Interesting Things

These are mostly e-mail things that have come across my desk.. they are forwarded and can be considered to be floating out there...they may be rumours of they may be truthfull or they may be out there..references are indicated when possible. They may be real or mythological.. the lines between mythology and reality in human perception are very blurry anyways. I have tried to verify them where possible. All italicized editorial comment is mine.....BT

....Bob Turner

``This was sent form our friend Kieren in Australia...BT``

G7 PREPARES TO CRACK DOWN ON INTERNET "TERRORISM", "HATE" AND "FEAR".... Toronto Star

TORONTO STAR, July 31, 1996

CANADIANS WILL "FEEL" ANTI-TERROR MEASURES

PARIS - Terrorism touches ordinary lives and governments determined to fight it may soon be interfering with them, too.

Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy says Canadians are likely to "feel" some of the 25 measures adopted at the anti-terrorism summit yesterday.

He said it may be that airfares will rise to cover the cost of more security at airports or that much longer delays to accommodate tougher security checks will become a fact of life when people travel.

But he said any intrusion into the life of ordinary Canadians has to be put in perspective.

"If terrorism is allowed to win, it is going to change the way we do things in this world, in our own country," Axworthy said.

"Will you have international events anymore? Will people be wanting to travel the same way? Will you be having so much security around Parliament Hill that no one can get in to see question period? All sorts of things will change if we don't battle back."

Foreign and security ministers from the Group of Seven leading industrial nations, plus Russia, spent five hours debating measures to strengthen their common defence against the growing threat of terrorism.

They agreed to a 25-point program of principles for fighting terrorism, including the drafting of a new international convention on terrorist bombings.

The recent bomb at the Atlanta Olympics, the suspicious downing of TWA Flight 800 and a lengthy litany of terrorist attacks around the world in the past month hung over their meeting like a black cloud, adding a new sense of urgency to work that has been under way since last year's G-7 summit in Halifax.

The measures adopted were primarily concrete police and intelligence proposals designed to cut off funds available to terrorists, restrict their movements and pre-empt their attacks by systematically sharing relevant information.

Ministers from Canada, the United States, France, Germany, Britain, Italy, Japan and Russia agreed to implement the measures "without delay" and use their membership in regional forums around the world to convince other nations to follow suit.

The 25-point program unveiled at the end of the Paris conference contained few items concrete enough to implement immediately .

The program includes general agreement on stricter border controls, a search for legal ways to track terrorists via the Internet and on investigations of charitable, humanitarian and other organizations that might be used as fronts for terrorism.

The ministers did not specify which groups these might be. Other elements include tighter international standards for bomb detection at airports and standardization of investigative tools that police can use to hunt down bombers.

In an interview from Paris yesterday, Revenue Minister Jane Stewart told The Star's Shawn McCarthy the federal government is relying on informants in the immigrant community to investigate groups that may be raising money for terrorist groups.

Stewart said Ottawa is monitoring charitable groups that are raising money for relief overseas to ensure the money does not get funnelled to terrorist organizations.

"We register charitable organizations and we have the ability to deregister if we find they are not engaged in charitable activities," Stewart said.

"But it's very hard to make that evidentiary link. And it really is based on incredible intelligence."

French Foreign Minister Herve de Charette told reporters the ministers focused considerable attention on "new forms of terrorism" and the new technology it was exploiting. He described the new threat as coming from small, mobile, multinational groups with confused ideologies - groups who don't even claim responsibility for their actions.

Several ministers said Axworthy helped them understand the problem when he described how his 11-year-old son, sitting in Ottawa, showed him on the Internet how to access hate literature from white supremacists and other extremist groups.

Axworthy said later: "To have young people exposed to those kinds of messages without being able to provide some kind of alternative frightens me."

The ministers agreed to have their security experts report before Christmas on possible ways to block the use of technologies like the Internet to disseminate terrorist propaganda and information.

``thanks to .... http://www.inforamp.net/~jwhitley``

``It is interesting the amount of myths that fly around the Internet...this went around recently...I e-mailed Mr. Buettner asking for confirmation of this and aiol's response is below..BT``

an Henric Buettner jhbuettner@aol.com, head of AOL Germany, is quoted in the news magazine DER SPIEGEL: "Among the users, there are about one percent of freaks, pornographers, perverts and radicals. The community must be protected from them. Guardings are on duty around the clock, monitoring conversations and reading mail."

``Heres a Review of the big 3 in Internet Filtering...there is one point .. Net Nanny is not here .. maybe because the program wasn't out yet or the writer didn't know about it..I don't realy know...BT``

CENSORSHIP FILTERS

With all the concern about pornography on the net it is not surprising that software developers have risen to the challenge in developing programs parents can use to limit the types of material a child might be exposed to. By my count there are now about 8 such programs available. Some are pure commercial and not listed here. The others are of more interest because they are Shareware versions or commercial ones with a trial or demo available. I think it is important to first try out such a program since the advertising hype may not necessarily be matched by a program's capabilities and there are variations in type and the comprehensiveness of protection between different programs. Increased protection is not necessarily desirable if it interferes with the normal allowed use of that PC by the child or other family member.

With a number of programs available now which provide a means for parents to censor what their children see on the net, it is interesting to compare some of these.

Cyber Patrol advantages: Larger range of configuration options including time of day, fixed hours per week and ability to control specific programs and functions. Changeable password. Stricter word filtering based on wild card word fragments (which might also be overkill). The program comes with a much larger listing of forbidden words and places. Can block access to other online service providers such as CompuServe (but if access allowed can not filter their content). Disadvantages: Visible icons, obvious presence which may be annoying to children. Setting up and maintaining all the various options may be time consuming and tiresome.

The Internet Filter advantages: Very simple to install and largely forget. A more elegant solution with blanket coverage of all incoming data rather than having to specifically configure for different types of programs. Unobtrusive background operation - child might not even know why he can't access certain material. Disadvantages:Password access to change configuration options but lacks convenient password override for adult use making it less suitable on a shared PC. Lacks some blocking capabilities such as time of day (which admittedly is not necessarily relevant to the prime purpose of the program). Appears to have somewhat looser filtering.

CYBERsitter advantages: Easy to use, password capability, blocking effective against both online or offline material. Unobtrusive - can be secretly used. Lowest priced such program. Disadvantages: Perhaps too simple a program lacking the ability to filter content by looking for key words or phrases.

``My personal preference: The Internet Filter because of its simplicity. Both it and Cyber Patrol however have different features and suitability will depend on the circumstances. The third program CYBERsitter seemed too limited in its capabilities although it is the cheapest. Although I don't have any children I was one once (which counts) and I remain to be convinced that a smart and somewhat computer literate (somewhat older) child couldn't find a way to bypass all such programs. Or am I wrong?``

Cyber Patrol â¢

FUNCTION......Censorship filter and activity blocker

FILE SIZE........ 301,743 bytes

VERSION.......... 2.0 August 1995

RETRIEVAL..... http://www.microsys.com/CYBER/ File name:cp-setup.exe

STATUS............. Demo, 7 day limit. Registration $US 49.95 includes a 6 month subscription to CyberNOT Block List. Subsequent subscriptions $US 19.95/6 months.

DOCUMENTS.. Start up instructions and online help.

FEATURES....... You can block access by type of content, type of Internet service, time of day, and total hours per day or week. In addition, you can block access to specific games or other applications on your PC. Restrictions can be bypasssed with a password.

COMMENTS.... This is a fairly comprehensive program which allows a large range of options - blocking of specific programs, time of the day, certain sites, certain phrases etc. Installation is to C:\patrol directory and cannot be changed. This program goes beyond just restricting the types of material which can be viewed and is clearly capable of controlling any access to the PC for other reasons. There is an uninstall button. Released by Microsystems Software Inc. New version 2.0 just released (late August) also blocks sites accessed via a proxy server and adds other features.

CYBERsitterâ¢

FUNCTION......Censorship filter and activity blocker

FILE SIZE........288,744 bytes

VERSION..........1.1 August 1995

RETRIEVAL..... http://www.rain.org/~solidoak/cybersit.htm File name: cybersit.exe

STATUS.............Trial version. Introductory price $US 29.95 with corporate and educational discounts available.

DOCUMENTS..Online help. One minor bug in the 1.1 version is the installation of icons for a readme.wri and orderfrm.wri files when there are in fact no such files included.

FEATURES....... Fairly versatile, CYBERsitter is capable of blocking material from being viewed from the Internet, other online services like CompuServe, BBS's, and offline sources like CD-ROM's. Alert/block options. This program is especially well designed to run in secret and even blocking messages which are generated when access is being prevented are disguised to look like normal Windows type messages. Uninstall menu command.

COMMENTS.... This program is very narrowly focused in that it is only designed to block access to objectional files and programs based on the file name or type of file only (e.g. .gif, .jpg, .zip or even .exe). A file or program name or type is either acceptable or not depending on the selected criteria. There is very limited capability for further filtering, a potential major weakness. For example, if access to Usenet news groups is allowed (by allowing access to the news program), binary file types can be easily blocked from being viewed (by not allowing access to view such file types) but I see nothing here which would prevent viewing of text based postings in the same groups which might be equally objectionable content. A focus on file name/type with negligible ability to further screen content limits this program. Worth noting, it is suggested in the documentation that CYBERsitter could be used in the workplace to restrict the online activities of workers or just (secretly) monitor such activities. Hmmmm....... and you thought that such programs were only intended for use by parents in the home. The program can be quickly deactivated for use by a parent (or employer!). Released by Solid Oak Software.

The Internet Filter

FUNCTION......Censorship filter and activity blocker

FILE SIZE........ 206,162 bytes

VERSION.......... Version Zero, July 1995

RETRIEVAL..... http://www.xmission.com/~seer/jdksoftware/netfilt.html File name: netfilt.zip

STATUS............. Freeware. The configurable commercial Version One is available for $CDN 49.95 (approximately $US 37).

DOCUMENTS..Basic instructions. A bit more explanation would have been nice and noticably missing is information on how to remove this program. (It must be a sign of old age when you're more interested in how to remove programs than how to install them.)

FEATURES....... Very easy installation. There are no program group icons to betray The Internet Filter's presence. It operates silently in the background and scans data packets for phrases, domain names, and newsgroup names and checks for a match against a phrase list. A positive match can result in censorship block, a log entry, email to a "supervisor", or a shutdown (?). Note that this free version is preconfigured with fixed options. For flexibility in setup configuration the commercial version must be purchased.

COMMENTS.... This program is intended for use by parents who are concerned about younger children accessing the Internet and being exposed to inappropriate material. The Internet Filter's ability to check incoming data packets makes it fairly powerful - all programs being run by the user (Web pages, mail, news, IRC...) will have their incoming data checked. This program's security is probably adequate for very young children but should be easily beaten by teens. For Windows 3.1/3.11 only, it should work with any Winsock. I tested this program with WFW 3.11, Trumpet Winsock and Free Agent newsreader. Lo and behold, when I tried to access alt.binaries.nude.celebrities (I was informed by others that there might be something offensive there, not being familiar with these types of newsgroups myself of course.) my access was blocked. One problem with the program is that its filter is not on/off switchable - it could be a bit of a nuisance if everyone shares the one machine at home. Released by Turner Investigations, Research and Communication and J.D. Koftinoff Software, Ltd.

TattleTale â¢

FUNCTION......Censorship filter and activity blocker.

FILE SIZE........277,762 bytes

VERSION..........1.1 August 1995

RETRIEVAL....http://www.rain.org/~solidoak/tt.htm File name: ttsetup.exe

STATUS...........Trial version. Registration $US 29.95

DOCUMENTS..Online help.

FEATURES.......

COMMENTS....From the same company and very similar to CYBERsitter elsewhere in this section. Main difference is that CYBERsitter is intended to secretly log or block access to certain file types, TattleTale is more broadly based with the additional capability to secretly log or block certain activities. These blocked activities can include floppy disk access, installation of new programs, access to Windows games, access to Windows configuration utilities. In addition to home use, these extra capabilities could make the program particularly useful for PC's in the workplace or in a public access place such as in a library. Released by Solid Oak Software.

The Winsock Client Listing Copyright 1995 by Ed Sinkovits (edsink@mail.mbnet.mb.ca). Graphics Copyright 1995 by Big Black Spider. Reproduction or redistribution without written permission prohibited. Optimized for Netscape.

<<10. Der AOL- Service ermoeglicht Ihnen den Zugang zum Internet. Das Internet ist ein separates, von AOL unabhaengiges Computernetzwerk. AOL hat keine Rechte oder Beteiligungen am Internet und kontrolliert oder betreibt es nicht. AOL uebernimmt keine Gewaehr fuer die Richtigkeit und Vollstaendigkeit der von Ihnen ueber das Internet abgerufenen Inhalte. Sie nutzen das Internet auf eigene Gefahr und unterliegen dabei den national oder international geltenden Gesetzen und Vorschriften. Wenn Sie sich ueber den AOL- Service Zugang zum Internet verschaffen, verpflichten Sie sich, sowohl die im Internet geltenden Regeln, insbesondere die dort geltenden Verkehrsregeln, als auch die AOL Nutzungsbedingungen und die AOL Verkehrsregeln einzuhalten.>>

Translation:

<<The AOL service provides you with internet access. The internet is a separate computer network independent from AOL. AOL has no rights or share in the internet and neither controls nor operates it in any way. AOL accepts no guarantee for the correctness an coherance of the contents of sides which are called up over the internet. The usage of the internet is of your own risk and is subject to current national and international laws. If you use AOL as your internet provider you are obliged to follow the current internet rulings especially those covering the current communication rulings as well as the german AOL terms of service (Nutzungsbedingungen).>>

We don't control or read private mails or the communication in the chatrooms, only if members feel offended by unrequired sent mail they have the possibility to forward such mail to the LOTSEN Team.

Our members have the possibility of using the internet. In the TOS members are asked to pay attention to the Netiquette.

We don't control the internet and its access and we don't wish to do so.

Best wishes.... TeamJB (Karin Woelffing)

Municipal laws and the Internet... this is circulating.. I e-mailed a request for confirmation but to date recieved no response....BT

TO: All Concerned REGARDING: Public Internet Access DATE: July 4, 199 FROM: GABRIEL LIEBERMANN, President of smArtAttack, Inc. According to the Police Chief of the City of Helen, GA, a place tha provides Public Internet Access, is considered the same as a strip joint, pornographic movie house or modeling studio, and therefore cannot hold a liquor license or allow access by minors. In addition such a place may not be operated within 1000 ft. of a residence. This means that Public Internet Access is for Adults only under City of Helen statutes. Does this mean that public access to the Internet now can be interpreted n this manner. We have invested a significant amount of money in order to provide the public access to the Internet in a fun and entertaining environment. Our intent is to offer something for everyone that comes into our establishment . In addition as a result, our liquor license application is being held up until we agree to a contract with the city to restrict access to sites they deem to fall under this category. This in addition could be interpreted that allowing public telephones in an establishment, where these phones could be used to access Phone sex ines is also a violation of City Statutes. The same could be said of having television sets in public view. Please have someone contact me and Email regarding this issue. The impact of such a precedent could affect all the other US based CyberCafes and creates a significant hurdle for the many already established CyberCafes in the US. Gabriel Liebermann President smArtAttack, Inc.smArtAttack, Inc. Email: zmax@STC.net .