This the first item. Please rant, spew, and otherwise HACK to your hearts
delight.

208 responses total.

I am really glad that this item finally got of the ground.  Unfortunatly,
I was in Europe at the time, with no access whatsoever, but have returned
to make the most of this latest incarnation.  Maybe my spelling will improve
as a result of the new come responsibility.  Maybee KNot.

hello, guys.  what, just out of curiosity, is the point of this
cf?  just so we all can know right up front...

        The point is what you want to make it!!! I have also been on vacation
but now I'm back and hope to spice things up a little bit...

All good things come to those who wait. :)

I'm waiting....

        If you just wait it won't happen, MAKE it happen yourself i.e. enter
an item or something.

What the point of this? Where exactly are you trying to go with it?

What are the subjective limitations of the terror dome?

        re 7,8  Whatever you make them. Afterall we control this collective
virtual space.

Do you think there is an unfounded paranoia over privacy in the dawning of AGE
of cybertechnology and telecommunications?  In other words, do you think we
will live in a constant state of making traceable electronic footprints every
where we go?  OR IS THIS SIMPLY fearing FEAR?

        No I think it's quite easy for govt/coperations to tracks us
        electrnicaly right now.  Almost all financial transactions are already
        tracked by
companies like TRW that will sell the information to anyone for a modest
fee as a credit rating.
        If you add on the fact that the NSA has a super computer that can
break PGP in 10 minutes, and Clinton's "national id card" plan I think
people have a right to be very concerned about their privacy in the
"information age."

Unfortunately, I have not learned how to make a new item.  Please forgive 
me is if this post seems out of place.  
I am a student at Marquette Univeristy who has just started a multi media
organization.  One event that we have planned is a poetry reading via
vid phone, speaker phone, and the internet.  We are also working on 
trying to establish some professional contacts.  Does anyone have any 
advice or ideas for an event?  We are eager to jump in and are trying to
find applications as well as learn the hardware.  Any words will be
appreciated! Thanks.

        What sort of internet connection do you have, is it slip T1?  If so
you should be able to do a live video feed.  I would love to paticipate in this
even as I am a poet, and have self published 3 books of poetry and am working
on a hypercard stack.  There are probably other poets here in Ann Arbor who
would be into it as well.  E-mail me with more info of what your plans are.

        Nothing that fancy... we are still playing with 
the telephone lines.  Remember, we are college kids here:)
Unless we find a generous funding source then we must stick
with the utilities for now.  Maybe next month.
        As for joining us , please do! We are deep in the planning stage
but I would love to discuss details.  If you are interested,
the Electronic Cafe International, in conjunction with
the Nuyorican Poets Cafe connects (lately they've been slacking)
to PMC MOO (telnet hero.village.virginia.edu 7777) on Friday evenings at 10:00
pm for poetry slams.  If they don't show, there are always interested
individuals who will likely spew a few lines.
(myself included)  If you don't mind my saying so, you seem monstrously
overqualified:)  Sometimes the poetry is very raw.  But some good stuff com
comes out.  
        Back to the student organization.  I have made Apple contacts...
but hope that some other companies will be as receptive to us.  We 're very
hungry right now.

        I like poetry hungry and raw... I will check that IRC? site friday.

Okay!  I won't be there this weekend.  I won't be near a computer.
But I will be there next weekend.  
When you get on the MUD  type @Who      then find out who is in the
Virtual Poets Cafe.  If someone is there, type @join <charactername>
My name on there is Novinha.  Have fun!

        Also I'm not overqualified I just bullshit well :-).  I'm just sitting
here typing on my aging Mac with a 2400 baud modem.

This response has been erased.

This response has been erased.

I tried po-mo moo.  It was OK except there were only a couple people there,
and I had a hard time figuring out "Plate of Clams."  I shall be back next
Fri if I'm not working :-(.

I'll be there.  INvite people if you want to beef up attendance.  Hopefully
it will improve;-)

        Alas I'm working this Fri...

That's okay, I just found out that I'll probably be editing all night and into
the wee hours of the morning:)

As a relative newbie I'm just getting into the 'net... as for cyberpunk which 
I think is an integral part of postmodern culture, what do you
(everyone/anyone) feel about the way in which the genre has changed
contemporary culture?:help" ."

oh, please ignore the :help and "." - obviously a major newbie!!

        Welcome to Grex count.  Ofcorse cyberpunk has changed culture
elsewise we wouldn't be talking about this on a computer network.

Cyberpunk has definitely changed our culture. For example, Virtual Reality
was once only possible in a cyberpunk novel.

(BTW, I love the Gibson reference!)

Coming from a mass media background it certainly changes message design.

And message content as well...

Can anyone out there tell me what can be done about privacy on the cyberspace,
internet, and the WWW. Also tell me what damage information accessable via
these services can do. I could care less if everyone out there knows who I am
oi'm like . But I have to wonder about bank records,DMV records,IRS info,and
other systems which ,if altered or even erased, could cause havoc.  I also
think that with the comming computer age, all transactions will be done through
and monitored by computers. If records can be accessed and /or deleted what
happends when you cant buy food because your card or 'number' is denied?

You hit on an interesting topic.  But did you know that the telephone company
and the post office have been selling your phone number for years to 
retailers who in turn use the information to solicit their products?
        Laws vary from state to state.  IN NY credit card companies are
        required
to get permission from holders before they distribute your economic status.  
Also, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 stated that private
communications are not considered to be published and cannot be the basis of
libel  action.  On bulletin boards however, I think that after a certain amount
of  time comments can be replicated.
        If you really want to be paranoid... think about medical records too.
The only thing you have to remeber is that obviously technology has exceeded 
the growth of government.  Government will catch up, no doubt.  When they do, 
they'll have a field day.  
        If you are wondering where I got the majority of the fax... consult
Ann Branscomb's "Who Own's Information."

I think this information-abuse-problem can't be disconnected  from our economic
system. In this system people or organisations with lots of money have the
ability to get and use all the information they want. I don't think ard that
the government doesn't react. You say "they will catch up", I say they only
will if public opinion demands laws. You can't deny the connections between big
companies and the government. As long as there will be huge differences in
economic power, majorities will be abused by rich minorities. I think only a
strucural change to our economical system can asure that nooill use his money
to gain power, money ,etc. trough (a.o.) the abuse of information... Therefor I
suggest we fight for an ecnomical system in function of society in stead of an
economy in function of some riche people. I said fight because the powerfull
minority of rich-ones aren't going to like this...

        Yeah but fighting the power overtly only makes you a target for
government spooks with fiber optic taps & guns.  Camaflouge (sp?) is
the best offense i.e. enccryption low profile BBSs secret socities
etc.  Why bring the wrath of "the man" down upon your head?

camouflage?

Well even that sort of privacy is becoming hard to get these days -- and will
even more-so in the future.  There is enough about the government that we
don't and even can't know that it is fair to argue that as long as
somebody else has access to the same lanes of information as we do, that
somebody can invade our privacy.  I guess realistically, though, no one's
gonna want to snoop in on most our 'data transfers' unless they
have somthin' on us.  Still, the vision behind George Orwell's '1984' looms
ahead...

Sorry  but i's spanish and mine english is very bad.
Well, I think the privacy of our data is not posible, becaus the big 
companies haven all recurses for research and pay for the information.
Then, only the individual people have not access to the information and the
big co have advantage to sale services most efectivly whot a little.
Thaht's  the idea and the result is: no crate barriers for the data!

Ahh... isn't it just too bad... I've been using PGP for the last year or so, 
and what happens but all my friends start dropping it because the big daddy
can crack it open... stupid, stupid. I say, it's like a condom. It may not
be %100 fool-proof, but the point is it's better than nothing at all.

I saw a demonstration (scaled-down) of how the clipper chip will work.
Stupid... stupid stupid... I hope they know how much money they're looking at
to put this bullcrap on every telecommunications item produced... and how much
more it will cost to keep track of it all and to file it away and keep it from
falling apart, etc.

..

I agree with you about clipper. I have no reason to believe PGP can be cracked
if you use 1024 bits. It sounds like you know something I should know.

        re # 38 I hope you are right.  I have heard from a couple of
sources that the NSA has a computer with 512,000 Cray processors 
that can break a standard PGP public key in about 10 minutes.

- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss