Computer underground Digest Wed Aug 31, 1994 Volume 6 : Issue 78 ISSN 1004-042X Editors: Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer (TK0JUT2@NIU.BITNET) Archivist: Brendan Kehoe Retiring Shadow Archivist: Stanton McCandlish Shadow-Archivists: Dan Carosone / Paul Southworth Ralph Sims / Jyrki Kuoppala Ian Dickinson Copylate Editor: John Holmes Shrudlu CONTENTS, #6.78 (Wed, Aug 31, 1994) File 1--General Information About Electronic Frontiers Italy (ALCEI) File 2--Good, bad, etc. (Response by Jerry Leichter) File 3--Florida obscenity trial - implication for artists File 4--"Top Secret Data Encryption Techniques" by Held File 5--CPSR Conference/Event Calendar File 6--GovAccess.046: NASA funds public-access projects File 7--Cu Digest Header Information (unchanged) CuD ADMINISTRATIVE, EDITORIAL, AND SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION APPEARS IN THE CONCLUDING FILE AT THE END OF EACH ISSUE. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Aug 1994 08:27:53 -0700 From: Bernardo Parrella Subject: File 1--General Information About Electronic Frontiers Italy (ALCEI) General Information About Electronic Frontiers Italy (ALCEI) Associazione per la Liberta' nella Comunicazione Elettronica Interattiva (Association for Freedom in Electronic Interactive Communications) ALCEI - Electronic Frontiers Italy is an association of people dedicated to affirm and protect constitutional rights for "electronic citizens" as new communications technologies emerge. ALCEI is focused on the safeguard of freedom of expression and personal privacy for any person using electronic communication systems for personal, social, cultural, professional activities. ALCEI was founded in Milan at the end of July 1994 and is inspired by the principles and goals of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The main objectives of ALCEI - EF Italy are: - To ensure the protection of Constitutional rights for citizens using computer-based communication systems, researching and advising on current and future laws to ensure those rights; - To monitor, disclose and oppose any behavior intended to put restriction, censorship or suppression of free circulation of electronic communications and exchange of information and ideas, no matter how controversial. - To support, encourage and promote the development and use of electronic communications, in order to enable all citizens to have a voice in the information age. - To inform and educate the community at large about computer-based communication systems, emphasizing their responsible use and their positive consequences for our society. The activities of ALCEI - EF Italy include: - Organization of electronic mailing lists and public online conferences distributed throughout Italian systems for discussion on the above mentioned topics and related activities. - Research of current Italian and International laws regarding bulletin board systems and other online information services to set up guide-lines for providers of the these services, detailing their rights and responsibilities. - Production and distribution of information in different formats, including newsletters of various types for local media, general public and the digital community at large. - Establishment of public meetings and programs focused on the use of computer-based communications, in collaboration with local groups and individuals. - Regular exchange of information and experiences with similar International organizations and online communities. ALCEI - EF Italy is a non-profit, non-partisan organization. It is not tied to any political party or financial corporation. It does not accept any government grant. Its activities are completely supported by membership and personal contributions; its board and other active members are volunteers and receive no compensation. ---------------------------------------------------------------- MEMBERSHIP IN ALCEI - EF Italy ---------------------------------------------------------------- Annual Membership Fees: Regular: 50.000 ItLira, US $ 30; Low-income/Student: 20.000 ItLira, US $ 15; Supporting, Groups, Organizations: 300.000 ItLira, US $ 200 (Memberships paid during 1994 will be effective until December 31, 1995) Donations of any amount are well accepted :-))) ---------------------------------------------------------------- Information, membership form, ecc: ---------------------------------------------------------------- **please leave this line, if re-distributing this text ** ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Aug 94 09:56:55 EDT From: Jerry Leichter Subject: File 2--Good, bad, etc. (Response by Jerry Leichter) I found Charles Perkins's reply to my earlier article refreshing. While he and I may disagree on some issues, his article is at least reasoned and provides a basis for further discussion. I'll respond because I think doing so can help to further clarify the issues. Jerry Leichter knocks down a straw man Perhaps - but it wasn't *my* straw man; it was Brock Meeks who raised the arguments to which I was responding. in his argument that free market concerns (about cryptograpy and the clipper chip) should not take precedence over public interest and safety. He correctly argues that we have regulations for our safety. However, his article assumes that the proposed regulations will safeguard citizens' safety and interests in a manner similar to current automotive and industrial regulations. I do not share this assumption. In fact, I am afraid that these proposals will reduce my safety and compromise my own interests. This is a disagreement on issues of fact. Unfortunately, it's difficult to know what the actual facts are. I'll be the first to admit that the FBI has done an incompetent job of arguing *its* facts. (In fact, I'm rather upset with the general incompetence my government has shown in arguing the facts of almost anything of late. If we've become a nation of special interest groups spouting propaganda as "facts," then unfortunately our government has become just another of those groups. It's been said that institutions come to resemble their opponents. All too true.) Absent facts, one has to reason. My reasoning is based on a couple of related points: - If you look at white-color crime prosecutions, you will quickly come to the conclusion that success requires that the prosecution get their hands on records and communications. Often, the basis of the prosecu- tion case is testimony from participants who've been "turned" as a result of deals offered to them; but it's the records and intercepted communications that clinch the case. Personally, I think that's a good thing: I'd rather not see a system in which people are regularly convicted solely on the basis of testimony "bought" from their part- ners in crime. - Everyone talks about the fact that we are moving into "the informa- tion age," where wealth and power will be in information, not in manufactured objects. But consider what this implies for crime: If wealth is in information, it is information that will be the object of crime. I hate to use drug traffickers as an example, since "drug lords" are so over-used as bogey men; but it happens that on this front the drug criminals are among the leaders. High-level drug criminals deal in information, not drugs. They need never come near their products. What they do is arrange shipments, deals, payoffs, what have you, from a distance. An attack against them must be made against the center of their business - their communications - not against the margins (say, individual "drug mules", carrying a few pounds of whatever across the border). - It's much easier and cheaper to build features into a large system than to add them later. That's why the argument "well, we haven't seen a problem with getting taps yet, so let's wait" is so dangerous. It's like the famous joke of the man who falls off a 50-story building and is heard to say, as he passes the 5th floor, "Everything's fine so far." One need only look at the nature of the networks and ser- vices that are being built to know that traditional techniques are rapidly becoming obsolete, and that without technical help from the network designers, nothing can reasonably replace them. By the way, I find the complaints from the telephone companies that $500 million won't be enough to upgrade their equipment (a) evidence of this problem (if you believe it's $500 million or more now, what would it cost 10 years from now?) (b) absurdly high, and probably made by the same people who estimated that an E911 document cost $75,000, or whatever that wonderful number was. Consider also the following quote from EPIC's statement, which appeared in the same issue of CuD: Indeed, the telecommunications industry has consistently maintained that it is unaware of any instances in which a communications carrier has been unable to comply with law enforcement's requirements. As I read the FBI Wiretap Bill currently under discussion, this statement shows that the current system provides the required facilities. Cost of compliance: $0.00! What are the telco's complaining about, then? Do they perhaps realize that it won't be so simple to comply in the future? I am not concerned about the ethical use of the powers of observation that would be created by the digital telephony proposals. I AM concerned about the unethical uses. The unethical uses by government officials We've dealt with unethical behavior by government officials through laws and checks and balances. The current bill - much improved over previous versions in this regard - contains additional safeguards of this sort. Procedural safeguards can never be perfect; nothing devised by human beings ever is. But to blind oneself to the cost of alternatives in the search for perfection does more harm than good. or criminals (anyone using these avenues without authority but with the technical ability and illicit knowlege.) If there's little evidence for widespread problems by law enforcement in its use of the current system, there's even less for this. In any case, one of the important changes between earlier versions of the bill and this one are the removal of requirements that the government initiate the taps itself. Under the current proposal, as in the current system, the telco's are to do it at government request. Besides being yet another check and balance, and another place where records that might demonstrate abuses will be stored, this eliminates the (perhaps not so far-fetched) fear of the super-hacker who gains access to the government-controlled remote tapping equipment. Certainly, even in such a system, criminals can bribe or pressure telco employees - but anyone who thinks the telco itself cannot gain access to the data it carries is kidding himself. Whether for billing or network management purposes, the telco's will have this capability, even if it's in a form that may not be particularly useful for a government tap. (That, by the way, is one reason I find the telco cost estimates so absurdly high.) In any case, the traditional telephone system was a triviality for anyone with minimal technical knowledge and a few dollars of equipment to tap into. If tapping by criminals wasn't a big concern for that system, why the worry now? I also am concerned about the precedent this would set. I would like to think that I have a right to privacy in my communications with others. You do. The Constitution guarantees "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures...." But the same Fourth Amendment goes on to describe how a legiti- mate warrant, under which searches and seizures are permissible, is to be issued. Law isn't a set of abstractions; it's the practical basis for civil society. "Both rich and poor have the right to sleep under bridges." A law has to be implementable, or it's just words on paper. The Constitution, and any codification of laws, is a tradeoff between the liberties of individuals and other individuals, and between individuals and the common polity. Not even the rights to life (in the sense of the Declara- tion of Independence!) and liberty are absolute - criminals can be jailed or even executed, and anyone can be drafted in time of war or other emergency. Why should a right to privacy in communications be more important than life or liberty? ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 29 Aug 94 18:23 EDT From: anonymous Subject: File 3--Florida obscenity trial - implication for artists The following item is reproduced from Reason magazine. It may be of interest, as I see a chilling resemblance to the recent Tennessee prosecution of a California bulletin board operator. ================================================================== COMIC INJUSTICE A Florida obscenity trial may have wide implications for artists By Nick Gillespie "Reason" (ISSN 0048-6906) Sept/Oct 1994 When 24-year-old artist Michael Diana sold two copies of his self-published comic book "Boiled Angel" to undercover deputy sheriffs in Florida's Pinellas County, he didn't exactly profit from the sale. Instead, Diana was arrested and charged with publishing, advertising and distributing obscene materials. At his trial last April, Diana's jury agreed with witnesses for the prosecution who testified that "Boiled Angel" had no literary or artistic merit and that it appealed only to "deviant groups" and "those who have a libertine bent in their thinking." Diana, who faced a possible prison stay of three years, was sentenced to three years' probation and fined $3,000. Under the terms of his probation, he must perform eight hours of community service a week, attend and pay for a course in journalistic ethics, and submit to periodic searches to confirm he is no longer producing obscene material. And because Diana must also refrain from all contact with anyone younger than 18, he has lost his job as a clerk at his father's convenience store. Ironically, the copies bought by undercover policemen were Diana's only local sales. Diana sent "Boiled Angels", which sold about 300 copies per issue, through the mail only to subscribers in the United States, France, Australia and Africa. The comic consists of illustrated stories and poems attacking Christianity and depicting serial murders, satanic rituals, sexual assaults, and cannibalism. Diana testified in court that he intended his work to be "a mirror to our society, to show its problems." But after his sentencing, Diana said, "I won't do anything that might be considered obscene." Seth Friedman, the publisher of "Factsheet Five", a San Francisco-based review of underground comics, says he believes Diana's conviction will "absolutely" have a chilling effect on artistic expression, even outside the comic-book community. "Especially if you live in a non-urban part of the country," says Friedman, "you realize you have to be very, very careful if your work deals with sexuality or religion." Friedman, who testified on Diana's behalf, doubts the comic-book artist would have been convicted -- or even tried -- in a more cosmopolitan setting. But he notes that small-town successes will likely encourage prosecutors in bugger cities to try similar cases. "This sort of censorship will lead to larger things if it's not snuffed out at the source," says Friedman. ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Aug 1994 11:52:53 -0600 (MDT) From: "Rob Slade, Ed. DECrypt & ComNet, VARUG rep, 604-984-4067" Subject: File 4--"Top Secret Data Encryption Techniques" by Held BKTSDET.RVW 940712 SAMS Publishing 11711 N. College Ave., Suite 140 Carmel, IN 46032-5634 317-573-2500 317-581-3535 800-428-5331 800-428-3804 hayden@hayden.com haydenbks@aol.com 76350.3014@compuserve.com "Top Secret Data Encryption Techniques", Held, 1993, 0-672-30293-4, U$24.95/C$31.95 This book is a lot of fun, and may even be of some use. A number of ciphering techniques are outlined, and the interested hobbyist can undoubtedly come up with many variations on the themes. The included source code, in BASIC, is simple and straightforward, and can easily be modified to suit new ideas. Fun, and possibly useful, but definitely *not* top secret. Of the five chapters that actually deal with encipherment, three deal strictly with mono-alphabetic substitution. Regardless of how complex the substitution, a one-to-one correspondence is susceptible to either character frequency analysis or brute force cracking. The remaining two chapters deal with poly-alphabetic substitutions that are still, because of the fact of substitution, subject to brute force attacks. (The one exception is the generation of a "one time" pad.) Advanced encryption is currently the province of higher mathematics. Explanations and sample code for these would require more sophistication than the current book demands. Still, it would not have been impossible to include them, and it might have improved the scope of the book. Simple, and subject to attack, or not, the techniques in the book can be used for some measure of privacy and security. As stated in the preface, even crackable codes may raise the expense of getting at the data beyond its worth. rot13 this message after reading. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKTSDET.RVW 940712 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Sept. '94) Springer-Verlag ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 19 Aug 1994 15:37:05 -0700 From: email list server Subject: File 5--CPSR Conference/Event Calendar CPSR Members, If you are planning to attend a conference, please contact CPSR at cpsr@cpsr.org or (415) 322-3778 for easy ways for you to be a presence for CPSR. CONFERENCE /EVENT SCHEDULE VRST '94 (Virtual Reality Software and Technology), SINGAPORE, Aug 23-26. Contact: gsingh@iss.nus.sg Technologies of Surveillance; Technologies of Privacy. The Hague, The NETHERLANDS, Sept. 5. Sponsored by Privacy International and EPIC. Contact: Simon Davies davies@privint.demon.co.uk 16th International Conference on Data Protection. The Hague, The NETHERLANDS, Sept. 6-8. Contact B. Crouwers 31 70 3190190 (tel) 31 70 3940460 (fax) Breaking the Barriers to the National Information Infrastructure, ANA Hotel, Washington, DC, Sept. 7-8. Contact: 908 885-6758 for automated fax information and delivery system. Seybold San Francisco, Moscone Center, Sept. 13-16. Contact: 800 488-2883 MHVR '94 (Multimedia, Hypermedia, and Virtual Reality), Moscow, RUSSIA, Sept. 14-16. Contact: plb@plb.icsti.su Networks Expo / Communications '94 /Windows World '94, Dallas, TX Sept. 20-22. Contact: 800 829-3976. Executive Summit Meeting of the Central and East European Computer Industry, Bratislava, SLOVAKIA, Sept. 25-28. Contact: 0005113705@mcimail.com, 212 924-8800 (phone) 212 924-0240 (fax) Information Superhighway Summit, San Jose, CA, Sept. 26-28. A Comnet Conference. Contact: 800-225-4698 (US) or 505 879-6700 Legal and Business Aspects of the Internet and Online Services, New York City, Sept. 29-30. Contact: 800 888-8300 ext. 6111 or 212 545-6111. "Manging the Privacy Revolution," Washington, DC, Oct. 4-5 . Contact: 201 996-1154 201 996-1883 (fax) National Conference of Lawyers and Scientists "Legal, Ethical and Technological Aspects of Computer and Network Use and Abuse" Maryland, October 7-9. Contact: 202 326-6600 202 289-4950 (fax) drunkle@aaas.org "Organizing for Access, " CPSR Annual Meeting, Price Center, University of California - San Diego, San Diego, CA, Oct. 8-9. Contact: cpsr-annmtg@cpsr.org People, Networks, and Communication '94, Honolulu, Hawaii, Oct. 11-14. Contact: Dr. Ernest Kho, Jr. 808 933-3383 ekho@uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu 4th Beijing International Symposium on Computer-Based Information Management (BISCIM '94), Beijing, CHINA, Oct. 14-18. Contact: tian@asiainfo.com 214 351-5008 (tel) 214 351-4861 (fax) Symposium: An Arts and Humanities Policy for the National Information Infrastructure. Boston, Mass. October 14-16, 1994. Sponsored by the Center for Art Research in Boston. Contact: Jay Jaroslav (jaroslav@artdata.win.net). American Society for Information Science Annual Meeting, Alexandria, VA Oct. 17-20. Contact: 301 495-0900 (ph) 301 495-0810 (fax) asis@cni.org "Access 2001: Sharing Strategies for an Evolving Community Media," Hyatt Ricky's, Palo Alto, CA, Oct. 20-22. Contact: 415 949-7616. "People & Technology in Harmony," Nashville, TN, Oct. 24-28. Contact: 310 394-1811 310 394-2410(fax) Third Biennial Conference on Participatory Design, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, October 27-28, 1994. Sponsored by CPSR. Contact suchman@ncsu.edu 919 942-9773 http://cpsr.org/cpsr./conferences/pdc94/pdc94.html ftp.cpsr.org /cpsr/conferences/pdc94 directory. Information Systems Education Conference, Sponsored by Education Foundation of the DPMA, Louisville, Kentucky, October 28-30 Contact: cohene@email.enmu.edu ALCTS Institute on the Electronic Library, San Antonio, TX October 29-30. Contact 513 873-2380 513 873-4109(fax) ahirshon@desire.wright.edu ACM/SIGCAPH Conference on Assistive Technologies, Marina del Rey, CA, October 31-Nov.1 Contact: glinert@cs.washington.edu 2nd ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security, Fairfax, VA, Nov. 2-4. Contact: gong@csl.sri.com Ethics in the Computer Age, Gatlinburg, Tennessee, November 11-13. Contact: Dreese@cs.msstate.edu 21st Annual Computer Security Conference & Exhibition, Washington, DC, Nov. 14-16. Contact: 415 905-2626 415 905-2218 (fax) Open Systems World, Washington Convention Center, DC, Nov. 28-Dec. 2. Contact: 301 953-9600 (phone) 301 953-2213 (fax) The Technology for Information Security Conference '94 (TISC '94), Galveston, TX, Dec. 5-8. Contact: John D'Agostino dagostin@killerbee.jsc.nasa.gov North American Fuzzy Information Processing Society, San Antonio, TX, Dec. 18-21. Contact: nafips94@cs.tamu.edu Second International Conference on Information Warfare: "Chaos on the Electronic Superhighway," Montreal, CA, Jan. 18-19. . Contact: Mich Kabay, 75300.3232@compuserve.com ETHICOMP95: An international conference on the ethical issues of using Information Technology, DeMontfort University, Leicester, ENGLAND, March 28-30, 1995. Contact: Simon Rogerson srog@dmu.ac.uk 44 533 577475 (phone) 44 533 541891 (Fax). Paper and Workshop Submissions -deadline for notification of intention to submit 8/31/94. ACM Conference on Computer Human Interaction (CHI'95), Denver, CO, May 7-11. Contact 410 263-5382 chi95@sigchi.acm.org http://info.sigchi.acm.org/sigchi/chi95.html IDT 95 12th Congress - Information Markets and Industries, Paris, FRANCE, June 13-15. Organized by ADBS (Society of information professionals), ANRT (National Association of Technological Research), and GFII (French association of information industries). Contact: 33 1 43 72 25 25 (ph) 33 1 43 72 30 41 (fax) Key Players in the Introduction of Information Technology: Their Social Responsibility and Professional Training, BELGIUM, July 5-7, 1995. Contact: nolod@ccr.jussieu.fr clobet@info.fundp.ac.be Paper submissions by Nov. 2, 1994 ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 30 Aug 1994 03:47:21 -0700 From: Jim Warren Subject: File 6--GovAccess.046: NASA funds public-access projects [excerpts from a Smart Valley announcement] >From michaelm@svi.org Mon Aug 29 18:43:57 1994 To: Smart Valley Mail List (Permission to cross-post this release was granted by NASA Headquarters, 8/25/94) ------------------BEGIN NASA PRESS RELEASE------------------------ August 24, 1994 NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC RELEASE: 94-138 NASA AWARDS INTERNET GRANTS AND COOPERATIVE AGREEMENTS NASA today selected 15 organizations to receive a total of $20 million to help develop applications and technologies as a part of the Agency's efforts to provide public use of Earth and space science data over the Internet. Some of the projects are joint ventures that also will receive funding through other sources. The remote sensing database (RSDB) applications will make the information more accessible to a wider audience than in the past. The digital library technology (DLT ) projects will advance the technologies in use by digital libraries and offer new paths for the libraries of tomorrow. These selections closely follow the Remote Sensing Public Access Center award announced Aug. 8, 1994. Additional RSDB application and DLT awards will be made in the near future. ... The projects are part of the Information Infrastructure Technology and Applications program administered from NASA Headquarters, Washington, D.C., with technical management provided by Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. -end- A complete list of the grants and agreements follows. RSDB AND DLT GRANTS AND AGREEMENTS A total of nine projects to develop RSDB applications are receiving funding have agreements or grants. They are: Athena: Curriculum Development, Implementation and Support on the Internet, -- a $900,000 cooperative agreement between NASA and Science Applications International Corp., Seattle. Associates include Northshore School District, Bothell, Wash.; Seattle Public Schools; Lake Washington School District, Kirkland, Wash.; Bellevue (Wash.) Public Schools; and the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, Olympia, Wash. The project will develop curriculum materials integrating ocean, weather, land and space data for grades K-12. Bay Area Digital GeoResource (BADGER): A Model for Public/Private Shared Access to Earth Science Data Over the Internet -- a $3 million cooperative agreement between NASA and Lockheed Missiles and Space Co., Research and Development Division, Palo Alto, Calif. Associates include NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.; International Geomarketing Corp., Redwood City, Calif.; and the City of Mountain View, Calif. BADGER will enable local governments, utilities, businesses and the public to find, use and share data sets referenced by geological features that help them manage current responsibilities and improve the quality of their products and services. Earth System Science Community Curriculum Testbed -- a $1.1 million cooperative agreement between NASA and ECOlogic Corp., Washington, D.C. Gonzaga High School, Washington, D.C., is an associate in this project. The effort will develop Internet access and curriculum materials for investigation-based science instruction by high school and college students. Enhanced Access for Forest Management Planning -- a $600,000 grant to the University of Minnesota. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, Grand Rapids, will cooperate in this endeavor to use LANDSAT imagery, digitized aerial photography and ground-based forest databases aiding in the management of forest resources. Enhancing the Teaching of Science in Elementary Education Through the Application of NASA Remote Sensing Data Bases and Internet Technology -- a $200,000 cooperative agreement between NASA and The Analytic Sciences Corp., Arlington, Va., with support from Franconia, Va., Elementary School and the Fairfax, Va., County School district. This project will develop weather-based curriculum for grades K-6. Exploring the Environment -- a $1.8 million cooperative agreement with the NASA Classroom of the Future at Wheeling Jesuit College, Wheeling, W.Va. The project will develop computer software modules for use by high school students and teachers investigating Earth-science questions via extended inquiries over the Internet. NASA Digital Image Data Distribution for Education, Public Access and Tourism in Hawaii: A Model System -- a $900,000 grant to the University of Hawaii, Honolulu. Associates are the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; Maui Community College, Kahului, Hawaii; Leeward Community College, Pearl City, Hawaii; and Highlands Intermediate School, Pearl City. This effort will prepare and present current data and imagery of the Hawaiian Islands over the Internet for use by the tourism industry as well as education, television and researchers. VOLCANOWATCH: Bringing Volcano Remote Sensing Data to Classrooms and National Parks and Monuments -- awarded a $900,000 grant to the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks. Other participants include Lincoln Elementary School, Grand Forks; University of Hawaii, Honolulu; Educational Services District 112, Vancouver, Wash.; Hawaii Volcanoes National Park; and Gifford Pinchot National Forest, USDA Forest Service, Vancouver, Wash. The project will present information over the Internet covering current and historical activity of terrestrial and planetary volcanoes. Targeted audiences include visitors to Mt. St. Helens National Volcanic Monument and Hawaii Volcanoes National Park as well as grade-school students. Public Access to Earth and Space Science Data Via Television, -- a $2.2 million cooperative agreement between NASA and WRC-TV, Washington, D.C. Partners in this endeavor include the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.; NASA Stennis Space Center, Miss.; and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Weather Service, Washington, D.C. The project will develop visualizations of current Earth and space science data to be included as part of the daily weather and news reports for WRC-TV and other NBC affiliates. More importantly, the data also will be available over the Internet for use in science classes. Six DLT projects are receiving funding to help provide for the future technologies for our libraries and research information. They are: Compression and Progressive Transmission of Digital Images-- a $500,000 grant to the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the Space Telescope Science Institute, Baltimore. This team will improve the rate at which large digital images can be transferred across the network. Creating the Public Connection: Interactive Experiences with Real-Time Earth and Space Science Data -- an $800,000 grant to Rice University, Houston, in collaboration with the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences. The work will advance kiosk technology, allowing touch navigation through multi- disciplinary science data, as well as making NASA data available to all who visit the Houston Museum of Natural Sciences. Retrieval of Digital Images by Means of Content Search -- a $2 million cooperative agreement with IBM Corp., Yorktown Heights, N.Y. The project focuses on content retrieval on compressed images. Test Applications and Digital Library Technologies in Support of Public Access to Earth and Space Science Data -- a $2.1 million cooperative agreement between NASA and the University of Illinois, National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Urbana-Champaign. The team will develop Mosaic file format enhancements, and a Space Science and Astronomy server. Mosaic is a popular software tool used to access information on the Internet. Useability and Interoperability: A Dual Strategy for Enabling Broader Public Use of NASA's Remote Sensing Data on Internet -- a $2.3 million cooperative agreement between NASA and Bellcore, Morristown, N.J., in collaboration with Camber Corp., Huntsville, Ala.; Open GIS Foundation, Cambridge, Mass.; and the Goddard Space Flight Center. The team plans to develop a virtual geodata model to enable broader public use of remote-sensing data. "Reaching NASA from Home -- Internet Access via Cable TV" -- a $700,000 cooperative agreement with Computer Sciences Corp., Calverton, Md., in collaboration with Jones Intercable, Gambrills, Md.; Integral Systems, Lanham, Md.; and the Goddard Space Flight Center. The team will develop a system to provide Internet access to the general public using channels on a local cable television connection. ... --------------------------------------------------------- Michael C. McRay Project Coordinator Smart Valley, Inc. 1661 Page Mill Road TEL: 415/843-2053 Suite 200 FAX: 415/843-2222 Palo Alto, CA 94304 NET: michaelm@svi.org ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 13 Aug 1994 22:51:01 CDT From: CuD Moderators Subject: File 7--Cu Digest Header Information (unchanged) Cu-Digest is a weekly electronic journal/newsletter. Subscriptions are available at no cost electronically. 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It is assumed that non-personal mail to the moderators may be reprinted unless otherwise specified. Readers are encouraged to submit reasoned articles relating to computer culture and communication. Articles are preferred to short responses. Please avoid quoting previous posts unless absolutely necessary. DISCLAIMER: The views represented herein do not necessarily represent the views of the moderators. Digest contributors assume all responsibility for ensuring that articles submitted do not violate copyright protections. ------------------------------ End of Computer Underground Digest #6.78 ************************************