The Journal of American Underground Computing Issue 8
THE JOURNAL OF AMERICAN UNDERGROUND COMPUTING / Published Quarterly
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ISSN 1074-3111 Volume One, Issue Eight April 21, 1995
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Editor-in-Chief: Scott Davis (dfox@fc.net)
Co-Editor/Technology: Max Mednick (kahuna@fc.net)
Conspiracy Editor: Gordon Fagan (flyer@io.com)
Information Systems: Carl Guderian (bjacques@usis.com)
Legal Editor Steve Ryan (blivion@sccsi.com)
Computer Security: George Phillips (ice9@paranoia.com)
Graphics/WWW Design Mario Martinez (digital@comland.com)
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Contents Copyright (C) 1995 The Journal Of American Underground Computing and/or the author of the articles presented herein. All rights reserved. Nothing may be reproduced in whole or in part without written permission of the Editor-In-Chief and/or the author of the article. This publication is made available periodically to the amateur computer hobbyist free of charge. Any commercial usage (electronic or otherwise) is strictly prohibited without prior consent of the Editor, and is in violation of applicable US Copyright laws. To subscribe, send email to sub@fennec.com
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
[File #1:]
Web Page Opens For Business Editors
Black Pluterday Carl Guderian
MTV-Europe Donates to EFF-Austin Eff-Austin
City Connects People With Info on The Net Jesus Garza
Kevin Mitnick Affidavit Unknown
Kevin Mitnick FAQ From The Well The Well
More Mitnick From AP Unknown
Brain Dead In Cyberspace Jim Silvania[File #2]
SummerCon Press Release Chris Goggans
Fringe Ware #7 - WeIrD Issue Jon Lebkowsky
Proposed FTC Rules To Cut Telemarket Abuse Barry Fraser
Chaos Corner V5, #1 Dr. Chaos[File #3]
The Final Breaths Of The American Dream Kenneth Stahl
Wired War Tales Carl Guderian[File #4]
The Internet Addiction Support Group Ivan Goldberg
Interactive Img. Launches Riddler(tm) Honey Essman
USPS To Offer E-Mail Crypto USPS
First Internet TV Series Premiers Unknown
I-Com (Software) From Talent Comm. Talent Comm.
WEB PAGE OPEN FOR BUSINESS
By Scott Davis (dfox@fc.net)
We now (and FINALLY!) have somewhat of a WWW page for you to enjoy. It is not complete by any means. As a matter of fact, no issues of the journal are up as of yet...but you can still route you're browser there and take a look at some stuff. Please mail me and let me know what you think of it. You're input is appreciated.
BLACK PLUTERDAY: IS ANYONE REALLY GUNNING FOR E-MONEY?
By Carl Guderian (Information Systems Editor) bjacques@usis.com
As the concept of digital money approaches reality, economists, players, and armchair analysts have begun to scrutinize it more closely. Digital money, or e-money, allows individuals--not just banks--to move money around the world at near-lightspeed. It could be the biggest thing since checking accounts and installment plans. Industry pundits are looking past the "gee-whiz" stage of e-money and toward its dark side, spinning scenarios of its collapse and subsequent disruption of the world financial market. The most popular agent of this chaos seems to be hackers or terrorists. History, however, suggests that Murphy, not Mitnick, will be the likely culprit.
The histories of electronic commerce and computer networks, which converge in e-money, provide three excellent examples of technological debacles, of which only one is the work of a hacker. The New York Stock Exchange and AT&T's long-distance network both crashed all by themselves (October 1987 and January 15, 1990, respectively). The release by Robert Morris of the Internet worm on November 2, 1988 was either an accident or a case of willful sabotage, depending on who's telling the story. All three cases highlight the growing pains of a complex emerging technology.
The Internet worm incident exemplifies the lowest level of vulnerability: the completely open system. Morris' rogue program tied up 6000 computers on the Internet within hours of its release. System administrators were completely unprepared for it, but rallied in time to contain and kill the worm. Leaving the front doors open cost millions of dollars in lost computer time. At the time of the incident, the Internet was largely an academic milieu, and sysadmins felt little need for security. Today, however, hackers often bring down systems, either through sabotage or ineptitude. Though the majority of hacking incidents result in more embarrassment than actual damage, there is no excuse these days for not securing one's system.
Yet a future crash of the e-money system engineered by hackers is not very likely. Hackers have historically posed little danger to computer systems. Computer security professionals ascribe over 90% of security breaches to in-house mis- or malfeasance. Outside hackers account for the remnant. Some pundits have played up the hacker threat, citing the lure of a fast e-buck. But automatic teller machines and electronic funds transfer have been in wide use since the seventies, and the most spectacular capers have not been hacking raids, but plain old embezzlement. When a system is cracked or crashed, hackers are seldom to blame. Human error is more often at fault.
AT&T's long-distance nightmare was caused by a faulty system that crashed itself. A few lines of bad code caused an electronic switch to shut itself down during peak operating hours. Other switches, which shared this defect, shut down also. As more switches shut down, many of those remaining simply overloaded. In the ensuing avalanche, half of AT&T's long-distance capability was lost for a few hours. Though a few opportunistic net.cops initially (and publicly) suspected hackers, AT&T's engineers were able to quickly put the kibosh on such speculation. Meanwhile, AT&T lost a few million dollars and suffered a black eye because the same thing didn't happen to MCI.
The e-money infrastructure, if it becomes as complex as the AT&T network, will be equally at risk of failure. To prevent a fiasco, designers should keep the system simple. Counting packets out of one account and into another is trivial. Building in transaction tracing and other government- and industry-friendly bells and whistles will only make the system more complex and more likely to fail. Designers should also try to anticipate possible conflicts with the various systems into which e-money will be integrated. (As well, the committee now working on IPNG, the next- generation Internet Protocol, could meet them halfway by not trying to overdesign it for multimedia, metered billing, security, user identification, and other user-onerous "features.")
Still, the best-designed systems can go awry when put into actual use. Exhaustive testing seldom reveals the fact that technologies sometimes function too well.
There's a story about the "Correction of '87" that bears repeating. A friend of this writer, while at an overseas science fiction convention that August, was warned that the New York Stock Exchange was headed for trouble. The story went that computers in all major brokerages in the U.S. used the same software for program trading and, therefore, used the same parameters in gauging the market. As the summer's bull market reached hitherto unknown heights, one of those computers was bound to decide that the market was close to topping out. It would start selling off before the other trading programs did. The others, seeing this as a sign of an imminent downturn, would begin profit-taking as well. The market would plummet and not recover, since the machines were probably programed not to buy into a bear market. All of this was supposed to occur by autumn. Which it did. Though not physically networked, the Exchange's trading computers were as inextrically bound together by the mathematics of avalanche and stampede. After a plunge of more 500 points, SEC officials called a halt to the day's trading. Today, stock trading is forcibly suspended if the Dow Jones drops a hundred points.
E-money, like many powerful technologies, can cause the biggest problems when it is working perfectly. A few of its promises, such as the global circulation of private currencies, should be throwing government bodies and industry leaders into fits right now. Home shopping will quickly give way to desktop currency speculation when Joe Pentium discovers he can dump his weak dollars for yen during a bathroom break. Does the already volatile currency market really need more players? Every hard drive a bank! (Certainly the economic powers are eyeing e-money and similar technologies. They've cooperated to curb international hacking and software piracy; encryption and anonymous e-mail are now on the agenda. Government and industry seem to share a vision of the Internet as a global virtual shopping mall with a cover charge, so users can't look to official guardians or hip, young, Wired-reading infotainment executives for representation. The window for individual experimentation is closing fast).
In drawing scenarios for the rise of E-money, pundits should look to the history of a similarly powerful technology: steam power. Lessons drawn from the latter apply somewhat to the former. Steam proved extraordinarily useful, despite headline-grabbing disasters, because it was very manageable. Therefore, hysterical tales of sabotage by business rivals or foreign agents did little to slow the adoption of steam. Sound thinking minimized the risk of steam just as it will with e-money. At the high end this means thoroughly exploring the dynamics of complex human and machine systems and sharing knowledge gleaned therefrom. At the low end (e-money is eminently scalable), this means keeping enough cash on hand to cover one's potential liability. To the extent that pundits follow e-money intelligently and leave the dime-novel speculations to tabloid TV shows, they will help to ensure the best possible future for e-money and those using it.
PRESS RELEASE
MTV-EUROPE DONATES 500 POUNDS TO AUSTIN CYBERSPACE CIVIL RIGHTS GROUP
Austin, March 21, 1995
EFF-Austin, an Austin, Texas civil rights group concerned with electronic network access and free expression, gratefully acknowledges a contribution of 500 pounds from the European branch of MTV Music Television. The donation came in response to an MTV publication titled "Global Communication: Channel Your Experience," which was released in conjunction with the 1994 First European Music Awards, held at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.
Cyberpunk science fiction writers William Gibson and Bruce Sterling created an original collaborative artwork for the "Global Communication" project. MTV-Europe then contributed a cheque for 500 pounds to the two authors' favorite charity -- EFF-Austin.
"We've seen some oddities in our five years on the electronic frontier," said EFF-Austin President David Smith, "but this one takes the cake. Not only are we so hip that we get contributions from MTV-Europe, but now we can describe ourselves as 'William Gibson's favorite charity.'"
For more information, contact Steve Jackson, EFF-Austin secretary (sj@io.com)
CITY CONNECTS PEOPLE WITH INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET
Contacts:
Jesus Garza, City Manager, (512)499-2200
Betty Dunkerley, Dir. of Finance & Administrative Services,(512)499-2450
Becky Gadell, Internet Task Force Co-Chair, (512)499-2402,
The City of Austin today introduced City information on the Internet.
Called the "Austin City Connection," the new City service provides Internet users on-line access to over 300 files of information on a broad range of topics, including agendas for City Council and Planning Commission, the City Charter, profiles of the Mayor and City Council, purchasing notices and job openings, directories of City and youth services, Electric utility services and the Austin Area Visitor's Guide.
The Mayor, City Council Members and City Manager Jesus Garza cut an electronic ribbon on the Austin City Connection Tuesday morning in a ceremony at the Austin Convention Center. Internet users can access the new City service on the World Wide Web at Universal Resource Locator (URL) http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/
"Our purpose is to use emerging technologies, such as the Internet, to connect people with information, services and people," said City Manager Jesus Garza. "This is just the tip of the iceberg, the beginning of using such technology to improve service delivery and bring government closer to people."
Four week ago Garza appointed an employee team, the Internet Task Force, to put basic information on the Internet. The group pooled equipment and talent from all City departments to build the "Connection."
The Task Force's experience and citizen response to this initial use of the Internet will help guide decisions about providing public access to the Internet at libraries and other facilities, initiating on-line access to the City Council and staff, and adding information and on-line services, such as applying for City jobs through the "Connection."
"We've included a survey that people can fill out and send to us electronically," said City Internet Task Force Co-Chair Becky Gadell. "We particularly want to find out if the 'Connection' is easy to use and if the information we have included in this first phase is useful. The survey is an opportunity for people to tell us what they think and what they want to see next."
Information offered through the "Connection" is grouped into nine major categories.
- Leadership and Community Involvement includes information about the Mayor and City Council, City Boards and Commissions, meeting agendas and minutes, and voter information.
- Austin City Government includes the City Charter.
- News offers City news releases, public notices and the program schedule for the City's cable television access station, Channel 6.
- Business contains listings of City job openings, purchasing notices, and instructions for businesses seeking certification as minority and women-owned businesses.
- City Services includes a directory with phone numbers and in-depth information about the gamut of City services, from airport to garbage collection, recycling, environmental tips, parks, utilities, and opportunities for youth.
- Public Safety focuses on emergency and prevention information from Police, Fire and Emergency Medical Services (EMS).
- Library and Education encompasses services and information from the Austin Public Library and City education programs, such as First Aid and CPR classes, and environmental conservation programs.
- Health offers a guide to City-County health clinics, Brackenridge Hospital's HealthPLUS class schedule, a link to AIDS information on the Internet, and tips about how to safely enjoy Austin's one and a half million bats.
- Around and About Austin includes visitor information, Austin Convention Center services and activities, parks and recreation guides, and the program schedule for the Austin Music Network.
Information about voter registration, health clinics and some library services are provided in English and Spanish.
Former Council Member Smoot Carl-Mitchell, president of Texas Internet Consultants (TIC), served as the project's consultant for system security. Go Media Inc., an Austin-based graphic design firm consulted on the overall on-line information architecture to ensure the most effective presentation and easy access to information. Additionally, Go Media designed the Austin City Connection logos and home page.
"The leading, or 'Home Page,' logo is a montage that includes a 1953 postcard of downtown Austin and a circuit board image connected by the Congress Avenue bridge. We feel this image illustrates Austin's commitment to the future and strong regard for tradition," said Julie Gomoll, president of Go Media Inc.
MAIN BODY OF THE MITNICK AFFIDAVIT
On 2/12/95, Tsutomu Shimomura, SDSC, arrived in Raleigh, NC, to assist Jim Murphy Sprint Cellular, review and compare Sprint Cellular CDR's with logging information obtained from Robert Hood, Senior Netcom Administrator, Netcom. Review of call detail records (CDR) for MIN 919-602-6523, determined that a call was initiated on February 11, 1995 at 16:37 Eastern Standard Time (EST). This call was place [sic] to Netcom's POP in Minneapolis, Minnesota (612)-362-5400. Netcom records verify session login to Netcoms machine from Minneapolis POP at 13:39 Pacific Standard Time (PST). CDR indicated that this call was terminated at 17:35 EST and verified by Netcom record of termination at 14:35 PST.
On 2/12/95, Joseph Orsak, Senior Maintenance Engineer, Sprint Cellular, advised affiant that he had identified the particular cell site in the Raleigh area associated with the cellular telephone calls to Netcom POP's. Cell site #19, sector 3 & 4 which are at 60 degree angles, with areas of coverage as follows: South East Bluestone Drive intersecting state highway #70; South West State Road #1649 to William Omstead State Park; South Duraleigh Road to State Road 1664 (see attached map). At 22:00 EST a search was initiated to seek out the cellular location associated with activity listed in paragraphs 9 & 10. Orsak informed affiant that he used Sprint Cellular service equipment to determine that the call was originating from the area of the Players Apartment complex, 4518 Tournament Drive, Raleigh, NC. Once the area of the cellular transmission was determined Orsak terminated search at 04:00 EST. Orsak advised that his equipment indicated that MIN 919-602-6523 which match Cellular One CDR's for 2/12/95 conducted a series of calls from 02:00 to 04:00 EST.
Your affiant is familiar with the computers, software and other equipment commonly used by hackers to modify or clone telephones. Hackers are able to use cellular phones to conduct their activities by connecting their computers to a cellular compatible modem. With such a modem, the hacker uses the cellular phone to dial out to a targeted land - line phone number - often a network remote or public dialup access line. Such an access number allows the hacker to connect to and communicate with the targeted computer system or network. The hacker will often launder his illegal access attempts by routing calls through a public computer access network - such as the Internet or by illegally accessing a PBX telephone system. Once they access the targeted system, the hacker uses his or her knowledge of computers to steal, erase or manipulate data and computer programs. Hackers commonly use sophisticated computer programs to break the password codes which protect computer systems form [sic] unauthorized use.
Affiant believes that all referenced cellular calls in paragraphs 9 & 10 originated from the same individual located within the Players Apartment Complex, Raleigh, NC. Records obtained from Robert Hood, Netcom, indicate that computer hacking sessions took place as a direct result of the cellular hacker activities referenced in paragraphs 9 & 10:
- On February 11, 21:40 - 22:25 PST, computer system listed as bi.fish.com (belonging to Dan Farmer) is hacked into by gkremen@netcom.com and computer programs are compressed and transferred to another machine.
- Files are later transferred to the Internet provider The Well. E-mail is read and hacker backdoor tools allowing the intruder to obtain root access are initiated. Programs to erase all accounting log files of intruder are activated.
- Internex.net a [sic] Internet provider is accessed and backdoor programs are activated. On this machine stolen files are placed in the lost+found directory, a favorite place to hide information.
- Intruder changes directories into that of New York Times writer John Markoff. Intruder reads E-mail and then deletes the mail from the system.
- On February 12, 12:40 - 12:53 PST, from Netcom the intruder hacks into Mead Data Central (archive site for newspapers). Intruder then logs into escape.com then csn.org and begins to read the E-mail of a user named hank.
- On February 13, 15:45 - 15:58 PST, intruder logs into internex.net then into escape.com where he changes the permissions and .rhost file of writer John Markoff to make his account world accessible by anyone. Proceeds to delete several files from the system. Activates backdoor hacking tools to obtain root superuser status on machine.
Investigation conducted via electronic tracking measures has narrowed the citus of the target's cellular phone operations into the computer networks to Apartment No. 107 and Apartment No. 108, located in Players Apartment Complex on 4640 Tournament Road, Raleigh, North Carolina. Investigation of the leases on these apartments reveal that Apartment No. 107 was leased on February 4, 1995, by a new lessee. This is the precise date on which the target began operating out of the Raleigh, North Carolina, area. The other apartment is leased by the girlfriend of the apartment complex's manager, who is not a suspect.
Based upon the above stated facts, and upon my training and experience, your affiant believes that a resident of the Players Apartment Complex, is actively engaged in illegal use of cellular telephone to make unauthorized access into the above listed computer systems and of as yet, undetermined computer and business entities, a violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1030, Computer Fraud and Abuse.
To the best of my knowledge and belief, the information contained in the above affidavit is true and accurate.
LEVORD M. BURNS
Special Agent
Federal Bureau of Investigation
THE MITNICK FAQ FROM 'THE WELL'
[mod's note: Kevin Mitnick's arrest was connected with the investigation of intrusions on the WELL, a conferencing system in Sausalito, California.
The WELL has issued a press statement in the form of a FAQ]:
The WELL: FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Sheet for Press
Q. When did The WELL first become aware of the unauthorized activity on it's system?
A. Friday, January 27th.
Q. How did you discover it?
A. A routine system check.
Q. What actions did the WELL take to help track the suspect?
A. Our technical staff began monitoring and analyzing the situation over that weekend. By Monday, we had contacted Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT), The FBI, Sun's Security Team, Tsutomo Shimomura of San Diego Supercomputer Center, the Board of Directors of The WELL, representatives of The WELL community and EFF to discuss our appropriate response. We also contacted other Internet service sites who we believed were compromised. Our main objective was to understand risks, options, and factors affecting our system security and Net-wide responsibilities.
After discussing the situation with the above groups, and carefully considering our options and responsibilities, we made the decision to contact the U.S. Attorney's Office and to cooperate with Tsutomo Shimomura in apprehending the intruder. We did this in an effort to foster greater security on the global net.
We initiated round-the-clock staffing to monitor the illegal activity. WELL technical staff were joined by Mr. Shimomura and his associates to help trace the suspect using sophisticated monitoring software that he supplied.
At no time was the FBI onsite at The WELL or involved in monitoring at our site.
Q. What was the chronology of events at The WELL the day leading up to the arrest of Kevin Mitnick?
A. Tuesday, February 14, 2:30 pm PST
WELL technical staff, which had been monitoring the activity for nearly 18 days, notices that the cracker has erased information on one transaction file on The WELL. The transaction file (there are dozens of accounting files on The WELL) contained user log-on data, and was a file which is stored elsewhere and backed up regularly.
WELL decides to bring the system down so we can re-build the damaged file and do further investigation. WELL staff shuts down WELL computers.
Tuesday, February 14, 3:00 pm PST
Technical staff positively determines that it is only one accounting file that has been affected. Approximately three hours after the incident the damaged file is rebuilt.
Tuesday, February 14, 5:00 pm PST
Shimomura and assistants are contacted, and confirm with The WELL technology team that the cracker appeared to have made a typing error when he zeroed the one accounting file. Shimomura reports that they are hours from catching the suspect.
Tuesday, February 14, 8:30 pm PST
WELL puts system back up. Monitoring continues in full gear.
Tuesday, February 14, 10:30 pm PST
Kevin Mitnick is arrested in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Q. What other sites were affected?
A. In the interest of their privacy, we will not say. We believe that at least a dozen sites were compromised.
Q. What are The WELL's normal security procedures?
A. The WELL follows normal UNIX and Internet system security procedures including, but not limited to, implementing changes as recommended by CERT advisories, security patches as available from vendors (e.g. SUN, Cisco), regular use of system security diagnostic software, including "crack" and other appropriate security related measures. We feel it is inappropriate to enumerate all our security measures in a public forum.
Q. Did the cracker get WELL members' credit card information or personal files?
A. To the extent that we are able to determine, no credit card information was accessed by the intruder.
We monitored nearly every keystroke of the cracker. A total of 11 accounts were compromised by the intruder, and we have contacted all of the account holders. In general, the cracker was not interested in information on The WELL itself, but used the WELL for storing files from other sites.
Q. Wouldn't have changing all members' passwords have secured the system?
A. Fundamentally, it wouldn't have made any difference. The tools used by this cracker would not have been defeated by changing individual passwords. Additionally, we have no information that would lead us to believe that member's passwords had been cracked or distributed.
Q. What exactly were you monitoring and who was doing this?
A. We were tracking network transactions, e.g.. ftp, smtp, telnet etc. to and from systems known and/or suspected by us to have been compromised. We added additional sites as we learned about this.
Those monitoring our system included The WELL tech staff as well as Andrew Gross, a consultant from Shimomura's office.
Q. What are you doing to strengthen the security of The WELL?
A. We've purchased a new main server, a Sparc 1000e. We're re-installing application software from binaries, implementing one-time (DES) password protection for critical including root passwords, and requiring every user on the system to select a new password (adhering to standards that make password cracking more difficult). We are continuing close liaison with Sun specialists and other system security specialists and advisors to examine techniques used by the cracker to gain system access and addressing these system weaknesses.
The WELL plans to install the new Sparc 1000e on Monday, February 20th.
This is from the AP wire for Thursday, February 16, 1995.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - He was a notorious computer vandal, a fugitive described by one official as "the most wanted hacker in the world."
In more than two years on the run, Kevin D. Mitnick allegedly pilfered thousands of data files and at least 20,000 credit card numbers, worming his way into even the most sophisticated systems.
But Mitnick, who once broke into a top-secret military defense system as a teen-age prank, apparently infiltrated one computer too many.
One of his latest victims, a computer security expert, was so angered that he made it his crusade to track Mitnick down.
Mitnick, 31, was charge with computer fraud, punishable by 20 years in prison, and illegal use of a telephone access device, which carries a maximum 15-year sentence. Both crimes also are punishable by $250,000 fines.
He already was wanted in California for violating probation on a previous hacking conviction.
"He was clearly the most wanted computer hacker in the world," Kent Walker, an assistant U.S. attorney in San Francisco who helped coordinate the investigation, told The New York Times. "He allegedly had access to corporate trade secrets worth billions of dollars. He was a very big threat."
Mitnick had been on the run since 1992. Authorities say he broke into many of the nation's telephone networks, and most recently he had become a suspect in a rash of break-ins on the global Internet computer network. "He's a computer terrorist," said John Russell, a U.S. Justice Department spokesman.
Mitnick's downfall began Christmas Day, when he broke into the home computer of Tsutomu Shimomura of the San Diego Supercomputer Center and stole security programs he had written.
Incensed, Shimomura canceled a ski vacation and assembled a team of computer experts to hunt down the intruder. They traced Mitnick to Netcom, a nationwide Internet access provider, and with the help of federally subpoenaed phone records determined that he was lacing calls from a cellular phone near Raleigh-Durham International Airport, the Times said.
Early Monday morning, Shimomura drove around Raleigh with a telephone company technician. They used a cellular frequency direction-finding antenna hooked to a laptop to narrow the search to an apartment complex. The FBI arrested Mitnick after a 24-hour stakeout.
Shimomura, 30, attended Mitnick's prearraignment hearing Wednesday at the federal courthouse in Raleigh. At the end of the hearing, a handcuffed Mitnick turned to Shimomura, who he had never met, according to the Times. "Hello, Tsutomu. I respect your skills." Shimomura nodded solemnly.
BRAIN DEAD IN CYBERSPACE
By Jim Silvania
The demise of America's number one cyperthief, Kevin Mitnick, The Condor, has been widely reported. Discussions among Internet users regarding Mitnick's arrest have led to some interesting revelations. There appears to be a growing fear by Internet computer users that Mitnick (sometimes referred to as the "Hannibal Lector of hacking"), or other cyberpunks with modems, could somehow gain access to their private computer system and reek havoc by stealing their secrets or implanting an information consuming virus. The possibility exists but even more of a threat is someone surreptitiously entering your home or business and walking off with your hard drive and thereby rendering your business brain dead.
Medical shows (such as ER and Chicago Hope) have once again become popular with TV viewers. Would I be revealing my age if I stated I can remember watching Ben Casey, M.D. and Dr. Kildare? In all of the previous mentioned medical shows one scene always portrayed is that of a patient lying in a hospital bed hooked up to a visual monitor. One soon learned that at some point during the show the lines on the monitor went flat causing the monitor to sound an alarm and thereby sending the staff into a controlled "Code Blue" panic. In the older television dramas, the doctor would rush to the rescue and save the dying patient. In the newer TV dramas, the viewers have learned that if the lines on the monitor remain flat, the patient dies. The patient is labeled "brain dead" and all bodily functions cease.
I am now involved in an investigation of another theft or a lobotomy of a business entity. Again an uncommon thief has entered a business and removed or stolen the computer's hard drive. The hard drive contained the business' customer list. In one of the more recent cases, not only did the perpetrator steal the hard drive, he/she also stole the taped backup which was located next to the hard drive and, of course, plainly marked "backup".
The thieves in these past instances did not gain access to the business' secrets via the use of a modem or the process of hacking. The acts of these criminal s were committed as easily as the professional shoplifter who steals from the neighborhood discount store.
The investigation into the theft of a hard drive becomes a horse of a different color. The street cop who is dispatched to the business to take the theft report views the whole affair as just a minor theft of computer hardware that can be easily replaced by submitting an insurance claim. The investigating detective with a stack of 100 reports on his desk views the matter in the same light. What neither law enforcement officer realizes is that the actions of the perpetrators amount to more than just a theft. Their actions amount to murder. The lines on the monitor monitoring your business have gone flat. The alarm should be sounding a "Code Blue" because your company is now "brain dead".
The motivations of such thievery can be inclusive of espionage, subversion, competitor intelligence or just a disgruntled employee seeking revenge. Here are some tips on preventing your business from becoming "brain dead":
- Secure your hard drive, preferably with a lock and key.
- Pass wording doesn't cut it. If your hard drive is stolen, it can be booted by a floppy disk or simply mounting your hard drive into a new computer.
- Secure your backup. It belongs someplace else other than next to your computer.
1995 SUMMERCON INFORMATION
By Chris Goggans (phrack@well.sf.ca.us)
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Phrack Magazine and Computer Security Technologies proudly present:
The 1995 Summer Security Conference
SSSS U U M M M M EEEEE RRRR CCCC OOOO N N
S U U MM MM MM MM E R R C O O NN N
SSS U U M M M M M M M M EEE RRRR C O O N N N
S U U M M M M M M E R R C O O N NN
SSSS UUUU M M M M EEEEE R R CCCC OOOO N N"SUMMERCON"
June 2-4 1995 @ the Downtown Clarion Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia
This is the official announcement and open invitation to the 1995 incarnation of Summercon. In the past, Summercon was an invite-only hacker gathering held annually in St. Louis, Missouri. Starting with this incarnation, Summercon is open to any and all interested parties: Hackers, Phreaks, Pirates, Virus Writers, System Administrators, Law Enforcement Officials, Neo-Hippies, Secret Agents, Teachers, Disgruntled Employees, Telco Flunkies, Journalists, New Yorkers, Programmers, Conspiracy Nuts, Musicians and Nudists.
LOCATION:
The Clarion Hotel is located in downtown Atlanta, 9 miles from Hartsfield International Airport and just a few blocks from the Peachtree Center MARTA Station.
Considering the exorbitant expenses involved with attending other conferences of this type, Rooms at Summercon are reduced to
$65 per night for Single or Double Occupancy
The Clarion Hotel Downtown, Courtland at 70 Houston St., NE,
Atlanta, GA 30303
(404) 659-2660 or (800) 241-3828 (404) 524-5390 (fax)
No one likes to pay a hundred dollars a night. We don't expect you to have to. Spend your money on room service, drinks in the hotel bar, or on k-rad hacker t-shirts. Remember: Mention that you are attending Summercon in order to receive the discount.
DIRECTIONS
75/85 Southbound - Exit 97 (Courtland). Go 3 blocks south on Courtland then turn left on Houston (John Wesley Dobbs Ave.)
20 East - Exit 75/85 North at International. Turn Left on Courtland at Houston Ave. NE. (aka. John Wesley Dobbs Ave. NE.)
20 West - Exit 75/85 North at International. One block to Courtland and right at Houston Ave. NE. (John Wesley Dobbs Ave. NE.)
Atlanta Airport Shuttle - The Express Bus that leaves from Atlanta's International Airport will drop you off at many hotels in the downtown area, including the Clarion. The shuttle should be no more than 12 dollars. Fares may be paid at the Airport Shuttle in the Ground Transportation area of the Airport Terminal.
MARTA - The Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA), is a convenient and inexpensive way to negotiate most of the Atlanta area. Take the MARTA train from the Airport to the Peach Tree Center Station. Walk three blocks down Houston to the intersection of Houston and Courtland. The MARTA fare will be roughly 2 dollars.
Taxis - The average cab fare from Atlanta's Airport to the downtown area is roughly 30 dollars.
CONFERENCE INFO
It has always been our contention that cons are for socializing. "Seekret Hacker InPh0" is never really discussed except in private circles, so the only way anyone is going to get any is to meet new people and take the initiative to start interesting conversations.
Because of this, the formal speaking portion of Summercon will be held on one day, not two or three, leaving plenty of time for people to explore the city, compare hacking techniques, or go trashing and clubbing with their heretofore unseen online companions.
The "Conference" will be held on June 3rd from roughly 11:00 am until 6:00 pm with a 1 hour lunch break from 1:00 to 2:00.
NO VIDEO TAPING WILL BE ALLOWED IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM. Audio Taping and still photography will be permitted.
CURRENT LIST OF SPEAKERS:
Robert Steele - Ex-Intelligence Agent, Founder and CEO of Open Source Solutions (a private sector intelligence firm)
Topic: Hackers from the Intelligence Perspective
Winn Schwartau - Author of "Information Warfare" and "Terminal Compromise", Publisher of Security Insider Report, and noted security expert
Topic: Electromagnetic Weaponry
Bob Stratton - Information Security Expert from one of America's largest Internet service providers
Topic: The Future of TCP/IP Security
Eric Hughes - Cryptography Expert and founding member of the "Cypherpunks"
Topic: Cryptography, Banking, and Commerce
Annaliza Savage - London-based Director/Producer
Topic: Discussion of her documentary "Unauthorized Access" (Followed by a public screening of the film)
Chris Goggans - Editor of Phrack Magazine and Summercon M.C.
Topic: introductions, incidentals and a topic which is sure to culminate in an international incident.
(Other Speakers May Be Added - Interested parties may contact scon@fc.net)
COSTS
Since other cons of this type have been charging from 25 to 40 dollars entry fees, we are only charging 10 dollars. Yes, that's correct, TEN (10) dollars in US currency. Money is far too scarce among the hacker community to fleece everyone for money they will probably need to eat with or pay for their hotel rooms.
WHAT TO DO IN ATLANTA:
To attempt to make everyone's stay in Atlanta more exciting, we are contacting local establishments to arrange for special discounts and/or price reductions for Summercon attendees. Information will be handed out regarding these arrangements at the conference.
Atlanta is a happening town.
Touristy Stuff Party Time
The World of Coca-Cola Buckhead
Underground Atlanta The Gold Club
Georgia Dome (Baseball?) (Countless Other Clubs and Bars)
Six Flags
CONTACTING SUMMERCON SPONSORS
You can contact the Summercon sponsors by several means:
E-mail: scon@fc.net
WWW: http://www.fc.net/scon.html
Snail Mail: Phrack Magazine
603 W. 13th #1A-278
Austin, TX 78701
If deemed severely urgent, you can PGP your email with the following PGP
key:
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- -----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----See you in Atlanta!
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FRINGE WARE REVIEW #7 - THE WeIrD ISSUE
By Jon Lebkowsky (jonl@io.com)
A while back ago, a friend of ours named Andy V. chatted with FWR about doing a parody of Wired magazine. At the same time some of the FWR editors were having a lively discussion with one of the Wired editors about doing parodies of other zines...you get the picture.
Featured in FWR #7 you will find our idears about how that glossy, six-color rag from SF should be produced--that is if they had our limited budget and a good measure of self-humor. Check here for the latest WeIrD news in our new departments: Electronic Weird, Gorgon Watch, Fringe Product Fetish, Rants & Raves, etc... You'll also find a second installment of the graphic novel Eight Hands by Glenn Israel, our mailart showcase featuring an original by Tiffany Lee Brown & Bart Nagel...photography and illustrations by Monte McCarter, BB Depew, Caresse P-Orridge, nos4a2, Heath Bunting, and GAK-Art...plus a bright (almost-six) color cover, the usual fun of our back cover PGP message/contest, and an updated catalog of gizmos, widgets and memes.
-- Paco Xander Nathan
special issue editor, FWR #7
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Wired Sonnet
Mary Denning: will she ever work again in this town?
Stuck in the MUD
grimoire @ telnet mud.stanford.edu 2010: why PXN's shrink enjoys the Net so much
Gorgon Watch
Garnet Baldwyg: our friend and cohort explains what those funny words in the FW email list headers mean..
Fringe Product Fetish
Scotto: stuff you really can't afford, but really can't afford not to have read about here
R.U.Wired?
Baby Boy Depew & Monte McCarter: in a WiReD world, somebody's nearly always yanking your strings
Tubed
Don Webb: noted author dares question about the future of a brave new medium
Consciousness In A Box
Jon Lebkowsky: the scifi mythopoetic delusional psychoelectronic "I"
McLuhan Center i/v
Spiro(s) Antonopoulos: FWR's newest contributing editor actually calls up one of those adverts found in the back of Wired magazine
Genesis P-Orridge i/v
Dissemination Network: Brother Gen talks openly about his connection with Bill Gates and other people who control the world
KNOW-THIS
Genesis P-Orridge: "Thee Frequency Ov Truth"
DIY Infobotics
Paco Xander Nathan: FWR dares advocate the heir of demons
nEurorAncid
Paco Xander Nathan: you've probably read Neuromancer...welcome to bubbaspace
Pick Your Noise
Demandra: music you should listen to, now
Drugs We Used
Scotto: it takes a lot of personal sacrifice to produce an issue of WeIrD magazine, but hey we're pros...
Techgnosis
Shelly Soma: speculations on technology, ritual and other such matters
HOW TO SUBSCRIBE
for more info, send the email message GET SUBSCRIBE to: info@fringeware.com or call: +1 512 323 0039
Proposed FTC Rules Could Reduce Telemarketing Abuses
By Barry D. Fraser (fraser@pwa.acusd.edu)
Online Legal Research Associate
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has proposed a set of rules which would ban many deceptive or abusive telemarketing sales practices. Although there has been very little publicity about this rulemaking, it could severely restrict telemarketing activity and substantially cut down on those annoying sales calls that always seem to come at the wrong time. It would also provide a strong deterrent to scam artists.
The FTC is seeking public comment over the next several weeks on the proposed rules. A copy of the proposal can be obtained by calling 202.326.2222. The actual text is very long (120 pages), so interested persons might request a press release which explains the rules in some detail. I'm not aware of any online availability of these materials.
Under the proposed rules, telemarketers would have to tell consumers at the beginning of each call that it is a sales call and provide the name of the seller. The rule would prohibit telemarketing calls before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m. Telemarketers offering credit or loans, credit repair services, or assistance to consumers in recovering lost money from prior telemarketing schemes, would be prohibited from seeking payment until the services have been rendered.
Additionally, telemarketers would be required to disclose all material information about any offer made to a consumer, and would be required to obtain signed acknowledgment of written disclosure regarding all prize-promotions and investment offerings before seeking any payment. These disclosures must include information about the retail price of all prizes, odds of winning, costs of obtaining any prize, and the "No purchase necessary to win" statement.
The proposed rules also prohibit a variety of specific misrepresentations, including that a person was selected to receive a prize, that the telemarketer is affiliated with a government entity, or that the telemarketer can improve credit records or obtain loans for customers regardless of credit record.
Also, telemarketers would be prohibited from calling consumers more than once every three months to sell the same thing, and calling consumers who have stated that they do not want to be called by the telemarketer. Violations of the proposed rule could result in civil penalties of up to $10,000 per violation.
There will likely be strong resistance from the telemarketing industry to these regulations, and attempts to weaken the proposed rules. Written comments in support of the rules may be submitted to the FTC, Office of the Secretary, Room 159, Washington D.C. 20580, and should be captioned "Proposed Telemarketing Sales Rule." The FTC requests that the comments also be submitted on disk, preferably in a DOS word processor format, or as a text file.
BTW, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse has a free publication entitled "Telemarketing: Whatever Happened to a Quiet Evening at Home?" that provides tips on cutting down on sales calls. The document is available via gopher at gopher.acusd.edu; ftp at teetot.acusd.edu cd pub/privacy; WWW at http://www.manymedia.com/prc/; or e-mail this address for a copy.
CHAOS CORNER V05 N01 27 (Feb '95)
By Dr. Chaos (drchaos@pelican.cit.cornell.edu)
Copyright 1995 by Robert D. Cowles; Ithaca, NY 14850. Permission is hereby granted to republish complete issues in unaltered form.
Republication of partial issues must reference the source and state that subscriptions to Chaos Corner are available (free) by sending electronic mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu.
Table of Contents for V05 N01
Book Reviews - *Internet After Hours* - *Your Internet Consultant*
Two months and a New Year
OS/2 Warp status report
Game information - FAQs and more FAQs
Files of Interest? in the Archives
Contribution from alt.humor.puns
MCI and Telephone Foolishness
Telling the World Who You Are
Voyager - It's on the Internet
A Few More Web Resources of Interest
Get your Free Subscription Here!
Book Reviews - *Internet After Hours* - *Your Internet Consultant*
One of the problems with writing a book about the Internet is the speed at which the Internet changes relative to normal publishing cycles. Many things that seem new and full of promise when book is first written (like Apple's Newton) are battle scarred veterans by the time the books sees print. Although the books appeared fairly recently, there have been many changes during the 9-12 month period from the time the text is written.
As mentioned in V04 N06, we received a copy of *Internet After Hours* by Andy Eddy. The book describes itself as a " ... guide to finding games, entertainment, and just plain weirdness on the Internet!" The Internet described in the book is one from 1993. (While there is some mention of personal computers connecting to the Internet via SLIP or PPP, the connection method often assumed is to a Unix or VMS system via a command line interface. The World Wide Web is mentioned in the Glossary, in the Big Fun list, and in a short section about Wired magazine. The Internet source of answers to Frequently Asked Questions was referred to by its old name of pit-manager.mit.edu rather than rtfm.mit.edu.) Nearly 40 pages are devoted to Internet Relay Chat (a development spinoff of BITNET Relay) with all the detail of a reference book. However, with only a six page index the book can hardly qualify. Fully 25% of the book is occupied with reprints of Internet accessible lists that are 6- 12 months old. Editorially, some figures that were lists of commands got moved to pages or sections where they not really relevant -- in the interest of not splitting the figure -- making the use of the book for reference more difficult. On the plus side, we enjoyed the descriptions of MUDs and NetTrek. This book is most suitable for someone with almost no net experience who is feeling the "need" to be online but hasn't quiet found a good enough reason to invest the time and effort.
The book *Your Internet Consultant* (subtitled "The FAQs of Life Online") is written by Kevin Savetz (maintainer of several lists that we have referenced in Chaos Corner). The format of this book is to provide answers (sometimes contributed by topical experts) to certain questions that have been asked over and over again by newcomers to the Internet. Again, the book suffers from having material that is sometimes more than 10 months old -- a long time on the Internet. Savetz writes that the Simtel20 archives are no longer being updated -- surely a surprise to Keith Peterson, the maintainer of the archives. (The archives are quite alive and continue to set high standards for how to maintain and organize the huge volume of DOS freeware and shareware.) Savetz also writes that PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) is contraband software (due to legal maneuvering that was going on when the book was written). We won't claim to KNOW a status for PGP, but we're pretty sure that licensing restrictions for private users have been substantially removed (of course, we're not lawyers ...). The method of sending faxes via the Internet has been vastly improved since the book was written ... you are no longer required to enter the destination fax number in reverse order. On the plus side, the combination of a 25 page index and a nearly 20 page table of contents improve the ability to use this book as a reference material. The combination of the Questions (listed in the Table of Contents) and the Index make it much easier to look up some dimly remembered fact (Dr. Chaos likes to point out that I don't remember ANY facts except dimly). By organizing the book around answers to specific questions, Savetz has done a good job of keeping up the flow of information without having to back up and explain in each answer how to use something like FTP or gopher. Most of the topics mentioned in *Internet After Hours* are also mentioned in *Your Internet Consultant*, with less detail but pointers to get you to the current information.
Two months and a New Year
It's been nearly two months since the last Chaos Corner, and, as usual, we have far too much saved up to possibly be able to tell you about. The most popular file from last time was the Descent FAQ (I hope none of you have had motion sickness while playing it.) The current version is now 1.0; if you want the "production" version of the FAQ describing this great game, send e-mail to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. We appreciate the interest of our readers in other pursuits, since the file on Physics was a close second. We also welcome over 250 new readers to with issue.
OS/2 Warp status report
Last week, IBM announced availability of OS/2 Warp ... the surprise was that they actually got the upgrade offers out to registered OS/2 2.1 users in record time (USD 89, shipping included if ordered before March 31). Just in time, the FAQ for OS/2 Warp is now available via anonymous ftp from ftp-os2.cdrom.com from the /pub/os2/incoming directory. Look for the file named faq3.zip. It will probably be moved at some point, but nothing has been moved from the incoming directory of that site for over 2 months, so it's difficult to say when that might happen. If you have a web browser (like the Web Explorer for OS/2), a good place for OS/2 tips and techniques is the Warp Pharmacy -- just point you browser to http://www.zeta.org.au/~jon/WarpPharmacy.html. Another source of OS/2 information is: http://www.cen.uiuc.edu/~rs9678/raj.html at the University of Illinois.
Game information - FAQs and more FAQs
A wonderful place for information on your favorite game is located in the UK (my daughter is just returning from the UK after spending a little more than a week there with her high school Global Studies class). The URL http://wcl-rs.bham.ac.uk/GamesDomain/games.html will get you to the page that lists the FAQs that are available. It's the only place we know of to get the Sim City 2000 FAQ (for those of you who keep building cities but can never get anyone to move in).
Files of Interest? in the Archives
As we look over the Chaos Corner archives, Dr. Chaos is only to happy to point out the wonderful collection he has for this issue. A guaranteed favorite is "The Canonical Collection of Lightbulb Jokes" -- careful when you ask for it -- it's over 4400 lines long (it IS the canonical collection!). Of course, there's always Scott Yanoff's wonderful "Updated Internet Services List" and for those interested in German or Germany, there's the FAQ from the soc.culture.german Usenet newsgroup (if you just want to keep up with Deutsche Welle, take a look at ftp- dw.gmd.de). For the first time -- Dr. Chaos has a mini-FAQ on the Sony CDU 55E CD-ROM drive (having acquired such a drive, we have developed some interest in such information). For those of you wanting to take a break from the games, there is a file giving the location "Physics Servers and Services Around the World". If you would like any of these files, just send your request to chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. Ever wonder what the real difference is between SLIP and PPP protocols as ways of accessing the Internet?
Contribution from alt.humor.puns
There have been several versions of this pun posted to the Usenet newsgroup alt.humor.puns recently and Dr. Chaos thought we should share it with you all:
Israel police were looking for a man named Joseph, wanted for looting in the port city of Haifa.
The suspect was described as the son of a Barcelona ex-nun and a German father. He was a former flutist and worked occasionally as a farmer.
In short, he was "A Haifa-lootin', flutin' Teuton, son-of-a-nun from Barcelona, part-time plowboy Joe."
MCI and Telephone Foolishness
Are you suffering through the Winter? If you call (sorry, North America only) 1-800-969-4874 (also 1-800-WOW-ITSHOT) you get connected to their seasonal hot line. There are 9 different summer sounds you can listen to like: someone playing golf; a baseball game; tropical birds; etc. One other telephone trick -- have you gotten a check from AT&T that switches your long distance carrier to them if you cash it? If you want to stay with MCI, just call them up and get the address where you can send the AT&T check. MCI will send back to you a certificate worth USD 40 -- and the certificate grows in value by USD 5 / month until it reaches a maximum of USD 100 after one year. Isn't competition wonderful?
A document that is on its way to Internet RFC status is something you might be interested in taking a look at. The document contains all US and international area codes, telex codes, country codes, etc. The name of the document is /internet-draft/draft-robinson-newtelex-01.txt and it can be obtained by anonymous ftp from the following sites:
Africa: ftp.is.co.za (196.4.160.2)
Europe: nic.nordu.net (192.36.148.17)
Pacific Rim: munnari.oz.au (128.250.1.21)
US East Coast: ds.internic.net (198.49.45.10)
US West Coast: ftp.isi.edu (128.9.0.32)Telling the World Who You Are
As we have stated in other issues, the most requested file we have in our collection is one containing a large number of humorous signatures. In what might be a close runner-up, we now are pleased to announce the availability of the "Signature and Finger FAQ" -- all you ever wanted to know about these distinctively different ways to let people know the REAL you. Request it from chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu, supplies are limited so act quickly!
Voyager - It's on the Internet
Through the usual set of bureaucratic red tape and finger pointing, Ithaca, NY seems to be blessed with about 60-70 cable television channels -- none of which carry the new Star Trek series. We are not limited to watching re-runs of the former series -- because Star Trek Voyager is On The Internet! Paramount pictures has gotten into the act with Web pages containing sound clips and QuickTime movies -- point your Web browser to http://voyager.paramount.com and start with your visit to the holographic doctor. Other Star Trek information can be found on the Internet at http://www.ftms.com/vidiot.
A Few More Web Resources of Interest
For you weather freaks out there, it's great to have someone prepare an annotated list of weather-related resources on the Internet. Check out http://www.eskimo.com/~jgriffin/weather.html for everything you might want to know about the weather. Having driven used Volvo cars for the past 21 years (drive'em until they rust away is our motto), we will point out that the Volvo home page on the Web (for the US and Canada, in any case) is located at http://organic.com/Ads/Volvo. See pictures of the 1995 models and options and locate the nearest dealer. Dr. Chaos points out that we won't have any of these cars for at least 5 years, but who knows -- one of you out there may be the first owner of the car we eventually buy. Take good care of it, OK?
Get your Free Subscription Here!
Just send a message to Dr. Chaos - chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu and ask to be put on the subscription list. From CompuServe, use the address INTERNET:chaos-request@pelican.cit.cornell.edu. It's that easy.
Don't delay ---- act now!
Dr. Chaos
THE FINAL BREATHS OF THE AMERICAN DREAM
The Agonizing Demise Of The American Way Of Life
By Kenneth C. Stahl (kstahl@nr.infi.net)
About the author: Kenneth C Stahl is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Colorado State University with a B.A. in Speech Communication. He served in the U.S. Navy for seven years and later spent 11 years with the Central Intelligence Agency as a Telecommunications Officer and as a Computer Systems Analyst Programmer, serving in both domestic and foreign assignments. He is currently working as a software consultant and lives in Greensboro, North Carolina.
Most people are short-sighted. They know little about history and are so consumed with the every day affairs of their own lives that they never really question whether they will have a future. Sadly, any honest appraisal of current trends in our society will reveal that any hope for a better future is rapidly fading. The American people are beginning to suffer daily at the hands of a minority who will eventually enslave the general populace.
There is a story told of an goldfish who spent it's days swimming to and fro in its fish tank. One day the owner of this fish decided that it was a shame to waste all that water just so the goldfish could live comfortably, so the owner removed a cup of water and told the fish that it was really for its own good and that he would never miss the water. The goldfish didn't mind. He didn't even really notice that his environment had shrunken slightly. Over the next few weeks the owner would occasionally remove another cup of water - each time with the remark that the goldfish really didn't need all of that water anyhow. As the goldfish's world became smaller, he noticed that he wasn't as free as he once was and the water was now a bit more cloudy then it used to be, but he could still swim back and forth in his tank without experiencing any genuine discomfort. The rate at which the water was being withdrawn was so gradual that the goldfish never saw his own doom approaching. One day, the goldfish noticed that he now seemed to be spending all of his time at the bottom of the tank next to the gravel. He could no longer swim up and down in the tank, but since he could still swim forward and to the right and the left, he merely frowned and tried to make the best of his situation. At least he was still being fed every day, and the water was still the right temperature. Finally, however, the day came when the owner removed a cup of water and the goldfish noticed that his dorsal fin was exposed unless he stayed in just one small area of the tank where there was a small depression in the gravel. He began to worry, but had to be careful about how he moved around now. He also noticed that he was feeling more lethargic - primarily because the water could not hold sufficient oxygen. That night the heater was turned off in the tank, but since it was winter and the tank sat near a heat vent, the goldfish just remained still to conserve energy. When dawn came the next day, the owner removed one more cup of water and finally the goldfish saw his own doom approaching. Barely able to think clearly due to oxygen deprivation, he yearned for the old days when the tank was filled to the top with clear, sparkling water, but the memory of those days was quickly fading. That evening, the owner saw the goldfish lying on its side, its fins barely moving. He shrugged and turned out the light as he left the room. In the morning the goldfish was dead. He had been dying for a long time and had not realized it.
So it is with the society that we live in today. We do not recognize that every so gradually our freedoms are being taken from us. We desperately hope that those who have the power in this country will have compassion on us and we are too frightened of what they might do to us if we anger them by being ungrateful for the few remaining freedoms that we still posses.
Over two hundred years ago, the individuals who fought so desperately for freedom from tyranny sought to create a country which was grounded in principles of freedom. Freedom from being told what they must believe, where they must live and how they must think and act. They had a fundamental belief that if people were given freedom, they would not use that freedom to create anarchy. For two hundred years, the people of this country demonstrated that the founders had not been mistaken. Then, suddenly, without warning, the first cup of water was removed. We were starting to die and we didn't even know it.
The evidence is before us.
Do people really understand the news that is being reported by the media? Or do they simply perceive it as just another form of nightly entertainment? Can anyone really listen to the stories and not be alarmed by what they hear?
There is a movement to pass a constitutional amendment to put prayer back in our public schools. This seems to assume that prayer is not permitted in our public schools. Is there anyone who really believes this? For students who have been raised in a religious family and who frequently use prayer in their personal lives, offering a prayer to God is a natural part of their everyday existence. I doubt that there are very many who sneak into a lonely corner, carefully check to see whether they were followed and then keep one eye open while they silently bow their head to place their petitions before God. This movement isn't about religious freedom - it concerns efforts to force everyone to accept a notion of God that is held by a few in the power elite who believe that if God has not intervened to make everyone pray, then they must act as agents for God and coerce religion with legislative force. The concept of silent of prayer that they desire is decidedly a Christian version. They certainly do not want Muslims to bring their prayer rugs to public schools and face Mecca at the prescribed hours. They don't want followers of eastern religions to burn incense before statues. They want to demand that all students conform to an overt religious practice that is almost totally unique to Christianity.
I, myself, am a Christian and believe very firmly in the Christian faith. I stand by my beliefs based on my own understanding of God. When I offer prayers, it is because I want to come before my Creator and express my concerns and ask for His guidance. If anyone were to tell me that I must bow my head in prayer at precisely 8:45 Monday through Friday, I would view that as an attempt to control my religious expression. What if I didn't bow my head properly? What if I didn't close my eyes? What if I were really thinking about the girl next door who I saw through an open window the night before? Would the thought police come and arrest me because I was not exhibiting proper respect for the Christian faith. This amendment is a bad idea. It flies in the face of every principle upon which our nation was founded. The individuals who left their homes to come to an unexplored land far from their families and familiar surrounds often did so because they had lost the freedom to worship God in their own way. A constitutional amendment to put prayer back in our public schools may sound like something very noble and worthy, but are the American people really willing to pay the price for the eventual lawsuits which will result from such a frivolous use of the Constitution? Inevitably, someone will not exhibit the proper level of respect and deference towards someone who will claim that their Constitutional right to pray was hindered. The resultant lawsuit will mark the end of religious tolerance in the United States.
There is also a belief by some that we need a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning. What problem will this solve? How will the common citizen of this country benefit from such an amendment? This movement displays a gross ignorance about the role of the U.S. Constitution in the framework of our country's judiciary system. Flag burning will become a political crime and we will soon begin to populate our prisons with political prisoners. Did someone kill the innocent daughter of a lowly rural craftsman? Yes, but the murderer was a victim of poor parentage and was successfully reformed. Did someone burn a flag? He has insulted the entire country. Such a crime must be dealt with severely or else no one will ever have respect for the symbols of our country. Has anyone stopped their ravings long enough to remember that symbols are only physical representations of the underlying object? Burning a flag does little more then demonstrate that the individual is so frustrated with society that a symbolic act is performed which will certainly generate attention by the media. If the media were able to just walk away in silent disgust from such obscene displays, flag burnings would lose their power to attract attention. If there is a perceived need to protect the symbols of our country, enact a public law to that effect. A constitutional amendment would only be seen by the world at large as a desperate act.
Why do lawmakers want to enact legislation as constitutional amendments? The explanation is very simple but seems to evade many. If an amendment is made to the constitution, the judiciary cannot declare the provision to be unconstitutional since that would violate the principle of constitutionality. In other words, there is no effective JUDICIAL challenge to any part of the constitution since it is the ostensible basis for all other laws in our country. All judges, elected officials and federal workers take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. Failure to do so is treasonous and seditious. Once enacted as a constitutional amendment, the only way to counteract the new amendment is to pass another amendment.
In recent years we seem to have forgotten the origins of our country lie in freedom. Freedom of religion. Freedom of expression. Freedom from tyranny. Yet, today we are there are those who believe that this freedom thing is out of hand. They believe that because they hold certain religious beliefs that others should be forced to hold those same beliefs. They believe that an individual's freedom to disagree with the government should be curtailed because it is dangerous to entertain certain ideas. They would like to force subservience on the American people - all under the guise of their own personal agendas.
Whether we like it or not, the America that many of us were raised to believe in has already passed from the scene. Everyone is afraid to question the reductions in our freedoms lest even more is taken from us. The only recourse is for the American people to take back their government by forcing members of Congress and the President to act according to the will of the people rather then on their own personal beliefs. This is not an option. It must be done or else we will live to see our nation crumble slowly and irreversibly. If we do not, then eventually our laws won't even be made by Congress - they will come in the form of demands from other countries. This is already on the horizon in the form of the threat that Japan holds over our economy. There was once a day when the Japanese yen was compared to the U.S. dollar to indicate its relative strength rather then the U.S. dollar being compared to the Japanese yen. How long will it take before Japan can demand that the United States lift all current restrictions on Japanese goods coming into the United States?
There is one final item that I wish to mention. The "most favored nation" trade status for the People's Republic of China. The American public has no idea of why China has been given such status. For years now, politicians stumping for election swear that they will do whatever it takes to rescind the status of China as "most favored nation". Yet, once elected, they only mumble about how it is a complicated issue. There are reasons for China's status that are not being told to the American people. There are very good reasons why the American public should demand a full accountability for this policy despite China's almost total disregard for human rights. Believe me when I say that the American people really NEED to demand answers on this issue and that they should start a drive to recall every Congressman until we can put those in place who will tell the American people the real reason for this policy. This is not another GATT or NAFTA type of issue. There is far more to it then that.
Do I see any hope at all? Unfortunately, no. Complacency is deeply rooted in our society. We simply do not speak out and we willingly re-elect officials whom we cannot trust to represent the interests of the American people. The decline has started. How many years it will be until the world can hear the death rattle of the final breaths of the United States as an independent nation can only be guessed. But, unless the American people once again take destiny into their own hands, the demise of our nation is virtually guaranteed. And the day the American flag is lowered for the last time, will be a sad one indeed.
WIRED WAR TALES: Scientology and the Scorched Internet
By Carl Guderian (bjacques@usis.com)
(WARNING! This piece does not even approach objective journalism. It is a sarcastic essay on a skirmish on a particular usenet newsgroup)
Toss the TV, yank the cable and go online for a ringside seat at the Wired Wars. Among the 6,000 or so usenet newsgroups, about a dozen skirmishes are raging at any given time, fueled by the pent-up energies of shut-ins, insomniac college students, and other disgruntled cybercitizens. Flame wars are the perfect arena for quick-witted geeks who long ago despaired of winning fistfights. They're a lot like the old Star Trek episode in which wars were fought by computer, except you don't have to report for disintegration when your side loses. For lurkers, they deliver more vicarious thrills than a Sweeps Month of Melrose Place. Wars can erupt anytime, anywhere, even on the supermajority of peaceful newsgroups. Most are low-intensity conflicts, verbal potshots desultorily hurled between bored students. A few melt the screen, such as the ongoing battle between Scientologists and everyone else. Some newsgroups promise a few thrills, but the hottest of zones is alt.religion.scientology, where the prose explodes like a Claymore in a Vietnam flashback. So, press "Enter" and let slip the dogs of flame!
The easiest place to pick a fight is on any newsgroup whose name includes guns, politics, religion, a Sunbelt state, or alt.fan.currently (in)famous-politician. It's axiomatic that idiots have invaded the Internet, shipped here in steerage by certain major carriers. If you can't get enough of their noxious opinions on syndicated hate radio you can log on and see them in text. Hommasexshuls, free luv, and liberal media get their comeuppance here, while the rest of the world wonder aloud why Americans are allowed to run loose. It's better than talk radio, since there's no DJ dominating the forum. A lot of jokers "troll," pretending to hold extreme opinions that drive some to apoplectic rage and others to agreement. There is no position so stupid that it won't find support here. But after a while, the nonsense all starts to sound the same and it's time to move on to the harder stuff.
Closer to reality are the soc.culture.[any two countries at war] newsgroups. A few months ago, Peru and Ecuador brought their little squabble online with rival World Wide Web pages. Serbs and Croats, too, continually denounce each other's outrages while denying or defending their own. When the atrocities are well-documented and casualty figures available, the partisans fight over where to put the commas. It's a nice reminder that Americans are not history's only bastards. But after a few requests for the whereabouts of ethnically-cleansed relatives, the fun quickly evaporates out of lurking around, much less posting. And chances are, you haven't survived enough carnage to earn the moral right to post. If, like Kurtz, you feel a need to make a friend of horror, you can find plenty of horrible friends here. If you can keep this kind of company (and can read other languages), these newsgroups are for you. If not, mentally wish luck to the side you dislike least, then take a shower and a quick exit.
The most enjoyable battles are those fought over things that matter not a whit in the real world. Religious arguments, as mentioned above, are hugely entertaining to those who consider blasphemy a victimless crime. Skip alt.religion.[mainstream denomination] unless you went to parochial school and still need to deal with unquiet holy ghosts. For that you can go rent "The Boys of St. Vincent's." Take a sideways turn instead to alt.religion.scientology, locus of a jihad declared against the Church of Scientology by former members, adherents of the cheerfully wacky Church of the Subgenius, and others who can't pass up a good brawl. Whatever fluid leaks out of punctured egos, the virtual fields of a.r.s are awash in it. Odd insults that provoke bemusement elsewhere slash deeply here. A little background in Scientology history and lore may help the newcomer to understand them.
The Church of Scientology is a global organization devoted to promulgating the teachings of the late L. Ron Hubbard, a onetime pulp science fiction writer. Scientology is a sort of human potential movement with appropriately opaque jargon and science-fiction trappings. There is a nautical flavor to it, as Hubbard made a lot of his short stint in the U.S. Navy during World War II. The "Synthiotics" movement depicted in the 1993 TV miniseries "Wild Palms" owes a lot to latter-day Scientology. Many prominent persons are proud to call themselves Scientologists, among them actress Karen Black, eternally beloved of badfilm fans for her role in the Rending Juju Doll segment of "Trilogy of Terror." So are Tom Cruise and John Travolta. Musical Scientologists Chick Corea and Nicky Hopkins contributed to "Space Jazz," a concept album produced as a soundtrack to Hubbard's sci-fi novel "Battlefield Earth." The innocuous jazz-pop and simple lyrics recall "The Ultimate Fantasy," a Seventies-era Star Trek musical that helped die-hard Trekkies (Trekkers? Trekkists?) fill their lives before the movies came out.
Beneath the dorky theology, however, there beats a sinister heart. Almost since its inception in the 1950s, the Church has allegedly involved itself in murky financial dealings, harassment, and general bad craziness. Ex-members have successfully sued the organization for mental and financial abuse. Much of this is documented in two books: Barefaced Messiah: The True Story of L. Ron Hubbard, by Russell Miller and Religion, Inc., by Stewart Lamont. These are not friendly accounts, but they are well-researched, drawing from U.S. government documents released under the Freedom of Information Act, and from Hubbard's own books and personal papers. CoS tactics are directly responsible for its spotty reputation and for the online imbroglio in which it finds itself today.
The war started last winter after the CoS sued a former member for posting it's secrets to the Internet. Dennis Erlich was a high-ranking officer of an "Org," a branch of the Church bureaucracy. His job was to memorize Church policy and dogma and help members cram for examinations as they climbed the ladder to Clearness. Erlich quit over CoS tactics and denounced them on a.r.s, posting damning excerpts from Church documents to back him up. The CoS responded by having Erlich's computer seized and making Erlich travel hundreds of miles to defend himself against a copyright lawsuit. Unable to afford a lawyer, Erlich is defending himself on grounds of fair use and appears to be successful. If he wins, he will probably countersue for harassment.
The Church of Scientology has employed other tactics perfectly suited for making enemies on the Internet. It has sued Internet providers in attempts to silence detractors. The Church got the government of Finland to compromise anon.penet.fi, the world's largest anonymous remailer, forcing the sysop to hand over the identity of an anonymous detractor. Scientologists have allegedly used a program called CancelMoose (tm) to delete unfriendly posts from a.r.s, possibly violating U.S. federal laws against destruction of electronic data. The CoS threatens to sue everybody, but mostly goes after Time Magazine and former members who have gone public. At this rate, the CoS may soon become more unpopular than Canter & Siegel, the "green card" lawyers who last year blanketed ("spammed") the Internet with ads for immigration assistance.
In the other corner, the Rebel Alliance. Along with former members like Mr. Erlich, a.r.s is home to many overeducated, underemployed, dangerously bored college-age Internet surfers. It's no surprise that many belong to the Church of the Subgenius or some Discordian cabal, and post regularly to alt.slack, alt.usenet.kooks, or similar newsgroups. On those newsgroups, the Subgenii and Discordians are often self-referential and precious, but on a.r.s they shine like black opals in blancmange.
Pressing the counterattack, the RA (Hubbard would have approved of such hastily-coined acronyms) posts strange insults, disturbing doctrinal questions, and reports of the doings of various CoS officials. One group is looking for David Miscavige, Hubbard's apparent heir to the CoS empire. Miscavige has disappeared after allegedly shifting church funds around to avoid paying off a court judgment. A group calling itself *Biased Journalism*, reports on the progress of the CoS lawsuit against Erlich, recounting a tale of Scientologists trying to cast the evil eye on the defendant and his supporters, to the amusement of the latter. Still others have posted CoS documents that are part of court records and thus no longer subject to CoS copyright.
The two taunts most often seen on a.r.s are "Rice and Beans!!" and "Snap! Snap! Poor little clams!" The former refers to punishment rations imposed on errant Scientologists for sins like drug use and not raising enough money for the Org. The latter is derived from CoS dogma, which holds that people are descended from clams that had trouble opening and closing to feed from the tide. Each action was a struggle between conflicting sets of muscles, with the weaker set always losing to the stronger set and passing along its frustration to us as genetic memory. In the present, one can induce cramping of jaw muscles in another by saying the above phrase and opening and closing one's hand like a flapping mouth. Since man didn't evolve from clams, this theory doesn't hold much water, ha ha, but it might work on a Scientologist.
THE INTERNET ADDICTION SUPPORT GROUP
By Ivan Goldberg (psydoc@netcom.com)
[This is not real...from what I understand from the author of this message. It was created for good fun. However, I do know some people who would benefit from such an organization... -Editor]
As the incidence and prevalence of Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) has been increasing exponentially, a support group. The Internet Addiction Support Group (IASG) has been established. Below are the official criteria for the diagnosis of IAD and subscription information for the IASG.
Internet Addiction Disorder (IAD) - Diagnostic Criteria
A maladaptive pattern of Internet use, leading to clinically significant impairment or distress as manifested by three (or more) of the following, occurring at any time in the same 12-month period:
(I) tolerance, as defined by either of the following:
(A) A need for markedly increased amounts of time on Internet to achieve satisfaction
(B) markedly diminished effect with continued use of the same amount of time on Internet
(II) withdrawal, as manifested by either of the following
(A) the characteristic withdrawal syndrome
(1) Cessation of (or reduction) in Internet use that has been heavy and prolonged.
(2) Two (or more) of the following, developing within several days to a month after Criterion 1:
(a) psychomotor agitation(b) anxiety(c) obsessive thinking about what is happening on Internet(d) fantasies or dreams about Internet(e) voluntary or involuntary typing movements of the fingers
(3) The symptoms in Criterion B cause distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important other area of functioning
(B) Use of Internet or a similar on-line service is engaged in to relieve or avoid withdrawal symptoms
(III) Internet is often accessed more often or for longer periods of time than was intended
(IV) There is a persistent desire or unsuccessful efforts to cut down or control Internet use
(V) A great deal of time is spent in activities related to Internet use (e.g., buying Internet books, trying out new WWW browsers, researching Internet vendors, organizing files of downloaded materials
(VI) Important social, occupational, or recreational activities are given up or reduced because of Internet use.
(VII) Internet use is continued despite knowledge of having a persistent or recurrent physical, social, occupational, or psychological problem that is likely to been caused or exacerbated by Internet use (sleep deprivation, marital difficulties, lateness for early morning appointments, neglect of occupational duties, or feelings of abandonment in significant others)
Subscribe to the Internet Addiction Support Group by e-mail:
Address: listserv@netcom.comSubject: (leave blank)Message: Subscribe internet-addiction-support-group
INTERACTIVE IMAGINATIONS LAUNCHES RIDDLER(tm)
World Wide Web Gaming Environment Offers Cash Prizes
By Honey Essman (stracom@ingress.com)
NEW YORK, April 5 -- Interactive Imaginations Inc., the New York-based interactive entertainment company, today launched Riddler, the first interactive gaming environment on the Internet to offer cash prizes to players. Riddler can be accessed on the World Wide Web at http://www.riddler.com.
Riddler combines elements of trivia, scavenger hunts and an online road rallye through the Web to present an interactive gaming format unique to the medium. Each game begins with the posting of a riddle and a prize of $500 for the first to solve it. Although players may attempt to solve the riddle immediately, it is likely that they will need the additional clues that they can earn -- by playing trivia and finding secret keywords hidden on other Web pages -- as they progress through the game.
The Riddler Home Page also provides players with the opportunity to compete for cash prizes in two additional contests. Crispy ChallengeÙ is a daily puzzle with a $100 prize. The Tortoise and the Hare is an ongoing contest, offering a $1,000 prize to the first player to accumulate 25,000 points. Points are awarded both for winning games and for progress through Riddler.
Although players must fill out a registration form and verify that they are 18 years old, Riddler is sponsor-supported and there are no registration, membership or hourly charges.
Announcing the launch, Interactive Imaginations president Michael Paolucci, said, "Our vision is to become the preeminent entertainment company programming for the World Wide Web. That means providing the consumer with more than just an entertaining page, and a lot more than the vicarious involvement they have with game show contestants on television.
"Riddler is fun, challenging and very much in tune with the culture and ethic of the Web. And, every player has a real chance to win considerable prize money."
Riddler's $500 opening prize is increased by $100 every day for the next five days that the riddle remains unsolved. On the seventh day, the prize is increased by an additional $500, for a total of $1,500. If the riddle remains unsolved after a week, a new riddle is posted and the unclaimed prize money rolls over to become the opening prize in the new game.
Players seeking clues to help them solve Riddler select a trivia category -- such as music, movies, science or famous ad slogans -- which links them to a sponsor's web page where a Riddler icon is located. Clicking on the icon takes the player to a round of four trivia questions in the selected category. For each correct answer, the player will receive a hint that points to a page out on the Web where a keyword is hidden.
Keywords can be exchanged for clues to the riddle. There are four rounds of successively more difficult trivia questions -- and four keywords hidden out on the Web -- in each game of Riddler.
"Feedback from our recent beta tests," said Paolucci, "told us that players not only enjoyed the challenge, but really liked the fact that the game plays out on a variety of Web sites -- it gave them the opportunity to explore the Web and search out new and interesting sites as they attempted to solve the riddles".
If Riddler is solved within a week, the game continues for another 24-hours so that players can continue to amass points towards the 25,000 point goal of The Tortoise and the Hare.
"With the convergence of entertainment technologies and the rapid development of increasingly sophisticated interactive multimedia capabilities on the Internet," said Paolucci, "we believe that the personal computer can emerge as the hardware choice for consumer entertainment. The determining factor will be entertainment programming. Interactive Imaginations' goal is to create the kind of unique programming on the Web that has real entertainment value for the consumer."
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION CONTACT:
Internet: stracom@ingress.comVoice: Peggy Berk @ 212-779-7240
# # #
USPS TO OFFER EMAIL CRYPTO
INTRO
This is a "trip report" of sorts. Thursday (4/6/95) evening I attended a Smart Valley sponsored talk at Rickey's Hyatt by the VP of Advanced Technology at the US Postal Service, Bob Reissler (sp?) and by the technical architect, Richard Rothwell. The purpose of the talk was to give USPS an opportunity to present their plans for "electronic mail and electronic commerce for the general population".
I was the only one from Sun there as far as I could tell. There was a big contingent of people from HP, Apple and some IBMers, many one-person companies and startups, some trainers and educators and many unaffiliated individuals - a total of about 150 people attended, standing room only.
OVERVIEW
Mr Rothwell's talk was the more substantive and interesting among the two. He presented USPS's plans for offering electronic access to their email delivery system to the 80 million US households and businesses that are currently not reached by online service providers or the Internet. After his talk, Mr Rothwell presented a short video on how they intend to educate their customers on the new product, and another USPS employee demoed the client side of their system online. Their client side system works under Windows 3.1 with MS Mail and Lotus Notes.
Overall points to note: They are very concerned about privacy. They do not want to be in the business of managing or issuing escrowed key-pairs. They are very concerned about the new possibilities for abuse of privacy that become available when public keys and identity certificates are widely used (I didn't understand this part - what would these oppties be?). They are interested in working with whoever cares to make the US Govt and legislative branch relax the rules about using crypto and the export controls. They are working on a system that works globally, and active collaboration with other postal services is high on their agenda. Canada and European services were mentioned several times.
TECHNICAL POINTS
The system they are building is based on a transliteration of the basic principles that make hardcopy mail work today, into the electronic world:
- Stamp -> Digital Signature+digital money
- Privacy (envelope) -> Encryption
- Dating+location -> Per-client digital time stamp (dts)
- Identity (signature) -> Digital signature (ds)
In regular hardcopy mail, the stamp proves that you paid and provides a guarantee that the postal service will deliver your hardcopy. The envelope provides privacy and is protected by privacy laws from tampering. The dating is provided by the cancellation on the stamp. The location is provided by each post office having its own cancellation label with its name and serial number listed. The identity is provided by the signature of the sender on the hardcopy stored within the sealed envelope carrying the cancelled stamp.
The postal service will offer:
- An electronic mechanism for stamping a message and adding a dts so that it proves payment and dates the message
- Registered mail equivalent where the message gets signed by the USPS private key and the signature is returned to sender
- Mechanisms for managing public keys (see below - no escrow)
- Certificate mechanisms (see below - no escrow)
- Archival services for both messages, certificates and message signatures
In their new system, the "stamp" will be replaced by a digital signature on a receipt returned to the sender and archived by the service. The receipt will contain "enough bits to track the message through the system" (his words). The service replaces the traditional envelope with encryption: it accepts messages that are already encrypted and it will also offer RSA public key encryption as a service. Dating is achieved by adding a dts plus a digital signature identifying the client from which the message was received (if desire) or a more generic signature. Finally the service offers extensive mechanisms for corporate and individual public key management and certification with various levels of identity checking, all the way from biometrics based to a simple send-in-by-mail "under penalty of perjury I hereby certify that I am Jacob Levy and this key is my public key". The service also offers a certificate and public key lookup service based on an ISO 509 standard (?) without a publishing database, i.e. modelled after the "Moscow city phonebook" (his words). The idea is you can get anyone's public key if you know who they are but you cannot harvest the phone book for, e.g., all postal employees living in San Mateo (apparently they are concerned about e-mail bombs :).
Some new services that he talked about:
- Receipt notification through the equivalent of "sign here to receive your package" and delivery of the signed receipt back to the sender
- "Bonded mail" which as far as I could tell includes archival and delivery upon the occurrence of an event specified by the sender. He called this "Forever mail", i.e. you send something which is potentially never delivered, and he noted that this is already a service offered by the current USPS (many laughs..) and so it should be offered in the new system, in the interest of preserving their current product offerings (more laughs).
- Automatic tamper-proofing through the addition of a USPS generated signature that notarizes the text of your message.
FIRST INTERNET TV SERIES PREMIERES THIS WEEK
On-demand video arrives in the homes of 'Net Surfers around the globe
Experts have long agreed that the TV of the future will more closely resemble the Internet than TV "as we know it." Specifically, beyond 500 channels will be NO channels, just databases, from which viewers may download and watch whatever they want, whenever they want.
This week, the future arrives...on your desktop.
A public-access TV program based in Bloomington, Indiana, will become the world's first on-demand Internet TV series, beginning Tuesday. ROX, "a nutty, bohemian blast of irreverence and imagination" (Indianapolis Star), will be available to computer users around the world--twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, via the World Wide Web.
"We've been working toward this event for about a year and a half," says ROX co-producer Joe Nickell. "When I found out we were gonna premiere this month, I was so happy I nearly spilled my beer".
Over the course of three years on public access, ROX has earned regional and national recognition for its wacky humor and cutting-edge style. The program has been featured on MTV Music Television, the Howard Stern Show, VideoMaker, the Gary Myers Show (Chicago), and in virtually every print and broadcast medium in Indiana.
"ROX focuses on the trials and tribulations of a roving band of mid-twenties hedonists," explains Nickell. "It's improvisational, reality based...kind of like *Friends* in *MTV's Real World*, trying to avoid the *Cops*".
On Tuesday, April 18, ROX episode 85, titled "Global Village Idiots," will premiere on the ROX Quarry (http://www.rox.com/quarry/). Featuring mixed-drink recipes, full-frontal nudity, neural digitizers and frog-gigging, the thirty-minute episode of ROX will pioneer a new form of entertainment: hyper-television.
ROX Editor Bart Everson explains: "most TV shows present you with a linear stream of information. If you don't want to see the opening credits...too bad. 'Global Village Idiots' will be different, because it will allow people to download and view the different sections of the show in whatever order they wish. It is non-linear, or hyper-textual."
After the premiere of "Global Village Idiots" on the Net, a new ROX episode will become available on a weekly basis. "The ROX Quarry will be a multi-media cabaret of fun and information," says Nickell. "People will find everything from still images and video, to interactive drinking games. And there's something new every week."
For more information, or to join the RoxList e-mail list, contact ROX at <rox@rox.com>.
****FACTS on the ROX****
J, Joe Nickell, a native of Kentucky, came to Indiana in 1987 with high hopes of becoming a classical timpanist. He lost the hopes very quickly, but has remained high ever since. Joe graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Indiana University in 1991, in Anthropology and English; upon graduation his parents gave him his first video camera. Freshly inspired and typically tipsy, Joe promptly dropped out of society and became the blabbering Bartender and co-producer of Rox.
B, Bart Everson, 28, was raised in a shopping mall in Greenwood, Indiana. While squandering his parents' money at Indiana University, Everson was arrested twice, for Public Indecency and Conversion. After completing his public restitution at the local cable access station, Everson decided to pursue a career in television. Editing Rox is now his full-time job.
ROX is a weekly cable access TV show which airs every Tuesday night at 11 pm on Bloomington (IN) Community Access Television, and every Wednesday at 4 pm and Thursday at 5 pm on the Indianapolis Community Access Network.
ROX reaches computer users around the world via the ROX Quarry, on the world-wide web (http://www.rox.com/quarry/). Rox is a reality-based program which endeavors to hold up a mirror to the community of Bloomington.
Number of Episodes produced to date: 85First episode aired: July, 1992
*Awards & Honors*
In addition to the following awards, Rox has been honored by profiles and features on MTV Music Television, The Howard Stern Show, NUVO Newsweekly, Bloomington Confidential and virtually every central-Indiana print publication, TV station and radio station.
- Citation Award, Indiana Film Society 1994 Film & Video Barbecue
- Finalist, 1994 Hometown Video Competition, sponsored by the Alliance for Community Media
- Best Local Television Show, 1994, 1993 and 1992 Best of Bloomington Reader Survey, Bloomington Voice
- Favorite Local Celebrities, 1993 Best of Bloomington Reader Survey, Bloomington Voice
- Best of Show & Best Independent/Experimental production, Indiana Film Society 1993 Film & Video Barbecue
*Hot off the presses*
"What Hunter S. Thompson did for--or to--journalism, these guys are doing to television."--The Ryder
"At once a revealing slacker diary and satiric tour-de-farce of the Bohemian lifestyle...Their language is satire, subterfuge, subjectivity, and a refreshing dose of self-deprecation."-- NUVO Newsweekly
"These Funky Young Cyclops of the Small Screen steep into our consciousness like a big jar of sun tea. Slowly, we have grown to know these guys...Generally, television has usurped the fire we once gathered around, supplanting tribal consciousness with fragments of individuality...J&B are handing the fire back to us--or at least the firewater."-- Bloomington Voice
Talent Communications, Inc.
ANNOUNCES:
I-Comm -- Full Feature WWW Browser Without SLIP/PPP
WHAT IS I-Comm ?
I-Comm is a full feature graphical World Wide Web browser with full modem communication functionality. Designed specially for modem computer users, I-Comm does NOT require any kind of SLIP/PPP connections.
I-Comm is going to be released as a shareware.
HOW TO OBTAIN A COPY OF I-Comm ?
The current version of I-Comm is 1.00 Beta. Your feedbacks are welcome.You can download it from one of the following ftp sites:
Netcom ftp site:ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/ic/icomm/icom100b.zip
Best Internet ftp site:ftp://ftp.best.com/pub/icomm/icom100b.zip
KEY FEATURES:
- Does NOT require any kind of SLIP/PPP connections
- Support forms
- Smart agent to do batch file download
- Support HTTP, FTP and Gopher protocol
- Allow user to view HTML text while background downloading image
- Multi-level smart local disk document and image caching
- Built-in modem communication capabilities
- Build-in sound player
- Web resource index which comes with the package makes surfing easier
- Hot site facility allows user to save favorite WWW sites
- Phone book facility allows user to save Internet dial-up numbers
MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS:
- 386dx running MS-Windows (tm) 3.1 or later
- 4MB Memory and 1MB Disk Space
- 9.6 KB Modem or faster
- An UNIX shell account with Internet access
INTERNET SHELL ACCOUNT SETUP REQUIREMENTS:
- Z-Modem transfer program "sz" installed in your search path
- One of following program installed in your search path:
- icomhost program from Talent Communications, Inc.
- Lynx browser
- CERN WWW line mode browser
WHY I-Comm -- FOR INTERNET SERVICES PROVIDERS:
- Smart multi-level disk caching to save your bandwidth
- Easy to setup on Internet host machine (add Web surfing to your shell account service in weeks)
- Easy to install on your customer's PC (only 3 minutes)
- Very small (~600K), can be easily distributed to your potential customers
- Good internal design for extensibility and portability
HOW TO REACH US:
- Web: http://www.best.com/~icomm/icomm.htm
- E-Mail: icomm@best.com
- News: comp.infosystems.www.users
