Cyberjunk

As Boneshaker mentioned - Cyberdog! Brilliant place. Have been getting stuff from there myself for years. They have a small place in Covant Garden as well as Camden. They have a web site http://www.cyberdog.net/ - just checked its been updated! last few times I looked it had not changed since 1999!

I bought my input (mrs CJ) an glow in the dark anamie tshirt from there about 6 years ago but she has never worn it - she is a fashon guru and the colour is just so wrong... Since buying for her I have seen 3 tv presenters wearing the same shirt about two years later - we are sooo trendy!

Cyberdog had some fab ultraviolet conical earings they looked great. Worth a visit if you are nearby.

August 18, 2002

Key concepts: microbes, methane,

Black Sea, Big Mike the Viridian Bug

Attention Conservation Notice: Continues

the Viridian obsession with ecologically

active micro-organisms.

Links:

GM to give away thousands of electric vehicles - USA

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17318/story.htm

Sinking Pacific states slam US over sea levels - FIJI

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17316/story.htm

Famished Australian emus invade drought-hit farms -

AUSTRALIA

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17330/story.htm

---------------------------------------------------

Entries in the Global Civil Society Design Contest.

From: Steven W. Schuldt <swschuldt*mac.com>

http://www.americanrobotz.com/images2/Soon_GlobalCivilSoci

etyLaptop.jpg

From: Ben Davis <bend*earthlink.net>

http://www.digitaleverything.com/GlobalComputer.htm

From: Joerg F. Wittenberger <Joerg.Wittenberger*pobox.com>

http://www.askemos.org/

http://www.askemos.org:9080/RomePaper.pdf

From: Scott Vandehey <scot*spaceninja.com >

http://spaceninja.com/viridian/notebook.html

From: Bob Morris <bob*bomoco.com>

http://viridianrepository.com/GlobalCivil/

From: Anonymous

http://home.freiepresse.de/befis/zx2000.html

http://apollo.spaceports.com/~bodo4all/zx/zx97.htm

http://www.vkb.co.il/

From: Jim Thompson <jim*musenki.com>

http://www.simputer.org

http://www.cnn.com/2002....ex.html

From: Mike Rosing <eresrch*eskimo.com>

http://www.eskimo.com/~eresrch/viridian

From: Till Westermayer <till*tillwe.de>

http://www.westermayer.de/till/projekte/02gcsdl.htm

From: Duncan Stewart <stewarts*stewarts.org?>

http://www.stewarts.org/viridian/GCS

From: R. Charles Flickinger <idlewild*mac.com>

http://homepage.mac.com/iHUG/GCS2000.html

From: Kevin Prichard <kevin*indymedia.org>

http://www.nah6.com/

http://www.nah6.com/nah6-h2k2_files/v3_document.html

From: Dave Phelan <dphelan*pavilion.co.uk

http://www.btinternet.com/~dphelan/viridian/gcs-computer.html

From: "Dan Reynolds" <orion_obrien*hotmail.com>

http://www.nv2.cc.va.us/home/alwhite2/flotsam1.htm

From: John Romans <joro*panicfire.net>

http://www.panicfire.net/cryptoviridian.htm

From: "Allen Wong" <threadprinter*hotmail.com>

http://www.fieldsync.com/viridian/

From: "Joel Westerberg" <joel*unsafe.nu>

"Here's my contest entry. Cheers."

http://www.unsafe.nu/bigmike/global.PDF

From: "Chris McCormick" <chris*mccormick.cx>

"Hi, I hope i'm not too late!"

http://mccormick.cx/viridian/

"Regards, Chris."

http://www.mccormick.cx

http://www.sciencegirlrecords.com

From: "adrian cotter" <acotter*nonsensical.com>

"As usual I'm cutting the deadline close... But I've

honestly been thinking about this one for a good month.

If only I had one of these, my life would be better."

http://www.nonsensical.com/viridian/notebook/

From: "jg" <jg@solarpc.com>

"Emperor Bruce, here it is."

http://solarpc.com/contest.htm

From: Kevin Prichard <musicasa*prichard.org>

Subject: link to Kevin Prichard's own

global civ design entry

http://prichard.org/viridian_globcivsoc.html

This contest has now expired. A winner will

be announced at the discretion of our judge.

----------------------------------------------------

Source:

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17250/story.htm

"Germans discover ancient life, offer climate hope"

by Philip Blenkinsop

GERMANY: August 12, 2002

"BERLIN == German scientists have discovered micro-

organisms deep under the sea that may provide an insight

into some of the earth's first lifeforms and offer hope in

the fight against global warming, the Max Planck Society

said.

"The marine biologists and geologists believe they

have shown life could have existed by processing methane

without the presence of oxygen.

"Their findings could also prove useful in ridding the

earth of excess methane, one of the greenhouse gases many

scientists believe is responsible for global warming.

"Traditional views of early life on earth centre on

plants which converted carbon dioxide to oxygen.

"'These (plant lifeforms) date back to between three

and 3.5 billion years ago... We have found biomass (large

cluster of organisms) using methane that geologists show

could have existed around four billion years ago,'

Professor Antje Boetius, joint author of the study, told

Reuters.

Link:

Yes, she exists. Dr. Antje does more than exist. She

gives some kinda publicity shot. Dang!

http://www.mpi-bremen.de/deutsch/biogeo/aboetius/aboetius.html

http://www.iu-bremen.de/directory/faculty/01063/

"The two-year research by the scientists from

Hamburg University, the Alfred Wegener Institute in

northern Bremerhaven and the Max Planck Society centred on

coral-forming micro-organisms in the Black Sea at depths

where no oxygen and no light is present.

"The Black Sea contains the largest oxygen-free basin

in the world.

"The lifeforms were able to process methane together

with sulphates within the water, producing carbonates, in

the form of coral, as waste. (((Black, oxygen-free

"coral". I wonder what that stuff looks like. Maybe you

could make jewelry out of it.)))

"That they were able to do so without oxygen suggests

they may have been around before plant life.

"'Perhaps micro-organisms like those found in the

Black Sea were the original inhabitants of the earth

during a long period of the earth's history,' said

Boetius. (((Yeah, they've just been sitting down there,

waiting to save our bacon.)))

"She believes the findings could prove useful for

climate control.

"Previously, scientists had thought that methane,

found in abundance in the sea and produced through

agriculture, could only be broken down with oxygen.

"The German researchers believe the discovery of a

pool of organisms that process methane without oxygen

could lead to a way of cutting down potentially harmful

greenhouse gases without burning oxygen and producing

similarly damaging carbon dioxide. (((What do they

*smell* like?)))

"'It could be a way of hindering climate

catastrophe,'" Boetius said.

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O

BY ALL MEANS

LET'S HINDER SOME

CATASTROPHE

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O

August 17, 2002

Key concepts: Prague, weather violence,

giant flood

Attention Conservation Notice: Dismal events

in a distant country that Neville Chamberlain

didn't much care about.

Links:

Oh look. The glaciers are gone. Thank you,

Exxon-Mobil.

http://www.greenpeace.org/features/details?features_id=21789

I went to Prague once. It was lovely. Then.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/3.01/prague_pr.html

---------------------------------------------------

Entries in the Global Civil Society Design Contest.

From: Steven W. Schuldt <swschuldt*mac.com>

http://www.americanrobotz.com/images2/Soon_GlobalCivilSoci

etyLaptop.jpg

From: Ben Davis <bend*earthlink.net>

http://www.digitaleverything.com/GlobalComputer.htm

From: Joerg F. Wittenberger <Joerg.Wittenberger*pobox.com>

http://www.askemos.org/

http://www.askemos.org:9080/RomePaper.pdf

From: Scott Vandehey <scot*spaceninja.com >

http://spaceninja.com/viridian/notebook.html

From: Bob Morris <bob*bomoco.com>

http://viridianrepository.com/GlobalCivil/

From: Anonymous

http://home.freiepresse.de/befis/zx2000.html

http://apollo.spaceports.com/~bodo4all/zx/zx97.htm

http://www.vkb.co.il/

From: Jim Thompson <jim*musenki.com>

http://www.simputer.org

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/ptech/07/05/india.simputer.reut/index.ht

ml

From: Mike Rosing <eresrch*eskimo.com>

http://www.eskimo.com/~eresrch/viridian

From: Till Westermayer <till*tillwe.de>

http://www.westermayer.de/till/projekte/02gcsdl.htm

From: Duncan Stewart <stewarts*stewarts.org?>

http://www.stewarts.org/viridian/GCS

From: R. Charles Flickinger <idlewild*mac.com>

http://homepage.mac.com/iHUG/GCS2000.html

From: Kevin Prichard <kevin*indymedia.org>

http://www.nah6.com/

http://www.nah6.com/nah6-h2k2_files/v3_document.html

From: Dave Phelan <dphelan*pavilion.co.uk

http://www.btinternet.com/~dphelan/viridian/gcs-

computer.html

From: "Dan Reynolds" <orion_obrien*hotmail.com>

To: bruces@well.com

Mon, 12 Aug 2002 15:11:33 -0400

"Hi, my name is Dan Reynolds and I've knocked together a

bit of an entry for the current Viridian contest.

http://www.nv2.cc.va.us/home/alwhite2/flotsam1.htm

"My entry is not bulletproof or even waterproof. I'd hope

people would have the sense to come in out of the rain.

Or at least put the thing in a bag. Thanks for all the

work you do that you probably don't get paid for."

From: John Romans <joro*panicfire.net>

"I enjoyed doing my entry to the design comp. Should've

done some more pics and apostrophes. Regards."

http://www.panicfire.net/cryptoviridian.htm

From:"Allen Wong" <threadprinter*hotmail.com>

"Pope-Emperor, I have completed my entry for the Global

Civil Society Laptop and have stored it at:

http://www.fieldsync.com/viridian/

"Thanks for organizing this. It was a fun design exercise,

and I really enjoyed the creative opportunity."

This contest expires tomorrow: August 15, 2002.

----------------------------------------------------

Source: Radio Free Europe in Prague

From: "RFE/RL List Manager" <listmanager@list.rferl.org>

Date: Wed Aug 14, 2002 10:17:49 AM US/Central

To: newsline2@list.rferl.org

Subject: RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 6, No. 152, Part II, 14

August 2002

RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC

_

RFE/RL NEWSLINE Vol. 6, No. 152, Part II, 14 August 2002

"PRAGUE'S 'FLOOD OF CENTURY' SAID TO BE WORST IN CITY'S

HISTORY...

"Water levels continued to rise in Prague on 14 August

as Mayor Igor Nemec reported that the flow of the Vltava

River through the capital could no longer be gauged,

having exceeded the measurable limit of 5,000 cubic meters

per second, CTK reported.

"During a flood in 1890, the rate reached 3,700 cubic

meters per second and was considered the highest in the

city's history. Experts also revised their forecast of

when levels in the city will peak, predicting on Czech

Television that the river will continue a gradual rise

into the evening of 14 August.

"The city began the evacuation of additional downtown

areas, such as the historic Jewish Quarter and streets

around Old Town Square, in the early hours of 14 August.

"Low-lying sections of the city are inundated and

metro lines are operating only outside the city center,

while all but one bridge over the Vltava are closed to

private vehicles. Gas and electricity supplies have also

been shut off to sections of the city as both major

distributors declared a state of emergency in some areas.

"City police have refuted media reports of significant

looting in areas already evacuated or swamped, according

to CTK. (((Oh well, that's a mercy.))) So far, more than

50,000 have been evacuated from their homes in Prague.

MS/AH

"...AS LARGEST CZECH EVACUATION SINCE WORLD WAR II

CONTINUES...

"Interior Minister Stanislav Gross said on 13 August

that some 200,000 people have been evacuated throughout

the country, making the evacuation the largest since World

War II, CTK and international news agencies reported.

(((Too bad that guy doesn't have a handy "Global Civil

Society" computer.))) Nine deaths have been reported in

the two weeks since the flooding began, including two

victims on 13 August, Czech media reported on 14 August.

"Prime Minister Vladimir Spidla on 14 August commended

the country's emergency response, saying: 'Few people

realize just how little loss of life [there has been] and

how few injured people there have been.... What it means

is that decisions were made in time on evacuations.'

(((How very advanced and first-world of you.

Congratulations.)))

"Damages are estimated so far at some $2 billion, but

Spidla said after a cabinet meeting on 13 August that the

extent of damages will only become known some 14 days

after the waters have receded. Spidla announced that the

government approved the state of emergency he declared one

day earlier in six of the country's regions and announced

that 380 million crowns (nearly $11.9 million) was

released for immediate aid. He said the parliamentary

Budget Committee will approve an additional 1.15

billion crowns by the end of the week. MS/AH

"...AMID MASSIVE RESCUE AND EMERGENCY EFFORTS. Some 4,000

policemen, 9,000 firemen, and 2,000 soldiers are battling

the effects of flooding in the Czech Republic,

particularly in the western part of the country, a

government spokeswoman told CTK on 14 August. (((Why not

give them all the same uniform and rename them "Homeland

Security"? After all, the evacuation's the biggest since

World War II.)))

"The hardest-hit major cities include Ceske Budejovice and

Plzen, (((tough break, beer lovers))) while scores of

smaller towns and villages have been devastated.

"Some 30 bridges have been swept away, according to the

daily 'Hospodarske noviny.' Foreign Minister Cyril Svoboda

added that offers of technical and financial assistance

have come in from Sweden, Poland, France, the United

States, Norway, Japan, Switzerland, Greece, Italy, and

other countries as well as NATO and the EU, according to

CTK the same day. (((Large areas of Asia and Africa also

felt pity, but have been reduced to states of savagery and

can't help much.)))

"The country will accept offers of assistance from

abroad, Svoboda added, stressing that Czechs particularly

need medicines, vaccines, and drying devices. ((("Drying

devices?")))

"President Vaclav Havel cut short a vacation in

Portugal and was expected to arrive in Prague in the

afternoon of 14 August and meet with Prime Minister

Spidla. MS/AH

(((This is the best part here == even their incredibly

juicy, ongoing political scandal got drowned. It's become

a kind of "Underwatergate.")))

"INVESTIGATION OF FORMER CZECH FOREIGN MINISTRY OFFICIAL

ON HOLD DUE TO FLOODING. Investigators from the special

police squad conducting an investigation into charges of

corruption and serious economic crimes against Karel Srba

had to postpone questioning of witnesses because of the

floods, the daily 'Pravo,' cited by CTK, reported on

14 August.

"A police official said the offices where the

investigation is being conducted had to be evacuated due

to the floods.

"Srba is also under investigation on suspicion of

having commissioned the attempt to murder journalist

Sabina Slonkova and for the illegal possession of

firearms. (((This scandal's really hot. This minister's

sexy femme fatale girlfriend wanted this snoopy female

journalist whacked, so they hired this tattooed hit man,

and...)))

"One of Srba's lawyers told 'Pravo' that two

executives from the Certos company, who have been charged

with bribing Srba and who are not in custody during the

investigation, informed the authorities they will not be

able to attend the investigation due to the floods.

"Another Srba lawyer told the paper that one of the

two Certos officials, Jiri Sitar, has admitted that

5.5 million crowns ($172,160) of the 30 million crowns

confiscated by police during a search of Srba's house is

his money. Sitar reportedly said he 'just kept it there.'"

MS

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O

WE JUST KEPT IT THERE

AND IT GOT AWFUL WET

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O

August 17, 2002

Key concepts: Nakamichi Yamasaki, hydrocarbon

generation, carbon dioxide, industrial chemistry

Attention Conservation Notice: Yet another

weird Nipponese scheme, about some miracle

gizmo that runs on pollution

Links:

Tornados in Britain? Maybe it really is the 51st State.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2002362050,00.html

Newfangled suntan pill alleged to have peculiar side-

effects.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=18672487

See all those really bright places? Well, that's

where the Greenhouse comes from.

http://www3.cosmiverse.com/news....602_1bi

g.jpg

The West Nile plague has reached Austin.

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17239/story.htm

---------------------------------------------------

Entries in the Global Civil Society Design Contest.

From: Steven W. Schuldt <swschuldt*mac.com>

http://www.americanrobotz.com/images2....top.jpg

From: Ben Davis <bend*earthlink.net>

http://www.digitaleverything.com/GlobalComputer.htm

From: Joerg F. Wittenberger <Joerg.Wittenberger*pobox.com>

http://www.askemos.org/

http://www.askemos.org:9080/RomePaper.pdf

From: Scott Vandehey <scot*spaceninja.com >

http://spaceninja.com/viridian/notebook.html

From: Bob Morris <bob*bomoco.com>

http://viridianrepository.com/GlobalCivil/

From: Anonymous

http://home.freiepresse.de/befis/zx2000.html

http://apollo.spaceports.com/~bodo4all/zx/zx97.htm

http://www.vkb.co.il/

From: Jim Thompson <jim*musenki.com>

http://www.simputer.org

http://www.cnn.com/2002....ex.html

From: Mike Rosing <eresrch*eskimo.com>

http://www.eskimo.com/~eresrch/viridian

From: Till Westermayer <till*tillwe.de>

http://www.westermayer.de/till/projekte/02gcsdl.htm

From: Duncan Stewart <stewarts*stewarts.org?>

http://www.stewarts.org/viridian/GCS

From: R. Charles Flickinger <idlewild*mac.com>

http://homepage.mac.com/iHUG/GCS2000.html

From: Kevin Prichard <kevin*indymedia.org>

http://www.nah6.com/

http://www.nah6.com/nah6-h2k2_files/v3_document.html

From: Dave Phelan <dphelan*pavilion.co.uk

"Please find my entry here:"

http://www.btinternet.com/~dphelan/viridian/gcs-computer.html

"I'm no graphic artist == the feature list is the

important part of the design."

dphelan*pavilion.co.uk Blog:

http://www.btinternet.com/~dphelan

This contest expires in four days: August 15, 2002.

----------------------------------------------------

Source:

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99992620

"Carbon dioxide turned into hydrocarbon fuel

(((Please, no immediate lectures on the second law of

thermodynamics. I have plenty of those.)))

"16:00 02 August 02

"A way to turn carbon dioxide into hydrocarbons has caused

a big stir at an industrial chemistry conference in New

Brunwick, New Jersey. Nakamichi Yamasaki of the Tokushima

Industrial Technology Center in Japan says he has a

process that makes propane and butane at relatively low

temperatures and pressures."

Link: Yes, he actually exists:

http://www.it.sakura.ne.jp/~koatsu/c_journal/ab/1_10/01-2.html

http://www.itc.pref.tokushima.jp/English/eindex.html

"Making fuel from greenhouse gases

"While his work still needs independent verification,

(((okay, go fetch us some, then))) if he can make even

heavier hydrocarbons, it might be possible to make petrol.

It has carbon chains that are between five and 12 atoms

long == butane is four atoms long. ((("That's right,

Professor: I just hook it up to the sky and I make

gasoline!")))

"The work suggests the tantalising prospect that CO2,

the main greenhouse gas, could be recycled instead of

being pumped into the atmosphere.

"Many people have tried before to make hydrocarbons by

mixing carbon with hydrogen gas in a reaction chamber at

very high temperatures, but yields have always been

pitiful. Yamasaki has used hydrochloric acid as his source

of hydrogen ions. ((("But where are we s'posed to get all

that hydrochloric acid?" Yes, I know, I know.)))

"He bubbles the CO2 into a reaction vessel where it is

heated to about 300 C at 100 times atmospheric pressure.

The heat and pressure are low enough, says Yamasaki, to

make it feasible to scale up the reaction so it can run on

a power station's waste heat. (((Imagine the fun when a

giant tank of pressurized acid blows up.)))

"Iron powder

"Using iron powder as a catalyst, Yamasaki says he has

made substantial amounts of methane, ethane, propane and

butane, which he was able to vent off as gases when the

mixture cooled. If he can improve the catalyst's

performance he is hopeful of making heavier hydrocarbons

such as petrol, too.

"William Siegfried, who has lead similar experiments

at the University of Minnesota in the twin cities of

Minneapolis and St Paul, says his group was only able to

make methane at far higher temperatures. But his process

also used a nickel-based alloy as a catalyst, rather than

iron.

"Siegfried's group was investigating whether natural

methane deposits might have formed chemically with the

metal in rocks acting as a catalyst rather than forming

from the decay of rotting biological material over aeons.

(((Paging Thomas Gold! "Deep Hot Biosphere" calling on

line one.)))

"Unless Yamasaki's technology can make the more

valuable heavier hydrocarbons such as petroleum, which are

liquid at room temperature, it will not be much more use

than present-day bioreactors, in which bacteria that like

to feed on CO2 are induced to produce methane. 'Organisms

have a special talent for that kind of reaction,' says

Siegfried.

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O

FED-EX IS HERE WITH

YOUR WORLD-SAVING

MIRACLE GIZMO

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O

August 16, 2002

Robin Williams?! Can you imagine Gm'ing him! You would be in stitches every minute - but I imagine he would be brilliant with it as well.

August 14, 2002

Wouldnt call myself a political activist - just a pissed off resident! Mrs CJ got her picture in the local paper today. The BBC are threatening to come to our protest meeting tommorow! ohh I have gone all Nomad!

Oh yes and as far as the NOD shaving thread goes I shave but I am more of a beardy - geeky goaty! Although its more of a cavalier/sherrif of nottingham evil gotee. Having said that theres nothing quite like the silky smooth touch of tender....

Sorry.

8}

August 14, 2002

I have been diving in as much as possible to see if there are any PMs for me but have not posted much and have not read a great deal because I am waging war on my local council at the moment - very stupid thing but they are buggering up my parking big time and all the local residents are a bit pissed off. We have a protest rally tommorow night - might be on the telly! So my apologies for not being more focused on the crew here.

If you want to know what its all about ldl to CRAPP. (yeah I thought the name up!) Theres even a picture of Mrs CJ on the page. What an exiting life I lead...

August 12, 2002

Cyberpunk.org is not on the new list and the domain does not resolve... Another one bites the nanodust.

August 11, 2002

Key concepts: Kazuyoshi Kojima, roof gardens, Tokyo,

heat-island effect, urban overheating, climate change

remediation

Attention Conservation Notice: another

Nipponese scheme which seems rather

more practical than the one in Viridian

Note 00326.

Links:

How to drop dead in an urban Greenhouse

heat wave, American-style.

http://www.newyorker.com/printable/?critics/020812crbo_books

Ghastly tale of Argentinian civil disorder.

And all it took was bank failure? Imagine

if they had a giant heat wave.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47822-2002Aug5.html

Forget expensive satellites. Get a permanent solar

airplane installed above your city.

http://www.enn.com/news/enn-stories/2002/08/08072002/s_47989.asp

Does it run wi-fi? Why not?

http://www.austin360.com/statesman/editions/thursday/business_1.html

---------------------------------------------------

Entries in the Global Civil Society Design Contest.

From: Steven W. Schuldt <swschuldt*mac.com>

http://www.americanrobotz.com/images2....top.jpg

From: Ben Davis <bend*earthlink.net>

http://www.digitaleverything.com/GlobalComputer.htm

From: Joerg F. Wittenberger <Joerg.Wittenberger*pobox.com>

http://www.askemos.org/

http://www.askemos.org:9080/RomePaper.pdf

From: Scott Vandehey <scot*spaceninja.com >

http://spaceninja.com/viridian/notebook.html

From: Bob Morris <bob*bomoco.com>

http://viridianrepository.com/GlobalCivil/

From: Anonymous

http://home.freiepresse.de/befis/zx2000.html

http://apollo.spaceports.com/~bodo4all/zx/zx97.htm

http://www.vkb.co.il/

From: Jim Thompson <jim*musenki.com>

http://www.simputer.org

http://www.cnn.com/2002....ex.html

From: Mike Rosing <eresrch*eskimo.com>

http://www.eskimo.com/~eresrch/viridian

From: Till Westermayer <till*tillwe.de>

http://www.westermayer.de/till/projekte/02gcsdl.htm

From: Duncan Stewart <stewarts*stewarts.org?>

http://www.stewarts.org/viridian/GCS

From: R. Charles Flickinger <idlewild*mac.com>

http://homepage.mac.com/iHUG/GCS2000.html

From: Kevin Prichard <kevin*indymedia.org>

http://www.nah6.com/

http://www.nah6.com/nah6-h2k2_files/v3_document.html

This contest expires very soon, in one week:

August 15, 2002.

----------------------------------------------------

Source: Planet Ark

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17178/story.htm

"Tokyo turns to rooftop gardens to beat the heat

JAPAN: August 7, 2002

by Chang-Ran Kim

"TOKYO == At a run-down three-storey office block in

downtown Tokyo, government clerks and secretaries cool off

amongst azaleas, hydrangeas and even blueberry bushes

during coffee breaks, seemingly far away from the

sweltering urban heat. The garden is not a perk for

bureaucrats or reckless use of taxes in a city with some

of the world's priciest real estate.

"It's on the roof and, what's more, it's saving money.

The oasis is the brainchild of Kazuyoshi Kojima, a 52-

year-old public servant spearheading the drive to lower

temperatures in Japan's cities.

"Trapped by concrete and asphalt, the heat from heavy

traffic and millions of air-conditioning units have made

summer in the cities hotter == a phenomenon known as the

'heat-island effect'. 'The rooftop garden helps to absorb

heat and keeps temperatures inside the building lower,'

Kojima says.

"'We used to set the air-conditioner at 20 degrees

Celsius (68 Fahrenheit), and it was still unbearably hot.

By having the garden up top, a setting of 27 or 28 degrees

is just right.' Similarly, in the winter the building only

needs one hour of heating; for the rest of the day the

heat is contained, significantly reducing electricity

costs.

"The drive to cool down Tokyo's summers comes not a

moment too soon. Last month, the temperature in the city

of 12 million averaged 28.0 degrees Celsius, almost three

degrees higher than it was in the same month 30 years ago.

"In 1972, there was just one day in July when the

temperature did not fall under 25 degrees, compared with

15 days this year.

"Plenty of ideas have been suggested to beat the heat,

including one that would involve running cool water

through a huge labyrinth of pipes under the city.

"But that could be years away, and the scheme could

possibly damage the fragile marine ecosystem as the warmed

water is dumped back into sea. (((See Note 00326.)))

"IT'S THE LAW

"Assigned to tackle the heat-island phenomenon for

Tokyo's Shibuya ward two years ago, Kojima helped draw up

legislation requiring new buildings bigger than 300 square

metres (3,230 sq ft) at ground level to plant gardens on a

fifth of that surface.

"That mandate is the strictest in the country, and

has paid off so visibly that even the Tokyo city

government is reconsidering its own regulations in the

hope of emulating Shibuya's success.

"Lately, Kojima says, he even gets phone calls from

embassies inquiring about the project. Tokyo passed its

own law in April 2001 stipulating that new buildings with

a roof area of more than 1,000 square metres must plant

greenery on 20 percent of the surface. To get around the

costly task, however, many builders have slanted their

roofs because the guideline applies only to flat surfaces.

(((Oh, that was clever of them.)))

"Under its plan, the capital hopes to add 1,200

hectares (2,965 acres) of greenery on its rooftops over 15

years. At the pace it's going now, that could take up to

120 years. (...) (((Don't worry, boys, the Greenhouse

Effect will still be around then.))))

"Kojima, who gave advice on product development before

becoming a public servant, (((hey check it out == an

industrial design guy))) believes the secret of his

success lies in his unorthodox ideas and penchant for

risk-taking.

"When he was handed the mission two years ago, he

admits, he could not tell a cherry tree and plum tree

apart. But to give builders and firms an idea of what the

ward was asking of them, he decided to set up a model on

the ward office's own rooftop.

"TEACHING BY EXAMPLE

"His budget was zero and he had no assistants. (((A

Viridian hero!))) Undaunted, Kojima walked around asking

companies for help. He eventually found 29 willing firms

and succeeded in converting the bare rooftop into a green

oasis for free. Kojima went a step further. To assist both

builders and suppliers, he came up with the idea of having

the ward act as a go-between. The ward would recommend a

list of carefully chosen suppliers to a builder, which in

return would get a 20 percent discount on services or

products from the suppliers.

"Kojima inspected all rooftop gardens to make sure

they met Shibuya's high standards. The results impressed

the ward's administrators. To encourage more gardening,

they decided to grant subsidies == shelling out money for

the project for the first time == to suppliers who

participate in voluntary planting. Kojima also got two

assistants.

"The subsidies have paid off already. Of the total

7,000 square metres planted so far, a fifth was on

existing buildings voluntarily. 'Rooftop gardening is the

sort of thing anyone can do if they put their minds to

it,' Kojima says. 'It really doesn't have to cost that

much money.'

"Kojima, a nature-lover who years ago bought a patch

of forest to prevent it from landing in the hands of golf-

course developers, (((he's a living saint!))) said his

goal was to cover half of Shibuya with greenery, while

setting a good example so others would follow.

"'When I was young, all you needed to fend off the

heat in the summer was a hand-held fan,' he says. 'I

believe we could go back to that if we press on.'"

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O

OR, WE COULD FRY IN OUR OWN STREETS

LIKE CHICKEN YAKITORI ON A STICK

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O

August 11, 2002

Key concepts: Tokyo, urban overheating,

climate change remediation

Attention Conservation Notice: a weird,

hand-waving Nipponese mega-scheme.

Links:

http://http://www.viridiandesign.org/products/furniture.htm

From: Laurence Aurbach <translucent*spamcop.net?>

Subject: Viridian Furniture List

The Viridian Furniture List is now online in the

"Recommended Products" section of the Viridian website.

David Bergman did a yeoman-like job assembling this list

and adding comments. He's also mirroring the list on his

own furniture site, Fire and Water.

http://cyberg.com/fw/ecofurn.htm

Maybe you'll find a woven bamboo buffet or a biopolymer

mesh coffee table. == L.J. Aurbach

---------------------------------------------------

Entries in the Global Civil Society Design Contest.

From: Steven W. Schuldt <swschuldt*mac.com>

http://www.americanrobotz.com/images2....top.jpg

From: Ben Davis <bend*earthlink.net>

http://www.digitaleverything.com/GlobalComputer.htm

From: Joerg F. Wittenberger <Joerg.Wittenberger*pobox.com>

http://www.askemos.org/

http://www.askemos.org:9080/RomePaper.pdf

From: Scott Vandehey <scot*spaceninja.com >

http://spaceninja.com/viridian/notebook.html

From: Bob Morris <bob*bomoco.com>

http://viridianrepository.com/GlobalCivil/

From: Anonymous

http://home.freiepresse.de/befis/zx2000.html

http://apollo.spaceports.com/~bodo4all/zx/zx97.htm

http://www.vkb.co.il/

From: Jim Thompson <jim*musenki.com>

http://www.simputer.org

http://www.cnn.com/2002....ex.html

From: Mike Rosing <eresrch*eskimo.com>

http://www.eskimo.com/~eresrch/viridian

From: Till Westermayer <till*tillwe.de>

http://www.westermayer.de/till/projekte/02gcsdl.htm

From: Duncan Stewart <stewarts*stewarts.org?>

http://www.stewarts.org/viridian/GCS

From: R. Charles Flickinger <idlewild*mac.com>

http://homepage.mac.com/iHUG/GCS2000.html

From:"Kevin Prichard" <kevin*indymedia.org>

"I nominate Rop Gonggrijp's Secure Notebook, which was

shown recently at H2K2. (http://www.h2k2.net).

http://www.nah6.com/

http://www.nah6.com/nah6-h2k2_files/v3_document.html

"The premise is both important and hilarious. The Secure

Notebook provides a Secure Windows XP installation.

Windows has a long history of being secure neither from

attack nor privacy incursion, so this is something.

"Nothing gets in and nothing gets out, without it being

firewalled, filtered, proxied, and encrypted. How is this

done? A modified Debian Linux boots first, running custom

NAH6 crypto device drivers, and then boots XP within

vmware."

Sincerely yours,

Kevin Prichard

kevin*indymedia.org

This contest expires in nine days: August 15, 2002.

----------------------------------------------------

Source: Planet Ark

http://www.planetark.org/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/17160/story.htm

"Cooler Tokyo summers may be just a pipe dream away

by Elaine Lies

JAPAN: August 5, 2002

"TOKYO == In what could be the ultimate in public works

projects, a Japanese panel of experts has proposed

relieving the misery of steamy Tokyo summers by cooling

the huge city with sea water and a labyrinth of

underground pipes.

"Though summers are hard in any city, Tokyo's narrow

streets, hordes of people and clusters of massive

skyscrapers, largely unrelieved by greenery, produce a

special brand of discomfort.

"And it gets worse every year. (((Oh yeah. You bet it

does.))) The number of nights when temperatures stay above

25 Celsius (77 Fahrenheit) in Tokyo has doubled over the

last 30 years, while average temperatures have shot up by

2.9 degrees C over the last century. Relief, however

distant, could be on the way. ((("Great news, weather

sufferers! We live in the high-tech capital of a G-7

state!")))

"At the behest of the Construction Ministry, the panel

has drawn up a plan that would use a network of buried

pipes, and water pumped from the sea, to cool things down.

'In the very best conditions, certain areas could in

theory become as much as 2.6 degrees Celsius cooler,' said

Yujin Minobe, a ministry planner.

"The huge air-conditioning systems currently used to

cool buildings get rid of the heat they take out of the

structure by venting it into the outside air, raising

temperatures still further and creating a 'heat island'

phenomenon in large cities. (((Soon whole *cities* will

do it and vent their heat straight into the rising seas!

Look out, Antarctica.)))

"Under the plan, this heat would be transferred to

water in large underground tanks, and the water then

pumped through a six-km (3.7-mile) network of underground

pipes to a cooling plant on the Tokyo waterfront.

"There the heat from this water would be transferred

to cooler sea water before the then-cooled water was

pumped back through the underground pipes. The sea water,

now warmed, would be released into the waters of Tokyo

Bay.

"COSTLY PLAN. (((That's unsurprising.))) Minobe said

the plan would cover some 123 hectares (304 acres) in the

centre of Tokyo, including the Marunouchi business

district and the posh Ginza shopping area, and would

initially cost around 41 billion yen ($344 million).

"'Savings on reduced energy usage would eventually

help pay for this,' he said. (((A real nest of ironies

here, folks.))) Officials quoted in the English-language

Japan Times said energy savings would total more than 1

billion yen a year, meaning the system would pay for

itself in a bit over 30 years.

"However, Minobe said many problems remained with the

plan, which has only been under discussion since April

last year. One of the most serious problems is whether

warmer water being returned to Tokyo Bay would damage the

fragile marine ecosystem, a point Minobe said still

required more study. (((Give it 30 years and there won't

be any ecosystem left to study.)))

"He said the average temperature cut is likely to be

only around 0.4 degrees. 'I'm not even sure people would

be able to feel that difference,' he said. Any such plan,

however, would likely produce a gleam in the eyes of

Japan's huge construction industry, known for its

propensity for public works projects. Although several are

decried as wasteful, public works projects have long been

used by the government in attempts to stimulate the

economy. (((Nice use of the word "attempts.")))

"Frankly, I think this plan is still really more of a

dream than anything else," Minobe said.

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O

TOKYO STAYS COOL

AS DEADLY HEATWAVE BAKES

KOBE, OSAKA, KYOTO

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O

August 9, 2002

Quote

The new Top List is also a good chance to keep out those non-Cyberpunk ad freaks that frequented the old list.

I like the new list much better than the old one... Good job Cyberjunk. Besides, those who don´t notice are either broken links or outta Cyberpunk anyway. Perhaps they grew up and joined Corporate Top100...

I vet all the applications anyway to stop the so called teens that call themselves cyberpunks because they have some warez and virus downloads on thier site. I don't like those sites at all. I do however encourage non RPG sites - Cyberpunk culture and literature sites as its good to get a genre overview and there are some great sites out there!

August 8, 2002

And radio stations?

I tend to listen to XFM most of the time.

If you are in London its on 104.9 and its on SKY apparently. Or you can listen across the net.

Otherwise my musical tastes are increadably varied. Jazz to Zappa, Industrial to Classical. I used to play guitar and blow the blues on the harp.

My IPod X list (my sort of current most listened to at the meoment list) has Elvis vs JXL, Radiohead, John Barry (Theme tune to the Persuaders!) Hendrix, Prodigy, Nirvana, Linkin Park, Laurant Garnier, Kick, Muse, Kula Shaker and Nickleback.

Anyone ever hear of a band called the Dead Milk Men (Punk Rock Girl) in the late 80's early 90's. I was thier road crew for a 10 day tour of the East Coast of the USA. That was a real laugh! Met REM on that tour in Athens.

August 8, 2002

Quote (boneshaker @ Aug. 07 2002,13:52)

it should be called Nina's style guild & I give fashion tips in it

& I give relationship advice too. Just Ask Nina!!!

well, what do you think???

Personally I think your nuts.

...and its a good idea.

August 7, 2002

I changed the old top 100 banner yesterday to encourage people to move over to the new list.

cyberpunk.co.uk-top100ad.gif

August 5, 2002

Beer weekends. Ahhh. Now when me and the boys used to spend upward of £1k in a weekend and there were only six of us it was quite a lot. However I was a lot younger, fitter and stupider.

Now a days its proabably about 2 bottles of wine a week, and lots of fruit juice. Its great getting old and senile!

August 4, 2002

The Alchemist.

Not a cyberpunk book but the corps are up to all sorts of naughtyness with bio-engineering and genetics.

The BBC (I think) made it into a drama about three years ago which I stumbled across one night thinking this plot is just like the Alchemist- then realised it was. However from what I saw it was not as good as the book.

August 4, 2002

Oh this subject is sooo busted out from General and moved to Cyberpunk 2020 RPG General chat.

Please start threads in the appropriate places - not everyone who posts here is interested in Roleplaying games. (nearly everyone mind you but not everyone!)

August 4, 2002

Oh this subject is sooo busted out from General and moved to Cyberpunk 2020 General. Please keep threads in thier right places - not everyone who posts here is interested in Roleplaying games. (nearly everyone mind you but not everyone!)

August 3, 2002

Cont...

And then she starts *having children.* *Any* guy's

children. She'll have *your* child, as long as you're not

particular about giving it your name. She's got a whole

*brood* of kids, like Sendmail, and Postfix, and Apache,

and Perl. And some of 'em die young, and some are

mentally retarded. But the hippie earth mother is just

hitting her stride here. She's a one-woman demographic

boom! She's having litters of kids, kids by the dozens.

Cops are coming around, and stuff... "Is this your

trailer park, ma'am?"

"Not really, officer!"

"Could we see some ID, please?"

"I never bother much with any official papers!"

"Are you from around here, ma'am? You don't look

very American."

"Actually, I'm Finnish, officer! Look at this old

birth certificate!"

"We'd better run her in for questioning.... Whoa! I

can't even get a grip on her! It's like pitchforking

mercury! It's like she's made outta mirror sites!"

And the guys from Redmond come by and roll down the

smoked glass in the back of the limo... "She's

DISGUSTING! She's a cancer on our community!"

Now the very earth is starting to crack where this

woman walks... She's as big around as a bus! She's got

children in places other business models can't go, places

they've never even heard of! She's got children like...

Red Flag Linux.

This Chinese kid, in a little Mao suit. "Thank you

for the free software, Mother! We will destroy the running

dogs of Wall Street now!"

"No problem, Red Flag, they're doin' it to themselves!

He's such a polite and disciplined little boy, my Red Flag

Linux!"

And then there's the Simputer. He speaks Telugu and

Hindi and Urdu, and he costs only two hundred bucks!

"I love you Mom! I am the future, Mom! Demographics

and birth rates are on my side, Mom! My new President is

an atomic rocket scientist Mom! Someday you will die,

Mom, and I take you to the Tower of Silence for a Parsi

funeral where the vultures will eat your flesh, and then

the future of computing will be mine as far as the human

eye can see!"

"HA HA HA, oh my Simputer boy, he's so imaginative!"

In conclusion: these are some pretty hard times.

In times of adversity, you learn who your friends

are. You guys need a lot of friends. You need friends in

all walks of life. Pretty soon, you are going to graduate

from the status of techie geeks to official dissidents.

This is your fate. People are wasting time on dissident

relics like Noam Chomsky. Professor Chomsky is a pretty

good dissident: he's persistent, he means what he says,

and he's certainly very courageous, but this is the 21st

century, and Stallman is a bigger deal. Lawrence Lessig

is a bigger deal.

Y'know, Lawrence, he likes to talk as if all is lost.

He thinks we ought to rise up against Disney like the

Serbians attacking Milosevic. He expects the population to

take to the streets. #### the streets. Take to the

routers. Take to the warchalk.

Lawrence needs to talk to real dissidents more. He

needs to talk to some East European people. When a

crackdown comes, that isn't the end of the story. That's

the *start* of a dissident's story. And this isn't about

fat-cat crooks in our Congress who are on the take from

the Mouse. This is about global civil society. It's

Globalution.

I like to think I'm one of your friends. That's easy

enough to say. But one of the true delights of the world

of free software is that it's about deeds, not words.

It's about words that become deeds when they're in the

box.

And boy, what kind of deeds are we seeing this

season! Cybersecurity, the terrorspace, information

warfare, pirate panic... and Mickey Mouse as an armed

enforcer with a Congressional license to stalk and whack

P2P networks, mafia-style? As Worldcom has lost more

money that the gross national product of Hungary? You're

gonna see who your friends are before this is over. You

have a lot more friends than you think.

Thanks!

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O

FREE LIKE A PUPPY

O=c=O O=c=O O=c=O

August 3, 2002

Key concepts: O'Reilly Open Source convention,

computation, free software, Linux, spam, viruses,

means of software production, social organization, Disney,

Microsoft, Richard Stallman, Lawrence Lessig, information

economics

Attention Conservation Notice: Over 5,400 words of

diffuse Papal-Imperial ranting to a restive

audience of Linux freaks.

Links:

I was there.

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/os2002/

Greenpeace contest to come up with a new logo

for Esso aka Exxon-Mobil.

http://act.greenpeace.org/1027510006/index_html

---------------------------------------------------

Entries in the Global Civil Society Design Contest.

From: Steven W. Schuldt <swschuldt*mac.com>

http://www.americanrobotz.com/images2....top.jpg

From: Ben Davis <bend*earthlink.net>

http://www.digitaleverything.com/GlobalComputer.htm

From: Joerg F. Wittenberger <Joerg.Wittenberger*pobox.com>

http://www.askemos.org/

http://www.askemos.org:9080/RomePaper.pdf

From: Scott Vandehey <scot*spaceninja.com >

http://spaceninja.com/viridian/notebook.html

From: Bob Morris <bob*bomoco.com>

http://viridianrepository.com/GlobalCivil/

From: Anonymous

http://home.freiepresse.de/befis/zx2000.html

http://apollo.spaceports.com/~bodo4all/zx/zx97.htm

http://www.vkb.co.il/

From: Jim Thompson <jim*musenki.com>

http://www.simputer.org

http://www.cnn.com/2002....ex.html

From: Mike Rosing <eresrch*eskimo.com>

http://www.eskimo.com/~eresrch/viridian

From: Till Westermayer <till*tillwe.de>

http://www.westermayer.de/till/projekte/02gcsdl.htm

From:ÊDuncan Stewart <stewarts*stewarts.org?>

Subject:ÊThe GCS briefcase computer

"I respectfully submit:"

http://www.stewarts.org/viridian/GCS

From: R. Charles Flickinger <idlewild@mac.com>

"My entry for this contest is displayed at:

http://homepage.mac.com/iHUG/GCS2000.html

"Thanks for a real neat contest idea. I would like

to add my design is entirely achievable."

R. Charles Flickinger

Aurora, Oregon

This contest expires in two weeks: August 15, 2002.

----------------------------------------------------

"A Contrarian View of Open Source"

San Diego

July 26, 2002

Thanks for showing up to see the obligatory

novelist at this gig.

It's very touching of you to take the trouble to

watch me get some emotional issues off my chest.

You know, I don't write code. I don't think I'm

ever going to write any code. It just amazes me how

often people who know absolutely nothing about code

want to tell software people their business. "Why

don't they just," that's the standard phraseology.

"Why don't they just" code-up something-or-other.

Whenever I hear that, frankly, I just want to slap the

living #### out of those people.

That's like people whose fingers are covered with

diamonds complaining about the easy lives of

diamond miners.

You're, like, seven miles down in this diamond mine,

and these cats are laboring, laboring with these pickaxes

and blasting caps and giant grinding machines. And it's

like: "Why don't you people just put in a tomato garden

down here? Don't you like fresh air in this diamond mine?

How about some zinnias and daisies? You over there, with

the carpal tunnel wristbands == you sure look pale, fella!

Don't you like the sunshine?"

They don't like to confront the sweat, and the labor,

the human suffering.... Even people who are in the

industry don't like to talk about what a massive drag it

is, to sit there, grinding code, at 3 AM, as your eyes,

and your wrists, and your spine, all slowly give out.

Everybody has to come up with these farfetched, elegant,

literary metaphors to describe this process.

Stuff like "the Cathedral and the Bazaar." Now, I get

it about being the bazaar. I'm a science fiction writer,

I got no problem at all with bizarre stuff. But

commercial software? Microsoft? As a cathedral?

Have you ever seen a cathedral? Cathedrals are

medieval religious centers where people do penance and

take vows of poverty. They worship relics of the holy

dead in there. Microsoft is a commercial software

company. It's *the* commercial software company. It's

got to be about the least cathedral-like structure known

to humankind.

When you go into a cathedral, you don't read

shrinkwrap licenses. There are no developers' documents

in there. You've gotta read stuff like the Bible in a

cathedral.

And it's an interesting book, the Bible. Not one word

about software in it. It's got all these obscure parables

and weird war stories and such.

Like the story of Jesus Christ chasing the moneylenders

out of the temple. I know this is kinda hard for

contemporary people to get their heads around, but Jesus

Christ used to beat people up with a whip for being

capitalists. He chased the moneylenders out of the sacred

precincts. They were extremely alarmed by this. They

were screaming stuff, like "Hey wow! The Prince of Peace

is beating the living crap out of us!" He didn't even

claim that they were *crooked* moneylenders in the temple,

it's not like they were Enron or anything. It's just ==

the very idea that there should be any commercial activity

whatsoever in a cathedral == this was enough to make the

world's best known prophet and pacifist philosopher

completely blow his top.

This interesting divine perspective is kinda

overlooked in Eric Raymond's metaphorical treatments, I'm

noticing.

When you look at the way Open Source plays out in our

society, you get a rather traditional industrial dynamic,

very early-20th-century.

It's this classic artisans-versus-factory model. It's

not about a bazaar. Because bazaars are pre-industrial,

they're swarming with crooked rug merchants, and

pickpockets, and lepers straight out of the Arabian

Nights. Open Source isn't about being some kind of canny

rug merchant with an eye out to make some fast dough.

Open Source, basically, is about hanging out with the cool

guys.

It's very tribal, and it's very fraternal. It's all

about Eric, and Linus, and RMS, and Tim and Bruce and Tom

and Larry. These are guru charisma guys. They're like

artists, like guys running an art movement. Guys who

dress up with halos and wear wizard hats. That form of

organization is not a bazaar. It's not a cathedral. But

it nevertheless has some distinct advantages. Because if

you're in a cathedral then you have to wear this holy

uniform all the time. If you're in a bazaar you have to

stake out this patch of ground and keep it, and defend it,

or just get overwhelmed by other guys greedier than you.

The coolest thing about doing this artsy

noncommercial creative work is that you get to stop. You

get to throw up your hands and quit, if you want. It's

like a charity. The widows and orphans are telling you

"Thank you for not letting us starve, kind sir!" They're

all grateful to you, they're touching the hem of your

garment. You get to feel pretty good about what you're

doing, and if you're tired, you just stop. It's like:

"Okay, I'm tired! I've got compassion burnout now. No

more free software. Lady, you and your damn kids can

starve."

Nobody can do anything about that sudden refusal on

your part. "Well, he gave us a really cool algorithm....

What more can we possibly ask?" If you abandon your rug in

the bazaar, people just steal it immediately. They steal

everything in a hot second. But if you abandon your open

source code, the code just sort of sits there. Other

people pitch in, and it gets bigger and fatter. There are

big festering piles of code, huge piles of code. This has

been playing out for seventeen, eighteen years now.

A classic struggle in other ways. You've got the

Stallman free-as-in-freedom model... This guy sees code

as some kind of handmade luxury vehicle. Maybe it's a

tank. And you've got Gates, who is the commercial

industrialist robber baron. The Ford Model T... any

color you like as long as darkness is the standard.

If you're prettier then Gates underprices you, and if

you're cheaper then he uses Fear Uncertainty and Doubt.

This guy... William Gates? He's my age. He's a gentleman

of my generation. We're a few months apart in age. I've

never met him. I hate to pick on him. Really. He's

obviously a very smart man. And he's a nicer guy, as a

human being, than a lot of his competitors. But I have to

pick on Bill, instead of Bill's competitors. Because Bill

physically killed and ate all his competitors.

The older Bill gets, the uglier he gets. He's a guy

riding a white horse, that turned into a runaway bronco

bull, that turned into a scaly crocodile, and now, it is

turning into some kind of diseased revenant. It's like

the Steed of the Nazgul, those black, flying zombie horses

that explode when exposed to fresh water. That's what

Microsoft is like now. These guys, these Nazgul... They

used to be kings. They were originally human beings, they

had wives and children and futures, they had their own

little nations to govern and manage. But then there was

the One Ring == One Ring to Rule Them All. One. And they

couldn't resist. And they gave in.

It's not even about "Fear Uncertainty and Doubt" any

more. The flavor of it has changed. If you look at it,

it's all about Fear Uncertainty and *Hate.* "Where do you

want to go today == to give us some money, OR ELSE?"

And the answer == the popular American answer, really

a kind of consumer uprising here == is: "I wanna go steal

some MP3s!" That's the answer. "I wanna go pirate some

Hollywood movies and keep 'em for myself, please!" And

the reaction is: "Gee, our customers are criminals! They

must be spied upon, lest they hurt us, and one another!"

The result is 95% market domination by Microsoft. But

that's not a market economy. That's not even capitalism.

That is a state-capitalist, state-sanctioned monopoly that

Mussolini would have smiled on. Mussolini used to give

the people of Italy free radios. But they would only tune

in to the fascist station. This was supposed to be the

only kind of radio that people in Italy understood. This

was the entirety of Italian radio as a medium.

Mussolini's radio had just one big dial on the front that

said "Radio Zone."

The devices we're looking at now have that vibe to me.

The contemporary PC, this is like hostility and paranoia

made into a plastic consumer device. By Intel, and Dell.

And Bill == I don't sense that he's happy about this. The

man seems troubled. He has a guilty conscience. He's

vaccinating kids in Africa who don't have telephones,

while kids in the USA who have Pentium 4s are spewing his

viruses.

What the hell kind of industrial policy is that?

Teddy Roosevelt would jump down off Mount Rushmore and

kick our ass from hell to breakfast for tolerating such a

situation. It's the Palladium Security State. It's an

operating system that hates and fears you.

Microsoft Windows is slowly but surely becoming an

armed terrorspace. It's like an airport. You go into an

airport nowadays, it's really kind of amazing that the

people who run them still expect you to *spend money* in

there. They still pretend to you that you are this

pampered jet-set consumer, instead of a captive under

armed guard, which is what you are.

People in airports do horribly oppressive things to

you. They go through your shoes, they empty your pockets.

They confiscate various small but valuable items. "Where

Do You Want to Go Today?" That's what they say in the

airport, but there's this skeleton grin behind that

question. There are men in camou with automatic weapons.

There are surveillance cameras all over the place. You

can't bring in your wife, your girlfriend or your

grandmother without a ticket. You can't sob as you kiss

your mother goodbye for the last time at the airport,

because it's all on security tape. Then you wander into

this rigid, bloated terrorspace, where, during every move

and every action you undertake, it's presumed that you

have swallowed dynamite and will cheerfully kill anyone

you see.

And yes, that's also the contemporary computer system.

The computer industry is really screwed-up now. There are

razor-thin returns on investment, because you are no

longer allowed to invent anything or genuinely surprise

anybody. And if you do, that will be immediately swept up

into Microsoft's operating system, or even Apple's dinky

little operating system. The computer industry is losing

tons of money now.

All that boasting about the largest legal creation of

wealth in history... It's the largest semi-legal

destruction of wealth in history. It blows my mind that

these VC guys, who spent 20 years blathering about Ayn

Rand capitalism, don't just *admit* that they live and

work in a stagnant monopoly. What a bunch of limp-wristed

sissies these captains of industry turned out to be, all

these swaggering mercenaries so eager to punch out the

bureaucrats in the free market. They're a race of slaves!

They're like deer in the market's headlights, they creep

around like mice.

It reminds me a lot of METROPOLIS. That old silent

movie, with the robot that turns into a pretty girl? In

that film, METROPOLIS, they've got this sweet-tempered

liberal girl, who's trying to educate the workers'

children. But she gets kidnapped by the corrupt

oppressors from the top of the givernment. Then in comes

this deranged operating system that moves like a woman....

The difference between the denizens of METROPOLIS and the

movers and shakers in the computer industry is that the

degraded proletarians are willing to rebel, while the

Americans just moan and writhe in their sleep as their

stock options go underwater.

It amazes me that the grocery boys in Silicon Valley

don't just kick them unconscious and take their sports

cars.

The stark moral choices that underlie all this...

they just keep getting starker. There's nothing newly

created. Even free software guys, who like to spend a lot

of time talking about grand community-building schemes,

spend most of their working time aping commercial

products. That's what they do. "We've built something

that can interoperate with Microsoft!" That's like

sticking banderillas in a bull, when the world really

needs at this point is something like... a piping-hot

catfish dinner.

OPEN SOURCE CONFERENCE ORGANIZER: I'm sorry, sir -- we

have to move your room.

Bruce Sterling: You have to *move* my *room*?

ORGANIZER: Yeah. Sorry.

Bruce Sterling: Can't you just throw out half the

audience?

AUDIENCE: (laughs ominously)

ORGANIZER 2 (soothingly): It's just right next door,

though.

Bruce Sterling: It's "just right next door?"

ORGANIZER 2: Just right next door.

Bruce Sterling (to audience): Are you guys gonna rebel

at this?

Guy in Audience: Open up the walls!

ORGANIZER 2 (hastily): No, they can't open up the

walls. They're gonna move that one in here. That room

next door is bigger. More people will be able to sit

down. It'll be more comfortable for everybody.

Bruce Sterling: Maybe I should just wind this up.

AUDIENCE: NOOOOO!!

Bruce Sterling: You're really going to get up? Like

the waters of the Red Sea? Okay, let's see you do it.

I'm the last man out of the room.

(tape break)

Bruce Sterling: I know lunch is coming, we've got to

eat... But I'm still venting my ever-growing fury!

There's a noticeable lack of basic creativity in the

free software world, that is alarming and not very

flattering. People in free software still have a

basically piratical state of mind. They want goods

without working for them. They still have a cracker state

of mind. "How can I look through that closed bedroom

window?"

"GNU's Not Unix." Okay, you're "not Unix" == but what

are you really? Why do you have to live in that shadow?

The shadow of this other enterprise. There's something

basically juvenile about that. Something that is

unworthy, creatively feeble, childish.

But it's not as bad as the scene in commercial

software. There's no reason to buy Microsoft dot-Net

stuff that spies on you and installs digital rights

management gizmos against your will. Why buy into that?

Do you *want* to get sucker-punched? Do you *want* to

make Jack Valenti the king of your box and Mickey Mouse

his commissar?

Plus there's those virus horrors. And why people are

willing to do this to the people they love and trust best

in the world is beyond my understanding. If you had some

kind of sexually transmitted virus, and you woke up in the

morning dripping pus, I would hope that you would

understand that there was some kind of moral need for

immediate action. Even if it was kind of inconvenient and

humiliating and personally degrading.

But if you're running Microsoft Outlook and Outlook

Express, it somehow seems kind of okay to spew Klez-H,

Sircam, Klez-E, Magistr-B, Hydris-B, Magistr-A, BadTrans-

B, Vavidad.E1, Yaha-A and MyLife-J.

And you're not just infecting your girlfriend, boys.

You can hit your mom, your grandmother, your maiden aunt,

your ten-year-old daughter! "Gee, why didn't you teach

your ten year-old not to click on the attachments?"

Because she's ten years old, you moron!

I had a long argument about this with Cory Doctorow.

He and I were really going at this hammer-and-tongs, over

the growing spam and virus crisis. And I thought that

there needed to be some kind of political and legal

solution. Like building a galvanized steel cage in Cuba

and throwing all the spammers and virus writers in there

as unlawful combatants who are clear and present deadly

enemies of humanity.

AUDIENCE: YAAAY!!! (Applause)

Whereas Cory is a techie, and he wants a techie

solution. So he's a fan of stuff like Vipul's Razor, and

he doesn't mind if the traffic on the Internet is 96%

fraud, malware and evil garbage as long as none of it gets

on his feet.

So, I let Cory convince me and I installed Mozilla on

my Mac. And its bug-track completely wrecked System 9. So

I stopped fighting with Cory Doctorow. Not because he was

winning the argument, but because his ####### Open Source

solution cost me three days of desperate effort to restore

my files! So I took the further trouble to install System

X, and I backed up everything of course, but I still don't

get it about System X quite frankly, and neither does

System X. It never knows what it's running. There are

chunks of Microsoft code in there like giant lumps of

black putty just *lying* to you about what they are doing

on the Internet. It's like trying to wade through drilling

mud running this thing. It steers itself by committee.

And Microsoft Internet Explorer and AOL, they

desperately hide the realities of the Internet from you,

so that they can profit from your growing and ever more

permanent confusion.

As opposed to the sparkling lucidities of the free

software developers! Free software, basically congealed

by people who have some vague idea what they are doing,

and are loathe to spend any time writing down specs, when

they could be writing new features.

Another Guy in Audience: Preach it, brother!

"Don't like it? Hey, just reconfigure it yourself,

don't bother me!" It's the Hippie Squat Model of software

architecture. "If I want to paint the doors and floors

bright blue and put the toilet right into the kitchen, why

not?"

It's very offensive to user sensibilities and it is as

ugly as a sack full of penguin guts. But, you know, that

is a vital systemic advantage. Because that catches the

eye of the committed crusader. It actually brings people

in who will stay and work hard for no money.

It's like life in a refugee camp. If you want Doctors

Without Borders to show up, you *don't* want to have

yourself any kind of really *nice* refugee camp. With

some flowers, and a safe place for old ladies to knit.

You want that inferno of starvation and disease that looks

really good on CNN. Because if you actually *organized* a

refugee camp, then you'd have stuff like taxes and gas and

electricity and police protection, as opposed to what one

gets in squatters' camps, which is, incessant internal

quarrels. Because there's never just one gang trying to

run the anarchy. You get bitter quarrels, between Free

Software and Open Source, between the Stallman hero-model

and alternative business.

And, that's an interesting discussion. But,

nevertheless, it's an industrial model which is in

practically every sense much less attractive than the one

of the early 1980s, when there was a genuinely functional

computer industry with some actual competition in it and

room for real innovation.

But at least open source is clearly better than the

Microsoft stranglehold. Man, US Steel, General Motors and

Standard Oil at their worst and cruellest were better than

that.

What's the real price you pay for free software? The

real price you pay is having to bow the knee to the weird

organizational model and the freaky, geeky social values

that prop that up. If you're the user, you have to hang

out with Linux freaks.

Yet Another Guy in Audience: And buy us beer!

That is the price. You pay a price in attention and

respect, and hours and hours and hours of selfless

devotion. You keep feebly hoping that something will

actually work right out of the box, and maybe even look

nice. But then you get stuff like Gnome, KDE and Eazel...

They just don't like to do the boring stuff for the stupid

people! That's just not in the job description! It's not

even a job. That's the secret.

You know, information doesn't get to be free. But

that's got very little to do with the bits, or the atoms,

or the bandwidth, or the speed of the copying, or any of

these things that techies lick their chops over.

Information stays expensive because of the social

processes in which information is embedded.

Let me see if I can make this clear to you with a

whole series of nice little literary metaphors. We need

to personalize this problem, as a series of human stories

about human relationships.

First of all, let's just forget about stuff like

cyberspace and the speed of light and the weightless bits.

Given that there is a ferocious triple dominance of

Microsoft on operating systems, Intel in chips and Dell in

hardware, the computer industry is finally getting boring.

Almost as boring as my own business, the book business.

It's still pretending to innovate, but its glamour routine

has gotten all ritualized. The machines are slow, the

programs are bloated, the changes are cosmetic, just like

the heyday of Detroit's Big Three carmakers, so many years

ago.

The computer business wants to be really hot and sexy.

It's like eavesdropping on a rich kid's affair with a

supermodel. He's the user, he's the customer. He's

eager, he's gullible. But she'd better be taut, hot, and

totally glittering, or he'll pitch her right off the edge

of the loading dock.

She's the vendor. She's this lean, mean, beanpole-

tall jet-setter who's always heaving iron in her gym or

preening before the cameras, screaming hysterically for

next season's fashions. And as long as both of them don't

know what's coming next -- as long as they can't outguess

that, as long as they just plain don't know -- then

they'll be as glamorous as all get-out. Just as long as

their bubble of mutual infatuation has yet to burst.

Because in the information economy, everything

important that happens is about the relationship. The

information economy is about who promises what to whom.

Behind the scenes, it's all about commitment.

The point is to make it harder to break up with me,

the vendor, than it is to put up with my continual

exploitation. There are basically six ways to do this.

They get used in the information business all the time.

Number One. A contract. We'll put it on paper. We'll

make it a legal, binding relationship. We somehow agreed

that we really need each other in order to go on living.

We stood in front of witnesses and we agreed to stick it

out no matter what. That's normal, it's honest, it works.

Unless it doesn't work, in which case it gets really nasty

and leaves permanent scars.

Number Two. Brand-Specific Training. I'm really

complicated and hard to figure out, but I give you

something you just can't seem to get elsewhere. We spent

endless days and nights talking over all my painful

personal quirks and kinks, and getting all wrapped up in

me and my needs. Now that you finally understand me, it

just seems exhausting to throw me over and try to date

somebody new.

Number Three. Search Costs. There's probably

somebody else who would suit you as well as I do, but

you're never going to find them == not in a sorry little

town like this, anyway.

Number Four. Information Formats. Nobody else can

even speak our language around here. We've got a private

argot of voodoo keyboard rituals. It's like a private

lovers' baby-talk. If you try to ditch me and pick up

somebody else talking that way, she'll look at you as if

you came from Mars.

Number Five. Durable Purchases. You bought a huge

mainframe and special scanners and printers, and a car and

a fridge and a house. You can't just walk away from all

that. Boy, can I ever make that cost you.

Number Six. Loyalty programs. I seem to like you

better every time we go out together. I come up with all

kinds of sweet little favors based on how well we're

getting to know each other. Your Mom and Dad will love

me. So will your friends and family. Look how thoughtful

and generous I am with the people who can commit. Let's

all get real, real cozy.

There are some other interesting aspects of this

informational romance. They may not seem real technical

== you may not find them built into the hardware == but

these gambits all get people to pay big, expensive wads of

money for information that wants to be free.

A. Branding and Reputation. Listen, baby: you can

trust me. I've got breeding: my famous family of products

has been around for generations. I'm just not that kind

of guy! Why would I risk all that just to take advantage

of you in this one little situation? Stick with the gold

standard == me and mine == and save yourself a lot of

heartbreak.

B. Standards-Setting. Everybody depends on me. I

shoulder the grave responsibility of being reliable and

predictable. I am the authoritative source through which

all good things flow. The government smiles on me. So do

international committees. If it doesn't work with my

stuff, it just plain doesn't work.

C. Expectations Management. Also known as "Fear

Uncertainty and Doubt." I know you're thinking of buying

from that other vendor. But his stuff is hazardous and

will injure you. Besides, I'm making one of those myself,

just next quarter. Mine will be much better than his, and

more people will use it, so you'll just have to buy it

from me anyway, and plus, everybody will laugh at you.

You'll lose your job. Look at the way I stepped on my

competitors. I could step on you, too.

D. Creeping Featuritis. I'll add more and more

"attractive" features to keep my jaded user intrigued.

You like eye shadow? Lip gloss? Tattoos? Piercings?

How about some latex and black rubber? Would a clown wig

help?

E. Sell the Organization, Not the Information. Let's

be very clear about this. I'm not selling you ones and

zeros. You are hiring me as your grand vizier, because I

have a deep cybernetic insight that is denied to lesser

beings. I'm an indispensable part of your management

team. Just give me your wallet, I'll look after all that.

F. Dubbed Local Versions. It's too hard to get a date

in the English-language market, because they're all so

cynical and sophisticated! But I'll be wonderfully

glamorous if I take everything I learned and translate it

into Hindi, Chinese and Malay.

Quite a spread, isn't it? You wouldn't think

relationships could be so full of pitfalls!

And then == there's the Open Source Model.

That Linux Girl. That little slip of a hippie girl.

She's barely noticed at first. She lives in a little

trailer shack, and her address at MIT is 666 Infinite

Corridor. She's got this mad geek stare in her eyes.

She's got open arms, and a threadbare tank top, and

unbuttoned jeans. Free Love, that's what it's all about

for our Linux Girl. Free like freedom, free like beer,

free like, whatever.

She's playing old, sentimental, Linda Ronstadt

albums... "You and I travel to the beat of a different

drum"... Love, Peace, and Linux...

"I love geeky guys," says the Linux Girl. "All geeky

guys, I love ALL geeky guys. And I'm not ready to settle

down. EVER!! I don't do that AT ALL!! Washing your

socks, ironing your shirts, HA HA HA, let me offer a light

little hippie-girl laugh here! Just cruise on by the

trailer, handsome! I'll take my clothes off. No, it's

better than that. I'll take my RIBS off! You can see

RIGHT THROUGH ME! I've got nothing whatever to hide! I

am open all the way through!"

The A&R guys from the industry are dropping by... "We

may have a star here boys, I'm liking this Janis Joplin

thing... But wait a minute, Janis here doesn't do

anything *but* free concerts! And I guess her code looks

pretty tight and shapely, but her body is *completely

transparent*! You can't get anybody to *pay* to see a

woman sing when her *body is clearer than glass*! It

kinda defeats the whole purpose, really! It's like some

kind of totally *academic* thing she's got going on here!

She's like the Visible Woman! There's something *creepy*

and *medical* about her..."

Free Love as a policy is sort of okay. I mean, people

will kinda overlook it when you're young... Because they

expect you to *die,* of VD or AIDS or something! But the

Linux Girl just laughs at viruses. "HA HA HA! Only

debutantes from Redmond get viruses!"

More...

August 1, 2002

We have started a Cyberpunk Gallery. No idea how this is going to grow yet.

The Cyberpunk Gallery

If anyone wants to submit images PM me with the url to you images (sorry they need to be on the web somewhere, even if temporarily, so that I can pick them up), description and photographer/credit. Only images that you own the copyright on please.

July 31, 2002

First one is easy - What is Cyberpunk?

2nd - where did the name come from?

3rd - where can I find out more (A: at cyberpunk.co.uk of course!)

July 31, 2002

Crap is crap but each of us has an opinion and what everyone else thinks is crap you might not and you may find that some idiot peice of kit gives you a great idea for something else.

I never slag off other sites because my efforts are not perfect (yet, but I am getting old and slow now) and you have to start somewhere and the more sites of any quality out there will mean that there will be more quality sites for us because of competition (hopefully friendly!). Plus I know how hard it is to build and maintain sites...

What we really want is a solid intelligent community that enjoys differerent aspects of the genre, and I don't just mean RPG, and enjoys sharing thier experiences and thoughts with each other.

And beer.

Welcome Nikkelitous!

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