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= F.U.C.K. - Fucked Up College Kids - Born Jan. 24th, 1993 - F.U.C.K. =
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Internet Madness
THE NET. Hackers. Sneakers. The American obsession with the
Internet and its criminals have reached an all time high. The public
has a love/hate relationship with this "new technology" and its denizens.
Magazines about the Internet pop up every day and all are filled
with articles about Phil Zimmerman, famous hackers, and how to's on
making secure sites. You can find books (yes, I said books) on how
to get on IRC and how to act once you get there. It even has tips
on what commands you should avoid typing for fear some evil cybercriminal
might steal all of your files and sell them to your wife or rival company.
Everyone wants to get wired. Adrenaline runs high as these newbies
hear the screech of their modems as they log onto fresh new accounts,
usually with some kind of point and click interface. They expect to
find high drama, action adventure, and crime. And they want to be in the
middle of it all. They want to be a part of this "anarchist subculture"
that the government is trying so hard to suppress.
So they get on the "Information Superhighway" and jump onto IRC
and subscribe to half of the newsgroups, waiting, with some excitement,
for something new and wondrous to happen. The first thing that usually
happens is they get flamed for not reading a FAQ and asking a dumb
question, spamming, or using a point and click interface that many net
denizens despise. Next they get on all the alt.sex.* hierarchy
newsgroups and secretly read pornography. It never ceases to amaze me
that on IRC a /who *.compuserve.com usually yields a list that reads
something like the Penthouse Table of Contents.
So what is happening to the Net as a result? All the media hype has
certainly brought the quality of the Net and the people who frequent it
down. I can't get through one newsgroup without increasing the size of
my killfile. /ignore lame_nick_here all has become my most common IRC
command. I set up procmail so I could redirect all mail from AOL'ers to
one file so that it could be swiftly deleted. I spend a lot of time
shaking my head or laughing outright at various IRC messages, newsgroup
posts, and WWW content.
Sadly enough, the media seems incapable of promoting the positive
qualities of the Net. Instead of pointing out the wealth of information
available at the literal tips of your fingertips, they actually devote
entire issues to cybersex and how to be provocative online. (Pick up the
latest issue of _the Net_ if you don't believe me.) If sex isn't the
reason you got online, then free software seems to be number 2 on the list.
A good 10% of the posts on the Win95 hierarchy newsgroups are devoted to
questions about SN hacking. And if you didn't get on the Net for sex
or free software, then you may belong there.
The fact is that the Net is nothing more than a place to find
information, share it with people who have similar interests, and, above
all, have a good time. There is no "intrigue" or "high drama". Just
about the most exciting thing going on is a lot of flaming, spamming, and
Anti-AOL sentiment. The Net is an exercise in education, and the same
application of etiquette and social skills applies there as it does
elsewhere. If you got on the Net to download porn, have cybersex with
minors, or get free software, then most of the Net denizens will despise
you, and feel free to tell you so in various ways. The Net is no big deal.
Don't treat it like one. After all, it's the people who made it into a big
deal who are destroying it. The warez pups and pedophiles are destroying
it for all of us, and because the media got into it, so did the government.
Now really, was all of this necessary? I think not.
DeMoNiKa
demonika@netcom.com
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= Questions, Comments, Bitches, Ideas, Rants, Death Threats, etc etc... =
= Internet : jericho@netcom.com (Mail is welcome) =
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= gote land +27.31.441115 =
= Arrested Development +31.77.3547477 =
= Chemical Persuasion 203.324.0894 Celestial Woodlands 214.252.6455 =
= that stupid place 215.985.0462 Hacker's Haven 303.343.4053 =
= E.L.F. (NUP) 314.272.3426 Misery 318.625.4532 =
= Dungeon Sys. Inc. 410.263.2258 Psykodelik Images 407.834.4576 =
= Paradise Lost 414.476.3181 Black SunShine 513.891.3465 =
= underworld_1995.com 514.683.1894 Digital Fallout 516.378.6640 =
= PSYCHOSiS 613.836.7211 Bad Trip 615.870.8805 =
= Plan 9 716.881.3663 suicidal chaos 718.592.1083 =
= Phallic Paradise 801.944.7353 Purple Hell 806.791.0747 =
= Atrocity Exhibition 905.796.3385 Phoenix Modernz 908.830.8265 =
= The Keg 914.234.9674 =
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= Files through Anonymous FTP: FTP.NETCOM.COM - /pub/je/jericho/FUCK =
= FTP.WINTERNET.COM - /users/craigb/fuck =
= FTP.GIGA.OR.AT - /pub/hackers/zines/FUCK =
= ETEXT.ARCHIVE.UMICH.EDU - /pub/Zines/FUCK =
= Files through WWW: ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/je/jericho/jericho.html =
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