O= /) FLIPPERSMACK 013 `= culturemag for a penguin generation http://www.flippersmack.com x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x AnimeExpo.. DefCon.. ComiCon.. I'm soo glad it's over. No more crowds, no more hiking through convention floor after convention floor, no more hotels, no more M&Ms and lemonade. Soo.. you wanted the answer to the Pre-DefCon Scavenger Hunt? Read on. pinguino [pinguino@comicartist.com] Flippersmack Archives: http://www.penguinpalace.com/ http://www.nettwerked.net/ http://www.ghu.ca/ tABLE oF cONTENTS Pre-Scavenger Hunt Clue ANSWER .....................Flippersmack DefCon Scavenger Hunt Followup .....................Flippersmack Crazy 8 Must See Movies ...................................Orion DefCon Diaries: SlapAyoda's Story .....................SlapAyoda Comic Book Kamikaze: Comicon ...........................Pinguino Untitled Poetry.............................................Monk FRESH articles were written day of zine release- July 24, 2001 .x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x -.x.x.x.- :: Pre-DefCon Scavenger Hunt ANSWER :: I HAVE A SMALL PENIS The Game: Eight puzzles were created, with roughly each answer being roughly two characters long. The game started out at a high level of difficulty, and progressively got easier and more obvious. To win the contest, you had to walk up to the Flippersmack table at DefCon and tell Pinguino the winning phrase. Apparently the puzzles were too hard; many people had four of the eight solved, but nobody got the final answer. Next year, we're going to start the game off in May and come up with easier puzzles, maybe with more levels of challenges. This game was extremely popular, so we might run some contests through the site in the next few months. From this past game, some of the clues were URLs hidden in JPEG information fields, encoded files, font size numbers that led to a phone number, phone pad tricks, and related puzzle types. The answer to the clue with the picture of a card was DSL... about 30 people got that right. Lot of people guessed "NIC," which was understandably close given the lack of detail in the photo. Thanks to Hackcanada, Phear, Barkode, Max, Crowe, and SlapAyoda for help creating and hosting puzzles!! -.x.x.x.- :: Flippersmack's DefCon Scavenger Hunt FollowUp :: FIRST PLACE: A-Team Circuit, Random Dent, Fantom SECOND PLACE: Exxodus Siviak, Wolfe, Banshee, Texorist THIRD PLACE: Blackcell Carl B, Hampton Prizes included: Original art and comic books from Penguin Palace and Comics Conspiracy, T-shirts from Jinx Hackwear, Ninjas.org, Cult of the Dead Cow, Phone Losers of America, Halibut Stuff, Iron Feather Journal, as well as shot glasses and a hat from DefCon, Tux from Nerdgear, mugs from AtNetworks, books from Loompanics, toy linesmen's handset and hats from Phone Losers of America, and stickers from Penguin Palace, Ninjas.org, Halibut Stuff, and Phone Losers of America. How did they win? Each team is given a piece of paper with items to do or bring to us. When some of the items are brought back, the team is given a higher-value clue to solve. Many of the clues were location-based and written on the spot. Both Exxodus and A-Team showed considerable dedication and enthusiasm for the hunt, as well as endless creativity and ingenuity. How did A-Team win? They didn't sleep much. A-Team did almost every small clue and bonus clue they were handed, which involved acts like swimming naked laps in the pool, bringing a live Coy fish, writing a limerick with the word "fuselage" and creating a penguin out of data cables and tape! They also duct-taped themselves to each other for 20 mins, wore pants backwards for 3 hours, found Bill Jenkins and Cook E. Jar, got the secret clue off of Jackalope's CD, fed's business card, and got RBCP to draw a cactus. Exxodus gets props on their nakedness. They did every naked challenge presented to them, as well as random weird stuff like Siviak wearing 13 tshirts and 4 pairs of pants and jumping into the pool. They made cable art out of a fake leg, and their team member Texorist actually got married in Vegas on DefCon weekend! Wow, congrats Texorist. Banshee tongue-raped an unsuspecting Pesto, and the team brought over a guy named Swan. They also found every phrase that followed "Win or Die" in the GameWorks payphones, as well as the director of "The MPire Strikes Back: an M&M production." This is the third year for the Scavenger Hunt, and it's gotten bigger and better each time! Thank you, everyone who participated: the players, their friends, prize donators, and Flippersmack staff! You guys asked for the Scavenger Hunt, and you made it come together! Good luck next year! -.x.x.x.- My Crazy 8 Must See Movies You've Never Seen! by Orion (bigo@dreamsoft.com) 1. Black Samurai - It's got everything you could want in a blaxploitation movie: midgets, voodoo priests, naked oiled up chicks, and Jim Kelly! http://us.imdb.com/Title?0074213 2. Star Wars Holiday Special - Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Mark Hamil, and the rest of the cast reunite to make complete asses of themselves in this 1978 TV special that George Lucas doesn't want you to see. SEE Jefferson Starship, Art Carney, Diane Carroll, and Bea Arthur at their most embarrassing. SEE teletubbies with goatees. SEE Chewie's family bark and roar for 45 minutes. SEE Boba Fett attack Luke with a tuning fork. SEE Carrie Fisher really stoned as she sings! http://us.imdb.com/Title?0193524 3. Spiderman the Japanese Series - Yup, in 1978 there was a live action series that was aired in Japan of our favorite web-slinger. The costume is true to the original, the action and special effects were cheesy, and the theme song is funny. He fights a lot of monsters, and even Darth Vader - and to top it off he has his own car (the GP-7), and his own flying tank, (the Marbella), which merge to form the giant robot Leopardon! -(Sorry kiddies no link to this, but I have a copy.)- 4. Theater of Blood - Vincent Price is at his best as a Shakespearean actor who gets bad reviews and kills the critics in very creative ways. Great movie. http://us.imdb.com/Title?0070791 5. New Cutey Honey - From Japan comes something better than Pokemon and Godzilla: Cutey Honey, a sword wielding chick who fights for truth and justice, with kick ass music, bad villains, and nudity. This Anime cartoon delivers the best in action, wacky old cyborg geezers, wacky dialogue, and sexy outfits. http://us.imdb.com/Title?0110652 6. Playing With Fire - Serious made for TV movie that stars Different Strokes star Gary Coleman as a psycho killer! http://us.imdb.com/Title?0089815 7. Dark City - Great movie for fans of The Matrix. Also a good movie for paranoid people. http://us.imdb.com/Title?0118929 8. Invasion USA - Unintentionally the goofiest movie Chuck Norris was ever in. The premise: the USA is invaded by evil foreigners with guns and only one man can stop 'em. Lots of explosions and worth it for the end showdown alone. http://us.imdb.com/Title?0089348 Well that's it for my crazy 8 list - hunt down and check these movies out! -.x.x.x.- DefCon Diaries: SlapAyoda's Story by SlapAyoda (slapayoda@yahoo.com) Defcon? Defcon. Defconnnnn. By now you've read about the FBI arrest (Dmitry Skyarov), the LVPD arrests (payphone thiefs and drug users), the booze, the mischief, and the sighs of world-worn hackers staring at script kiddies and troublemakers taking over the original hacker con. Well, you're going to read about it again. Unless you decide not to read this article. Either way, you're not going to see anything remotely relevant like a review of the technical discussions or the scope of this year's wireless network. Prepare for mindless scene-driven stupidity. What is a Defcon, anyways? A quick note to clarify for those not 'in-the-know': Defcon, or (as it is correctly spelled - DEF CON) is an annual hacker convention / party in Las Vegas. Various talks are given on computers and security, t-shirts and stickers with various hackerish appeal are sold, and some official 'events' occur, such as a rave and coffee competition, as well as Pinguino's Scavenger Hunt (of which you should already know). The actual events and talks have always, however, taken a backseat to general partying and get-together-ing. Most attendees see it as an opportunity to hang out with friends from across the country that they rarely get to see, to meet new hackers, and to have a fun time. This year's con was more of the same, with a larger attendance (over 5,100) and better organization in some areas (the fancy badges and event guides were a nice touch). I didn't attend any of the talks, and in fact haven't talk to anyone who did (other than the ill-fated Social Engineering Contest, which was stopped by the FBI) - so I can't personally comment on the quality of this year's speakers. I have heard, however, that it was a comparable event in those terms to the previous conventions. What do you do at a Defcon? Well, I certainly didn't attend a wide range of con-related activities, so I'm a poor reviewer in that sense. I can quickly sum up my actions at the con: Sat at the Flippersmack booth with Pinguino, hung out with RBCP at the Phone Losers of America booth, talked to EvilCal a bit, hung out with Pesto a bit, helped design the Scavenger Hunt, ran around Vegas with Pinguino a lot. As far as all that stuff goes, I had fun. The Flippersmack booth was generally fun and the Scavenger Hunt was pretty successful. There were a few very enthusiastic teams that continually surprised us with their dedication and knack for cracking some puzzles that I thought would be difficult to solve. What am I going to do with all these t-shirts? As my friend Skrike said, "One time at Defcon, I stuck a Lineman's Handset up my pussy." Wait. That has no relevance at all. Perhaps that's a good point - there isn't a point. In the past few years, a lot of hardcore hackers and oldschool Defcon attendees have cited the pointless combination of juvenile mischief and cluelessness as prime reasons to avoid the con. Even Dark Tangent (the founder of Defcon) has written a paper on the decline of the state of the con (at www.defcon.org). People feel as if the emphasis is on selling tshirts and getting drunk instead of exploring technical issues and discussing computer security. Personally, I don't mind it at all. I've always seen Defcon as a party for the hacker scene instead of an opportunity to learn new things. If I want information on new exploits, I'll check securityfocus.com; and if I want to learn how to properly configure a CISCO PIX, I'll check the CISCO section of my local bookstore or google around the web until I find the information I'm looking for. Dark Tangent makes some good points in his paper, however, and it is something every Defcon attendee should read. -.x.x.x.- .:ADVERTISEMENT:. Want to charm and mystify the night? Want to fascinate and captivate? Then check out: http://www.kathy.kilna.com Gothic and rave jewelry that will mesmerize and entrance you. -.x.x.x.- Comic Book Kamikaze: San Diego ComiCon Journal by Pinguino (pinguino@comicartist.com) Three conventions in one month are way too much for this penguin to handle. I staggered through ComiCon International for five days this past week. No table this year, just an onlooking professional. The con grew again, with estimated 50,000 attendees on Saturday alone, but booths were able to spread out more, due to construction efforts by the San Diego Convention Center. I haven't published a comic book since 1998, with Tori Do: the epic, but have been reviewing and doing web design since. Oddly enough, people remembered me from earlier cons; Sean Ortega (Maximo Studios) recognized me from the old San Diego Mini-Cons, back when I was 17 with some ghetto-rigged booths and rough digitally scanned comics. I tracked and pounced friends with tables: Mile High Comics, Steve Troop from Melonpool, Doug from Comics Conspiracy, Rafael who does Sonambulo, Sam Hiti from End Times, Sandra from Akemi and the Random Comics crew. Thursday was my day to run around and meet cool people. I ended up spending lots of time in Artist's Alley, which I've never done before. I got to kick it with the guy who made "Mystery Men" and "Flaming Carrot." Also met some kids who had an artzine called "Fire and Ice" whose proceeds went to the Antarctica Project. I also got a chance to talk to Scott Frazier, one of the speakers I saw from Anime Expo. That night I dashed up to LA and brought SlapAyoda back down to San Diego for the rest of the con. The next four days we staggered from booth to booth like zombies, waving hellos and gazing out at our comic book heroes. There was a lot of representation from "Planet of the Apes," including paper masks from Dark Horse. There was a giant display of props and artwork from the upcoming "Time Machine" movie. We saw the Star Wars Connections footage, which showed links from Episode I and II to the original trilogy. Even the second showing of that was completely packed, with at least 100 people lining the walls and sitting on the floor. We also got to see the Futurama Xmas episode that was too violent to air last season: awesome. The Santa of the future is an evil robot and Bender is asked to save the day. They ended up throwing little kids around and defacing the meaning of Christmas. It might air at a later timeslot this winter, hopefully without too much editing. The new Futurama season is slated to begin in December, as well. We also learned that Bender is a bending robot, not a love robot =) The coolest treat of this year's ComiCon was a showing of the first three episodes of Samauri Jack. The new Cartoon Network series is brought to you by Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Dexter's Laboratory. Aku is an evil shape-shifting demon. A child is sent away to become a samauri to bring peace to the distraught land. When he returns, Aku sends him to the future, where the warrior is dubbed "Jack" as he quests to return back to the past and defeat Aku. What makes this show unique is the animation style. Samauri Jack is unlike any cartoon on TV. Smooth, vibrant animation and elegantly crafted music remove the need for much speech. The animation style still has elements from Powerpuff Girls and Dexter, but it also has a lot of classic Asian motifs and groundbreaking design elements. It's definitely worth checking out. The show premieres Aug 10, 7pm (e/p) http://www.cartoonnetwork.com/jack/index.html Melonpool Comics has a new book this year, well, a preview book. It's called "The Wrath of the Con." Eric made some teeny-bop musical spoof CDs for Melonpool's new chick character, Jalea Bates. It's hilarious; I bought the CDs. They're available at his site: http://www.pretzyl.com/jalea/index2.html Sonambulo came out with a graphic novel of their comics a week ago.. Random has been busy putting out new books.. CrossGen is still out there doing amazing work. I'll have more comic book reviews and interviews up in the next month or so.. we're still recovering from the conventions this past month. Nighttime activities this year included the Rocky Horror Picture Show, napkin fights at Dick's Last Resort, and the Truth Art Show. I was a Rocky Horror virgin, and was very impressed with the enthusiasm that people brought to the show. There was a guy dressed as Kubuki who was really funny (not part of the act.) The Art show had pieces by Mary Fleener and the person who does art for the Obey posters. I also ran across Megan Besmirched there! Her and her husband's work can be found in Penguin Palace's Qwill anthology series =) We attended the Comic Book Expo and Pro Con (big mistake, the place was dead) and sat in on one of the funniest roundtable discussions ever about inking. Apparently Shannon Wheeler (Too Much Coffee Man) has waaaay too much fun with his art supplies, as he recommended to us that we shower with our brushes, bake our artwork in an oven, and try using an eyeliner brush and q-tips to ink with. A lot was actually learned in that class; it was fun =) Next year, Penguin Palace will have a booth at ComiCon again, so cruise by! I'm thinking either Artist's Alley or Small Press; I'll let you know when we make a final decision! Our next comic book is scheduled to release late spring of 2002. -.x.x.x.- Untitled Poetry by Monk (monkstah@hotmail.com) you're stealing my eyes with your broadway stare slipping through the corner of those glasses like adam's voice interrupting my bedsheets with coffee black lines i remind myself that dreaming isn't fair. if only my ginger rogers missed fred astaire, i'd show her dancing on the tin roofs of buildings, clasping elegant satin around her shoulders as she silenced the room by her walk. your ruby lips gingerly reveal more of your character than you allow, and inhibitions slip silently to the ground with each passing drink in your hand. i met a girl who dreams in cleveland, and exacts her medicine with modesty through morning cigarettes that allow the rest of the day to welcome her. i met a boy who looks at blue waiting for eyes that compare to vivian leigh, and only hoping she strolls with an air of simpleness. +-----------------------------------------------------+ Flippersmack (c) 2001 Flippersmack All Rights Reserved. Penguins do it better.