Re: Wired News : Y2K Spoof Flick Goes Awry

1999-11-26 Thread Martin Cosgrave 

---
F R E N D Z  of martian
---

Well this has certainly been the year of the meme =)

The rumours about martial law preparations (in the states and here) have been
doing the rounds for ages.

And with a cynical ear, this sounds an awful lot like damage limitation. Just
call me paranoid.

martian

On Fri, 26 Nov 1999, kip wrote:
> ---
> F R E N D Z  of martian
> ---
> 
> A note from kip:
> 
>Where the Y2K video came from...
> 
> 
> 
>  From Wired News, available online at:
> http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,32746,00.html
> 
> Y2K Spoof Flick Goes Awry  
> by Craig Bicknell  
> 
> 11:00 a.m. 24.Nov.1999 PST 
> Mike Zieper wanted to tap into current passions with his video art. To
> do it, he made a grainy, gray tape in which a faceless narrator
> prepares his soldiers to unleash a government-sponsored riot in Times
> Square at midnight 2000. 
> 
> The plan: to create chaos so federal troops have an excuse to move in.
> 
> 
> Read ongoing Y2K coverage
> 
> Weird thing was, after Zieper posted the video clip on his Web site,
> the troops did move in. 
> 
> "This FBI agent called," said Zieper. "He said, 'There are a lot of
> people planning to vacation in New York this year, a lot of them are
> coming to your site and they're getting scared. I want to talk to you
> about how we can stop people from coming to this site.'" 
> 
> Zieper called a lawyer and didn't pull the site. So both the FBI and
> the US Attorney's Office went upstream to Zieper's Web hosting
> company, BECamation in Michigan, and asked that Zieper's site be
> pulled. There was no threat of legal action, but BECamation president
> Mark Wieger complied. 
> 
> "We didn't want to take any chances with our business, so we pulled it
> down," Wieger said. 
> 
> In doing so, Wieger pulled a lever that let loose a virtual riot among
> free-speech advocates. After the Village Voice published a piece about
> the incident, online message boards erupted in protest. Now the
> American Civil Liberties Union is considering a lawsuit on Zieper's
> behalf. 
> 
> "We think, certainly, that it's very improper for the FBI to be
> harassing an Internet hosting company to take down content that may be
> disturbing, but is certainly protected by the First Amendment," said
> ACLU staff attorney Ann Beeson. 
> 
> The FBI did not respond to a request for comment. 
> 
> Meanwhile, the video itself has been copied and posted on numerous
> mirror sites. 
> 
> It's a hit beyond anything Zieper could have anticipated. Reality has
> woven a fresh, relevant, scene into the video's fiction and given it a
> nice buzz. A grand slam for a struggling artist. 
> 
> "If this gets people to look at all this stuff seriously, that's
> fantastic. That's exactly what I wanted to do," Zieper said. 
> 
> That doesn't mean he's not upset, particularly on behalf of Mark
> Wieger, who's been besieged by vicious flame emails decrying his
> decision to pull Zieper's site. 
> 
> "They're saying, 'Why didn't you stand up for the Constitution?'"
> Zieper said. "I think that's very easy to say from afar, but when the
> knock comes for you it's a terrifying experience. They tried to infer
> that he best get out of the way." 
> 
> That has Zieper wondering what else the FBI is up to. "I hope this is
> just an aberration," he said. "I hope that they review the
> constitution back at the FBI and don't try to do anything like this
> again."  
> 
> Related Wired Links:  
> 
> A True Y2K Disaster: the Movie  
> 20.Nov.1999 
> 
> ACLU to Spy on Echelon  
> 17.Nov.1999 
> 
> Usenet Ban a Slippery Slope?  
> 16.Nov.1999 
> 
> The Fed's Deadbeat Database  
> 9.Nov.1999 
> 
> COPA Goes Before the Bench  
> 4.Nov.1999 
> 
> 'Don't Help the Snoops'  
> 25.Oct.1999 
> 
> Copyright  1994-99 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.
> 
> 
> 
> --
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> 
> The archive is at http://www.mail-archive.com/frendz@marsbard.com/
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Wired News : Y2K Spoof Flick Goes Awry

1999-11-26 Thread kip 

---
F R E N D Z  of martian
---

A note from kip:

   Where the Y2K video came from...



 From Wired News, available online at:
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,32746,00.html

Y2K Spoof Flick Goes Awry  
by Craig Bicknell  

11:00 a.m. 24.Nov.1999 PST 
Mike Zieper wanted to tap into current passions with his video art. To
do it, he made a grainy, gray tape in which a faceless narrator
prepares his soldiers to unleash a government-sponsored riot in Times
Square at midnight 2000. 

The plan: to create chaos so federal troops have an excuse to move in.


Read ongoing Y2K coverage

Weird thing was, after Zieper posted the video clip on his Web site,
the troops did move in. 

"This FBI agent called," said Zieper. "He said, 'There are a lot of
people planning to vacation in New York this year, a lot of them are
coming to your site and they're getting scared. I want to talk to you
about how we can stop people from coming to this site.'" 

Zieper called a lawyer and didn't pull the site. So both the FBI and
the US Attorney's Office went upstream to Zieper's Web hosting
company, BECamation in Michigan, and asked that Zieper's site be
pulled. There was no threat of legal action, but BECamation president
Mark Wieger complied. 

"We didn't want to take any chances with our business, so we pulled it
down," Wieger said. 

In doing so, Wieger pulled a lever that let loose a virtual riot among
free-speech advocates. After the Village Voice published a piece about
the incident, online message boards erupted in protest. Now the
American Civil Liberties Union is considering a lawsuit on Zieper's
behalf. 

"We think, certainly, that it's very improper for the FBI to be
harassing an Internet hosting company to take down content that may be
disturbing, but is certainly protected by the First Amendment," said
ACLU staff attorney Ann Beeson. 

The FBI did not respond to a request for comment. 

Meanwhile, the video itself has been copied and posted on numerous
mirror sites. 

It's a hit beyond anything Zieper could have anticipated. Reality has
woven a fresh, relevant, scene into the video's fiction and given it a
nice buzz. A grand slam for a struggling artist. 

"If this gets people to look at all this stuff seriously, that's
fantastic. That's exactly what I wanted to do," Zieper said. 

That doesn't mean he's not upset, particularly on behalf of Mark
Wieger, who's been besieged by vicious flame emails decrying his
decision to pull Zieper's site. 

"They're saying, 'Why didn't you stand up for the Constitution?'"
Zieper said. "I think that's very easy to say from afar, but when the
knock comes for you it's a terrifying experience. They tried to infer
that he best get out of the way." 

That has Zieper wondering what else the FBI is up to. "I hope this is
just an aberration," he said. "I hope that they review the
constitution back at the FBI and don't try to do anything like this
again."  

Related Wired Links:  

A True Y2K Disaster: the Movie  
20.Nov.1999 

ACLU to Spy on Echelon  
17.Nov.1999 

Usenet Ban a Slippery Slope?  
16.Nov.1999 

The Fed's Deadbeat Database  
9.Nov.1999 

COPA Goes Before the Bench  
4.Nov.1999 

'Don't Help the Snoops'  
25.Oct.1999 

Copyright  1994-99 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.



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Re: Fwd: GeeK: Dangling String

1999-11-26 Thread Martin Cosgrave 

---
F R E N D Z  of martian
---


That's a load of mullarkey, isn't it? I went out and bought a motor, an
ethernet cable and an RJ45 socket. Wired them all together, nothing happened.
'Damn' I thought, ethernet is an AC signal. Deconstructed a telephone for a
diode for a half-rectifier. Still nothing. Tried the piezo sounder from the
phone, in AC and DC modes. No joy.

So how do I wire this motor into my ethernet and get it to spin when traffic
passes?

martian


On Sun, 21 Nov 1999, Martin Cosgrave wrote:
> ---
> F R E N D Z  of martian
> ---
> 
> Lo tech meets high tech to produce 'calm technology' - in this case, a dangling
> string connected to a motor which interfaces to your network - and shows how
> busy it is...
> 
> --  Forwarded Message  --
> Subject: GeeK: Dangling String
> Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 16:09:01 +0100
> From: harm <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> 
> 
> http://www8.electriciti.com/1.01/calmtech.html
> 
> The Dangling String 
> 
> Bits flowing through the wires of a computer network are
> ordinarily invisible. But a radically new tool shows those
> bits through motion, sound, and even touch. It
> communicates both light and heavy network traffic. Its
> output is so beautifully integrated with human information
> processing that one does not even need to be looking at
> it or near it to take advantage of its peripheral clues. It
> takes no space on your existing computer screen, and in
> fact does not use or contain a computer at all. It uses no
> software, only a few dollars in hardware, and can be
> shared by many people at the same time. It is called the
> "Dangling String."
> --
> AppDev Ltd. - Internet Solutions Provider. http://appdev.co.uk/
> Cheap, fast, good. Choose two.
> 
> 
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> 
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Fwd: [visionaries] Postmodern essay generator

1999-11-26 Thread Martin Cosgrave 

---
F R E N D Z  of martian
---


--  Forwarded Message  --
Subject: [visionaries] Postmodern essay generator
Date: Thu, 25 Nov 1999 14:52:22 -0600
From: Sasha Chislenko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>


From: Sasha Chislenko <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

I just found a very interesting generator of post-modern
essay spoofs - hard to believe that they are computer-made:
http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/community/postmodern.html
(click on "this link")

Their balance of sense and absurdity falls so humorously between
total semantic chaos and the confused juggling of fashionable cultural
concepts you can find in postmodernist "discourse"...

This can probably be extended to spoof religious and writings
in other areas where building constructs of sacred terms is
more important than any reality grounding or internal logic.

With combinations of term lists, one could generate essays in some
"synthetic areas", such as "postmodern Christian environmentalism".
Scary thought: such essays can win in memetic targeting more than
they lose in persuasiveness, and create thousands of very specific
groups of followship...

But then, maybe, fragmenting the nonsensical domain and removing
rotten minds from areas of serious discussions would clear up the
stage for more productive debates - just as the expense of supporting
the army may be compensated by the social liberation resulting from
the isolation of the military types from the civil cultural scene...

---
Sasha Chislenko   

--- ONElist Sponsor 

   GET WHAT YOU DESERVE! A NextCard Platinum VISA: 
Get an APR as low as 9.9 Fixed & NO annual fee! Apply online today!  
 http://clickme.onelist.com/ad/nextcard15 ">Click Here


Great Thinkers and Visionaries website: http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/thinkers.html
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Fwd: [ISO] LIVE FROM THE RED PLANET, IT'S -- LITTLE GREEN MEN?

1999-11-26 Thread Martin Cosgrave 

---
F R E N D Z  of martian
---
From: Rick R <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
LIVE FROM THE RED PLANET, IT'S -- LITTLE GREEN MEN?
If the Martian hills are alive with the sound of anything, we'll soon
get a chance to hear it. The Mars Polar Lander, expected to touch down
December 3 near the Martian South Pole, is carrying a tiny device called
the Mars Microphone that will beam whatever it hears to Earth for
transmission over the Internet. It will be the first extra-terrestrial
sound ever to be heard by humans, other than the noise and chatter
recorded within astronaut space suits. Check it out for yourself at
. Can a push by environmentalists to preserve
Mars' "natural quiet" -- as has been the case at the Grand Canyon
National Park -- be far behind?

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Wahey beta babies!

1999-11-26 Thread Martin Cosgrave 

---
F R E N D Z  of martian
---

Yo yo yo!

AppDev is (sort of) proud to unveil its' new product: WebFronts (TM [soon])

It's a simple page builder - but it's really easy!

Don't believe me? Check it out at http://appdev.co.uk/webfronts

You'll need the username 'frendz' and the password 'frendz' to get in. I've
disabled the authentication routine so you can all use it at once (but if
you get auth errors it means I forgot to do that).

I suggest that you all put a page in with your name on it, and something about
you, and then post the viewable URL (copy URL from 'view' on the 'List pages'
page) here in frendz.

I'll start: http://appdev.co.uk/webfronts/view.php3/frendz/martian

(Hint: your URL will look like that, with your name in place of 'martian'.
Spaces get replaced with the underscore ('_') character.

Have fun, and don't forget to mail me if you encounter any bugs or if the
interaction seems clumsy or stupid.

luvonya
martian

PS Any idea how much this might be worth? I was thinking 50ukp for 5 pages, and
50ukp for every 10 pages more than that... that's for a year...

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