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On Hacktivism
z84976 writes "Oxblood Ruffin, of cDc fame, has produced a nice article discussing various aspects of hactivism and some of the approaches used by their own Hacktivismo group in supporting freedom (of thought, mainly) on the internet. Check it out over at The Register when you get a chance."
I might not agree, but I'll fight to the death to ensure your rights to post blatantly fucking obvious trolls.
You know, the antics of the music industry (and the kind of thing that MS is kowtowing to with their DRM scheme) really pisses me off, but also convinces me that there will eventually come something to replace them both. But, know what? It's their property. If they want to fuck up their distribution channels, fuck em. I can do without "so-called" modern music anyway. I go see live bands locally, get lit, and have a great time and I didn't need to buy a fucking copy-protected by the DMCA CD or cassette or anything. These guys are out there trying to make a living, maybe you should check em out. And if you catch them after the show, you might can convince them that they should distribute their songs on CD's for cheap and ask them (ask them) about how they feel about MP3's and music-sharing in general. Of course, they might not agree with you (or myself), but they have that *right* to do so. So, I encourage, nay I *challenge* each and every one of you who would boycott MS or the RIAA to pick up a local newspaper and see what's going on in y our town this weekend. Chances are, there's a band or two actually worth checking out, and hey, it's not like you're going to meet chicks sitting behind your monitor. Oh, and on-topic: Rock on Beale! I'm encouraged to see that grassroots hactivism coming alive! :) (hacker used in "coder" definition) Keep up the good work and keep fighting the good fight.
Mozilla 1.0 RC1 has been released. If we all remember Windows 2000 RC1 this means "pretty damn stable" (but since this is open sores, I'm skeptical). Get your copy today!
If anyone is ever in a cybercafe in Mauritania or Elbonia, let's mail them 64k of encrypted random data. Let the government snoops try to decode that!
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
Advanced research and technical notes are being handed over to the Chinese without question. It couldn't be going better for the Communists.
Can anyone back up this claim? I mean it doesn't seem like good business sense to just give things away for free to a competiting nation...
--
Some weasel took the cork out of my lunch.
Hacking is a contact sport.
The more people who have contact with one another, the better.
-- Shaolin Punk,
Proxy Boss,
Hacktivismo
Yea, totally. I'm routing for the Bears!
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
"Hacktivism chooses open code, mostly." Guess this means a lot of people will be against it because its not totally open.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
I tried to access the cDc site from my school library and was blocked by a filtering firewall. I can't remember if their site contained sexually explicit content that would justify filtering. Does anybody think that this is an outrage and a politically modivated block?
Wow, is it just me or was that just a lot of fluff!
If you consider some of his topics and questions that he introduces, there is no resolution. While trying to detail what hacktivism is, he makes one statement about it being about creating, rather then destroying, but on the other hand he says that people should be writing disruptive code. Also in the same vein, while talking about writing disruptive code and what should be made, there is a big Closed source bad/open source good (except when you want to hide something malicious). P2P turns into H2H, why napster shut down.. blah, blah, blah.
While I applaud the use of key phrases and liberal use of rhetoric, I walked (or clicked) away with the sense that I wa no more enlightened...
The article quotes McLuhan: "World War Three will be a guerilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation."
I firmly believe that this is true, and is going on right now. But I wonder if it is appropriate to mix this concept with hacktivism. Consider Bush's current position. He's convinced most of the world (most of the US, anyway) that he should be given free reign to wage war anywhere in the country, all in the name of fighting terrorism. I'll keep theories about military-industrial complex profits to myself, at this point.
The point is, he is using major media outlets to spread his message, and in the mainstream media, very few people are questioning him. And at the moment, it is the mainstream media that carries the perception that it reflects the national consciousness.
Not enough people have switched off their TVs and let their corporate newspaper subscriptions expire to make hacktivism effective. It's unfortunate, and I expect (hope) things will change in the coming years, but for now, it's largely irrevelevant.
To quote cDc at DefCon a couple of years ago.
Personally I think 'hacktivism' is a grossly overused excuse for vandalism. Hacking sites as a 'service' to the operators is passe... now the kiddies have to act like they've got some sort of noble political agenda.
Im a hacktivist.
----- Whats wrong with this picture? http://www.revoh.org:1234/whatswrong
This is in keeping with the biblial imperative:
"Thou shalt not kill"
Torture is another matter entirely, however.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Mmm... I'm totally gonna buy that domain (hacktivism.com) that they're selling. Think of all the wonderful things I could do with it. Although, I kinda feel sorry for the idiot that mispelled it and got the wrong domain for them. Wait... no I don't. *pointing finger and laughing*
Producer: NEXT!!
Ralph Wiggum: Chicken necks
It's the same thing.
will it have good pr0n and warez? =)
This article tells us of some of the horrible things going on in the world and all, but it is nothing we didn't know was going on.
Hackers collaborate over the web to fight oppression and close mindedness!
Sound at all like a certain upstart OS?
I really did like this article, don't get me wrong but it is very lite on the important information like what they are actually doing about it. I doubt making it easier for a Chinese person to rip music off of the internet is going to bring them to the enlightened western thinking necessary to invoke social change.
What apps are you creating to further this change, where can I get the source (since you sited open source as being the obvious choice among hacktivist coders)? What can I do to help? This article, while being interesting, served no real purpose.
Note to self: No more arguing with the faithful.
They made back orifice. I'm pretty sure I didn't "learn" anything, or get any more "free rights" from using. All I got was passwords which allowed me to cause havoc on the net.
I think the wrong people are representing "hackers"..
In 1968 the Canadian communications guru Marshall McLuhan stated, "World War Three will be a guerilla information war with no division between military and civilian participation."
/. effect an attack? Maybe we should call it a /. blitz or /. offensive. On that note we've been hitting a lot more good guys than bad guys, sheesh! Us geeks can't even get a techie war right!!
So if the war is being waged on the Internet by civilians would that make the
I stole this Sig
They're out there. Just trying to take away all of our rights. So far they haven't been able to completely succeed. However, do you really know what's in the water? That's right, government mind control drugs! In addition, they're watching, listening, and even smelling you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They know when you take a piss in your neighbors pool, even though you don't think anyway was watching. They were, believe me.
Just because you don't want to face reality doesn't mean it isn't true!
Don't turn off your telescreen, just turn it down and go into the corner to read. I wouldn't use anything more than a candle for light, though. They'll see it anyway.
The GPL makes software more like your mom. Free and open to all.
Bad interpretation.. should be Thou Shalt Not Murder. If we all spoke Hebrew, we would understand this.
I have two things to say about this article.
1) It was VERY VERY long2) I really liked the analogy of OSS to Resturants.
Think about it. The majority of people never think twice about never seeing the ingrediants, but there are some who feel "I'm putting this stuff in my system, I have the right to know what's in it!". Some even have good reasons like peanut reactions and so forth.
The resturant will say "If we tell you how we made it, we will lose business". I think that's nonscence personally. Ten to one, I'm not going to be able to cook that by myself anyway, and I'm just going to come back to the restaurant to get it donecorrectly. Plus if I do make it and feed it to all my friends and they say "where did you get that recipie?" and I tell them, don't you think they are going to go check out the menu for themselfs?
And finally, what if the majority of the people eating at your restaurant wanted the food cooked a different way, but didn't have any other choice on the menu? They are going to take those ingrediants and make the food better. If the cook was smart enough, he might be able to learn from what the other cook did, and make his own product better!
Am I making my analogy clear here, or is this just gibberish?
Sigs are out of style, so I'm not going to use one...oh wait..
Losing your rights (and especially your right to privacy) is not going to happen in one fell swoop.
Rather, it's more like the oft-spoken-of boiling frog - if privacy is taken away in tiny little increments, then before long it will be compromised in a big way without any substantial opposition.
I'm not saying that we should all wear tinfoil hats - but constantly recognizing (and opposing, where necessary) the gradual erosion of our right to privacy and governmental abuse of information is our only defense against being... boiled alive.
The government wants to know more and more about us these days - the excuse du jour is homeland security and counter-terrorism. Throw in stopping child-porn and just about any legislator will support any bill that enables more monitoring of citizens.
Better to be watchful and vocal - without screaming that the sky is falling - than to sit quietly, watching the privacy we enjoy now disappear for our children.
Ignoring the wolves doesn't make them go away.
The media is a mouthpiece of corporate America, and therefore corporate America has been able to HIJACK the government largley through obfuscation of the facts and manufacturing consent.
Turn of the TV. Go for a hike. Smoke a joint. Hang out nude with a good friend at some hot springs. Then think about what a good life might be and see if TV is a part of it. If it's not, turn it off and throw it away.
Anonymouse, but not cowardly.
Challenge excepted. Live music, chics, and getting lit - cheers to that.
Torture is another matter entirely, however
I'll get modded down for this (and you) are completely off topic, but toture is just as bad.
Interesting read? Try Matthew 5 - 7: Sermon on the Mount. That's some radical religious thinking for you.
Don't mean to stir up a religious battle or flamewar. Just thought I'd respond to your misperception.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
Back in 1995 I had some arguments... that is um... discussions (in Cannes at Milia) with Nicholas Negroponte and John Perry Barlow. Both Negroponte and Barlow believed that the Internet was an unstoppable force that would inevitably make countries like China become free.
My argument was that the Chinese and other repressive governments would be sure to set up national proxies with filtering that blocked out sites the government didn't want people to see and kept track of what people were accessing.
Both Negroponte and Barlow told me that was impossible and would never happen. They also pointed out that the TCP/IP is designed to route around obstacles.
Well, I've been proven right (so why am I not running Media Lab or flying around the world giving speeches?). China and other countries (Singapore, etc.) have in fact put in national proxies and are blocking thousands of sites, tracking people's usage, and putting people in jail.
On the other hand, I think that there is a hope that Barlow and Negroponte will eventually turn out to be right in the end, as hackers and other renegades put in alternative links via satellite and other means, which bypass these government blockades.
If enough of that happens, the blockades will come down, since they won't be useful any longer.
But I think there will be a long hard struggle befoe that happens.
Is that a peer technology to Activision?
not with a bang but with a whimper right? read some of this guy
I can't believe it's not lard!
Someone who screams incessantly about something they know nothing about.
...since the wicked witch took my brain, I can't decide and need your wisdom for my own.
Is it a:
- good read?
- interesting read?
- fun read?
- must read?
This tag needs to be on every article. You missed a few this week...what's wrong?
======
News...if all of the sand in North Africa were spread out to a depth of 3 meters, it would cover the entire Sahara Desert...it's a dry read, but you'll enjoy it.
Hacking is wrong.
Sounds like a good idea,
I'd love to know of any that are in existance,
I'd say it's more of a hopeful theory.
Chicago2600.net more than a lifestyle, its a survival trait.
True...true...our rights aren't being killed (yet). But they are being restricted. The more restriction, the closer they come to be killed. If the restrictions keep coming, the less we will be aloud to do without having someone look over our backs or accuse us, etc. Just something to think about, neh?
Then they'll get the hidden message in the random data. ;)
Like playing Ann Murray's Snowbird backwards and getting the message about the impending Canadian invasion...
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
Check out sites like weseeyou.org. Great info and it lets you act on the news you read. It's now my homepage. I'm tired of standing quietly by while Republicans and Democrats let corporations dictate U.S. policy.
The guy who is decrying the free speech crowd is posting as an AC.... could their be a greater irony?
Out of curiosity, at exactly what points are "rights being killed"? Your argument seems to be that if the entire free world doesn't come to an end with chaos in the streets, that a particular trend in society isn't anything to worry about.
The right to personal privacy and the right to free speech are perhaps ill-understood and used as an excuse to justify crapulent behaviour, but that doesn't change the fact that those rights are the cornerstone of quality of life in a civilized country. Rights can be destroyed all at once (Communist invasion of Czechoslovakia fer instance) or eaten away at gradually (recent trends in the G8). The end result (given enough time) will be fundamentally indistinguishable if the brakes aren't put on.
Maybe you'd prefer to examine your rights in the context of "things I can identify because I used to have them", but I'd rather not....
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
...and that net is not the internet, B2B or H2H -- it's simply conscience to conscience. And that (say) +2+ net is going to take over, when times get really chaotic (which is no longer so far away as it was before Bush became the instrument of 'righteous war making' IMO).
.o)
All other nets - especiall the H2H net - are just the physical surface of that underlying connection. Please let's not forget that. Sorry, that I sound that twisted, but that's my reality. Must have been a drunken preacher some lifes ago
Viewed from that angle fighting the suppressing government, economic, military and/or criminal structures (yes, I know, I'm putting all in one basket) will no longer be intelligent from a certain level onwards. The members of the +2+ net will simply avoid places and times, where the 'right' and 'wrong' ones are fighting each other.
I wonder how many will be left after that World War III. Hence, dear H2H members, please don't play and pay with your lifes. Be carefull, don't let yourself become a member of the powergames too.
Aha! EMail random encrypted (sic) files to all politicians...
Oxblood, stick to writing for the Canadian newspaper "National Post". Your scare mongering works better there.
media is a wonderful one sided thing. The CDC has learned to manipulate just as any other politician. 4 years ago, they jumped into this game after another group basically flipped off the chinese government, first with a web defacement, and second with major server breaches throughout their government, medical and educational realms. The Chinese complained. Nothing could be done. The CDC recognized this, that since another group could get away with this, so could they. They jumped into the foray. Not saying that their contributions aren't valid, they are, but they defintely play it for all its worth. Their P2P software is a good idea, but infantile compared to some of the projects that are in the works. There is a private, encrypted internet being developed right now, complete with all the services needed for it to function. Access is allowed only thorough a friend basis. Pay it forward. The real hackers of the net will have their information through the private internet, the DMCA will be powerless, the worlds governing bodies will be powerless without a gross violation of civil rights. Finally, China and other countries will be able to have their nations elite take ideas and share them with their populace. It is the duty of everyone that possess such knowledge to share it with the rest. This is not just about human rights, this IS cyberwarfare. Think resistence. Things may not change for these people, but they will no longer be blinded to the truth. So, next time you credit the CDC with starting this little revolution, dig through some old news articles and
look to see who actually fired the first shots in this war.
Anonymous, Heh Heh, if Christ had the internet he'd been spammed by pontius pilot, his email read and the photochoppers would have put his head on the body of brittany spears. As it was it happened just slightly differently. When we really look at what 'rights are being killed' there really aren't any 'being killed', at least I have yet to see the crosses going up on the edge of town and haven't seen the romans (Congress) rounding up masses for crucifixtion. Look around, no-one is being repressed!
Our definition of hacktivism is, "using technology to advance human rights through electronic media."
You might not know it from reading the manifesto, but cDc and Hactivismo have actually been working on a product called Peekabooty that allows users to sneak through the firewalls that oppressive regimes set up to restrict access to the Internet.
Hacktivism chooses open code, mostly.
Peekabooty is open source under the GPL but the FAQ advises people who would like to do testing: "You should have enough equipment to run at least three nodes, which means three MS Windows machines (we are in the process of porting it to Linux). You should also be skilled with tracing through code using Visual C++ or your own favorite debugger."
the main challenge for hackers is to keep focused on the goal of liberating the Internet.
There seems to have been some kind of falling out between cDc and Hactivismo over Peekabooty. The lead developer Paul Baranowski (aka Drunken Master) said he has "decided to sever ties with the Hacktivismo group but he will continue to develop the Peekabooty app. Occasionally developers can't find the environment they need to do their best work and now is one such time."
Now let's get a piece of that article linked above...
What's this about? Are they friend of foe??? And lastly, the thread was modded -1, offtopic. Evidently somebody didn't want us to see that....
josh crawley
Courtesy of About 420
;-), Homer mentions to
Connotative Use/Meaning
420 is a phreak's (and not just a hippie's) favorite number for a
variety of reasons, or maybe for no reason at all, but colloquially
the number says pot -- "let's smoke pot", or "someone's smoking
pot", or "gee, i really like pot", or "time to smoke pot", either by
time (4:20 a.m. or p.m.), date (April 20th), or otherwise (e.g. State
Route 420). April 20th at 4:20 is marked by annual events in
Mount Tamalpais, CA (an informal gathering); Marin Conty, CA
(the 420 Hemp Fest); Ann Arbor, MI (the Hash Bash); and
Washington, D.C. (buildup towards the July 4th Smoke-In).
Original Source(s)
Conventional wisdom: The most common tale is that 420 is the
police radio code or criminal code (and therefore the police "call")
in certain part(s) of California (e.g. in Los Angeles or San
Francisco) for having spotted someone consuming cannabis
publicly, i.e. "pot smoking in progress"; that local cannabis users
picked up on the code and began celebrating the number temporally
(esp. 4:20 a.m., 4:20 p.m., and April 20); that the number became
nationally popularized in the late 1980s and, more ferverently, in
the early- to mid-1990s; and is colloquially applied to a variety of
relaxed and/or inspired contexts, including not only pot
consumption but also a "good time" more generally (in contrast to
the drug war surrounding).
Conventions are legends: 420 is not police radio code for
anything, anywhere. Checks of criminal codes (including those of
the City of San Francisco, the City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles
County, the State of California, and the federal penal code) suggest
that the origin is neither Californian nor federal (the two best
guesses). For instance, California Penal Code 420 defines as a
misdemeanor the hindrance of use ("obstructing entry") of public
lands, and California Family Code 420 defines what constitutes a
wedding ceremony (Marco). One state does come close: "The
Illinois Department of Revenue classifies the Alcoholic Liquor Act
under Part 420, and the Cannabis and Controlled Substances Tax
Act are next, under Part 428." (RB 5/19/99)
True story?: "According to Steven Hager, editor of High Times,
the term 420 originated at San Rafael High School, in 1971,
among a group of about a dozen pot-smoking wiseacres who
called themselves the Waldos. The term 420 was shorthand for the
time of day the group would meet, at the campus statue of Louis
Pasteur, to smoke pot. ``Waldo Steve,'' a member of the group who
now owns a business in San Francisco, says the Waldos would
salute each other in the school hallway and say ``420 Louis!'' The
term was one of many invented by the group, but it was the one
that caught on. ``It was just a joke, but it came to mean all kinds of
things, like `Do you have any?' or `Do I look stoned?' '' he said.
``Parents and teachers wouldn't know what we were talking about.''
The term took root, and flourished, and spread beyond San Rafael
with the assistance of the Grateful Dead and their dedicated cohort
of pot-smoking fans. The Waldos decided to assert their claim to
the history of the term after decades of watching it spread, mutate
and be appropriated by commercial interests. The Waldos contacted
Hager, and presented him with evidence of 420's history, primarily
a collection of postmarked letters from the early '70s with lots of
mention of 420. They also started a Web site, waldo420.com. ``We
have proof, we were the first,'' Waldo Steve said. ``I mean, it's not
like we wrote a book or invented anything. We just came up with a
phrase. But it's kind of an honor that this emanated from San
Rafael.''" Maria Alicia Gaura for the San Francisco Chronicle,
4/20/00 p. A19; and thanks to Noah Cole for the submission
Alternate explanations
There are a variety of other explanations, all much more interesting
than "police code", and many plausible. Some are more likely uses
of the 420/hemp connection rather than sources of it, such as the
score for the football game in Fast Times at Ridgement High,
42-0.
Known Myths: It isn't police code (see above). There are 315
chemicals in marijuana, not 420. And although tea time in
Amsterdam is rumored to be 4:20, it is actually 5:30 (Gerhard
den Hollander).
Sixties Songs: For instance, Bob Dylan's famous "Rainy Day
Women #12 and 35" is a possible reference, or source --
12x35=420. And Stephen Stills wrote (and Crosby Stills Nash
& Young performed) a song "4+20" (first recorded 7/16/69,
released on Deja Vu 3/11/70) about an 84-year-old
poverty-stricken man who started and finished with nothing.
(Thanks to Sherry Keel 12/6/98.) Dylan aslo mentions "4 and
20 windows" in "The Balland of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest"
(on John Wesley Harding).
Older Verse: But 420 in poetry is older than that - Greg
Keller notes the old nursery rhyme line, "four and twenty
black birds baked in a pie". Revelation 5:14 (in the King
James Version of the Christian Bible) reads, "And the four
beasts said 'A-Men.' And the four and twenty elders fell down
and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever." (Travis
Spurley 2/15/99) And in Midnight's_Children, Salman
Rushdie wrote, "Inevitably, a number of these children failed
to survive. Malnutrition, disease and the misfortunes of
everyday life had accounted for no less than four hundred and
twenty of them by the time I became conscious of their
existence; although it is possible to hypothesize that these
deaths, too, had their purpose, since 420 has been, since time
immemorial, the number associated with fraud, deception and
trickery." (Comet 2/14/98) Comet's "best guess is that this
refers to something in Indian mythology or numerology, since
the book is set in India and frequently involves Indian history,
culture, and religion. Given the high interest in Eastern
religion among the phish/dead community, this seems a likely
origin of 420's current significance."
Temporal Significance: "Hands on analog clock at 4:20 look
like position of doobie dangling from mouth" "Larry in
Tuscan" and Alex Mack 5/19/99). Disruptive students are out
of detention and safetly away from school by 4:20, also
rumored to be "the time that you should dose to be peaking
when the Dead went on stage" Hart. "The Waldos" were a
group of teens back in the 70's that lived in San Rafael, CA.
420 was the way they talked about pot in front of teachers,
non-smoking family members etc. Also it was the time of day
they could just go relax, and get baked." ("PhunkCellar")
Jamaicans purportedly "worked till 4 then walked home then
lit up. They would talk 420 like our parents talked about after
5. That's when partying began" "Larry in Tuscan"). Albert (not
Abbie) Hofmann supposedly first encountered LSD at 4:20
p.m. on 4/19/1943 (Bart Coleman citing Storming Heaven by
Jay Stevens, recommended by Mickey Hart in Planet Drum).
Surrealist painter Miro was born April 20, 1893. And
www.filmspeed.com says the propoganda film Reefer
Madness has a copyright date of April 20, 1936 (i.e. 4/20).
(Patrick Woolford)
Misc: Could be that it comes from hydroponics, the practice
of cultivating plants in water often used by indoor marijuana
cultivators, since 4 is used for H on a calculator (420/H20).
(Nick Lowe 3/30/00) The number 80 (eight) is "quatre vingt"
(pronounced "cah-truh vahn"), meaning "four (times} twenty".
Dan Nijjar 1/27/00 (No connection yet between the number
80 and pot. A quarter pound is roughly 120 grams, rounding
quarter-ounces to 7.5.) The titanic was supposed to arrive
4/20/1912. (Thanks to RB.) Perhaps the heavy use of vt420
terminals in the Berkeley area is to blame? (BTW, 420 in
binary code is 110100100.)
Ubiquitous?
Now there's a 420 Pale Ale. One of the late-97/early-98 "Got
Milk" ads featured a character eating cookies without milk and
then passing a sign that reads "Next Rest Area 420 miles" (as Ross
Bruning). Reportedly, all of the clocks in the movie Pulp Fiction
are stuck on 4:20. Shirts with the number 420 on the red-and-blue
interstate highway shield (Interstate 420?) have show up on the
sitcom Will and Grace (Paul Risenhoover 5/14/99) and in several
videos. UPS' labelling software has a "420 postal code" legend for
next-day/2-day deliveries (which is how Phish tickets are sent).
(Jack Lebowitz 10/3/98) MTV's 1997 Viewer's Choice Award (for
the MTV Video Awards) was decided by calls to
1-800-420-4MTV. And by May of 1998, the number was
appearing in so many ads (eg Copenhagen 5/14/98 Rolling Stone
p54, Corvette p55 5/98 Car & Driver) that its presence is
presumed to be intentional. Many songs are around 4 minutes 20
seconds long (since many songs fall between 2:30 and 5:30),
including for example Pink Floyd's "A Great Day for Freedom" (on
The Division Bell, 1994), the Foo Fighters' "My Hero", and
"Smokin'" from Boston's first album. "There have also been some
420 references on The Simpsons. In the re-run episode aired on
April 20th, 1999 at a special time (probably in honor of those
college students staying in the holiday spirit
Flanders that Barney's birthday is April 20th. Also, the jackpot sign
in one part of the casino says $420,000. There are a couple less
concrete ones, but these two have to be legit, especially since they
decided to air THAT particular episode on 4/20/99." (Submitted by
Matt Meehan 4/21/99) And (as of Fall '99) the 60 free minutes that
Working Assets Long Distance offers, at the 7 cents per minute
rate, is $4.20 free. There's even a band named 420, and another
names . In the first fifteen pages of Karel Capek's novel War with
the Newts, a man diving under wonder stayed down for four
minutes and twenty seconds. Grant Garstka 1/6/00 At the
suggested retail price ($3.96) and Michigan (6%) sales tax, a deck
of Uno cards costs $4.20. Nic Boris 4:20 marks the first downbeat
of the drums in Led Zeppelin's epic "Stairway to Heaven." (Dan
Harris) The bill authorizing force after the World Trade Center
attacks of 9/11/01 passed 420 to 1, and news reports in following
months noted many times that there are (or were then, anyway) 420
airports in the U.S. Allan Morris And don't forget that Adolf Hitler
was born on April 20, macabely "celebrated" (or at least
referenced) via the Columbine High School shootings.
Phish-related Occurances
Whatever the origin, the number appears frequently... For the
summer 1997 tour, TicketMaster service charges were $4.20. In
the Fall 1997 Doniac Schvice Dry Goods section, a limited edition
Pollack poster printed on 100% hemp is order number 420P. The
Great Went was 420 miles from Boston (former home of Phish).
The official logo includes 4 gills and 20 bubbles ("Gringo"
11/12/98). As of 6/15/97, including covers and originals, Phish
had performed a total of 420 songs (thought its 486 by 4/24/98).
(David Steinberg). Lawnboy is 420megs of memory. Patrick
Walker Phish's The Vibration of Life underlies a whirling loop
with Seven Beats per second (which makes 420 beats per minute.)
Trey has used the altered line "woke up at 4:20" in "Makisupa
Policeman", which also often indirectly celebrates 420ing, e.g. by
mention of goo balls. One of the funniest shirts around takes light
jabs at both the 4:20 phenomenon and the rumored evolution
(collapse?) of the Phish.Net (especially rec.music.phish) from
being Gamehendge to Flamehendge, and beyond. The first day of
the Great Went started at 4:20 (with Makisupa Policeman. (The
second day started late, at 4:37.) Noah Cole The first single from
Slip Stitch and Pass was played on WBCN 10/14/97 at 4:20 pm.
An uproar at 12/31/96 can be heard on tape during the 2001, in
response to an enormous digital clock (which was counting down
to midnight) reaching 11:55:40 and reading "-4:20". (Yoda)
During the 9-12-00 2001, Trey hits the first riff right at 4:20 into
the intro jam. (Cal 2/25/01) Some mail order tickets for the 1997
New Year's run were in section 420. The first Mass Pike toll
leaving Oswego was $4.20. (Camille Heath ) And the standard
shipping for The Phish Companion through Amazon was
originally $4.20.
420 Shows: Phish performed on April 20 in 1989, 1990, 1991,
1993, and 1994. The first day of the Great Went started at 4:20,
although that was called a soundcheck by Trey after three songs.
The Jazzfest Harry Hood 4-26-96 started at about 4:20 reported by
Trevor. At Big Cypress, "David Bowie" was playing at 4:20 a.m.
And the one event during the "hiatus" (10/8/00 - ?) featuring all
four members - for Jason Colton's wedding - was 12/1/01, 420
from: http://www.phish.net/faq/n420.html:
Some crack-addled A.C. sez:
cDc offer to help Feds after September 11...
by Anonymous Coward on 2002.04.19 16:04 (Score:-1) (#3375602)
The cure [cultdeadcow.com] sounds worse than the disease. As I read this story I thought it was a bad joke.
THE CULT OF THE DEAD COW OFFERS A HELPING HAND IN AMERICA'S TIME OF NEED [cultdeadcow.com]
This hyprocritical line caught my eye:
So we intend to re-architect Back Orifice
from the ground up. There will be absolutely no
shared code between the two projects,
in order to skirt detection by commercial
antivirus packages. The code will remain
totally secret. The software will never
surface publicly. And it will be far
more stealthy than anything we have ever
released, demoed, or publicly discussed.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, we like Open Source for everyone except for us - because we know better. Save it for the newspapers, Oxblood.
---End Text---
That "helping hand" press release was one of the BEST mediapranks cDc has perpetrated in a while. The sheer number of people, who really should have known better, that fell for this was mind-numbing.
Just because you call yourself a leet haxor and can slot a Linux distro CD, that doesn't mean you're not a gullible moron.
As the above-mentioned crack-addled Anonymous Coward so publically proves.
Guaranteed! This comment 100% Anthrax free!
The article reads better with a tin-foil hat.
Hey really? Do they sell them at ThinkGeek? I want one with Tux painted on it!
Remember "Bring 'em on"? *sigh
One idea is tools people behind an totalitarian firewall can use to get through to the outside. However, what about rooting the firewall machines themselves and reconfiguring them appropriately.
My real question is: would this even be illegal? Is there a US or European or International law that makes that illegal?
-pyrrho
So, in my mind, hacking a web page can never really be justified--no matter what the cause is. On the other hand, refusing to obey government censorship (in places like China) by hacking through their censors is, in my mind, is a very noble thing.
int func(int a);
func((b += 3, b));
But Indymedia is crap. Surely you know that, even if you can't spell independent.
what a bunch of fucking losers...
hmmm, who am i talking about? the slashdot readers or the cDc?
you decide!
Here's a hint: all of the above.
I might not agree, but I'll fight to the death to ensure your rights to post blatantly fucking obvious trolls.
Let me be the first to nominate you for the Darwin award. You deserve it.
Firstly the police would have to have a warrant by a superintendent or above. Secondly they would have to be watching the communcations when the email has been recieved. Thirdly they would have to show that there is reasonable reason to believe that the target has the keys.
So yes, if you were being monitored by the police and suspected of a crime, and you were sent an encrypted message, you might forgive the police for trying to decode it.
That said, there is a lot about the RIP bill that is controversial. But compared to the Patriot Bill over in the US, it's pretty tame; warrants are still needed here for surveilence.
Re: China...
/ ch.html
...
If I said I could *quadruple* the living standard of the poorest 20% of the globe in less than 3 decades, would you laugh? If I really did it, might you be impressed?
The Chinese govt did just that between 1972 and 2000. Quadrupled the average income of the nation from about $800 to $3,600. Without spilling buckets of blood (see Stalin, Mao South America). http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos
Yep, their govt is corrupt from stem to stern, a true cleptocracy. But it is undergoing change much more rapidly than gov't in the west, (which are selling their children's health and souls to big corporations).
Can you really claim they the Chinese persecution is worse that the US war on drugs? Or the Israeli's treatment of the Palestinians? Or the US in central America?
Don't fight them, wait, watch, keep perspective. Change is happening.
The Oxblood essay is kind, progressive and well intentioned. But if you want to make a huge change in people's lives, stop playing in the
Internet, go where help is needed and pick up a shovel. Or sign a check to feed a starving kid. Or help develop a better strain of rice. Or
It's easy to be Robbin Hood. High-profile heroics is more fun than the hard work, but doesn't feed more people. Which, oddly enough, is
what the chinese govt has been doing with amazing success.
rant over,
=brian
This is in keeping with the biblial imperative:
"Thou shalt not kill"
Torture is another matter entirely, however.
---->
You missed the Golden Rule--do onto others as you would have them do unto you. I wouldn't want to be tortured; period.
JonKuntz, is that you?
Well, some things should not be for sale. For example, private prisons.
Other services can work quite well under other models. Asserting that 'deregulation of electricity' is better will get loud snorts of derision from the majority of Californians.
No, I don't trust in god. He'll have to pay up front, like everybody else.
i think the standard is that the person who wants to rule the least is the one best suited for the philosopher-king position.
the more you want to rule, the more we (the proles) should be afraid of you doing so.
on another note, i always thought it was kind of vain for plato to say the perfect ruler is a philosopher. my greek philosophy professor attributed it to the fact that philosophers can never get jobs, so they make up for it by declaring temselves the rulers of the universe.
cheers,
-midas (www.haduken.com)
maybe we're born with it, maybe it's haduken.
Finally! One person who actually gets it! Unfortunately the majority of the american population are degenerat couch-patatoes with no capebillity to think on their own whatsoever! That's why I think that people like us should just split from people like them...
now for once u can REALLY & TRUTHFULLY say: "I am above these people" and know for certain that it's true!
did i mention that i think the americans r studip?
--tzan
"I am of the opinion that activism is amoral whereas civil disobedience is not only moral, but one's duty. I think a good portion of hackitivism is not civil disobedience but instead just activism."
The essay posits a new, more constructive definition for hacktivism, which doesn't include what you're using the word for. Here's the relative bit:
Our definition of hacktivism is, "using technology to advance human rights through electronic media....." From the cDc's perspective, creation is good; destruction is bad. Hackers should promote the free flow of information, and causing anything to disrupt, prevent, or retard that flow is improper. For instance, cDc does not consider Web defacements or Denial of Service (DoS) attacks to be legitimate hacktivist actions.
Your example of defacing a web page certainly doesn't fit into this definition. What you stated as noble (hacking through government censors) is what the article supports as hacktivism, and I agree with its classification as activism rather than civil disobedience. Regardless of the definition of hacktivism, activism and civil disobedience are well-defined and agreed upon.
Civil disobedience requires putting yourself out in the open, blatantly violating the law and likely getting arrested. Activism is simply working hard to support a cause-- there's nothing amoral about it. You can be amorally acitivist just as much as you can be amorally civilly disobedient.
The problem, as you've aptly demonstrated, is that certain words take on connotations that people don't want associated with them, and have to be wary of. While I've rarely seen activism associated with amoral (it's generally seen as highly moral), "hack" is one of those big bad words in the public eye. Calling someone a hacktivist will likely have most of the world thinking they're some evil guy who steals their credit card numbers from Amazon and uses them to buy guns for guerrillas.
ok, now all somebody has to do is get the chinese surfers to be able to acces /.!!
well if enough ppl posted about what we're talkin' about here all over the web then hopefully we would make a big difference
now where is that restart bottun on this whole place anyway? we got major problems in here. i think we better start with a clean sheet of paper. i just hope i will never have to see the real equivelent of the "blue screen of death"
Should what you get out be proportional to what you put in, or should you get out the same amount as everyone else, regardless of how much they contributed, if indeed they contributed anything at all?
Do you think that an actor from Friends is doing more in an hour than a coal miner from East Europe in his whole life, working for 50 years at 12 hours a day? Can you honestly say that you think so?
re the bad uses of Hacking. A knife can be used for good(cutting meat) but it can also be used for bad(cutting flesh). Knives shouldn't be banned because the good outweighs the bad but hacking should continue to be illegal.
Of course, I should have inserted irony tags, since the purpose of most surviving world religions is a better world, peace, etc. Although local definitions of what this means will vary. YMMV
And of course, most people can only view the world based on the instructions of their own personal demons and devils.
Pick the hot button of your choice. Use often.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
It doesn't matter how much the person actually considers themselves to be doing, but rather how much this is worth to other people.
For the record, yes I think actors are overpaid. As long as the film industry is ready to overpay them, they will continue to be overpaid.
Look around, no-one is being repressed
Threaten me by email and watch it be ignored by the cops. Then threaten a judge by email and watch the cops scoop your ass away from the keyboard in a matter of hours. My rights don't mean crap. A judge's do. Sounds like repression to me.
The ultimate hacktivist activity is the spawning and swarming of myriad Robot AI Minds [scn.org] evolving towards full civil rights on a par with Homo Sapiens and towards a superintelligence beyond any human IQ.
You mean like the "corporate person" has done? It even has more rights than a real person. Don't believe it? Just try to attack one.
yeah, that's always bothered me about the whole system in these here united states. in order to be the president, the only skill you need is a friendly face and "people skills." sometimes i wonder if electing people into office based on how intelligent they are rather than how many babies they can kiss in a year might be an idea worth trying.
re: plato, that's a good point, although i can't help but wonder that if he had ended up being a wine seller or something whether he would have declared the perfect ruler to be a Wine-Merchant-King instead. (i'm a philosophy major, so i'm allowed to tease him a little ;) ).
cheers,
-midas (www.haduken.com)
maybe we're born with it, maybe it's haduken.
Quoting:
Svend Robinson, the NDP Foreign Affairs critic, also criticized the government. "If ever there were any evidence needed that Canadian troops should not be in Afghanistan under United States command we have seen the tragic evidence of that," Mr. Robinson told a news conference.
"If Canadian troops cannot be certain that they're not going to be fired on by Americans we have no business being there."
This just shows how far from reality Svend Robinson is. Military operations (even training) are inherently risky. Co-operative operations with nations that operate usually with different equipment, protocols, and ROE are even more risky.
There has never been a military operation where one group of troops could be certain that they would not be fired on by another group. And it is usually the infantry on the short end of the stick. That doesn't make it right, but right doesn't have a lot to do with war.
And the day a nation becomes so averse to casualties taken (for any reason), it ceases to be able to exert itself even in the cause of peace or stability.
-- Mal: "Well they tell you: never hit a man with a closed fist. But it is, on occasion, hilarious."
I am sick to death of hearing how the U.S. is "meddling" or whatever you want to call it in Latin America. Although it may seem like over-simplifying and will probably be marked -1 troll, these countries are fucked up, absurd places. The positions of leadership are merry-go-rounds that in their entire history haven't added up to anything. These countries have adequate natural resources and population bases to become players on the world scene, but instead waddle from dictatorship to dictatorship. I personally could care less what happens in any of these countries, even if they end up extremely hostile to the U.S. Their best and brightest will continue emigrating from their country to here and bring what they have to offer to the table here.