☯ ♎︎ ⛧ lainzine volume 6 ⛧ ♎︎ ☯

Good evening. I hope the equinox finds all of you well. in this time of balance, the latest release of our very own hacker zine, lainzine , has reached completion. it is attached. you will find in this volume 30 pages of content the shared work of 10 writers 3 artists 3 editors 4 typesetters and one editor-in-chief of the very Vice Motherboard: France Edition who did not complete editing the interview in time for his 2018 deadline about the 20th anniversary of serial experiments: lain fortunately, the lainzine has no deadline. In this thread we will also discuss the continued development of lainzine volume 7, for which submissions are now closed until further notice. Volume 8 is still accepting new content and awaits, eagerly, Your Submission. We are also still developing, or at least doing *something ,* with the interviews we have conducted for track44 and the lainzine in general. and the now 8 tracks for our compilation album: we are still accepting submissions. And would be thee most pleased with one longform article about Music. Enjoy

Nice, downloaded! Maybe I should make another submission, last was #3 or something. Thanks for keeping this project going, and interesting

a cool. Thanks guys. The body was too empty or short but I will post this thank you and solicit my intention to consume this content immediately.

>>9748 Unironically incredibly stuff you lot are doing. This magazine is oozing with creativity. I hope you lot are proud of yourselves.

why is 6 done before 5? https://lainzine.org/all-releases/lainzine05/

>>9753 that's a good question. The simple answer is that every edition of the lainzine is developed by a different team, and that Reagan - the volunteered typesetter for every released content of lainzine volume 5, after a period of decreasing attendance, lost interest and became more involved with other matters. A more complicated answer is that during the period of lz5's development, work on lainzine 6 had actually began concurrently - myself editing the articles, and a different graphic designer, Auntie, developing style guidelines for lainzine 6 to be worked on more cooperatively - this was to answer the problem we ran into of a singular person getting burned out on typesetting the entire publication. As Auntie became busy with school, however, other typesetters were brought on to complete the design as specified in the guidelines. however over time the guidelines wound up not really being followed, either. lainzine volume 6 was developed cooperatively by ~4 different people, with danceswithwood and myself learning scribus to putting on the finishing touches this and last year. the document and development files were relayed between each member of the team over variety of git instances and instant messenger applications. At each step of the relay, new volunteers were given a decision as to what in particular they wanted to contribute to. After a certain point, enough content of lainzine 5 had been published, and our article backlog was so long, that it consistently made more sense to work on and publish volume 6 than complete volume 5. >>9749 it would be much appreciated! i look forward to your email

Nice one, downloaded. Keep up the great work people.

Oh this is wonderful. Colorful and all! Thanks for the hard work, team.

>>9755 >scribus to typeset how does it compare to LaTeX? Would it not be easier to define one documentclass and then just C&P the text with the pictures?

Very nice, I'll enjoy ready that :D, thanks y'all

>>9771 possible, yes. but what you suggested would make every page look nearly the same, which we don't want. In general, a latex solution strikes me as very template-oriented which is something we after lainzine 5 decided to move away from: while the same expressiveness can be achieved using LaTeX, it would take a more advanced understanding of the program to achieve what we did with the zine. There's also the matter that professional typesetters, some of whom were involved with vol. 6, by-and-large do not use LaTeX (although this is not necessarily true in the scientific community), and while they do not really use Scribus either its similar and even has some team workflow interoperability with more "professional" design tools, like InDesign - which has been used in the past. we actually had multiple self-elect teams for years working with Scribus and LaTeX simultaneously, however LaTeX people seemingly become consistently overwhelmed and are not able to maintain involvement. Ultimately, what tools team members are willing to use and the lengths to which they go with them are the deciding factor in the format the zine takes. Something we are planning to do, however and still working on is to release articles in HTML format in the future. this will will make content easier to find on search engines and make each article more useful as an object to its readers - if you read something interesting in the lainzine now, you have to remember what PDF its in and then the person you share it with has to download the PDF to read it in a separate application. sending someone a link to an article is more simple, but I want to ensure in the process that personality is not lost.

>>9748 I guess I missed out on writing for volume 5 and 6. Would definitely like to get off my ass and actually finally write something. I love the community contributions! Its a great read as always. What are some topics lains are interested in knowing? I don't know a lot about computers, but I know a lot about security.

>>9780 Anything security related I would love to read. from secure/ity software dev, reversing, pentesting, organizational cybersecurity policy, cryptology, identity management.. I'm not sure if this makes sense. but there's a lot of people making questionable decisions to live freely, be cool online or make more money than they're supposed to. there's a lot of opsec guides for different types of activity, maybe some sort of practical risk analysis, for an adventurous lifestyle? or, "how to know when you can trust others?"

>>9782 > Anything security related I would love to read. from secure/ity software dev, reversing, pentesting, organizational cybersecurity policy, cryptology, identity management. Same. In addition, an article on physical security would be a very interesting read. There was an article in a past lainzine that touched on improving the security of locks, something in a similar vein would be appreciated. > "how to know when you can trust others?" This would be a fascinating read, though would it be more in the vein of social engineering rather than security? >>9780 > I know a lot about security. Assuming you mean physical security, an article on securing and hiding things of interest (dead drops, hollowed out books and other such compartments, etc) would be interesting. Other topics (unrelated to security): Social engineering tips Learning on one's own Memory improvement

>>9784 I'm thinking of doing one on how to carry a gun if lains are interested, inspired by the lains in the EDC thread arguing about guns.

>>9748 Sweet, enjoyed reading this issue. The Editors Notes and Motherboard interview particularly made me realize that I've been visiting Lainchan for so long now, I feel old as soykaf. Thanks guys and thanks for the hard work, お疲れ様です！

>>9748 Woah, amazing! Hope you keep up the good work for upcoming issues! >>9780 Yeah, same as the other lainons, any security articles would be nice to read. I feel articles about OPSEC and tightening security in non-computational ways would fit well with lainzine's ethos.

An interesting update for everyone. lainzine is being translated into Chinese.

Hey, thanks for using the cover I made, I really appreciate it, also congrats Junk for the zine.

why's the text not justified? yuck

>>9748 Thank you! I enjoyed the others and look forward to this one.

>>9800 that's interesting, where can i find it?

>>9800 Will it accept original submissions?

>>9800 if you need a new cover for this chinese version i would be down to help again, i still have the original images without the text

>>9748 It escapes me how you don't realize that VICExMotherboard is another honeypot .. They are doing info gathering to keep tabs on anonymous communities in general ...

>>9814 thank you for making it! >>9825 when it has content of it'll be hosted on zh.lainzine.org, probably. but there's another domain that I've began to think about. the main translator is having a pretty rough time with life, though. >>9826 yes >>9827 might be helpful, actually. send us an email - lainzine@protonmail.com, lainzine@riseup.net and I can put you in the various group chats >>9832 >They are doing info gathering to keep tabs on anonymous communities in general ... that would be giving them far too much credit. someone may correct me if wrong, but no serious news publications care enough about imageboards to do accurate or in depth reporting, without clickbait-tier slant or agenda - just look at how they handled systemspace. I could go on about how the average vice news reader probably thinks about communities like this - ~weird underground internet~ ~mysterious cults~ ~lainism~, etc. this sort of reporting creates a sense of false expectation and attracts people looking for shiny, shallow things, internet cool kid points and drama. I'm not saying those people should always be turned away but the behavior can be worrying. I think they can be kindly informed on how to chill. you can take a look yourself, though, and let me know if I told them anything that remotely approaches sensitive information - while i wanted to roast them in the interview, i tried to just give a sense of compelling for people who would benefit from lainchan and vice versa. i feel that given the end result of its publication, it primarily laid out our ethos. keep in mind this was all in 2018, also.

>>9832 Lol Vice motherboard has a really well established editorial voice and to describe it as "keeping tabs on anonymous communities" is really flattening. Do they post articles about "the sim swapping community" that are maybe publicizing in group information? Yes. Are you sending people with bricks to peoples houses? No. Acting like you are a community worth observing in this way is somewhere between paranoid and deeply conceited. It's not like this is a Washington times piece clutching their pearls about what kids say on the internet. It's some people where were interested in promoting a piece of art and the community it came from. This response is a failure to threat model in that you are imaging there is some propriety information here and that it's not a public forum on the clear web. Also vice news doesn't exist anymore. Is 404 media also a honeypot or does the same editorial team stop being a honeypot when they stop being associated with a name you recognize?

>>9815 justified text is ugly to be honest, sometimes its more appropriate but mostly its awful. best is hyphenated

>>9832 Honeypot isn't really the right way to describe Vice. What they were is a fuarrrking spook rag that peddles national security state propaganda. Thankfully they filed for bankruptcy and closed down last year, so the world no longer has to suffer what the CIA wants them to think in the guise of ironic hipster soykafposts. One of the extremely rare pieces of good news in the world of journalism over the past several years.

>>9836 No it's not. You're probably used to how justified text looks in html or in word processors. When done by something like LaTeX (or by hand)it looks beautiful. There's certainly no reason not to justify text in a zine.

>>9840 >when done by something like LaTeX I'm aware that text justification can be fine-tuned to be more visually appealing, but your judgment of this as a matter of word processors vs LaTeX betrays that you aren't. when people think justified text, they are almost always talking about pressing the justify button in a word processor, a simple operation which "justify it" in the common hot tip refers to. you're talking about your preference for niche special case. I won't deny can look good, but you have to admit its an effort most people don't care for.

"The Misremembering of Internet History" This briefly overviews the various theories for the origin of the English-speaking Internet culture, and settles on the conclusion that it mostly has a single origin. However, this makes the argument that more of it came from BBSes than Usenet, as is conventionally believed. The narrative that Usenet, and by extension ARPANET, was its origin became the dominant one since Usenet had proportionally more users in academia, and thus more placed to shape the narrative. Their academic environment shielded users of Usenet from having to develop a strong capacity for self-organization. When that shield was withdrawn, the IRC networks split continually and Usenet itself suffocated under the tide of "Eternal September", while around the same time the BBSes managed to build up and stabilize FidoNet. As the institutional memory of BBSes slowly began to wane over the 1990s, so went the ability of self-organization. Would this count as an academic essay or a manifesto? Would this be an acceptable submission?

>>9846 It sounds like a great essay: not only are you arguing a point with evidence, you're also providing interesting history. please send

>>9847 Well to be honest I haven't started working on it. Just wanted to know about word count, formatting, and other stuff like that.

>>9848 word count can be any length under 5 pages. feel free to use any format for citations, fonts etc can / will be reformatted for the material. pictures welcome but not necessary. we can copyedit the piece ourselves but can also stay in touch if you want more in-depth editing/feedback. plaintext or markdown preferred, but we will try to work with any document format.

>>9849 Hello, First off thank you for releasing Lainzine 6. It was a great read and I'm glad the zine is continuing on. One question for you, Junk: In Lainzine issue 4, you mentioned there was another zine being put together on opsec: > Stay tuned for a zine (unaffiliated to us) that some lains are putting together on opsec. Currently, they're looking for artists and formatters. If you can help, feel free to get in touch with anontrust@cock.li Do you know what became of the zine? Were there any issues released anywhere? Thanks again for working on Lainzine 6.

>>9892 thank you! unfortunately i habe no idea what happened with that, sorry.

>>9894 No worries, thanks for the response.

Hello, I was wondering where I could find more of Nullmuse's stories or work. I really enjoyed "Hunter Eat Hunter" (Lainzine v04) and "Ghosts In The Shell" (Lainzine v05), and I would like to read more of their work.

>>10076 nullmuse is one of my favorites too. sadly we scoured the entire internet for them back in 2018 and found nothing - IIRC they had a self-hosted email that they took down a long time ago. if anyone wants to write something like that - creative nonfiction about doing some interesting security things, with computers, we'd be happy to publish.

I'm working on an article outlining a basic theory of mass surveillance/social control. The basic gist is thinking aloud about how the authorities are introducing new techniques of social control and population management with tech. Is this something I could submit to lainzine?

>>10264 it would depend on how well-researched it is, and whether it feels superficial. I don't want to print anything that feels like baseless speculation, doomposting, 8chan-y conspiracies or the like. but if you wanted something drawing on or at least acknowledging existing theories of social control like cybernetic state policy, and drew a connection to actually existing technologies or social programs then I'd be happy to read it over.

>>9894 thanks for thinking about putting my ideas in volume 7, would love to see them one day, I was the guy who emailed you the guitar picture and soykaf, cant wait for volume 7.

>>9748 Thank you all for finally publishing this issue! I'm so glad the articles and art we made years ago are out and appreciated. Is the 8th issue still accepting submissions? I'd love to contribute again

>>10491 it is! I'd love to read another submission of yours

>>10591 Do you need a cover for the 8th issue, i will be glad to make a new cover

That was a nice read! I'm thinking of submitting something. Does anyone have the source for the image on page 16, with the otaku worshipping the anime girls on the wall?

>>10618 are you talking about the source image or the piece itself? that's original artwork by kathleen ( https://www.klarraz.com/ ), but idk what she used as a source. >>10617 I'm pretty sure we still need a cover for volume 7. sorry for not responding to your email, other stuff has been a priority.

>>10686 Gonna try to have the 2 covers by january next year

>>10591 when’s the music thing coming out again, just asking.

>>10693 track44 is coming out this month or next. my apologies as it was supposed to happen 4 months ago, our typesetter got wrapped up in some soykaf so I'm finishing the job now. we also had to wait for feedback from / coordinate with all the artists we interviewed.

>>10695 well, hope to see some of my stuff there.

"The Limits of Hacktivism" This briefly reviews the historiography of the Arab Spring, and notes that the celebratory tone taken toward its online mobilization has not been reexamined in light of the crushing of its protest movements. It studies the contributions of Anonymous in the Arab Spring and concludes that while their actions were innovative and effective, they were marked by a disinterestedness in ultimate goal that unwittingly enabled the rise of extremist regimes and movements in the place of the governments that were overthrown. It traces the connection between the Arab Spring and the refugee crisis and the rise of the right. It concludes with the observation that when Anonymous rails against Trump, it is fighting against a problem it helped to create.

>>11641 The whole idea of an Arab Spring is questionable. What even is a spring? The credit Facebook and other social media companies and Anonymous claim for helping facilitate it is dubious at best. The conflict that erupted after downfall of Mubarak in Egypt or Ben Ali in Tunisia, had less to do with the dynamics of the internet and more with the dynamics of modern political culture in subordinate countries. What is an extremist regime even? Why is the term extremist only used for political actors in the Middle East? The refugee crisis can’t be separated from the War on Terror which displaced over 30 million people, the largest displacement of humans since WW2 for which nothing major was done. The harsh reality is that hacktivism has rarely achieved anything and the Arab Spring is wheeled out as a success when the “Arab Spring” as it was depicted in the West never even took place. It’s simply a board where Western governments, neocons, liberals, leftists, Silicon Valley tech workers, and corporate execs like Zuckerberg could project their own unhinged fantasies onto.

>>11641 >>11642 Any history on the Arab Spring should be accompanied by When Wikileaks Met Google and Eric Schmidt's designs on world domination and his attempts to engineer regime changes through Google on behalf of US empire.

>>11646 Why would the US rile up protests to topple its own banana republics? The US was damaged by the fall of Mubarak, Ben Ali etc. Gaddafi was more or less an ally at that point and they were warming up to Bashar. The Arab Spring hurt the US more than anyone else and their reaction to it was extreme: financing tons of coups against elected governments, threatening to designate opposition parties terrorist groups etc. The real story of hacktivism and social media during the "Arab Spring" was how Google and Facebook helped fragment the protestors into extremely hostile camps that turned on each other. You can see a similar process driving online culture wars politics on the English internet these days.

>>11641 I think that this assigns a significant amount of correlation - causation fallacy. In fact, you would start approaching the limits of discernible fact-finding in international politics (some of which is undoubtedly based on covert operations and therefore unknown to the public including yourself). An apt comparison would be the Japanese population crisis and hikkikomori epidemic being a consequence of the assassination of archduke Franz Ferdinand. You would have to draw so many comparisons that it's not reasonable. There are in fact several competing systems in the role of hacktivism, I think there are a few books on hacktivism that discuss the politicizing of halfchan raids and the rise of right wing extremism specifically as a result of certain boards on 4chan and 8chan. >>11642 There were a lot of things behind the scenes with the Arab Spring, not to mention there were failures (Bahrain) which were suppressed by monarchies and dictatorships. I don't think that there isn't something to be said about the limits of hacktivism in certain contexts - for example one specific country (if you have first hand knowledge or involvement) but generalizing the entire movement is to broad a topic. Also not mentioning changing EU social policy and environmental cycles producing harsh living conditions, and exacerbating anti-immigrant sentiment and far right action. Economists, environmental scientists, and sociologists in the early 2000s had already suspected some occurrence like the arab spring, and the rise of ISIS was likely to happen with severe consequences on human migration in the 2010s going to the 2030s. The scope of the movement and it's destabilizing outcomes are greater in scope than just "Hacktivism" The additional characterization of Anon as being a singular group is also a misconception, as there are "Anonymous" against both the left and right, pro/anti immigrant, not to mention going back to its roots, it being done for the lulz.

Gaddafi engaged in regime change. Are you not aware of him reversing the 1973 communist coup in Sudan?

Wow, it’s alive! And even in 2024 there was a release that finally published my article! Five… or six years after I submitted it. It’s long since been relevant, and over the years these little details have become almost trivial… Even now Wi‑Fi routers running OpenWrt can automatically change their access point’s MAC address. In general, the level of surveillance in Russia (and worldwide) has progressed so far that what I wrote back then feels like a mere footnote. It seems I penned that article before COVID‑19, so today it reads more humorously than anything else. I’m just a little relieved that I can still drop in here and download the zine—because in Russia there are already whitelists, and sometimes you can only access the internet on approved sites. I expect that soon you’ll be restricted to a list of allowed websites, and no proxy will get you through. Thanks for staying alive!

>>11715 About that... I have been thinking about why China hasn't implemented a whitelist yet even though their Great Firewall blocks large swaths of the internet already. The answer might be the same as why Tor exists. Plausible deniability. Had they made it impossible for their citizens to access western web they wouldn't be able to carry out influence campaigns and cyberattacks without immediately revealing CCP sponsored actors were behind them right? Think about the North Korean situation. When a cyberattack is carried out from there it is immediately obvious that state sponsored actors were responsible. So that is why I don't think international internet will be shut down soon, until cyberattacks are treated the same as conventional military aggression. In any case anons will be anons wherever they are. Don't be sad it's over, be glad that it ever happened.

>>11716 My general sense is that the Chinese see the internet as necessary for growing an economy in a globalized world, but are more worried about the effect monopolistic American tech companies will have in their media space and economy. The Great Firewall serves as much a protectionist function as it does a censorship one. In fact, I think economic protectionism is its main function right now as they more or less turn a blind eye to people evading the system. Influence campaigns and cyberattacks happen, but I doubt that’s a major factor in their decision making. There’s also the possibility that state cyberattacks occur far less frequently than is generally claimed, because practically every bad actor in China is blamed on the CCP which is a bit stupid. In any case, I doubt they’ll go the Russia route anytime soon simply because they are one of the biggest economies on earth right now and shutting themselves off that way would be damaging to the Chinese economy.

>>11716 I think there’s some truth in your words, but there’s one fact about Russia and China that breaks that logic: China doesn’t wage war openly, whereas Russia does. They’ve already crossed that line, so I think they could definitely implement whitelists on a permanent basis. For example, SIM cards in roaming no longer work in Russia (source https://habr.com/ru/news/954266) they allowed users to bypass blocks (there are no such restrictions on roaming in China, as far as I know) I believe the country will break down into multiple smaller fragments; perhaps at that point, authorities would lack both the time and resources to implement internet censorship and engage in external conflicts.