Date: 7 October 1980 00:29 edt From: SSteinberg.SoftArts at MIT-Multics (SAS at SAI-Prime) Subject: network bugs? Sender: COMSAT.SoftArts at MIT-Multics To: dlw at MIT-AI Message-ID: <801007042955.031045 at MIT-Multics> I think BBN must have been trying out a new algorithm which optimizes space time geodisics because this wound up in my mailbox. It seems like you sent (or rather will send) this in the late 80's but otherwise I don't know what to make of it. Feel free to retransmit it since you obviously transmitted (will transmitted) it the first time? *** SPOILER WARNING *** The following messages contain information from the future which by basic causality we aren't supposed to be able to know about so if you are at all worried about the fabric of the universe do not read on. *** SPOILER WARNING *** Lauren Digest Friday, October 8, 1988 Volume 2: Number 37 Today's Topics: DOE Hearings, Latin SF, BankNet-Protocols and the Third World, New Host - My Summer Home, SW17, Raising My Quota, Undercover Software ________________________________________________________________ Date: 8 October 1988 0211-PDT (Friday) From: Lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Dirac goes to D.C. I was in D.C. the other week and right after the 3AM Quick Death Chiller Feature about a used car salesman who takes over Miami Beach with a group of crazed gas guzzlers (which had been pronounced extinct by an eminent scientist who wore a Johnny Seven helmet and Saran Wrap) I was able to pick up some reruns on the internal Congressional TV Network by pouring a coke with ice into the motel TV set. Sure enough it was a classified DOE hearing with some crazy physicist muttering about changing little c and big G. Apparantly a change of big G by as little as 0.0000001% would immediately end our need to import oil and a change of about 0.000001% would end our need to pump any oil, drill coal, chop wood or anything except eat about a teaspoon of sugar a day. Dirac claimed that $37.8 billion dollars would allow him to change G enough to test out the basic hypothesis. The next witness was a big red guy with pointy ears who kept jumping up and down pointing at things with his pitchfork. Does anyone know if Dirac has finally gone bonkers or if his numbers correct. My calculations show that the local Ricci tensor changes would probably cost closer to $573.2 billion dollars and would only last for about 50 years before everything settled down again. ________________ Date: 8 October 1988 0211-PDT (Friday) From: Lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: SF and the old school I was reading Timon's latest book "Who Watches These ..." which is a eerie negative utopian story about three people who try to escape from a world in which rational events occur. Apparantly they become incapable of predicting the future which drives the ruling hierarchy to send the feared gladiators after them. They manage to escape to modern New York City where they are accused of stealing several priceless artifacts and become celebrities. It is kind of an ordinary story but very well written in Modern Church Latin. It is published by Cave de Vatican Press and is a bit hard to find as are most of Timon's books. Does anyone have any idea where I could get a copy of his "Nothing Begets Nothing"? Also, why does he choose English titles? One story I heard is that he is a shoe salesman in Detroit. ________________ Date: 7 October 1988 1751-PDT (Thursday) From: Lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: BankNet A friend of mine has just gotten a hookup to the new BankNet which now covers Bolivia where she works and is interested in knowing if anyone has ever used their new Cash Transfer Protocol which is unlike anything she or anyone else in Bolivia has ever seen. She sent me a copy of the 4 pages of documentation in Spanish and it seems to be related to the CMU Cheese Transfer Protocol except with lots of security stuff added. The virtual lawyer feature is kind of obscure. ________________ Date: 7 October 1988 1134-PDT (Thursday) From: Lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Growing the ARPANET I have finally gotten an ARPANET connection in my summer home in Arizona! My friend and I have finally figured out how to use the reverse carrier on the 1.8M-volt lines they ran from downtown LA to Pacific's newest solar power collector. You can send me net mail directly via socket 3616257652\4686815.00001 or to Lauren@SOLPOWHACK. (Thanks to Brian Lloyd and Dr. Forward for figuring out how big a capacitor I needed and Jake Feinler for helping to spread the word. ________________ Date: 6 October 1988 0334-PDT (Thursday): From: Lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: SW17 I was waiting on line at the MegaMart down the block behind some turkey trying to cash a $3.5E6 IMF Non-Imfundable Security and as usual the checkout guy couldn't figure out the redemption form so they ran off to the back room while I cooled my heels and watched my ice cream melt. I noticed this guy had left a folder marked only SW17 on the counter along with the head of lettuce and can of pork and beans he was buying. I couldn't resist and managed to read most of the Star Wars Number 17 script which is being produced by the Paramount Division of LucasFilms. Starting with the next newsletter I will offer a serialized plot summary along with an appropriate SPOILER WARNING. ________________ Date: 6 October 1988 1034-PDT (Thursday) From: Lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: More packet quota! I need more quota - 1.6M-bytes per day is not enough. How can I answer my net mail? ________________ Date: 6 October 1988 0627-PDT (Thursday) From: Lauren at UCLA-Security (Lauren Weinstein) Subject: Undercover Software Anyone know anything about this NET-Reuters frobbie: WASHINGTON DC - Mid-level officials in the recently revealed XCT super-secret security and intelligence branch which was created when the CIA was being gutted revealed that IBM's OS/370 releases 4542.97A and up were sent to the Soviet Union along with an undercover package known only as "The Program With a Thousand Phases". This package was used to smuggle out military secrets and civil data by means which have not yet been revealed. I have heard that the program they were talking about started out as an overlay in the SYSGEN module and was capable of disguising itself as a COBOL or Fortran 77 compiler. Furthermore it could run on any 360 series machine or any American, French, British or West German PBX! Did it use reference counts for register optimization? ________________