Hacker ( haxx0r ) Monthly, Feb 2005 : Paris Hilton gets her innards blasted over the internet, Hunter S Thompson to get his ashes fired out of a cannon, Ukrainians market kinky scientific breakthrough.

Phoney Games
Apparently because she chose her lost password question as ‘name my pet’ (the same pet chihuahua she often mentions in the mass media ), Paris Hilton’s mobile device ( a T-mobile sidekick II - which offers telephone & net access ) was recently hacked into, and it’s contents strewn across the internet like a sequined handbag being emptied in a toilet cubicle ( see the peeps here squawking over notes by Paris, camera snapshots by, and usually of her, mp3 messages, and phone numbers of celebs such as Christine Aguilera, Fred Durst, Eminem, StephenKing etc ). Already one site ( paris-hacked.com ) offers to send Hilton camera pics to your phone, and has for sale a whole bunch of trucker caps and ‘I hacked Paris’ Phone’ merchandise.

Paris ain’t alone though, because alongside spam and security threats, a definite side effect of the increasing density of our communications, is the way the private is becoming public – whether it’s a blogger writing personal information about someone else, or ‘intercepting’ data – the methods of which, are many. Bluejacking hit the news a while ago, which was basically writing a message as the name of your phone and sending that to any other blue tooth equipped phone in a public space ( see www.bluejackq.com ). ‘Bluesnarfing’ is a more recently coined moniker related to that, describing the theft of data – calendar information and phonebook contacts – from a discoverable Bluetooth phone. Thanks to Paris and her chihuahua, we can sit back and watch ‘hacking phones’ rise up the Google charts, aided by eager 14 years old the world over. Those not busy making prank calls with the Napoleon Dynamite soundboard that is. Laid the cheese on way too hard in that film, so keep the hard-hitting Arnold soundboard ready as a back-up.

mo:life
Still on the phone phront, phans of the Independent Ozmag that was
Spinach, and others curious about mobile-media culture might be interested in their new moderated email list discussing mobile-media culture and technology.
“mo:life is interested in how, inherently global, mobile media will be implicated in our daily lives here in Australia and the Asia Pacific. mo:life maps and explores how we, as a distinct culture, will produce, adapt, consume, buy, sell, accept, and reject new forms and uses of floating communication.” – PR tranmission from http://s7digital.com/molife

Biology Cheaters Part I
File under ‘Words that really sing together, but shouldn’t’ : ‘Musical Condoms’. Ukrainian inventor Dr Grigoriy Chausovskiy has concocted a way of warding off unwanted pregnancies without suppressing the pleasurable sensations involved in succumbing to our hard-wired desires – a musical condom that gets louder as the sex gets more vigorous. Keen observers may have already noted that Ukraine won the recent Eurovision song contest, with a softcore s&m number that left viewers wondering if they’d tuned in to some leather-clad-musical of Lord of The Rings. Thrusting forth from that same country now – condoms which have tiny sensors on the rubber, connected to a mini electronic device. Kind of like a musical valentines day card, except Dr Chausovskiy claims different lovemaking positions allow different tunes to be played by the condom. He was also keen to stress:

“There is no danger of being electrocuted.”

Part II : One Last Arc

“I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.”

-The late Hunter S Thompson
Famous as much for the mythology surrounding him, as his maniacal yet probing writings, his gonzo journalism – Hunter S Thompson is now dead. Has left the building. Only adding to that mythology, infused as it was with narcotics and artillery, is Hunter’s choice of exit : to have his cremated remains blasted from a cannon. Apparently the last two years of degenerative health are being tallied as heavy contributing factors for his suicide. His most famous book ‘Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas’ which was recently turned into a film, popularised his wildly extravagant writings, but he also left behind a long body of political and personal essays, articles, notes, and books – most of which can be perused here: www.gonzo.org.

Alien comic anthropologists landing in Oz would soon gravitate to Melbourne, home of the infamous ‘Silent Army’ crew of comic artists, animators, stencillers, sticker-makers, public art-ists and visual inventors. There they would find evidence of much Silent Army shenanigans : glorious public art, numerous official and un-official exhibitions ( see www.theemptyshow.org ), several Big Day Out murals, and of course, central to any art-in-sequence, comic-makin-folk – a whole shebang load of publications : the PURE EVIL series (1-6), endless appearances in other compilations and the forthcoming ‘True Fantasy’ contributor anthology being collated by Michael Fikaris, the ‘Sparks’ compilation being curated by Lachlan Conn, and ‘Trails’ – the first of a hopefully regular series of x-large newsprint size magazines being compiled by Kieran Mangan, who is still welcoming contributions (trails_at_silentarmy.com) of sketches, drawerings, doodles, scraps, drugged out art, visual poems, found art, design, brut art, graffiti etc.

Silent Army books, paintings and live drawings can be witnessed alongside Swedish, German, Polish & Tasmanian artists as part of the 2005 Melbourne Stencil Festival, at the Meat Markets – 42 Courtney St, Nth Melb.

Silent Army Webness : www.comicslifestyle.com & www.silentarmy.com

What with portable electronic data devices, electronic ink and shrinking technology it seems inevitable that our magazines will have working hyperlinks one day. This week’s column is ready for that ( comes out in paper too, deear web reader), with a range of embedded web-addresses for future historians looking back.

Guerrilla Knitters
Aye, it seems even knitting can be given a rebellious facelift with a few political brushstrokes. The Knit 2 Together exhibition apparently taps into the ‘anti-capitalist’, ‘consumer-resistant’ movement of subversive UK knitters currently playing with wool, needles, sexual imagery and adult concepts. Maybe something to look into for electronic artists wondering why the Australia Council recently abolished their New Media department ? And to help would-be revolutionary knitters, the knitting movement mirrors the modern communication tactics of terrorists, sending instructions to each other all over the globe. Sayeth artist Shane Waltener, “By knitting you are resisting capitalism and consumerism. You are not responding to the fashion industry; you are making your own decisions.”.

Animated Karaoke Deers
Honest to goodness, whether this thing exists as prank photoshoppery or actual purchase-able product, the future of entertainment seems a little clearer with ‘Buck The Animated Deer’ ( search for ‘animated deer’ ). At only $159.98, a life-size wall-mounted Buck-Deer sings, dances and moves to the beat. And sometimes, there’s no point trying to improve on promotional writing :
“Let Buck be the life of the party as he moves and grooves to the music. Mount him on the wall and let your friends admire your hunting skills. Then click the wireless remote… and get ready! Enjoy their stunned surprise and side-splitting laughter as Buck belts out songs like “Rawhide,” “Friends in Low Places,” and “Sweet Home Alabama” while his head bobs, his mouth moves exactly to the words, and his ears wiggle to the beat. Use the included wireless microphone to join the song karaoke style—or watch his mouth move as you entertain your guests by speaking through the microphone! Buck looks incredible in your den or bar and adds flawless animation for party memories that will last a lifetime. Includes Buck with removable antlers, wireless microphone, remote control, mounting bracket and hardware, and DC adapter.”

Mp3 Blogs
Blogs & automated publishing systems are always adding new ways to easily enrich the reader’s web experience, providing simple ways to show the reader more about what the author is reading, photographing and listening to. That and continued cheapening bandwidth, this has lead to a flourish of mp3 blogs – blogs with embedded mp3 files accompanying the writing of bedroom music fans the world-over ( or the world is over, if record companies are to be believed ). Tofuhut has links to gazillions of these, and as this boy writes, he is listening to a new track by The Books, previewed via http://gabba.cc/pod. For someone else’s top 10 net label releases of 2004?. And don’t forget the locust collection.