___ __/_/_ ///|| _______ ____. _______ __/_/_ ///||| | \| | / ____\ / / /// ||| |o |\_ \_ |/ / __ /// ||| || | / / / / / _\ ///___|||_ |: |/ /: / /__\ \ ======|||=:. |___/___/|. \________/ ||| | ___| ||| |/ ||| | ::: .. Digital . Information Group Issue Number Fear Friday 13th, 2006 UPDATED ! |______________________________________________________________________________| ______________________________________________________________________________ | | This is not the future I signed up for. The future was riding on light, dancing until the sun came up, smartdrugs, technology and progress. We plugged our brains into a collective network and became one with everything. Going to work meant walking from the bedroom to the desk. Friends were never more than a button press away. Bandwidth was cheap and plentiful. Road warriors carried silicon and wore leather. They were dangerous enough to be useful, and smart enough to be trusted. We had clients, not employers. We made contracts and resolved our own conflicts. Politics took a back seat to technology when we spoke. Deadlines were something to be smashed. We were in constant competition with ourselves to make ourselves better. We worked as hard as we played, and our results proved this. Our friends never went hungry or dry. We celebrated ourselves and coming into our own. We saw the future with possibility not with fear. We invested in our future - the future as we saw it: knowledge, hard work that pays off, hard play that makes it all worthwhile. A life, not an existence. Now we face the world as you have made it. A place where it is illegal to dance. Where we choose between eating and paying rent. Where our work lines your pockets while we live in fear that a job well done today means unemployment tomorrow. Our future has not died. It lies dormant inside of us, fueling our hope and passion. A day will come when it will awaken, and we will be all this, and more. --- ...Magazine Information... Disclaimer Information is provided purely for educational purposes. All information presented here is thought to be accurate; however no guarantees are made or implied. DIG, authors, editors, and affiliates cannot and will not be held responsible for any actions arising from persons reading or downloading this information. We do not condone, support or participate in any illegal activities. Articles published do not neccessarily reflect the beliefs of DIG or it's affiliates. Release Dates There is no set release schedule for DIG, quarterly installments are expected, but the release schedule may vary. Check our website (www.digzine.com) for updates. Writers Wanted We are always looking for more writers on topics of interest to hackers, phreaks, virus writers, crackers, and science, but other topics are of interest as well. If you don't know whether DIG would be a good place for your article, email us and we'll talk. Distribution DIG is available for free online and can also be ordered in limited hard copy at www.digzine.com through Pay Pal (if you don't have Pay Pal, drop us an email for other payment options). The hard copy contains all the same information as the online copy, but includes graphics, and you can hold it in your hand! Feel free to and please do copy, reprint, and distribute DIG, as long as nothing is changed, and you don't try to make a profit off of our work. Letters We will print your letters. If you would like to make a comment, ask a question, make a correction or a contribution send them to dig@digzine.com and we will publish them. If you don't want your letter published, just let us know. All contact information will be kept private. How to help You can help us by letting everyone know about us, spread flyers, link to us, print more copies to distribute, or write articles! Monetary donations are accepted to help pay for hosting and printing, but providing information or services would be a better donation. Privacy We will honor all confidentiality requests. We keep no record of addresses, privacy is important to us. Contact dig@digzine.com Our Public Key is available on the website. --- Table of Fearness --Future Author Unknown --Introduction lowtec --Spoofing Charge Number greyarea --T-mobile - Get More... Than you're supposed to! Lucky225 & Greyarea --Laser Diode Operation and Application Unknown_Entity --Modding The Kodak Disposable Flash Camera Unknown_Entity --Meditation: A Definitive Study The Group --New Hacker Manifesto - draft 0.1 Goat --- Introduction lowtec Guess what all you techno-junkies, phreaks, and keyboard cowboys - your favorite 'zine is back in town. It's been a while, but we don't plan on going anywhere so don't get your hopes up all you three letter organizations. This issue might not be as thick as the previous issues, but we're planning on doing (somewhat) more frequent releases. Sometimes meatspace just takes over. On that note though, if you want to see more frequent releases, send in some articles! Let us know what your latest projects are, share them with everyone. Write in and ask for help on a project and see if you can't generate some interest. Enjoy the issue, and stay safe ;P --- Spoofing Charge Number greyarea@phreaksandgeeks.com Ok this is something that has been very controversial to most people in the scene these days, well at least the people who understand the whole concept of Calling Party Number (CPN) and Automatic Number Identification (ANI). If you don't know the difference between the two by now I can give an example and the definitions of both to clear it up for you. (Example given below) 1. Peter calls my phone and I have it forwarded to Doug. Since Peter is the Calling Party Number (CPN) that will generate the CallerID to Doug and Peters number will show up on Doug's CallerID display. However I am the Charge Number (CN) behind Peter's Calling Party Number (CPN) because I connected the call to doug. 2. Peter calls my phone and I have it forwarded to NPA-555-1212. Even though he's the Calling Party Number, directory assistance will see my number because I'm the Charge Number (CN). I originated the call to directory assistance and they will bill me. Both calls Peter's ANI aka CN stopped at me and I became the ANI for both calls but Peter remained the Calling Party Number. Got it..? If not here are the definitions. Sited: FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION 47 CFR Part 64 [CC Docket No. 91-281, FCC 95-187] (a) ANI. The term "ANI" (automatic number identification) refers to the delivery of the calling party's billing number by a local exchange carrier to any interconnecting carrier for billing or routing purposes, and to the subsequent delivery of such number to end users. (b) Calling party number. The term Calling Party Number refers to the subscriber line number or the directory number contained in the calling party number parameter of the call set-up message associated with an interstate call on a Signaling System 7 network. (c) Charge number. The term "charge number" refers to the delivery of the calling party's billing number in a Signaling System 7 environment by a local exchange carrier to any interconnecting carrier for billing or routing purposes, and to the subsequent delivery of such number to end users. Ok now that you have that down, lets move on to the fearness... All this time everyone and their mom has thought that ANI was CPN and now you know it is not the same thing. When spoofing Charge Number (CN) there are a couple of things to keep in mind first. 1. You will need to know what "real" long distance provider is originating your calls. 2. You will need to know what provider is handing the calls off to the terminating number. 3. You will need to be able to set your Calling Party Number to your liking. 4. You will need to know if your VoIP provider is passing an ANI FAIL behind your set Calling Party Number. 5. You will need a friend that can supply teh kind herbals to understand what is happening. A big handful of VoIP Providers will let you choose your CPN (which you know generates your CallerID). That's not the ANI though because the call didn't originate from the number you chose. Some VoIP providers will set a 10 digit non-billable number as your ANI so you can't charge someone else's phone with it and some of them will just simply pass an ANI Fail behind your CPN. An ANI fail is just a 3 digit area code that represents where the number delivery information was lost from the Originating Station ID. There are a couple of methods when changing your Charge Number (CN) and I'll get into the conditions now. The first method is the "Crossing platforms" method. This is when you have an ANI Fail behind your set Calling Party Number (CPN) and call a number that is on a different platform, for example terminating to a number provided by Qwest and originating your call from at&t's network. Since your call didn't start on the Qwest network their systems will receive your Calling Party Number as the Charge Number because they received no Charge Number (CN). Another method that is needed to change the Charge Number on the same network that your call originated from is called "Matching NPA's." NPA is the same thing as an area code. So when your VoIP provider is passing that ANI Fail you will need to find out what the NPA is and match it. Even though this method is good for changing the Charge Number on the same platform or network it is limited to the area code that is being passed as the ANI Fail. Getting around this and being able to change the NPA its passing as a fail on the same network, if it happens to be on at&t's network you can simply dial 1-800-callatt or 1-800-operator passing a ANI Fail behind your set Calling Party Number and tell the operator the number you're calling from because they didn't get a Charge Number, only a Calling Party Number (CPN) and they ask for it. And say "fjear special needs operator privileges please dial 8xx-xxx-xxxx" and when they place that call it will pass your Calling Party Number they received as the Charge Number and that will give you the ability to choose whatever NPA you want on the network you originated the call on. A good tool to have is some ANAC's. Heres the definition for what a ANAC is: Sited: google.com An Automatic Number Announcement Circuit (ANAC) is a special telephone number that is meant to be used by phone company technicians, phone phreaks and other telecommunications technicians to determine the phone number of a particular line. One thing to keep in mind is that when calling a real ANAC it is important to call the one that is on the same platform that your calls are being handed off by. Otherwise you won't get the real Charge Number you will get the Calling Party Number. So at&t to at&t, Verizown to Verizown, Qwest to Qwest and Sprint to Sprint. Remember that when testing. I would drop some but you know what would happen to them, sorry... By default on a regular call this is the call flow I currently believe takes place: ANI generates the Charge Number, (Charge Number is what leaves the network acting as the ANI) Charge Number generates the Calling Party Number Calling Party Number generates the CallerID. This wasn't intended to be put out there for people to start charging other peoples line either or blaming people for malicious calls. That's just plain stupid and gives you bad karma. It was put out to show how it works and the great vulnerability going beyond just spoofing CallerID and to help identify it so that if somebody gets blamed for bogus traffic their lawyers have a way to prove it didn't take place. Phreaking isn't about getting free phone calls or any of that other shit. It's finding out how something works and recreating it yourself or making it better or more secure but the key is being interested in how things work. Now with the knowledge of finding out how shit works comes along the ability to place free calls and so on but those types of decisions are up to the individual not the phreak scene. The audio version of this file can be found at: http://oldskoolphreak.com/audio/spoofing_charge_number.mp3 Peace keep it stjeal shouts: Group Bell @ www.Phonetrips.org, www.oldskoolphreak.com, natas, dual, ACH, www.defaultradio.com, lucky, doug, whitesword, royal, ic0n, clops, moy slatko dunia-djuka, cup0spam, and licutis, notthoery, majest|c, lowtec, all the peeps up in Canada holding it down, and most of all Mr Pink, when I needed encouragment and support you were there and you help teach me as an example to keep my mind out of the gutter and really get into what phreaking is all about... learning, I hope you keep j0r head up in the times of bullshit; you have a lot of support from everybody. --- // T-mobile - Get More... Than you're supposed to! // // by Lucky225 & Greyarea // http://www.hexrev.com After I 'moved' to Iowa, I decided to go with T-mobile as my cellular provider. Like I do whenever I change carriers, I saw if I could break things. T-mobile, as anyone might have guessed, was fairly easy. I have now found a way to have completely unlimited calling for as low as $26.98/month. Goto T-mobile.com or a T-mobile store and sign up for the Basic 60 whenever minutes/500 weekend minutes for $19.99 per month. Then choose the option to add Unlimited mobile-to-mobile calling for $6.99/month. This brings your monthly total to $26.98/month before taxes. Now you probably think you know where I'm going with this, a mobile-to-mobile Caller ID spoofer right? Well read on. I've found a way to place OUTGOING calls for free, as well as INCOMING. // Outgoing Calls Aparently, voicemail is considered a mobile-to-mobile call. T-mobile voicemail (depending on what Mobile Voice Processor [MVP] you're using) will let you press 8 to return calls if the person who left you a message didn't block their caller ID. The call is still considered mobile-to-mobile. I immediately started thinking about spoofing my entire phone book into my voicemail, but then I had a better idea. Just build an Asterisk dial out box, spoof the DID number into your voicemail, then everytime you want to place a call out, log into your voicemail and press 8 on the saved message with your Asterisk box DID phone number. Now you can call out to anywhere and it wont waste any of your minutes. // Incoming Calls Now obviously this one should be easy for you to guess, just set up an asterisk DID to give out as your cellphone and have asterisk call you from a T-mobile phone number for it to show up as mobile-to-mobile. But what if you could have one particular phone number that you know would always show up as mobile-to-mobile? Well now you can, remember how calling voicemail is mobile-to-mobile? Well aparently if you spoof 805-637-7243 (805-MESSAGE, the national voicemail number) to your T-mobile cell phone it shows up as mobile-to-mobile. Even stranger if you spoof 800-937-8997, T-mobile's customer care, the call doesn't even show up in T-mobile's call logs! // Privacy Not only do you get the added benefit of all your incoming and outgoing calls on T-mobile for free, but in the event of a Paris Hilton type hack, anyone looking at your call detail records will only see incoming and outgoing calls to or from voicemail! // Disclaimer T-mobile updates their MVPs(Mobile Voice Processors) all the time. This is not guaranteed to work in your area. In Kansas, you don't even need to press 8 to call back the person in your voicemail, you can press 9 to call out to anywhere, so not sure if Voicemail is mobile-to-mobile there, or if it's mobile-to-mobile now that this article is probably sitting on the CFO's desk at T-mobile. Also, I've noticed if I 3-way conference voicemail, it apears to not show up as mobile-to-mobile unless I specifically dial 805-message instead of holding down 1 or dial 123. // Voicemail Bouncing Since T-mobile's voicemail system is really insecure if the skip password feature option is enabled, you can use other people's voicemail boxes to 'bounce' or divert your telephone calls. Now spoofing to 805-MESSAGE doesn't work anymore, you would have to spoof to the particular MVP that handles the T-mobile cellphone you are trying to spoof in to. (When you call 805-MESSAGE from your cellphone, it is believed that the cell tower it's self actually redirects you to the correct MVP which is why skip password works from your cell but not when you spoof caller ID to it.) Most of the time the MVP can be found in the cellular prefix with the last 4 digits being 9999. If you goto telcodata.us you can lookup all the prefixes on the switch and scan out 9999 until you find the MVP for that cellphone. Once you have the MVP, you simply spoof caller ID to it, and if skip password is enabled, you will be let in to their voicemail box. If you spoof a number to call to the voicemail, you can then spoof back into the MVP to retrieve the message and call that person back from the MVP. The caller ID and Billing Telephone Number(BTN/ANI) will be that of the cellphone, so any call traces will get traced to the cellphone of the voicemail box you're bouncing through! // Systems T-mobile uses Systems Tmobile use's Remedy = Trouble ticket reporting system, also the database that has all the employees info in it. Sampson = Billing, Call Detail records (CDR). Watson = Activations / Orders CAM = Customer Account Manager (indirect dealerships use a different version called iCAM) This contains customer info. // Numbers (877) 819-6042 Same thing as 800-937-8997 (877) 606-4801 Backdoor Customer Service. (800) 284-9291 IVR=Credit check/Number Port/Activations/Equipment changes/Easy speak pre-paid program (913) 753-6545 The number police have to fax to request documents about an account. (206) 313-0004 The number all text messages are sent thru. (877) 369-4588 Backdoor Tier 2, The Data Group Technical Support. (888) 662-4662 NOC west (888) 218-6664 NOC east (800) 260-6003 California NOC (888) 624-5173 Risk Assesment team (425) 444-6235 Dale Orcroft's Cellphone number Hes the manager over at the GlennAir Group. They handle all the MVP's. Switches: PHX 602-643-3586 602-643-3081 OKC 405-270-5710 Austin TX 512-437-6599 Dallas TX 214-523-4183 HOuston TX 281-372-2800 Seatle WA 425-798-7477 Portland OR 503-262-0005 Chicago IL 773-444-5501 TAMPA FL 813-243-3300 Cleveland OH 216-525-6060 Pittsburg 412-365-2250 Minneapolis 952-833-4240 San antonio Call Austin New Orleans 504-835-3434 Idaho call salt lake city Hawaii 808-593-0074 St louis MO 314-872-3733 Kansas City 816-936-6400 Colorado Denver NSS (Network SubSystem) 303-313-2902 Colorado Denver BSS (Base SubSystem) 303-313-2960 California LA Market: 213-346-0702 562-777-0600 714-446-0693 // Links https://watson.t-mobile.com https://icam.t-mobile.com http://www.t-mobilenews.com http://www.t-mobilesecretshop.com https://mymail.t-mobile.com https://learning.t-mobile.com --- Laser Diode Operation and Application ELCT 232 Unknown_Entity 4/27/05 Preface: The following is by no means a comprehensive coverage of laser theory. This article is intended to serve as an introduction for a laser project that I have yet to publish, if you're on the binrev forums you may already know what i am referring to. A complete and in depth analysis would require a 2nd or 3rd year university physics course and more math than you could shake a stick at. All the following information is true, this is really how lasers work but analyzing the physics down to the most basic level is not necessary for an understanding how lasers operate. The terms atoms, ions, and molecules are used loosely in the context of this article to describe the action in a lasing medium, however the actual particle in question depends on the specific medium used (He-Ne, Ruby, Nd-YAG etc...). General Laser Theory and Operation Most lasers have three basic features in common. The first of which is a lasing medium. The medium can be a solid, liquid, gas or semiconductor material. The only requirement is that it must have a relatively low attenuation to any light energy traveling within the medium. Secondly, there has to be a way to "pump" energy into the lasing medium by optical, electrical or any other means. The third requirement is an optically resonant cavity. The most common arrangement is simply to place mirrors at the ends of the lasing medium so that most of the energy escaping the medium is reflected back into the medium thus achieving resonance. One mirror is 100% reflective while the output mirror allows a small amount of light to pass through thus projecting a laser beam. If all the previously mentioned requirements have been met then it is possible for lasing to occur. Before any energy is pumped into the lasing medium the atoms/ions in the medium are at a state of rest known as the ground state. However by pumping energy into the medium the majority of the atoms/ions are elevated one or more energy levels and are now in an excited state, this process is known as a population inversion. When an atom/ion loses the energy that was pumped into the medium it falls one or more energy levels at the same time releasing a photon of light this is known as spontaneous emission. Spontaneous emission happens at random as the atoms/ions lose their energy and fall back towards the ground state. The photons released by spontaneous emission collide with other atoms/ions in the medium and cause them fall back to lower energy thus releasing a photon of their own. This process is known as stimulated emission and is very similar to a chain reaction. Most of the photons/light released are reflected back into the medium by the mirrors causing other atoms/ions within the medium to drop to a lower energy level and release photons as well. This process is called Stimulated emission. When stimulated emission occurs eventually all of the atoms/ions that were pumped to a higher energy level give up their energy and release photons as they return to the ground state. This process produces a single pulse of light that is both monochrome (containing only one wavelength of light) and coherent (all the light waves are in phase with each other). This mode of operation produces only a single short pulse of light. To produce a continuous beam (CW Mode) as most diode and gas lasers do you need to pump energy into the cavity faster than the atoms/ions can fall back to a lower state so that the population inversion is never depleted. Laser Diode Types The first diode lasers were developed in the early 1960's and were a miniature version of the single optical cavity pulsed laser described above. They were composed of a normal light emitting PN junction (LED) with an optical cavity made of semiconductor crystal. As a result they were horribly inefficient and could only be run in short pulses or risk melting the diode itself from excessive heat. The beam shape of the output has an oval pattern that is common among all types of edge emitting lasers. This early form of diode laser is rarely used anymore. Edge emitter type lasers are still used today however many advances have been made to increase the efficiency of diode lasers. By replacing the single large optical cavity with several layers of PN semiconductor forming multiple small closely spaced cavities (usually no more than 5 layers) efficiency was greatly improved. These same added layers also confine the free electron and hole pairs to a concentrated area around the middle of the junction in the active region. Due to the increased efficiency, less power is used to run the laser. Drive requirements for this type of laser are very similar to that of standard LEDs which is about 15-30mA DC. This means it can be ran continuously, rather than just pulsed because overheating is no longer an issue. These types of diodes are called heterojunction (multi junction) laser diodes and are the most common type of diode lasers today. The latest type of diode laser is called the Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL). VCSELs use the same concept of several smaller cavities to increase efficiency however the number of layers can easily reach over 100. It is different from most other types semiconductors lasers in that the laser beam is amplified and emitted vertically (perpendicular to) rather than horizontally (parallel with) the many semiconductor layers that make up the laser cavity. VCSELs have many advantages over edge emitter type lasers. For example in the manufacturing process there is greater degree of control of the qualities of VCSEL type lasers because the final output properties can be altered by adding more alternating PN layers or changing their thickness. Drive requirements for VCSELs are only 1-2mA DC because the many PN layers cause it to have a rather high impedance. This means they are far more efficient and have the potential for faster switching speeds and data rates than edge emitter types. The optical qualities (beam shape/astigmatism) of VCSELs are also superior to all other semiconductor lasers, this is because the aperture and lasing cavity in VCSEL lasers is round rather than oval like edge emitters Diode Laser Applications Diode lasers are used for a wide range of applications today ranging from a simple laser pointer to high speed communications; however only a select few will be discussed in detail here. The most familiar application of laser diodes would be the simple laser pointer. The most basic laser pointer consists of only a few simple parts such as a power source, switch and a series resistor to limit the diode current to a safe level of 20mA or lower. The output of the laser diode alone is not focused very well it is in the oval pattern of the edge emitter. Therefore a minimum of two simple lenses are needed to focus the output of the diode into the narrow beam that we are familiar with. Diode lasers are also used as a pump source to feed higher power solid state lasers. When laser diodes are used for this purpose they are often manufactured as a "pump bar" unit. A pump bar consists of several diode lasers on a single IC die. They can be stacked both horizontally and vertically to decrease the size while increasing the power of the pump source. A common application of diode laser pumps are handheld green lasers. They are often called Diode Pumped Solid State lasers (DPSS). Handheld DPSS lasers use a single CW red laser diode to pump a solid state laser cavity. The solid state cavity is what actually generates the green wavelength of the output. Notice that the wavelength of the pump input is not the same as the output. The energy levels traversed as well as construction and composition of the solid state cavity determine the wavelength of the output. One application for laser diodes that is becoming increasingly popular is their use in communication. Laser diodes and optics in general have a very high bandwidth compared to more traditional means like transmission wires, radio transmission or even microwave relay applications. Consider the wavelength of a common red diode laser, it is about 640nM. If we wanted to calculate the theoretical bandwidth we would need the frequency which is found by dividing the velocity of light by the wavelength. This yields the equation (300,000,000M/sec)/(640nM) resulting in a frequency of 4.74 x 10^14 or 474,000 GHz. If you were to divide this into separate voice channels each with a bandwidth of 10kHz you would be able to fit 47 billion voice channels on a single beam of light. This incredibly high bandwidth limit is the reason why many industries such as the telephone and cable are making use of this technology to enhance their networks. ~*Shouts To Decoder, Stankdawg, ic0n, everyone in the DDP and all the members on the Binrev forums*~ For questions an comments you can contact me via email unknown_entity@winbolo.net or on the binrev forums. References & Photo Credits: Poptronics Vol.3 No.4 April 2002 "Service Clinic: Laser Pointers and Diode Modules"-Sam Goldwasser Nuts & Volts Vol.22 No.12 December 2001 "Laser Insight"-Stanley York Nuts & Volts Vol.23 No.3 March 2002 "Laser Insight"-Stanley York Nuts & Volts Vol.22 No.6 June 2001 "Laser Insight"-Stanley York Nuts & Volts Vol.22 No.2 February 2001 "Open Channel: Fiber Optic Technology Part II"-Joe Carr Website: "Sam's Laser FAQ" http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/laserfaq.htm Website: "Diode Laser FAQ" http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/laserdio.htm Website: "Laser FAQ Index" http://repairfaq.ece.drexel.edu/sam/laserfil.htm Website: "Wikipedia: VCSEL" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCSEL Website: "Wikipedia: Laser Diode" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laser_diode Website: "How Stuff Works: How Lasers Work" http://science.howstuffworks.com/laser.htm Website: "Mike's Electric Stuff" http://www.electricstuff.co.uk/ --- Modding The Kodak Disposable Flash Camera By ~Unknown_Entity~ Warning: This article assumes the reader has basic electronics knowledge and soldering skills and is for informational/entertainment purposes only. Many of the procedures in this article can cause bad things to happen if done improperly. Capacitors can shock the crap out of you or explode like M-80's if you exceed their rated voltage or reverse the polarity. Neither myself, nor the publisher will be responsible for your use or misuse of the information contained herein. This article will cover the basics of modifying the Kodak disposable camera to function as a high voltage current limited supply, or quite simply something cool to shock the crap out of your friends with. The circuit functions as an inverter that converts 1.5VDC to 330VDC or higher, not something that you'd want to stick your tongue on. There are many things that can be made from this circuit board including some power modifications that can generate over 600VDC from a 1.5V battery, this article will only cover the simplest modification. To start with you will need the following materials and tools (most are available from RadioShack): * Kodak Disposable Flash Camera * Small Plastic Project Box (RS#: 270-283) * 2 Panel Mount Banana Jacks * 1 Single Pole On/Off Switch * 1 Single Pole momentary NO Switch (RS#: 275-644) * 1 Type ?N? Battery Holder (RS#: 270-405) * 1 Or More Type "N" Batteries (RS#: 23-023) * A Few 1K ohm and 33K ohm 1/2W Resistors * Insulated Wire 22ga Or Larger * A Small Section Of Heat-Shrink Tubing * Soldering Iron (25W-35W pencil will do) * Solder * Small Side Cut Pliers * Small Needle Nose Pliers * Screwdrivers * Hot Glue Gun If you want to exercise your SE skills and get some free camera circuit boards try asking at places that develop pictures if you can have a few from the disposable cameras people turn in to get developed. If you're of the school age it would be best to say that you need the circuit board for a school project and your instructor told you to ask around film developing places. If they ask about the project itself, say you're using it to make a strobe light for an electronics class. Disassembly Warning: Before continuing any further be aware that the capacitor inside may be fully charged to 330V. You will need to remove the AA battery and discharge the cap with a 1K ohm resistor before moving any further. The capacitor can be discharged by placing a 1K ohm resistor across it's terminals. Just be sure to use a pair of needle nose to hold the resistor or use wires and alligator clips to discharge the cap with or else you may get shocked while doing so. Also do not directly short out the cap at any time, doing so may destroy the circuit board making it unusable. Now that you have gathered all the tools and supplies previously mentioned we can begin by liberating the circuit board from its plastic shell. Now would be a good time to make note of the polarity on the AA battery. After the circuit board is discharged and removed from the plastic case we can begin to remove some unnecessary parts and add leads for our switches and battery. Your circuit board should look similar to the one here. The parts that need to be removed are all of the sheet metal brackets, pressure switch in the center of the board, flash lens, flash tube and reflector. The brackets are soldered in at several points; just make sure all points are desoldered before you start prying on the board. This is where the good or at least decent soldering skills come into play. Remove the parts shown in the picture while being careful not to damage the board by overheating or prying on parts. With the unnecessary parts removed your board should look similar to these. Cutting the circuit board as shown is only necessary if you plan on putting this in a project box to save space. You can also fold the capacitor over to help it fit inside the project box, just make sure not to rip the leads out of the cap while doing so. The next step is to solder wires to each point shown in the picture. The negative (black) lead from the battery holder should be soldered directly to the negative battery terminal on the board; all others should be connected as shown. The 1K ohm resistor serves to protect from a direct short across the terminals, which may damage or destroy the circuit. Final Assembly I will leave the final assembly to the reader's discretion, but I will offer some tips and suggestions. The project box listed at the beginning of this article and N type battery holder fit perfectly for a project of this size. If you plan to fit this inside a project box put heat shrink tubing around the resistor, coat all switch terminals and the bottom of the circuit board with hot melted glue, you don't want this to blow up or shock someone unintentionally. If you use the project box listed you will have to remove the two standoffs used to hold the board included with the box. Finally, the hot glue gun is your friend; you can use it to secure the board and battery holder to the box. Safety and Common Sense A charged high voltage capacitor of sufficient size can kill you under the proper conditions; they are not something to be taken lightly. If you plan to use this as a small high voltage supply you can keep, change or omit entirely the 1K ohm resistor in series with the cap. However if you plan to use this to zap people with you will need to change the 1K ohm resistor to a higher value. The purpose of the resistor is to limit the maximum current that the cap can output. It is current flowing through your body that causes you to feel an electric shock. Therefore the more current that passes through you the more painful the shock received. The only thing obstructing the current flow is the resistor you add to the circuit and if you were to touch the terminals, your own body's resistance. Some other factors that affect the severity of a shock are contact area (touching a flat piece of metal vs. a sharp point), contact points (two fingers on the same hand vs. arm to arm). Under normal conditions using the 1K ohm resistor if you were to touch the HV terminals you would get a nasty shock. This circuit with the 1K ohm resistor hurts worse than the 120V wiring in your house. You can reduce the severity of the shock by replacing the 1K ohm resistor with a higher resistance. The resistance of the human body varies greatly depending on many conditions and in this case it is best to err on the side of caution when choosing a resistor value. You can use Ohms Law to calculate what the maximum current is for a given resistance. In other words by choosing the proper resistance we can limit the maximum current that the cap can output regardless of what other resistance (or body part) is placed across the output terminals. The following formulas hold true where V is the 330V stored in the cap, R is the resistor value in ohms and the result I is current in Amps. I= (V/R) V= (I*R) R= (V/I) Ex. (330V/.010A)= 33,000 ohms Let's assume we wanted to limit the maximum current our cap can output to .010A or 10mA. We would use the formula that is set equal to the unknown R where V is the 330V and I is the .010A limit we wish to have. Solving for the equation yields the value of the resistor needed to limit the current to .010A. Of course if you were to touch the terminals in our example the current that would pass through you will always be less than what we calculated because your body does have a certain amount of resistance. Using this method to set the maximum current more or less serves as a cover your ass policy? so don't say I didn't warn you. The following numbers are for hand to hand and hand to foot contact but the effects will be similar for other contact points. Current Reaction Below .001 Amps Generally not perceptible .001 Amps Faint Tingle .005 Amps Slight shock felt. Not painful but disturbing. Average individual can let go. Strong involuntary reactions can lead to other injuries. .009 to .030 Amps The freezing current or "let go" range. If extensor muscles are excited by shock, the person may be thrown away from the power source. Individuals cannot let go. Strong involuntary reactions can lead to other injuries. .050 to .150 Amps Extreme pain, respiratory arrest, severe muscle reactions. Death is possible. 1.0 to 4.3 Amps Rhythmic pumping action of the heart ceases. Muscular contraction and nerve damage occur; death is likely. 10 Amps Cardiac arrest, severe burns, death is probable. Completed Projects The following picture shows two different examples that I have built during the course of writing this article. The first is the basic one that was used throughout the article. The high voltage output is fed through two banana jacks mounted to the box. The second unit pictured is my favorite mod and should provide endless hours of entertainment. The circuit is the same as the basic mod except that there is no switch to turn the unit off, it only has the charge flash switch. Secondly the high voltage outputs are wired directly to two brushed aluminum plates on opposite sides of the plastic case. All you do is hit the charge flash switch and set the box down for someone to pick up. Most people are like "Ooh? Shiny Object" and pick it up, if not tape a $1 bill to it. When they touch both plates at the same time they get zapped and you get a good laugh. I have also included the schematic for the unmodified Kodak Max disposable camera. The circuit for the regular Kodak and the Kodak Max should be very similar if not identical. [ Editor's Note: Pictures & schematic will be available on www.digzine.com ] --- Meditation: A Definitive Study When you look up meditation on the internet you're bound to find a multitude of links, each with a different view of what constitutes meditation and its various benefits. Turning to the general public for personal, experiential input, you are bound to have similar results: a multiplicity of various techniques and experiences. Among this barrage of often conflicting information there is a tendency for one to get lost, confused, misled and eventually to write the whole meditation thing off as some hokey, modern fad. Fortunately for the seeker of Truth, there is a common thread to all substantive approaches to meditation: Clarity. We all have some sort of inner dialogue that is constantly questioning everything it can get its philosophical feelers on. The questions are boundless in supply and they demand answers for which people have been searching for since the beginning of thought/time (same thing). They are questions like "Why?...",(did I/He/ She make the choice to do that?), "How?", (can I change this or that about myself/ the outside world?), "Where?", (did I and my thoughts come from? Can I keep them?), "What?", (in the hell does he mean by ?thought/time (same thing)'?). More often than not, the answers we find to these questions and the infinite others like them, are superficial by a long shot, leaving our thirst wide open and overwhelmed by the 10,000 answers that popped up in your search engine when you looked up "Meditation". It is the process of meditation?looking inward, composed in stillness?that brings boundless clarity and sheds unfettered light on one's inner dialogue. Eventually, the clarity and light are everywhere you look and a greater general understanding awakens. No matter which of the various techniques you try, the essence of bringing about clarity in any situation is stillness. Looking into the depths of the clearest water, one's view is distorted by raindrops rippling across the surface and stirring the sediment below. Only when the rain subsides, the wind calms, the dust finally collects at the bottom of the pond, only then can we once again clearly observe the life beneath the surface. The same is always true of trying to observe objects in action; details become blurred and there is a broad avenue of interpretation, no matter what it is you are trying to see. Race cars zooming by look like intangible blurs of color, a diving bird of prey could be an Osprey, Eagle or Falcon, a flock of thoughts mingling with the void could be jealousy, admiration, greed, ambition, insecurity or passion. Until both the subject and its vigilant caretaker are at rest, the details regarding either one (subject or object) are uncertain. When beginning to observe the mind, it is often tempting to accept the apparent stillness found in concentration or focus practice. This situation is like looking at the surface of a pond on a still day and assuming that your view beneath the surface is ultimately clear. However, upon further investigation, you may find myriad activities beneath the surface that muddle the view. It is the same when first observing the mind; one will feel an overarching tranquility when first practicing meditation, but as the focus moves deeper into the consciousness, the turmoil beneath the surface becomes evident and the real work of stilling the mind begins. After constant and vigilant practice, after reconciling one's inner dialogue, a deeper personal understanding begins to emerge along with a new level of clarity and transparency in one's view of the outside world. The difference between self and other begins to lose its significance and the inwardly applied understanding begins to be more easily applied outwardly as well. It is here that compassion is built and one can begin to learn how to motivate and share insight with others. Unfortunately, not all of the ?others' will be open or able to receive or understand the unfamiliar type of insight found in meditation which is more spontaneously amorphous and intuitive than the linear and rational types of problem solving familiar to most people. Meditative problem solving works in a reversed progression to logical deductive reasoning. In the intuitive approach, the solution becomes evident first by stopping thought altogether, then the how and why of the solution can be reconciled if necessary. Typical problem solving works just the opposite way?that is, by asking repeated ?how's and ?why's and eventually (hopefully) reaching a solution. The meditative or intuitive approach has learned that thought itself is unclear by nature, that words and tools of logic move only toward conditional truth and cannot ever find absolute truth. On the contrary, in transcending rational thought and its logic tools (words, signs and symbols), intuitive or meditative ?thought' is a mechanism designed by the creator for grasping the ultimate or absolute truth. When one is enshrined in stillness, he sits with the nameless Gods of every religion. Various cultures use various localized symbols and ideas to express their personal value systems into modes of religious thought, usually with the intention of pointing the way toward what they have experienced as the penultimate reality. However, in their truest form, all religious symbols, ideas, and ideologies point to the same space beyond space; a place called God that exists within each of us and that is reached by the most difficult road there is to navigate: the road to silent composure in stillness. Defining meditation is, in all truthfulness, an impossible task; in action, meditation is immobile, to speak of meditation is silence, to write about meditation is to leave behind an empty page. Truth is most often sought as something definitive, tangible; but truth is not a linear, logical process of reasoning. If it were that simple, we would have surely stumbled across it somewhere in our thousands of years of searching the human mind. In a sense, all of those links you looked up on meditation (including this one) are equally valid and invalid. Practice is the only way to reach a definitive understanding (or truth) of meditation or anything else for that matter. In fact, according to some of the most devout scholars of truth, the true definition of meditation is as simple as "sitting practice" or "just sitting". The only advice I can offer someone interested in finding out what meditation really is: Be still, and the truth shall set you free. ~The Group. --- New Hacker Manifesto - draft 0.1 Goat In any society, there will be those who need rules to tell them the obvious. "Thou shalt not kill" reflects the tendency of most people to be unable to tell the difference between a justifiable killing and one that is not. All killings appear the same, just like all computer break-ins have the same appearance, thus are dubbed "unethical" and "illegal". Life is not as simple as it seems. When an individual reaches a certain stage of proficiency, he or she either gets sidetracked by quick gratification, such as theft, or rises to a higher proficiency because the love of learning and joy in the powers granted by it drives them forward. Such is the case with hacking, where those who have learned a few trivial skills become destructive, but those who are constantly reverent toward their task become constructive, even if they must use some destruction toward that end. Some try to divide the hacking community by ethics, as in "white hat" (ethical) and "black hat" (criminal) hackers, but the reality is that there is another category for those who hack because they appreciate technology and like pushing it to do things that otherwise could not be done. They do not get sidetracked by appearance such as theft or vandalism, but use technology toward the end of making technology better. This is comparable to the state of a knight in ancient cultures. The knight was above all laws made for normal people, as he was trusted to do what was right according to the whole of civilization and nature, even if it meant that some unfortunate would be deprived of life, liberty or happiness. The knight did what was necessary to push his surroundings toward a higher state of order, avoiding the entropy caused by those who were doomed to the world of appearance and could thus see only binaries: living/dying, money/poverty, right/wrong. The knight transcended these boundaries and "hacked" his surroundings by pushing them to do things that otherwise could not be done, replacing previous designs with better ones. Design and logical structure are the "hidden world" in which hackers, philosophers, artists and knights operate. The world of appearance deals with physical objects, but not the underlying structure which connects them. Similarly, users see the appearance which computers are programmed to show them, but have no idea of the workings of networks and operating systems. A knight must know how to manipulate this hidden world, and must have the moral strength to be destructive only when it is constructive to do so. Hacking today is far different than it was twenty years ago. During the formative days of hacker culture, computing resources were scarce. Most people used 1-10 MHz machines and could not get access to the instructive operating systems like UNIX and VMS unless they hacked into larger machines for that access. Today, desktop UNIX-like operating systems are plentiful, and network access is a nominal monthly fee. One reason that hacking has appeared to stagnate is that it has not re-invented itself to address this new reality. When most people think of "hackers," they imagine the black hat criminal element that steals credit cards and identities. White hat hackers have become like adult chaperones at a teenage sex party, wagging disapproving fingers but having little overall effect. Since it is no longer necessary to hack machines for access, hacking must redefine itself according to its core principle: understanding the structure behind the appearances of computing, and to like a good knight, always reinvent the design of the underlying layers so that technology and society move toward higher degrees of organization. In this capacity hackers are a hedge against entropy, or the state of disorder that occurs over time and is exacerbated by people acting on appearance as if it were structure, causing them to manipulate form but not function. Most human technologies are flawed and operate poorly, subjecting the user to untold problems, much as governments and ideas are flawed and cause similar confusions. The hacker of today must unite philosophy, computing and politics in a quest to find better orders and to defeat entropy by understanding how things work, and not what pleasing appearances will sell to a credulous consumer base. Hackers as knights represent a potential force of change in our society. We can see where technology could be organized better, so that without inventing a new type of computer we can make older computers better; hackers can prank society to point out its illusions and contradictions. Because we have the skills to do this, we are necessarily above the law, and must use that status to achieve the kind of reordering of civilization that normal people cannot. Should we choose to accept the role with all of its responsibilities, we are the knights who can redesign industrial society into something that serves humans instead of imprisoning them in a world of appearance. --- POPULARITY IS FAILURE "But that's what everyone wants!" -- For too long, humanity has been ruled by popular opinion. Most people are gawking fools who desire the lowest common denominator in any situation. You see them in offices, doing menial tasks that must have been invented for them because they can do nothing else. In every election they vote some smirking, condescending mall-culture moron into office. At stores, they agitate for dumber cheaper products to replace quality. They murdered culture because they didn't understand it. They demanded pluralism so no one could criticize their inane "lifestyle choices." We are the consequence: a separate culture within that rejects the illusory world of "what everyone wants." We will hack your networks, reprogram your philosophy and decode your values. We are a civilization where truth is more important than popularity. You are a failed past. We are the future. YOU ARE OBSOLETE www.anus.com --- eof