Pleasant@Rutgers.ARPA (04/01/83)
HUMAN-NETS Digest Friday, 1 Apr 1983 Volume 6 : Issue 17
Today's Topics:
Replies to Queries - Where to Order Documents &
Resource Requirements,
Technology - EFT (4 msgs),
Computers and the Law - Electronic Anklet
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Date: 29 Mar 1983 0747-PST
From: Wmartin at OFFICE-3 (Will Martin)
Subject: Addresses request
The address inquiry previously appeared on Msggroup; here is
an answer which was sent in reply.
(You'll probably see twelve of these...)
Return-path: <SABATINE@USC-ISIB>
Date: 21 Mar 1983 0839-PST
Subject: Re: Where To Order Documents ?
From: SABATINE at USC-ISIB
To: POSTEL at USC-ISIF
Jon,
Here are the appropriate locations. I'm sending this to you
in the hopes that you'll forward it to the original requestor.
ISO and ANSI standards are both ordered from:
American National Standards Institute
1430 Broadway
New York, NY 10018
(212) 354-3300
It's best to call first and receive price quotes and info re
the correct method of payment. They also have an ISO catalog
that can be obtained.
NBS publications are ordered either from the Superintendent
of Documents, US. Government Printing Office, Washington D.C.
20204, or from the National Technical Information Service (NTIS).
I always go through NTIS because they are fast and accept phone
orders. Their address is Port Royal Road, Springfield Virginia,
22161. (703) 487-4650.
Both agencies only accept orders via a GPO SuDoc number, or
an NTIS accession number. To find out the available publications
from NBS, and the corresponding order numbers, it may be best
to contact them directly. The NBS address is simply: National
Bureau of Standards, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington
D.C. 20234. I'm sorry, I don't have a phone number.
CCITT: International Telecommunication Union
General Secretariat
Sales Service
Place des Nations
CH-1211
Geneva 20 Switzerland
They, too, can be contacted for publications lists and order
forms.
I hope this helps,
Alicia
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(Forwarded by Will Martin, WMartin@Office-3)
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Date: 29 Mar 1983 1235-PST
From: Wmartin at OFFICE-3 (Will Martin)
Subject: Comparing Electronic Mail Systems
One reasonable reference source I've been reading for a while on the
subject of electronic mail is a newsletter called "EMMS - Electronic
Mail & Message Systems". It comes out twice a month and is printed
on light green paper. Though it is expensive ($235 / year, back
issues $10 each or less if you buy a year's worth in a binder), they
seem to be amenable to sending out free samples. Look for
Business-Reply cards from them in the packets of cards you get along
with subscriptions to freebie trade magazines ("Computer Design",
etc.) or drop a note to :
International Resource Development, Inc.
30 High Street
Norwalk, CT 06851
Telephone # is (203) 866-6914.
Of course, since this is a private-industry-oriented publication, a
lot of the fax, telex, ECOM, and suchlike stuff discussed is fairly
inferior to the real computer-based electronic message systems we
are used to. So you have to wade through a lot of dross to find the
information of interest to us. There is more of a marketing than a
technical orientation.
Will Martin (WMartin@Office-3)
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From: allegra!rba@ucbvax
Date: Wed Mar 30 14:52:39 1983
In reply to the questions of Ben Kuipers (HN vol 6, #15), John Gould
of IBM has conducted several studies comparing how letters are
composed in different modalities. In one of these studies (Gould,
1981) he found that letters written with a text editor (REDIT) were
composed more slowly than handwritten letters although if the time
for a secretary to type the handwritten letter was included, the
text editor came out slightly ahead. In another series of studies
(Gould, 1978) dictation and "spoken letters" are found to be much
faster than handwriting. However, in both studies letter quality
was not affected by the way the letters were composed.
Bob Allen
BTL - MH
Gould, J.D. How experts dictate. \Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Human Perception and Performance/ 4, 1978, 648.
Gould, J.D. Composing letters with computer-based text editors.
Human Factors/ 23, 1981. 593.
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Date: 29 Mar 1983 0305-EST
From: Hobbit <AWalker@RUTGERS>
Subject: EFT cards
Somehow I don't think a writeable card would be too secure. I have
had cards from which the mag stripe has been bashed simply by riding
around in my wallet for six months. If high-density stripes are
going to work, they have to physically protect them better.
_H*
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Date: Mon Mar 28 1983 13:00:01-PST
From: Lauren Weinstein <vortex!lauren@LBL-CSAM.ARPA>
Subject: EFT, etc.
My friends,
Some of you are fooling yourselves. We can sit around our terminals
and mumble about security systems and encryption until doomsday, but
the real security parameters of future EFT systems will be
*politically* determined, *not* simply technically determined.
Right now, today, we know how to build systems that could provide
virtually "perfect" security of transactions from the customer's
standpoint (I'm not addressing the issue of how much these systems
could *cost* in today's market, however.) But I'll make you a bet.
Such "perfect" systems would always have legally mandated "holes"
implemented to allow for "special situations". Does anyone
seriously believe that an EFT system that effectively "obscures" all
transactions from scrutiny will be permitted to exist on a large
scale? I can think of half a dozen governmental agencies which
would scream bloody murder at the very idea. Of course, each agency
would claim that only *they* needed access to the data, and of
course *nobody* else could ever touch such data. Poppycock. By the
time the various exceptions are implemented, our "perfect" EFT
system will have as many holes as the proverbial swiss cheese.
As was stated by someone in a previous digest, it is not the systems
themselves that are the real danger -- but rather the *misuse* of
information that these systems generate and collect. It is my
belief that *only* a system with the potential for misuse (where
"misuse" can be defined in various ways by different persons) will
be legally permitted to appear. I also might suggest that the
dangers of such a system might well overshadow the "convenience"
benefits we could derive from its use.
The "unrealistic" tone of some of the proposals recently presented
in this digest is obvious. "Free food under REM's term as world
leader" --- gimme a break! "Send the illegal aliens back where they
belong" -- a one line phrase which many "leaders" spout at election
time but perpetually find extremely complicated to handle in
reality. Such pie-in-the-sky statements (if indeed they are "pie")
belong over in the POLI-SCI digest, not on HUMAN-NETS where,
presumably, we are seeking "realistic" solutions to complex
technical issues which face society.
I fear that there are those among us who would willingly set up a
society where you had to use your thumbprint (or tongueprint? What
a disgusting idea, REM...) twenty times a day just to handle the
normal transactions of living. Sometime ago, I sent to this digest
a "humorous" scenario of what the printout from such a "tracking
EFT" system might look like. I was not just "kidding around" with
that message -- I consider EFT abuse to be almost a certainty in
many of the large scale operations now being envisioned. I also
suspect that, by convention and eventual edict, cash will become
less and less acceptable as time goes by under such a system, simply
because it *is* so much easier to keep track of electronic
transactions -- and we can be sure that somewhere, someone other
than "us" will be keeping track.
Convenience is one thing. But frankly, I don't want to have to show
my thumbprint (or lick some damn EFT terminal!) simply to allow such
"conveniences", and I wonder how long it would take for
"necessities" to also be brought under the umbrella of these
systems. I hope that there are those of you who agree with me.
--Lauren--
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Date: 29 Mar 1983 1715-PST
From: Lynn Gold <FIGMO at KESTREL>
Subject: ATMs and records
No matter whether or not they keep old records around, aren't
there statutes of limitation which take effect after a certain
period of time after a crime is committed (seven years or so)?
If this is the case, it wouldn't matter if someone had a
college-days fling that was discovered fifteen years after they
finished college, since it would be too late to prosecute.
--Lynn
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Date: 29 March 1983 21:21 EST
From: Barry Clifford Neuman <BCN @ MIT-MC>
What good does the cashless society do about crime anyway?
Someone can always force you to transfer money to them. Do you
intend that credit transfer outlets are to be restricted? I can
just see having to visit the bank to lend a friend money.
One solution to this problem is to take a step backward. We
shouldn't restrict credit transfer outlets, but we should restrict
locations where credit can be turned into cash. This means that you
can transfer money to you friend at any time you want, but to
withdraw cash, and give it to someone, you should have to go to a
bank or similar establisment. If the whole society were cashless,
there should only be need for small amounts of cash, and obatining
it should not pose any great emergency, since for almost everything,
you can use EFT for the transaction. Do away with the automatic
tellers that allow you to withdraw cash. This shoud essentially
eliminate this type of crime, since a theif obviously gives away his
identity if he forces you to transfer money to him.
Cliff
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Date: 29 Mar 83 10:34 EST (Tuesday)
From: Damouth.Wbst@PARC-MAXC.ARPA
Subject: Re: Electronic Anklet
Weinstein's additional description of the electronic anklet stops
short of pointing out the obvious next step:
Our large cities are all installing cellular radio systems for
mobile communications. Some cities already have a similar but more
limited transponder system for automatically keeping track of
location of police cars. The anklet could easily transmit to such a
system, providing a continuous record of the location of the person.
For the police car locator system, accuracy is a fraction of a city
block. The cellular radio, not being designed for this purpose,
might only localize the person to a particular cell, which is much
larger but still useful. Going a bit further, the radio navigation
receivers now being sold for yachts can automatically provide
location to within about 50 feet most places in the country (or
maybe it is presently limited to a few hundred miles from navigable
water - the newer satellite-based transmitters will fix this, and
will also provide elevation plus or minus one floor in a high-rise).
Such a receiver is presently a bit too big and too power-hungry to
be mounted in an anklet. A more specialized unit, which simply
receives the navigation signals and transmits the raw data and an
identification code, via cellular communications systems, to a
central computer, could be reduced to a few chips and mounted in an
anklet.
Viewed by itself, this prospect appears horrifying. Viewed as an
alternative to prison for convicted non-violent criminals, it seems
far more humane and far cheaper than the prison.
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End of HUMAN-NETS Digest
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