206 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
206 lines
11 KiB
Plaintext
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Underground eXperts United
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Presents...
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[ A Year With uXu ] [ By The Chief ]
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____________________________________________________________________
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____________________________________________________________________
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A Y E A R W I T H U X U
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Who'd ever believe we'd make it this far? Not me, that's for sure.
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Celebrating the 100th uXu file, we'd like to go back, and look at
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the time that has passed since the very first uXu-file.
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Without thought, plans or even members, The Chief set out to start
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a sidetrack-group (August 1991). The plan was to make it a group
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for writers, and it was to publish anything that was submitted to or
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written for the group. At the same time, The Chief was a member, and
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co-leader of another group, a group of hackers that only published
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hacking-related text files. As hacking-related text files wasn't the
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only thing The Chief wrote, he thought it would be a good idea to
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start a separate group, for those other text files.
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Along with Phearless, another member of the hacker group, they
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started to discuss names for the group, and after a couple of
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weeks of dumb, humorous, already taken and gross names, they decided
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on Underground eXperts United (uXu). During this time, the other
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members of the hacker group heard about their plans and started to
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accuse The Chief for being a traitor, starting a group of his own
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without the others. The "discussion" got out of hand and The Chief
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decided to leave the hacker group, to be able to go ahead with uXu.
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In September 1991, the first set of uXu files were released in Sweden,
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all written by The Chief, due to lack of other members. A week after
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the release, The GNN joined uXu and added a bunch of files to the
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uXu series which finally became the first uXu world-wide release.
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The first set of files varied between fiction and anarchy. The GNN
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supplied the anarchy and The Chief fiction. "We received a lot of
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response to the initial release, not all good, but who said that we
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would satisfy everyone anyway?" At the same time, uXu started searching
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for members and contributors to manage a second release pretty much
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like the first one within reasonable time. A few people answered but
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never managed to write anything unfortunately.
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At the end of October 1991, the time had come for the second release
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and the premiere for Phearless' files under the uXu label. The release
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was named "The Weird release", because it basically contained a lot of
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weird files and general weirdness. "After this release, we got messages
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from "well-known" writers from other groups (mostly in the U.S.) who
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wanted us to know they were interested in writing something for us,
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although we haven't received anything from any of them yet, but then
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again, no-one made promises." With almost thirty uXu files out there,
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it was time to organize the distribution of these files, and the search
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for good distribution sites, as well as sites where forthcoming
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contributors could leave their submissions to uXu (making life a bit
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easier for them, not having to call Sweden) was started. Three major,
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and also well-known U.S. boards answered that they'd be happy to store
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the uXu files. (Demon Roach Underground, Condemned Reality and Ripco ][)
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That was what made uXu available and known to a lot more people than
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before. "We really can't thank the SysOps of these boards enough for
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their help."
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December saw the last 1991 uXu release and yet another member was added
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to the list of writers, Mister Monochrome, who became the first U.S. uXu
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writer. Mister Monochrome, sadly enough, wrote only one file for uXu, but
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also made it clear to others that uXu accepted foreign writers. The
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release also contained files from The GNN and The Chief. The Chief's
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major file for this release was a follow-up to the Ripco BBS case, as
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you doubtfully have heard of if you haven't been hacking the last few
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years <g>. Dr. Ripco himself helped creating the follow-up, adding
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information and gave uXu a clear signal to publish an interview they'd
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made with him. This file contained every piece of information found
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about the incident, and the aftermath (?). Most of it was taken from
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the Computer Underground Digest (CuD), which, even today, is the best
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source of information regarding the computer underground you can find.
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"...we must thank the Editors, Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer for their
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great work!"
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January 1992. The Chief had been drafted to do his military service,
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and went to do so on the 7th of January. The idea was that he would
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be gone for almost a year, so Phearless took charge and became the
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editor, distributor and contact for uXu. As most of the releases from
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uXu were dominated by files from The Chief, the general thought was
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that this would be the end of the group. But.. The fourth release was
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packed with files from Phearless and The GNN. Even The Chief got some
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time off to do the index. Mister Monochrome was moved to the Contributor
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Member List.
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When March arrives, The Chief had injured himself and was spending more
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time at home than at the military base, waiting to be dismissed and
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relieved from his duties. The fifth release was distributed at the
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beginning of the month with files from The GNN and The Chief. This
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release marks the beginning of The GNN's fiction frenzy, and also
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where The GNN's production of files passes The Chief's. If you haven't
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read the files from this release, you've missed the truly Best from
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The GNN. Also with this release, an initiation of a competition called
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'The Textfile Writer's Awards' is launched. Unfortunately it seems like
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the underground textfile public as well as the writers aren't too
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interested in such a competition, because the only response received
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was a basic warez-d00d comment: "what can u win???". The idea isn't
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bad, but if there's no indication of interest, why bother?
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The 6th set of files were released when April tumbled down on us. Two
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new contributors were added (Quiksilver from the U.S. and Ralph 124C41+
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from Sweden) with new specialities. "We were also happy to add a support
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and distribution site (Solsbury Hill) to our list, and once again be
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available to more people out there." A new section was added to the
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index with Thanks to those who had helped uXu in one way or another.
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Among the first listed we find Dr. Ripco, MAC???, Sarlo and Tequila
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Willy. New files from The GNN, The Chief, Quiksilver and Ralph 124C41+
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mashed this release into a great mix.
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One month later, the seventh release is out. Right before the summer
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holidays it crashed down upon an unsuspecting audience. The first
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Danish uXu support board was added with hopes of new members from
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Europe, and yet again a wider audience. Only the original members,
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The GNN, The Chief and Phearless added to the growing range of uXu-
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files this time. The first attempt to bring uXu onto the Internet
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was made, first by simply sending the files to ftp.uu.net, who kept
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them for a week, and then deleted them. Secondly, ftp.eff.org, who
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stated that "they already had similar files at their site". Today,
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the uXu files will probably be added to ftp.lysator.liu.se, but
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nothing has been decided yet, so stay tuned for confirmation before
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crashing down on the site.
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Release number eight in July contained material from all listed
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uXu members, which is a 'first' for the group. Adding yet another
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contributor (Sarlo) to the member-list along with three really great
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files from the same (get them now if you haven't already). Also a
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'first' for the series is a co-production between Phearless and
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The GNN which is highly recommended. As stated above, files from
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The GNN, The Chief, Phearless, Ralph 124C41+ and Sarlo made this
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release one of the best to this date.
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Which leads us to...
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Release number nine. December 1992. The moon is in orbit. (no shit!)
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Almost four months after release 8, the ninth release comes as a
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christmas holiday special with a new set of files to break the magic
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'100' (This very file even!). The Chief went back to do some studying
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that meant less files from him (time is grades) and a big gap between
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this release and the previous one. New files from Phearless and The
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GNN, who once again 'saved the day' (and the release). Subscriptions
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to uXu is now available through the Internet (E-Mail The Chief at
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chief@lysator.liu.se) as well as back issues. An anonymous ftp site
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for the uXu files will soon be reality, but the contact with BBS's
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has taken a blow due to non-existent money for calls. Releases will
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probably only be sent through the Internet and be available from
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the uXu homeboard 'The Stash' from release 10. Nothing is decided
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yet though.
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A great year with uXu and a great set of over 100 files makes the
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difference between failure and not completely failure <g>. No, this
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isn't going to be some self-admiration-history-of-uXu-kind-a-stuff
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that you all expect. We here at uXu are damn proud to have an
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audience out there who collects and read our files. We're just as
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surprised as you that we broke the magic 100.
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We do have a few surprises up our sleeves, and that's why we have
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targeted 1993 as our main year of existence. Watch out, here we come!
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The uXu staff of writers
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The Chief, The GNN, Phearless, Ralph 124C41+, Sarlo
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_______________________________________________________________________
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_______________________________________________________________________
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