The Art of Technology Digest #6 Friday, October 16th, 1992 %%AoT%%%%AoT%%%%AoT%%%%AoT%%%%AoT%%%%AoT%%%%AoT%%%%AoT%%%%AoT%%%%AoT%%%%AoT%% Editor: Chris Cappuccio (chris%aotnet@mcnnet.mi.org) BBS Archivist: David Mitchell (dave%aotnet@mcnnet.mi.org) E-Mail Archivist: Mike Batchelor (mike@batpad.lgb.ca.us) [AoT Digest] Contents #6 (Fri, October 16th, 1992) Article 1: SEMATECH Campaign in NYT Article 2: EFF announces gopher access to their online documents Article 3: Call for SEMATECH Advisory Participants Article 4: Computer Help Needed for Human-Rights Project Article 5: CPSR Social Action Report Article 6: Beta Testers Needed for Security Tool Article 7: Linux 0.98.1 Information Article 8: Fixed Problems With The aotd Mailserver The Art of Technology Digest is distributed in the following ways: By E-MAIL, send e-mail to mailserv@batpad.lgb.ca.us and, to subscribe to Art of Technology Digest, leave the subject blank and enter: SUBSCRIBE aotd. To get a back-issue of Art of Technology Digest, leave subject blank and enter: GET aotd/vol.zoo UUENCODE (Example: To get AOT-D number 2, use GET aotd/vol2.zoo UUENCODE). To get an index of Art of Technology Digest, leave subject blank and enter: INDEX. To get AoT-D by BBS, Call +1 313 464 1470, Live Wire BBS. This system maintains a complete collection of AoT Digest. Speeds are 1200/2400/HST-9600/HST-14,400. Or, if you have Internet FTP Access, the anonymous FTP site is: wuarchive.wustl.edu, under directory: /pub/aot/ The Art of Technology Digest is an open forum dedicated to sharing information among computerists and to the presentation and debate of diverse views. AoT-D material may be reprinted as long as the source is cited. Some authors do copyright their material, and they should be contacted for reprint permission. It is assumed that non-personal mail at 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. All articles for submission should be sent to: aotd-submit@batpad.lgb.ca.us 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. "AT&T is a modem reset command" -- Anonymous --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 5 Oct 1992 11:41:24 -0400 From: Gary Chapman Subject: Article 1--SEMATECH Campaign in NYT The first page of the business section in The New York Times today (October 5th) features an article on the work of the Campaign for Responsible Technology on SEMATECH, the Austin, Texas, research consortium. The article is by John Markoff and is titled "Sematech's New Mission Is Defined." The first paragraph says: Congress took the unusual step over the weekend of mandating that 10 percent of the Sematech computer chip consortium's $100 million 1993 budget be used for environmental research. This is not quite accurate, because SEMATECH's total budget is $200 million per year; the $100 million figure is the federal government's contribution to the budget, of which $10 million is now dedicated to environmental R&D. And although it is true that $10 million is 10% of $100 million, the legislation does not mandate 10%, which we suggested as a standing recommendation for every annual authorization, but instead only $10 million for FY 1993. The article reports that the House language that earmarked the $10 million authorization that was a result of CRT work was retained in the conference committee version of the Defense Authorization Bill finalized this past weekend. Ted Smith and Susana Almanza of CRT are quoted in the article. Susana is identified as the spokeswoman for People in Defense of the Earth and its Resources, PODER, the environmental organization in East Austin that grew out of the SEMATECH campaign. Ted Smith, Susana Almanza, and CRT coordinator Rand Wilson are in Austin today to hold a press conference and a meeting with the editorial board of the Austin American-Statesman, the leading local newspaper. The newspaper has been mildly hostile to CRT work in the past, and generally favors the semiconductor industry. The passage of this authorization for SEMATECH is a major victory for public interest activism in the United States. To our knowledge, this is the first time a public interest coalition has had a significant impact on the research content of a major Pentagon-financed R&D facility. The work that has been done around SEMATECH can be used as a model for democratic, participatory policymaking all over the country. The organizers of this effort deserve thanks and congratulations from everyone concerned about the character of democracy in the United States. To contact Ted Smith, chairman of the Campaign for Responsible Technology, call (408) 287-6707, or write him on e-mail at tsmith@igc.org. To contact Susana Almanza, call her at the Texas Center for Policy Studies, (512) 474-0811. For more information about CRT and the SEMATECH campaign, contact Rand Wilson at (617) 391-3866 or write him on e-mail at rwilson@igc.org. I will also be happy to answer questions about the campaign. Future tasks for the SEMATECH campaign include getting the consortium's private partners to match the federal funds in order to generate another $10 million in funding for environmental and labor safety R&D in FY 93, and then to form public interest advisory committees to help PODER and CRT activists monitor how SEMATECH spends the money it has been given by Congress. Please get in touch if you are interested in helping out with either of these tasks. Gary Chapman Coordinator The 21st Century Project Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Cambridge, Massachusetts chapman@lcs.mit.edu ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Oct 1992 18:19:42 -0400 From: Christopher Davis Subject: Article 2--EFF announces gopher access to their online documents +=========+==================================================+==============+ | F.Y.I. | Newsnote from the Electronic Frontier Foundation | Oct 6, 1992 | +=========+==================================================+==============+ ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION OPENS GOPHER SERVER TO THE INTERNET The Electronic Frontier Foundation announced today that they now offer access to their online document library via the Internet Gopher protocol, developed at the University of Minnesota. Gopher access joins WAIS, electronic mail service, and anonymous ftp as an electronic means of access to EFF documents. Gopher clients are available for Mac, NeXT, GNU Emacs, X11, VM/CMS, VMS, and curses interfaces. Many of these are available for anonymous ftp from boombox.micro.umn.edu in pub/gopher. Those without clients can telnet to consultant.micro.umn.edu and login as "gopher" to try it out. (EFF's Gopher server is listed under "Other Gopher and Information Servers".) The EFF Gopher service is available on gopher.eff.org, port 70. WAIS access is available on wais.eff.org, port 210. Anonymous ftp access to the document library is available on ftp.eff.org, in directory pub/EFF. Mail service is handled through archive-server@eff.org; use "index eff" for a list of documents and document sections. For more information on the EFF or online access to our documents, send electronic or postal mail to the addresses below. +=====+=======================================================+=============+ | EFF | 155 Second Street, Cambridge MA 02141 +1 617 864 0665 | eff@eff.org | +=====+=======================================================+=============+ ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 09:14:27 -0400 From: Gary Chapman Subject: Article 3--Call for SEMATECH Advisory Participants Campaign for Responsible Technology Sustainable Industry Policy Development at SEMATECH ADVISORS NEEDED! The semiconductor industry is often touted as a "clean" industry, but in fact uses some of the most dangerous materials in existence and has been the source of unprecedented environmental degradation and workplace hazards. One of the major "footprints" of the industry's development has been substantial groundwater contamination. Exposure to toxic chemicals in the workplace and surrounding communities has been linked to cancer, central nervous system damage, birth defects and deaths. CRT and Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice are collaborating on an Electronics Industry Good Neighbor Campaign. Last Summer, community organizations participated in a grass-roots assessment of the impact of the semiconductor industry on their communities that confirmed widespread occupational and environmental problems. Further, the assessment identified serious concerns about employment discrimination and the uneven benefits of the industry's economic development for the community. Seeking to solutions for these problems, the Campaign for Responsible Technology (CRT) successfully helped to amend the FY '93 congressional funding re-authorizing SEMATECH to include $10 million for research on environmentally safe manufacturing methods. The groups are also asking SEMATECH's private sector partners*--thirteen of the largest semiconductor manufacturers in the U.S.--to match the taxpayer's $10 million by similarly earmarking 10 percent of their SEMATECH contribution for environmentally safe manufacturing methods. That would create a $20 million research fund at SEMATECH that could directly address the problems experienced by semiconductor workers and the communities where the production facilities are located. The challenge for CRT is to develop a well-conceived research agenda that would fulfill this promise. CRT will initiate a "shadow advisory committee" to develop a $20 million research agenda for SEMATECH and to establish a "yard stick" that will influence SEMATECH officials on how the money will be spent in fiscal year 1993. There are three components to this committee: 1) A task force on environmentally responsible manufacturing in the semiconductor industry; 2) A task force on community development, to ensure that communities chosen as the sites for new semiconductor fabrication plants, or communities hoping to attract such plants, can have expert advice on how to manage the development process to attain maximum community benefit. 3) A task force on labor, to promote high skilled jobs and new forms of work organization in the semiconductor industry. Participants in the three advisory task forces will be drawn from CRT's advisory board and other nationally recognized experts in these fields. The task forces are will not seek to answer these questions on their own. Rather, each would identify questions that SEMATECH researchers should be asking in order to comply with the needs of CRT and the Electronics Industry Good Neighbor Campaign's needs. The three task forces will serve as guides for the research to be conducted at SEMATECH; they will determine the most important research questions and suggest qualified professionals who could competently help SEMATECH arrive at good policies. The task forces will not deal directly with SEMATECH officials, but serve as an expert resource for the grassroots organizers who have conducted this campaign and who will continue to monitor SEMATECH's performance. CRT plans to organize a conference in early 1993 where each of the task forces will present their findings to representatives of organizations participating in the Electronics Industry Good Neighbor Campaign and or members of the Southwest Network for Environmental and Economic Justice. After evaluating the research design proposed by the task forces, CRT and the Electronics Industry Good Neighbor Campaign will present the proposals to SEMATECH. CRT is looking for technical people to serve on these taskforces. Anyone interested should contact: Rand Wilson Director Campaign for Responsible Technology 408 Highland Ave. Somerville, MA 02144 (617) 391-3866 rwilson@igc.com Gary Chapman Coordinator The 21st Century Project Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility 22 Kidder Ave. #2 Somerville, MA 02144 (617) 625-6985 chapman@lcs.mit.edu * The 12 member companies are Advanced Micro Devices, AT&T, Digital Equipment, Harris, Hewlett Packard, Intel, IBM, LSI Logic, Motorola, National Semiconductor, Rockwell, Texas Instruments. ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 13:35:00 EDT From: Jeff Johnson Subject: Article 4--Computer Help Needed for Human-Rights Project ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Request for computer assistance: The Human Rights Committee of the American Association for the Advancement of Science would like to find a person having computer programming skills to help with a project. They are tracking human-rights violations in El Salvador, and, via computer, analyzing the violations with respect to Army movements. They need someone to help program the system. Persons interested in volunteering or helping should contact: Daniel Falsedo 202-326-6615 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 13:40:01 EDT From: Jeff Johnson Subject: Article 5--CPSR Social Action Report ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- Towards a Guide to Social Action for Computer Professionals By Jeff Johnson, Chair, and Evelyn Pine, Managing Director, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR) Introduction "Being a typical nerd programmer, it's always been comforting to believe that somehow whatever I was working on in the darkness of my cubicle would eventually benefit the world. ... I focused on what was interesting to me, assuming that it would also be important to the world. But the events in L.A. have forced me to think that maybe it doesn't work that way; and to confront the question: what can I, as a professional in the HCI field, do to help change what's going on in the world?" -- a CHI'92 attendee. The Rodney King video, trial, verdict, and subsequent riots jolted Americans in many ways besides showing us acts of violence committed by police and citizens. It also made the inequities of American society painfully clear, and provided a clear response to Langston Hughes' question: "What happens to a dream deferred?" Answer: it explodes. This caused many people to rethink how they are conducting their lives, and how we are conducting our neighborhoods, our cities, our states, and our nation. Computer professionals have a relatively comfortable position in this society. For the most part, we are well-paid, and our jobs are more secure than most. As a result, we live in nicer neighborhoods, send our kids to better schools, eat healthier food, use better tools, and have access to better health care. Because of this, some of us feel a responsibility to help those in our society who aren't so well-off, and some of us don't. However, computer professionals are not just another well-paid segment of society. We, more than people in most other lines of work, create world-changing technology, technology that profoundly affects how people live, work, and die. We can create technology that, e.g., can be used to improve neighborhoods, education, food production and distribution, tools, and health care. We can also create technology that can be used to keep the poor out of our neighborhoods and schools, produce and sell junk food and worthless tools, and limit access to health care, as well as keep the lid on discontent and even kill people more efficiently. Computer technology can help reduce inequity and it can also help exacerbate it. The public learned of the King beating because of technology in the hands of citizens. Today anyone with a PC, an ink-jet printer, and a copier can produce documents that political activists of just thirty years ago, cranking out smelly typewritten ditto copies, never imagined. Citizens of China and Thailand used fax, video, and electronic mail to document government repression of democratic movements. Computer technology is a crucial ingredient of all of the above, in their design and manufacture as well as in the tools themselves. Unfortunately, the effect of introducing computer technology has more often been to increase the stratification of society. Let's face it: computer systems often lead to loss of jobs. Furthermore, as the infrastructure upon which society is based becomes more dependent upon computer technology, those without technical skills are left behind. The end of the Cold War and the recession, combined with the introduction of computer technology, have served to exacerbate joblessness and hopelessness for those who have been rendered superfluous and don't have the education to become "knowledge workers." "How many of the projects that are funded will have a net result of reducing jobs -- particularly jobs for less-educated people? ... I find many in the computer industry have defensive rationalizations for the fact that their own labor will result in the loss of jobs to society. ... The up and coming area of software that I myself work in -- workflow -- will automate people out of work. ... How do we deal with this?" -- A CHI'92 attendee. This special relationship between computer technology and society gives those who develop it -- us -- responsibilities beyond any that arise merely from our comfortable economic status. To quote from the statement of purpose of Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (CPSR): "Decisions regarding the development and use of computers ... have far-reaching consequences and reflect basic values and priorities. We believe that computer technology should make life more enjoyable, productive, and secure." The King riots jolted us, causing many of us to reflect on whether we are living up to our responsibilities as citizens and as computer professionals. The contrast between the world we inhabit, of which the CHI'92 conference is a part, and the one that exploded into violence and flames the week before the conference, caused some of us to feel a certain alienation from our work, as the opening quotation of this article illustrates. Are we part of the solution, or part of the problem? Also, as the effects of the riots rapidly spread to surrounding neighborhoods, other cities, and even the presidential campaign, it became obvious that the two "worlds" aren't really separate. That burning society we saw on TV wasn't someone else's, it was ours. What Can I Do? -- The CPSR/CHI'92 "Social Issues" Session In the midst of the worst period of rioting, as many of us were preparing to head to Monterey, the site of CHI'92, Prof. Chris Borgman of U.C.L.A. sent an e-mail message to several of her acquaintances across the country, describing what was going on in L.A. and how she and her friends there felt about it (see Shneiderman, 1992). Prof. Ben Shneiderman was especially touched by the message. He contacted the CHI'92 Co-Chairs, Jim Miller and Scooter Morris, and expressed his desire that the conference should not run its course without acknowledging the riots and the events that led up to them. Even though the riots were not directly CHI- or computer-related, he felt that ignoring them constituted burying our heads in the sand, and would be morally wrong. Jim and Scooter agreed that something should be done, but of course by that point the conference schedule was set. They suggested a special session, during the lunch break just after the official opening plenary session on Tuesday. Jim also suggested that CPSR Chair Jeff Johnson be invited to help plan the session. On Monday evening, Ben and Jeff met to plan the session. What quickly emerged was a desire not only to acknowledge the distressing external events and give people a chance to vent their spleens, but also to help give people the wherewithal to act. To Ben and Jeff, it seemed that many of their colleagues were angry, upset, worried, or frightened about what was going on, but didn't know what to do about it, or even how to find out. They decided that the session should be an opportunity for people to share ideas on how computer professionals, their employers, and their professional societies can help address social problems of the sort that led to the riots. Jeff proposed that to facilitate the capture and sharing of ideas, session attendees be asked to submit ideas on paper as well as presenting them verbally. CPSR volunteered to collect and compile the responses and issue a report back to the attendees. Later that night, he created a form for action-ideas, labeled "Constructive Responses to Events in L.A. and Elsewhere," and made about 60 copies to cover the expected audience. The next morning, at the opening plenary session, Jim Miller announced the special session. This was the first that the approximately 2500 attendees at CHI had heard of it. At the announced time, despite the late notice and the conflict with lunch, approximately 300 people showed up. Student volunteers quickly went to make more copies of the "Constructive Responses..." form. Ben Shneiderman expressed his delight at the number of people who had come and opened the session, describing his feelings about the riots, reading Chris Borgman's e-mail message, and giving the intent of the session. Prof. Borgman then spoke, elaborating on her message and giving her ideas about what people might do. She was followed by Jeff Johnson, who talked about growing up in South Central L.A., what it is like for his relatives who live there now, and about CPSR and some of its programs. Members of the audience were then invited to the microphone to share their ideas about what can be done to resolve social inequities. At first, people were hesitant to speak, but within fifteen minutes or so there were more people waiting to speak than there was time for. Some people described volunteer work they do, some named organizations they support, some talked about what companies do or should do, and some talked about what various government bodies should be, but aren't, doing. Beyond CHI'92 One hundred and ten members of the audience wrote suggestions on the forms and turned them in. After the conference, CPSR began the process of compiling the responses and producing the promised report. We found volunteers to put the responses on-line. We created an e-mail distribution list consisting of respondents who had provided e-mail addresses. We took a quick pass through the data, to see if it contained ideas worth publishing and sharing. It did. On the basis of our initial look at the responses, the report began to take shape in our minds. We didn't think it would suffice to simply list all of the ideas that the session attendees had written. A quick query sent to the e-mail list confirmed this: session participants didn't want the raw data or even lightly-digested data; they wanted a well-digested, well-organized guide to social action, a resource booklet that goes beyond what people put on their response forms. Not everyone has been a volunteer or activist, and even those of us who have can benefit from a complete guidebook on how to make a positive contribution to society. Producing such a comprehensive report presented CPSR with a challenge, for it would require a significant amount of work. For instance, many respondents mentioned organizations, but it was up to us to provide contact addresses. We also found some suggestions to be out-of-date, e.g., organizations that have changed policies. The research necessary to produce such a report in the months following CHI'92 exceeds what CPSR's small staff and volunteer-base can deliver. To produce the full report would require funding to allow us to pay for some of the labor. We made some initial efforts to get funding, so far without success. Nonetheless, we were committed to producing a timely report for the CHI'92 session attendees. With encouragement from Ben Shneiderman, the two of us decided to write a brief version of the report for SIGCHI Bulletin. Hopefully, this brief initial report will help attract funding for a full report. This report is therefore intended to be the first deliverable of a possible new CPSR project that would, if funded, provide computer professionals with information and guidance on how to become "part of the solution" to pressing social problems. Depending upon funding, subsequent deliverables may include: - a moderated e-mail discussion list on social involvement, - an e-mail archive/server for information on social involvement, - the aforementioned booklet: "A Guide to Social Action" for computer professionals, suitable for companies to distribute to employees, containing an overview of the ways to get involved, a categorized list of ideas, a directory of organizations, some success examples, with a sprinkling of interesting quotes from attendees of the CHI'92 special session. - a clearinghouse service to help computer professionals and companies down the road toward social involvement. In this initial report, we chose to focus on a few of the most-commonly-suggested ideas, rather than present a shallow overview of all of them. A more complete list will have to wait until the booklet. We begin with some comments on what we have learned from this exercise, then summarize a few of the suggestions, and conclude. What have we learned from this? "Tell me how I can help." -- a CHI'92 attendee. Despite the stereotype of the apolitical, work-obsessed nerd, computer professionals do care about what goes on in the world. Many are already involved in volunteer projects, political action, and critically examining the impact of their work. More importantly, many more are looking for ways to get involved. The King riots really shook up a lot of people. The respondents see potential in themselves, their companies, and their professional associations, but are concerned that social issues often get lost in the shuffle of busy people and companies. CHI conference attendees may not be representative of computer professionals in general. Their professional focus on the interaction between people and machines may make them more likely to be concerned about social issues. However, CPSR members nationwide -- who are not predominantly CHI members -- have been proving for over a decade that a computer career and interest in social issues are not mutually exclusive. There is no shortage of good ideas about how to get involved. The hundred and ten respondents in the CPSR-CHI special session have provided a first glimpse, but our feeling is that many more good ideas remain to be suggested. Many individuals, organizations, and companies are already doing things that we can learn from. We needn't design from scratch. Summary of Responses "Education is the single most effective and powerful way to change the situation in a permanent way." -- a CHI'92 attendee. Our respondents overwhelmingly saw education as fundamental. They believe that individuals, companies, professional societies, and various levels of government could be doing much more to support education than they now are. For example: - Individuals can tutor disadvantaged kids, teach computer courses or run computer labs in schools, and speak in schools about their company and their work. - Companies can adopt a school, donate equipment and software, and establish programs in which students visit the workplace to learn what computer professionals do and what skills they need. - Professional societies can provide scholarships for high school kids, encourage individuals and companies to develop education applications of computer technology, and advocate greater public funding of education. Many respondents suggested that individuals and companies donate new and used computer equipment to schools, community centers, and non-profit organizations. However, some pointed out that giving antiquated, unreliable, or inappropriate equipment is almost worse than unhelpful, in that it can drain valuable time and energy from the important work that these organizations do. Accordingly, many non-profits will not accept equipment for which they can no longer find software, documentation, and maintenance support. To help insure that donated equipment is effectively used, computer professionals can donate time and expertise. Otherwise, donated equipment may just sit in a corner. Not surprisingly, volunteerism is strongly advocated by our respondents. Some of their suggestions are: - Individuals can volunteer in computer labs, get involved with a organizations that link volunteers with non-profit groups (e.g., CompuMentor), or even teach reading in an urban library. A frequent comment was that literacy is more important than computer literacy. - Companies can encourage volunteerism by helping match willing employees with worthy organizations, by allowing employees to share their skills on company time, and by honoring employees' volunteer efforts. - Professional societies can encourage volunteerism among professionals by developing mentor programs in which members work with urban youth, and by developing computer curricula that professionals can take into volunteer teaching situations. "I read to primary students one-half hour per week. I get more out of that time than the kids, but their focus on me tells me they are getting a lot out of my time also." -- a CHI'92 attendee. Several respondents who are involved in volunteer work noted that volunteering has value far beyond that of the actual work that volunteers do. It helps build much-needed understanding and trust between ethnic and socioeconomic groups. It also is beneficial to the volunteers themselves: they gain teaching experience, social skills, and a broader perspective on the society in which they live, and often have fun while doing it. Computer professionals have learned that access to on-line communication and information services is a powerful tool for their own education, communication, and activism. We found that many of them believe that on-line access would be just as empowering for the public at large. Middle-class Americans are already beginning to get on-line, but individuals, companies, and professional societies can make an extra effort to assure that the poor are not cut out of the loop. Individuals, companies, and professional societies can help put communities on-line, as has been done in Berkeley (Community Memory Project) and Santa Monica (Public Education Network). Such networks can facilitate communication and discussion not only with other citizens of a local community, but, depending on how they are connected to larger networks, with information service providers and even elected representatives. "Companies can actively recruit blacks and other minorities. I have been at CHI for 2 1/2 days and have seen only two blacks with CHI name tags." -- a CHI'92 attendee. More of a commitment to affirmative action in hiring and promotion is seen as a major way in which companies can help overcome social inequities. This means making an extra effort to find qualified minorities and women to fill jobs, and, when candidates are equally qualified (i.e., the difference in their estimated ability to perform the job is less than the margin of error of the assessment process), giving the benefit of the doubt to minorities and women. Some respondents suggested, for example, that companies hold outreach activities in poor communities to find potential employees. The respondents recommended awards as a way to encourage computer companies, academic research projects, and individuals to get involved. Each year, CPSR recognizes a computer scientist who, in addition to making important contributions to the field, has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to working for social change. (ACM activist and IBM researcher Barbara Simons is CPSR's 1992 Norbert Wiener Award winner.) Many respondents suggested that SIGCHI or ACM offer an award for companies that demonstrate a similar commitment through community projects, encouraging employee volunteerism, or other good works. The CHI conference itself emerged as an important potential focus of social action work. Respondents recommended that CHI organizers seek ways to have a positive impact upon the host community. Local students -- high-school and college -- could be given tours of exhibits or scholarships to attend the conference. Equipment used at the conference could be donated to local schools and organizations. Respondents also suggested paper and poster sessions devoted to applying technology to social problems or to understanding social issues related to computer technology. "What's underneath are not wounds, but faults -- lines of fracture, of discontinuity, in society, which periodically relieve their stress in these violent ways. What can we do about that?" -- a CHI'92 attendee. Although our respondents provided a wealth of ideas for how we, as computer professionals and concerned citizens, can offer our time and skills for the betterment of society, a number of them acknowledged that charity, volunteering, and technology alone cannot solve political and social problems. Closing the gap between rich and poor, educated and illiterate, empowered and disenfranchised will require changes in basic priorities at the local, state, national, and international levels. Accordingly, many respondents recommended attempting to influence the political process, either individually, through professional associations, or through organizations like CPSR. Conclusions "Thanks for the noontime meeting on Tuesday! It was motivating to see such a strong response." -- a CHI'92 attendee. "Thank you, thank you, thank you for organizing this forum and bringing some heart and spirit into this cold, albeit exciting, environment. Onwards and upwards, I'm with you all the way!" -- a CHI'92 attendee. "What a wonderful experience to find a humanistic island at a professional conference!" -- a CHI'92 attendee. The unexpectedly large response to the noontime session at CHI'92 was extremely gratifying. Also gratifying is the degree of concern that members of the CHI community have about social inequities and the seriousness with which they addressed themselves to overcoming them. Hopefully, with this report as inspiration, many computer professionals will begin to take action. "I'll go back and start asking questions in my company." -- a CHI'92 attendee. The foregoing has only scratched the surface of the ideas that emerged from the CHI'92 social issues session. As described above, CPSR hopes to expand this report into a widely-circulated Social Action Guide, and eventually provide on-line services to help computer professionals take action. To learn more about Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, or to get involved in the preparation of the full Social Action Guide, contact cpsr@csli.stanford.edu. References Shneiderman, B. "Socially Responsible Computing I: A Call to Action Following the L.A. Riots" SIGCHI Bulletin, July, 1992, 24(3), pages 14-15. ------------------------------ From: genek@mentor.cc.purdue.edu (Gene Kim) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 1992 09:02:40 GMT Subject: Article 6--Beta testers needed for security tool Announcing the pending availability of Tripwire: A Unix File Integrity Checker This message is being posted to various newsgroups and mailing lists to gather a group of beta-testers for a new security tool called Tripwire. Tripwire was written by Gene Kim, currently at Purdue University, under the direction of Professor Gene Spafford. Tripwire should be of significant interest to system administrators concerned about timely detection of system file tampering on their Unix hosts. Goal of Tripwire: ================= With the advent of increasingly sophisticated and subtle account break-ins on Unix systems, the need for tools to aid the detection of unauthorized modification of files becomes clear. Tripwire is a tool that aids system administrators and users in monitoring a designated set of files for any changes. Used with system files on a regular basis, Tripwire can notify system administrators of corrupted or tampered files, so damage control measures can be taken in a timely manner. Tripwire is a system file integrity checker, a utility that compares a designated set of files and directories against information stored in a previously generated database. Any differences are flagged and logged, and optionally, a user is notified through mail. When run against system files on a regular basis, changes in critical system files would be spotted at the next time-interval when Tripwire is run, so damage control measures may be implemented immediately. With Tripwire, system administrators can conclude with a high degree of certainty that a given set of files remain untouched from unauthorized modifications, provided the program and database are appropriately protected (e.g., stored on read-only disk). Tripwire uses message digest algorithms (cryptographic checksums) to detect changes in a hard-to-spoof manner. This should be able to detect significant changes to critical files, including those caused by insertion of backdoors or viruses. It also monitors changes to file permissions, modification times, and other significant changes to inodes as selected by the system administrator on a per-file/directory basis. What we need: ============= As of this writing, Tripwire runs successfully on both BSD and System V variants of Unix. Among the operating systems Tripwire has run on are: SunOS 5.x (SVR4) SunOS 4.x (BSD 4.3) Dynix 3.x (BSD 4.2) Compiling Tripwire should be as simple as editing the config.h file to set the appropriate #defines, and typing 'make'. A pool of beta-testers is needed to ensure that Tripwire works predictably on a wide variety of systems. Of particular interest are system administrators using the following operating systems: AIX AUX BSD4.4 HP/UX Mach NextOS OSF/1 SVR3.x Ultrix Unicos Xenix System III Versions 6, 7, 8, & 9 :-) other versions we didn't list A config.h file allows you to tailor Tripwire around your system specifics, such as the locations of system utilities (like sort and diff), and desired lookup pathnames to your Tripwire database files. Possible porting trouble-spots are generally restricted to dirent(S5)/direct(BSD) funkiness and #defines that changed for POSIX compliance (such as those in for stat.st_mode). Hopefully the process of beta-testing will highlight any problems before any widely-released distribution. It is also hoped that reasonable system defaults for a wide variety of systems can be gathered from a diverse set of beta-testers. This would allow useful plug-and-play builds for the majority of Tripwire users. What you'd get as a beta-tester: ================================ The entire source to Tripwire, manual pages, a README, and the Tripwire design document. What you'd need to do: ====================== You will need to install the code on your system and run it. You will need to report back any bugfixes, enhancements, optimizations or other code-diddling that you believe useful. If you build a configuration file for a new system, you will need to send this back. You will have to collect some performance data. You will need to provide some honest, critical feedback on utility, clarity, documentation, etc. You will need to do all this by about October 21. Are you interested? =================== If so, please fill out the form at the end of this message, and send it to (genek@mentor.cc.purdue.edu). We will only take two or three respondents for each system type for the beta test. Please allow some time for processing and selection of beta-testers. I promise to reply to all requests as expeditiously as possible. A formal release of Tripwire is planned for sometime in November. Watch this space for details! Gene Kim September 4, 1992 =============================================================================== Name: Email address: System configuration: machine type operating system version Site information: (completely optional) type of site (ie: university, corporate, military, etc...) comments on machine security (ie: numerous break-in attempts on our dialback servers, repeated intrusions through network, etc...) =============================================================================== ------------------------------ From: Linus Torvalds Date: Mon Oct 12 08:50 Subject: Linux 0.98.1 Information finger torvalds@kruuna.helsinki.fi Free UN*X for the 386 The current version of linux is a 0.98.1, released 92.10.04. There are various rootdisks that work with the newer versions, although some of them have problems. A new SLS release is expected soonish, using either a 0.97.pl6 or 0.98.1 kernel release. 0.98.1 supports X11r5 and the new gcc-2.1 (and newer) libraries with multiple shared libs - as well as any old binaries (except the 0.12 version of gdb which used the older ptrace() interface). It also contains support for debugging (core-dumping and attach/detach) as well as profiling: use gcc-2.2.2d for full utilization of all these features. Linux can be gotten by anonymous ftp from 'nic.funet.fi' (128.214.6.100) in the directory '/pub/OS/Linux'. This directory structure contains all the linux OS- and library-sources, and enough binaries to get going. To install linux you still need to know something about unices: it's relatively straightforward to install, but the documentation sucks raw eggs, and people with no previous unix experience are going to get very confused. There are now a lot of other sites keeping linux archives. The main ones (as well as the above-mentioned nic.funet.fi) are: tsx-11.mit.edu (18.172.1.2): directory /pub/linux sunsite.unc.edu (152.2.22.81): directory /pub/Linux (and many additional sites: there are now sites in the uk, japan etc that carry linux, but I have lost count) There is also a mailing list set up 'Linux-activists@niksula.hut.fi'. To join, mail a request to 'Linux-activists-request@niksula.hut.fi'. It's no use mailing me: I have no actual contact with the mailing-list (other than being on it, naturally). There is also a newsgroup that contain linux-related questions and information: comp.os.linux. Mail me for more info: Linus Torvalds (torvalds@kruuna.Helsinki.FI) Pietarinkatu 2 A 2 00140 Helsinki Finland 0.98.1 has mainly minor bug-fixes 0.98 has these features: - tcp/ip in the standard kernel sources. - corrected serial startup checkh~g and setserial ioctl - core-dumping corrections - various minor fixes 0.97.pl6 has these new features: - corrected named pipe problem in pl5 - dynamic tty queues (no NR_PTY limit etc). Patches by tytso - corrected SCSI codes. Patches by Eric 0.97.pl5 has these features: - corrected *MAJOR* problem with [f]truncate() system calls - swapoff()/wait4() system calls - corrected some race-conditions in the minix fs - major mm rewrite: 3GB virtual process size, faster swapping - filesystem error reporting corrections - minor bugfixes 0.97 has these major new things relative to 0.96 - select() through the VFS routines - easily installable IRQ's - bus-mouse driver - msdos filesystem (alpha) - extended filesystem (alpha) - serial line changes (faster, changeable irq's etc) - dynamic buffer-cache - new and improved SCSI drivers ------------------------------ From: Chris Cappuccio Subject: Article 8--Fixed Problems With The aotd Mailserver Date: 10-16-92 Ok, well after I got my computer connected with UUCP (I'm still not a registered system but soon I expect to register with the local UUCP stuff and also get a domain name in mi.org) I tried to subscribe to the aotd list with my account on my machine (aotnet) but I couldin't. It turned out, because we put some more security from people using the mailing list, that mike also accidentaly changed the list name. Well this is fixed now. To subscribe to Art of Technology Digest, do *exactly* this: mail mailserv@batpad.lgb.ca.us Leave the Subject: line blank Put this in the text of your message: SUBSCRIBE aotd and you will be put on the mailing list. You should wait 1-24 hours for a response. I am not using my computer as the mailserver because I only have a 2400 baud (or bps, whatever you like) modem and no mailserver software. Oh, one more thing, you can get back issues of AoT-D from wuarchive.wustl.edu under directory: /pub/aot/. Enjoy! ------------------------------ ********************************** End of Art of Technology Digest #6 -- Chris Cappuccio - Art of Technology Digest - chris%aotnet@mcnnet.mi.org