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.
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