WHo cares, they didnt do anything illegal and jeff made sure to cover his ass. Notice the copyright on every totse website. HE was registered as a free press "the totse free press" I read it somewhere but a demon altereed the page so you can't find it n o more but its true. The totse free press. Because they were essentially acting as a publisher for anyone for free by hosting any text file. You think it's some conspiracy but he was part of people standing up and telling the government to fuck off, get your handsoff our shit you god damned niggers
Critics Rave and Drool About &TOTSE
[& the] Temple of the Screaming Electron: Probably the largest
non-Internetworked repository of computer hacking, subversive,
conspiratorial information in the United States. If you want
information, and don't have access to the Internet, this is your
one-stop shopping convience.
- Mondo 2000, A User's Guide to the New Edge
x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x
NIRVANAnet(tm): & the Temple of the Screaming Electron (which bills
itself as "raw data for raw nerves"), cited in this column before as
home of the irreverent and off-the-wall message area name (and currently
the home of "My Hair is Very Pretty"), is the milk and honey mothership
of an equally off-the-wall Bay Area network called NIRVANAnet(tm).
BBS membership in NIRVANAnet(tm) is small and seems to be quite fluid.
Member boards agree to allow immediate validation of users and the use
of handles. An eccentric BBS name and an ability to cleverly label
message areas ("Tell Me About Your Mother"; "My CPU Kicks Butt") seem to
be part of the gestalt.
[Then a list of member boards and pertinent info for each]
- MicroTimes, October 26, 1992
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"It's criminal - Computer network tells punks how to commit
murder!"
A San Francisico computer network is ruffling feathers by freely passing
out advice on how to commit violence and mayhem.
Nearly 50,000 people have used their keyboard to tap into the network's
fiendish files - which have titles that include "22 Ways to Kill", "How
to Rob a Bank", "How to Break into Houses", and "Simple Ways to Make a
Car go BOOM!"
A reporter who probed the network, called NIRVANAnet, labeled it a
"clearinghouse for crime."
But the people who run the network defend it, saying all the information
they provide is currently available in books.
- The National Enquirer, November 2, 1993
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Things to Know
<http://web.archive.org/web/20001005152324/http://www.totse.com/know.htm>
Things to Do
<http://web.archive.org/web/20001005152324/http://www.totse.com/do.htm>
Erotica
<http://web.archive.org/web/20001005152324/http://www.totse.com/erotica.htm>
BBS
<http://web.archive.org/web/20001005152324/http://www.totse.com/bin/bbs/Ultimate.cgi>
MODEM OPERANDI: Tips on Crime Go On-line
by: Michael Liedtke staff writer for the Contra Costa Times
Wednesday, July 28, 1993
[Comments by Taipan Enigma in brackets] [Top of the Front Page! - TE]
Tips on how to commit fraud, murder and other mayhem are just a phone
call away in the Bay Area, courtesy of rabble-rousing electronic
bulletin boards that turn the personal computer into a clearinghouse for
crime.
Using the First Amendment as a legal shield, a group of electronic
bulletin boards in the Bay Area has created an information network
providing criminal insights to anyone with a phone, personal computer
and modem. [You'd think a REPORTER would have a bit more respect for the
First Ammendment. - TE]
Essentially, these computer forums, known as bulletin board services,
are electronic libraries. While some computer bulletin boards are
limited to paying subscribers, the rebel network distributing criminal
expertise is open to everyone, free of charge. [I guess the reporter
thinks it would be OK if we charged money for this sort of information.
- TE]
Most of the bulletin board files can be fetched over phone lines and
brought into the caller's home. In turn, callers to the bulletin boards
are encouraged to send in files, so the systems can accumulate advice
from experts and novices.
More than 45,000 computer users [that's 45,000 CALLS, not USERS. Oh
well, no one expects accuracy or intelligence from reporters these days
anyways. - TE]have called an underground Bay Area bulletin board, known
as "Lies Unlimited," that offers a roguish gallery of information. File
titles include:
* "How to Make Your Own Valid American Express Card"
* "How to Rob a Bank"
* "How to Break Into Houses"
* "Stealing Toyotas and What to Do With Them"
* "Simple Way to Make a Car Go BOOM!"
* "Twenty-two Ways to Kill"
The bulletin boards also have other categories offering more-mainstream
advice and entertainment, but they appear to be primarily interested in
promoting disorder. [Inflamatory exaggeration, completely untrue. The
only thing that NIRVANAnet(tm) "promotes" is the free exchange of
information and ideas from ALL points of view. - TE]
In a self-description appearing on a bulletin board review, Lies
Unlimited said it tries to focus "on political realities. The point
being that this reality is created by consensus, and the only way to
change the reality is to change the consensus."
Lies Unlimited plans to shut down today and reopen next month after the
system operator, listed as Mick Freen, moves from South San Francisco to
Salt Lake City. Mischievous information similar to Lies Unlimited's
archives rremains available on several other Bay Area bulletin boards,
including a Walnut Creek-based system known as "And the Temple of the
Screaming Electron." [sic]
Based on computer files retrieved by the Times, other contributors in
this unorthodox network include "My Dog Bit Jesus" in Berkeley,
"realitycheck," in Albany, "Burn This Flag" in San Jose and "The New
Dork Sublime" in San Francisco. [He forgot to mention "The Shrine" in
Mountain View. - TE]
Among them, the bulletin boards offer hundreds of files providing
instructions on credit card fraud, money laundering, mail fraud,
counterfeiting, drug smuggling, cable-tv theft, bomb-making and murder.
The Times left electronic messages on several of those bulletin boards
seeking interviews with the system operators. None of the operators
responded by late Tuesday. [Michael Liedtke, the reporter of this story,
left E-Mail for myself on &TOTSE and Poindexter Fortran on realitycheck
on Monday evening. His deadline was Tuesday afternoon. The result: One
more last-minute, hastily-written, poorly-researched, past-deadline
story. - TE]
Virtually anyone who understands how to use a computer and modem can tap
into the rogue bulletin boards, if they have the phone numbers. The
boards allow callers to create their own logons and passwords, opening
the door for kids to get into the system. Based on their content, the
bulletin boards appear to be particularly popular among teen-agers.
[Also not true. If the reporter had done even the most basic research,
such as actually reading the messages in the message base, he would have
quickly realized that we have people from virtually ALL age groups
frequenting NIRVANAnet(tm). - TE]
"This shows why people need to be much more aware of what kids are doing
with their computers," said Hans Von Braun, a computer security expert
who works for San Francisco-based Comsec.
One bulletin board, Burn This Flag, requires callers to fill out an
application before gaining access to an adults-only section that
contains files describing "bizarre sexual behavior." But in a written
message, Burn This Flag's system operator, known as "Zardoz,"
acknowledges there is no foolproof way to ensure all users of the adult
section are at least 18.
The Times isn't publishing the phone numbers of the rebel bulletin
boards as a children's safeguard. [Besides, people might actually call
the systems in question and find out that the reporter only told part of
the truth, and as everyone knows, the most effective way to lie is to
only tell part of the truth. - TE]
The bulletin boards remain open by straddling a fine line between the
legal definitions of free speech and criminal behavior. [There is no
"fine line". We are not engaged in criminal activities, period. We are
engaged in speech, period. Speech is protected, period. When the day
comes where people can be imprisoned merely for what they say or what
they think, it's time to move to another country. - TE]
Under First Amendment rights guaranteeing free speech, the law allows
the bulletin boards to serve as criminal primers, as long a the advice
is limited to generic instructions. Essentially, it's legal for
individuals to discuss how to commit a crime as long as they don't
solicit or encourage the commission of a crime.
"We're aware of these types of bulletin boards," said Rick Smith, an FBI
spokesman in San Francisco. "But to shut them down, you have to make a
link between the discussion of a crime and the commission of a crime."
Law enforcement officials and security experts said they snoop through
rogue bulletin boards to stay abreast of advice available to prospective
criminals. These periodic checks might spot possible weaknesses in
security systems and help authorities take precautions.
Pacific Bell can't refuse phone access to the underground bulletin
boards, even though the forums often contain advice on how to commit
phone fraud.
"Unless we catch people actually doing the criminal act, there is no
crime to prosecute," said Pacific Bell spokesman Craig Watts. "You can't
prosecute someone for bad thoughts." [... but they're working on it. - TE]
- Contra Costa Times, Wednesday, July 28, 1993
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Don't Throw Out the Computer With the Crime
by: Dick Adler
Chicago Tribune (CT) - Friday, September 10, 1993
MEMO: Dick Adler, a Los Angeles writer, editor, reviewer and electronic
publisher, is working on a book called "TALKING WITH STRANGERS: On the
Frontier of Computer Communications."
TEXT: What is there about the words "computer" and "crime" in the same
sentence that makes even the coolest of media heads bubble and boil
over? Although more and more of us use computers in our daily lives, is
it because we have so little idea of how or why they work that we give
them magical, even demonic powers? Does the ghost of HAL-the rebellious
computer in the film "2001"-still hover over us, making us worry about
losing control?
Suppose you're a reporter for a small daily newspaper. You use a
computer to write and edit your stories, and you even have a modem that
connects you by telephone to an on-line information service such as
Prodigy or CompuServe. But you haven't really had any adventures out
there in the electronic world known as Cyberspace: You have never called
a local bulletin board or tried to understand the mysteries of the giant
egghead system known as the Internet.
Suppose it's a slow news day, and you get a call from a computer
security specialist with a hot tip. Did you know that by dialing a local
number, computer users of any age in this very area can get information
on all sorts of criminal activities, from bomb-making to credit card
fraud? Is this a great story, or what?
That's what happened recently to reporter Michael Liedtke of the Contra
Costa Times. Checking out a tip about a loose confederation of bulletin
boards called NIRVANAnet(tm) in the San Francisco Bay area, Liedtke must
have heard those Pulitzer judges humming in the background as he typed
his savage yet bouncy indictment.
"Tips on how to commit fraud, murder and other mayhem are just a phone
call away in the Bay Area, courtesy of rabble-rousing electronic
bulletin boards that turn the personal computer into a clearinghouse for
crime," he began. "More than 45,000 computer users have called an
underground Bay Area bulletin board, known as 'Lies Unlimited,' (one of
the NIRVANAnet(tm) members) that offers a roguish gallery of
information. File titles include: 'How to Make Your Own Valid American
Express Card,' 'How to Rob a Bank,' 'How to Break Into Houses,'
'Stealing Toyotas and What to Do With Them,' 'Simple Way to Make a Car
Go BOOM!' and 'Twenty-two Ways to Kill.' "
Strong stuff. The trouble-as the people who run the bulletin boards in
question plus many hundreds of their supporters soon pointed out-was
that every single one of the files listed by Liedtke was already freely
available in books (such as "The Anarchist's Cook Book") at local
libraries and bookstores. Had the tipster mentioned that, the reporter
would probably have stifled a yawn and written about something else. But
those devil words " computer" and "crime" in conjunction pushed him over
the edge.
Recently in the Chicago area, a man who operated a computer bulletin
board in Des Plaines was indicted for allowing a 12-year-old Chicago boy
access to pornographic material in a supposedly "adults-only" section of
the board. The story as depicted in the media conjured up a vivid
picture of pre-teen computer nerds blithely downloading material that
would make the owner of an adult book-and-video store either blanch or
turn green with envy.
Without getting anywhere near that briarpatch of 1st Amendment rights
vs. the flat-out illegality of supplying pornography to minors, at least
two points might be made here. First, it is not as easy as the media
make it sound for computer users of any age to get access to adult
material, because operators of bulletin board systems know they can go
to jail and/or lose all their expensive equipment if convicted of
supplying pornography to minors. So they've set up the same kind of
checks-signed statements of age, driver's license photographs, credit
card payment, passwords-that magazine publishers and video rental stores
use. These checks aren't foolproof, of course, but any computer-smart
12-year-old who can crack a bulletin board's moderately elaborate
security can also probably figure out some other way to see dirty
pictures and movies.
Second, the pornography available on computer bulletin boards is exactly
the same stuff to be found at print and video outlets. Just because it
comes through a computer doesn't give it any special powers of "virtual
reality" or high quality. In fact, even the best animated graphics on
personal computers, clean or dirty, look rough and amateurish when
compared to magazines or tapes.
The other side of the coin is child pornography, and in this area
computer bulletin boards have also been getting some bad ink of late.
Operation Long Arm, a series of raids by federal agents in 15 states
last March, turned up material from Denmark which had been distributed
to American customers via a bulletin board. Not even the hardest-dying
libertarian would attempt to defend the rights of pedophiles. But
despite the law's best efforts, they continue to make and distribute
pornography featuring children. And using carefully planned print media
stories to create a climate of guilt and fear about computer bulletin
boards isn't going to stop them.
It's not hard to poke fun at some bulletin boards and their users: the
names of the other boards in NIRVANAnet(tm) -"My Dog Bit Jesus," "
realitycheck," "Burn This Flag" and "The New Dork Sublime" (the last run
by a man calling himself Demented Pimiento) look like a bad day on
Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley in 1967. And some boards don't seem very
inviting at first glance, for other reasons: "Flatulence Plus" in San
Diego might be one to avoid.
In fact, computer bulletin boards are like bars. Growing up in a
non-drinking household, I used to think as a child that all bars were
dens of iniquity and sinks of crime. It took only a few visits to
convince me there was as much crime in bars as in supermarkets and
coffee shops. Anyone who still thinks that computer bulletin boards
promote or even condone crime should pay a visit to my local-the West
Los Angeles BBS, where operator Gary Inman (a fire department captain of
paramedics in his other life) makes sure that no laws are broken or even
bent.
Computer crime does exist: As you read this, somebody is working on the
Universal ATM Card, which will open every single bank account in the
world. But the inventor isn't going to crow about it on some so-called
"underground" bulletin board, which in fact lists its telephone number
in every single free magazine and newspaper in town.
Chicago Tribune (CT) - Friday, September 10, 1993
------------------------------------------------------------------------
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