2600: The Hacker Quarterly

Mondo 2000 Reviewed byRogerF. Malina, Center for EUVAstrophysics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, U.S.A. This is an absurd but significant quarterly magazine covering the cultural manifestations of the personal computer revolution. Packaged in a glossy magazine format, it covers, often tongue-in-cheek, futuristic applications of computers to the arts, entertainment and culture. The writers seem to have uncanny access to the creative thinkers within the California electronics and pharmaceutical industries . Computer graphics, multimedia , hypermedia, virtual reality and cyberspace systems receive generous coverage. Articles also cover brain/mind topics, psychedelic drugs and topics in new technologies ranging from nanotechnology to artificial life. The advertisements in each issue are truly mind-boggling, from the Oxygen Research Institute and its oxygenated products, to fractal music tapes, to cyberpunk publishers, to designer foods advertised as providing neurotransmitter boosting. The Mondo 2000 editorial staff is headed by Editor-in-ChiefR. U. Sirius and 'Domineditrix' Queen Mu. The language is English but may be difficult to understand for those not familiar with California dialects. The vision of the art of the future presented in Mondo 2000 is unsettling, but exciting . A I-year subscription may be obtained from: Mondo 2000, P. O. Box 10171, Dept. M2-2, Berkeley, CA 94709, U.S.A. (FAX 1-415-649-9630) for $24 ($50 non-U.S.A.); $7 for a sample issue. 2600: The Hacker Quarterly Reoieued by CliJJord A. Pickouer, 37 YorkshireLane , Yorktown Heights, New York, NY 10598, U.S.A. This unusual and perhaps controversial journal, founded in 1984 and edited by Emmanuel Goldstein, is for readers fascinated by telephone technology . It makes available to the computer telecommunications network hobbyist information that can be found nowhere else. The journal is interesting , but it contains information that some might not want published. For example, in the summer 1990 volume, one writer tells of a flaw in a college telephone system that enables him to make free long-distance calls by pressing a single phone button. Another tells how you can get someone else to pay for your phone bill, while yet another requests information on how to make a plane crash (for a screen play he is writing). Most of the journal's correspondents seem to be looking for and analyzing flaws in telephone and network systems rather than trying to break any laws. The audience, for the most part, seems not to be malicious but, rather, interested in learning. Other topics covered include hunting for wiretaps, government raids of computer bulletin boards, and how to bypass computer password security. The journal is often loaded with technical information , little-known secrets, pages of various network codes, 'how-to' hardware columns and pictures of unusual and artistic telephones from around the world. Additional columns include book reviews and a marketplace column for buying and selling equipment. A I-year subscription may be obtained from: 2600: The HackerQuarterly , P. O. Box 752, Middle Island, New York, NY II953-0752, U.S.A., for $18. BOOKS Recent Works Applied Grammatology: Post(e) PedagogyfromJacques Derrida toJoseph Beuys Gregory Ulmer. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, Baltimore, MD, U.S.A., 1985. The Artificial Intelligence Debate:False Starts, Real Foundations Stephen Graubard, ed. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 1989. Artificial Intelligence in theArts, No.1, "Brainwork" Richard Kriesche, ed. Steirischer Herbst, Graz, 1985. Artificial Reality M. Kreuger. Addison-Wesley, Reading , MA, U.S.A., 1983. Art Telecommunications Heidi Grundmann, ed. The Western Front, Vancouver, Canada (Shakespeare Company, Vienna, Austria), 1984. ISBN: 0-920974-08-2. The Biology ofComputerLife Geoff Simons. Harvester Press, Sussex , U.K., 1985. ISBN: 0-7108-0975-1. Communication Networks:Toward a New Paradigmfor Research D. L. Kincaid and E. M. Rogers. Macmillan, New York, NY, U.S.A., 1981. ISBN: 0-02-926740-4. Communication Satellites: Their Deoelopmentand Impact Heather Hudson. Free Press/ Macmillan, New York, NY, U.S.A., 1990. ISBN: 0-02-915320-4. Communication Technology: The New Media in Society Everett M. Rogers. Macmillan, New York, NY,U.S.A., 1986. ISBN: 0-02-927120-7. The Computerization of Society A. Mine and S. Nora. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, U.S.A., 1980. ISBN: 0-262-1403II-4. Computers and Communications...