical Journal) Subject: [surfpunk-0052] DIGEST: cars, voice encoding, news, AMER=Civil Liberties Keywords: surfpunk, Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions + + Let's forget we're pretending. + Let's pretend it's all real. + -- Nick Herbert + (at Komotion, san fran, 6feb93) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ In this digest: -- [dave@rtfm.mlb.fl.us (David D. Clark)] Surfpunk Submissions/Commentary -- ..For submissions, that is. -- ...On the abolition of cars: -- ...On real-time voice encoding: -- AP: Moscow--Russian scientists unfurled a mirror in space Thursday -- Mac Week, 1 Feb 93. "Democrats take swift action on funding of information nets", Mitch Ratcliffe byline. -- Factoid of the day -- [kwan] Re: [surfpunk-0050] Greenpeace: Autosaurus: The first anti-car ad -- [Don Webb <0004200716@mcimail.com>] AMER=Civil Liberties ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ From: dave@rtfm.mlb.fl.us (David D. Clark) Subject: Surfpunk Submissions/Commentary To: strick@osc.versant.com (Henry Strickland) Date: Sat, 6 Feb 93 1:35:09 EST Action: usually equals reaction. Priority: Urgent X-Guess-What: Chicken Butt. ...Since SPJ is moderated, will messages to surfpunk@ get to you, or is sending directly to you better, or worse? ..For submissions, that is. [[ Always submit to surfpunk! that way I know you intended it to be broacast. --strick ]] ...On the abolition of cars: Until public transportation gets a LOT better/more convenient, I don't think many are going to switch over to it. It's a REAL pain in the ass to spend an hour to get to wherever you want to go in Atlanta, where MARTA ("It beats getting there") only to walk another mile or two since buses don't go where you want to, especially since it takes less than that even at the height of rush hour. Perhaps in NYC I could handle it, but for now, as long as I have a car that gets 33mpg, I'm going to use it. It's also a pain in the butt to find out that MARTA stops running at around 1AM, when you've spent 90 minutes walking to a station (since the busses stopped at 11:30) to arrive about 5 minutes after the last train going your way has left your station. ...On real-time voice encoding: I was thinking of this tonight, before reading about it in the SurfPunk Journal. Must be some type of synchronicity. Anyway, Macintoshes support 4.4kHz as a standard recording rate-not good, but about the bandwidth of telephone lines, correct? The Mac also supports a number of standard compression ratios, up to at least 6:1; this would drop the data volume to about 750 bps- below v.32. Add in a custom compressor (perhaps Quicktime can do this right now-they have some impressive compression ratios for video for near-real-time compression/decompression, based mostly on disk access time than on anything else) and a very simple encoding scheme (I don't think that with a non-standard compression scheme that even a very simple code could easily be broken to create a recognizable file, perhaps the NSA with their huge computers could but it's probably beyond the reach of most local/state/national government agents.) and I think the technology is either here today for this, or will be within the next year. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be surprised to see modems with this capability coming on the market RealSoonNow, if it is indeed legal under the Digital Telephony Bill (I'm not sure about the details of this bill.) [[ there's been a lot of discussion on cypherpunks, if you're interested. ]] ...New item: AP: Moscow--Russian scientists unfurled a mirror in space Thursday and briefly bounced sunlight onto the night side of Earth, testing a solar spotlight that eventually could illuminate parts of the planet. The troubled Russian space agency hailed the experiment as a qualified success and immediately began fishing for investors, saying the pre-dawn test proved a space spotlight was feasable. "All the pricipal scientific problems were solved by this experiment," flight control director Viktor Blagov said. "Now we need to collect money to continue the program." It was unclear whether the experiment, named Operation Banner, came off exactly as planned. But officials claimed victory in the most important part, in which the 82-foot-wide reflective sheet was spun open like a parachute behind the unmanned cargo ship Progress. "It was not completely successful, but it did go rather well," said Semyon Lukasky, an aide to the project director. He declined to specify the troubles, saying full details would be released later. The experiment could be a step in creating a revolutionary stellar spotlight out of several such banners. Such a spotlight could be used to light up night-time work, rescue operations, blacked-out cities or sun-starved polar areas. The main purpose of the test was to see whether the sheet could be opened using centrifugal force and then maneuvered. Scientists think such a banner could be used like a "solar sail" to harness energy from the sun, just as sailboats capture wind to move in water. Scientists released the spinning mirror from the unmanned Progress about 7:45 p.m. EST Wednesday, after the ship was detached from the orbiting Mir space station, Blagov said from the control center north of Moscow. The videotape made by Mir's two-man crew showed the mirror opening slowly-- like a metallic flower blossoming-- from one end of the Progress. In a profile view, it looked like a silver umbrella over the end of the spaceship. Blagov said scientists angled the mirror to reflect sunlight from the opposite side of the Earth onto the night side of the planet. The beam of reflected sunlight created a weak spot of light on the ground. Cosmonauts Gennady Manakov and Alexander Poleshchuk, looking down from the Mir, "observed a section of our planet's surface illuminated with sunlight," the ITAR-Tass news agency said. Scientists had said the spot was expected to measure about 2 1/2 miles in diameter. Because the banner was orbiting the globe, the spot moved quickly across Europe towards the former Soviet Union. Lukasky said flashes of light were seen by observers in the Brest and Gomel regions of the former Soviet republic of Belarus. James Oberg, a U.S. expert on the Russian space program, said an oberver in Canada reported seeing three starry spots moving across the pre-dawn sky. Oberg surmised they were the Mir, the Progress and the banner as it drifted away from the cargo ship. ...What are the implications? What if the people in the dark want to stay in the dark? What would the effects of bringing light to the (ant)arctic be on the native animals? I suppose that if solar power became more common some energy benefit could be gained, but I believe the money would be better spent in developing more efficient solar cells. Apparently, though, this would have close to the same effect on a planet (Earth) as Larry Niven's "shade squares" had on his Ringworld--the artificial creation of day & night. New Item: Mac Week, 1 Feb 93. "Democrats take swift action on funding of information nets", Mitch Ratcliffe byline. Washington--Senate Democrats with a technological agenda bolted out of the starting blocks on the first day of the new Congress by introducing a bil that would pour $120 million into information networks in 1994. Senate Bill 4 (S.4), known as the National Competitiveness Act of 1993, resurrects Vice President Al Gore's call for high-speed network connections between the Internet, schools, industry, hospitals and libraries. The bill draws heavily on Gore's Information Infrastructure and Technology Act of 1992 and President Clinton's campaign promise to assist U.S. businesses to become more competitive in the global market. The Democrats are trying to leverage their ownership of the Senate and White House by pushing for the first infrastructure funding in 1994, two years earlier than Gore had called for last year. Introduced by Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), the bill also would add funding to support research collaboration between high-technology industries and the National Institute of Standards and Technology, as well as for alternative power-generation research. A dozen senators are co-sponsoring the bill. That S.4 was introduced the day after Clinton's inauguration signals the Democrats' commitment to improve information networks. By Senate tradition, the Democrats were allotted the first five bills of the session for those issues they most want passed, while the next five were given over to the Republicans for their pet initiatives. Apple CEO John Sculley and other leaders of the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Consortium, an industry research facility based in Austin, Texas, have lobbied hard on Capitol hill since Congress convened last month. On Jan. 19 Sculley testified before the House Telecommunications and Finance Committee in favor of infrastructure investments. The House will have to consider its own version of the National Competitiveness Act before the legislation can become law. "There is a priority bill for Sen. Hollings and Majority Leader Sen. George Mitchell (D-Maine)," a Hollings staffer said. "There is also a group of Republicans who are interested in technology and tax policies that are good for industry, so there's broad support." -D "It's impressive how easily most human beings are entertained." --David Letterman, 4 Feb '93 "Remember, everybody, life is a swordfish tostada." --Ibid, 5 Feb '93 Factoid of the day: For fisical 1992, Motorola, Inc. reported annual sales of $13.3 billion, for profits of $576 million; Intel Corp reported sales of $5.84 billion, for profits of $1.07 billion. Apple's sales were $2 billion for its first quarter for profits of $161.3 million; IBM's 1992 sales were $64.5 billion for a loss of $4.97 billion (due to restructuring). ________________________________________________________________________ From: Kwan-Seng Low Subject: Re: [surfpunk-0050] Greenpeace: Autosaurus: The first anti-car ad Date: Fri, 5 Feb 1993 19:23:19 -0800 (PST) I'm not so much of anti-car , rather anti-car that unnecessarily cause more pollution. I'm pro-electric car, when it's available. Kwan ________________________________________________________________________ Subject: AMER=Civil Liberties Date: Sun, 7 Feb 93 21:20 GMT From: Don Webb <0004200716@mcimail.com> To: surfpunk To: Fringeware Dear Fringeoids, Dear Surfpunks, And you private people getting this. This is one of my favorite Civil liberties groups. Please post their info around, if you feel they are a worthy cause. Thanks, Don Webb MCI 420-0716 or donwebb@well.sf.ca.us ---------- The Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions (AMER) is a St. Louis-based organization made up of representatives of several distinct magical and/or Earth-centered religious traditions. Our members include witches, neo-pagans, Satanists, and Christians, working together for freedom of religion for all Americans. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE 1. AMER will defend the right of every American to practice his or her own religion, insofar as that religion's practices do not directly harm anyone. In particular, AMER will actively campaign for tolerance for magical and Earth-Centered religions. 2. AMER will work to promote a positive image for magical and Earth-centered religions, and to counter negative propaganda about such groups. 3. AMER will promote cooperation among the various magical and Earth-centered religious groups. 4. AMER will serve as a source of accurate information on magical and Earth-centered religions and practices. DEFINITIONS Magical Religion: any religious belief or practice which includes, as an aspect of its faith or an element in its ritual, the practice of what they call magic or the use of psychic powers. Earth Religion: any religious belief or practice which holds as a tenet a reverence for the Earth. HOW DOES AMER WORK? AMER will provide speakers to schools, police groups, churches, and anyone else who is interested about learning about magical and earth religions. AMER'S members work together to combat negative attitudes about the occult by writing letters to individuals and organizations who have disseminated incorrect information about the occult. We also help victims of religious discrimination through letters, phone calls and personal contact. AMER AND THE MEDIA AMER monitors media coverage of topics which affect the magical community. When one of our members sees an article or television story which gives unfairor slanted coverage to an event which involves "the occult", we contact the news organization in question to express our disapproval. We also write to commend news organizations which provide what we see as "good coverage". We hope that our efforts will promote fair media treatment of members of magical and earth religions. AMER AND THE POLICE AMER's members are also available to work with police departments to provide expert advice on crimes and rumors of crimes which involve or appear to involve members of the magical community. AMER AND THE CLERGY AMER works to contact clergy of all faiths and let them know about our concerns, in the hopes that they will come to understand, and even to tolerate, magical and earth religions. COMMUNITY SERVICE AMER encourages all of its members to participate in community service projects such as food drives, disaster relief, or environmental projects. AMER's St. Louis members meet every six weeks to clean up a stretch of highway. We feel that this highly visible form of service helps promote a positive image for occultists. WILL AMER TELL EVERYONE ABOUT MY RELIGION? The only members of AMER who are required to appear or speak in public are the members of the Board of Directors. If you wish, your membership can be kept totally confidential. In addition, AMER does not promote or endorse the activities of any specific religion, so you will not be asked to participate in any religious activities. AMER NEEDS YOU None of AMER's goals can be accomplished without a large and enthusiastic membership. We need volunteers for a variety of projects, from letter-writing to highway cleanup. Money? Of course we need it, but we need you even more. To help with an AMER project, send your name and phone number to AMER Volunteers at the address below. If address only, a small donation for postage would help. TO JOIN You can obtain the necessary membership application forms and other membership information by writing to AMER at the address below. TO CONTRIBUTE Make checks or money orders out to Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions and send them to AMER Treasurer at the address below. FOR PUBLICATIONS To obtain copies of AMER's "The Truth About Human Sacrifice", "Dream No Small Dreams", "The Truth About Ritualized Child Abuse", "Exercising Your Writes" or our newsletter, The AMER Intelligence, send a stamped, self-addressed envelope to AMER Public Information Officer at the address below. ANY QUESTIONS? Send your questions and (if possible) a stamped, self-addressed envelope to AMER at this address. Alliance for Magical and Earth Religions P.O. Box 16551 Clayton, MO 63105 (314)994-1026 ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ The SURFPUNK Technical Journal is a dangerous multinational hacker zine originating near BARRNET in the fashionable western arm of the northern California matrix. Quantum Californians appear in one of two states, spin surf or spin punk. Undetected, we are both, or might be neither. ________________________________________________________________________ Send postings to , subscription requests to . MIME encouraged. Xanalogical archive access soon. Fundamentally changing society. ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Someone else mentioned the almighty Claude Shannon in another message concern- ing maximum bit-rate of a voice channel, and I wanted to clear up what was said. Shannon's capacity formula said capacity in bits-per-second equals bandwidth of channel in hertz times the base-2 (binary) logarithm of one plus the signal (in watts) to noise (in watts) ratio. As a side note, I say watts because commonly, today, you measure signal and noise levels in decibels (dB), and the S/N ratio is in dBm's (decibels per milliwatt). In the phone system, we say a voice frequency channel (VFC) has a bandwidth of 4kHz. In-band signalling is approximately from .3 to 3kHz. This formula (yielding the Shannon limit) is based on a "Gaussian Band Limited Channel" (GBLC), which is an approximation of a VFC, with a signal wave of S watts at the input of an "ideal" low-pass filter, subjected to Gaussian noise with a mean power of N watts (uniformly). Written, it's C = W log2(1 + S/N). A simple example you can do in your head is W=3000Hz, pick an S/N of 1023, 1+1023 is 1024, and base-2 log of 1024 is simply 10, 3000 * 10 is 30000, so Shannon's limit for these values is C = 30000bps. Play with it. Bear in mind, Shannon didn't consider intersymbol interference. Nyquist did. Compare this to Harry Nyquist's 2-bit rule, 2W, or double the bandwidth, and get the maximum bit rate (this line of thinking led him to the infamous Nyquist sampling theorem, sample at a rate twice the bandwidth of a channel, and you have all the information you need to reconstruct it at the receiving end). But Nyquist deals only with binary systems. Shannon's formula shows that theoretically you could increase the data rate indefinitely by increasing the S/N ratio. We achieve this in modern modulation systems by using multilevel systems, (M-ary for short, with M > 2), and hence the protocols I described in my previous message. We can apply Nyquist's 2-bit rule to the multilevel system by saying 2W log2 M bps is achievable, with an acceptable error rate. As we increase M (number of bits per symbol), so we have to find ways to increase the signal to noise ratio, to maintain an acceptable error rate. The whole thing is stupendously interesting to me, as I hope it is to the rest of you folks. To blow your mind with sheer genius, read Shannon's classic "A Mathematical Theory of Communication" in Bell System Tech Journal, July and October of '48 at your local university. Also Nyquist's "Certain Topics in Telegraph Transmission Theory", April '28. Know your roots. Good night. Phiber Optik