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Devil Shat 1998 01 15
.ili. Devil Shat Eighteen .ili.
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Indecision '98 ..................................... by Morbus
THE DEVIL'S DUMP .................................. by various
This is Devil Shat Eighteen released on 01/15/98. Devil Shat is
published by Disobey and is protected under all copyright laws. All of
the issues are archived at the Disobey website: http://www.disobey.com/
Submissions, email, and news should be sent to morbus@disobey.com. Your
comments are welcome. What do you want us to write about? Send us an
email and let us know.
My name is Morbus. How can I help you?
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.ili. Indecision '98 .ili.
--------------------------- by Morbus
I'm sitting in a coffee shop, sleepy eyed, watching some guy DJ really
well. I could easily be sitting anywhere, but it's 2:15 in the morning.
I should be home working.
I just yawned. I'm at a point now where its difficult for me to plot my
next course of action. You see, just the other day, I received an email
from someone saying that Devil Shat had, in a nutshell, grown boring.
Normally, this isn't that big of a deal. We get emails every week
bitching about how Devil Shat is a piece of crap or "what do trees have
to do with christ" or "you sick aryan pig". Although, I respect each
opinion, they are quickly moved into a derelict trash bin. Occasionally
(but not often), there would be a worthwhile comment included in the
negative, and it would be posted or responded too.
Sometimes, the same could be said of the good. We get an equal amount of
good comments concerning Devil Shat. Although we always try to respond
to everything, most of the time its hard to come up with something worth
reading when we only have "good job" to work with... not to dissuade the
"good job"s, we still appreciate them.
Someone telling us that we are boring is something we can handle. But
the comment comes from one of our oldest readers... someone there from
issue one, giving feedback, good faith, and good suggestions.
Which prompted me to come to this coffee shop (which is damn cool) and
take some time off and figure out (or try to) what the hell is going
wrong. What has made Devil Shat boring to this reader? (We are going to
momentarily forget the fact that she is one of a majority... and that we
are catering to her needs instead of the all.)
Is it me? When Devil Shat was first released, it was our only flagship.
Our website came second, and stemmed from the magazine. Having a website
was the least of our concerns at the time and as such, all of our
creative effort was devoted to the zine and its articles.
But these are different times. Devil Shat is not the only thing Disobey
does, and its hard to keep up with everything. We are too thick-headed
to know when to stop, so we are constantly working on new things, and
adding to the old, and keeping up with the present. We rarely miss a
release date, but we almost always fall behind. Devoting all of our time
to Devil Shat is just not plausible anymore. So, is that our problem?
One of the main reasons we began running submissions was because it
saved us time from writing a complete article itself. That was time we
could use on something else.
Is it the articles? What has changed from Issue One to Issue Eighteen?
Is our mood or outlook different? What has changed are the ideals
and the meaning of Devil Shat... they are largely different than what we
set forth with.
At first, it was intended as a throwaway zine, something where we could
put our other work... and release whenever the hell we wanted. And that
was what it did start out as. Our issues came whenever we felt they were
done. We had planned Devil Shat to mean nothing to anyone besides
ourselves... we were not doing it for the readers. We were doing it as a
sort of catalogue to look back on and match our feelings with a time
period.
And then, people started liking it and everything changed. We got kicked
off AOL (something bad always seems to happen when things are going
good) and we changed to a biweekly release schedule. We began accepting
submissions, because people randomly started sending them. Devil Shat
grew into a magazine, and not a journal or diary. Now, we have won
awards, are going to be included in a Periodical Directory and are
getting an ISSN number. It's all very crazy.
I am disappointed that we have grown boring to that one reader. It put
everything we have done here into a different perspective, because
although we have never met her, nor really gotten to know her, we
respect her opinion. And, her opinion furrowed my brow.
I ask for everyone's feelings about Devil Shat. How it is, how it isn't,
what is good and what sucks. What we should discuss, what we shouldn't.
I can only do what I feel right until I know what feels right to you...
both of which might be radically different.
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.ili. THE DEVIL'S DUMP .ili.
---------------------------- by various
--- SPAM EXTORTION by Morbus
You know, I think I am beating a dead dog. Or horse, or what have you.
But spammers just keep amazing me. Sure, they can get inventive, but now
they have gone one step further. Let me explain.
See, a couple of days ago, I got another spam in my box... no big deal.
And as most spams do nowadays, it came with removal instructions. Most
people are going to try to unsubscribe from the spammer list... it's
understandable. I don't, because it is just another extra step in my
life that wastes my time. For some strange reason, I decided to humor
myself and go to the website that was listed at the bottom of the mail.
I guess I started laughing, I don't really recall. They wanted $4.95 to
remove my name from this magical list that gives spammers access to
millions of email addresses. Yet, in their little description of this
great service they are offering, they tell of how most spammers VERIFY
your email address if you reply with "Remove". And now, they want $4.95
along with my request for removal.
It's pretty funny that spammers now control the very way you remove
yourself. If you don't want their product, "fine", they say, "we'll just
get your money to stop bothering you". Which is, of course, a load of
crock, as your name gets added to this magical master list you
supposedly have paid to be protected from.
--- THE FALL OF GEOCITIES by Ivan S. Graves
It would seem that GeoCities is wholly intent on the destruction of one
of the better additions to the world wide web. Their relentless struggle
to toss in advertising at the cost of those who have diligently
supported their efforts from the start, has grown to proportions that
are not only highly intolerable, but downright horrific.
It can be conjectured that the original goals of GeoCities, while
appearing on the surface to be that of providing valuable web space to
those who either cannot afford, or choose not to fork out hard earned
money for a home in which to share their interests, has quite obviously
been incorrect.
It is plainly seen of late that their goals are clearly driven by greed.
Their first attempt was to front hosted sites with 'stitial' advertising
techniques that loaded before the actual website did. The problem was
that for most, the stitial inadvertently locked the surfer on that page,
leaving the site unvisited.
It is obvious that many voiced their dissatisfaction in regards to this
approach, as GeoCities quickly scratched the stitial idea. For a short
time the sites were once again returned to their normal caliber, and
surfers could enjoy visiting their favorite websites once more.
But the bombardment continues, now with the advent of a separate page
that opens simultaneously with the website, causing the website to
download at a slower rate, and also causing some browsers to encounter
internal errors which force the closing of their browsing software.
This is clearly a desperate attempt by GeoCities to abuse the support of
over one million site holders gained due to their prior outstanding
business practices.
It has been agreed that advertising fuels the web, and should be
encouraged. But we need not, in this process, be bombarded much as we
have in the television medium, with advertising. It, in essence,
detracts from the entire experience without a doubt, and demoralizes the
wonderful advent of technology realized with the introduction to and
vastly increasing number of people hopping on for the ride.
It can be stated that advertising is fine when it is behind the scenes
and provided to us as a suggestion, but when it is shoved down our
throats - it is without a doubt, an intolerable nuisance.
I will pay my respects to GeoCities in advance if this is the direction
they have chosen.
--- UPDATE: TAMAGOTCHI'S by Morbus
Way back in Issue Eight, I wrote a piece entitled, "Your Life is Void"
describing these cute little toys called Tamagotchi's. I made the point
that with these things representing pets... representing life... that we
dummy our lives to the point of a little toy. Something to tool with,
something to play. Our life loses meaning because we try to simulate it
(poorly) in a small, egg-shaped toy (with optional key chain
attachment).
I knew this little phenom would get bigger, cos we're stupid and
self-destructive, so they made this thing called Neko Unjatta. In
Japanese it means "I produced a cat". Well, according to this press
release, these things can mate with other Nekos to make Neko Babies. The
process is called "love-love communication" but it comes with a
non-politically correct error. See, Takara (the company who makes 'em)
says that "you have to be careful, because you cannot 'communicate' two
males or two females together". Does it teach your kid anything? Hmm...
having sex is easy, your baby can have sex within 10 days, and that
males and males can't love each other, as the same with females.
That's not very nice... I'm waiting for the Lesbian Alliance to start
raising a fuss. This could cause a repeat of the same social issues from
years ago, when we first started worrying about homosexuality. Should
there be gay Neko Unjattas?
But the neat thing of these little toys is the fact that in ten days,
the little babies can start mating too! These things are like rabbits!
But, they don't experience the pain, or the love like humans do. The
next advance they need to make should be some sort of pain button. If
your Neko Coolatta is in to much pain, you can feed him some sort of
drug which makes it like a sweet, dreamy, sea breeze.
Other updates in virtual life include talking. Yeah, some other company
has implemented the ability for your little pet to talk to you. If it is
hungry, it whines to you, like a modern-day Seymour. When you feed it,
of course, being all polite, it thanks you. I doubt it will teach your
kids anything besides maybe being more rude ("Feed me!") although it
might teach them to be polite ("Thank you").
Yeah.
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The website edition includes images, a nice design, and all of the email
we have received about this issue. Go there and um, er, have fun:
http://www.disobey.com/devilshat/
Copyright 1997-1999 Disobey. You may not steal, maim, hold for ransom,
kill, or rape any part of this issue.
http://www.disobey.com/
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