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MWA 01
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/ \ \
/ \ Volume 1 \
/ \ Issue 1 \
/ \ Spring 2004 \
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/ | | / MID- \ |/ \| \
/ / WEST \ \
/ /AUTHORITY \ \
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\ / /__\ \ /
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\ \ /________________________\/ /
\ VIEW WITH LUCIDIA CONSOLE /
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- !INTRODUCTION ........................ aestetix -
~ !CONTACT INFORMATION ................. aestetix ~
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- -
~ //BREADSHEET: ~
- !IT RANT ............................. digital abuzer -
~ !INHERIT THE BYTE .................... aestetix ~
- !GEB REVIEW .......................... aestetix -
~ !21st CENTURY FOLK MUSIC ............. evoen ~
- !THE MW2600 PROJECT .................. aestetix -
~ !COOL LINKS .......................... aestetix ~
- -
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~-INTRODUCTION-~
FINALLY! A voice from the Midwest! It's been too long, hasn't
it? We've been the birthplace of a lot of places, most notably
Phrack, but decades pass and things change. It's an odd time
we're living in, when legislation is considering bills that
would make the most trivial part of geek life a felony... but
I'll let Emmanuel Goldstein whine about that. Anyways, this
zine has been inspired on no small part by Hack Canada's zine
K-1ine and the se2600's PhreakNIC and interz0ne cons.
Get back, put on your seat belts, and prepare for MWA!
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~-CONTACT INFORMATION-~
Interested in writing? Email me: aestetix@aestetix.net
Also, check out http://www.mw2600.org
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~-IT "Morons" and the Security Equation-~
It seems that the private sector and government networks of
today are deployed in a careless fashion. Border routers and
firewalls are mis-configured, boxes are not up to date, and
all too often administrators rely on precious anti virus and
software as well as Intrusion Detection for defense. In my
opinion this is due to lack knowledge when it comes to security
but also a lack of concern and motivation. The reality is that
anti virus software and IDS do not protect against zero day
exploits as well as non-disclosed vulnerabilities. However,
these are still excellent tools but administrators must
recognize that the internal networks must be as secure if not
more secure than the borders. You may say that IDS does help
with intrusion detection on an LAN or local machine. True, it
helps detect penetrations and network anomalies on local
machines as well as across the network. I would say that a
good administrator would not deploy snort and leave his
machines unlatched and misconfigured, that is ignorant and
lazy. If a hacker or worm was to penetrate into a non DMZ'ed
LAN with unlatched boxes, the results could be disastrous:
loss of corporate inside information, loss of monies, damage
of payroll, etc. Think of a network as battle lines. Would
you put all your troops at the front line at once and leave
behind the lines unprotected? No because paratroopers and
spies could penetrate the fronts lines and wreak havoc!
I believe that greedy commercial programmers are to blame but
also the administrators of the private sector networks. They
are allowing themselves to be considered morons. Lets analyze
the average systems administrator for a moment. Most have an
MCSE or Cisco CCNA certification which means they can read a
book and remember the content. Most administrators do not keep
up with the latest computer virii, exploits, or security
methods. It seems their concern is just keeping the network up
and available for employees. This kind of motivation is why
many security issues exist today, simple lack of motivation as
well as knowledge.
One more important issue that I will touch on is allowing
sensitive machines that handle, for example payroll and bank
accounts, to be allowed access to the Internet or access to
networks that have Internet access. I cannot stress how moronic
this is! All machines that could be considered sensitive in any
respect must be isolated on a private network. The cost or
convince to employees is not a concern when it comes to
security. A great example comes to mind. A Norwegian power
company had its network accessible to the Internet and came
under attack. The idea that Blaster caused the large blackout
a few months back also proves my point. Sensitive machines
and networks must be isolated regardless of cost or
inconvenience.
If administrators would simply patch machines, lock down
unnecessary services, and configure routers properly security
would be much better. The question I ask is will this happen?
It seems that most of these administrators are only in it for
the paycheck; they have no greater concern for the data they
protect. Do I expect them to stay an hour or so extra to patch
a few servers or update the anti virus definitions, no!
Remember:
You can change the future
Remember the past
Trust no one
Be Paranoid
Be Afraid
1984 is tomorrow
Fuck Ashcroft
Shouts out to Jervanic, Kornstar, cordless, aestetix,
pyrophreak, joe klein, the hackerthreads crew: Lyra, Life,
Weazy, Moorer, Yogi, Waz, all of the supporters of mw2600,
stl2600, PhreakNIC, and anyone else I missed!
Until next time,
-digital abuzer
www.mw2600.org
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~-Inherit The Byte-~
I've already written several articles on AI, but they were all
dealing with progressive issues (how can we get the machine to
do x). In this article, I'm going to concentrate on the
consequences of what could happen assuming we've attained a
program that is sentient.
First, imagine the following scenario: there is a string of
infamous murders across a metropolis, and after long
investigation, police and detectives finally catch the guilty
man. As is customary with crimes of a serious nature, there is
an intensive psychological interrogation, through which they
discover that this man did not commit these murders by his own
free will, but by a foreign machine program that forced him
to commit them.
At first, this seems extremely fanatical. How can a machine
possibly do that? Let's look at it from a neurological point of
view. Our nervous systems are composed of elabourate networks
of neurons which send electric signals back and forth to each
other. For example, when you touch a snowball, the "coldness"
is picked up by sensors in your fingers and the "cold" signal
is sent to your brain. The actual biology is far more complex
and integrated, but this idea will work for our purposes.
So imagine the body as a neural network where the brain can
send a signal to your hand saying "too cold! get away from the
snowball!" and you drop it. The Strong AI viewpoint then
follows that there must be some kind of language or algorithm
which your brain uses to communicate with your hand, or with
any other part it needs to contact. So perhaps someone could
devise a program, similar to a computer processor, that would
direct signals to body parts when needed. We've already seen
similar programs written to control 3D characters, so
theoretically (and we -are- dealing with a theoretical world
at the moment) a program could be written which, when activated
by a device connected to your brain, can cause you to do
anything. In fact, in our story, this is just what has happened
to the guilty man.
Given this progression of thought, the natural step for the
investigators was to shift the guilt from the actual
perpetrator, who had little/no control over his body, to the
person who'd written the program. That is, if we were to view
the guilty man as part of the program output, then it would not
be him but the creator, or the programmer, who should be found
guilty. This was the conclusion until the police found the
programmer, who was a 15 year old kid who had no idea his work
had caused the havok.
If this is hard to believe, take into account the notion of a
self-modifying program. Today, software exists that can look on
the internet for updates, and update itself automatically. This
is especially important in the era where the vast majority of
computer users are illiterate to concepts like updating their
virus definitions or checking their package dependencies. It's
quite common to write a program to check a website for dead
links, or to scan through bash scripts making sure everything
is in proper. What about integrated devices? If we have a
system written into traffic lights, maybe it uses a camera to
monitor the traffic and adjust the light timings for variations
in traffic density. Or maybe you have a robot which, when it's
running low on batteries, finds the nearest power outlet and
charges itself. All these concepts being the case, it's quite
understandable that when a program runs, while it completely
follows the rules built into it by the programmer, performs
tasks completely differently than its programmer could have
ever imagined.
However, the computer world and the legal world don't always
understand each other. In our case, there have been murders
comitted, and the victims' families want justice-- the courts
must resolve the question of who to blame. The man who
committed the crimes claims innocence, and he has the
scientific and psychological backing sufficient to satisfy his
plea. The programmer is just a kid who was writing an engine in
his spare time; he's more worried about getting laid than
killing innocent people.
We've fallen into an interesting dillemma: logically, the guilt
must fall onto the computer program itself. But this involves
several seriously controversial things: first, in order to hold
the program guilty, we must recognize that it has free will and
consciousness. There are so many sides of that argument that
entire books have been written on it. Second, how the hell can
we try and punish a computer? As far as we know, it
has no concept of time save for clock cycles, and if we "forbid"
it to perform any tasks for any number of clock cycles, it will
follow obediently without concern. We could disconnect it and
pass a law forbidding its activation, but that might affect
whatever original "good" purpose it had. Finally, does the legal
system really have any authority here? Any final sentence could
be about as effective as ordering zero to be equal to one.
So what can the conclusion be? Personally, I'd say the best
decision would be to declare a mistrial, because it would avoid
setting into law that the system can be an individual. On the
other hand, we still have these victims who need some kind of
legal satisfaction, and giving the kid 500 hours of community
service (writing a program shouldn't result in jail) certainly
doesn't sound very fulfilling. Realistically, the perpetrator
would probably be placed in prison to satisfy the crowd,
although from a geekist standpoint that certainly doesn't seem
fair-- indeed, quite frightening.
Get ready to see a lot more scenarios like this, but far more
involved and complex. As we move closer to a world of complete
interconnectivity and bizarre technology, even if by the Strong
AI view we're primitive, the issues continue to get more
convoluted and challenging. In a sense, it's almost like chaos
theory coming to life. If there are situations where a justice
system is this inconclusive and ineffective, then we might
eventually need to rewrite or even abolish our system. That
sounds really scary and fanatical, but then again, so does a
world where machines are living conscious beings. Do we trade
one for another, or is it possible to evolve both commensally
without losing integrity on either side? Perhaps this is the
question we need to answer before we proceed any further, but
only time will tell.
--aestetix
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~-GEB Review-~
A Review of _Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid_ (GEB)
by Douglas R. Hofstadter
For the past two years I've had a list of my favourite books:
_The Giver_, _1984_, and _Atlas Shrugged_. Now it seems I must
add a fourth to this list, GEB. I'm not sure whether it's the
amazing coverage of computer science philosophy, the "entire
humanist education between the covers of a single book" as John
Casti put it, or the fact that virtually every interest
imaginable is somehow covered by Hofstadter's.... philosophy,
but something makes me want to run into the streets praising
this book. I will say this much: no computer science student
should be awarded a degree without having read it.
So I ramble on and on about it, and I was doing so at a party
in England when a friend asked me to explain it to him. I
started out with the definition Hofstadter gives in the 20th
Anniversary preface: "a very personal attempt to say how it is
that animate beings can come out of inanimate matter." Then,
realizing that wasn't really enough, I described the MU-puzzle
of the first chapter; essentially, you're given a set of rules
and a set of symbols and told to solve a puzzle. The first few
chapters introduce more puzzles and more rules, and describe the
various thought approaches to solving them. This involves
getting into somewhat heavy math at some points (I wound up
teaching myself Discrete Math without realizing it ^_^).
However, this math theory is intertwined with at times identical
parallels in music and art theory, as well as colourful Lewis
Carroll themed dialogues, to make the material easier to digest.
In the second part, Hofstadter starts going farther. Since a lot
of math has been covered, he looks at the other side of the
solution process: the human thought, or how our minds operate
when searching for the answer. He dives into basic neural
networks and heavy psychology, at the same time introducing
fundamental computer programming. Then, about midway through, he
introduces Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem and relates it back to
mental thought brilliantly. There are many more surprises I
won't give away, but in "inventing" a computer science
education, he takes it into the realm of AI theory, and ends the
book as if not more fantasic than it was begun.
There is one critique I want to comment on. Many other reviews
of GEB have nagged about his "prediction" near the end that
computers will never defeat humans at chess, especially after
the 1997 Kasparov challenge. His exact response was: "No. There
may be programs which can beat anyone at chess, but they will
not be exclusively chess players. They will be programs of
-general- intelligence, and they will be just as temperamental
as people." My interpretation of this is not that computers will
never beat anyone at chess, but that while chess-champion
computers will exist, they will be able to do more than just
play chess. For example, a future computer skilled at chess
might also have comparable skill at go, backgammon, or
processing global thermonuclear warfare data. This especially
makes sence when you consider that a computer is a math machine,
and these games can be interpreted with pattern analysis, which
was one of the main points of the book. Alas, time can be a
brutal dictator.
Perhaps the main problem I have with this book is the massive
amount of content it covers. While this means it takes a really
long time to read (but well worth it), it also means that you're
exposed to a huge amount of ideas, and when you go on to more
dedicated volumes you see the same patterns. GEB forces you to
look at the world in a new way that you really can't let go. But
that's the price you pay for a good education, and for whatever
Hofstadter doesn't cover, he lists additional references in the
massive bibliography.
Should you read this book? That all depends on how you want to
spend your life. Would you rather let it pass by, enjoying a
good moment of silence every now and then? Or do you prefer
constantly looking through ideas, books, music and art for this
same fundamental meaning, trying to discover as much as you can
about life, the universe, and everything? This book is the
perfect fuel for a geek, a good amplifier for a jaded geek, and
a magical introduction to a geekling. One thing is for sure:
I will never forget the amazing experience that was my first
reading of GEB.
--aestetix
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~-21st Century Folk Music-~
After a brief introduction and a couple e-mails w/ aestetix, I
now find myself providing an article about a subject that is
perhaps one of the greatest contributions from a computer--
Electronic Music.
I know, I know. "Zombie Nation", car commercials, and the Venga
Boys. I'm going to ask you to drop these ideas from your mind
and perhaps wonder where all this came from. In order to get
where we are now we have to understand where these ideas and
techniques originated. In doing this, believe it or not, we can
relate all electronic music forms to Country Bluegrass. Yes you
heard right, Bluegrass. Now to sum up in a paragraph what I
learned in semester of American history of music, Bluegrass is
very close to the roots of blues, contemporary country, and it's
greatest evolution, Rock and Roll. Bluegrass had it's greatest
following during the 'multi-media strapped' times of America
when the most popular form of entertainment was the radio. And
while the structure of the music itself isn't similiar; its
shares the same soul. The soul that I'm referring to is most
commonly known as 'Folk Music'. These are songs that are
delivered as an expression of what the song writer not only
wants you to hear but most importantly wants you to feel. These
are songs of emotion not written in hopes of record sales but
merely as a tool to reflect where the author is in their life at
a certain time. For a precise history or time-line you can do a
search on Google.
Now we have a foundation, the soul. Granted we have many
different flavors, but outside of different time signatures and
beats per minute (BPM) there is essentially the same structure
within each flavor; which is why electronic music is so easy to
mix. So if this music is so similar why are there so many types?
Basically because many people have different feelings to
portray. For the most part producers of electronic music are
today's Bluegrass singers of late. Each with an opinion or tale
to tell. Each with a feeling or experience to express.
These songs that are made are a result of hacking. Though no
system's security is bypassed nor any database illegally
accessed; the true artists of electronic music are hackers. Many
sounds produced by drum machines and synthesizers are a result
of users pushing the limits of their equipment or altering its
original function (like phreakers make boxes) in order to
achieve a flavor of their own. Innovations in technique progress
knowledge about the music much quicker than new innovations in
hardware. With that being said however, there is one piece of
equipment that has revolutionized producing electronic music--
the laptop. With today's powerful processors and significant
advances in multimedia software, electronic music is tumbling
more towards laptops rather than dedicated machines. Laptops now
encompass entire studios giving the producer more options with
much less cost. This gives the producer more freedom and in turn
personalizes his or her music even more. Just as Rock'n Roll and
rap began, the result is modern day folk music.
So if producers are so great, why is it that all the talk is
about DJs? If producers are the yin, DJs are the yang. Producers
provide the soul while DJs apply it. A good DJ isn't necessarily
about having a great mixing technique or the ability to match
beats. Rather good DJs will take you on a journey during their
set. They will start you off, bring you up, and then ease you
down. This is achieved all by the records that they themselves
like. These are songs that they have been exposed to and feel so
intensly about that they too want you to feel what the producer
is trying to achieve. DJs also try to release songs that are for
the most part unknown. Anyone can get a record from Paul
Oakenfold and play it at a party, however its probably something
that others have heard before. The true gems are songs you find
while digging through the archives in a store. Or if you are
lucky enough tohave friends who produce, you get to be exposed
to whole albums that many may never hear. DJs get noticed for
song selections while producers get known for creating the
tracks. The two coincide together in this balance.
Where can I hear this great music? This can be tough. Mainstream
media has raped this form of expression as it does most
everything else. I guess my best advice would be to stay away
from anyplace where DJs are put up on a pedestal while mixing. I
mean what if you hear a song and wanna know more about it? How
can you look to see the label or sleeve if the decks are 7 feet
from the floor? DJs are there to provide vibe, not perform
maneuvers. Producers playing live sets usually happen in smaller
venues. If you have a chance to see any producers play live, I
highly suggest going. Its very interesting to see and you get a
good idea of just how complex making the music can be.
Regardless of the type of delivery, both will deliver sounds
that are original, personal, and full of substance. Typically
these are not songs producedunder the stress of a contract but
more conceived under the notion of a gift. A contribution from
users creating art on their computers for their friends to enjoy
and have a good time with.
--evoen
http://evoen.net
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~-The MW2600 Project-~
Sometimes it seems this zine and the "Bootleg" PhreakNIC 7 shirt
came out of nowhere. In fact, six months ago (circa DefCon) I
had no idea I'd be not reading a zine (Phrack, K-1ine, etc) but
writing for one! Where this zine and other things go are
unpredictable at this point, but they do have an origin.
I think it was the September 2600 meeting in St. Louis that the
idea was born. I'd collected a friend or two to attend a casual
meeting,and for the most part it was. However, a guy named
w1nt3rmut3 (apologies if that's misspelled) had come down from
Chicago, with a friend from Milwaukee, proposing that we form a
new meeting place somewhere in Illinois between us...
essentially, merge the Chicago and St. Louis groups. Sounded
like an idea worth considering to me, as I'm definately
willing to drive a few hours when I know it'll be worth it.
However,it would only be done every few months, a larger
crowd... it was starting to sound like a con! There had been a
lot of voice aboutthrowing one in St. Louis, Gateway to the West
and such, but it takesa lot more planning and preparation than a
spontaneous meeting.
A few days later, I pitched the idea to Elonka (who'd missed the
meeting), and she responded with two things: one, taking
three/four hours to drive somewhere for a single meeting for a
single night wasway overboard; she absolutely refused it. Fair
enough. However, she said, what -would- be a fabulous idea would
be to start a base of networking for the Midwest. She used the
example of SE2600, where there was a main site set up with
general links to different regional meeting pages, FAQs and a
listserv. They were well enough connected and had enough money
(and brains) running around that they even threw annual cons
(PhreakNIC, @LANta_con, interz0ne). If we set up something like
that, then all the Midwest talent could join and eventually
realize our own con!
That same night I registered mw2600.org and threw up a temp page
on my website with a redirection. Next, I started contacting
people, namely kello from Springfield, MO and Battery from
Chicago. They seemed quite keen on the idea, and I put links to
the Springfield and Chicago pages on mw2600.org. Then things
started going slow. I was having difficulty finding a good web
ho$t, at the same time trying to juggle classes and working on
my presentation for PhreakNIC 7 (PN7). Nearing PN7, things
started turning around.
I'd spent considerable time making my own tshirt design for PN7
because I didn't think I'd like the official one, and wound up
dropping a lot of money to get them printed. However, at PN7
things were looking up. I met a couple kids from Chicago, and
even a few from the fabled KC meeting that I'd been trying to
hunt down. Sold shirts and spread the word... the mw2600 idea
was beginning to get some authority and respect. w00t!
So time passes, and the hype dies down; but mw2600 is still up,
the site gets updated whenever anything new and cool happens,
and I'm hoping this zine will trigger even more interest and
provide a good outlet. Like the FAQ on the site says, the entire
purpose of the project is to join everyone, to provide a base
for networking. Some kid from Bumfsck, Missouri wants to get in
on the scene, he goes to mw2600.org, joins the listserv, reads
the zine, and, of course, finds the web site and contact
information for the group closest to him.
It's about connectivity, about spreading and sharing ideas.
I still abide by the original ethic though I absolutely refuse
to call myself a "hacker". The meaning of that word has been
distorted, scrambled, and convoluted over the years by media, by
books claiming to preach it's virtues, and any other scapegoat
that comes to mind. But it hasn't been lost. There are still
some who recognize it for what it means (or pick their favourite
from the Jargon file :p) and live by it. MW2600 is an attempt
to call that meaning and rebuild it from scraps into an
empire of creativity.
Will it work? I have no idea. But it's better to take the gamble
and lose than to never have something that was there. It's
the people that will make it happen.
--aestetix
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~-Cool Links-~
http://www.mw2600.org
-If you don't know what this is by now, you're stupid.
http://www.aestetix.net
-I have to give myself a plug here. Check out my website!
http://www.elonka.com/kryptos
-This is a really deep analysis of one of the world's most
famous -unsolved- crypto puzzles, by the world's leading expert
on Kryptos, Elonka Dunin.
http://malattia.cjb.net
-If you're into crypto at all, you must see this site. This guy
has some of the most insane encryption puzzles I've ever seen.
http://www.kurzweilai.net
-Some really interesting looks at AI theories by Ray Kurzweil.
Not-so-Cool Links:
http://www.haxxxor.com
-These idiots debuted their "HaXXXor" video at DefCon XI, to
everyone's dismay. They exploit and embarass the scene, and are
a disgrace especially to true geek girls. They're going to try
to release their second video at interz0ne 3; while they are
legally free to, it is in bad taste, and I urge everyone to
boycott their products. DO NOT BUY HAXXXOR VOL.2!!!!!!!!!!!
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~-Credits-~
Many thanks to digital abuzer and evoen for submitting articles,
and thanks to Elonka, battery, kello, w1nt3rmut3, ProffEKS,
Avengence, Clayton, and DJ Zeke for helping to put the midwest
back on the map. I also wanna shout out to non midwest clan,
including Greg, Sherrod, DigiD, theclone, port9, njan, kilrathi,
sinister, pyrophreak, psyiode, and everyone in se2600.
OREMOR NHOJ, EM LLIK TSUM UOY EMAG EHT NIW OT
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EOF
