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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Twitch <Twitch@*******.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject: Purple Pain
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 1997 01:21:19 +0100
*****PRIVATE: Purple Martin
>>>>>[OK. This is getting ridiculous. I've been trying to contact you
for ages. You're dopey code is too much to consider for any length of
time and interferes with what I really want to do, I mean who wants to
spend hours and hours and hours working out a simple little thing like
"Hey there, where d'ya want 'em," when it takes bleedin' hours to do it,
and a guy could be doing something much more interesting and important
like propping up the bar at the Green Dragonette. I mean like really,
man, this is too much, plus I've got a basement full of your goods and
they are _really_ beginning to stink. Normally I'd dispose of the
articles myself but you _did_ ask for them, and there's fifteen of the
beggers laying around decomposing and it ain't fraggin' nice. Now if
I'd known you didn't want them, and weren't going to make arrangements
for delivery/disposal I woulda posted them somewhere myself, as it is
they're too damn rotten to move now, and I'm damned if I'm gonna start
picking up pieces with a gas mask on my face, if I wanted to hide my
face I woulda had it altered by some plasto-guy, like the guys down in
tacoma, but I don't so I won't and haven't. So, if you want these
articles taken somewhere you'd better do it soon before they're just
little lumps of rotten whatever and they become one with the basement,
and on top of that, the landlord has started moaning about the aroma,
and it's getting difficult constantly killing the repair guys that come
around to fix the air conditioning, though I am getting a nice
collection of tools for fixing air conditioning which would be really
neat if I knew anything about air conditioning, which I don't, except
that it keeps the room at a liveable temperature, but seeing as the
stink is almost unbearable, and I can't turn on the air conditioning
because of the smell, the room isn't cool, in fact it's fraggin' hot in
here, and that's even worse, because that makes everything stink, and
the air isn't getting recycled through the air filters which means I get
the stench of the damn Sound coming in through the window which I have
to have open just to get a little breeze and air into the room to make
it even moderately bearable and then there's all these tools which I
don't know how to use but are really kinda neat but no damn good to me,
and I can't sell 'em at the pawn shop, though I've tried because they've
got this company stamp all over them and that makes then realy difficult
to sell and that ends up with me and several sets of tools that most
people won't touch because of the stamp on 'em, and if I filed the name
off them the tools would have these great big scratches and things all
over them and then people wouldn't want them, but then they don't want
them anyway because of the name, and because I can't use them they're
all rather useless, which all comes down to the simple fact that either
you do something with the articles I've collected for you, or I'll have
to tear your fraggin head off and play bouncy with it, and now someone's
barfing all over the alley outside my window, and I've just about had
enough of this...


Sorted.


OK?]>>>>>
-- Twitch <01:11:14/21-07-58
Message no. 2
From: Jeffrey Mach <mach@****.CALTECH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Purple Pain
Date: Sun, 20 Jul 1997 20:11:03 -0700
On Mon, 21 Jul 1997, Twitch wrote:

> *****PRIVATE: Purple Martin
> >>>>>[OK. This is getting ridiculous. I've been trying to contact you
> for ages. You're dopey code is too much to consider for any length of
> time and interferes with what I really want to do, I mean who wants to
> spend hours and hours and hours working out a simple little thing like
> "Hey there, where d'ya want 'em," when it takes bleedin' hours to do it,
> and a guy could be doing something much more interesting and important
> like propping up the bar at the Green Dragonette.

Unless of course he paid a decker to make up a script to do it for him,
and then it would take a second or two if you wanted a message that read
as plain English. While I don't know how to code well enough to do this
myself, I have a pretty good idea of how I would go about doing it. First
you need a dictionary in data format. Then you need to use the code to
sort the words by your encrypt key while saving some data about part of
speech, and if you are studly, meaning. Then give your program the
message you want to encrypt. It sorts things out by word placement and
parts of speech and can either randomly select words, giving you correct
sentences but a meaningless message, or it could even prompt the user to
help it make the post sound like you were actually trying to say
something. A larger spread on the letters (not hiding in every word)
would make it even easier to make something more readable.

On the other hand, the code Purple Martin was using was easily crackable.
If not by hand, then in a very short period of time by a computer. It is
simply a matter or brute force letter extraction and searching for word
patterns like "the" and then searching for progressively more complex, and
less common words until it found all possible code patterns that provided
a readable message. I partly assumed that the implied code that was being
used was actually more difficult than the one that appeared, which, due to
the constraints of the writers posting, couldn't have been easily made more
sophisticated.

Public posting of criminal actions is an iffy proposition at best. You
never know if there is a runner or two out there that might decide to find
what the gibberish is all about and want to turn the perpetrators over to
police for the reward. Simply due to the fact that I had other stories in
the works, I never bothered to have my decker character, NewzJunkie, pass
on the decrypted messages to his friends at one of the local trid stations
or the police, causing investigative reporters and cops to start homing in
on Purple Martin et al. But, as per what the writers around her have
agreed, that public postings are all completely open to all readers, I
could have. I mostly figured I had enough to worry about, rather than try
to throw a monkey wrench into your plot.

--My two yen

Jeff
Message no. 3
From: Avenger <Avenger@*******.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: Purple Pain
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 1997 05:42:44 +0100
----
From: Jeffrey Mach <mach@****.CALTECH.EDU>
To: PLOTD@********.ITRIBE.NET
Date: 21 July 1997 05:11
Subject: Re: Purple Pain

>On Mon, 21 Jul 1997, Twitch wrote:
>
>> *****PRIVATE: Purple Martin
<snip>

>Unless of course he paid a decker to make up a script to do it for him,
>and then it would take a second or two if you wanted a message that read
>as plain English.

That would of course be a logical solution, unfortunately, Twitch hasn't
got enough money to pay his rent, let alone a decker to write a program :)
The decker buddy he has got, is ok about posting messages and stuff, but
wants something when it comes to doing things that require more thought
than "send". :)

Twitch has used the code previously, he just considers it a waste of good
drinking time to continue faffing around with it.

>Public posting of criminal actions is an iffy proposition at best.

Agreed, but the posting was "Private" not public. Now that's not to say
that there aren't deckers around who can crack the PRIVATE encryption, or
monitor transmissions on the matrix, but Twitch is firmly convinced that
this transmission is secure, and has dumped it accordingly.

>on Purple Martin et al. But, as per what the writers around her have
>agreed, that public postings are all completely open to all readers, I
>could have.

Agreed again, but again, the posting from Twitch wasn't public. And as far
as I am aware, posts with "PRIVATE" in the header are not readable by
characters on the list, without permission. That permission has not been
given in this case.

I mostly figured I had enough to worry about, rather than try
>to throw a monkey wrench into your plot.

Not my plot, I have a character participating in it. Whether or not a
monkey wrench gets thrown or not, is not up to me, the simple fact is, that
Twitch is having a problem with the "aroma" produced by fulfilling the
request made by Purple Martin. Purple has failed in his end of the
agreement, and Twitch is a tad miffed about it. :)

--
Dark Avenger
Buying new batteries for his torch, because it's getting too dark in
_these_ shadows.
webbi thing at http://www.shalako.demon.co.uk
Message no. 4
From: Jeffrey Mach <mach@****.CALTECH.EDU>
Subject: Re: Purple Pain
Date: Mon, 21 Jul 1997 14:43:49 -0700
On Mon, 21 Jul 1997, Avenger wrote:

> ----
> From: Jeffrey Mach <mach@****.CALTECH.EDU>
> To: PLOTD@********.ITRIBE.NET
> Date: 21 July 1997 05:11
> Subject: Re: Purple Pain
>
> >On Mon, 21 Jul 1997, Twitch wrote:
> >
> >> *****PRIVATE: Purple Martin
> <snip>
>
> >Unless of course he paid a decker to make up a script to do it for him,
> >and then it would take a second or two if you wanted a message that read
> >as plain English.
>
> That would of course be a logical solution, unfortunately, Twitch hasn't
> got enough money to pay his rent, let alone a decker to write a program :)
> The decker buddy he has got, is ok about posting messages and stuff, but
> wants something when it comes to doing things that require more thought
> than "send". :)

Understandable.

> Agreed, but the posting was "Private" not public. Now that's not to say
> that there aren't deckers around who can crack the PRIVATE encryption, or
> monitor transmissions on the matrix, but Twitch is firmly convinced that
> this transmission is secure, and has dumped it accordingly.

Ack. Damn if I am begining to sound confrontational towards you, but it's
not intended. I was actually wanting to specifically address the fact
that the others in the Purple Martin thing should have been thinking about
using encrypted PRIVATEs or the consequences of not using them all along,
which they didn't seem to have been doing. Frankly Twitch seemed to be
the first one to show a reasonable amount of sense among them. Well,
other than getting involved in indescriminate murder in the first place,
but I figure the man has his reasons. I never intended to, or dared
suggest that people disregard the PRIVATE header. I was more or less
curious if the group had considered the effect of weak public encryption,
and if anyone was considering having something happen in this regard, but
wasn't sure if I should ask.

--My two yen

Jeff
Message no. 5
From: Avenger <Avenger@*******.DEMON.CO.UK>
Subject: Re: Purple Pain
Date: Tue, 22 Jul 1997 01:00:25 +0100
In article <Pine.HPP.3.95.970721143150.28094B-
100000@****.ugcs.caltech.edu>, Jeffrey Mach <mach@****.CALTECH.EDU>
rambled on endlessly about Purple Pain

<snip>
>> The decker buddy he has got, is ok about posting messages and stuff, but
>> wants something when it comes to doing things that require more thought
>> than "send". :)
>
>Understandable.


That's what I thought :)


>> monitor transmissions on the matrix, but Twitch is firmly convinced that
>> this transmission is secure, and has dumped it accordingly.
>
>Ack. Damn if I am begining to sound confrontational towards you, but it's
>not intended.


Not confrontational, though you did sound a tad miffed about something.
:) But in case you had got a tad carried away, I thought it better to
mention that the post had been private.


>I was actually wanting to specifically address the fact
>that the others in the Purple Martin thing should have been thinking about
>using encrypted PRIVATEs or the consequences of not using them all along,
>which they didn't seem to have been doing.


I think, though I'm not sure, that the decision to not use "Private" was
a deliberate one, but that has yet to be confirmed by Mr. Tinner.


>Frankly Twitch seemed to be
>the first one to show a reasonable amount of sense among them.


Well, not to give Twitch any compliments when it comes to the "common
sense" department, but he's been getting increasingly nervous over
having "things" beneath his apartment. So, rather than advertise that
he's got his own personal body bank, he decided in his paranoia to send
the message privately. Amazing how paranoia can cause a sudden burst of
logic isn't it? :)


>Well,
>other than getting involved in indescriminate murder in the first place,
>but I figure the man has his reasons.


He had his reasons to start with, but those reasons have soon faded
under the stench of decomposing body parts. Twitch doesn't have a
particularly strong resolve, and is at this time considering burning the
building down to cover the bodies, the stink, and try to escape having
to pay this months rent. :)


>I never intended to, or dared
>suggest that people disregard the PRIVATE header. I was more or less
>curious if the group had considered the effect of weak public encryption,
>and if anyone was considering having something happen in this regard, but
>wasn't sure if I should ask.


Consequences of public posting of this sort of material were discussed,
but I seem to recall there was a reason for the original public posts,
even if I can't actually remember it.


--
__ \ | \ __
| | _` | __| | / _ \ \ / _ \ __ \ _` | _ \ __|
| | ( | | < ___ \ \ / __/ | | ( | __/ |
____/ \__,_|_| _|\_\ _/ _\ \_/ \___|_| _|\__, |\___|_|
A Dark Shadow in a Dark World |___/
Web page at: http://www.shalako.demon.co.uk

Further Reading

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Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.