Underground eXperts United

Go to Human Rights activist Keith Henson

Skeptic Tank!

### ### ### ### ### #### ### ### ### #### ### ### ##### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ### ##### ### ### ########## ### ### ########## ### ### ### ### Underground eXperts United Presents... ####### ## ## ####### # # #### ## ## ####### ## ## ## ## ##### ## ## ## ## ## #### ## ## #### # # ## ####### ####### ## ## ## ## ##### ## ## ## ## ## ## ####### ####### # # ###### ## ####### [ Technophilia ] [ By Ikonoklast ] ____________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________ Kind of a special release, you might say. This is uXu file 148 - "Technophilia" by Ikonoklast. There won't be an index this time (it will be properly added to the list in the next release), instead, we have written some comments about Technophilia below, just to get you started. :) _Huge_ thanks to Ikonoklast for letting us publish his fantastic book through uXu! Here we go - -------------------------------------------------------------------- The GNN - The least you could say about Technophilia is that it is a massive piece of work. Still, it is incredible readable and interesting, not only for those who feel disorientated in a world with weird expressions like cyberpunks, hackers, phreakers etc. Even those who feel that they are very well informed about the situation will most probably find something new to explore in this book. The computer underground is not something that will end up as a brief hobby for a few individuals, until it fades away into nothing. We are catching the train to the future, rapidly ahead of the common people on planet Earth. This book gives a hint of what is actually happening when people turn on their computers and uses their knowledge to achieve goals that most people do not even dream about. The promotion of decentralization, the mistrust of authority and the information that desperately wants to be free. What Ikonoklast has written is not something that will be out of date in a couple of years. It is a history book of our time. Read Technophilia - and realize that you are a part of the history. The Chief - What you now have received is something really special. Both for uXu and the e-zine community. Technophilia were to be printed and released as a book, but due to (probably) lack of knowledge and interest from the publishing company, who argued that it would be outdated pretty fast and therefor not worth to publish, this never happened. What I thought when I heard this wasn't "Oh yeah, now _we_ can publish it" as I suspect some people might think. No, I thought that "every piece of non-fiction published will undoubtedly be outdated some day, so what makes Technophilia different? How come they won't publish this one?" We all know that the computer industry, research and development moves somewhat fast these days, and in some ways perhaps a bit _too_ fast, but that doesn't mean people stop writing manuals, reports and software does it? No, you just upgrade, or write another one. This is such a thing. And it is needed. Wherever we're headed, I feel the progress, the ways we have taken, must be documented, and what better way than to write, sort of, a history book about it now and then? I'm sure there will be several books like this one, maybe they already exist. They're _all_ needed if we're going to get a grip on what has happened, and what's about to come. After all, this _is_ the information age, isn't it? Phearless - I must admit that I was somewhat impressed the first time I was browsing through the quite big amount of information gathered in Technophilia. Ikonoklast has made an excellent job, and it would be a shame to keep it away from the e-public. It was easy to decide, whether we should release this through uXu or not. It's a masterpiece, and a useful compilation of a wide area of interesting topics. Enjoy! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Technophilia by Ikonoklast original artwork by Snow Man Welcome to the Internet version of Technophilia. Originally, this text was supposed to be an entire book, complete with photos, illustrations, and artwork. Also, there was much more original writing in the previous version than in this one. It *would* have been published around this time, but the publishers felt that Technophilia would have a short shelf life (or they would have to publish an update), so they decided to can it. But, thanks to the benevolent uXu, Technophilia has a chance to live on! This text is very similar to the original except that I cut out a lot of the writing and decided to sell that to magazines. Obviously, there is no artwork in the Internet version either. (But if you are interested in seeing it, or buying cool cyberpunk t-shirts, contact Snow Man at cl258@cleveland.freenet.edu). Technophilia is divided into sections, each one focusing on focusing on a subculture or phenomenon devoted in some way to the advancement of technology, love of computers, or an acute sense of neophilia. I hope you enjoy reading Technophilia, and get some use out of it. If so, my time has not been wasted! Please feel free to contact me at dk768@cleveland.freenet.edu if you have any comments or questions...... Special Thanks to: The Chief and uXu Danse Macabre Kelly Green and Alpha Odysseys Wired Magazine Paco Xander Nathan Elizabeth Donnelly Jon Lebkowsky Graham Mann Kevin Gunn Len Peralta and anyone else who sent me stuff for review......!!! Ikonoklast ---------------------------------------------------------------- Technophilia table of contents I. Intro II. Computer Underground III. Cyberpunk part 1 (cyberpunk definition) IV. Cyberpunk part 2 (list of magazines, catalogs, etc) V. Cyberpunk part 3 (list of mind machines, smart drugs,e tc) VI. Cyberpunk part 4 (list of books) VII. Cyberart (music, visuals) VIII. Cyberpunk literature IX. Raves X. Technology (virtual reality, AI, etc) ---------------------------------------------------------------- The Computer Underground ------------------------------ Structure of the CU ------------------- Pirates ------- Software pirates are the most common of the denizens of the computer underground. Almost everyone who has a computer has, at one time or another copied a program for his own use. But that alone does not make one a pirate. Pirates copy software as a hobby, even software they do not need or will ever use. Just the thrill of owning it is good enough for the pirate. Pirates tend to be secretive and most pirate boards can be accessed by invitation only. Pirate BBSes often have giveaway names, like Pirate's Cove or Treasure Chest. Most require high speed modems 14.4K+ for the fast transfer of warez (software). There are also "wannabe" pirates, the warez kidz. They call up pirate and non-pirate bbses asking for software, but they never upload any. In the upper levels of pirate-dom exists the "crackers" (not to be confused with evil hackers). Software crackers break the protection scheme of software and then distribute them to the lower pirates. Pirating software is in danger of becoming obsolete with new protection schemes such as hardware plugs that connect to the serial ports and companies beginning to ship products on CD-ROMs. Hackers Once, being a hacker meant you were a professional at getting a computer to do something amazing: whether it is to perform a specific task or gain access to it. Nowadays, a hacker is considered to be one of two things. The first version, the one newspapers, television, and magazines want you to think, is a criminal who wants to destroy or steal computer data. The other version is anyone who disregards artificial boundaries, explores systems, and believes that information should be free. Hackers hate artificial boundaries placed for the purpose to deter exploration. They have a yearning for arcane and forbidden knowledge. This is distinctly different from a criminal - call them what you will - crackers, dark side hackers : the ones that hack for money, revenge, or personal gain. Although this is the description the media prefers, these types are very, very rare in the computer underground. Phreaks ------- Phreaks can be considered the oldest members of the computer underground: they've been around in one form or another since the 1960's. Phreaks don't see themselves as swindlers or defrauders - they fancy themselves "explorers." The phreak's area of expertise is the phone system. Hidden within the vast cables, switching offices, and satellites of the telephone companies are hundreds of thousands of untapped secrets: loops, call-backs, codes, private branch exchanges, etc. The phone company offers a huge area to explore - and virtually none of it tangible. Phreakdom has had one major setback since it began: as the phone company's switching systems became more modern and computerized (such as the #5 Electronic Switching Station), the distinction between phreaks and hackers blurred. Many phreaks who knew nothing about computers had to start learning them. And, it was easier to get caught by the phone company, who now had the power to monitor their lines. A watered-down phreak is known as a codez kid. They are wannabe phreaks or criminals who trade in free long-distance access codes. Phreaks are a dying breed. Many are frightened by the growing complexity of the phone system and the high risks of being caught. Virus Writers ------------- Virus writers are the smallest strata of the computer underground and some of the most technically proficient. Usually, they are also the most malevolent: some of their products are purposefully destructive. This is truly sad because their abilities could be used for studying artificial life viruses. Rodents/weasels/l0zers ---------------------- The scum of the computer underground. These are usually teenage kids who recently received a computer with a modem and want to do all sorts of illegal, harmful stuff. Some of them eventually grow up, but most remain a detriment to the entire CU community. Techniques of the Computer Underground -------------------------------------- Boxing ------ Boxing is a technique used mainly by phreaks that employs an electronic device (most are shaped like a box) that reproduces special tones recognizable by phone equipment. By using these tones, the phreak can operate phone equipment from a remote site like an operator. Boxing was once very popular among college students who could call home for free. * red - this box produces the same tones that a coin makes when dropped into a payphone. By playing the tones into the mouthpiece, the phreak tricks the phone into thinking that coins are being deposited. Voila! Free long distance! * black - black boxes are named so because of the first one found. When a black box is attached to a telephone line, it provides toll-free calling placed to that line. It appears to the phone company that no one ever picks up the phone, thus never initiating billing the call. * blue - Blue boxes are able to replicate the exact frequencies the phone company used for their long distance billing equipment and standard touch-tone keys (including some keys that aren't on a standard phone). This feature made them popular with those who wished to make free calls or explore the phone system free of charge. Blue boxes used to be the most widely used of all boxes, but nowadays are among the most uncommon. * purple - when attached to a phone line, the purple box makes all calls made out from that location seem to be local calls. * rainbow - named so because it combines almost all the functions of other boxes, plus is usable worldwide. The rainbow box is the phreaks dream come true. Once legendary, a kit for building a rainbow box is now available from Hack-Tic magazine (for a cool $250). * beige - the beige box is a telephone lineman's handset with alligator clips that allows for tapping into the phone and listening in. Password grabbing (and cracking) -------------------------------- Any technique used to steal a password from an authorized user. Popular tactics include: * writing or running a program that emulates a legitimate login screen. After the target types in his password, he get a typical "user authorization failure" message. The program stores the login name and the password. Having done this, the program terminates itself and dumps the user to the real login screen. * Running a program that guesses common passwords, or matches encrypted password data to a dictionary of common passwords. * Guessing personal information based on the knowledge of that person. * Looking over the shoulder (!). Social engineering ------------------ By sounding authoritative or knowledgeable, or by intimidating a target, a hacker can convince many people he should be privy to guarded information. Likewise, being pleasant and helpful can result in passwords, phone-numbers, or a quick escape from the hands of authority. After all, a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link. Reading telecom and computer manuals is one way to increase social engineering skills - if you can talk like a technician, you can fool a lot of people. trashing - also known as "dumpster diving," trashing is the fine art of sifting through the garbage of targeted installations (like a Bell Office, department store, business) to find manuals, notes, memos and documents. Private BBSes ------------- Private BBSes are just like a regular BBS, except that users must be invited or undergo an intense process of scrutiny from a voting council. Almost all discussion on these boards is focused on underground activities. Phone codes, credit card numbers, electronic hacker magazines and "philes," plus pirated software can be found on some private boards. To gain entrance into a private BBS, an applicant usually must fill out a questionnaire filled with technical terms (to see if he or she "knows his stuff"), plus provide a brief history of previous activities, hacks, etc. The applicants are judged for their suitability by the sysop and sometimes a board of electors. Private BBSes tend to be clique-ish and suspicious of applicants. They are inclined to believe in the heuristic - "Every third member of the computer underground is probably a fed or an informant." Scanning -------- In the computer underground, scanning can mean two things: * Having a modem "war dial" a certain range of numbers sequentially (such as 221-0000 to 221-9999) to find modem dial-ups or long distance access code numbers. * Listening to certain frequencies on an ordinary police scanner to learn information. Listening to cellular or cordless phone frequencies, for instance, often leads to interesting information. Underground publications ------------------------ Underground publications include philes and zines. Philes are often brief pieces explaining tenets of phreaking, hacking, schematics for building boxes, bomb recipes, or revenge tactics. Philes tend to be written by anarchists or people with extreme anti-social habits. Underground zines are usually nothing more than a number of philes published under one banner, but are a bit more technical and practical. Most zines contain bust information or news of crackdowns. Handles ------- No one in the underground likes to use his real name, so they adopt a pseudonym, or handle. Handles seem to fall into categories: Science Fiction/Fantasy (like Atreides, Black Knight, Gandalf), Technical (C.H.Mainframe, Doc Digital), Anti-Social (The Vandal, Trouble), and Comical (DrunkFux, Whiz Bang). Heavy metal music and occult themes are also popular inspirations for handles. Its considered tacky to steal a handle, especially a well known one, or to have multiple handles at the same time. People with the same handles often are referred to by their area code (Executioner 212 and Executioner 312). Credit card fraud ----------------- Stealing credit card numbers for the purpose of charging desired merchandise, most likely delivered to a maildrop. Credit card vandals get numbers from a variety of places - carbons from department store trash, from underground BBSes, from listening in on phone lines, or outright stealing the cards. Credit card fraud was once popular among the computer underground, but is now avoided and looked down on. Users who post credit card numbers on bulletin boards are usually kicked off the BBS, since sysops run the risk of getting arrested. Fed --- derogatory term that is used by hackers to describe anyone who is either a federal agent (SS or FBI), police office, or a security professional. Often it can mean anyone who is outspokenly against hackers. "Fed Boards" or sting boards are BBSes disguised as private boards, but in reality are set up to catch or monitor hackers. Trends ------ as technology changes and advances forward, hacking, pirating, and phreaking will follow. The blue boxes and simple diskcopy will fall by the wayside as security methods "catch up." Hacking, too, will catch up with some certain technologies. Here's some topics that are currently hot: * mag strip hacking - everyone has a few cards with these ferromagnetic strips on them - ATM cards, credit cards, and photo IDs. It is possible to rig a machine that can read and decode (and possibly write) the hidden messages encoded on them. If the US Government is ever stupid enough to issue "smart cards," knowledge of this field will come in handy. * portable hacking - it hasn't been safe to hack from one's home for quite awhile, and the cost (and size) of laptops with internal modems make hacking on the road an appealing alternative to many. * digital signatures - personalized digital imprinting (fingerprints, voice, and handwriting recognition) is becoming popular in certain levels of the government and large corporations. It is only a matter of time before this form of ID descends to the masses. * cryptography - cryptography is the process of encoding e- mail messages or files that can only be opened up by someone who has the "key." Some crypto programs that are widely available today are so advanced they are nearly unbreakable. This makes the government unhappy, because they want to be able to read anything they wish (in the interest of national security, of course). The government has proposed a uniform crypto program where they would hold a universal "key." If this ever is the situation, God forbid, rest assure that hackers will try to get a key as well. * answering machine hacking - almost everyone has an answering machine these days. And guess what? Most can be accessed remotely with a certain combination punched into the telephone keypad. You can listen to messages, or on some models, record a new message. It is possible to program an ordinary Radio Shack tone dialer to try every two digit combination. * hardware pirating - the software companies have decided that diskcopying has gotten out of hand. Past protection schemes have proved to be ineffective. Now there is a hardware protection craze that the software companies are picking up on: instead of writing protection schemes into the software, the software is shipped with special devices that fit into serial ports. The software cannot run unless it has one of the special devices. Computer Underground Magazines ------------------------------------ Iron Feather Journal POB 1905 Boulder CO 80306-1905 Iron Feather Journal is filled with bizarre graphics and tons of techno-thug info. IFJ was started back in the days of Commodore 64 hacking, but now covers the world of Internet and other electronic things. Lists of FTP sites, Usenet groups, and tech schematics (including how to build your own pirate television station), are interspersed with rambling writings and clippings from old computer catalogs. The High Tech Contact area is of great value: it has listings of free catalogs, free newsletters, and listings of BBSes. Each issue is $2.50-3.00. The editor, Stevyn, also runs a scion of IFJ: Phunshit Catalog, which sells old issues of IFJ, hacking and cyberpunk books and magazines, a clippings from Usenet groups. 2600 POB 752 Middle Island NY 11953 Absolutely the best hard copy hacker magazine. Articles range from phone company switching system programming to cellular hacking to defeating Simplex locks. Editor Emmanuel Goldstein is one of those rare editors that uses the freedom of the press to the utmost: always a step ahead of those that would like to see him jailed. 2600 also offers a video of Dutch hackers breaking into a military computer. Excerpts of this video were shown on "journalist" Geraldo Rivera's sensationalist TV show. The video is $10.00. 2600 operates a voice BBS (0700-751-2600 0.15/minute) which is open from 11 PM to 7 AM every day. 2600 holds meetings in many major US cities every first Friday of the month. See the current issue for listings. Subscriptions (four issues) are $21.00 (US and Canada); $30.00 (foreign). TAP POB 20264 Louisville KY 40250-0264 TAP, or the Technical Assistance Program, has been in (erratic) publication since 1973. It was originally titled Youth International Party Line (YIPL) after it's founders Yippie Abbie Hoffman and phone phreak Al Bell. TAP published articles on scams, concentrating particularly on phone fraud. TAP stopped publishing for a while when then-publisher Thomas Edison's house was set on fire and computer stolen. TAP was then resurrected several times before it came to rest with Predat0r in 1990. Each issue is $2.00, but send a letter before any money - issues have come out erratically. Intertek 13 Daffodil Lane San Carlos CA 94070 The journal of Technology and Society. Past issues have included articles on virtual communities (MUDs, IRC and such), Internet culture, and hacking. Subscriptions are $14.00 four issues. Hack-Tic PB 22953, 1100 DL Amsterdam Netherlands Hack-Tic is the Dutch equivalent of 2600 Magazine. Mostly written in Dutch, HT contains articles on phone phreaking and hacking in Europe (in the Netherlands it isn't a crime. Yet.). Hack-Tic also sells the Demon Dialer rainbow box kit for $250. They also sponsor the Galactic Hacker's Party, a worldwide gathering of phreaks, cyberpunks, and hackers. Each issue of Hack-Tic is $2.50. Chaos Computer Club Schwenckestrasse 85 W-2000 Hamburg 20 Germany The CCC is one of the most notorious hacker gangs in the world, and claim responsibility for all sorts of break-ins into the US Government's computer systems. One of their supposed members was the villain in Cliff Stoll's The Cuckoo's Egg. They sell their secrets in Die Hacker Bibel Volumes 1, 2, and 3, and Das Chaos Computer Buch, plus other software programs. Catalog is free, but it is written in German, so good luck. Associating with these folks will probably land you on a government watch list. Chaos Computer Club has two Internet archives: ftp.eff.org pub/cud/ccc ftp.titania.mathematik.uni-ulm.de /info/CCC Forbidden Knowledge c/o Darren Smith Box 770813 Lakewood OH 44107 Title says it all. Scams, frauds, and technical information. $18.00 for a year's subscription. LOD Communications 603 W.13 #1A-278 Austin TX 78701 lodcom@mindvox.phantom.com Sells the archives of "golden age of hacking" message boards - boards like OSUNY, Plovernet, 8BBS, Black Ice Private, and the Phoenix Project. Write for prices; available in Mac/IBM/Amiga formats. Cyberpunk System POB 771072 Wichita KS 67277-1072 Some of the users of this board decided it would be funny to go out to their local AT&T facility and fly the Jolly Roger from the flag pole, hinting at the true nature of AT&T. They sell poster of their deed (11"X17") for $7.00 and t- shirts for $20.00. They also sell full size pirate flags for $20.00. There is a $3.00 postage and handling charge per item. Electronic Zines/Publications/Newsletters ----------------------------------------------- Activist Times, Inc gzero@tronsbox.xei.com PO Box 2501 Bloomfield NJ 07003 Hacking, political viewpoints, anarchy, news. ATI is a lot smaller than most CU zines, but worth subscribing to. Phrack listserv@stormking.com Phrack is the undisputed king of the electronic hacker magazines. Each huge issue (some are over 720K!) has detailed technical information on selected computer systems or phone equipment, a question and answer letters section, and articles on freedom and privacy in cyberspace. Phrack also has the Pro-Phile -an in-depth look at some of the most notorious hackers, and Phrack World News, a collection of newsclippings dealing with the computer underground. Phrack is just to good to pass up - get it while it (and the editor and writers!) is still free. Phantasy iirg@world.std.com Phantasy is the journal of the International Information Retrieval Guild, a hacking group with a few pirate ties. Similar to Phrack in content, but smaller. Digital Free Press dfp-req%underg@uunet.uu.net Irregularly published underground magazine. Informatik inform@doc.cc.utexas.edu Another superb hacker magazine. Informatik is very similar to Phrack, but with different information. Telecom Digest telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu Daily digest covering all facets of the telecommunications industry, including breaking news and future plans of telecom companies. Highly recommended, but volume can be high - sometimes the digest generates two to three issues a day. Security Digest security-request@aim.rutgers.edu All topics of computer security are discussed on this list. Telecom Privacy Digest telecom-priv-request@pica.army.mil Digest devoted to privacy issues involving telecommunications (particularly CallerID, and similar services). Ethics-L listserv@marist.edu Ethics-L is a forum for the ethical use of computers, especially in an open environment such as a university. Computer Underground Digest tk0jut2@niu.bitnet The Computer Underground Digest, or CuD as it is called by its readers, is a weekly electronic news journal. It's beginnings stem back to early 1990, when Telecom Digest was inundated with posts about the recent Knight Lightning and Terminus indictments. Jim Thomas, a professor of sociology and criminology at Northern Illinois University, and Gordon Meyer, author of "The Social Organization of the Computer Underground," collected the excess posts and published them under the banner of CuD. The goal of CuD, according to its founders, is to provide a forum for discussion and debate of the computer telecommunications culture, with special emphasis on alternative groups that exist outside the conventional computer network community. CuD publishes: * Reasoned and thoughtful debates about economic, ethical, legal, and other issues related to the computer underground. * Verbatim printed newspaper or magazine articles containing relevant stories. * Public domain legal documents including affidavits, indictments, and court records that pertain to the computer underground. * General discussion of news, problems, and other issues that contributors feel should be aired. * Unpublished academic pieces or research results. * Book reviews that address the social implications of computer technology * Announcements for meetings, conferences, etc. (from the Computer Underground Digest FAQ). EFFector Online effnews-request@eff.org EFF news and recent trials, information, and such. Virus-L Digest kruw@cert.sei.cmu.edu Recent virus reports, analyzation of source code, critiques of anti-virus software. Risks Forum risks-request@csl.sri.com Funded by SRI (see below), Risks Forum discusses all aspects of public access and open-system computing. Worldview/Der Weltanschauung dfox@wixer.cactus.org News, tips and stories of the computer underground, telecom, and other information systems. United Phreakers' Inc. ftp.eff.org /pub/cud/upi Mostly a phreaker's rag, with info on PBXs, telecom services, telecom lingo, underground newsline, and bust news. ccapuc@caticsuf.csufresno.edu CuD ripoff with different information. Includes CPSR releases. Usenet ------ alt.hackers Not crackers, but people who like to do unconventional things with their computers. The real hackers. alt.hackers.malicious People who like to destroy other people's information. comp.society.cu-digest Usenet distribution point for Computer Underground Digest. misc.security All sorts of security topics: computers, electronic locks, locksmithing, and so forth. comp.org.eff.talk Discussion of EFF and projects. alt.comp.acad-freedom Discussion of freedom of academic computing. alt.dcom.telecom Telecommunications talk. Pretty technical. alt.dcom.isdn ISDN services and possibilities are the talk here. alt.radio.scanner Newsgroup for scanner enthusiasts. Unconventional/illegal frequencies are sometimes posted here. comp.risks Similar to Risks Forum. alt.society.ati The Usenet distribution point for Activist Times Incorporated. comp.security.misc Anti-piracy tactics, bugs and holes in software. FTP Sites --------- ftp.eff.org Does this site have everything or what? Contains state computer crime laws, Computer Underground Digest archives, tons of hacker magazines, EFF news and announcements, guides to the Internet, and a lot more. cert.sei.cmu.edu Archives of the computer emergency response team. Underground Writers ------------------------- Cult of the Dead Cow PO Box 53011 Lubbock TX 79453 The oldest underground writer's group still in existence and is masterminded by Swamp Ratte. Already has over 250 files in its archives ranging from short fiction, poetry, tips on evading the law, spreading chaos in school and work, pyrotechnics, and other pastimes of adolescent males. The cDc files are available from zero.cypher.com /pub. If you don't have an Internet access, Swamp Ratte sells all the files on one disk (specify DOS or Apple) for $3.00. He also sells cDc stickers: a dozen for $0.50 and a SASE. cDc is loosely affiliated with DrunkFux's Freeside Orbital Data Network (11504 Hughes Road #124, Houston TX, 77089). DfX is the promoter of HoHoCon, a Yuletide gathering of the world's eleet hackers. He sells videos and t-shirts of past HoHoCons, and has information about upcoming ones. Underground eXperts United PO Box 5 S-79023 Svardsjo Sweden An international underground writer's group headed by Sweden's premier writer/hacker The Chief. Fun files on homemade weapons, projects for the bored anarchist, how to shrink a head, and a list of Interpol's top ten most wanted. Not all uXu's files are fun and destruction, though - there is some good fiction, like The Chief's own Castle Chronicles. FTP site is lysator.liu.se. uXu is taking submissions; write to chief@lysator.liu.se for information/submissions. IIRG 862 Farmington Ave Suite 306 Bristol CT 06010 IIRG is responsible for Phantasy magazine and other hacking publications. Bulletin Boards --------------------- Demon Roach Underground 806.794.4862 DMR has been online since 1985, and is still one of the leading boards for CU activity. DMR is also the World Headquarters of the Cult of the Dead Cow. Login: Thrash. New User Password: Fear. The Underground Subway 604.590.1147 At the other end of this number is a BBS that is nothin more than an online game called Hacker. Hacker is a puzzle disguised as a computer network, where hidden clues pop up in posts, private mail, parallel boards, help files, and underground zines. The player must solve the puzzle by successfully "hacking" the system without getting caught. Firezone 203.931.0003 Storehouse of warez and electronic zines. Dark Shadows 203.628.9660 IIRG distribution site. The Vampire Connection 203.269.8813 Large computer underground crowd frequent this board. The Cyberspace Institute 512.469.0447 Cyberpunk System 316.794.3559 Temple of the Screaming Electron 510.935.5845 Gigantic archives of computer underground and hacking material. Blitzkrieg 502.499.8933 Home of TAP magazine. Ripco 312.528.5020 Computer Underground Books -------------------------------- The Hacker Crackdown by Bruce Sterling The Hacker Crackdown is cyberpunk author Bruce Sterling's first foray into non-fiction writing. Crackdown is an account of the government crackdown on the computer underground in the early 1990's. Includes a brief history of the telephone industry, events that led up to "Operation Sundevil," the Phrack/Bellsouth E911 fiasco, the trials that followed, and the formation of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Highly recommended. Cyberpunk by Katie Hafner and John Markoff Three stories written by news reporters about computer hackers. The first story is about Kevin Mitnick and friends' exploits. The authors' dislike of Mitnick is obvious, describing in detail Mitnick's character flaws, and makes personal digs at him whenever possible. The next story is about Pengo, the German hacker who offered to sell his (and his friends') talents to the Russians. Finally, the last chapter tells the story of Robert T. Morris, author of the Internet Worm. Although somewhat biased, Cyberpunk!, like The Cuckoo's Egg, is a must-read for those interested in hackers. The Official Phreaker's Manual This is the Bible of Phreakdom; includes terms and techniques (most outdated by now, but it gets the methods and possibilities across quite well). There's a bit of history thrown in - it contains the 1971 Esquire article about Capn Crunch and his blue boxes. This manual brings back a lot of nostalgia, but I wouldn't use the tactics inside. Available free on ftp.eff.org /pub/cud/misc. Hackers by Stephen Levy Hackers is the story of the true hackers - the geniuses responsible for the personal computer revolution. The beginning of Hackers is about the first generation - students at MIT who formed a loose alliance and wrote amazingly clever programs on the facility's mainframes and minicomputers. The first generation were the ones that introduced the extremely anti-bureaucratic "Hacker Ethic" - the idea that computer should always be accessible, that artificial boundaries (including locked doors and closed buildings) should be overcome, and that "authority" should be mistrusted. The second part is devoted to the second generation. These people were responsible for the birth of the personal computer, including Jobs and Wozniak, the Altair, and the Homebrew Computer Club. The second wave of hackers established the Do It Yourself attitude, and for the most part began the Computer Revolution. The last part of the book is about the third generation of hackers. These were the software writers and programming geniuses, and the WarGames-era dark side hackers. The third generation was responsible for turning the PC from a hobbyist's toy to a household appliance. The Anarchist's Guide to the BBS by Keith Wade Describes in detail modems, protocols, and everything you need to start up your own anarchy BBS. Explains terms and techniques, excellent for beginners to the modem world. The Hacker's Dictionary by Guy Steel, Jr Terms and words used by programmers and true hackers. Media and security "experts" will be disappointed in this book, but those who find computers and computer history will find it entertaining. The Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll Cliff Stoll, an astrophysicist turned computer manager at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, narrates the true story of how he traced a 75 cent accounting error to a hacker who was breaking into the LBL system. The situation escalates as the hacker travels through the Internet, breaking into sensitive American computers and stealing military and R&D information to sell to the Russian. Stoll tracks the hacker through Berkeley's system, computer networks throughout the country, and the globe-spanning, tangled web of the phone networks. This is one of the best books of high tech espionage, and a decent primer on Internet jargon. Highly recommended. Computer Viruses: A High Tech Disease by Ralf Burger Contains information on how viruses work and how they reproduce themselves. Spectacular Computer Crimes by Buck Bloombecker Mr. Bloombecker is the director for the National Center for Computer Crime Data, so you already know what he thinks about hackers. Spectacular Computer Crimes is a somewhat slanted collection of true stories on hackers, thieves, and assorted techno-troublemakers. Approaching Zero by Paul Mungo and Bryan Clough Yet another book on hackers by a journalist. Narrative chronicles of the computer underground. Includes the deeds and antics of several legendary hackers, including Cap'n Crunch, Captain Zap, Fry Guy, Pengo, and virus writer Dark Avenger. A good if somewhat basic overview of the alternative computer culture. Little Black Book of Computer Viruses American Eagle Publications, Inc POB 41401 Tucson AZ 85717 Source code and description of popular viruses. For volume two, the author held a virus-writing contest, which was the subject of much controversy on the Internet. American Eagle also publishes Computer Virus Developments Quarterly ($95 for a subscription). Telephone Books --------------------- Introduction to Telephones and Telephone Systems by Michael Noll Very basic book on telephony; good for the beginner who wants to learn a few things about the telephone network. Industry Basics: An Introduction to the History, Structure, and Technology of the Telecommunications Industry by The North American Telecommunications Association Large book covering all facets and details of the telephone industry. Catalogs and Sources -------------------------- Telecom Library Catalog 12 West 21 Street New York NY 10010 1-800-LIBRARY Basically a telecom book club. Great source for inexpensive technical manuals and telecom primers. Free catalog. Telephone International POB 3589 Crossville TN 38557-3589 Telephone International is a marketplace for telecom equipment in a newspaper-like format. Buy your own switching equipment, fiber optics and PBXes! Great classified section too, with announcements of upcoming events, baby Bell office surplus sales, and conventions. Subscriptions are $24.00 (US), $40 (Canada and Mexico). Teleworld Telecommunicatieshops Kinkerstraat 66-68-70 1052 D2 Amsterdam Netherlands Free catalog of telecom equipment, including some that you can't buy in the United States. AEC Equipment POB 3609 Crossville TN 38557-3609 Huge telephone equipment catalog. If you know what you are looking for, you might find something useful. The Onion Press 6910 W.Brown Deer Rd Suite 194 Milwaukee WI 53223 Sells hardcopies of the Legion of Doom Technical Journals, Phrack, and Computer Underground Digest and back issues of TAP (the whole set for $50). Phrack vol.1 (issues 1-9) - $20.00; Vol.2 (#10-24) - $50; Vol.3 (25-36) - $50; LOD Tech Journals - $20 for all four. Contact them for full list and prices. I don't know if this guy knows that the above stuff (with the exception of TAP) is all for FREE on the Internet, or that what he is doing may be a lawsuit waiting to happen. But if you haven't an Internet account and you want some good reading, this may be the place to go. Renegade Graphix POB 963 Kalamazoo MI 49005 Super scary, blasphemous, and vulgar t-shirts and hats. They also design t-shirts for computer underground groups. Shirts are $10.00, and $7.00. Sweet Pea Communications POB 912 Topanga CA 90290 Sweet Pea publishes the complete video library of the Computer, Freedom and Privacy congresses. CFP I includes topics such as: * The Constitution in the Information Age * Trends in Computers and Networks * Network environments of the future * Law enforcement and civil liberties * Electronic speech, press, and assembly * Access to government information The CFP II conference includes topics such as: * Private collection of personal information * Genetic data banks * Government control of cryptography * Employer surveillance * Sale of government information * Bruce Sterling: Speaking for the Unspeakable CFP I (15 tapes) is $480, CFP II (12 tapes) is $385. Both sets together are $695, and highlights from both (1 tape) is $89.95. Write for information on more recent CFPs. Bellcore 1-800-521-CORE Order Bellcore's free document catalog, a huge publication of extremely confusing documents written by Bellcore, the Phone Company's research lab. Installments to the catalog arrive frequently. Incidentally, the 911 document that was the center of the Craig Neidorf case, which was claimed by the phone company to be worth $79,000 can be purchased from the catalog (it was available way before the trial even began). It's thirteen bucks. Go figure. Consumertronics 2011 Crescent Dr. PO Drawer 537 Alamogordo NM 88310 Books and plans on phreaking, hacking, cable descrambling, defeating security, viruses, guerilla radio, and energy theft. Sells more than books, too, including voice disguisers, long range eavesdroppers, viruses on disk, and blue, red, and purple boxes. They even have the Automated Tempest Module, an ATM theft device (as seen in Terminator 2) for $995. This $2.00 catalog is a must for any high tech pirate. Teleconnect 1265 Industrial Highway Southampton PA 18966 A tell-all publication of the telecom industry. Teleconnect reviews products and services, and they have a reputation as being truthful, which hasn't earned them many friends in the telcos. 18 issues is $21.30 and includes a t-shirt (displaying a Russian coin phone) and a huge telecom dictionary. The "Feds" ---------------- Someone has to watch the networks and computer systems in case of trouble. Until lately, the responsibility of insuring safety on systems was up to the provider of the system - the government would have nothing to do with it. That is until computers became so prevalent (especially in large financial institutions, military installations, and national databanks) that it was necessary to have some sort of policing. The brunt of this police work seems to have fallen on the Secret Service, perhaps because of their ties with the Federal Reserve. In any case, security people, whether corporate, private, or government, are generally nice folks. It's their job, and we should all feel somewhat indebted to them for keeping the networks and systems trouble free. Unfortunately, some can be overzealous and zero in on mischievous teenagers rather than real criminals. Others break the fine line between a breach of privacy and "national interest." Such was the case of the Steve Jackson Games raid. Federal Investigations and Computer Security Professionals ---------------------------------------------------------------- Software Security International 2020 Pennsylvania Ave NW Suite 772 Washington DC 20006-1846 SSI is a group that advocates the elimination of software pirating. Get them to spend money on you - write for more free information. Computer Security Institute 600 Harrison Street San Francisco CA 94107 The Computer Security Institute was established in 1974, making it the oldest international organization for computer security professionals. The CSI has some heavy-hitting members, including AT&T, Bellcore, Sony, Exxon, and other global mega-corps. Every member receives the monthly newsletter, Computer Security Alert, which is filled with reports, tips, warnings, and industry developments. Other benefits to members include CSI member's hotline, an account on the CSI bbs, and discounts on computer security books. Annual membership is quite inexpensive: $127 a year ($167 outside US). SRI International 333 Ravenswood Ave Menlo Park CA 94025 A non-profit corporation that performs research and consulting services to private industry and governments the world over. SRI is known worldwide for its expertise in computer and information security. SRI heads the International Information Integrity Institute (I4) which promotes information security as a management responsibility. As a member of I4, you receive the I4 newsletter, excerpts of Risks forum (which SRI operates), forum proceedings, an index into SRI Computer Abuse file, plus an Administrator's Guide and on-line services. American Society for Industrial Security 1655 North Fort Meyer Dr. Suite 1200 Arlington VA 22209-3198 ASIS is the world's largest organization of security professionals. ASIS members are specialists who direct and formulate security programs for banks, classified aerospace facilities, communications networks, and domestic and foreign government. ASIS members are experts at thwarting terrorism, industrial espionage, counterfeiting, computer crime, white collar fraud, and combating the pirating of classified documents and software. Members receive a monthly magazine, Security Management, and a bi-monthly newsletter, ASIS Dynamics. I'm sure by belonging to this organization you can learn lots of tricks.... Write for more information. McAfee Associates 3350 Scott Blvd Building 14 Santa Clara 95054-3107 The leading developers of anti-virus software and products, McAfee employs a global network of virus researchers that scour the underground for the latest trends and developments in harmful computer viruses. McAfee sells a variety of excellent, efficient products, including: Viruscan, which can detect 99.6% of viruses on a DOS based computer, including stealth viruses and ones hidden in compressed files. Viruscan will overwrite and delete any infected files and generate reports of its findings. Additionally, VScan can save system information in a hidden file that can be used to restore files and areas hit by the virus. Clean is a virus removal program that disinfects a system from all common viruses and their strains with 98% accuracy. VShield is a TSR virus protection program that can check a program for a virus before the program is even loaded. McAfee also maintains a Virus Emergency Response Center and a BBS (408.988.4004) where the latest versions of their programs can be downloaded. Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility POB 717 Palo Alto CA 94301 cpsr@csli.stanford.edu CPSR, which was founded in 1981, is a group of technical experts who direct public attention to critical choices in computer policy making. They advocate responsible use of computers and do not fall prey to the anti-technology/anti-computer sentiments like other organizations. Each project undertaken by CPSR are based on these five principles: - "We foster and support public discussion of and public responsibility for decisions involving the use of computers in systems critical to society. - We work to dispel popular myths about the infallibility of technological systems - We challenge the assumption that technology alone can solve political and social problems. - We critically examine social and technical issues within the computer profession, nationally and internationally. - We encourage the use of computer technology to improve the quality of life." (CPSR Brochure, widely available on the Net). CPSR presently has 21 chapters in the US. CPSR also holds conferences, the most important one being the , where civil liberties within the electronic world are a hot topic. Members of CPSR receive a quarterly newsletter, discounts on books and videos, and discounts to CPSR events. Membership is $75 for regular membership; $20 for student and low income. Computer Law Association 8303 Arlington Bkvd Suite 210 Fairfax VA 22031 Organization formed for the study of laws pertaining to computers, electronic privacy, and computer oriented laws. Federal Computer Investigations Committee c/o US Secret Service Fraud Div. Room 942 1800 G St, NW Washington DC 20223 This is the Secret Service, the nice folks responsible for the Steve Jackson Games fiasco, the recent 2600 meeting breakups, and other hacker crackdowns. How computer security became the concern for the agency who is supposed to guard the President is anyone's guess. If you decide to write to the SS about computer crime or hackers, they might be hesitant to reveal anything at first. Be persistent, send some Freedom of Information requests, whatever. Who knows? They may budge. But then again, don't blame me if you get a nocturnal visit from the SS. Electronic Frontier Foundation 666 Pennsylvania Ave SE Suite 203 Washington DC 20003 202.544.9237 eff@eff.org "The Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded in July, 1990, to assure freedom of expression in digital media, with a particular emphasis on applying the principles embodied in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to computer-based communication. From the beginning, EFF was determined to become an organized voice for the burgeoning community of nationally and internationally networked computer users. We perform the multiple roles of guardian, advocate, and innovator, to serve and protect the public interest in the information age. We have defended civil liberties in court. We have shaped the policy debate on emerging communications infrastructure and regulation. We have increased awareness both on the Net and among those law enforcement officials, policy makers, and corporations whose insufficient understanding of the digital environment threatened the freedom of Cyberspace. Yet there is still much to be done." (From General Information about the EFF). The EFF was founded in part by Mitch Kapor, inventor of the Lotus spreadsheet package. The EFF's most famous case was the Phrack/E911/Knight Lightening case, which they won. Membership to the EFF is $20.00 for students and low-income and $40.00 for regular membership. Security E-lists ---------------------- Computer Emergency Response Team Watchdog team that reports computer viruses, worms, and problems on the Internet. Their archive site is cert.org. Documents can be found in the /pub directory. Security Books -------------------- Computer Viruses, Worms, Data Diddlers, Killer Programs, and Other Threats to Your System by John McAfee One of the best books on viruses and other trouble programs by one of the authorities of the field. The book covers the history of viruses, how they work, descriptions of the most popular ones, and the risks of viruses falling into the wrong hands. Recommended. International Handbook on Computer Crime by Ulbrich Sieber An in-depth look at type of crime that can easily cross international borders, which makes extradition for criminals difficult. Examines computer crimes and laws throughout the world, and the problems of conflicting laws. Computer Crime by Geoffrey H. Wold and Robert F. Shriver Written for financial institutions, this book contains computer crime statistics, profiles of typical computer criminals, techniques employed by criminals, and checklists of security measures for system administrators. Technocrimes by August Bequai Discusses the vulnerability of an information rich United States, a history of computer crime, electronic chip and software theft gangs, organized crime's use of computers, intrusions of financial systems, and the high-tech police movement. Cyberpunk --------------- The term "cyberpunk" was coined in 1980 by a science fiction writer, Bruce Bethke. He used it as the title of a story he had written about a suburban hacker gang. Later, the term was used to describe a particular style of science fiction writing, specifically the works of John Shirley, Bruce Sterling, and William Gibson. Also in the early 1980's, a flurry of science fiction movies hit the screen: Tron, Wargames, The Road Warrior, and Blade Runner. These films, like the stories of the cyberpunk authors, weren't just fanciful visions of the future, ala Star Wars or Star Trek. These works had a basis in reality - they were more or less magnifications of what was already happening around us. The early 1980's was also the first major onslaught of the home computer industry. Computing power increased and prices dropped. Commercials suggested that children would get a "head start" if they had their own computers. As a result, thousands of people bought computers for their children. Many of these computer users, who were mainly suburban white males, incidentally, owned modems and communicated on bulletin boards. Influenced by WarGames and other films, some of the modemers joined mischievous computer gangs - echoing Bethke's original intent for cyberpunk. As computer crime became more prevalent, the media couldn't pass up a perfect term like cyberpunk. It conjured up images of high-tech bandits, computer street gangs, or nerds gone bad - this made good news. So the hacker community was the next group to be labeled "cyberpunk." As the hacker counterculture matured, they combined their technological abilities, anti-establishment feelings, and their newfound sense of identity and created a entirely new subculture - the "cyberpunks." The cyberpunks communicated on BBSes and the Internet, and were fueled on by the early issues of Mondo 2000 and bOING bOING. Through a medley of media stunts, a rampant fear of the computer underground, and a popularization of new technologies, the media has recently brought the cyberpunks into the limelight. Gareth Branwyn (author of the Beyond Cyberpunk! hypercard stack) posted the following description of cyberpunks to the WELL: A) The future has imploded into the present. There was no nuclear Armageddon. There's too much real estate to lose. The new battlefield is peoples' minds. B) The megacorps are the new governments. C) The U.S. is a big bully with lackluster economic power. D) The world is splintering into a trillion subcultures and designer cults with their own languages, codes, and lifestyles. E) Computer generated info-domains are the next frontiers. F) There is better living through chemistry. G) Small groups or individual "console cowboys" can wield tremendous power over governments, corporations, etc. H) The coalescence of a computer "culture" is expressed in self- aware computer music, art, virtual communities, and a hacker/street tech subculture. The computer nerd image is passe, and people are not ashamed anymore about the role the computer has in this subculture. The computer is a cool tool, a friend, important human augmentation. I) We're becoming cyborgs. Our tech is getting smaller, closer to us, and it will soon merge with us. J) Some attitudes that seem to be related: - Information wants to be free - Access to computers and anything which may teach you something about how the world works should be unlimited and total. - Always yield to the hands-on imperative. - Mistrust authority. - Promote decentralization. - Do it yourself. - Fight the power. - Feed the noise back into the system. - Surf the edges. (MONDO 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge, p.64-5) Cyberpunk: From Subculture to Mainstream by McKenzie Wark ---------------------------------- A hip new lingo has infiltrated the mass media. "Cyberspace," "hypermedia," and "virtual reality" have become the techno buzz words of the 90's. After years of indifference and suspicion, the idea that technology can be fun, exciting, and sexy has surfaced again. Two ideas in particular are now doing the rounds. One is that computers are not just for pencil-head types in lab coats and grey- suited accountants. Technology can be a tool for the imagination, opening up new terrains of images, sounds, experiences, and concepts. The second idea has less to do with computers than with communications. By linking up all the of the computing power languishing on desks and in basements, whole new forms of interaction are possible - a communications revolution to take beyond the television age. The first of these two ideas orbits somewhere around the term virtual reality. The second is a vague nebula of possibilities sighted off the cyberspace cluster. Both have been around for a long time, but have recrystallized in the public's imagination. "Hypermedia" is the next phase in marketing this dream to the public. The movie Lawnmower Man has cashed in on the trend, pulping the whole lot together with some silly old Stephen King haunted house cliches. The really interesting stuff on both these current trends can be found a little off the mainstream. Take a hyperspace bypass back through the cyberpunk subculture of the 80's, and you will find the creative source and force behind the present multimedia marketing push. Cyberpunk is a cute name for a rather motley collection of people who thought and wrote and made art about technology over the last decade. Some of them were harmless. Some of them were mad, bad, and dangerous to know. Like many other prophetic art avant- gardes in the past, they saw the future both more clearly and more crazily than their contemporaries. Like the romantic poets and the decadent artists of the 19th century; like the surrealists, futurists, and constructivists of the early 20th century, they wanted to change life. So they imagined how it could be different, not only from the present, but from how the future was officially imagined to be. Cyberpunk gathered momentum in 1984 with the publication of the first of William Gibson's novels, called Neuromancer. Gibson has since published four novels and a collection of stories. There are half a dozen of cyberpunk readers on the market, and now other writers like Bruce Sterling and Pat Cadigan have emerged. There is even a remarkable "overground" cyberpunk magazine called Mondo 2000, as well as a host of tiny desktop published fanzines. Cyberpunk has gone beyond a subculture and is now a full blown marketing category. Gibson was an odd sort of person to launch an avant garde cultural movement. He wrote pretty pulpy science fiction novels. He was a small-town, white-suburban kind of guy. Yet he was able to crystallize something that was in the air. He took bleak, "no- future" landscape of punk rock and post-apocalyptic movies like Blade Runner and Mad Max, and imagined a way to escape from the street-level violence these films referred to. The way out was cyberspace. In Gibson's world, cyberspace is a consensual hallucination created within the dense matrix of computer networks. Gibson imagines a world where people can directly jack their nervous systems into the net, vastly increasing the intimacy of the connection between mind and matrix. Cyberspace is the world created by the intersection of every "jacked-in" consciousness, every database and installation, every form of interconnected information circuit, in short, human or inhuman. This mythology of cyberspace is interesting for two reasons. Firstly, it provides an alternative to the boredom of suburbia without having to deal with the danger of the inner-city living. Every subculture needs a fantasy place to run away from suburban life, be it the rural fantasy of the hippies or the urban fantasy of the punk. Cyberspace is a fantasy destination for white, middle class suburbanites who realize that rural life is even more boring than the suburbs and the cities are becoming far too dangerous, The other interesting thing about cyberspace is the way it recreates the idea of a community. Every subculture needs an image of an outsider's community to cling to, to run to. For the cyberpunk, this community doesn't actually have a place. It is not a nightclub in New York. It is not a street in London. It can be accessed everywhere by modem. Of course, the bulletin boards and e-mail systems are a poor imitation of the fully wired-up world of cyberspace, but it's the nearest thing on earth. Cyberpunk subculture is the first subculture which doesn't have a particular place of congregation - it's a suburban phenomenon made possible by the networks. There are now hundreds of bulletin boards around the world which have a cyberpunk style, where young cyberpunks discuss the latest hardware and software. In a sense, subcultures are always a product of the media technology of the age. The classic subcultures of the 60's and 70's, from the mods to the punks, were a combination of the electric world of rock and roll with a style and a place and an ethos and a certain amount of drug abuse. The mods grew out of the 50's austerity in Britain. They were the first generation of young people to enter mass white-collar employment and acquire a disposable income at a young age. So they spent it on clothes and music and motor scooters and weekend trips to the seaside. They were a mobile community, growing up on television and rock and roll. The first great pop music TV show, Ready, Steady, Go!, spread mod style from one end of Britain to the other instantly, a fashion transformation that without television would have taken months or years. The punk movements of the late 70's were where the youth subcultures launched by the mods finally crash landed. Punk was a subculture based on the boredom of unemployment, not the tedium of white collar work. It lacked the excitement and innocence of the mods, who were absolute beginners in the art of living in a consumerist, media saturated world. Punk was a subculture created by young people in the late 70's who grew up on the media and its promises of a good life, and were bored with all that. It had let them down: "career opportunities, the ones that never knock" as a song from the time put it. The punks took the media technology of the time - the music, the fashion, the radio and video - and trashed it. Cyberpunk grew out of this negative subcultural style, but turned it back to a positive celebration. Where the mods had been fascinated by consumerism and the mass media, cyberpunk is fascinated with the media technologies which were hitting the mass market in the 80's. Desktop publishing, computer music, and now desktop video are technologies taken up with enthusiasm by cyberpunks in the place of rock and roll. Computer networking is its alternative to the mods' pop TV or the punks' pirate radio. Just as subcultures from mod to punk were the testing ground for new styles of music and fashion, the cyberpunk crowd are the testing ground for new fashions in desk-top technology. The rapid evolution from video games to virtual reality has been helped along by the hard core of enthusiasts eager to try out each generation of simulated experience. The multimedia convergence of the publishing industry, the computer industry, and the recording industry has a spot right at its center called cyberpunk, where these new product experiments find a critical but playful market. Where punk was a product of unemployment and the English art school, cyberpunk is a product of the huge array of the technical and scientific universities created in the US to service the military industrial complex. Your typical cyberpunk is white, middle class, suburban, and technically skilled. They are a new generation of white collar worker, resisting the yoke of work and suburban life for awhile. They don't drop out, they jack in. They are a fabulous example of how each generation, growing up with a given level of media technology, has to discover the limits and potentials of that technology by experimenting with everyday life itself. Subcultures are an art form. They can have their delinquent edge, its true. Mods took too many amphetamines. Punks were a little prone to rioting. Cyberpunks sometimes have a romantic fascination with hacking into other people's computers. All this is a testing of limits, a pushing to the limit of the social norm. The enduring product of any subculture is a rapid innovation in popular style. Subcultures pioneer styles of life for the mainstream. In the case of cyberpunk, the networked world of cyberspace. the interactive world of multimedia, and the new sensoria of virtual reality will all owe a little to their willingness to be test pigs for these emergent technologies. There is also a tension in cyberpunk between the military industrial monster that produces technology and the sensibility of the technically skilled individual trained for the high tech machine. Like all subcultures, cyberpunk expresses a conflict. On the one side is the libertarian idea that technology can be a way of wresting a little domain of freedom for people from the necessity to work and live under the constraints of today. On the other is the fact that the technologies of virtual reality, multimedia, cyberspace would never have existed in the first place had the Pentagon not funded them as tools of war. The pilots who bombed Baghdad flew in virtual reality. Even the peaceful applications of these technologies can be subordinated to commercial imperatives abhorrent to the free thinking cyberpunk. There is a contradiction between the spirit of free enquiry and experiment and the need to keep corporate secrets and make a buck. Cyberpunk is a reflection of this contradiction - on the one hand, it is a drop-out culture dedicated to pursuing the dream of freedom through appropriate technology. On the other it is a ready market for new gadgets and a training ground for hip new entrepreneurs with hi-tech toys to market. Cyberpunk may be over a subculture. It was reabsorbed into the mainstream like every other subculture before it. Yet it signals a fundamental change in the way subcultures can form and oppose themselves to the mainstream. In effect, cyberpunk was the realization that the new generation of media tools are also excellent resources for changing life, if only on the margins, and if only for a short while. Like all the other avant-gardes and subcultures before it, it has added something special to the repertoire of postmodern life. Cyberpunk Fashion ----------------------- Corp-Wear In a cyberpunk world, the governors of Reality are the mega- corporations. They are not specialized like most of today's companies; they have a hand in everything. Take a look at Sony for example. Here is a company that has business in both the electronic and the entertainment market. Mega-corps like Sony have laid the groundwork to eventually envelop the fashion world. Clothing and accessories that have nothing in common with the company will be emblazoned with their logos - and all in the name of fashion. Remember the Coca-Cola clothing line a few years back? Beat 'em to the punch by writing to some of the below companies. Tell them how much you love their products. Ask them for t-shirts, hats, stickers, folders, whatever. Some companies have premiums if you send them proofs of purchase, too. Since most people never do this, they often have a lot of surplus. They'd love to get rid of some of this stuff! And once you get some cool items, bootleg them and give (sell?) them to your friends. Here are some good places to start: Aiwa America, Inc 85 Oxford Drive Moonachie NJ 07074 AT&T 6200 E. Broad Street Whitehall OH 43213 Maxell Corp of America 2208 Rt.208 Fairlawn NJ 07410 Sony Corp of America Sony Drive Park Ridge NJ 07656 Toshiba America 82 Totowa Rd Wayne NJ 07470 TDK Corp of America 1600 Feehanville Dr Mt.Prospect IL 60065 NEC America 1401 Estes Ave Elk Grove IL 60007 Hitachi Home Elex America 401 W Artesia Compton CA 90220 Check out the U.S. Electronics Industry Directory (available in most libraries) for more addresses. Cybernetic Jewelry ------------------------ Vernon Reed 5902 Haydens Cove Austin TX 78730 512.345.6499 Vernon Reed makes cybernetic jewelry and wearable microsystems. Each piece contains a CMOS running programs to generate moving patterns and animation on an LCD panel. The Spring 1992 issue of FAD magazine was dedicated to cyber-style. FAD PO Box 420 656 San Francisco CA 94142 Wearable Computers ------------------------ NEC 280 Park Ave, 21 East New York NY 10017 NEC is in the process of developing a line of wearable computers, each designed for different tasks or lifestyles. The TLC PC, which was designed with medical professionals in mind, is a hands-off computer that includes an 8 mm camera, a CD- ROM medical encyclopedia linked to a small microphone (so the CD can match up a patient's condition to the symptoms contained in the database), a satellite communications link which can transmit the video and patient data to the hospital while the patient is en route. The Wearable Data Terminal is equipped with an optical scanner on the forearm, which is connected to a CD-ROM worn around the neck. The LCD screen in the neckpiece is in easy view of the user. This computer was designed for inventory checking, etc. The Lapbody Computer hangs from the shoulder like a purse, but swings out and rests in front of the chest when needed. The Porto-Office combines a keyboard, handwriting pad, cellular speakerphone and headphones, plus a camera and a fax. NEC is also developing a wearable video camera (the WearCam), a breathing info-monitor, and a "Hands-Off" wrist telephone. While the wristphone is available now, the wearable computers will be available commercially in late 1994. Cyberpunk 'Zines ---------------------- Mondo 2000 PO Box 10171 Berkeley CA 94709-5171 The ancestor of the Berkeley magazine High Frontiers and its counterpart newsletter Reality Hackers, Mondo 2000 is the journal of the cyberpunk layman. Produced on a MacIntosh and printed on glossy color pages, Mondo 2000 is certainly entertaining to flip through. The best and most practical articles are the Street Tech columns, where instructions for homebrew electronic gizmos and contacts for tech equipment can be found. Fill Mondo 2000's pockets with $24.95 to receive five issues. Single copies are $5.95 and can be found at most any bookstore (even corp giant Waldenbooks carries Mondo). Mondo recently published a book of reprinted articles from old issues, titled Mondo 2000: The User's Guide to the New Edge. The Guide is encyclopedic in nature, and has entries on everything "New Edge" - from aphrodisiacs to hackers, house music and media pranks. ($20.00 from HarperCollins). Mondo has conference rooms on both the Well and Mindvox (bulletin board systems). bOING bOING 11288 Ventura Blvd.#818 Studio City CA 91604 Similar to Mondo, but in black and white and better articles. Self-titled "The World's Greatest Neurozine," and it pretty much is just that. The writing is consistently good, and articles like Gareth Branwyn's (the author of the Beyond Cyberpunk! Hypercard Stack) "Going Gaga" are extraordinarily well-written and informative. bOING bOING is somewhat of a humor mag - regular contributor Paco Xander Nathan describes it as, "Mad Magazine meets Mad Max). A recent issue lampooned Mondo 2000's layout and writing style. bOING bOING fills its pages with bizarre comix, extensive zine, music, and catalog reviews. bb is easily worth the $3.95 cover price, and $14.00 for a subscription is a steal. WIRED 544 Second Street San Francisco CA 94107 The personalities who Mondo and bb were writing about decided to get together and start their own magazine. WIRED rivals Mondo in production - full color pages and a lot of goofy-looking "creative imaging" photographs (All those light-colored fuzzy photos hurt my eyes!) The contributing staff reads like a cyberpunk role call: Stewart Brand (Whole Earth Review), John Markoff (author of Cyberpunk), Bruce Sterling, and Nicholas Negroponte (MIT Media Lab). Rest assured the articles' content is substantial. There is a cool section called "Fetish" that showcases the latest high-tech gadgets, and a relatively new section dedicated to finding the best Internet sources. Although new on the scene, WIRED is definitely going to be a contender, just because of the established contributors and its financial backing. But it just seems to be a bit too mainstream and polished (most ads came from affluent companies like Seagate, Apple, and AT&T) to have that "real cyberpunk" feel to it. Excellent for any techno-fetishist, though. 4.95 for an issue, 19.95 for six. The Hardcore PO Box 1893 London N98 JT36 UK The editor of The Hardcore describes the magazine as: 1) Fascinated by technology 2) Ceaselessly contextualising ideas 3) Obsessive information addicts 4) Habitually chronic 5) Culturally diverse 6) Politically incorrect 7) Nexus of post-industrial ennui, cyberpunk, tech-angst In the past, The Hardcore has covered: the death of cyberpunk, chaos science/majick, SF feminism, comics, techno-erotic film, and pyro-memetic fiction (?!?). Future issues will deal with: the death of virtual reality, artificial life, cyberbooks, and artificial religion. Single issues are L2.00 or $4.00. Subscriptions are L8.00/$16 (surface) or L10.00/$20.00 (air). Black Ice PO Box 1069 Brighton BN2 4YT UK Another c-p zine from the UK. According to the front page, Black Ice will regularly feature virtual reality, future television, smart drugs, innovative computer technology, multimedia, arcades and video games, Japanese culture, alternative science and technology, street tech, hackers and crackers. The first issue has articles on Japanese junk food, an interview with Stelarc, an interview with the director of the British-based W. Industries (the VR-entertainment corp), and Hi-Res Media. This zine is amazing! L3.95 for a single issue, L19.95 year (4 issues). This is really worth it! FLUX c/o Robert Derek 200 Market Street #a-21 Lowell MA 01852 The Future Was Now. Or so says the cover of this small, desktop-published zine. FLUX focuses on the central theme of continuing change. The latest installment includes articles on desktop terrorism (which is the relative ease of counterfeiting using laser printers, scanners, and drawing programs) and "The Great Work" by John Perry Barlow. Future issues will have articles on building your own flotation tank and a guide to Internet resources. One issue is $4.00 and a four issue subscription is $15.00. Future Sex Lisa Palac, Editor 1095 Market Street San Francisco CA 94103 What's next???? This is true cyberpunk - the blending of exalted high technology with sleaze. From their editorial statement: "Dangerously intelligent, fearlessly creative and shamelessly sexy, Future Sex magazine reflects the evolution of eroticism in the 90s. Created by men and women, Future Sex slices up the predictable and heads for the sexual frontier. Future Sex spotlights the fusion of sex and technology. We're the only erotic magazine that explores how high technology is changing the way we think about sex. Future Sex also investigates the sexual side of every subject from telepresence to pop culture. Feature writings by established futurologists, savvy libertines, cynical satirists, and counterculture critics are presented with candor and insight. Future Sex delivers provocative interviews, erotic fiction, comix, reviews, and of course, cutting-edge erotic photography. Future Sex merges challenging content with ultra form. Wrapped up with hypermodern design, Future Sex will stimulate all your senses. The vision of Future Sex is dedicated to the completely synaesthetic experience of sensual and cerebral stimulation. This is the future of sex." You too can see the future of sex for $18 a year (four issues). Total 48 Formby Drive Glasgow G23 5QN Scotland Total is an audio/visual journal for art, music, and provocative information. "Total: bringing together artists, film makers, musicians, and writers from around the world and providing an international, interactive forum for ideas and information that are a genuine alternative to the dogmatic constraints of conformity. Each addition will focus on a central theme and within that theme a framework of integral topics new and archive: graphics, interviews, photographs, propaganda, tracts, writings, and more."(from the Total promotional sheet). Volume 2: the "body" issue includes a CD with contributions by Master Slave Relationship, Controlled Bleeding, Techno Animal, Zoviet France, and others. Text and visual contributions come from Robert Anton Wilson, Mark Pauline, Antero Alli, Stelarc interviewed by Stuart McGlinn, the Douglass-Truth Institute, among others. Nice. Highly recommended. Write for current prices. Sector 9737 c/o Tim Mayer PO Box 782213 Wichita KS 67278 "A cybernetic publication for a technocratic age." Sector 9737 mostly reviews science fiction books, plus articles on street tech. Issue two tells you how to build a pirate radio station, and issue four has a good neural net resource list. A bit small for the $5.00 an issue. Talking Raven: The Journal of Imaginative Trouble PO Box 45758 Seattle WA 98145 Not really a c-p zine, but listed here because it touches on attitudes similar to cyberpunk. Each issue is carried by a theme which the editor, Antero Alli (the brilliant author of Angel Tech and other books), feels "mirrors a critical current or socio- political atmosphere but through the sieve of imagination." The entire Summer Solstice 1992 issue is devoted entirely to the debunking of cyberpunk. A dollar or so will do for an issue. Reproduced here is a cyberpunk rant from that issue: Cyberpunk Thing It seems to be a truism that the real things in life are beyond me. The stunning people I see on the way down the street are precisely the people I will never meet; the brilliant conversations are the ones I will never have. So it is with cyberpunk. I would like to think of myself as an anarchist and I have a computer - so this stuff should appeal to me. But the whole thing alienates me. I think William Gibson is tedious and I got bored a half an hour into Blade Runner. I miss the point. So you can create "virtual reality" on your computer. So what? Huge amounts of memory are used drawing pretty things on the screen. Neat. But does it change the world? I don't think so - the world just gets worse. I think cyberpunk is the latest attempt by American hipsters to escape the squalid intellectual climate that surrounds them. This is not a bad goal. When leading "intellectuals" worry about the nuclear capability of Iraq or the ethical problems of Yuppie couples adopting kids (while most of the world starves or is shot at) there is need for escape. Similar escapist mentality has united all of American counterculture since World War II. The Beats sought escape on the road while taking benzedrine, the hippies in acid and happy thoughts, the punks in cocaine and fast music - now the cyberpunks inside of their computers. But there is a catch. You can't really get inside your computer. Playing interactive sex games is not the same as the real thing. Nobody really improves their life by hacking, and making a few phone calls on somebody else's account is not the same as a revolution. And not that many people have computers anyway. Not nearly as many to fulfill the anarchist dream of paralyzing authority. Street-wise ghetto kids aren't into computers. Real "punks" don't spend their money on software - they spend it on cigarettes and hardcore shows. I suspect that most of these "cyberpunks" are privileged white professionals who think Brian Eno is dangerous music. The thing is, I agree with these people. I think they raise interesting points. The flow of information through hi-tech machines is fascinating. And I wish I could fuck up the pigs through ny computer. I wish that psychedelic drugs actually did something beyond making me happy for a day or two. I wish I could leave this ugly-piece-of-shit world and live inside my computer. But I can't, and that is the tragedy of cyberpunk - it doesn't exist. The technology isn't that useful. If anything, all these computer chips shrink personal freedom, not expand it. The most surprising thing about computers is how little they have changed anything. For all the progress they have made in the past decade and despite the fact that they are ubiquitous - they haven't changed anything at all. Offices may have computers now, but they do the same thing. Secretaries, cops, and thousands of other workers punch into computers everyday, but they still do the same job. A memo is still a memo, no matter if it has been written on a typewriter or a computer. The institutions have remained unchanged. Work may be faster or easier, but it is still work. Unlike the automobile, which changed the landscape, or telephones that linked the world: computers only do old things. If history is the study of change, then computers are ahistorical - like the fancy and useless gizmos made by French artisans before the Revolution. (Karl Myers, Talking Raven Summer Solstice 1992, ParaTheatrical Research). Blue Blood 3 Calabar Court Gaithersburg MD 20877 Blue Blood is a gothic magazine specializing in topics of S&M, bondage gear, vampires, erotic fiction, etc. Oftentimes has articles on the cyberpunk lifestyle, smart drugs, and industrial music. Interesting personals section... $3.95 a copy. Whole Earth Review 27 Gate Road Sausalito CA 94965 Stewart Brand introduced the Whole Earth Catalog nearly 25 years ago - it was to be a publication that would serve as a register and directory for people who were starting back-to-nature communes. This published quarterly was a repository for the information that schools never taught - like farming and educating children. Eventually, the magazines gave way to a series of books. In 1984, the Whole Earth Software Catalog was published, and the magazine CoEvolutionary Quarterly became known as the Whole Earth Review. WER is one of the only environmental magazines that is pro- technology. It often has articles on virtual reality, cyberspace, and artificial life. Plus, it always has reviews of books, software, and other information technologies. WER sponsored Cyberthon and created an internetworked bulletin board called the Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link. A four issue subscription to Whole Earth Review is $20.00; single copies are $6.75. PHAGE 4290 South Mobile Circle Apt D Aurora CO 80013 Andy Hawks, the creator of the Future Culture electronic discussion group (see "Cyberpunk E-lists" below.), and Paul Leonard of Cult of the Dead Cow publish this paper zine. "Focusing on the Edges of Culture, examining the Fringes of Reason and the Reasons of Fringe, the Here and Now and Soon-to-Be, via unstructured Tones that Ebb and Flow from In-Form Information to Formless Rants of Altered States. PHAGE is divided into these sections: Genesys: Notes from the editor, letters from those that grep/grok {the Infinite Edge}. nuMEMES: Soundbytes of the world Unite and Take over. Blurbs pertaining to interesting news and products, quotes, technology, factoids, etc. Modern: Cultural commentary - realizing, focusing, and morphing the postmodern world. Rants, essays, theses, observations, predictions, analysis, streams and rivers of Consciousness. -Sub: The depths of the underground subcultures. E+: The Virtual World. News, notes, notables and quotables, communications, teknologies. Inner View: Interviews with those who surf, ride, make, and break the Edges of Culture. Streamz: Fiction to the Edge: Transreal, Hyperreal, Slipstream, Cyberpunk, Post-Cyberpunk, etc. Media: Reviewing, analyzing, and commentary regarding popular and underground media: books, magazines, zines, e-zines, e-books, hypertext, music, film, video, television, software, etc. Mobius: One last informational Fix, closing words, Late- crashing news, etc." $3.50 an issue. Extropy: The Journal of Transhumanist Thought PO Box 57306 Los Angeles CA 90057-0306 The journal of the Extropy Institute (see below). Feature articles concentrate on extropian ideals : life extension, space migration, intelligence increasing technologies, neural-computer integration. Famed roboticist Hans Moravec, author of Mind Children, is a regular contributor. Its sister publication, Exponent, contains book, film, and software reviews in a newsletter format. Although it lacks the glitz present in other magazines, the articles in Extropy are meaningful and extremely well-written. Subscriptions are $9.00 for a two issue subscription. Exponent is free to members of the Extropy Institute. Trajectories Permanent Press PO Box 700305 San Jose CA 95170 The Robert Anton Wilson information magazine. For those who are excited about developing the future rather than dreading its imminence. Regular topics include space exploration, artificial intelligence, longevity, the Conspiracy, and quantum psychology. Annual subscriptions are $20.00. Virus 23 Box 46 Red Deer, Alberta T4N 5E7 Canada Virus 23 is the Canadian fringe magnet. Filled with some really bizarre stuff: magick, cyberpunk, and chaotic realities. It seems to be heavily influenced by the Temple ov Psychick Youth and the writings of Aleister Crowley. Issue #pi (Fall 1990) has some entertaining ToPY manifestoes. This is another must-have - just for its sheer weirdness. $7.00 for a single issue. Parts of Virus 23 can be scammed from the alt.cyberpunk ftp site at u.washington.edu in the directory /public/alt.cyberpunk. CONTROL 703 Penbrooke Rd, SE Calgary Alberta T2A 3T3 Canada "Subversive subculture and transmogrification through technology; these are the vectors of Control. Articles include, but not limited to : interviews with prominent and obscure industrial/techno/noise artists, discussions of alternative (especially cybersomatic) lifestyles and the adjuncts thereof, short fiction and poetry, plus interviews with authors, thinkers, and whoever else might have something interesting to say. Control also incorporates reviews of music and fiction, plus artwork and bizarre comics. Control is the joint effort of a group of Canadians who are intensely interested in the progress of technology and the accompanying transformational possibilities for both society and the individual. The magazine aims to be a proselytic tool for the missionaries of change, offering insight into the volcanic substrata of culture, the underlying magmatic ferment upon which slide and topple the continents of established thought." An issue of Control is $3.00. Factsheet 5 PO Box 170094 San Francisco CA 94117 The trading post for the bizarre. Formerly managed by that king of zines, Mike Gunderloy, for years, until he abdicated his throne in 1991. Numerous attempts at restoring FF all failed, but now this one seems to have taken hold. Faithful to the old format, they still will review just about anything you send in. Publications, catalogs, books, tracts, and tapes suited for every interest or fetish can be located here. $3-4.00 a copy; free for a trade. Published erratically. US Militia c/o Atlan Formularies PO Box 95 Alpena AR 72611 US Militia is operated by Mr. Kurt Saxon, the remarkable author of The Poor Man's James Bond series. These books contain detailed plans for cheap explosives, homemade guns, and DIY munitions. For awhile, Mr.Saxon was convinced that the Russkies were on the verge of a hostile US takeover, ala Red Dawn. In one of his Poor Man's James Bond videos, he concocts a deadly poison in which you can fill a squirt gun and shoot it at your Russian captors. Excellent. US Militia is basically a scaled down version of his books. Useful to any cyberpunk - just in case the mega-corps do take over! Technology 2008 PO Box 15264 Augusta GA 30906 Technology 2008 is a newsletter dedicated to electronic surveillance. Each issue has schematics and plans for inexpensive homebrew projects and experiments. $20 for a 12 issue subscription. Back issues are $1.50 each (issue #1, 1992 has schematics and an article on how the phone system works...) Synergy c/o Viral Communications POB 7951 Ann Arbor MI 48107 Viral Communications is an independent, non-profit music label/underground press dedicated to experimental and exploratory works and sound. According to Synergy editor Steev Hise, "the main thrust of Synergy and VirComm in general is exploring new forms of artistic expression, especially collaboratory expression, in our modern technological society. What happened when the microphone, the Xerox machine, the tape recorder, the sampler and image scanner, even the printing press, fell into the hand of creative and free- thinking artist type people? And, perhaps, even more importantly, what happened and happens in general to people and society when these kinds of devices were/are used to record what they do? How does someone's expression or art change when they know it is being recorded in some way?" VirComm's journal, Synergy, incorporates this viewpoint in print. In it are appropriated illustrations and scanned photographs. Original poetry, reviews, and essays are also included. Entertaining and worthwhile. Each issue is $2.00. Kagenna: The Ecology and Culture Frontier POB 15438 Vlaeburg, Cape Town 8018 South Africa This South African magazine is mostly for the environmental crowd, but occasionally has articles on cyberpunk, computers and other fringe elements. Issue #7 has a good number of articles on cyberculture. Each issue is R4.50. Information Society Taylor and Francis Ltd 4 John Street London WC1N 2ET Excellent scholarly journal examines the impact of computers, technology, and the information business's impact on our society. Always has good articles; recommended. Published quarterly for $43.00 (UK L25.00). Cyberpunk E-lists ----------------------- Anarchy List anarchy-list-request@cwi.nl Although based in the Netherlands, most of the subscribers seem to be in North America. Discusses philosophical, theoretical, and practical anarchy. Extropian List extropians-request@gnu.mit.edu exi-essay-request@gnu.mit.edu Addresses all areas of Extropian interest (see "Extropy Institute" below). Public encryption (encoding e-mail and other private transmissions), digital currency, cognitive enhancement, cryonics, and the future of intelligence are all common topics. Excellent source of information, but extremely high traffic - be forewarned! The Extropian essay list has less traffic and is mostly long essays on the Extropian philosophy. Xtropy-L xtropy-l@ubvm.bitnet Extropian list on Bitnet. Covers similar topics as the Extropian list, but lower volume. Factsheet Five Electric jerod25@well.sf.ca.us Similar to its paper-based big brother, but not as comprehensive. Still, it's free and it covers some zines the paper version doesn't. Practical Anarchy Online cardell@lysator.liu.se or Practical Anarchy c/o Mikael Cardell Gustav Adolfsgaten 3 S-582 20 Linkoping Sweden Mikael Cardell's how-to guide for anarchy. Includes extensive electronic contacts and lists, and pragmatic guides to bring anarchy to your area. Scream Baby bladex@wixer.cactus.org Electronic magazine widely available on the Internet, Editors Blade X and Jagwire X pack essays on cyberspace and cyberculture with reviews for zines and music. Scream Baby is the miniature version of Blade X's Scream 'N Meme, another e-zine. The October 12, 1992 issue has an interesting interview with Andy Hawks (from Future Culture). Punk List punk-list-request@cpac.washington.edu The electronic list for punk rockers. All aspects of punk life are appropriate here - music, fashion, philosophies. Future Culture listserv@uafsysb.uark.edu This list is one good reason to get Internet access. In early 1992, Andy Hawks published a small, but informative FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions file) on all facets of cyberculture. The FAQ was so popular with net.people that an entire group sprang up around it. The FAQ has since grown ten times larger. Most everyone who is involved in the cyberpunk scene subscribes to Future Culture - you can't afford not to. The list acts as a clearinghouse and accumulator of all things cyberpunk, fringe, and "New Edge." Be forewarned, volume is sometimes very high when there is breaking news on the cyberpunk front lines. You can telnet to the hangout of the FC crowd: it's at purple-crayon.media.mit.edu 8888. FNORD-L listserv@ubvm.bitnet Discussion of the works and philosophies of Robert Anton Wilson, Timothy Leary, Antero Alli, and Dr. John Lilly. Leri-L leri-l@iscvax.uni.edu Topics include metaprogramming, higher consciousness, expanding technology, and the psychedelic experience. Known for its high traffic rate. Pirate Radio brewer@ace.enet.dec.com More pirate radio information can be found on this list. May go down soon, if it hasn't already. Check latest status on alt.radio.pirate. Cypherpunks cypherpunks-request@toad.com PGP Source - soda.berkeley.edu "Cypherpunks assume privacy is a good thing and wish there were more of it. Cypherpunks acknowledge that those who want privacy must create it for themselves and not expect governments, corporations, or other large, faceless organizations to grant them privacy out of beneficence. Cypherpunks know that people have been creating their own privacy for centuries with whispers, envelopes, closed doors, and couriers. Cypherpunks do not seek to prevent people from speaking about their experiences or their opinions. The most important means to the defense of privacy is encryption. To encrypt is to indicate the desire for privacy. But to encrypt with weak cryptography is to indicate not too much desire for privacy. Cypherpunks hope that all people desiring privacy will learn how best to defend it. Cypherpunks are therefore devoted to cryptography. Cypherpunks wish to learn about it, to teach it, to implement it, and to make more of it. Cypherpunks know that cryptographic protocols make social structures. Cypherpunks know how to attack a system and know how to defend it. Cypherpunks know how hard it is to make good cryptosystems. Cypherpunks love to practice. They love to play with public key cryptography. They love to play with anonymous and pseudonymous mail forwarding and delivery. They love to play with DC - nets. They love to play with secure communications of all kinds. Cypherpunks write code. They know that someone has to write code to defend privacy, and since it's their privacy, they're going to write it. Cypherpunks publish their code so that their fellow cypherpunks may practice and play with it. Cypherpunks realize that security is not built in a day and are patient with incremental progress. Cypherpunks don't care if you don't like the software they write. Cypherpunks know that software can't be destroyed. Cypherpunks know that a widely dispersed system can't be shut down. Cypherpunks will make the networks safe for privacy." Cypherpunk's archives are at soda.berkeley.edu (/pub/cypherpunks). Postmodern List/Digest listserv@ncsuvm.cc.ncsu.edu This scholarly journal delves into all aspects of our postmodernist life - from the media coverage of the Gulf War to television culture; including semantics, literature and performance art. The digest lists articles that are available via FTP and announces conferences and seminars. Subscription requests for disk and microfilm media can be directed to Postmodern Culture, Box 8105, NCSU, Raleigh, NC 27695. Holy Temple of Mass Consumption slack@ncsu.edu Subgenius style electronic digest. Subgenius List subgenius-request@mc.lcs.mit.edu Covers all topics of interest for Dobbs-heads. Sometimes has high volume of completely insane messages. Unless you get a kick out of Subgenius humor, steer clear of this one. Technomads technomads-request@bikelab.sun.com Technomad Steven K. Roberts started this list to help others who were interested in building their own mobile, high-tech installations. Topics include radio and mobile Internet connections, plus other small high tech gadgets for bikes, motorcycles, etc. Pirate Ship AUtopia autopia-request@wixer.cactus.org AUtopia is a combination of the words "utopia" and "autonomy." The idea behind AUtopia is to create a floating city (like a huge ship), operated by a high-tech, self-governing, self-sustaining society. The idea is to somehow acquire an ocean vessel, get the backing of a small, neutral foreign power, and declare complete autonomy from any state. Extensive communications links, including satellites, telephones, television (both broadcast and ship-wide), and Internet links would be fully implemented on AUtopia. Extensive research in the fields of virtual reality, nanotechnology, nootropics, and artificial life would be conducted. The whole sha-bang would be fueled by solar panels, wind power, and hydrogen fuel cells. Subscribe to the list (managed by Jagwire X) to find out the latest on AUtopia. ArachNet: E-Journal of Virtual Culture listserv@uottawa.bitnet ArachNet is a continuing scholarly discourse on virtual culture - computer mediated, human interaction/experience. This includes electronic mail, electronic conferences, and information distribution and retrieval. The journal is published monthly. Future Technologies future-tech-request@cs.umb.edu The future technologies list discusses all new ground-breaking technologies - plus some old one like virtual reality and nanotechnologies. Fringeware fringeware-request@wixer.cactus.org The Internet distribution site for Fringeware, Inc (see below). Catalog and product announcements, discussions on street- tech and code-writers. High Weirdness by E-mail FTP'able from ftp.u.washington.edu (/public/alt.cyberpunk) Influenced by Rev. Ivan Stang's magnus opus, High Weirdness by Mail. The Internet is home to many peculiar people, so there is going to be strange listgroups. HWBe-M ferrets out the most bizarre Internet groups out there. If it isn't in here, then it probably doesn't exist (yet!). BLINK listserv@merle.acns.nwu.edu All-electronic journal of the information age. BLINK is dedicated to discussing the changes and culture of cyberdelic society on and off the Net. Blink wants to present a straightforward look at the implications of technology use in our globally connected, info- sodden world. Come taste our mindcandy - essays, nonfiction articles, fiction, poetry, satire. Aleph aleph-request@pyramid.com A spinoff of Leri-L dedicated to the discussion of applied memetics, analysis of meme transmission and singularity. O.K. what are memes, you ask? Think of memes as a basic unit of information, like the DNA molecule (a gene) is a basic unit of encoded information. Memes can take many forms - an idea, a bit of writing, or a particular political stance. Like its cousin the gene (and also, chillingly, like a computer virus), it seeks to reproduce itself. A great book to read on memes and genes is Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene. Phn0rd phn0rd-request@student.umass.edu A group that practices cyberdiscordianism. What an original concept. Promotes the computer underground, chaos, and future- related subjects. Can also be reached at Box 11, 416 Student Union, UMass, Amherst MA 01003. Surfpunk surfpunk-request@versant.com An up and coming e-zine that describes itself as a "dangerous multinational hacker zine." Updates on the computer underground, pirate radio stations, cryptography, and obscure Internet sites are all topics that pop up frequently in Surfpunk. NetNews (Usenet) ---------------------- alt.cyberpunk Anything remotely cyberpunk is discussed here : literature, aesthetics, music, upcoming events, magazine announcements. alt.cyberpunk.movement More cyberpunk talk, but this tends to have lower traffic and is more focused on cyberpunk in the "real" world. alt.cyberpunk.tech Conversations focus on the realistic technical implications of cyberpunk. alt.cyberspace Bringing the concept of cyberspace to reality. alt.postmodern Postmodernist fiction, art, and aesthetics. alt.zines Announcements of new or upcoming zines, reviews, and commentary on zine subculture. alt.radio.pirate Set up your own radio station to deliver your manifestoes or play music that no other station would dare. This newsgroup is a good contact point for resources, equipment reviews, and assistance on radio pirating. alt.privacy Home of great FAQs, including ones on social security, anonymous services on the Internet, and cryptography. Alt.privacy has posts on government intervention of personal privacy, cryptography programs, and other pertaining matters. FTP Sites --------------- slopoke.mlb.semi.harris.com This site is mostly composed of Aleister Crowley stuff. Also has an interview with Robert Anton Wilson and a paper called Cybercraft, an interesting piece on the Leary eight-circuit brain theory. morose.cc.purdue.edu This site has Temple of Psychick Youth pieces. quartz.rutgers.edu A large selection of off-beat electronic magazines. Future Culture archives and Subgenius archives can also be found here. 129.173.4.5 Large cyberpunk archives. ftp.rahul.net @man's excellent Future Culture archives are stored here. ftp.css.itd.umich.edu red.css.itd.umich.edu Filled with individual essays and periodicals on anarchism, cyberculture, and strangeness. cs.dal.ca Files on the computer underground, postmodern culture, nanotechnology, etc. ftp.u.washington.edu Big Usenet archives; including alt.cyberpunk, alt.drugs, alt.security, and others. Cyberpunk Bulletin Board Systems -------------------------------------- The Turning Point 512.219.7828 512.219.7848 Large fuzzy logic library. 70+ Usenet groups, FidoNet Echoes, Internet e-mail access. Also has a "cyber-mall" for small businesses, organizations, and groups to exchange information with each other. This way, groups get the benefits of a BBS without the hassle of running one themselves. Rent for businesses is pretty cheap - around 15-25 dollars a month (depending on size of group). The Dark Side of the Moon 408.245.SPAM Authors of Waffle BBS software. The Cyberden 415.472.5527 San Rafael CA board. Internet e-mail access. Home of Indescribable Creations, a company that composes music for films, videos, video games, produces and records bands (including the goth industrial band Xorcist), and desktop publishing. The Cyberspace Institute 512.469.0447 Jagwire X, the founder of Autopia, runs the Cyberspace Institute. The Grid 203.661.1279 The Illuminati BBS 512.447.4449 Steve Jackson Games' Bulletin board. The same one that was raided by the Secret Service. Private Idaho 208.338.9227 & the Temple of the Screaming Electron 510.935.5845 Tronsbox 201.759.8450 Public access Unix system and home of Activist Times Inc. Liberty BBS 614.798.9537 "Techno-Anarchy. Neophilia. Economic Freedom. Cryptography. Anti-Statism. Personal Liberty. Laissez Faire. Privacy Protection. Libertarianism. No Taxes. No Bullshit. Dedicated to Freedom. Yours." Hotel Chelsea 206-432-6904 Runs Waffle. Topics include rave announcements and info, drugs, and high tech shennanigans. Seattle board. ISDN BBS contact Christopher J Ambler (cambler@nike.calpoly.edu) Cyberpunk Catalogs ------------------------ Loompanics Unlimited PO Box 1197 Port Townsend WA 98368 "The best book catalog in the world." Merchants of unusual and controversial books. How controversial? Well, the catalog is sectioned off into departments like: The Underground Economy, Conducting Investigations, Guerilla Warfare, Murder and Torture, Drugs, Heresy/Weird Ideas, Fake ID, and Reality Creation. The source for off the wall, frightening books. Scattered throughout the catalog are articles written by notable authors on a multitude of fringe-culture topics. Fast service and an unparalleled inventory, Loompanics is a must. $5.00 for a catalog. Re/Search Publications 70 Romolo St #B San Francisco CA 94133 Matchless iconoclastic books. Each volume is a veritable encyclopedia on a particular underground topic. #6/7 is titled Industrial Culture Handbook. Includes interviews with Monte Cazazza, Z'ev, Throbbing Gristle, SPK, and Non. Filled with eerie, disturbing photos, the Industrial Culture Handbook is definitely not for the weak-stomached! Superb! $17.95. #8/9 is the J.G. Ballard issue. Fiction, non-fiction, and interviews with one of the most profound and frightening of modern authors. $18.00 #11, my favorite, is all about Pranks! Pranksters like Timothy Leary, Monte Cazazza, John Waters, and Jerry Casale (from Devo) are some of the contributers in this issue. A sincere, in- depth look at pranks that contest behavioral standards and challenge conventional reality patterns. Re/Search also sells great t-shirts of William Burroughs packing a shotgun and of Survival Research Laboratories. Regular subscribers to RE/Search ($40.00) get the next three publications. Free catalog. Flatland PO Box 2420 Fort Bragg CA 95437-2420 Flatland is a mail-order newsstand for hard-to-find subversive and off-the-wall magazines, books, and pamphlets. All the magazines and books in Flatland are extensively reviewed and explained, so you aren't throwing caution to the wind when you order from them. Flatland's selection is the best of the small press. Free catalog. Eden Press 11623 Slater "E" PO Box 8410 Fountain Valley CA 92728 Similar to Loompanics, but more oriented towards money-making opportunities (i.e., scams), and personal privacy. Free catalog. Sound Photosynthesis PO Box 2111 Mill Valley CA 94942-2111 Catalog of unusual video and audio tapes with sections on computers, futurism, mind expansion, mind machines, music, psychedelics, science fiction, and science today. Sizable selection of high quality tapes, with updates to the catalog arriving four times a year. Tapes especially of interest: Cyberthon with Jaron Lanier, Terence McKenna, Timothy Leary, Erich Gullichson, and others. Five audio tapes are $45.00; three video tapes are $105.00. Project Xanadu: The World Library with Ted Nelson. $9.00 Cryonics, Life Extension, Cloning, and Other Realities by Paul Seagall. $9.00 MegaBrain NeuroTek Talk with Michael Hutchison $9.00 How to Tell Your Friends from the Apes by Robert Anton Wilson. Two tapes for $18.00. Full Disclosure PO Box 903 Libertyville IL 60048 Newspaper style publication catering to the "privacy" crowd. Find out what Big Brother knows about you, the methods he uses, and how to defeat them. Provides in-depth information on all types of electrical surveillance (including computer security and data protection). Mail surveillance, dumpster diving (trashing), and fax interception are all common topics in Full Disclosure. Also publishes a free catalog of surveillance books and privacy services (including a voice-mail service). Sells the complete tape sets of both Conferences on Computers, Freedom and Privacy. $18.00 for a twelve issue subscription. FringeWare, Inc 2507 Roehampton Austin TX 78745-6964 From the FringeWare Mission Statement: "FringeWare, Inc (FWI) is a commercial enterprise dedicated to Community Development around a Fringe Marketplace....'Welcome to Neotribalism in the Global Village, bucko!!!' We focus on publications and events, and we also sell a few products along the way, by engaging in the following business activities: - Publishing printed and electronic periodicals, including FringeWare Review and Unshaved Truths. - Moderating an Internet mailing list for information from/about the cultural and technological fringes and providing an automated list server for FWI archives. - Operating a retail outlet and a mail order service, selling mainstream software, gizmos, DIY supplies, wearable subversive memes, etc. Our current retail outlet is Europa Books, 2406 Guadalupe, Austin TX. Our mail order address is PO Box 49921, Austin TX 78765-9921 (phone: 512.477.1366). We've learned that people can survive quite nicely without huge corporations, huge governments, and huge dogmas pushing their lives. So here's the FringeWare alternative: Start your own corporation. Trade with other like-minded people throughout the Global Village. Encourage innovation and promote entrepreneurship. Promote fair, cooperative business practices. Emphasize products that facilitate creativity, health, and play. Explore consciousness alternatives. Build a community through advanced, available technologies, e.g., computer networks. Respect and consider the natural environment by promoting sustainable resource use. Have fun, be weird, and make what it takes to survive." Below is an interview conducted over the Internet with the founders of FringeWare, Inc., Paco Xander Nathan and Jon Lebkowsky: FringeWare, Inc. Interrogated ----------------------------------- John: You started the FringeWare list on the Net awhile back. How did you come up with the idea? Were there any collaborators? PXN: Yeh, it was in November of 1992. I'd been working in government and large megacorps for several years as a programmer: IBM, AT&T Baal Labs, Motorola, NASA, etc. Did some fun, interesting work, but was getting burned out on the corp game. Then I sued Motorola on their drug-testing policy and got into a major battle, with the US Labor Department on my side. So I left to join a biotech start-up in 1990 and that went for awhile, but I was getting the itch to leave ANY employer. Meanwhile, I'd started writing for bOING-bOING, Mondo 2000, and other "New Edge" magazines - where I'd met Jon Lebkowsky. He also had a zine called Unshaved Truths that I started helping with. Jon seemed like he was ready to jump outta his government job, too! Writing wasn't going to pay the bills, but my wife and I (since divorced) had written some software called "Menstat" that helps women track and estimate fertility cycles, using neural net models licensed from the biotech firm I was working at. We tried to sell our wares but could see it was going to be a hard battle to break into distribution channels without "selling the farm." So we picked up rights to sell software from some other independent developers, and tried to handle some retailing of our own. Jon and I had been reviewing "fringe" items in the zines - like Beyond Cyberpunk! and IBVA - and we'd seen how a lot of good titles just didn't fit with mainstream distributors. So we said: "Great, pull it all together and sell products from the fringe!" At about the same time, we needed to blast out some info via e-mail. Jon and I both work closely with EFF-Austin, helping plan and publicize events. Steven Levy was coming to speak at University of Texas at Austin, and EFF-Austin was going to host a book signing party at the local New Edge bookstore, Europa Books. So we organized a mailing list to publicize the "gig" and afterwards cut a deal to put in a "lease department" in Europa Books to sell our "fringe wares." People liked the idea, we incorporated, passed out flyers at EFF-Austin events, at HoHo Con (hacker's conference held in Houston) and got the word out via bOING-bOING, Mondo 2000, and the WELL that we were in business. We've been so swamped ever since that we don't know which part of the fractal is the singularity, if you catch my drift. We're trying now to define the company, as well as cut enough profit to employ ourselves, and it all seems to be working. We maintain strong ties with Europa Books and bOING-bOING and go in together on events. We've also pulled in Unshaved Truths under the FWI business. I think our focus will stay true to its origins: non-mainstream products, publications and promotion. We do some consulting too, on electronic publications, games, etc. So the e-mail list is a semi-public info service. It's freely available on the Internet and there's about 300 people on it, but many of the addresses are actually gatewayed into local newsgroups and BBSes, plus many people use the file-server without subscribing, so there's probably 500-1000 participating in the FringeWare info service. JonL: Paco was marketing his software, Menstat, through Sudona, and he told me one day that he was going to take on other software packages to sell. Wheels turned...we slipped into a verbal jam that led to the FringeWare concept. It fit perfectly into our other gigs...as writers, and as members of the cyberspace community (or of several cyberspace communities). The mailing list was the core of the plan. We wanted to bring garage tech and cyber culture crowds together to share ideas and to perhaps build a community. And with FringeWare, Inc., we would provide a market interface for those who were developing wares but had no idea how to reach the public with them. John: Wow! I had no idea you designed Menstat, Paco! It's good to see a list on the Internet that is devoted to street-tech. Some of the products FringeWare sells are pretty obscure, so it's convenient to have a one-stop shopping catalog. One of my favorite products FWI sells is the Day Dreamer. Such a useful tool for a great price! Do either of you have a favorite product(s)? JonL: My favorite is probably "Beyond Cyberpunk," the hypercard stack from the Computer Lab. I reviewed it for Mondo 2000, which means I spent a day before deadline studying it intensely. It's a great overview of the pomo/sf scene, and it's fun to use. I had to view it on somebody else's Mac; my machine is a PC. We've had a great time with the Innerquest machine, which uses patterned flashing lights and rhythmic sounds to enhance meditation. We've taken it to parties and let folks sample it...amazing how well it shuts out the cacophony and lets you zero in... Of course, Paco's Menstat is quite a program. I reviewed it, too, before we joined forces with FringeWare...but the review wasn't printed - something about a man reviewing software specifically for women. Y' know, gender stuff. What I appreciated about it, though, was not so much what it would do specifically, track menstrual cycle, but the way that it would allow the user to get that body/machine interaction...a cyborg effect of sorts. Not at all in an intrusive way, as in the cyberpunk meme of body alterations and implants, but as a soft support for body consciousness. And it allows you to build your own medical history for reference, so that a doctor can compare unusual events to her own biorhythmic cycles; rather than to the kind of textbook cases they're inclined to use - because that is usually all they've got. PXN: Yep, Day Dreamer and Beyond Cyberpunk! are my favorites, but I'd have to cite Robert Carr's "Smurfs in Hell" series as our "most fringeful" vendor - maybe a bit severe for some (religious) consumers, but definitely has my vote. Robert did MacJesus and Mormonoids from the Deep, etc, and is the latest Mondo 2000 (issue #8). As for "one-stop shopping," I'd really like to move in to more DIY supplies, like 6.5 MHz crystals and X-10 smart home controllers - things people can use to build weird gizmos. But so far we've had to start out crawling before we could walk, learning how to do the fringe retail before we got into supplies, which are a tougher market. By the way, on Menstat - there's been an article in the latest Whole Earth Review about it but not too favorable. Susie Bright did a really glowing review for Future Sex, however. Even so, neither piece mentioned Suzanne Nathan, who really did a lot of the design, i.e., she was the woman who designed this software for other women to use, but the women reviewing it haven't even bothered to talk with her about that yet. I dunno. Not as many people using the software as there were encouraging us to develop it! But maybe that will change with Newton, wearable computers, etc. John: I'll be sure to mention Suzanne Nathan in Technophilia!! I'm positive that a lot of conceptions about computers will change as they get smaller. I can definitely see a not-so-far- future where it will be just as unusual to see someone with a wearable computer as seeing someone with a watch or clothes... JonL: PXN: Yeh, like with portable phones. I bet concert promoters will be one of the first groups other than the SS to use 'em! John: Yeah, I've also heard that Beyond Cyberpunk! is superb. I have the demo disk for it, but I had the same problem Jon had - I don't have a Mac! I wish the Computer Lab would come out with a PC version of it. Is the Smurfs in Hell only for the Mac, too? PXN: Yup. These days I develop for both Mac and Windows. Apple really pulled a market coup by packaging the MacIntosh Toolbox in ROM+ 68K instruction traps and by bundling Hypercard. >From what I understand, both efforts were largely the genius of Bill Atkinson, over a period of years and several Apple corp administrations and against all prevailing business acumen. Bottom line is that programmers had this incredible playground for building games and muchomedia wares that would run on anyone's Mac without licensing extra code. DOS and Windows STILL don't have that kind of capability without a license. I worked with the Computer Lab to help evaluate a DOS port, but it seems like nothing will compare with what customers expect in terms of performance/cost after a MacIntosh or Amiga. Bunch of greedy bastards in the DOS software biz arena! Smurfs in Hell titles are largely based off an adventure game creation package on the Mac called "World Builder" that's several years old! As much as I value the ubiquity of the Microsoft market, I'd challenge anybody to touch that kinda claim on "useful, reliable" software. Asymetrix's Toolbook is the only thing I've seen that comes close to Hypercard, but it's glacially slow and their licensing policy obviates most small development projects - if you wanna stay legal:). The best route I've seen lately on DOS is to co-opt those slide-presentation packages that have been on DOS systems for about seven years - at least they combine text, graphics, sequencing, and some hooks for sound. We just started carrying a cool piece of erotic online "literature" called Sexotica by Dragon's Eye productions and I believe that's the way they are doing low-cost multimedia. I'll have to check.... John: Also, that would be great if you sold those DIY supplies. Maybe even sell certain "kits" for set prices or something. PXN: We've put together an outline for "gift baskets" along various memes - like a "hack" basket that has a 2600 shirt, some Jolt cola, and other useful items for social engineering :). Kinda cheesey idea, but... John: I think that would be pretty funny... As members of the "cyberculture" community, do you see the recent cyberpunk "boom" just a fad? PXN: Well, lots-o people have been living the meme for years, so the mainstream-recognition of it will be telling. Like in another example, I talked with an English friend of mine about her background in the rave scene there and now in the US. The mainstream recognition of raving in London led to a boom that drew such huge numbers (and sleazy promoters) that the whole scene collapsed. But then it re-emerged as an underground phenomena again - even more vigorously. Cyberpunk is too future-focused to be real/tangible for many people and seems generally threatening to many. Like there's a lot of machismo among the real hacker/cracker crowd and fadish newcomers wouldn't be supported among them, IMHO. So the current boom seems short-lived. It's just too dark and esoteric to have a mass appeal. I mean, you can still stage dive and sport your Doc Martins after several beers, but it gets tough to be "marginal" or hack or whatever that way. Merging your head with a computer just doesn't translate well to couch potato pursuits, so I don't see the mass appeal other than through stereotypes and maybe somebody's idea of clothing. Hopefully, the cyberpunk scene will re-emerge from it's fad as well as raving. However, I do think that a lot of the cyber/computer meme will spread into entertainment, like that's already happening at mainstream concerts and dance clubs - even other than raves. That's where the trend will take hold, for my money's worth. But people will get used to having the computers being part of the ambience, and the trend will fade into mechanics. On another side, I find it interesting that when I talk with people who've gone to college, say late twenties or earlier, then e-mail addresses are almost a given and often preferred over voice comm. That's a BIG shift that goes subversively beyond fads - people want the computer link to reach other people now. That's my hot button - I hate full duplex... John: I sort of equate the interest in cyberpunk today with the interest of hacking after WarGames. After that film, the hacker population grew exponentially. Luckily, most of the "k00l d00dz" fell by the wayside to grab the next trend. But the hacker community DID benefit from this exposure to the mainstream. A lot of hackers were directly or indirectly influenced by that film, even though they may hate to admit it! Plus, cyberpunk is too much centered on change to be a fad. At the very heart of the cyberpunk movement, there is that unwillingness to conform to the mainstream, and an inherent ability to adapt and embrace new reality-maps and new technology. PXN: Yeh, the publicity makes for cheaper, more readily available wall art - good for inspiration :). We've tried at bOING-bOING, under the direction of Mark Frauenfelder and Carla Sinclair, to develop a sense of "humor cum neophilia." I've called it "Mad Magazine meets Mad Max." Somehow, people generally translate that into "cyberpunk" and we've really tried not to be a strictly cyberpunk zine. Maybe as fads ebb and flow, people will get more comfortable with terms that dance around the cyborg and "homo mutatis" themes and then develop "finer granularity" in the common language/concept. The absolute most important subset of the "cyberpunk" genre, IMHO, are the Cypherpunks - the crypto-anarchy movement coming out of Berkeley. It's weird, starting small, but heady and potentially mushrooming like a recycle of the Berkeley Free Speech Movement three decades ago. Much of the first issue of FringeWare Review is dedicated to a tutorial on the basis for cypherpunks and how that enables the fringe marketplace/community in a global village. Ie. "pop encryption," Internet remailers, digital cash banks (already online!) - those are quickly forming the new Underground - and light years beyond the auto-dialers and blue boxes of WarGames! And it's great, they're also light years ahead in terms of "positive" social impact, e.g., liberalizing privacy. John: Yeah, the cypherpunk movement is also very active in Britain... I agree with you that the cypherpunk movement is truly a huge step forward in social-technology evolution. It's definitely hard on the governments, since the encryption techniques are so advanced that can't be broken even by the NSA. It gives the underground community true autonomy. Digital online banking futhers this autonomy by decentralizing the money system. Unfortunately, corporate take-overs of this technology are probably inevitable - most likely 5-10 years. Do you see the commercialization of the Internet as inescapable? If so, do you see the companies being progressive, like FringeWare, or do you see the same companies that rule the "real" world trying to stake their claim on the information networks? PXN: I think the issue is Multiplicity. Whereas currently in business, much of the confluence gets channeled through some rather strict gatekeepers - if I want to do biz, then I need a DBA or incorporation, a commercial bank account, mucho tax form, etc. The banks, credit bureaus, tax agencies, etc., are watching and recording every step, and I'm liable for criminal charges if there's any intentional attempt to keep my biz private. Other people and agencies determine my business identity. Some of them, like banks, are greedy bastards to which I'd rather not have to fuck with at all. That's why so many small businesses run on a cash basis, because otherwise they end up paying $50.00 a month for "commercial bank services," ie., that don't pay interest, $100.00 a month CPA charges, $1000.00 a month commercial office rent so that the bank believes you aren't a fraud/scam, and all kinds of extras to the point that you'd be better off either working for a big corp and/or dealing contraband. A central tenet of the cyberpunk aims is that Identity is defined by what you know. A private key defines an identity. I can have many private identities