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K-Mart Now Stocks Fractals! - Transmission Error - X-change: Paco Xander Nathan - Smart Drugs; Dumb Kids : Why Johnny Can't Morph
\ \
\ \
\ \ _____________________________________________
\ \ | |
\ \ | We are tired of the slick, contrived, |
\ \ | choreographed, clean. We want to see |
| \ | something that is live, raw, and dangerous. |
| | | |
| | | "Power to the People: A Lollapalooza Diary" |
| | | Photo essay by Maxwell Hudson, October 1992 |
| | | _Spin_, p. 61 |
\ \ |_____________________________________________|
\ \
babybabybabybabyba\ \ybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybaby
babybaby yba \ \ aby byba abyb byba babybaby
babybaby bybabyba \ \aby byb yba babybaby byb yba ba ba babybaby
babybaby yba b\ \by yba aby yba ba ba babybaby
babybabybabyb yba b/ /by byb yba babybaby byb yba ba ba babybaby
babybaby yba / /aby byb yba aby byb yba ba ba babybaby
babybabybabybabybab/ /babybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybabybaby
/ /
/ / The Torn Issue /
/ / /
_______________/ / November 2, 1992 /
/ / /
_________________/_______________________________________________________/ /
| / /|
| Cyberlicious <tm> | Editor: Blade X | The Bamboo Gardens / / |
| PO Box 4510 | bladex@wixer.cactus.org | (512) 385-2941 / / |
| Austin, TX 78765 | WWIV : 46@5285 | Neo Wobbly Node # / / |
|__________________________________________________________________/ /____|
/ /
INDEX / /
/ /
Ediborial............................................../ /..
K-Mart Now Stocks Fractals!.........................../ /...
Transmission Error.................................../ /....
Baby Got Back Issues................................/ /.....
X-change : Paco Xander Nathan....................../ /......
New Subscribers Info / Poll......................./ /.......
Smart Drugs; Dumb Kids : Why Johnny Can't Morph../ /........
/ /
\ _______________________________________/ /__
\ | / / |
\ | I think cyberpunk is the latest at/__/t |
\ \ | by American hipsters to escape the squalid |
\ \ | intellectual climate that surrounds them. |
\ \ | |
\ \ | This is not a bad goal. |
\ \ | |
\ \ | Karl Myers, "Cyberpunk Thing" |
\ \ | Talking Raven Vol II, No. 1, p. 4 |
\ \ |_____________________________________________|
\ \
\ \
\ \ EDIBORIAL
\ \
\ \ ___________________________________________________
You're back! \ \ |__________________________________________________
\ \
Once again, all\ \little cyber-buddies, it's time for another issue of
_Scream Baby_. \ \ow that I told some of ya that this would be the Public
Enemy theme issue\ \t since making that statement I have discovered that I
really don't have \ \attention span to do a theme issue. Go figure.
\ \
Actually, I've notic\ \hat my attention span has been getting shorter and
shorter as the nights\ \w longer. In conversations I can barely stay on
topic for longer than \ \minutes before wanting to jump track and follow some
tangent. \ \
\ \
Good thing I've already g\ \ated.....else there might be trouble.
\ \
Before we get grooving, let\ \apologize for the condition of this issue. I
carelessly left the master c\ \of _Scream Baby_ lying around and one of my
friend's four year old tried \ \ake Halloween decorations out of it.
Scissors and small children do\ \mix! Anyway, I tried to tape it up, best I
could, but only had a roll of e\ \rical tape available. Hope it doesn't
cause any confusion.... \ \
_______________________\ \________________________________
| \ \ |
| Who s\ \ the soul? |
| \ \ |
| Whoever took my PE _Greate\ \isses_ tape during my last |
| party had better hope I\ \'t catch him/her..... |
|_____________________________\ \__________________________|
\ \
K-MART STOCKS\ \CTALS!
\ \
I walked into my roommate Bayard's room the\ \er day and was like Wow!, what
a cool psychadelic poster of fractals. Wher\ \d you get it?
\ \
"Oh, I saw it at K-Mart....pretty cool, huh?" \ \
\ \
Fractals are a commodity now found at K-Mart is \ \this blurb wants to say.
I'm__till holding out for fractal wallpaper. \ \
/ / \ \
/ /______________________________________________\ \____________________
/ / \ \ |
/| One way to determine how and what to think is b\ \lling strangers |
/ | from other areas. Their hurried reactions to\ \tiple choice |
/ | selections provide one example of how to think abo\ \mportant issues |
| in your life. \ \ |
| \ \ | /
| "A Brief Exegesis of ONO Polling Techniques", _Offi\ \umber One_ |/
| Volume 1,811,401 Issue 61, August 15, 2004 4:11:3 \ \ page 8 /
|________________________________________________________\ \__________/ /
\ \ / /
TRANSMISSION ERROR \ \ \ /
\ \
For some reason inexplicable to me, all cybernauts seem eager to\ \t to
discuss their hardware & software system set up. <shrugs shoulde\ \ Ok, I
can do that. \ \
________________________________ \ \
Mine was a *bargain* from the |________________________________| 20\ \ hard
drive; 2400 baud internal modem, CGA monitor with a dot pitch of .52 \ \; and
a nifty little 4.77 mhz 8088 chip. \ \
\ \
Dreamy, huh? It gets better. \ \
\ \
I am experiencing some trouble with my serial board. Upload files : *NO* \ \
Problem!; Download files : expect an error correction rate of about 20%, \
sometimes as high as 45%. In addition, the whole thing just shuts off \
completel___fter a while, somewhere around the 40-45K mark, meaning that I \
simply d/ / try to download files larger than that size.
/ /
The se/ / board also only transmits about 98% of the information properly.
Most / /on is that characters are dropped, making words look mis-spelled.
Some/ /s the Unix-carriage-return-equivalent isn't recognized at the end of a
lin/ / my terminal continues to display information off in a virtual nether-
la/ /eventually returning to my screen's visible spectrum. Every time I re-
r/ /a message, what's missing changes, so it's always a different experience.
/ / ____
/eral subscribers have asked about whether some| | has been "cut off" at
/e end of each issue. There is, indeed, garbled| |rmation appended to the
/nd of the September 26, 1992 issue, that does no| |ear in the master copy.
| |
Electronic Sabotage? | |
| |
I asked Ed Cavazos, the Vice President of the loc| |stin chapter of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation to investigate. H| |covered a surreptious
Control-Z character appended to the end of the fi|___|hich is, in his own
words, "a big Internet no-no." Old versions of DOS used the Control-Z
character as a marker for archiving files.
Was I using an old version of DOS?
3.3. Nope. I was using a version of PFS: Write with a copyright date of
1986, however, and so the report concluded that the word processor is
automatically adding the Control-Z to the end of the files and that there is
nothing else to be done about it.
____
\ \ Morals to Be Learned...
\ \
1. Never take the i\ \ation on your screen for granted. Are the words on
your screen an ac\ \e representation? Always question. Always re-
examine. \ \
\ \
2. No matter how spicy \ \system's red hot chili peppers are today, you
will be the 98 pound \ \ronic weakling in less than three years. You
can either keep reachi\___\r the steroids (buying hardware that is more /
pumped, pumped, pumped up) or reach for something new, and something /
different. A new paradigm and a new way of looking at things: /
/ /
_Scream Baby_. / /
___________________________________________________________________/ /
| / /
| Cyberspace is now all around us; it is an unconscious part of li/ /|
| The technology we accept as convenience has become an invisib/ / |
| filter through which reality passes; where five answering mach/ / |
| becomes a community, an hour on the stair-climber is a jog in/ / |
| park, and a McLean burger is actually a meal. / / |
| / / |
| "Are You Living in Cyberspace?" by Tim Taylor & Nathani/ /oeg |
| Summer/Fall 1992 issue of _Adbusters Quarterly_, p./ / |
|_________________________________________________________/ /________|
| |
| |
BABY GOT BACK ISSUES | |
| |
There are so many easy and fun ways to get back issues of Scr| |Baby, there
is really no excuse for anyone not to have your very own copy| |
| |
FTP SITES \ \
\ \
eff@eff.org /publications/journals \ \
\ \
\ \
Also, The WEll is setting up an anonymous ftp site ANY DAY NOW, and\ \ of the
digital Cyberlicious <tm>! products will be found there. \ \
\ \
PRIVATE BBS SYSTEMS \ \
\ \
Cyberlicious <tm>! products are available 24 hours a day at Tejas BBS, 5\ \
467-0663. The sysop, Boattail Bob, should be famous for saying, "Softwar\ \
the currency of the digital underground" \ \
\
Then there is also The Bamboo Gardens, 512-385-2941, which is a virtual \
wayward home for information junkies. Hundreds of textfiles of good, prime, \
uncut stuff.
Or feel free to STOP BY MY HOUSE when I'm home and copy it DIRECTLY FROM MY
COMPUTER SYSTEM. Bring your own 5.25" disks, please. Bring me some food while
you are at i___
/ /
While we a/ /n the issue of issues, my Codehound A.I. informs me that various
bootleg _/ /am Baby_ copies are floating around cyberspace, in violation of
the *STR/ /Y* enforced distribution restrictions [1]. We will track you
down. / /while I am not a member of the Software Publisher's Association, I
can ju/ /s easily hire some thugs of my own.
/ /
Endn/ /:
/ /
[1/ /e Software Licensing Agreement : Some people just don't get it.
/ / _______________________________________________
/ / | |
/ | If black and white adults don't have anything |
/ | in common, well, black and white kids do. |
/ | And what is that? |
| |
| It's the music. |
| |
| Hank Shocklee, Public Enemy Producer |
| October 1992 _Spin_, page 46 |
|_______________________________________________|
X-CHANGE : PACO XANDER NATHAN
10-29-92
Only in Austin will you find someone with a tatoo of the international symbol
for recycling. Paco told me that it was "instructions in case someone
finds my body. They'll know what to do with it." Paco Xander Nathan is the
Technology Consciousness Editor for bOING-bOING, an increasingly regular
contributor to Mondo 2000, a programmer (MenStat & probably more), but is
probably best described as "the guy with all the cool brain toys"
Scream Baby caught up with Paco following the EFF-Austin Public Forum : The
Hacker Crackdown, a speech and book signing by Bruce Sterling. Here is an
edited excerpt of that conversation :
___ ___
\ \ / /
PXN: Hi. My name is\ \o Nathan/ / actually _Wired_ may be an
interesting maga\ \ but _/ /o_ is going to sneak up on everyone in
the real near fut\ \ / /
\ \ / /
\ \/ / [Bruce had taken a quick jab at
\ / / Mondo during the Q&A session]
/ /
Scream: That might be a litt/ / \ ed opinion there.
/ /\ \
PXN: Actually that's so/ /ns\ \ info.
/ / \ \
Scream: Oh. Can you give/ /some i\ \er info about the next issue of
_Mondo_? / / \ \
/__/ \__\
PXN: Oh sure. Which one? The one that is coming out in about two days?
Scream: TWO DAYS?!?!
PXN: Seeing as I wrote a lot of it. ___
/ /
Scream: TWO DAYS?!?! REALLY? / /
/ /
PXN: Well no, it will probably be coming o/ /bout next week or so. We're
really on the print deadline right n/ /..I have a biotech piece in
it and a few other pieces as well. / /
/ /
Scream: Is it as glossy? The last issue / /le talked about it taking a
"step down" from being heads in / /clouds.
/ /
PXN: Yeah. I think what's happenin/ / that some of the art staff is
really congealing and startin/ / come in to their own, and hitting
their prime. I think the co/ /of the last issue is just primo
compared to what's been hap/__/ng before.
Scream: What's going to be on the cover?
PXN: I was down at the offices a few weeks ago and I can't talk about it.
___
Scream: Oh come on. I've got to h| |inside information in each issue [of
_Scream Baby_] and the onl| |ing I'm sitting on now is that the
manager of Public Enemy is| |ting together a rap version of
Lollapalooza. That's the | | thing I'm sitting on right now. I need
more. | |
| |
PXN: Inside information on _Mon| |is just that there is a lot of fresh
blood and it's going a lot| |e technical. We are talking about
bringing in a lot more you| |, less-known writers who are actually
right now in the technolog| |d I think this is going to make a big
change because these aren'| |ople who are esconsed in post-
modernism. These are peop| |ho are living in the tech and I think
that will make some change| |I think that the art stuff is really
pulling in tight. The big| | thing that is happening right now of
course is that the circula| | is just booming because of Walden
books and things like that| |nd of course Mondo also has a new host
__________________________| |_______________________________________
|_____________________________________________________________________
Scream: You're the new Mondo host? You and Jon [Lebkowsky]?
PXN: Yeah, Jon and Sirius and I.
Scream: Is R.U. Sirius coming to Austin for a book signing tour?
PXN: We've been talking about that. I'm one of the few people trying to
\ negotiate that here in Austin. It's just up in the air.... there's
\ definitely at least one person here willing to host it.
\
\ \ [wandered into a discussion of local Austin counter-culture scene.
\ \ Named names! Told other businesses how to run their jobs! Hyped those
\ \ who we like! Dissed those who we don't! Who is going to lease that
\ \ sombrero-topped-restaurant on the Drag? A New Edge store in Austin?
\ \I've said too much]
\ \
PXN:\ \think that a lot of the New Edge community here in Austin is
\ \lusive. Here in Austin it's very large, but it's very exclusive.
\ \ou're not part of the in-thing, you're not part of it at all. The
E\ \side is just so damn bifurcated how can you consider it to be
ex\ |ive? Why is you have to wear black in order to be part of the
in-\ |wd? You can't define it. You have radical feminists over here/
and \|ople who are sawing off their arms and putting on electronics /
over here and it's all part of the same thing..... /
/ /
I've just finished some work on wear-ables right now. I don't ha/ /
any units to work on but hopefully pretty soon. And when we do / /
be doing a party like [see bOING-bOING #9]. Wearable computers/ /t's
my big kick right now. I really think there's going to be a lo/ /
happening with wearables. I've been talking with too many pe/ / who
are going to market right now. / /
| |
Scream: What's a wear-able? | |
| |
PXN: A wearable is when you take a laptop, gut it, and make it in| |
basically about 3 or 4 pounds. There are people who have it| |n to 7
chips, with 100 meg. Serious 386 machines. | |
| |
Scream: What was the parody I saw once...........keyboard chaps? | |
| |
PXN: I think it's going to turn something inside out...You talk | |he VR
people and the VR people are beating each other over the he| |ver
reality emergences and how it can be effective and how many| |les
can take the bandwidth. |__|
Scream: That's one point I wanted to make about Bruce's speech was that the
military is a major support of VR. That without the military there
would be no VR industry.
PXN: I'm going to jump out of the field right now and play devil's
advocate. I think right now that a lot of the emergence stuff is
just bullshit. I think you and I already have realities. And I
think that if you go into more of the computer augmented overlay. To
be able to have something projected out so I'm looking at you and so
I can be updated at the same time.
Scream: Random mindsplatter. Now you can see why Scream Baby is like it is.
I can't keep on-topic for longer than five minutes. I have just
ordered a copy of Wax....[discussion of bringing Wax to Austin]...on
Monday and I'm just upset that it's not here yet. I want my
information faster than that. One of the ideas I had while thinking
about David Blair....the technology already exists to do what he
did...... ____hen are there not more people doing it?
\ \
PXN: You would b\ \zed at how accessible technology is. You can walk
down to Radi\ \ck....I don't know what your expertise in circuits
is right now.\ \
\ \
Scream: Zerooooo. Big \ \ng zero.
\ \
PXN: You can buy a boo\ \t will show you how to do really interesting
circuits that sell\ \$2.39. Anyone can just walk in with a grammar
school education an\ \rt wiring circuits. Why don't people do it.
\ \
Scream: There is a certain le\ \f technical knowledge a lot of people jump
in and start hacking i\. \ lot of people do it, a lot of people
don't. A lot of people\ \t understand the technology that
surrounds them. This is\ \ght up mostly in _Zen And The Art of
Motorcycle_. They don't \ \how it works as long as the food is hot
when it comes out of the m\ /wave. Push a button, and that's it.
That's all you need to know\/ And that's one of the ironies that as
technology becomes more commonplace, your understanding of it
decreases.
PXN: I don't know, I kind of play counterpoint. I think overall, if you
look at a cross section, yeah, but I think for individuals as it
becomes more commonplace it starts to fuse together...
Scream: Tech is more specialized. 100-150 years ago, something in your house
broke you could fix it. You could repair it. Now there's [hardly]
anything in your house you can fix yourself anymore.
PXN: It bubbles through so. A lot more of the weird specialized functions
are being offloaded into th___oftware. So if you understand what the
hell an RS 232 port is and| |understand how to debug software you
certainly can fix a lot mo| |ings that used to be little
specialized black boxes th| |u would never have a clue about how to
keep up. It kinda bubbles| |t and goes through stages of being
very esoteric and very sta| |ized.
| |
Note: At this point in the convers|___|, Mike Mooney, of the alternative rock
band None of the Above, breaks in and offers an analogy involving time
travel and a toaster. Which probably was great, except he spoke so
softly that the tape didn't pick it up. There's a lesson involving
media hipness in there somewhere.
__________________________________
\ | |
\ | K-mart Sucks |
\ | -- Dustin Hoffman in "Rain Man" |
\ |__________________________________|
\ \
\ \ SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION / POLL
\ \
Tom\ \ is Election Day! I know that you, like me, are just giddy with this
demo\ \c voting feeling. There's something about bubbling in the slots next
to 14\ \ntested races that enlightens the true nature of democracy.
\ \
Their d\ \acy, not mine! Here's what I've done. I sat down and made a list
of sever\ \ssible long[er]-term Cyberlicious! products. All are within the
scope of \ \ilities. Which to choose? Which to do next?
\ \
Here's wher\ \ come in. Following is a what-was-supposed-to-be-short
description \ \ch project. Study the issues carefully. At the end is a
ballot, which\ \equired of people who wish to become a _Scream Baby_
subscriber, an\ \t plain fun for those who already are.
\ /
\/ PHOTO PORTRAIT
Ever since I saw the photos for Suffer Trough, a local campus radio show, I've
been aching to do something similar for _Scream Baby_. Essentially this would
be a portrait of me in a bleak, dreary urban landscape making some sort of
vague socio-political point. This would also be a "I'll show me mine if you
show me yours" type of deal. I'll give it away free to subscribers who send
in a photo of themselves and a SASE. Else it costs money.
STICKERS ___
| |
This would be a collaboration between me and my art| |riends to create a
sticker that could be placed anywhere, but especial| | the side of your
computer so all can see you for the radical telecom| |ator that you are.
Something like the BCP! Memetic Antidote. | |
| |
MACNERVOUSBOY | |
| |
Nervousboy is one of those artists who doesn't want| |le to know that he's
an artist. [If that was *really* the case, though,| | stop dressing like
the Beasties Boy, an identifying mark of Austin art| | With a Masters in
Fine Arts from The University of Texas at Austin, h| |ks at Kinko's Copies.
Once, he ran a T-shirt transfer through the machine| |wing that it would
leave an impression on the rollers. Then he copied| |reds of resumes,
imprinting "I have a felony conviction" on the back| |ight ink. When
confronted, he pleads that he didn't know that woul|___|pen and was very
sorry. He still works there. MacNervousboy is a collection of his art
information converted to computer format. Gifs, Quicktime movies, pranks, art
for fucking around sakes, stuck on a disk and sent to stodgy magazines for
re:view. MacNervousboy. Nervousboy has agreed to think about it.
JOHNNY MARR MURDER CAN BE FUN COMPUTER CALENDAR
Those damn "Today in History" calendars are *everywhere*. I hate them. Don't
get mad, subvert! Johnny Marr is the force behind a little zine called Murder
Can Be Fun, which is a light-hearted look at murder, mayham, death, and
destruction. Last year he created a calendar that listed, for each day, some
such gruesome feat. Birthdays of mass murderers, quotes, accidents, that sort
of thing. I've been meaning to w_____to him and ask to create a computer
version of this year's calendar,/ /'s compiling one. I've already secured
an IBM program, and have leads / / Macversion. I bet there's a damn Today
in History calendar program fo/ / boxes as well....grrrr......
/ /
/ /
SCRE/ /Y : THE AUDIO CASSETTE
/ /
Loyd Blankenship, aka The/ /r, has already agreed to contribute a spoken
word description of his / /t on the Operation Sundevil raid. His story is
pretty funny, and deser/ / be preserved....before he gets indicted sometime
in May. The Scream Ba/ /io tape would be a combination of spoken word,
news, music, sounds, / /ws, and the same innovative information you're
slowly becoming addi/ /o.
/ /
/____/ APPLY TO GRADUATE SCHOOLS
Hi Mom! This option is mostly for her benefit. I know she is somewhat
disappointed that her son-with-the-college-degree-who-she-went-through-8-
hours-of-labor-for has yet to break the $10,000 a year salary barrier. I came
*real* close last year. Essentially I would like to study in a Society and
Technology program. My qualifications include a B.A in Sociology from the
University of Texas at Austin, about a 3.2 my last two years, and a combined
score of 1300 on the GRE. Any suggestions? Just think.....Scream Baby....on
*your* campus. <shakes head> ___
| |
PRINT FORMAT ZINE VE| | OF SCREAM BABY
| |
Before you start shaking your head and | |g "how retro!" there's a lot to be
said for print publication. It would a| |me to add graphic illustrations to
some of the concepts. I could probably| |w in the Cyber Nuggets comix as
well. There'd be little quotes running| |g the bottom of each page, just
like Ben Is Dead. Columns & side bars!| || it's something you can read on
the bus....but that's another story. | |
| |
SCUMBAG'S PLACE : | |YBERPUNK YEARS
| |
This option has me jumping on the case | | friends who produce an ACTV show
that uses my house as a set, Scumbag's |___|. Scumbag is a mean vicious man
who rules over a house of puppets. The show is essentially a variety show for
people with short attention spans : claymation, musicals, singing, magic, talk
show, anti-drug messages, and lots and lots and lots of puppets! We almost
burnt down my house in the first episode. I already have produced a treatment
for the episode, we'd need to secure equipment such as a Video Toaster or
similar effects editor and we'd also need to secure a big heaping dose of
motivation. Your vote for the HR Puffinstuff of the Underground, perhaps?
FIND A WOMAN,
BECOME OBSESSED WITH MAKING HER HAPPY,
AND FORGET ABOUT THE WHOLE DAMN THING
This is self-explanatory.
SCREAM BABY BALLOT / NEW SUBSCRIBER INFORMATION
Background Information
[ ] I am already a _Scream Baby_ subscriber
[ ] I'm hooked like a cheap heroine addict. Sign me up.
My e-mail address is _____________________
Place either an "X" or an "*" in up to three (3) of the following options:
[ ] PHOTO PORTRAIT
[ ] STICKERS
[ ] MACNERVOUSBOY
[ ] JOHNNY MARR MURDER CAN BE FUN CALENDAR
[ ] SOUND SCREAM BABY : THE AUDIO TAPE
[ ] SCUMBAG'S PLACE
[ ] GRAD SCHOOL -- MAKE MOM HAPPY
[ ] PRINT FORMAT ZINE
[ ] FIND A WOMAN TO RUN AWAY WITH
Hit (R)eply now, delete lines 1 through 514, then mark your ballots with a
number Pi pencil. Send your entries to bladex@wixer.cactus.org. Deadline :
December 1, 1992. Not responsible for anything.chine| |wing that it would
leave an impression on the rollers. Then he copied| |reds of resumes,
imprinting "I
