206 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
206 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
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<20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD>ͻ
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<20> The CyberPunk Movement <20>
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<20> Written by Pazuzu for DnA <20>
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<20> May 12, 1993 <20>
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<20><><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD><EFBFBD>ͼ
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There's been a lot of talk lately about the CyberPunk Movement - maybe a
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little too much talk (please, Mr. Hewson, don't sue me for plagiarism! :) ).
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It seems every BBS I call around here has a "CyberPunk" sub board. Now,
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that's all fine and good, but a lot of these BBS's I'm talking about are PD
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BBS'S!!! Public Domain cretins and the CyberPunk Movement DO NOT MIX. The
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idea that piracy/hacking/phreaking is bad does not compute for a true
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CyberPunk. Not in a million years. I mean, come on, guys the one place all
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these people are getting their CyberPunk hard-ons from is of course the
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William Gibson books. Now, believe me, I'm NOT ripping on Gibson - he's a
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great author, and I love his books. But the idea of someone going out and
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reading Mona Lisa Overdrive then all of a sudden deciding "Wow - I'm a
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CYBERPUNK!!!" makes me sick. There's this guy that lives on my street who
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heard me playing Ultima VI one day liked the music, and knocked on my door. I
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let him and let him check out the game. When he saw it was on a computer, he
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said "Oh well, I could never figure out how to use one of those things!"
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"Well, this is only a game. It's not like you're actually using the computer.
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You're just playing the game." I replied
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"Well, it's a computer, and computers are hard to use." he insisted
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"Whatever, dude." I said.
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Then he noticed the first-edition hardcover Mona Lisa Overdrive I have
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displayed on my bookcase. "Wow! That book looks cool!" he said "Can I borrow
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it?"
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"Not a chance in hell!" I said "That's a first edition hardcover, and it's
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never even been opened. You can HAVE my paperback of it though" I told him
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"Ok, cool, thanks dude!" he said
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I gave him my paperback Mona Lisa. I always keep one handy, along with a copy
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of Interview With The Vampire, in case I need to convert someone quick :) .
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So, like three or four weeks went by, and I saw neither hide nor hair of this
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guy until one day I was riding home on my motorcycle, and saw him and his dad
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pull up to their house in their car. I stopped to say hi, and lo and behold,
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they opened up their trunk and pulled out a brand new IBM PS/1.
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"That book you gave me sure made a computer guy out of me!" the cretin said.
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"Yeah, sure, whatever, guy." I replied.
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Of course this idiot can't use his computer without Windows, and even has
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plenty of trouble figuring THAT out. My point is that one can't BECOME a
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CyberPunk, one just IS a CyberPunk (or ISN'T in his case). I mean, I was a
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"CyberPunk" before I even heard of William Gibson, though I never termed it
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"CyberPunk" because I hadn't heard of that term yet. I was using computers 12
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years ago when I was only ten. I instantly figured stuff out, without needing
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any of these ridiculous power-robbing GUI's. Most everyone I know who I
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consider CyberPunks are the same way. The guy who makes 1,000 posts saying
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"HoW d0 y0u UsE w0rD f0r WiNd0wS???????????" is NOT a CyberPunk. The guy who
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posts "I tried to run 180 copies of Word for Windows, and my system crashed.
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MICROSOFT SUCKS!!!" IS a CyberPunk.
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"God, UNIX is soooo hard to figure out" - NOT
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"UNIX is the most powerful O/S ever" - IS
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"Long Distance is so expensive" - NOT
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"Long Distance is free! Death to AT&T and their EViL DeathStar Logo" - IS
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"Copying software is illegal and morally wrong!" - NOT
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"Software is a random string of 1's and 0's. How can you sell that?" - IS
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"Programming should be made easy for all." - NOT
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"Programming is a lost art, and should be reserved for the GODS!" - IS
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You get the point. Another big thing is loyalty. All this back-stabbing just
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to advance one's status has got to be stopped. A true CyberPunk wants to help
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out new people, and advance the state of the Underground to keep it alive and
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flowing. A true CyberPunk is always loyal to his friends, but will just as
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easily annihilate his enemies. Case in point: There was a guy, who shall
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remain nameless (besides, he's dead, which should tell you right away who he
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was...), who I got started in real modeming about, oh, 3 or 4 years ago. When
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I found him he was a PD idiot running stock Telegard. I helped him out and
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soon he was a site for a major warez group. He then started calling me a
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r0d3nt and posting my info out over public networks. He did this only to make
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himself look cool. A true CyberPunk would never do that - especially not to
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the one person who gave them their start.
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Another thing that's got to be stopped is this whole warez fanaticism. I
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mean, don't get me wrong, software SHOULD be free, but come on people HOW
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MUCH SKILL AND KNOWLEDGE DOES IT REALLY TAKE TO CALL UP A BBS AND DOWNLOAD
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SOME NEW WARE THEN UPLOAD IT TO ANOTHER BBS? That's right, NOT MUCH! Now, the
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people who are actually cracking the wares, they are CyberPunks because
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they're actually doing something that takes skill. But these fools who say
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that I am a r0d3nt because I have no 0 day warez should be shot dead. It
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takes NO SKILL, NO BRAINS to download a ware. Call bbs. Log on. Go into
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transfer area. Press D. Type NEWWARE.ZIP. Press Enter. Press Z. Wait for
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Transfer to finish. Press ALT-H. Done. Now, how much skill did that take?
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Not much. Here's a comparison of a one day's worth of computing activity for
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a warez fool and a true CyberPunk.
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Warez Fool
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~~~~~~~~~~
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Call BBS A. Scan for new warez. Download the ones I don't have.
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Call BBS B. Scan for new warez. Download the ones I don't have.
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Figure out which warez BBS A has that BBS B doesn't have yet, and vice versa.
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Upload to BBS A.
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Upload to BBS B.
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Play new warez.
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If ware is hard, call BBS A or BBS B and post questions.
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CyberPunk
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~~~~~~~~~
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Call BBS A. Scan message bases. Continue/Start Conversations.
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Scan new files. Download any that look cool. Upload if desired.
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Call BBS B. Scan message bases. Continue/Start Conversations.
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Scan new files. Download any that look cool. Upload if desired.
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Call LD BBS's, using codes.
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Scan message bases. Continue/Start Conversations.
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Scan new files. Download any that look cool. Upload if desired.
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Call SYSTEM A.
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Attempt to gain entry.
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Call SYSTEM B.
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Attempt to gain entry.
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Work on/Improve/Debug PROGRAM A.
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Work on/Improve/Debug PROGRAM B.
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Develop/Design PROGRAM C.
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And so on... You see, the CyberPunk's activities are far more varied, and
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also require an IQ higher than that of a ground squirrel, unlike the warez
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fool. The Underground should be about learning new things, expanding the
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mind, and of course beating the system - not about seeing who can get a
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|<-3l1t3 gNu g4m3 f1rst.
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A true CyberPunk also has a "reading impairment". It seems to others that
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he's constantly hallucinating. When others see "login incorrect" or "access
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denied", the CyberPunk sees "Please try harder!" or "Please hack me!". When
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others see or hear "Well, that's the way it's ALWAYS been done" or "That's
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the way you're supposed to do it", the CyberPunk thinks "That means I should
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do it a different way". The true CyberPunk is always looking for new, faster,
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different, and better ways to do everything. Also, a CyberPunk believes that
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access to all information should be free and open. He is always trying to get
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into whatever computer he can find, just to see what's there. The media
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portrait of the evil hacker who's always out to format everyone's hard disk
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just for fun does not apply to true CyberPunks, just malicious scum. Of
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course, any enemy of the hacker should be quite wary. It is perfectly
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permissable to destroy an enemy's system, be never an innocent system.
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There is a line in "Chemical Youth (We Are Rebellion)" be Queensryche that
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says "Our Religion is Technology". This couldn't be more true for the
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CyberPunk. He is always out to find out what's new and hot on the technology
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front. Always going to computer shows to see what's new and if possible,
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buying (or acquiring) the items and trying them for himself at home. This
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brings me to the subject of high-speed modems. I've got quite a bit of flack
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from both ends of the "elite" spectrum for the part in my BBS ad where it
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says "0.3 - 14.4 kilobits per second". On one end I get "w0w, m4n, y0u'r3 4
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re41 r0d3nt f0r 4cc3pt1ng 3oo b4ud3rz!!!" and on the other end "A true hacker
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or phreaker needs no high-speed modem". Well, here and now, I shall answer
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both of these rips... First, to the people who believe the I should not
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accept 300-1200 bps callers: One does not need a 14400 bits per second modem
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to read and post messages. Reading and posting messages is what I want in a
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user, and if a guy's calling at 300bps, and posts 20 messages a day, and a
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guy at 14400 just calls and uploads w4rezzZZZzz, I'm going to kill the 14.4
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guy. Now, to the people who say I shouldn't have a 14.4 for phreak/hack
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stuff: As I said, a true CyberPunk is always intersted in technology. A high
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speed modem is an interesting piece of high technology, therefore I have one.
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I am not a high-speed bigot like the warez set, I don't care. There is a much
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better BBS than mine running on a 2400 up in 514. I simply have this modem
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because it was cheap, and it works great. Besides, I am also a programmer,
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and I do download & upload quite a bit of programming material, which tends
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to be on the large side.
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Before my closing remarks, I'm going to make a very unpopular statement, and
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I'm sure I'll receive tons of flack for it, but I really don't give a rat's
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ass.. Here it is: ANSI GROUPS ARE NOT IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM ELITE!
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Now, I say this with much respect for the ANSI groups themselves. I greatly
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enjoy the ANSIs that people are producing today. These ANSI artists ARE true
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artists in every sense of the word. Taking nothing but the characters
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available in the IBM extended character set, and making excellent pictures
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out of them takes a great deal of skill, and I applaud this artistry.
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However, when people start to call these ANSI groups elite, I lose my temper.
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They're artists, not "eliters". They're not doing anything underground,
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they're just creating art. Call them what they are: ARTISTS, not 3L1T3 D00DZ.
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In closing, I would like to say that I'm sure I'll receive tons of hate mail,
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death threats, crash attempts on my board, etc, for various parts of this
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text, but I don't much care. Despite what everyone says, Telegard, when
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administered by a knowledgable SysOp, is just as secure as anything else, and
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Intermail has none of FroDo's back doors. Death threats don't scare me much.
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Last summer, I had gang bangers shooting at me, yelling "die white fag!", and
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I wasn't much scared, having a nice Ruger 9mil in my hand at the time. My
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hope is that some - maybe even only one - warez fool out there will realize
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that being a warez rat is not as elite as he once thought, and will turn to
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the true Underground. If this happens, then I have done good. If not, then
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I'm wasting a great deal of time trying to revive the Underground.
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