Ziknes

ziknes

Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, is part of the HackerNoon Books Series. You can jump to any chapter in this book . Chapter 21 here Chapter 21 This chapter is dedicated to Pages Books in Toronto, Canada. Long a fixture on the bleedingly trendy Queen Street West strip, Pages is located over the road from CityTV and just a few doors down from the old Bakka store where I worked. We at Bakka loved having Pages down the street from us: what we were to science fiction, they were to everything else: hand-picked material representing the stuff you'd never find elsewhere, the stuff you didn't know you were looking for until you saw it there. Pages also has one of the best news-stands I've ever seen, row on row of incredible magazines and zines from all over the world. Pages Books: 256 Queen St W, Toronto, ON M5V 1Z8 Canada +1 416 598 1447 They left me and Barbara alone in the room then, and I used the working shower head to rinse off -- I was suddenly embarrassed to be covered in piss and barf. When I finished, Barbara was in tears. "Your parents --" she began. I felt like I might throw up again. God, my poor folks. What they must have gone through. "Are they here?" "No," she said. "It's complicated," she said. "What?" "You're still under arrest, Marcus. Everyone here is. They can't just sweep in and throw open the doors. Everyone here is going to have to be processed through the criminal justice system. It could take, well, it could take months." "I'm going to have to stay here for months?" She grabbed my hands. "No, I think we're going to be able to get you arraigned and released on bail pretty fast. But pretty fast is a relative term. I wouldn't expect anything to happen today. And it's not going to be like those people had it. It will be humane. There will be real food. No interrogations. Visits from your family. "Just because the DHS is out, it doesn't mean that you get to just walk out of here. What's happened here is that we're getting rid of the bizarro-world version of the justice system they'd instituted and replacing it with the old system. The system with judges, open trials and lawyers. "So we can try to get you transferred to a juvie facility on the mainland, but Marcus, those places can be really rough. Really, really rough. This might be the best place for you until we get you bailed out." Bailed out. Of course. I was a criminal -- I hadn't been charged yet, but there were bound to be plenty of charges they could think of. It was practically illegal just to think impure thoughts about the government. She gave my hands another squeeze. "It sucks, but this is how it has to be. The point is, it's over. The Governor has thrown the DHS out of the State, dismantled every checkpoint. The Attorney General has issued warrants for any law-enforcement officers involved in 'stress interrogations' and secret imprisonments. They'll go to jail, Marcus, and it's because of what you did." I was numb. I heard the words, but they hardly made sense. Somehow, it was over, but it wasn't over. "Look," she said. "We probably have an hour or two before this all settles down, before they come back and put you away again. What do you want to do? Walk on the beach? Get a meal? These people had an incredible staff room -- we raided it on the way in. Gourmet all the way." At last a question I could answer. "I want to find Ange. I want to find Darryl." # I tried to use a computer I found to look up their cell-numbers, but it wanted a password, so we were reduced to walking the corridors, calling out their names. Behind the cell-doors, prisoners screamed back at us, or cried, or begged us to let them go. They didn't understand what had just happened, couldn't see their former guards being herded onto the docks in plastic handcuffs, taken away by California state SWAT teams. "Ange!" I called over the din, "Ange Carvelli! Darryl Glover! It's Marcus!" We'd walked the whole length of the cell-block and they hadn't answered. I felt like crying. They'd been shipped overseas -- they were in Syria or worse. I'd never see them again. I sat down and leaned against the corridor wall and put my face in my hands. I saw Severe Haircut Woman's face, saw her smirk as she asked me for my login. She had done this. She would go to jail for it, but that wasn't enough. I thought that when I saw her again, I might kill her. She deserved it. "Come on," Barbara said, "Come on, Marcus. Don't give up. There's more around here, come on." She was right. All the doors we'd passed in the cellblock were old, rusting things that dated back to when the base was first built. But at the very end of the corridor, sagging open, was a new high-security door as thick as a dictionary. We pulled it open and ventured into the dark corridor within. There were four more cell-doors here, doors without bar codes. Each had a small electronic keypad mounted on it. "Darryl?" I said. "Ange?" "Marcus?" It was Ange, calling out from behind the furthest door. Ange, my Ange, my angel. "Ange!" I cried. "It's me, it's me!" "Oh God, Marcus," she choked out, and then it was all sobs. I pounded on the other doors. "Darryl! Darryl, are you here?" "I'm here." The voice was very small, and very hoarse. "I'm here. I'm very, very sorry. Please. I'm very sorry." He sounded... broken. Shattered. "It's me, D," I said, leaning on his door. "It's Marcus. It's over -- they arrested the guards. They kicked the Department of Homeland Security out. We're getting trials, open trials. And we get to testify against them." "I'm sorry," he said. "Please, I'm so sorry." The California patrolmen came to the door then. They still had their camera rolling. "Ms Stratford?" one said. He had his faceplate up and he looked like any other cop, not like my savior. Like someone come to lock me up. "Captain Sanchez," she said. "We've located two of the prisoners of interest here. I'd like to see them released and inspect them for myself." "Ma'am, we don't have access codes for those doors yet," he said. She held up her hand. "That wasn't the arrangement. I was to have complete access to this facility. That came direct from the Governor, sir. We aren't budging until you open these cells." Her face was perfectly smooth, without a single hint of give or flex. She meant it. The Captain looked like he needed sleep. He grimaced. "I'll see what I can do," he said. # They did manage to open the cells, finally, about half an hour later. It took three tries, but they eventually got the right codes entered, matching them to the arphids on the ID badges they'd taken off the guards they'd arrested. They got into Ange's cell first. She was dressed in a hospital gown, open at the back, and her cell was even more bare than mine had been -- just padding all over, no sink or bed, no light. She emerged blinking into the corridor and the police camera was on her, its bright lights in her face. Barbara stepped protectively between us and it. Ange stepped tentatively out of her cell, shuffling a little. There was something wrong with her eyes, with her face. She was crying, but that wasn't it. "They drugged me," she said. "When I wouldn't stop screaming for a lawyer." That's when I hugged her. She sagged against me, but she squeezed back, too. She smelled stale and sweaty, and I smelled no better. I never wanted to let go. That's when they opened Darryl's cell. He had shredded his paper hospital gown. He was curled up, naked, in the back of the cell, shielding himself from the camera and our stares. I ran to him. "D," I whispered in his ear. "D, it's me. It's Marcus. It's over. The guards have been arrested. We're going to get bail, we're going home." He trembled and squeezed his eyes shut. "I'm sorry," he whispered, and turned his face away. They took me away then, a cop in body-armor and Barbara, took me back to my cell and locked the door, and that's where I spent the night. # I don't remember much about the trip to the courthouse. They had me chained to five other prisoners, all of whom had been in for a lot longer than me. One only spoke Arabic -- he was an old man, and he trembled. The others were all young. I was the only white one. Once we had been gathered on the deck of the ferry, I saw that nearly everyone on Treasure Island had been one shade of brown or another. I had only been inside for one night, but it was too long. There was a light drizzle coming down, normally the sort of thing that would make me hunch my shoulders and look down, but today I joined everyone else in craning my head back at the infinite gray sky, reveling in the stinging wet as we raced across the bay to the ferry-docks. They took us away in buses. The shackles made climbing into the buses awkward, and it took a long time for everyone to load. No one cared. When we weren't struggling to solve the geometry problem of six people, one chain, narrow bus-aisle, we were just looking around at the city around us, up the hill at the buildings. All I could think of was finding Darryl and Ange, but neither were in evidence. It was a big crowd and we weren't allowed to move freely through it. The state troopers who handled us were gentle enough, but they were still big, armored and armed. I kept thinking I saw Darryl in the crowd, but it was always someone else with that same beaten, hunched look that he'd had in his cell. He wasn't the only broken one. At the courthouse, they marched us into interview rooms in our shackle group. An ACLU lawyer took our information and asked us a few questions -- when she got to me, she smiled and greeted me by name -- and then led us into the courtroom before the judge. He wore an actual robe, and seemed to be in a good mood. The deal seemed to be that anyone who had a family member to post bail could go free, and everyone else got sent to prison. The ACLU lawyer did a lot of talking to the judge, asking for a few more hours while the prisoners' families were rounded up and brought to the court-house. The judge was pretty good about it, but when I realized that some of these people had been locked up since the bridge blew, taken for dead by their families, without trial, subjected to interrogation, isolation, torture -- I wanted to just break the chains myself and set everyone free. When I was brought before the judge, he looked down at me and took off his glasses. He looked tired. The ACLU lawyer looked tired. The bailiffs looked tired. Behind me, I could hear a sudden buzz of conversation as my name was called by the bailiff. The judge rapped his gavel once, without looking away from me. He scrubbed at his eyes. "Mr Yallow," he said, "the prosecution has identified you as a flight risk. I think they have a point. You certainly have more, shall we say, history, than the other people here. I am tempted to hold you over for trial, no matter how much bail your parents are prepared to post." My lawyer started to say something, but the judge silenced her with a look. He scrubbed at his eyes. "Do you have anything to say?" "I had the chance to run," I said. "Last week. Someone offered to take me away, get me out of town, help me build a new identity. Instead I stole her phone, escaped from our truck, and ran away. I turned over her phone -- which had evidence about my friend, Darryl Glover, on it -- to a journalist and hid out here, in town." "You stole a phone?" "I decided that I couldn't run. That I had to face justice -- that my freedom wasn't worth anything if I was a wanted man, or if the city was still under the DHS. If my friends were still locked up. That freedom for me wasn't as important as a free country." "But you did steal a phone." I nodded. "I did. I plan on giving it back, if I ever find the young woman in question." "Well, thank you for that speech, Mr Yallow. You are a very well spoken young man." He glared at the prosecutor. "Some would say a very brave man, too. There was a certain video on the news this morning. It suggested that you had some legitimate reason to evade the authorities. In light of that, and of your little speech here, I will grant bail, but I will also ask the prosecutor to add a charge of Misdemeanor Petty Theft to the count, as regards the matter of the phone. For this, I expect another $50,000 in bail." He banged his gavel again, and my lawyer gave my hand a squeeze. He looked down at me again and re-seated his glasses. He had dandruff, there on the shoulders of his robe. A little more rained down as his glasses touched his wiry, curly hair. "You can go now, young man. Stay out of trouble." # I turned to go and someone tackled me. It was Dad. He literally lifted me off my feet, hugging me so hard my ribs creaked. He hugged me the way I remembered him hugging me when I was a little boy, when he'd spin me around and around in hilarious, vomitous games of airplane that ended with him tossing me in the air and catching me and squeezing me like that, so hard it almost hurt. A set of softer hands pried me gently out of his arms. Mom. She held me at arm's length for a moment, searching my face for something, not saying anything, tears streaming down her face. She smiled and it turned into a sob and then she was holding me too, and Dad's arm encircled us both. When they let go, I managed to finally say something. "Darryl?" "His father met me somewhere else. He's in the hospital." "When can I see him?" "It's our next stop," Dad said. He was grim. "He doesn't --" He stopped. "They say he'll be OK," he said. His voice was choked. "How about Ange?" "Her mother took her home. She wanted to wait here for you, but..." I understood. I felt full of understanding now, for how all the families of all the people who'd been locked away must feel. The courtroom was full of tears and hugs, and even the bailiffs couldn't stop it. "Let's go see Darryl," I said. "And let me borrow your phone?" I called Ange on the way to the hospital where they were keeping Darryl -- San Francisco General, just down the street from us -- and arranged to see her after dinner. She talked in a hurried whisper. Her mom wasn't sure whether to punish her or not, but Ange didn't want to tempt fate. There were two state troopers in the corridor where Darryl was being held. They were holding off a legion of reporters who stood on tiptoe to see around them and get pictures. The flashes popped in our eyes like strobes, and I shook my head to clear it. My parents had brought me clean clothes and I'd changed in the back seat, but I still felt gross, even after scrubbing myself in the court-house bathrooms. Some of the reporters called my name. Oh yeah, that's right, I was famous now. The state troopers gave me a look, too -- either they'd recognized my face or my name when the reporters called it out. Darryl's father met us at the door of his hospital room, speaking in a whisper too low for the reporters to hear. He was in civvies, the jeans and sweater I normally thought of him wearing, but he had his service ribbons pinned to his breast. "He's sleeping," he said. "He woke up a little while ago and he started crying. He couldn't stop. They gave him something to help him sleep." He led us in, and there was Darryl, his hair clean and combed, sleeping with his mouth open. There was white stuff at the corners of his mouth. He had a semi-private room, and in the other bed there was an older Arab-looking guy, in his 40s. I realized it was the guy I'd been chained to on the way off of Treasure Island. We exchanged embarrassed waves. Then I turned back to Darryl. I took his hand. His nails had been chewed to the quick. He'd been a nail-biter when he was a kid, but he'd kicked the habit when we got to high school. I think Van talked him out of it, telling him how gross it was for him to have his fingers in his mouth all the time. I heard my parents and Darryl's dad take a step away, drawing the curtains around us. I put my face down next to his on the pillow. He had a straggly, patchy beard that reminded me of Zeb. "Hey, D," I said. "You made it. You're going to be OK." He snored a little. I almost said, "I love you," a phrase I'd only said to one non-family-member ever, a phrase that was weird to say to another guy. In the end, I just gave his hand another squeeze. Poor Darryl. About HackerNoon Book Series: We bring you the most important technical, scientific, and insightful public domain books. This book is part of the public domain. Cory Doctorow (2009). Little Brother. Urbana, Illinois: Project Gutenberg. Retrieved https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/30142/pg30142-images.html This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at , located at . www.gutenberg.org https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html

Dedicated to Pages Books in Toronto, Canada

Dedicated to the MIT Press Bookshop

So let’s start! Tell us a bit about yourself. For example, name, profession, and personal interests. I’m Hernán (her-NAHN), a writer with a background in systems engineering, but also an ex-developer and coffee geek passionate about science fiction. I’m based in Medellín, Colombia, the so-called “city of eternal spring” (now “city of unpredictable weather” according to climate change), and started working in the technology industry ever since I was a teenager. Inspired by the computer underground scene and cyberpunk novels, I taught myself how to program in ASM and C through ASCII-art decorated e-zines. I worked as a web developer for StarMedia, one of the top 10 biggest sites in the late 90s. While collaborating with designers, also tried my hand at writing interface text, something that at the time was considered an afterthought. While studying systems engineering and writing short stories after classes, I found beauty in the words of both, a well-executed piece of code and a well-crafted narrative. Motivated by the power of stories to change realities, I co-founded , a large-scale event where we invited some of the world's brightest minds to co-create science fiction stories with local communities. I also participated in other future-facing projects in Medellín: a runway to explore , a of Victorian-era statues of historical figures, and on the future of mixed reality. Fractal the future of fashion through 3D-printed garments city-wide steampunk intervention a viral science fiction short film As a content designer, I have contributed to global design teams in industries as diverse as education, finance, and transportation. I’ve also and my fiction has appeared in international literary journals, from Prague to Portland. published two experimental books Now I’m working as a tech writer at supply chain management company . Sonatype Interesting! What was your latest Hackernoon Top story about? It’s about a new type of malware that is catching the attention of our security researchers. We’re calling them RAT mutants because they are remote access trojans that have shifted and adapted over time to be more evasive and dangerous. We’ve noticed that the malware is designed to steal cryptocurrency wallets and personal data, remotely control the victim’s mouse and keyboard, and evolve to evade detection. Do you usually write on similar topics? If not, what do you usually write about? Ever since I joined Sonatype I’ve been rediscovering my love for cybersecurity. Before that, I was writing science fiction and horror stories ( was nominated for Best of the Net in 2021). I’ve also written lots of microcopy (UX writing) and design fiction for Fortune 500 companies and nonprofits. my short story Cobweb Lake Great! What is your usual writing routine like (if you have one?) I do my research first, and then spend some time finding a unique angle for a story. I believe that in today’s AI-generated content world, human-generated technical content must change: it must pay special attention to the human themes and issues that are rising from the technical details. In this regard, the topics, the analogies, and I have to say, the human struggles, play a significant role. Being a writer in tech can be a challenge. It’s not often our main role, but an addition to another one. What is the biggest challenge you have when it comes to writing? Creating technical content that’s worth people’s time and attention is a huge challenge. I’ve been fortunate enough to work with a group of talented folks that point me towards exciting technical stuff to write about. What is the next thing you hope to achieve in your career? Exploring how to still be a relevant human writer in a world of advanced language models. I feel that writing and stories can connect us as humans beings and help us shape a better future. Wow, that’s admirable. Now, something more casual: What is your guilty pleasure of choice? I have to say, coffee and chocolate. We have lots of great-quality beans here in Colombia. I can’t get enough of them (eating cacao nibs as I’m writing this). Do you have a non-tech-related hobby? If yes, what is it? I love discovering new music, at the moment leaning towards post-punk/noise rock bands with great lyrics. I also enjoy video games, short stories, and watching La Selección Colombia try to play football. What can the Hacker Noon community expect to read from you next? I plan to write more disclosures in collaboration with the security research team at Sonatype. We recently discovered a strange package uploaded to the npm registry that references the concept of Brahman, “the pervasive, infinite, eternal truth”. And it seems that’s not just a random reference: the package tries to install every known publicly-accessible package in the npm universe. An obfuscation attack with a spiritual concept behind it? We’ll see… What’s your opinion on HackerNoon as a platform for writers? I’m very pleased with how HackerNoon has been promoting my stories and would certainly recommend it to writers working in the tech industry. Thanks for taking time to join our “ ” series. It was a pleasure. Do you have any closing words? Meet the writer If you’re a developer, I hope you’re keeping your build environment safe. Software supply chain attacks have been increasing lately, the attacks are getting sneakier and more dangerous, so it’s better to be extra cautious when managing dependencies.

Meet the Writer: HackerNoon's Contributor Hernán Ortiz, Co-Founder of Fractal

On the early web, some content pioneers experimented with interactive, community-fed, literate smut. In the mid to late 80’s, a group of undergrads met at Brown University. They were immersed in the liberal arts—semiotics, philosophy, visual art—and in any other generation bound for careers as professors or editors or marketers in the media field. But this group, spurned by an unwelcoming job market and a rising computer literacy in the general public, turned to the web instead and became the backbone of the popular tech scene in New York known as Silicon Alley. Among them was Steven Johnson, who joined Stephanie Syman to launch one of the earliest online magazines. The group also included eventual head of MTV interactive Nicholas Butterworth, who got his start creating the web-based bulletin board . Mark Tribe was also part of that class, and he would go on to create a virtual community called Rhizome. But one of the last of this class to get started—and certainly the most enigmatic—was Rufus Griscom, who created the erotic online magazine alongside his partner Genevieve Field. Feed, SonicNet Nerve Griscom met Field when at a publishing house, where they both worked as editors. They hatched an idea early for a literary erotica website, that leaned into nude photographs of real people’s bodies, and long form articles where nothing was off limits. Griscom watched from the sidelines with interest as his friends from Brown in Silicon Alley began to shape what a site like that would even look like. Then they gave it a name: webzines. Webzines like and and were cultural products born on the web with their own editorial mannerisms, aesthetic, and attitude. Zines were pithy but often not short (word count doesn’t cost a thing when its digital), blending sarcasm and wit with sharp criticism of the mainstream cultural status quo. Word Suck Feed There was something else that stopped Griscom and Field from launching their idea: the law. It wasn’t until the Communications Decency Act was amended in 1996—which enabled a much wider set of content to be published to the web without censorship, a huge victory for the open web—that Field and Griscom felt they could launch something official, and maybe even attract commercial investors which so many of the soon dot-com bubble had already done. The day after the Communications Decency Act was passed, they launched Nerve.com. Conceived as a spiritual successor to the Playboy of the 1950’s and 1960’s, Nerve’s take on the webzine featured experimental formats and bold nude photography paired with longform editorials exploring sex, gender, sexuality, and relationships. As a product of the information age however, the content on Nerve was decidedly more cerebral and high-minded than most pornographic sites of the early web—”Playboy’s body with the New Yorker’s brain,” as a writer from would later put it. The site—and its writers—were able to create a unique editorial voice that was friendly, open, and sex-positive. “Literate smut,” as its slogan read. Entertainment Weekly But what really set Nerve apart was the way it centered its two enigmatic founders, Griscom and Field. The first version of the site even featured a picture of their coffee table that subbed in for the site’s navigation. But that was just the beginning. Because of the explicit nature of the site’s content and the fact that the two were actually dating, Griscom and Field found themselves in the spotlight. They were interviewed by Charlie Rose, featured in and and had a whole HBO documentary produced about them. Time Newsweek But it was a position they soon relished. The duo would throw lavish (and occasionally obscene) parties on behalf of . And each—consciously or not—cultivated a public persona that intended to match the voice of the site: out, loud, and not safe for work. Nerve Their public exposure and popular editorials helped launch Nerve to a huge level of success very quickly, leapfrogging some of Griscom’s classmates. By 1999, against the backdrop of what would soon become the dot-com bubble bursting, they were able to make their first acquisition, a like-minded community known as Bianca.com. Bianca.com was one of the earliest sites ever on the web, and certainly among its first official communities. It was developed by Jill Atkinson, Chris Miller, and David Thau in 1994 in the night hours after they logged from their day jobs at Hotwired ( ). They built the software that ran the site themselves, because nothing like it existed yet. making it the second site launched by a Hotwired employee in secret In its simplest form, Bianca.com was a series of chat rooms, forums, and guest books grouped into different categories where people could go looking for a bit of x-rated fun mixed in with their everyday conversation. Its community congregated primarily around topics of sex, from the mildly suggestive to the outright pornographic. But it also blended high brow discussions of culture and media with its smut. “It was smart high, minded, a peep of class amidst orgiastic moans of crass,” went one description from Wired. The site used the fictional persona of Bianca as a way to give it a bit of personality. Stories about Bianca were littered all through the site. She welcomed visitors into her “home” on the homepage, and visitors could navigate around by clicking through a crude, hand-drawn map. Each “room” in the house centered on a different theme and salacious backstory. Enter the kitchen for recipes to get in the mood, and the bedroom for wildly explicit dreams, for instance. The site was maintained by Bianca’s —a word that had a different connotation that in it does today—a group of moderators who’s job was to “maintain the shack, but they do not govern it… [to] quietly try to provide you with the tools to accomplish all your hearts could desire.” Trolls But it was the crowd of people that gathered at Bianca’s smut shack that made it a cult hit of the early web. It would never quite hit the traffic of publications like Playboy, or even Nerve, but it did gather a larger and larger base of loyal visitors. Between the raunchy exchanges and links to pornographic images, members would chat about books, movies, philosophy, and trade in occasional life lessons. Beneath its smut-covered veneer, Bianca was simply a place to have a conversation. Which made it a good compliment for Nerve in the late 90’s; Nerve provided the editorial and Bianca could provide the discussion. Bianca was never quite able to figure out how to make money, after all. It experimented with memberships and advertising, but neither proved sustainable in the long run. In May of 1999, when acquired Bianca, it was as much a lifeline for the site as an equitable partnership. Nerve But this was 1999, and within a year, the stock market would come crashing down, bringing most of the dot-com world with it. Nerve couldn’t hold on for very long. In the aftermath of the dot-com bubble burst, Nerve struggled to foot the bill for the bandwidth created by Bianca’s large community and they announced plans to shut the site down. Still, Bianca held on for several more years. But after years of neglect, the site was swarmed by vandals looking to spam or diminish the site. It eventually was taken offline completely. Nerve continued to operate for several years following the dot-com collapse, and grew its magazine publication, and even won a few awards in the later half of the 2000’s. But it too eventually folded under new ownership and by the 2010’s was no longer publishing new content. Bianca and Nerve almost struck a partnership that could’ve lasted. If only they had got the timing right. Sources Aaron Dinin. "Web Masters Episode #53: Genevieve Field." Web Masters. October 10, 2021. https://latonas.com/blog/web-masters-episode-53-genevieve-field/ V. Blue. "How sex censorship killed the internet we love." Engadget. January 1, 2019. https://www.engadget.com/2019-01-31-sex-censorship-killed-internet-fosta-sesta.html Farhad Manjoo. "Shut the Smut Shack? Users Moan." Wired. May 5, 2001. https://www.wired.com/2001/05/shut-the-smut-shack-users-moan/ Kaitlin Quistgaard. "Bianca shacks up with Nerve." Salon. May 5, 1999. https://www.salon.com/1999/05/12/bianca/ "bianca’s Trolls." Bianca. January 1, 1999. https://web.archive.org/web/19990128165553/http://foyer.bianca.com/shack/trolls.html First Published Here.

The Untold Story of 'Silicon Alley'

"And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a board is found. ‘This is it... this is where I belong…’" – “ " by The Mentor, written shortly after his arrest in 1986 The Conscience of a Hacker Let’s picture a filmmaker working on her next feature film. One of the main characters is a cybercriminal and they don’t want to go with the stereotype: the shadowy figure in a hoodie, hunched over a keyboard, surrounded by glowing strings of green code... yep, you know that trope—it worked fine for a while. But in the ever-changing world of cybercrime, it seems outdated now. They want the actor to come across as a hacker while at the same time avoiding any clichés. In 2013, I had the opportunity of working with Keiichi Matsuda on the sci-fi film , and one of the characters was a hacker. Her job was to steal people's digital identities by hacking into their accounts, impersonating customer service, and asking them to walk towards a specific location where she'd intercept them and take their biometric samples by force. We ended up using something similar to Philip K. Dick's , but instead of displaying a million separate identities, her entire body had a mirror-like material reflecting the extended reality she lived in. Hyper-Reality scramble suit I don't remember us discussing it at the time, but in hindsight, the mirror overlay was communicating something relevant about today's cybercrime: the perpetrator could be anyone around you. Question everything, trust no one Let's say a coworker, a friend, or a family member reaches out to you via email, Facebook, or WhatsApp, asking for help. You think it's unusual that out of the blue they're requesting a bank transfer, but there's a sense of urgency in their message, and the last thing you want is to delay any help you can provide. So you brush off any doubts and transfer the money. Next time you talk with them, you realize they didn't get in touch with you at all. They never asked you for money. You were scammed. Cybercriminals scrape the social media profiles of your contacts and use the personal information people make publicly available—email addresses, places of interest, personal posts—to learn how to play their roles. The more they know about them, the better they can deceive you. In a practice called , attackers accomplish their malicious activities through the oldest interface of all: human conversation. By gathering data and using psychological manipulation, the face of cybercrime is no longer an obscured figure: it shapeshifts into the people you trust. social engineering Hackers were not criminals Let’s go back in history to the 1960s MIT. Decades before the association with threat actors using computers for malicious activities, the term hacker had an intellectual overtone. Members of the Tech Model Railroad Club, a group of young MIT engineers with a passion for model railroads, used to modify the model’s switching systems and make it more efficient. They were pushing that computer to its limits and along the way not only invented programming tools but most of the slang vocabulary and subversive sense of humor of the hacker culture we recognize today. a PDP-1 computer of a hack was: Their definition “a project undertaken or a product built not solely to fulfill some constructive goal, but with some wild pleasure taken in mere involvement.” Little did they know at the time that they were inadvertently laying the groundwork for cybercrime. In the 1970s, the first demonstration of a computer virus was created. Under the name “Creeper”, this proto-virus was designed as a security test to move through Tenex terminals on the ARPANET (the computer network that evolved into what we know as the internet), displaying the message: “I’m the Creeper: Catch me if you can”. At the time, computers were the exclusive domain of government agencies and big corporations, but the telephone system, available at anyone's fingertips, became the experimentation playground of a new breed of hackers. Cereal box toy whistles were blown into phones at a tone of 2600 hertz to emulate AT&T switching signals and gain operator mode access. Blue box devices came after that, built with cheap electronics to produce tones that made free long-distance calls possible. about the so-called “phreaking” scene introduced the concept to a mass audience, capturing the interest of people like Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, who collaborated on manufacturing and selling blue boxes before they went on to found Apple Computer. An article in Esquire magazine As computer use drastically increased in the 1980s with the introduction of IBM Personal Computer and dial-up modems became portals into underground e-zines with a variety of forbidden knowledge including how to break into computer systems, the hacker community gained visibility in the public eye. hosted in bulletin board systems Groups with flamboyant names such as Legion of Doom, the Masters of Deception, and Neon Knights appeared on the scene. Popular culture further added to the “hackers are dangerous” narrative with the release of (1983), about a teenage hacker who breaks into a military system by mistake nearly causing World War III. The film led the US Congress to adopt the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (1986), a cybersecurity bill with criminal penalties that changed the hacking game forever: breaking into computers was now something you could be jailed for. the film WarGames The rise of monetized hacking “What will computer crime look like in ten years? [...] It’ll be like it is now, only worse [...] Still there in the background, ticking along, changing with the times: the criminal underworld. It’ll be like drugs are.” – The Hacker Crackdown: Law and Disorder on the Electronic Frontier, Bruce Sterling (1992) With the increasing popularity of the internet in the 1990s, companies began to charge users for products and services, paving the way for criminal activity. Credit card theft and pirated software were a concern for authorities that already had their hands full prosecuting hackers. Even though a series of raids led by the US Secret Service called was completed in 1990, new collectives such as L0pht Heavy Industries, the Cult of the Dead Cow, and the Chaos Computer Club emerged. Operation Sundevil Kevin Mitnick became one of the most famous hackers in the world—one that inspired and —even before he was convicted of breaking into computer networks and stealing proprietary code. After serving his 5-year sentence, he became a cybersecurity consultant, a career move that became commonplace in the hacker community. It’s well known that in 1998 members of , transitioning from an underground organization into a computer security company, testified to the US Congress that they could take down the internet in 30 minutes. films documentaries L0pht Heavy Industries But some of the ones who didn’t join the “white hat” side of hacking were persuaded to join international crime rings. And although others were moved by political reasons, recognition within the community, or an act of protest, financial gain was one of the most common motivations. In the aughts, the advent of e-commerce and social networking sites sprung most of the attack vectors we know today: phishing, identity theft, cyberstalking, ransomware, pharming, etc. Far from being driven by curiosity or intellectual challenges, modern cyberattacks are part of a trillion-dollar industry with very little likelihood of detection and prosecution. By , if it were measured as a country, cybercrime would be the world’s third-largest economy after the U.S. and China. some estimates Cybercrime is bigger than the drug trade This affirmation has abundantly appeared in and and proclaimed in cybersecurity conferences around the world . What’s not often considered is that cybercriminals and drug criminals are now working together, tricking their victims through deception tactics leveraged by technology platforms, making it harder to differentiate between the two types of crime. reports papers since 2005 Modern drug trade attacks use , a social engineering method where attackers create fake social media identities, to insert themselves into people’s social circles and dupe them into consuming what apparently are opioids (Adderall, Oxycodone, and Xanax) but in reality are , a synthetic drug that'll get them killed or addicted for life. catfishing Fentanyl Here’s how similar Fentanyl and Oxycodone look: Supply chain attacks employ similar tactics. Cybercriminals often use the social engineering method of to trick developers who inadvertently mistype the name of a legit package to get them to install an analogous but tainted package. typosquatting Here’s a malicious package with a similar name to the legit package, aiming at getting developers to install ransomware: we discovered recently As the technology industry keeps growing and competitive advantage forces organizations to reduce time-to-market and speed up development times, build environments are often left unsecured and vulnerable to supply chain attacks. The face under the hoodie is not a lonely hacker anymore. It’s a mirror, reflecting the people close to you. And there’s something else underneath their skin: a permutation of all the shadowy faces that make up the global cybercrime industry. Faces that are always changing, unrecognizable, and unpredictable, but with the right precautions, you can identify their malicious intent, keep them away from your build environment, and be ahead of the game.

A Shapeshifter Under the Hoodie: The Face of Modern Cybercrime

A few weeks ago, I published my to the Wilder World metaverse project. The feedback from everyone was incredible and unlike anything I could have possibly expected. However, I do realize that it was the opposite of what one could consider a quick read. In light of that, I wanted to create a snack-sized version of the real deal for readers looking for something quick, but also informative and valuable. We’ll also talk about a perspective on the more well-known Decentraland and Sandbox projects that have continued to grow in prominence this year. Are they competition or allies? Should they be respected or tarnished? Let’s dive in. all-inclusive definitive guide Honor the OG’s, Implement What Works and are the two most talked-about metaverse projects out there right now, and rightfully so. Decentraland Sandbox Both teams have built tremendous projects, are OG’s in the metaverse space, and have contributed value to the crypto industry and investors. Both projects continue to trailblaze and produce quality despite more copycat and cash-grab projects popping up in the metaverse and NFT space every day. I see the two projects as deserving of the utmost praise and respect; they’re certainly doing it the right way with integrity at the very least. With these two projects already well-established, I think many eyes are on what’s next. Which project is going to join them to form a Metaverse Big 3? In my opinion, the clear-cut answer is . I believe that we should view the three as allies who are all doing their part to lead us into a Web3 integrated human experience. With that in mind, and knowing all are Ethereum-based, there is certainly room for collaboration between the projects in the future. Wilder World Although Wilder World has been in development for 7 years, I think we can reasonably assume that they might’ve been able to take some degree of inspiration from Decentraland and Sandbox. Wilder World shares some key features with each. Let’s start with Decentraland. One of the coolest features that I’ve found in Decentraland is how . These can be art galleries, concerts, casino launch parties, etc. They’ve proven to be a fantastic way to increase users and promote community engagement. Wilder World is looking to hold events in a similar fashion. We’ve heard about events at the “Souk”, a Wilder World landmark superstructure that will hold Beeple’s famous NFT, be the home of virtual EDM concerts with famed DJs and musicians, and much more. The Wilder team has hinted at events called “heists”. Imagine a treasure hunt within the metaverse that, through AR technology, could also extend into the real-life physical realm as well. they consistently run events for users “The First 5,000 Days” With Sandbox, I think the greatest feature of the project is how . Users can create NFTs that they can use, or sell, within the game. They also have the option of creating games within Sandbox that they can earn revenue from by charging others to play. To wrap it up with a bow, Sandbox has provided easy-to-use software that allows creators to develop games and NFTs without any coding experience required. It’s quite revolutionary I must say. The Wilder World team has made it clear that they want to encourage user creativity as well and that imagination is essentially the only limit. If I want to create games and earn money, I can do that. What about hosting a party and charging for tickets, or creating an art gallery featuring NFT pieces, or building my own metaverse business where users pay me for services? All of that, and so much more, is a possibility. It’s clear that both projects value a metaverse where users are at the core of its development and can earn revenue by contributing to the project. it encourages user creativity and participation to flourish Wilder World Deserves a Top 3 Spot Wilder World is a metaverse project that shares similarities with the top 2 projects, but why does it actually deserve a spot in the top 3? Again, I want to keep this short and sweet, so let’s go over the key features of the project, and if you want to learn more and go down the rabbit hole completely, you can read my full in-depth article on the project here: . https://hackernoon.com/what-metaverse-is-and-what-it-could-be-going-from-zero-and-wilder-world Photorealistic Wilder World is a fully immersive, photorealistic, VR and AR integrated, metaverse that could sustain a global digital economy, support full internet scale, and be home to billions of daily users and trillions of unique NFT assets. No project in development today is closer to the vision encapsulated in . Ready Player One A Platform, not a Metaverse Input Wilder World has underlying technology known as . It is Zero that powers the metaverse, known as “zSpace”, that Wilder World is a part of. This is the only metaverse project building a full-scale metaverse platform. All others that I’ve seen thus far have been metaverse plug-ins. This essentially means that, in using the “Zero” technology as an onramp, other DAOs and projects, like Sandbox, could be brought into zSpace and establish their own world while including their own cryptocurrencies as well. Zero A key distinction is that, while I could take Sandbox in its entirety and add it to the zSpace metaverse, I could not add the entire Zero / Wilder World project to Sandbox. Not Your Average NFTs The Wilder team is putting out the highest quality, highest utility, NFTs ever created. The main drop thus far has been , which provides benefits like access to a in Wilder World, passive income via staking and fractionalizing, and, for the first 1,000 minted, a pro-rata share of land ownership in the Wilder Hideout. Wilder Wheels play-to-earn racing game Avengers Assemble The Wilder effort is global with over 100 people worldwide. The team is made up of people who can be considered some of the most talented artists and brightest people in the crypto industry. There is tremendous financial backing for the project that has, I’d assume in part, enabled them to continue adding the best talent in the world. Chad Knight, for example, to join the project. He is now the Head of Cyberwear for Wilder World. left his role as the Head of 3D Design at Nike Wrap Up Decentraland and Sandbox have been leaders in the metaverse space for some time now. They’ve pushed innovation and provided inspiration for projects attempting to make their mark in the infant industry. Wilder World has risen to the challenge, and I believe that they should be considered one of best projects available. Only time will tell where these three end up, but one thing is for sure: they’re bringing value to the crypto industry and pushing humanity towards a new way of life. I hope to see collaborations in the coming year, we’ll just have to wait and see. Official Wilder World Resources Want to learn more and dive down the Wilder World rabbit hole? Check out some of the offical links below or head over to my to the project. full-in depth guide Wilder World Marketplace Wilder World OpenSea The Zero Master Plan Zero Technical Trailer (Youtube) Wilder World Trailer Discord Telegram Wilder World Zero Whitepaper Pitch Deck Zine More Zines $WILD CoinMarketCap Tip Jar Enjoy the article? Consider leaving a tip to support my efforts. All donations are greatly appreciated! 0x9543128838F74bF6e95b7e056D288bc190236C2D Coinbase (BTC): 0x22B4E04c13EEBD21e2D35c4001B8B8fFFF17DD3a Metamask (ETH): AXmyuktns4ehTWAuJbMDwavHAufbRpkQB3aoeJ7yE8iP Phantom (SOL): Disclaimer: This article is written purely for entertainment and educational purposes and should not be taken as financial advice in any way. Do your own research and, if you are seeking financial advice, find a professional who is right for you.

The Metaverse Big 3

The Open Metaverse: A Definitive Guide to Zero and Wilder World

El metaverso abierto: una guía definitiva de Zero and Wilder World

I’ve been in a creative slump lately. I think this is a common but rarely discussed problem for people who transition from arts careers into programming. On one hand, having a well paying remote job means you don’t have to worry about being a starving artist and probably still have some free time to make art. On the other hand, there can be periods of time where work takes up all your time and you don’t have the energy at the end of the day to make art. Since we are all in this quarantine crisis, I’ve been trying to tap into my creative side again but it hasn’t been easy. I enrolled in an for discovering your artistic style and have been stuck on the very first project – drawing myself as an animal. It seemed like it should be a fun experimental thing but whenever I had a moment the thought of putting pencil to paper filled me with a strange horror. illustration course on Domestika I had no idea why. I think I was terrified that all of the creativity had been drained out of me and there was nothing left, but I’m still not sure. My art professor from college once told me that I was one of those types of people that needed to create. If I didn’t create, I would go insane. I think she was right. I also think there is a class of developers who identify as artists but want the flexibility and benefits that a job in the tech industry provides. So they look for developer niches where they can express themselves creatively. One of these niches that I have been dabbling in lately is that of building apps for artists. In previous blog posts I talked about creative coding frameworks that can be used by programmers to create art, but in this post I am talking about software that doesn’t require coding to be used at all. I think we are seeing growth in the world of apps for artists, which is fantastic. I hope that we continue to see growth because creating art brings joy and by extension, so do tools that allow people to experiment with creating art in new ways. Electric Zine Maker The first tool I wanted to talk about is Nathalie Lawhead’s Electric Zine Maker. . I’ve talked about Lawhead’s work , because I am a big fan and enjoy Nathalie’s experimental art games and early internet aesthetic. I had tried to make glitched out art before using phone apps like the aptly named Glitch on Android, but the effects were always limited and I felt like having an application on my computer would give me more freedom. It can be downloaded on itch.io on the blog before Enter Electric Zine Maker. There are SO many tools inside this app, it blew my mind. The capacity for glitch art was practically endless. I also appreciated that the interface was not one of polish and gleam but rather had the same early internet aesthetic that Lawhead’s games had. It felt like the interface itself was talking to me, telling me that apps for artists can be FUN and that I shouldn’t take it or myself too seriously. I felt the app also fit perfectly into the underground culture of zine making as well. Unlike art books with glossy paper that you might find in MoMa, zines are extremely personal and scrappy, often made by hand and scanned by one person for distribution. Lawhead captured the essence of that culture in the way the interface was laid out and the types of tools that are available. It gave me so much joy to play with the Electric Zine Maker, that I even want to make some zines now myself. Microdose VR Unfortunately this tool is still in limited rollout so I was not able to download it myself but I can say with great confidence that it is extremely cool. Basically Microdose VR is an application that allows you to create psychedelic larger than life moving visuals in virtual reality. Its also designed to be paired with music and dancing for the ultimate rave experience. However, I think it can also be used in other contexts, from meditation and relaxation to self reflection. I first discovered Microdose VR just a week ago when I tuned into a audiovisual live stream of a Bassnectar concert. I was stunned by the art and asked my friend who had linked me about it. Words cannot express my disappointment when I saw that I needed a seed code in order to actually download the software to start making art myself. Nevertheless, there was plenty of art to view on their Instagram account so I went and followed them there, and also joined their Discord channel. Another thing that is special about Microdose VR is that it opens up the rave scene to people like me who are not very comfortable in large crowds. It turns the rave from something that has always been perceived as a shared experience into a personal experience. Honestly it’s one of the most delightful things I’ve seen come out of the VR world since I got my HTC Vive over a year ago. Of course I appreciate the 3D art tools like Tilt Brush but if my impression is correct, Microdose allows you to hit the ground running a lot faster with the ability to generate thousands of different moving textures, patterns, and shapes. Of course I could end up eating my words if I download the tool and find out that the interface is terrible, but judging from the reaction of other artists it seems like they are doing a good job and responding to user feedback with rapid iteration. Pose Featured a few weeks ago on , Pose caught my eye because of its awesome demo video and its charming simplicity. There are a decent number of tools out there for drawing the human body with a digital model, but Pose pairs the process down to the essentials and makes it easy to move your figure around into any position you want. Even though it lacks the anatomical details of some competitors, Pose makes up for it with the ability to change other aspects. Product Hunt You can make the shoulders of your figure farther apart, for example. You can make them taller or shorter. Also, the lack of anatomical detail makes Pose perfect for illustrators who want to make more stylized art. It might not be obvious for people who don’t make art very much, but even professional artists use references for their work to keep things realistic, and it can be difficult to find a figure in just the right pose for what you are trying to draw. But Pose isn’t only useful for professional artists. It makes drawing the human form approachable to almost anyone. It can help beginner artists understand how the body moves and play around as they improve. I also can appreciate the affordable price point, because as we know artists aren’t exactly rolling in dough. Obviously there are many other apps for artists out there that I didn’t talk about, but I felt these three were a good range to highlight the type of stuff that is out there. I’ve been grateful to have these tools to help me explore my creativity and get back into making art. I think more developers should make apps for artists like this because we so often overlook artists and creative folks, preferring to make tools for corporate America. You might not make as much money, but I guarantee you will have more fun making apps for artists like this. There is still so much more space for experimentation and art making with technology that the sky is really the limit. You could also discover a whole world of creating that you didn’t even know existed. Especially for developers who have a creative side and come from artistic backgrounds, making tools like this is a great way to go back to your roots. Or maybe you will be like me and play with some of the tools that are already out there. Either way, its a ton of fun and I highly recommend it. Remember you can be creative and be in tech, they are not mutually exclusive. Don’t let your creative side die. If you enjoyed this article, consider following me on Twitter @nadyaprimak or if you need more tips on breaking into the tech industry, you can read my book “Foot in the Door” in paperback or Kindle now. Originally published at www.nadyaprimak.com

Creative Applications for Artists: Let's Build More of Them

The Best 50 Sites to Learn About Data Science

Andy Warhol famously said, “In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes.” Now the question is, is it worth it? Instagram has established this precedent in contemporary culture. In 2018 it’s a common practice for fashion brands and aspiring entrepreneurs to prove concepts and launch new products relying solely on engagement of their followers and subscribers. Media companies are launching experiences to merge real with virtual: a good example is ’s Rooms, immersive shows celebrating creators of diverse genres, and the Museum of Ice Cream in LA. Restaurant owners know for sure that photoshoot-ready interiors will bring in the Instagram-savvy clientele. Refinery29 Creators are the most valuable users for almost every platform. Eager to test new things, they are forming communities around their unique points of views and increase the values of social networks. Streaming platforms: Youtube, Twitch and Patreon are competing over creators by introducing different monetization strategies, from subscriptions to memberships, badges, and helping creators to sell merchandise. , a geeky website to discover new products, has recently launched ; it’s own solution to help creatives of all industries to exchange knowledge and build things together. As more niche communities are starting to recognize the value of creators, one question arises: Product Hunt Makers What does Instagram, the platform of 1 billion active users, do to reward creators and community influencers? Actually, not so much. Unlike and Youtube, Instagram never had a clear and transparent way to reward their users. Twitch Early on, advertisement agencies spotted the gap in the market and served as intermediaries between brands and creators. By aggregating a database of Instagram influencers they could match them with big brands who didn’t have the time or deep understanding of social media to do the research on their own. Jeff Jarvis, recently wrote in The Atlantic, “The essential value of the internet is conversation, not content”. The role of an influencer is to start a dialog, not to merely produce the content. Brands craved big numbers in favor of authenticity, partially fueling the amongst middle-sized influencers (those with thousands of followers). As the audience grew savvy to spot the direct sponsorships and culture-blind ads, many of these deals backfired. widespread usage of bots The infamous Kendall Jenner ad In search of alternatives, many creatives are turning to up-and-coming platforms. Perhaps you remember , an app that aimed to reward creatives based on the quality of their work instead of number of likes or artificially boosted followers on Instagram. Or the recent reincarnation of subscription-based app , that promised a more authentic experience based on recommendations from close friends. Ello Vero At a time, fueled by press attention, eager to spot new products that would be an honest alternative to big players — Instagram and Facebook, these apps gained a momentum. However, as the media hype ended, these apps lost their appeal and a sufficient number of followers. Creators vs Brands Power Battle Creators post about topics they deeply care about. As reported by , influencers who want to build direct and authentic relationship with brands, without an intermediary such as an agency, have to prepare for a long game. Brands expect them to attend events, fashion shows and wear clothes without a monetary reward. For micro-influencers (with thousands, not millions of followers), the situation is more complicated. Big brands still expect them to do unpaid promotions with rewards such as status evaluation and seldom gifting. Business of Fashion via @veronikaheibrunner “I cannot pay taxes with a bag,” says Veronika Heilbrunnerm, an influencer with 150,000 Instagram followers and collaborations with top-notch fashion brands. Although more people are turning to content production in an expectation for a monetary reward, there’s no transparent platform to manage the direct brand-to-creative relationships. Smart Brands Collaborate with Customers Luckily, tech-savvy brands are starting to recognize the power of their customers and include them into their marketing campaigns instead of influencers. “What’s very motivating to us is this idea of every single woman being an influencer,” says Emily Weiss, the founder of the fast growing millennial beauty brand . The brand has instituted a representative program with over a thousand customers who post, write reviews and receive a combination of monetary commission and product credit when people purchase products through their personalized pages. Glossier Each of the representatives gets a custom page As reported, 80% of growth comes from peer-to-peer recommendations. This trend is starting to be recognized by big brands. new marketing strategy, while pushing fewer promotions, involves their own staff to talk to clients through social media channels. Content strategy includes Instagram takeovers, advisers and product overviews. Users react best to ads that are personal and honest, just as a recommendation from a friend. Glossier’s Macy's Zines: Reward Creators for Their Work By 2020, influencer marketing is projected to be a . Thus, the power of creators will only continue to grow. $5–10 billion dollar industry At Round, we believe that there should be a better place for creators to tell their stories, join communities and build lasting partnerships with brands. This is why we’ve created Zines — interest-based media spaces. Think of it as a digital publishing house that prioritizes creators and onboard brands and niche media that share their values and are eager to support their work directly. Our values: 🎨 NO ads & sponsored posts; 🎨 chronological feed; 🎨 no sketchy business profiles or bots; 🎨 direct reward and transparency We want to encourage brands to support creators in meaningful ways, rather than just to throw money on advertisement without measurable results. Our first Zine is dedicated to female performers and features emerging artists of different genres, from pop to rock and jazz, all working and performing in NYC. Within each Zine, our goal is to match them with like-minded brands and media who are eager to support their creativity: help with organizing an opening, sponsoring a research project, etc. 👉 We invite creators and their fans to become a part of Dash. Leave your email to get invited: https://www.producthunt.com/upcoming/dash-by-round

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