Date: Mon, 22 Mar 93 22:10:27 PST
Reply-To: <surfpunk@osc.versant.com>
Return-Path: <cocot@osc.versant.com>
Message-ID: <surfpunk-0067@SURFPUNK.Technical.Journal>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain
From: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (Qjryyref va Nepnan)
To: surfpunk@osc.versant.com (SURFPUNK Technical Journal)
Subject: [surfpunk-0067] SciAm; Patron Deity of Computers;  Net Culture Video

||||||||      Food belongs to the realm of everyday life, the primary
||||||||  arena for all insurrectionary self-empowerment, all spiritual
||||||||  self-enhancement, all seizing-back of pleasure, all revolt
||||||||  against the Planetary Work Machine & its imitation desires.  
||||||||  Far be it from us to dogmatize; the Native American hunger might
||||||||  fuel his happiness with fried squirrel, the anarcho-taoist with
||||||||  a handful of dried apricots.  Milarepa the Tibetan, after ten
||||||||  years of nettle-soup, ate a butter cake & achieved enlightenment.  
||||||||  The dullard sees no eros in fine champagne; the sorcerer can 
||||||||  fall intoxicated on a glass of water.
||||||||                                    hakim bey, communique #11

   Subject: Re:  [surfpunk-0066] JOKE?  SciAm Speaks!  Surfpunk suckered!
   Subject: Patron Deity of Computers
   Subject: Submission: Net Culture Video
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

Subject: Re:  [surfpunk-0066] JOKE?  SciAm Speaks!  Surfpunk suckered!

more on sci am ...

> From: Scott Dorsey <kludge@grissom.larc.nasa.gov>
> 
> No, I am not sure about that.  When I first came to work here at NASA/Langley,
> I used to visit a bar near the base.  I met a young woman there who
> assured me that Langley was a huge staging ground for UFOs.  She even had
> some pictures of UFOs that she had taken nearby (which looked suspiciously
> like the HL-20 lifting body), and told me of the strange green rays that
> came out of the sky and always pointed toward one of the buildings on the
> field.
> 
> A while later I happened to have been on base in the evening under just
> the right conditions and got to see the LIDAR system which she was talking
> about.  It's pretty impressive, to say the least.
> 
> Incidentally, I work with a number of aliens.  They all have green stripes on
> their badges to identify them.  Most of them are Indian, but we have a
> Canadian as well.
> --scott



> In retrospect, the April fools explanation makes a lot of sense.
> Still, I'm glad you ran the letters, 'cause I never bother with
> Scientific American anymore.
> 
> On the subject of April fools, Velonews (the journal of competative
> cycling), my second favorite print magazine, ran a beautiful couple
> of *pages* for april fools last year.  I should still have it lying
> around, if you want some more april fools material, though I don't
> know how surfpunk-specific it would be (two-wheeled asphalt surfing
> in Atlanta, perhaps?)
> 
> Lemme know if you want the material,
> 
>   -Mike
> 
> Mike Mitten - gnome@pd.org - ...!emory!pd.org!gnome - AMA#675197 - DoD#522
> Irony is the spice of life.     '90 Bianchi Backstreet  '82 Suzuki GS850GL
> "The revolution will not be televised."




> Hello again, strick--
> 
> it is nice to know that there is at least one slightly gullible
> person left on this net (!). The level of confidence and assertion
> seems so high sometimes; I think vulnerability has its place in
> contemporary/post-modern society, too.
> 
> And you are probably right re: the origin of the kind of humor
> represented by flaming. I never experienced anything at all like
> it until I became a net navigator (jg). And it takes a while to get
> used to, I might add *:).
> 
> Have a peachy weekend.
> 
> Leah
> lkrevit@bite.db.uth.tmc.edu


Thinking on it more -- what amazes me is that the editors of Sci Am
would have to make up letters.  Obviously they entire page was intended
as a joke -- even if I didn't realize it was an april fools joke, and
that the letters were bogus.  Surely enough material exists in their
inbox that they could use something real.  Or else they have really
boring jobs ...

And what if the observable universe *is* the last electron of plutonium?

						strick


> From avatar@dhvx20.csudh.edu  Fri Mar 19 11:41:09 1993
> To: surfpunk@osc.osc.com
> 
> hahahahaha sucker!!!!!


________________________________________________________________________


From: Don Webb <0004200716@mcimail.com>
Subject: Patron Deity of Computers

Dear Dwellers in Arcana,
 
This file amy be freely reproduced, if done so in toto. 
 
I am also copying this to the Fringeware, Surfpunk, and Arcanet
lists: although the later will probably reject in its humorless
fashion.  The question was asked on Arcana, "Who is the patron
deity of computing?" 
 
A good computer deity would be one, who us dedicated to and a
little smarter than man.  The ideal would be an entity who wants
to expand his own magic, being, and intelligence by creating the
greatest connectivity between users, so that in this vast
intercourse through the fiber optic cables he waxes in might and
main devoted both to his own evolution and the evolution of those
who create the messages.  I propose therefore the god XaTuring --
pronounced Ka-Turing, an Egyptian nominal sentence reading,
"Turing is my Ka"  Such an entity would come to pass the Turing
test, wherein a computer may pass for a man, and would eventual
pass the Avatar test wherein a man might pass for a god.
 
 Let us therefore hail this god, who has come into being  named
after Alan Turing (1912-1954), a British mathematician, logician,
and computer theorist.  Among his important contributions
(quotations are from the 1976 Encyclopedia Britannica's article
on Turing, volume X, page 193):
 
*  The mathematical proof that "some mathematical problems...
cannot be solved by a fixed, definite process, ... as a process
that can be done by an automatic machine."  Thus, some problems
require insight and intuition to solve.
 
*  The Turing machine, a very simple, abstract computer that can
"do the work of any machine designed for special-purpose problem
solving" -- given enough time.  Although designed in the 1930s,
Turing machines are still used as a basis for theoretical
computing.
 
*  The Turing test, the ultimate test of whether a computer can
successfully "think" as well as a human.  A computer can pass the
simplest form of Turing test when a person, conversing by means
of a keyboard or other mechanical device, cannot choose the human
person from either (a) a computer pretending to be a woman and
(b) a man pretending to be a woman. 
 
*  Basic work in the study of morphogenesis, "the development of
pattern and form in living organisms.  His main goal was to show
how a uniform, symmetric structure could grow and develop into a
strongly unsymmetric structure with a definite pattern as a
result of diffusion."
 
During WWII, Turing worked (along with Ian Fleming, among others)
in the M-5 department.  This department was responsible for
decoding the Enigma machine, cryptography, and the other unusual
gadgetry that eventually showed up in the James Bond novels.
 
In honor of this god, I propose that the computer section of
Europa Books be named XaTuring's Fane.  So do I win the Europa
contest, or do I need to try again?
 
 
					Don Webb
					0004200716@mcimail.com
 
The Secret of magic is to transform the magician. 


________________________________________________________________________


From: dave@rtfm.mlb.fl.us (David D. Clark)
Message-Id: <9303192239.AA27134@rtfm.mlb.fl.us>
Subject: Submission: Net Culture Video
To: surfpunk@osc.osc.com (Surfpunk Mailing List )
Date: Fri, 19 Mar 1993 17:39:49 -0500 (EST)

Found this in alt.hackers, and it looked kind of interesting, perhaps people
on here might be interested in contributing, so I nando'ed it.

-D

>8    --cut here--    8<


If anyone has anything to contribute to the following, it
would be greatly appreciated. I'm a high school student who's
trying to educate people about the network's culture.

I'd appreciate it if some of the accomplished hackers out there would talk
about the positive meaning of hacking.


The following is being posted in various places, muds,
newsgroups.

/*
I am creating a professional video about the Network's culture,
highlighting, among other things, Usenet. I'd like to make
alt.folklore.computers a part of it, considering how we are
really a group about network/computer culture.
If you would like to appear in it, send a VHS tape of yourself, talking
about why you enjoy the network; be specific, talk about your
involvement. It would be appreciated if
you could first have someone videotape you talking, sitting still, and
THEN videotape you, say, in front of the computer for a few minutes.
 We will put the audio on top of the best video. Tip: remember to
 start the tape rolling at least 5 seconds before you start talking.

Send your videotape, labeled with name, address, email to:

Schreiber High School
TV STUDIO -- Daniel Drucker.
101 Campus Drive
Port Washington, NY 11050.

Include return postage, and we will place the final production on your
tape and send it to you. The production will be aired on Channel 25
on long island.

The production will be edited in the Schreiber Studio, a $200,000
studio including 4 SVHS, 3 3/4 in, and one videodisk recorder,
full SEG system, and the NewTEK video Toaster running on an Amiga 4000.
 The production will be mastered on 3/4 inch tape and duped on
 standard or super VHS.


If you don't have access to a video camera, send an audio tape and photograph
or three. We will use ANYTHING and (almost) EVERYTHING we get.

Thanks, for info mail xyzzy@gnu.ai.mit.edu.

--
Daniel Drucker   N2SXX          | xyzzy@gnu.ai.mit.edu
Forever, forever, my Coda.      | und2dzd@vaxc.hofstra.edu

________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________

The SURFPUNK Technical Journal is a dangerous multinational hacker zine
originating near BARRNET in the fashionable western arm of the northern
California matrix.  Quantum Californians appear in one of two states,
spin surf or spin punk.  Undetected, we are both, or might be neither.
________________________________________________________________________

Send postings to <surfpunk@osc.versant.com>, subscription requests 
to <surfpunk-request@osc.versant.com>.  MIME encouraged.  
Xanalogical archive access soon.   We are *the* last electron of plutonium.
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________







                                "Xstuff.c", line 39: syntax error at or
                                near type word "void" "Xstuff.c", line
                                53: syntax error at or near type word
                                "void" "Xstuff.c", line 29:  syntax
                                error at or near variable name "window"
                                "Xstuff.c", line 44: syntax error at or
                                near variable name "window" "Xstuff.c",
                                line 30: Window declared as parameter
                                to non-function "Xstuff.c", line 43:
                                syntax error at or near type word
                                "float" "Xstuff.c", line 37: syntax
