Net.Weirdness: Crypto and Culture Jamming

Keep yourself and your communications secure with cryptography, and keep the world weird with culture jamming!

Crypto

Clipped from Bitcoin Wiki

Cypherpunks Mailing List
Mailing List
"Wanna keep a secret? Can't get enough of that crvpto stuff? The cypherpunks are here to show you how to forge the keys of your info-freedom."
Still online? No.
Still remembered? Yes. There was an archive of this mailing list circa 2015 according to a forum post, but that archive is gone, and not captured by the Internet Archive. John Gilmore's Toad Hall is still online, which was the domain for the mailing list. The best resource is probably the Bitcoin Wiki, which has a long page on Cypherpunk.


Crypto Software
FTP: ftp.funet.fi Directory: /pub/crypt
"Bit shredders, byte twisters, public keys, and private lives—this nifty site in Finland will keep your PC decked out in the latest crypto tech."
Still online? Yes! Really, it's still there! But before you download anything, it would be a good idea to consider when and how you want to use encryption software.

PGP and other crypto stuff
FTP: soda.berkeley.edu
"Pretty Good Privacy means keeping your plans for world domination safe from prying eyes (as well as keeping secret that special collection of pictures)."
Still online? No.
Still remembered? Sort of. No crypto FTP, but Soda is remembered in the Computer Science Undergraduate Association encyclopedia, and the URL now refreshes to the CSUA website. But you can get PGP and many other iterations or alternatives now.


Culture Jamming

SenseReal Foundation
E-mail: Green Ghost
"Send mail to this guy—he's determined to keep you on the jagged edge of what exactly is going on
with stuff."
Still online? No.
Still Remembered? Yes, kinda. Phrack Magazine, issue 46, from 1994, has a (vintage) digital version online that includes The SenseReal Mission, which opens with this paragraph:

If you are reading this it indicates you have reached a point along your journey that you will have to decide whether you agree with The SenseReal Foundation or whether you think that those who believe and support The SenseReal Foundation are crazy. Your decision to join The SenseReal Foundation on it's mission will undoubtedly change your life forever. When you understand the reason it exists and what it seeks you will better know how to decide. That is why this text was created.

Harley/Biker E-list
Mailing List
"Head out on the highway! Grow a beard, pop a Bud. and thumb your nose at those Saab zombies. Keep America ugly, be a biker."
Still online? No.
Still remembered? Yes, in a dated website of Motorcycle Mailing Lists, which includes a URL for the Harley Email Digest. It's not online anymore, but it was archived in 1997.
Do I love that summary? No, not really. Maybe just drop that last sentence?

Net.Weirdness: Conspiracy and Cool Tech

Next up: conspiracies and cool tech, piped straight to your eyeballs via FTP! Or mailing lists ...

Conspiracy

Freedom Inc.
Mailing list, send: "help" (in the subject field)
"Hundreds of files on everything ranging from constitutional challenges and government black projects to how to build your own bombs."
Still online? Nope, the domain andronix.org faded from the internet (archive), to be replaced (in search results) by andronix.app, promising "the power of a full fledged computer level operating system on your Android device."

Archived at all? Yes! Maybe? Freedom Inc. put out a range of materials, it seems. Here's a sampling of what can still be found in 2020:

• International Free Press. Vol. 1, No. 1 and Vol. 1, No. 2, "dedicated to the collection and distribution of news, stories, and other information relating to the global experience of black people."
• Possibly associated with Conspiracy Nation, as seen referenced in Vol. 1 Num. 48, and in this information on how to get back issues.

Masonic Digest
 Mailing list
"Of course, once you know the secret handshake, it doesn't seem so mysterious anymore (hand extended, with first two fingers pressed to the inside of the wrist of the shakee), but it's
important, anyway, to keep tabs on these government-running wackoids."
Still online? Not as far as I can see. Mentioned in the email from 1994, High Weirdness by E-Mail, and possibly associated with the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and Yukon, which has an extensive Anti-Masonry FAQ, which also links to the alt.freemasonry FAQ, Version 1.5b.
Archived? Not as far as I can tell.


Conspiracy Archives
FTP: etext archive
"Da motha" lode of conspiracy text files. It's all here, ripe for the pickin'. Of course, the ease with which you can get this stuff makes you wonder just exactly who put it here ..." 
Still online? No.
Archived? Yes, at least some of them.


Cool Tech

VR FTP Sites
FTP: Avalon server with Navy.mil
"The virtually real for the technologically well heeled. Programs, toys, brainiac essays, and other tidbits about VR."
Still online? No.

I'm not sure if VR today means what it did 25 years ago. From Anonymous FTP Sites Listing from 1997, it looks like Navy was supporting 3D rendering, given that a mirror for those resources was POV-Ray, the Persistence of Vision Raytracer, which is now listed as "a high-quality, Free Software tool for creating stunning three-dimensional graphics." Here's a snapshot of the site from 1997, with some definitely "vintage" 3D graphics, and here's an old list of Graphics FTPs, where "virtual worlds" and "virtual reality" are used interchangably.


Artificial Life
Mailing list
"This is a forum for wannabe data-Frankensteins and their hunchbacked minions." 
Still online? No.
Still remembered? Yes! At least, in a FAQ Archive, which describes the Artificial Life Digest as such: "The ALIFE research community exchanges news, CFP's, etc. through this digest, edited by Liane Gabora and Rob Collins of the ARTIFICIAL LIFE Research Group at UCLA." It seems like Artificial Life isn't the term anymore, or perhaps the subject has fragmented into sub-topics and specialties, because I can't find an Artificial Life Research Group at UCLA now.


Future Technologies List
Mailing List
"A good place to prognosticate about cutting-edge tech."
Still online? No.
Still remembered? Vaguely, captured in Cyberpoet's Guide to Virtual Culture - 3.14.94 - p3/5 (Google Groups archive of alt.cyberspace), which simply lists it as "artificial intelligence, nanotech, etc." It looks like Cyberpoet's Guide got a HTML make-over, but it doesn't include any more hints as to what the Future Technologies List covered. Now, there are hundreds of sites dedicated to future tech, existing and imagined.


TechnoNomads
Mailing List
"Can't stay in one place, but still wanna be wired? Here's a list for wireheads and gearheads on the move."
Still online? No.
Still remembered? Yes! Steve Roberts seems to have been the guy behind the list, as he describes here, in a discussion of what to call modern techno nomads. And it sounds like's still at it, as seen on his Microship website.


Homebrew Computers—Building Your Own
Mailing List
"Build the computer of your dreams with a little help from these street techies."
Still online? No.
Still remembered? Looks like it, if you can search through through this wall o' text, and also in the Directory of Electronic Journals, Newsletters, and Academic Discussion Lists, 4th edition from 1994. This is back when "IBM PC Clone" was something people talked about. 20 years later, IBM sold its Personal Computer business to Lenovo, endng the IBM PC era.

Net.Weirdness: Blowin' Money and Computer Nostalgia

The quiet days of the pre-commercial internet are a form of computer nostalgia in and of itself, but if anything, this (short!) list of unusual shopping sources is a reminder that the internet wasn't non-commercial for long. Also, a reminder that the history of computer system emulators is long, and that pining for the computer games of your youth is also not new.

Blowin' Money

Atomic Books Catalog
"Atomic Books bills itself as 'Literaty Finds for Mutated Minds. Just the
ticket, right?"
Still online? Yes! You don't need to (e)mail away for a catlog, you can just browse their website and buy books online. If you want to get physical, you can send John Waters some fanmail. "Yes. It's true. John Waters does receive fan mail through us." No email, though.

Fringeware, Inc.
"Long-time bOING bOING soul brothers Paco Xander Xathan and Jon Lebkowsky run this alternative to the cess-pit that is commercial retail merchandising."
Still online? Yes, but as a digital tombstone. The site currently states that "As of 1 July 1999, our store has closed. We may reopen a store in Austin as some point in the future. Many thanks to all of our customers and friends over the years." They went online the year after the Handbook was published, and still feature three buttons, "As featured on Netscape Cool Sitings" (dead link; archived), "Subbrilliant Sertified" (still viable), and "Operation MindPhuck" (dead webring link).
Still remembered? Yes, there's a decently detailed Wikipedia article on the (associated) FringeWare Review, and the Internet Archive has Issue #6(66) digitized, while Anarchivism has a bit more info, and notes that there were 14 issues.

Computer Nostalgia

Mac Apple II emulator—Stop the Madness!
"If your eyes mist over when someone mentions Karateka, if you get allquivery just thinking about your thousandth-generation copy of Castle Wolfenstein, and you own a Mac, check this out. Stop the Madness! is your all-access ticket to geek memorabilia. Relive the pimply-faced joys of your digital youth."
Still online? In a form. One of the two FTPs, cassandra.ucr.edu, was archived in 2003, but there's no "apple2" directory. But Zophar's Domain has a copy of Stop the Madness!, which notes "This is one of the first Apple II emulators. It runs very fast and is compatible with most Apple II software. This'll even run well on your 68040's! Does not emulate the Apple IIgs."

Anything like it? Yes! The emulation scene is alive and well, and virtual machines are up and running online, for free! The most notable collection is the Internet Archive's 4am collection of Apple II software, with a focus on titles that were rare or previously not distributed online. Now, if you want to play Karateka, you have your choice of versions, and you can browse documentation, too! The same goes for Castle Wolfenstein.

Net.Weirdness: Anonymity and Archie Servers

Anonymity (in email)
"Anonymous remailers let you send e-mail with the total assurance that you and only you will know who sent it."
Still online? None of the listed servers appear to be online. An archived snapshot of penet.fi from 1996 announced that anon.penet.fi anonymous forwarding services were coming to an end.
Anything like them? Yes, and in fact, there are three levels of anonymous remailers, as described by Wikipedia.

Archie Servers
"The Net is a huge place and nobody's gonna hold your hand as you travel through it. Luckily, even if no human can help you find things, there's a friendly Net know-it-all named Archie who can."

Today, you'd be forgiven for asking "you mean, like Google?" It feels like Google has been online since the beginning of The Net, but it started in 1997 at Stanford, as captured by the Internet Archive. But a decade earlier, Archie, the first internet search engine was sleuthing through McGill University School of Computer Science's FTP files.

From there, it sounds like Archie changed from a single system searcher, to a global network of interconnected regional search engines. Most Archies are long-gone, replaced by major search engines with increased abilities to search farther and faster, but this Polish Archie is still online, with the same graphic user interface since 1997, very similar looking to Rutgers' Archie (archived).

Net.Weirdness: Alternative Media

Net.Weirdness, part 2: Alternative Media

What's alternative? (What's media?) Let's see what it looked like in 1995?

Back of Air Pirates Funnies, 1971

Survival Research Labs
FTP: srl.org
"Pictures, updates, and propaganda from the most well-known industrial performance art group—Survival Research Laboratories."

Still online? Yes! Finally, a survivor! Well, their FTP has been replaced by a website at the same domain. "Dangerous and Disturbing Mechanical Presentations Since 1979" is their tagline, and it looks like they've kept at it.


Comix List
Mailing List
"Catch the latest in comix talk—just don't mention the Fantastic Four or any other mainstream comic book pabulum."

Still online? No internet record of the comixreqest mailing list, but their ISP, The World, is still going strong. Even more impressive, The World was the first commercial ISP. You can also find plenty of information on and discussions of "comix," where the "x" was/is used to differentiate from the mainstream (and to emphasize x-rated, which is also found in non-mainstream comics).


Sci-Fi Book Reviews
Gopher: gopher net.bio.net
"How come every time you go into a bookstore you can't remember any of the cool titles you've heard about? [...] Next time, before you go shopping, check out this Gopher site. It reviews just about every new and old sci-fi book."

Still online? First, support for the gopher protocol is a rare thing these days, "yielding to the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)." But second, bio.net is still online and supporting open science communication, and has an archive that includes references to its past gopher access. Apparently, the sci-fi reviews were tucked away among discussions on maize and urodele amphibians.

And third, there is no shortage of Sci-Fi book reviews and information collections on the internet at large. One notable source is The Internet Speculative Fiction Database, which started in 1995, home to information on not only science fiction, but also fantasy and horror.


Factsheet Five—Electronic Edition 
FTP: etext.archive.umich.edu
Gopher: well.sf.ca.us
"Here are reviews of just about every zine on the planet, sensibly organized, and presented for your browsing pleasure. Make sure that you buy copies of the paper version of Factsheet Five, too—if these folks go out of business, the world will immediately grind to a halt."

Still online? No.
Archived? A version of etexts, yes, and a few editions of the hardcopy are available via the Internet Archive (late 1980s through early 1990s). Mike Gunderloy, the maniac (in the best sense of the world) behind Factsheet Five, donated his zine collection and business files related to FF to the New York State Library, as documented here.


Wiretap Online Library 
FTP: wiretap.spies.com
"The repository for every bit of nuttiness committed to electrons and zapped over the Internet."

Still online? No.
Archived? Yes, in a fashion. It's the web presence of what was an FTP (and gopher service). There's also a lot of "nuttiness" in the web at large now, so there's definitely more oddities and weirdness to capture, but this is definitely a fine collection of the fringe and freaky.