
 '##::::'##:::'#####:::'########: VIVA LA REVOLUCION! CERDO DEL CAPITALISTA!!
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  ##:::: ##:'##:::: ##: ##::::::: THE HELOTS OF ECSTASY PRESS RELEASE #373 !!
  #########: ##:::: ##: ######::: ZIEGO VUANTAR SHALL BE MUCH VICTORIOUS!  !!
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  ##:::: ##:. ##:: ##:: ##::::::: "Geeks With Big Dicks"                   !!
  ##:::: ##::. #####::: ########: by -> Darwin                             !!
 ..:::::..::::.....::::........:: 12/22/98                                 !!
 !!========================================================================!!

        Hey, it's your friendly neighborhood computer underground type
 character with an article for your consideration.  I'm Darwin (NOT MY
 REAL NAME), a computer geek who has been wasting his time on these
 stupid machines for most of my life.  I started out on the TRS-80 model
 II, and I'm typing this article on my 486/120.  What happened between is
 the sort of stuff that every other article in this 'zine is about.
 Actually, it's what this article is about, too, but not really in the
 way that you're probably expecting.  What I've experienced in the last
 13 years on the computer and especially the last 5 years with my modem
 is loosely referred to as "the computer underground".  From the text
 scene to the hack scene, to the warez scene, to the art scene, I've
 dabbled in just about every computer scene there is.  I've noticed
 something that I think is pretty important, or interesting, anyway.
 Essentially, it's that any computer underground scene comes down to a
 bunch of weird geeks who want to prove how big their dick is.

        Now, I know what you're thinking.

        "Dick?  He didn't mention the pr0n scene!"

        I'm not talking about .GIF dicks, or any real kind of sexual
 organ.  What I'm talking about is the male ego, the 'I'm better than
 you' attitude, the 'my dick is bigger than yours' attitude.  Why am I
 not mentioning females?  Well, honestly, they're statistically
 insignificant in the computer underground.  Parents don't push
 computers on their female children as much as boys, not to mention
 cultural taboos against technical or smart females.  Back to the point
 at hand.

        Take my local text scene. In RICUS magazine, "Robin Hood" (NOT
 HIS REAL HANDLE) wrote info about how to hack Fidonets, the bust of
 local freaks, et cetera.  Pretty tame stuff, but far-out for the kind
 of kid who is used to Wildcat bbses, and Shareware crap like that.
 After RICUS hit the local scene, we had scores of copycats, although
 none of them had any really useful information in them like RICUS did.
 People called The Ministry of Knowledge (TMoK) to peruse the huge
 masses of text files, and people jumped on the bandwagon.  Local guys
 competed to get text from Ripco, Demon Roach Underground, The Works,
 The Floating Pancreas, all the major text boards.  People hoarded cDc
 and uXu text files and started trying to write "CRAZZY SCHTUPH". The
 RICUS folks spawned S0NS 0F LIBERTY (S0L) which was pretty decent, for
 a while.  The people who wrote for this group were literate and
 knowledgeable.  Of course, they got the 'glory' in the local scene,
 and others wanted a chunk of the action.  A bunch of lame-ass groups
 sprung up, saying idiotic things for 4 issues and then dying.  Mostly,
 they were bad-mouthing people who nobody had ever heard about and
 jabbering about hacking telegard.  Total crap.  Anyway, my point here
 is pretty obvious.  The Text scene was established as a permanent
 entity.  Those who had the most text files and wrote the most for the
 text magazines were the most respected.  Instead of being some
 pimply-faced 95-pound weakling, they were big shots, they got the
 glory, they had the biggest dick.

        People had been pirating software for years, but the
 proliferation of the modem really helped people along. Instead of copy
 parties or borrowing your friends disks, you just dial up your local
 wares board.  You log in, you see some amazing ANSI art and then you
 download your cracked copy of Police Quest. Could there be anything
 better?  Well, some of these boards want you to upload, so what can you
 do?  Either you can call long distance to try to find some other games
 to put up there, or you can do ANSIs for the system. The people from the
 text scene who wanted games ended up either as warez traders or art
 scene freaks.  Eventually, some time in 92 or 93, the art people finally
 told the wares guys to fuck off and started charging for ANSIs.  This,
 in my opinion, is completely retarded.  There should be competition to
 do an ANSI for a big wares group. I mean, Christ, people will see your
 logo everytime they download a game!  Anyway, the wares scene showed up,
 accompanied by the art scene.  People make their names bigger, trying to
 be the best artist, run the biggest board, be in the best groups,
 whatever.  Again, both of these scene exist for the sole purpose of
 boosting the ego of a antisocial computer addict.

        So, for the people who like to take apart shit and "BOMB VEGAS
 FIRSTTT" (i.e. -- people who saw 'Wargames') started hacking computers.
 Doing crazy stuff like scanning #s for sys75s, UNIX dialup boxes, and
 finally jumping on the net and haqing up the Pentagon and the Kremlin.
 Anyway, these people wrote their own text files about hacking, hung out
 on bridges, and just basically spent a lot of time on their computers.
 We have PHRACK, 2600, CuD, all dedicated to explaining exactly how to
 get stuff without paying it.  The better you could hack, the cooler you
 were, the more people respected your name. Urville from the Legion of
 Doom got tons of props, despite the fact that he's not the world's most
 interesting guy (I've met him).  Anyway we see here (as in the wares
 scene) the second reason for the computer underground.  Not only are
 these people trying to prove their masculinity, they are trying to get
 something that they are not allowed to have.

        Does this sound familiar to anyone?  It should.

        Anyone who has been to High School in America understands all of
 these trends without even knowing it.  We have the jocks (low-tech), the
 nerds (hi-tech), the punks (lowest-tech), etc, etc... but they're all
 trying to be the best at what they are.  They're all trying to get
 booty, get into the best colleges, get the nicest cars, get drunk, get
 in fights, whatever.  They're rebelling against their parents and doing
 it in whatever way they happen to prefer.  The big guys play football,
 the brainy anti-social types hack, trade wares, do ANSIs, write text
 files, or whatever.

        People in all of the computer underground's scenes like to diss
 the people in the other scenes. Wares guys don't like text files,
 hackers don't like anyone, text guys don't like wares guys, and so on
 so forth.  I have to say that I think that this is completely
 counterproductive, and the fragmented nature of the underground aids in
 its assimilation into mainstream culture. We, as computer geeks (that
 is, people who spend tons of times fooling around with a machine), are
 by our nature anti-social (not spending tons of time fooling around with
 people).  If we are to hold strong against those we universally despise:
 Consumers, Jocks, Yuppies, in other words "THE COMPLACENT MULTITUDE",
 then we have to put this crap aside. Wares guys, make friends with your
 software!  Hack guys, make friends with your accounts! Text guys, make
 friends with crazy shit! Art guys, draw an ansi for free for some hacker
 or wares guy or whatever! If you're going to waste your time on these
 damn machines...

        Do it for the sake of the greater purpose --

        "The Right To Be Antisocial as Hell and Still Make Friends and
 Have Fun."  (If I could put it in 10 foot letters on my roof, god knows
 I would.)

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 !! (c) !LA HOE REVOLUCION PRESS!     #373 - WRITTEN BY: DARWIN - 12/22/98 !!
