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To add another story to this, I was convicted of a felony for exploring an abandoned building. I was charged with burglary.

The felony burglary charge stuck for two reasons:

1. As is common in our judicial system, I was charged with crimes far more serious than the ones I committed. This took the form of two burglary charges for entry into a single abandoned building and removal of a single pamphlet found in the junk laying around that could be shown to have originated there (hence burglary as opposed to just breaking and entering, because we took something out). In our plea bargain-oriented system, I had to either accept one of the charges (while the more ridiculous of the two was dropped) or face a minimum of 18 months state prison time for each charge if I lost a jury trial.

2. I couldn't afford to hire a proper attorney and was represented by a public defender.

This was in 1990. I was 20 years old. It's now 2005. Should I be denied the right to vote?

Thankfully, the state I live in restores its citizens' constitutional rights after completion of their punishment.

Sounds like you might enjoy some recreational urban exploration.

Video surveilence. It's everywhere.

I don't buy the "Miller was curious about the dimensions of the network". Er..... If he put that reasoning in his FOIA request as well as just saying that to the press, I'd probably recommend an investigation too.

Tunnels like those are explored by bored college kids with moderate lockpicking skills on every campus I've ever been on, but they're definitely off limits and generally monitored by cameras and/or motion detectors. Hell, there are even organizations dedicated to the sport of exploring them. Any such explorers would love such plans, and that's about the only likely reason I can think of why someone would actually bother with the paperwork (and cash!) for an FOIA request (terrorist bombings aside - I said likely).

From the school's point of view - they don't want any students down there anyway, and could reasonably be expected to come down hard on someone caught in them. A student having the gnads to openly request such information through government channels after being denied it initially, but who isn't smart enough to at least come up with a plausible excuse for needing the information - Well, I think it's reasonable to suspect the person is up to something at least somewhat illicit along with being terminally stupid.

From a computer geek perspective - that's like some prick in a computer lab being surprised and self-righteous saying he wasn't doing anything wrong when you come over and yank his cable 'cause he's been using every known exploit scanner known to man against your server *while you're in the room, sitting at the server console and glaring at him*, along with running a few processes in the background with names like 'crack'.

Have you never just been curious about something?

Maybe I read a little too much of Infiltration, but I am really interested in underground tunnel systems, abandoned subway lines, etc. If there were any in my area, I would be checking them out too.

If he's got a perfectly legit reason to want to know, then he should tell us.

Papers please, citizen.

check out www.infiltration.org for more urban exploration.

Can you say "Urban Infiltration?" Methinks I have a new target.

For those of you who are unfamiliar, it's sort of a game: exploring places people are no longer meant to be. Old subways, abandoned factories, campus steam tunnels, etc.. Lots of fun, and certainly more exciting than.. say.. reading slashdot!

A few links:
Infiltration.org
Zone Tour

Think that is cool check out the links. Infiltration removed %90 of its articles offline and turned into a magazine. Greedy bastards. But the New York state links are cool.

I especially like the seaview hospital which I found in the links on Staten Island. I know most of you geeks think ghosts are lame but I tell you the place is really haunted. I love urban exploration its fun and I also found an abandoned subway station which is no longer accessible thanks to post 9-11 security.

They sure are.

Disinformation has a decent article, but it's the links at the bottom that rock.

Infiltration has some good 'case studies' -- with pictures. Nice.

Also, jinx isn't as cool. :P

INFILTRATION is a website that specializes in clandestine exploration of subway tunnels, amongst other things.

For those of you not familiar with the TTC, it's the transit system in Toronto.

As for the station refered to in the parent, it was called Lower Bay (or Bay Lower) station, and was shutdown after 6 months of use. It's now used mainly as a film set, and for training I believe. Since little to no maintenance is performed on it, it's easy to pass it off as a New York subway station :)

THIS page is a good read about exploring the TTC tunnels (and lower bay), and THIS page gives a little bit of the history of lower bay.

Another site that has similar information about places you're not supposed to go is www.infiltration.org. Ah, running around steam tunnels back when I was an undergrad....

Urban Exploration, sometimes known on college campuses as vadding, is the activity of exploring major manmade engineering works, urban and industrial ruins, and other large-scale structures that are accessible. Sometimes this is done without permission per se and other times it's done in blatent violation of trespassing signs, but it should always be done without vandalism or theft.

Two great starting points are the Infiltration webring and Panic!'s Urban Adventure site.

Or you could check out Infiltration, or any of the other UE themes sites on the web.

Going in drainpipes and steam tunnels is "urban spelunking" (ie. "urban speleology"). The general idea of going to industrial places where you're not supposed to is "urban exploration." Check out infiltration.org or the google directory.

Think of it as conspiracy theorists taking to action.

Unfortunately, the site seems to be having problems, but infiltration.org is a 'zine that covers these kinds of urban expeditions. Some great stuff there, when it's working (and google seems to have spidered it yesterday).

One of the more interesting activities out there is what they call Urban Exploration. The problem a lot of people have with exercise is that its soooo boring. When you go exploring its just like walking, running and climbing but there's stuff to look at. The basic idea is exploration of urban ruins, for example: old subways, abandoned factories, and abandoned amusment parks.

Check out Infiltration Magazine for more ideas
I find, lacking all that, even office parks late at night can be fun, or pool hoping. There's a lot of exercise to be had if you're curious :-)
Also of course check out Google's results for Urban explorations, have fun and be safe tho!

the website is www.infiltration.org they haven't put out new issues for a well over a year now though. shame...great site.

Down here in Norfolk, VA, I'm sure it's not too far fetched. Something tells me that a pasty, frail computer geek such as myself wouldn't survive too long if I were to stumble across an angry vagrant or a crack-addict in one of the many abandoned building in the area.

Any building that's even remotely accessable is filled with all species of drug-addicts. Once the business moves out, the junkies move in. I would love to take a good long look around this area, but I'd hate to be caught here in Norfolk even an hour after sundown.

To reply to your comment about crack dens and meth labs, they do exist. There is a chance that you could get into a situation where you couldn't get out of.

From Infiltration.org, read about Paris catacombs, hash dealers, and discovery.

Infiltration.org is real nice, and they're fine fellows, but sometimes, you have to draw the line. Someone found my Montréal Métro (sorry, just in french, except for this page) website, and kept pestering me for infiltrating it. Not something to do, and for safety, I had to put a disclaimer on my Métro exploration pages (all my explorations were legit - duly accompanied by Métro officials).

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i've been a fan of infiltration.org for a while now: that's probably because i live in Toronto, where a lot of the "infiltration" on the site is being done. the pictures of Toronto's Subway Tunnels are amazing (including an abandoned station i never knew about). plus i had no idea how many strange things were hidden in the Royal York Hotel!

i've read most of the articles over in great detail, but i'm still too chickenshit to go down into the Subway tunnels myself. phrases like "allowing just barely enough room for a human to press up against the wall and let a train whip past" don't exactly make the situation any better.

but it's great that some people are doing this and making the pictures and information available to the rest of us on the web! it's definitely a site worth reading.

- j

i've been a fan of infiltration.org for a while now: that's probably because i live in Toronto, where a lot of the "infiltration" on the site is being done. the pictures of Toronto's Subway Tunnels are amazing (including an abandoned station i never knew about). plus i had no idea how many strange things were hidden in the Royal York Hotel!

i've read most of the articles over in great detail, but i'm still too chickenshit to go down into the Subway tunnels myself. phrases like "allowing just barely enough room for a human to press up against the wall and let a train whip past" don't exactly make the situation any better.

but it's great that some people are doing this and making the pictures and information available to the rest of us on the web! it's definitely a site worth reading.

- j

i've been a fan of infiltration.org for a while now: that's probably because i live in Toronto, where a lot of the "infiltration" on the site is being done. the pictures of Toronto's Subway Tunnels are amazing (including an abandoned station i never knew about). plus i had no idea how many strange things were hidden in the Royal York Hotel!

i've read most of the articles over in great detail, but i'm still too chickenshit to go down into the Subway tunnels myself. phrases like "allowing just barely enough room for a human to press up against the wall and let a train whip past" don't exactly make the situation any better.

but it's great that some people are doing this and making the pictures and information available to the rest of us on the web! it's definitely a site worth reading.

- j

i've been a fan of infiltration.org for a while now: that's probably because i live in Toronto, where a lot of the "infiltration" on the site is being done. the pictures of Toronto's Subway Tunnels are amazing (including an abandoned station i never knew about). plus i had no idea how many strange things were hidden in the Royal York Hotel!

i've read most of the articles over in great detail, but i'm still too chickenshit to go down into the Subway tunnels myself. phrases like "allowing just barely enough room for a human to press up against the wall and let a train whip past" don't exactly make the situation any better.

but it's great that some people are doing this and making the pictures and information available to the rest of us on the web! it's definitely a site worth reading.

- j

So, combine this sport with this one.
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L0pht Heavy Industries
Cult of the dead cow
Happyhacker.org
Infiltration.org
hackers.com
Hacker news
attrition.org
AntiOnline
AntiCode
phrack
2600
Many of these pages contain arhives that have documents on cracking networks and such.
Vast documents on cracking NT servers.
A few of these are not really related but fun any how.
And the archives also contain many documents on system defence.
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If my facts are wrong then tell me. I don't mind.

People interested in this, may also be amused by some of the stuff at Infiltration.org.