448 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
448 lines
20 KiB
Plaintext
ZDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD? IMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM; ZDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD?
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3 Founded By: 3 : Network Information Access : 3 Mother Earth BBS 3
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3 Guardian Of Time 3D: 12SEP90 :D3 <DOWN> 3
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3 Judge Dredd 3 : Judge Dredd : 3 See EOF If Any ? 3
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@DDDDDDDDBDDDDDDDDDY : Guardian Of Time : @DDDDDDDDDBDDDDDDDDY
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3 : File 50 : 3
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3 HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM< 3
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3 IMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM; 3
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@DDDDDDDDDDDDDD6 50th Anniversary Issue! GDDDDDDDDDDDDDDY
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HMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM<
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Network Information Access. The 50th file. Well, this means a different
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issue. Something odd. Causes for a celebration and other stuff like that,
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nothing technical, nothing intelligent! alright!
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PART 1. Nootropic Drugs [Drugs That Make You Smart]......................
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PART 2. Portrait Of J Random Hacker (time for comparisons!)..............
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PART 3. (censored).......................................................
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PART 4. Some Thoughts....................................................
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PART 5. BBS Software Review As Seen By SysOps............................
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PART 6. Hellos, Congrats, and Respects To:...............................
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PART 1. Nootropic Drugs ['Drugs that Make You Smart']
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Centrophenoxine (Trade name: Lucidrile)
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This is an intelligence booster and an effective anti-aging therapy, shown
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to cause improvements in various aspects of memory function and a 30%
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increase in life span of laboratory animals. Human dosage is rated at
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1000-3000mg per day, Centrophenoxine takes effect VERY quickly and results
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are noticable in alertness and slight stimulation.
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Not available in USA, available in mexico.
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Choline/Lecithin
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Choline can be found in several forms including cholrine bitatrate,chorine
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cholride or phosphatidyl choline. All thes forms will produce memory boosting
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effects. Choline compounds have the ability to break the blood-brain barrier.
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3 Grams per day in three divided doses. These drugs are considered
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Nutritional supplements and can be purchased at health food stores.
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Phosphantidyl Choline has some intresting effects unlike standard Lecithin
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though. It functions as a source of structural material for every cell
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in the human body; particularly those of the brain and nerves. It also aids
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in the metabolism of fats, regulates blood cholesterol, and nourishes the
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fat-like sheathes of nerve fibers.
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Piracetam
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Piracetam improves memory and learning functions in normal persons. Its
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used in the treatment of alcholics, vertigo, stroke. It seems to promote
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the flow of information between both hemispheres of the brain, and its
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said to be so safe that one FDA employee has been quoted as saying that
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it can't have any pharmacological effects because of its very low
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toxicity even in extremely high doses.
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The effect of Piracetam can be enhanced if taken with DMAE or choline.
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There's a synergetic effect when taken with choline that causes a greater
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improvement than the sum of each when taken alone.
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Adverse effects are rare. Piracetam is supplied in 400mg / 800mg tablets
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the usual dose is 2400 - 4800mg / day, in 3 divided doses. Some
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literature says that you should take an high attack dosage for the first
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two days. Not sold in USA. Can be purchased OTC in mexico.
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Nootropics are generally considered to be any substance which (1) improves
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information acquisition AND (2) protects against learning- and memory-
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impairing agents (3) without having either (a) sedative or stimulant effects
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on one's general behavior, or (b) dangerous toxicity. As one might
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guess, we don't know of too many of these yet. Caffeine's out, for example;
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too toxic.
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Since we don't know the mechanisms of most of these (choline probably being
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an exception), it's not really clear how to classify cognitive enhancers.
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However, there's a fairly large class structurally related enhancers which
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are probably the paradigm nootropics: the 2-pyrrolidinones. Of these,
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piracetam is the most studied (it was discovered first, around '72), so I'll
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free associate about its various quirks for a bit.
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Even though piracetam et al are cyclic derivatives of GABA, they don't seem
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to be involved with GABA's regulation of neurotransmission. One current
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hypothesis is that piracetam (can I just call it "P," people?) activates
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the cholinergic system (acetylcholine and its system are believed to be
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important in memory, natch). However, cholinergic drugs typically
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help episodic memory in Alzheimer's patients and P doesn't. Oddly
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enough, P has no effect on adrenalectomized rats (even when given 3000
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mg/kg po). P decreases 5-HT (serotonin) and increases noradrenaline at low
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doses (20 mg/kg ip) in rats; yet higher (100 mg..) doses have the opposite
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effect. Basically, what I'm trying to say is: everyone's clueless.
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(Side note: Things like this make me recall that we've only isolated a tiny
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fraction of the various neurotransmitters and systems in the brain. It
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may be that trying to functionally decompose the nervous system into
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separate subsystems is entirely wrongheaded. Perhaps the brain is one big
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dynamical system.)
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Ahem. Anyway, since we don't know how nootropics work, "we" try to find
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them by artificially-inducing amnesia in rodents and seeing if various
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substances reverse this "amnesia." One of the most commonly used amnesiacs
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is scopolamine; others are hemicholinium-3 and cycloheximide. P reverses
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the effects of these amnesiacs, but doesn't help against ketamine-induced
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amnesia. As I recall, scopolamine is believed to block the transfer of
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info into long-term memory only, while ketamine (which blocks the ionic
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channels of the nicotinic receptor) actually prevents the formation of short-
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term memory. Make of it what you will. Lest you think that these "amnesias"
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are highly artificial (they are), it's good to remember that similar things
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are done to study depression (and "we"'re pretty successful at finding new
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anti-depressants). Besides, it's the way of science to start out with very
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rough models and continually tweak and fine-tune them.
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Once "we"ve found a substance with this sort of screen, "we" start to look
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at its effects in other cases. I recall reading that Piracetam improves
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learning (using simple T-shaped mazes with brightness as the thing the lil
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guys have to pay attention to) in both normal rats and also significantly
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helps rats whose parents have left them or who just didn't get enough to
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eat growing up. P also helps alleviate the impairment of learning caused
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by too much booze in rats as well. Oh yes, it has nice anti-ulcer activity
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(based on aspirin- or immobilization stress- induced ulcer studies in
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rats). This type of research is hard on rats.
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As for people, wellll, they're a lot more expensive than rats. I know
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there's been some success in treating vertigo-patients, elderly people
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with rheumatism, and people with involutional depression (a type which
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frequently precedes dementia). P does seem to increase cerebral-blood
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flow, and has been used to treat people with signs of brain circulation
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failure (I think at 1.5 grams/day, but am not sure). I haven't seen anything
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in the literature about toxicity, although I know that it was given in
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children at 170 mg/kg with no subjectively-felt problems (I don't recall
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their ages, sorry).
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There's been evidence (in mice) that P may increase the effects of some
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antidepressants. Be wary. Some of the 2-pyrrolidinones seem to protect
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cell proteins against free-radicals, but P isn't one of them.
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Sitaram, Weingartner, Caine, Gillin ,"Choline: Selective Enhancement of
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Serial Learning and Encoding of Low Imagery Words in Man," Life Sci.
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22: 1555-1560, 1978
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Bartus et al, "Age-related changes in passive avoidance retension:
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modulation with dietary choline," Science (Washington D.C.) 209 (4453):
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301-3, 1980
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Drachman and Leavitt, "Human Memory and the Cholinergic System," Arch.
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Neurol. 30:113, 1974
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Beninger et al, "Effects of chronic manipulations of dietary choline on
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locomotor activity, discrimination learning and cortical acetylcholine
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release in aging adult Fisher 344 rats," Neurobiol-Aging. 1984 Spring.
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5(1) P 29-34.
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Ennaceur and Delacour, "Effect of combined or separate administration of
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piracetam and choline on learning and memory in the rat," Psychopharmacology.
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1987. 92(1). P. 58-67.
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Fundaro et al, "Effects of chronic manipulations of dietary choline on
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dynamic behavioral situations," Prog-Neuropsychophramacol-Biol-Psychiatry.
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1987. 11(5). P 601-11.
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Harris et al, "Effect of lecithin on memory in normal adults," Am-J-
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Psychiatry. 1983 Aug. 140(8) P 1010-2.
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Leathwood et al, "Phosphatidyl choline and avoidance performance in
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17 month-old SEC/1ReJ mice," Life-Sci. 1982 Mar 29. 30(13). P 1065-71.
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Meck et al, "Organizational changes in cholinergic activity and enhanced
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visuospatial memory as a function of choline administered prenatally or
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postnatally or both," Behav-Neurosci. 1989 Dec. 103(6). P 1234-41.
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Meck et al, "Pre- and postnatal choline supplementation produces long-
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term facilitation of spatial memory," Dev-Psychobio. 1988 May. P 339-53.
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Mizumori et al, "Effects of dietary choline on memory and brain chemistry
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in aged mice," Neurobiol-Aging. 1985. Spring. 6(1). P 51-6.
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Mohrs et al, "Interaction of choline and scopolamine in human memory,"
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Life-Sci. 1985 June 15. 37(2). P 193-7.
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Prado-Alcala, "Is cholinergic activity of the caudate nucleus involved in
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memory?," Life-Sci. 1985. Dec 9. 37(23). P 2135-42.
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Sahley et al, "Dietary choline augments associative memory function in Limax
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maximus," J-Neurobiol. 1986. Mar. 17(2). P 113-20.
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Valzelli et al, "Difference in learning and retention by Albino-Swiss mice.
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Part IV. Effect of some nutrients," Methods-Find-Exp-Clin-Pharmacol. 1987.
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9(1). P. 5-8.
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PART 2. A Portrait Of J. Random Hacker (by Eric S. Raymond TNN News)
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Note: where comparatives are used, the implicit <20>other' is a randomly
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selected group from the non-hacker population of the same size as hackerdom.
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General appearance:
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Intelligent. Scruffy. Intense. Abstracted. Interestingly for a sedentary
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profession, more programmers run to skinny than fat. Tans are rare.
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Dress:
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Casual, vaguely post-hippy; T-shirts, jeans, running shoes (or bare
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feet). Long hair, beards and moustaches are common. High incidence of
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tie-die and intellectual or humorous <20>slogan' T-shirts (only rarely
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computer related, that's too obvious). Hackers dress for comfort,
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function, and minimal maintenance hassles rather than for appearance.
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Very low incidence of suits or other <20>business' attire.
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Reading habits:
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Omnivorous, but usually includes lots of science and science
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fiction. Hackers often have a reading range that astonishes <20>liberal
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arts' people but tend not to talk about it as much.
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Other interests:
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Some hobbies are widely shared and recognized as going with the
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culture, including: music. SF. Medievalism. Chess, wargames and
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intellectual games of all kinds. Logic puzzles. Ham radio. Other
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interests that seem to correlate less strongly but positively with
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hackerdom include: martial arts, linguistics, bicycling.
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Education:
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All hackers are either college-degreed or self-educated to an
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equivalent level. The self-taught hacker is often considered
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better-motivated and more respected than his B.Sc counterpart.
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Academic areas from which people often gravitate into hackerdom
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include mathematics, physics, linguistics, and philosophy.
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Things hackers detest and avoid:
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Most team sports. Disco. Bureaucracies. Stupid people. Easy listening
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music. Television (except for cartoons, movies, the old _Star_Trek_ and
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the new _Simpsons_). Three-piece suits.
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Food:
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Ethnic. Spicy. Oriental, esp. Chinese and most especially Szechuan,
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Hunan and Mandarin (hackers consider Cantonese vaguely declasse). Also
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high-quality Jewish delicatessen food is much esteemed.
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Politics:
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Vaguely left of center, except for the strong libertarian
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contingent which rejects conventional left-right politics entirely.
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The only safe generalization is that almost all hackers are
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anti-authoritari33, thus both conventional conservatism and "hard"
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leftism are rare. Hackers are far more likely than most non-hackers to
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either a) be aggressively apolitical, or b) entertain peculiar or
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idiosyncratic political ideas and actually try to live by them
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day-to-day.
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Ethnicity:
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Predominantly Caucasian with a strong minority of Jews (east coast)
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and Asians (west cost). The Jewish contingent has exerted a
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particularly pervasive cultural influence (see Food). Hackers as a
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group are about as color-blind as anyone could ask for, and ethnic
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prejudice of any kind tends to be met with extreme hostility; the
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ethnic distribution of hackers is understood by them to be a function
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of who tends to seek and get higher education.
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Religion:
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Agnostic. Atheist. Non-observant Jewish. Neo-pagan. Very commonly
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three or more of these are combined in the same person. Conventional
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faith-holding Christianity is rare though not unknown (at least on the
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east coast, more hackers wear yarmulkes than crucifixes). Even hackers
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who identify with a religious affiliation tend to be relaxed about it,
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hostile to organized religion in general and all forms of religious
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bigotry in particular. Many enjoy <20>parody' religions such as
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Discordianism and the Church of the SubGenius. Finally, many hackers
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are fascinated to varying degrees by Zen Buddhism or (less commonly)
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Taoism, and blend them easily with their <20>native' religions.
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Ceremonial chemicals:
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Most hackers don't smoke and use alcohol in moderation if at all.
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Limited use of <20>soft' drugs (esp. psychedelics such as marijuana, LSD,
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psilocybin etc) used to be relatively common and is still regarded
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with more tolerance than in the mainstream culture. Use of <20>downers'
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and opiates, on the other hand, seems to be particularly rare (hackers
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seem in general to dislike drugs that <20>dumb them down'). Many hackers
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regularly wire up on caffeine and sugar for all-night hacking runs.
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Geographical Distribution:
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In the U.S., hackerdom revolves on a Bay Area/Boston axis; about
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half of the hard core seems to live within a hundred miles of Cambridge
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or Berkeley. Hackers tend to cluster around large cities, especially
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<EFBFBD>university towns' such as the Raleigh/Durham area in North Carolina
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or Princeton, New Jersey (this may simply reflect the fact that
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many are students or ex-students living near their alma maters).
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Sexual habits:
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Hackerdom tolerates a much wider range of sexual and lifestyle
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variation than the mainstream culture. It includes more gays. Hackers
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are more likely to live in polygnous or polyandrous relationships,
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practice open marriage or live in communes or group houses. In this
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as in some other respects (see Dress) hackerdom semi-consciously
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maintains <20>counterculture' values.
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Personality Characteristics:
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The most obvious common <20>personality' characteristic of hackers is
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high intelligence and facility with intellectual abstractions. In
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terms of Myers-Briggs and equivalent psychometric systems, hackerdom
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appears to concentrate the relatively rare INTJ and INTP types; that
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is, introverted, intuitive and thinker types (as opposed to the
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extroverted-sensate personalities the predominate in the mainstream
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culture). Also, most hackers are <20>neophiles', stimulated by and
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appreciative of novelty (especially intellectual novelty). Most are
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also relatively individualistic and anti-conformist.
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--Eric S. Raymond
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PART 3. (censored)
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Not Availible. (Do you feel like 2 Live Crew?)
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PART 4. Some Thoughts
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Just some thoughts. Non-Alcoholic Beer, why? (thats like condems w/holes).
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Flag burning, why not just make it legal and then make the flag out of non-
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flammable material? Lightning Rod? When they ship styrofoam, whats it
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packaged in? Iraqnophobia. American Red Cross "You didn't help us, now we
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won't help you". Unexpected heart attacks (are you expecting one?).
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Camoflauge Walets (hmm..). One-Half Billion dollars for an invisible bomber?
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(someone got ripped off..).
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PART 5. BBS Software Review As Seen By Sysops
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Through the course of BBS Evolution, there have been many, many clones, and
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well, todays article covers some people w/ short mindeness towards software
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they run.
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CIRCLES IN TIME
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"What C.I.T. is a HACK? Man you been smoking something funny..."
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ELITE
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"It aint running w/ my modem, DAMN, its cool, all the cool people are
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running it.."
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Em/2
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"If it doesn't have Batch d/ling from New Scan of files, I don't want to
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look at it!"
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"Lazy sysops and lazy users, thats why I run it"
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"Sure the Doors don't work, but so what? I hate Online Games"
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"Well thank god that Emulex/2 batch download doesn't takes time away like
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TCS does. Enjoy!"
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LSD
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"Thats right, only ONE copy per area code, and it must be 19.2 ONLY!"
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"After all TTR runs it, it must be good..."
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PcBoard
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"You read the Docs?"
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"Its increadible, you can do ANYTHING w/ it!, Tag? whats that?"
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"You gotta check out the Lawyers Base, its funny, can you read it?"
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MONARCHY
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"I know the writers, and if I want a change I just call up the author and
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tell him how it should be..."
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"After all if it wasn't for me Monarchy would still be just another clone.."
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"Thats right, updates role out weekly, isn't it amazing??"
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"This is your last time to be a Monarchy Distribution Site..." (4th time)
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TAG
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"I'm just MAD about TAg and TAg is just Mad about me..."
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"Improve TAG? WHAT you are not running TAG, well I cant believe that, there
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Is NOTHING better than TAG, how can you improve perfection?"
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"I dare ANYONE here, to call my system and crash it. I have said this three
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days ago and not a single person has done it. That goes to show you how
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TAG is supierior to any other software"
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"Why look at what you can do w/ tag its super!"
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"What you don't LIKE TAG?, well only people that LIKE TAG can be on my
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board"
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"I don't know why I run it"
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"What is better? It IS FREE after all"
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TELEGARD
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"Hmm, that's very neat. Isn't that program "requires" you to send some $$$
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to get a registered program? Well I guess you don't in this case..."
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"Man TAG SUCKS! Telegard is the way to go"
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"ALT-F5 is fucking cool !!! #%@@#$#@@#$^$#@^$ Its great right?"
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"After all they charge money now, yes, but look at the supierior quality and
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markmenship of a truly great BBS, besides that TAG sucks"
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"I'm 15 and I like Telegard, after all, my best friend runs his, that is if
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he passes biology this week..."
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-As Quoted by Sysops of systems that run the corrosponding software.
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PART 6. Hello's, Congrats and Respects to:
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David Lightman and Dallas Hack Shack BBS. The Jolly Bardsman for getting me(JD)
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started in telecom. Agent Orange and Oblivion BBS. The Dead Zone BBS and SysOp.
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Cool Hand and Mid-Nite-Oil. Nilrem. Deathmaster of THG. Lethal Injection from
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The Veiled Society. Emmanuel Goldstien and 2600 Magazine. Members of LOD/H.
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Scan Man. Racer X. The Pusher. Swamp Rat. The Imortal. Night Lightning.
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The Phrack people. The Oxidizer and the attempt at NARC. Kid Copy along w/PHIRE.
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Mallorean and good luck w/950. Dr Ripco and Ripco BBS. The Sensei for TSR. CUD.
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Dr No and MPL. Chester "the M0E god". Slice. The People of Em/2. Reb00t and
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Test Site BBS. Sir Garlon from The Veiled Society. To Joe Nowack for starting
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(GOT) off in telecom.
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Well the list is getting too long, so thanks go out to everyone thats been
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cool to us in telecom and all the people that helped us through dificult
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stages of our telecom hobby. All the users and sysops who have had inteligent
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opinionated contributions to make, and finally a special thanks to the readers.
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Guardian Of Time
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Judge Dredd
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Ignorance, Theres No Excuse.
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For questions or comments write to:
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Internet: elisem@nuchat
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Fidonet: 1:106/69.0
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or
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NIA FeedBack
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P.O. Box 299
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Santa Fe, Tx. 77517-0299
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[OTHER WORLD BBS]
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