Hacker ( haxx0r ) Monthly, Feb 2005 : Paris Hilton gets her innards blasted over the internet, Hunter S Thompson to get his ashes fired out of a cannon, Ukrainians market kinky scientific breakthrough.
Phoney Games
Apparently because she chose her lost password question as ‘name my pet’ (the same pet chihuahua she often mentions in the mass media ), Paris Hilton’s mobile device ( a T-mobile sidekick II – which offers telephone & net access ) was recently hacked into, and it’s contents strewn across the internet like a sequined handbag being emptied in a toilet cubicle ( see the peeps here squawking over notes by Paris, camera snapshots by, and usually of her, mp3 messages, and phone numbers of celebs such as Christine Aguilera, Fred Durst, Eminem, StephenKing etc ). Already one site ( paris-hacked.com ) offers to send Hilton camera pics to your phone, and has for sale a whole bunch of trucker caps and ‘I hacked Paris’ Phone’ merchandise.
Paris ain’t alone though, because alongside spam and security threats, a definite side effect of the increasing density of our communications, is the way the private is becoming public – whether it’s a blogger writing personal information about someone else, or ‘intercepting’ data – the methods of which, are many. Bluejacking hit the news a while ago, which was basically writing a message as the name of your phone and sending that to any other blue tooth equipped phone in a public space ( see www.bluejackq.com ). ‘Bluesnarfing’ is a more recently coined moniker related to that, describing the theft of data – calendar information and phonebook contacts – from a discoverable Bluetooth phone. Thanks to Paris and her chihuahua, we can sit back and watch ‘hacking phones’ rise up the Google charts, aided by eager 14 years old the world over. Those not busy making prank calls with the Napoleon Dynamite soundboard that is. Laid the cheese on way too hard in that film, so keep the hard-hitting Arnold soundboard ready as a back-up.
mo:life
Still on the phone phront, phans of the Independent Ozmag that was
Spinach, and others curious about mobile-media culture might be interested in their new moderated email list discussing mobile-media culture and technology.
“mo:life is interested in how, inherently global, mobile media will be implicated in our daily lives here in Australia and the Asia Pacific. mo:life maps and explores how we, as a distinct culture, will produce, adapt, consume, buy, sell, accept, and reject new forms and uses of floating communication.”
– PR tranmission from http://s7digital.com/molife
Biology Cheaters Part I
File under ‘Words that really sing together, but shouldn’t’ : ‘Musical Condoms’. Ukrainian inventor Dr Grigoriy Chausovskiy has concocted a way of warding off unwanted pregnancies without suppressing the pleasurable sensations involved in succumbing to our hard-wired desires – a musical condom that gets louder as the sex gets more vigorous. Keen observers may have already noted that Ukraine won the recent Eurovision song contest, with a softcore s&m number that left viewers wondering if they’d tuned in to some leather-clad-musical of Lord of The Rings. Thrusting forth from that same country now – condoms which have tiny sensors on the rubber, connected to a mini electronic device. Kind of like a musical valentines day card, except Dr Chausovskiy claims different lovemaking positions allow different tunes to be played by the condom. He was also keen to stress:
“There is no danger of being electrocuted.”
Part II : One Last Arc
“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.”
-The late Hunter S Thompson
Famous as much for the mythology surrounding him, as his maniacal yet probing writings, his gonzo journalism – Hunter S Thompson is now dead. Has left the building. Only adding to that mythology, infused as it was with narcotics and artillery, is Hunter’s choice of exit : to have his cremated remains blasted from a cannon. Apparently the last two years of degenerative health are being tallied as heavy contributing factors for his suicide. His most famous book ‘Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas’ which was recently turned into a film, popularised his wildly extravagant writings, but he also left behind a long body of political and personal essays, articles, notes, and books – most of which can be perused here: www.gonzo.org.