BEGIN LINE_NOIZ.3 I S S U E - # N O V E M B E R 2 6 , 1 9 9 3 &^)$#^($OE*%&^GP(WV(*$^M($E*&^G&Y*RD()%^(FW*^(U&^V*WU&V*%NW(**NG^*W$N%W($*$($ ()^*(*W$P(*VP(%$^(PBU ){ *#%@($u*^(bap(w$u^($e(v^vqp($v^p(*^(*py(*r^(%(^(%*^* ------------------------L-------I-------N-------E---------------------------- )$()*^w(@*^)(#)$(^#)$(&)*(y@*%*#w$)^@)$()()($(*^(@&^$(@*^(@*()*%$(*#w$()*$((% %^*)$!(~*)%()w*^(*e%(*^)$*#w%#wf)*%^?%$&$*)^w#$)^)$^)%*&#)*%@)*q)*%%)*%@*)&#% ****** N o I Z ****** - - - - The Cyberpunk Information Source - - - - (](](](](](](](](](](](]( L I N E N O I Z )[)[)[)[)[)[)[)[)[)[)[)[)[)[)[) I S S U E - # N O V E M B E R 2 6 , 1 9 9 3 : File ! : Intro to Issue 3 : Billy Biggs : File @ : Bandwidth : Steven Baker : File # : Billy Idol: Cyberpunk - CD Review : Kipp Lightburn : File $ : Attitude is Everything : Gonzo : File % : CyberCulture Houston '93 Schedule : Darek Brzeski : File ^ : Technosys, the "NSA", and a very unfunny joke : Keith Eluard ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- File - ! Here is issue 3. Apparently the person writing that sci-fi story hasen't given me the next part. I was waiting for it before putting out this issue but have decided to distribute without the story. We were having a few problems with the distribution, but that seems to be cleared up by now. Subscriptions can be obtained by sending mail to: dodger@fubar.bk.psu.edu With the words: Subscription LineNoiz In the body of the letter. Da editor nerd, Billy Biggs ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- File - @ Submission for Line Noize November 16, 1993 from Steven.Baker@AtomicCafe or StevenBaker@Delphi.Com -BandWidth- November 16th, 1993 ----------------------- On Compuserve, no one can hear you scream. Or at least the management of Compuserve cannot hear you. Recently a number of people have been leaving messages on USENET's "online services" section about how CIS will not respond to requests of members wanting to cancel their memberships. It seems that these disgruntled users are leaving EMAIL, calling the main office, and sending letters requesting that they STOP billing their credit cards. Compuserve apparantly has a poor method of handling these type of requests, as very few of them are processed and some users have found CIS billing them years after having cancelled the account. This and other aggressive money making tactics have the population of Cyberspace referring to Compuserve as 'CI$'. o-o-o-o It seems that Prodigy is having trouble pleasing it's users also. Many USENET boards are having multiple message thread headers that ask the question "Who has bailed out of Prodigy?". For years Prodigy was considered an affordable alternate to the other online services. Having the financial backing of Sears, they were able to secure agreements with many computer manufacturers and just about every computer system that was sold came with a startup membership package. Prodigy restructured the way they charge over the summer and it ended up costing the message base orientated users more money, so they bailed. Prodigy has also introduced an Internet Email gateway, but they have tacked some steep costs to sending and receiving Email over the Internet, and that did not go over very well at all. o-o-o-o In the 1980's the average computer hack could not find BBS's in his local area that had the software he was looking for. The really good systems were located in major cities , and many users were in suburbs and rural areas that were a long distance call to these boards. Rather than pay the extremely high phone bills these hacks began using illegal phone codes to make long distance calls. These codes were hacked out using a program that was set up to call a local MCI/Sprint/Ect access number and call a long distance number that would answer with a carrier. It would use a five digit code that was randomly generated by the program. If a carrier detect was sensed the program knew that the call went through and it would log these codes into a data file. These codes were posted and traded on boards all over the country and until a few years ago the phone companies could not really pinpoint who was doing it. Amidst these illegal activities Sprint decided to head this threat off at the pass by offering a program called PC Pursuit. This would allow you to use the Sprint network to call certain area codes on data only lines for a given amount of hours a month at an affordable rate. With the advent of digital switching systems being used by the phone companies , hacking codes (phreaking as it is known) was getting to be dangerous. Pc Pursuit was a good legal alternative , but it never went over to well with everyone. As of today, unofficially, Pc Pursuit has been cancelled by Sprint. I made some calls to the main office but I could not get a comment. I am sure that by the time you read this, Sprint will have issued a statement. o-o-o-o Delphi has recently expanded their Internet services by adding Telnet, Ftp, Usenet, and several popular utilities. They offer this full access to the Internet for $1.00 an hour, up to 20 hours a month. In fact Delphi is now officially known as Delphi Internet Services , and promises to be the launching vehicle for the Murdoch interactive media expansion. People complain about Delphi being hard to use for beginners, and some of the SIG's are just stagnant. It is difficult to batch download and they do not have an excellent file library. I suspect Delphi is using all of their resources to concentrate on the Intenet. Take for example the new user friendly interface into USENET. It basically takes it down to a menu system and offers thousands of groups. America Online is planning on expanding their Internet presence by introducing the same things Delphi is. In fact, every major online service is planning on expanded Internet services, but Delphi is the only one to come through yet. o-o-o-o Many gamers are eagerly anticipating the release of Doom by ID software. It promises to be the ultimate in 3D gaming. It will be much like Apogee's Wolfenstein, but much more advanced. On the USENET there is a lot of talk at COMP.SYS.IBM.PC.GAMES.ACTION about this game. Several BETA-TESTERS have left messages saying that is the most incredible game they have ever played. It will be out the first week of December, and most of the popular FTP sites and BBS's will carry the shareware version. Interestingly enough Apogee is due to release their new 3D game called Blake Stone. It was supposed to be out a few months ago, but it has been repeatedly delayed. Strange thing is that every time ID has announced a delay with Doom -- so has Apogee with Blake Stone. Apogee will have nothing to do with this release of Doom. o-o-o-o If you are a user of USENET, do us all a favor and do not reply to the messages that have a header of 'MAKE MONEY FAST'. They are appearing everywhere with a lot of replies in the threads. Hopefully if we just ignore these people, they will go away. o-o-o-o Comments or Questions? Send Email to STEVENBAKER@DELPHI.COM or STEVEN.BAKER@ATOMICCAFE.COM This has been Bandwidth for November 16th, 1993 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now the famous Idol CD. Here are the actual tracks. 1 1:02 Unnamed: Intro, talks about a science-fiction cyberpunk setting 2 4:33 Wasteland 3 0:19 Unnamed: Just alot of noise 4 3:33 Shock to the System 5 5:04 Tomorrow People 6 6:23 Adam in Chains 7 4:34 Neuromancer 8 4:45 Power Junkie 9 0:28 Unnamed: Intro to next song 10 3:53 Love Labours on 11 6:57 Heroin 12 0:23 Unnamed: Connected to 'heroin' 13 7:28 Shangrila 14 4:50 Concrete Kingdom 15 0:39 Unnamed: kinda strange 16 5:45 Venus 17 4:37 Then the Night Comes 18 0:25 Unnamed: Weird 19 5:01 Mother Dawn 20 0:56 Unnamed: Ending Total Time: 71:51 Total time taken up by weird pointless tracks: 4:12 -- My thoughts Well, at least it isn't a short CD (I hate little crap cds) but not much else is great about it. My thoughts are this. Wasteland- Sorta okay kinda crappy. Shock to the System- nice drums, okay I guess. Tomorrow People- sucks. Adam in Chains- 3 min. of hypnotic suggestions and then the song. I liked it, but it has nothing to do with CyberPunk. Neuromancer- sucks. Power Junkie- sucks. Love labours on- give me a break. Heroin- I didn't like it. Shangrila- Great name, crap song. Concrete Kingdom- not bad, but I wouldn't add it to my mix tape. Venus- Sucks. Then the Night Comes- sucks, not a bad chorus, but I didn't like the song. Mother Dawn- Great song, I liked it, nothing to do with CyberPunk. All in all, I guess it was an okay CD, nothing great about it, nothing to do with cyberpunk, well, not much. You have to admit, I think, that alot of the CD creates a definitely strange atmosphere. I also liked the weird pointless track idea. File - # >From: Kipp Lightburn (ah804@freenet.carleton.ca) Subject: Idol Review Instant CyberPunk (Just aDD Jolt) --------------------------------- (A review of Idol's 'Cyberpunk') the packaging looked like someone had taken a copy of WIRED, several episodes of Max.Headroom, the covers from Gibson's books, shoved them through a fractal painter, and then dropped several times. littered with quotes like "Plucked from the blendo stream" "No Religion" "from the adrenaline channel to the endorphine channel". it was an attempt at pouring himself into an image; would the music live up? the first song one would come across would be 'Wasteland' complete with an intro talking about information being the currency of the future(try the present bill). the song chanted on about No Religion at all; a brief mention of VR law and computer crime, and the fantasy in his machine. but the lyrics tipped it more toward a post.apocalypse feel rather than the info highway the intro hinted at. also packaged into the tune was a sampling from the movie Road Warrior "Out in the wasteland..." then came 'shock to the system'. i'm sure we've all heard it. more of a tribute; lyrically ;to the L.A.riots. (though his video appeared to be inspired by Highlander 2: the sickening). 'Tomorrow People' though it sounded more high.tech; lyrically fell short again of representing a dark future of information junkies. nor did it even touch onto a cyber attitude. Then I heard the next 'Adam in Chains' it started out with what sounded like a sampling from a subliminal you.too.can.relax tape, so plugging ears I anxiously.*?* awaited the end. .............ready?.........'Neuromancer'. someone read the book before writing this one. it's possible to see that the ideas squeezed out here were inspired after someone had read the back cover of the book. still in fairness, lyrically cyber, but the ears tell me 'POP.ROCK'. 'Power Junkie' the actual song had zip to do with the title. but if you read the back of the packaging and saw titles like "neuromancer" and "POWER junkie" you might be led to beleive a cyberpunk mood. 'Love labours on' do I have to review this one? 'HEROIN' ...hmmm... Prozac anyone? then idol deals with the virtual.net 'Shangrila'. in a roundabout.way shangrila represents a virtual community where we can live forever. mind you its really roundabout so it could be unintentional/coincidental. behind door number10 'CONCRETE kIngdom' we find nothing that a milk bottle a wind tunnel and a tuning fork can't fix. 'Venus' all about venus the love goddess. hey didn't the intro at the beginning of the tape discuss corporate wars? 'When the Night comes' and 'Mother Dawn' end the barrage, by joining up with 'Love labours on' and 'Venus'. all.in.all a pop-rock collection, containing a breif reference here or there to CP and its movement. if you're an idol fan the sound is the same as all his last. if your looking for cyberpunk commentary you'd find more in the occassional Jesus Jones song than in this entire tape combined. --Kipp Lightburn (ah804@freenet.carleton.ca) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- File - $ ===============Cut Here=========With Scissors==================== This is pertaining to being a cyberpunk, the hacker variety, in RL and on the Net. <<>> Just for a moment, let's talk about cyberpunk and attitude. It isn't just about what you can do. It's about what you _say_ you can do. An example: I went to a tech school for a year and I had an older friend that taught me a lot of stuff about computers. I don't know nearly as much as him but because I know where to use it on and who to tell about it, I'm known as a cyberpunk while my friend is still just a computer scientist. Why is that? People only term other by what they know about you. If I predict that I will crash the system at certain time, say like... in 10 seconds, I will be considered an asshole by those who know about it if I tell them. But if I anonymously wall it, I'm considered a cyberpunk. (Wall means to broadcast to everyone.) If I break into someone else's account, pull some stuff off a Usenet group like alt.sex.duct.tape.gerbils, and send it to all the teachers saying "I wrote this." it won't do much good to have it go unknown who did it. That's why aliases are important. You must develop a character who does these 'pranks' so to increase your image. But you, as a person, are only considered a cyberpunk to those who you reveal it. I'm well known for my nickname, Gonzo. My other nicknames are not so well known. I don't want any connection between them. Gonzo is the playful hacker. Another is the deadly hacker. The other is the cypherpunk. If the association was made, zzzzzt, I'm in trouble. So remember, it's not who's the best with a program, computer, phone, etc but who announces it the best WITHOUT GETTING CAUGHT!! If you are good at that, you can be a good cyberpunk. The Great Gonzo ===========Cut Here================With a Chainsaw============== ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- File - % >From: musi5@menudo.uh.edu (Darek Brzeski) Subject: CYBERCULTURE HOUSTON '93 SCHEDULE CYBERCULTURE HOUSTON '93 INVITES ALL INTERESTED IN THE CREATIVE USE OF COMPUTERS FOR A THREE DAY EXPLORATION OF ART, PERFORMANCES AND DEEP THOUGHTS ON TECHONOLOGY CyberCulture Houston '93 Commerce Street Artist Warehouse & Gallery 2315 Commerce Street December 10-12, 1993 Contact: Melanie Mitchell (713)227-8917 Internet: cyber@fisher.psych.uh.edu CyberCulture Houston 93 is an event featuring the creative potential of emerging computer technology in performance and visual art, the circulation of ideas in an electronic form, and the social and cultural Implications of this interaction. The event will begin on Friday with an opening of the visual art exhibition at 7:30 pm. Physically represented works will be accompanied by a Virtual Art Gallery, designed by the University of Houston Architecture Department, and presented by local virtual reality designers and consultants, CyberSim Virtual Reality Inc. Visitors will be able to put on a headmount and fly through electronically generated fantasy worlds. Flying robotic sculptures, designed and built by the Austin Robot Group, will cavort overhead. Performances will begin at 8:00 pm. Jennifer Bourgaline's dance group will perform an original piece, centered around the effects of technology on humanity. BodySynth, a performance group from San Francisco, will create electronic music through sensors connecting the muscles of the dancer's body to a MIDI system. Human Systems Performance Group, from Austin, will perform "Gabrielle: A Living Hypertext", bringing a close to the first evening. On Saturday, Eyecon Interactive Media will add their exhibit of the Mandala System, a 2D projected virtual reality system, which allows up to four people to create music by bouncing floating orbs of light around the projected virtual world. Demonstrations, presentations, and panel discussions will be held that afternoon on topics raised through the social use of computers, including Life in CyberSpace, Hacking Artificial Life, and Nontraditional 3D Spaces. Some of our speakers will include Brian Parks, the designer of the Flogistron VR Chair, as featured in _Lawnmower Man_, and Ronn Harbin, a premier computer animator. The topic of the last panel discussion of the day will be"Computers as Artistic Media." Several artists from Australia, Norway and across the United States will participate electronically over the Internet.Dissemination Network will begin the evening performances with a performance of electronically altered video/music/dance performance. The BodySynth will then present an audience-interactive performance piece using his MIDI-sensors. Again bringing a close to our evening will be the Human Systems Performance Group. On Sunday, CyberCulture Houston will end on a wilder note. The performance group Burning Man will explode on stage. Houston's Pope Charlie will lead a Church of the Subgenius Devival, Free Virtual Reality Combat simulation games will be provided courtesy of CyberSim, Inc. There is no admission charge for any of the interactive exibits or discussion panels. The price of admission to the performances will be eight dollars which will include the whole evening of preformances. CyberCulture is a nonprofit wing of Electronic Frontiers Houston and the proceeds will be used to cover artists' costs and future events. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- File - ^ >From: KEITHWRITERS@delphi.com Subject: Technosys, the "NSA", and a very unfunny joke Never Rub Another Man's Rhubarb or, Why Social/Reverse Engineering is NOT Cool by Keith Eluard, Technosys -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- ! The Hoax When I was planning to release Prosody and Mirrorshades, my text composition programs, I was expecting *some* backlash from governmental bodies because it would be possible to transport Prosody out of the US because I would send it via Internet. Fine. That was expected and understood when we were planning the whole shebang. With spin control, it could be good advertising for us. "If The Feds are scared of it, then it must be good..." What we were NOT expecting was what happened: on 6 November 1993, our lawyer received an email from a person claiming to be "Jerome Marshall of the NSA" (National Security Agency), stating that all persons involved in the release of Prosody would be subject to arrest and seizure of property if all of our data and notes on the project were not turned over to the "NSA". Two days later, we received a physical letter on Department of Justice stationery stating the same thing. A confession: I'm not as Hip to the Clip as I should and so thought the NSA would be under the DoJ. We were advised by our lawyer (he wishes anonymity-i wish him my foot up his butt) to comply. And we were going to do just that until a fortuitous email from John Markoff suggested that we contact the NSA ourselves via the phonebook rather than the contact numbers listed in the correspondence. It seems as if there is an ugly joke going on here, and I'm not amused by my part in it. The National Security Agency (informally and unofficially) claims that there is no employee of the NSA that should or would have contacted us, our lawyer, or anyone connected with us about Prosody, much less DEMAND OUR DATA. The contact we made at the NSA (I will not reveal her name as she cannot officially speak for the NSA) helped clear up some of the confusion thrown in our path: 1. The NSA is under the Department of Defense, not Justice. 2. Encryption is not illegal (NO SHIT) 3. My programs are not encryption, no matter what anyone says. They are not based on any accepted cryptographic method and do not pose any threat to anyone's (in)security. After discussing this with our new legal counsel, we have come to the conclusion that this entire affair was a practical joke in very bad taste or an attempt to steal the programs by using the current paranoia/hysteria that says ALL FEDS ARE BAD. Not that I saying they're good, but they're not all bad. As I said before, I'm not amused... @ What Will Happen Our plan at Technosys is this: we will revise the code for Prosody and Mirrorshades to completely cripple the "encryption" factors and then release them as PD/shareware on the internet. Meanwhile, we will encourage everyone who we talk to as we float through c-space that they join the EFF, or at least find out their data rights on the Net. Also, we will work with any other software developers out there in on the Net to create a "Concerned Citizens Network" to help monitor and prevent reverse engineering/social engineering/outright theft of our programs. Eventually, we will release a Natural Language encryption program based on accepted RSA algorithms (ala PGP), but only in physical form (i.e. diskette) to prevent raising anyone's eyebrows. All in all, about what we were going to do anyway... # What YOU Can Do Lots of things. Join the EFF. Get involved with Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility (if applicable to you). Contact your system administration to find out exactly what your data rights are (a local college here in Indianapolis will NOT allow anything sent via PGP on its host, for example). Do some research on the things that concern you about the current security/insecurity situation. Write Mr. Bill & OzoneMan (president@whitehouse.gov, vice.president@whitehouse.gov) about what you find and aren't happy with. And above all, talk to other users you know about what is wrong and what you could do to fix it. Then fix it. $ RESOURCES FOR THE CONCERNED Technosys: limetwig@mindvox.phantom.com (K Eluard) keithwriters@delphi.com (K Boyle) cert.sei.cmu.edu/pub -=-Computer/Internet Security info info@eff.org -=-address for the EFF president@whitehouse.gov vice.president@whitehouse.gov -=-sorry, when I get an address for the real potentate, I'll put HER'S here too Thanx for your patience and attention. Pax. -=-Keith Eluard * "Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to try to change the things I can, and the wisdom to hide the bodies of the people I had to kill because they pissed me off." * ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEXT ISSUE DUE OUT SOMETIME BEFORE DECEMBER 6th END LINE_NOIZ.3 -- Billy Biggs Ottawa, Canada "When all else fails, ae687@Freenet.carleton.ca read the instructions"