Rubi-Con 5: Various Media

Thumbnail Galleries of Photographs: 3 Sets
Photographs taken with an Olympus Camedia C-4000 Zoom. In all cases, photos were taken at maximum resolution, then moved to "medium" and "thumbnail" sizes. I tried to focus on as many attendees as I could, with some general shots of the hotel as well. In some cases, multiple shots of the same person or event were taken, to provide more leeway in choosing which photos to use for printing or for the write-up.

Rubicon Keynote: Now Is Your Time
On the Friday night of Rubi-con I gave a 50 minute keynote address about, at various times, the power at our hands, the uniqueness and non-uniqueness of Rubi-con, a call for "intelligent destruction", some tidbits of computer history, and some mentions of Amish and Bananas. People generally loved it or hated it, and I think I got across everything I had hoped it would be about, for better or for worse. To a few people it simply became known as "The Payphone Speech".
"I was completely stone sober when I threw my badge on the ground and walked out after the first half of your insulting and useless 'keynote.'" - Miles Nordin
"No offense... but did the hotel pay you to give that speech?" - Phar
"Jason Scott (the textfiles.com guy who, before this speech, none of us knew who the fuck the guy was) who is now my hero for his kickass keynote speech on, basically, not being stupid." - Trent
Seriously, folks. Keynote speeches are supposed to make you think. If you have a rebuttal, addition, analysis, or essay about it you'd like, send it to me and I will post it unedited and with a link right below these words. No time limit, no minimum, I'd like to hear from you. If it comes to me, I'll elaborate what I was saying in a more coherent manner as well.

Keynote: Now Is Your Time, by Jason Scott (80kbps MP3, 45:57, 32mb)
Keynote: Now Is Your Time, by Jason Scott (96kbps OGG, 45:57, 25mb)
Contains Profanity. Here's the full speech in all its glory. The sound quality is somewhat echo-y because of a misjudgement of where to put the microphone (this problem was fixed greatly for the Apple II speech). I find you adjust to it very quickly. At one point I mention breaking the law in the auditorium; I basically walk up to someone and touch them on the shoulder, which is technically assault. When I begin to tell the story of a girl getting pregnant and hey boyfriend dumping her, someone shouted "It was you, wasn't it?" Zing.

The Devil's Playground: A Documentary on Rumspringa
Most of my information on rumspringa (Pennsylvania Dutch for "running around") comes from this documentary, Devil's Playground. If you in fact care about this social phenomenon that I compared to first-time teenage con attendees, here's where you can look and listen to a bit of it. I wouldn't suggest buying it unless you're completely enraptured. I enjoyed it, but I'm.... me.

The MIT Gallery of Hacks and Pranks
Need some inspiration for what I was talking about with "intelligent destruction"? Here's the official MIT Gallery of pranks and hackery they've done over the past decades, often with pictures and accompanying articles and information. If this doesn't inspire you, I don't know what would. See also Caltech's Ditch Day. Makes you want to make a stack RIGHT NOW.

The Payphone Project
If I just caused a resurgence of interest in payphones, perhaps you'd enjoy looking over this fine collection of payphone information and phone numbers from across the world. Articles, links and photos, and you'll note that many of them are still on the wall.

Rubicon Talk: Apple II Pirate Lore
I gave a talk on Saturday, March 29th at Rubicon called "Apple II Pirate Lore", in which I talk about some of the history of Apple II piracy, including some mentions regarding Commodore, Atari, BBSes, Nibble Copies, Steven Wozniak, Hardcore Computist, and, of course, Apple II Pornography. It was generally well recieved, and got a little out of hand at the end. Here's a copy of the talk and links to some of the subjects I mentioned.

Apple II Pirate Lore, by Jason Scott (80kbps MP3, 46:00, 26mb)
Apple II Pirate Lore, by Jason Scott (96kbps OGG, 46:00, 26mb)
Contains Profanity. There are a small number of corrections I should mention: I was being very conservative in saying Apple IIs were $1400 and memory additions were $100; actually it was significantly more in both cases. If you weren't at the talk, people start flipping out at the end because I start putting up naked pictures of people on the Apple II clone I'm running on a projector. I also don't go into some vital aspects of the history, like memory capture cards, Apple Cats, and Dalton's Disk Disintegrator (DDD).

Hardcore Computist Magazine Archive
Graphics Intensive. This is an archive I acquired from other sources of the premiere Apple II disk copy magazine, Hardcore Computist. Just leafing through these digitized pages will give you some idea of the difficult and complicated processes involved.

French Postcards Disk Images: 1 2 (First Version) 1 2 3 4 (Second Version)
These are disk images of the Apple II x-rated cartoon disks called "French Postcards". There are two different versions that I've found (and there's a third one I'm still tracking down), but the general idea is pretty clear. An Apple II Emulator will be needed to look at these images. You must be over 18 to view these, please.

The TEXTFILES.COM Apple II Crack Screen Archive
Here are hundreds of Apple II crack screens, basically captures of graphics that show before many pirated programs, and the source of lots of interesting lore in themselves. I referred during the speech to a screen that mentioned summer camp... that was this one. Dedicated to the Wardon, who's at Summer Camp for 8 WEEKS!!

Apple II Piracy Textfiles You Can Read (Plus Others)
TEXTFILES.COM has, of course, tons and tons of Apple II piracy files written over the past 20 years. If you need a few pointers to must-reads, I would highly suggest The Apple Mafia Story, My Day With the Secret Service, and The Tales of the Unknown Elite and the Martyr (as well as Part 2).
If you are feeling particularly inspired, then you will want to look at what was nearly a half a year of work on my part: the Annotated Pirates' Guide. You'll want to set aside a couple hours on this one: Read the Original File and then read my Massive Annotated Version.

Your Jason Scott System Beep (.WAV, 590k)
While giving the speech, I mentioned I had 1.6 terabytes of disk space at home. Reverse Corruption sneered from the crowd "but it's all Firewire". I quickly reposited with a witty and thought-provoking answer. Makes a good system beep.


Thumbnail Galleries of Photographs: 3 Sets
Photographs taken with an Olympus Camedia C-4000 Zoom. In all cases, photos were taken at maximum resolution, then moved to "medium" and "thumbnail" sizes. I tried to focus on as many attendees as I could, with some general shots of the hotel as well. In some cases, multiple shots of the same person or event were taken, to provide more leeway in choosing which photos to use for printing or for the write-up.


Rubicon Keynote: Now Is Your Time
On the Friday night of Rubi-con I gave a 50 minute keynote address about, at various times, the power at our hands, the uniqueness and non-uniqueness of Rubi-con, a call for "intelligent destruction", some tidbits of computer history, and some mentions of Amish and Bananas. People generally loved it or hated it, and I think I got across everything I had hoped it would be about, for better or for worse. To a few people it simply became known as "The Payphone Speech". "I was completely stone sober when I threw my badge on the ground and walked out after the first half of your insulting and useless 'keynote.'" - Miles Nordin "No offense... but did the hotel pay you to give that speech?" - Phar "Jason Scott (the textfiles.com guy who, before this speech, none of us knew who the fuck the guy was) who is now my hero for his kickass keynote speech on, basically, not being stupid." - Trent Seriously, folks. Keynote speeches are supposed to make you think. If you have a rebuttal, addition, analysis, or essay about it you'd like, send it to me and I will post it unedited and with a link right below these words. No time limit, no minimum, I'd like to hear from you. If it comes to me, I'll elaborate what I was saying in a more coherent manner as well.
Keynote: Now Is Your Time, by Jason Scott (80kbps MP3, 45:57, 32mb)
Keynote: Now Is Your Time, by Jason Scott (96kbps OGG, 45:57, 25mb)
Contains Profanity. Here's the full speech in all its glory. The sound quality is somewhat echo-y because of a misjudgement of where to put the microphone (this problem was fixed greatly for the Apple II speech). I find you adjust to it very quickly. At one point I mention breaking the law in the auditorium; I basically walk up to someone and touch them on the shoulder, which is technically assault. When I begin to tell the story of a girl getting pregnant and hey boyfriend dumping her, someone shouted "It was you, wasn't it?" Zing.
The Devil's Playground: A Documentary on Rumspringa
Most of my information on rumspringa (Pennsylvania Dutch for "running around") comes from this documentary, Devil's Playground. If you in fact care about this social phenomenon that I compared to first-time teenage con attendees, here's where you can look and listen to a bit of it. I wouldn't suggest buying it unless you're completely enraptured. I enjoyed it, but I'm.... me.
The MIT Gallery of Hacks and Pranks
Need some inspiration for what I was talking about with "intelligent destruction"? Here's the official MIT Gallery of pranks and hackery they've done over the past decades, often with pictures and accompanying articles and information. If this doesn't inspire you, I don't know what would. See also Caltech's Ditch Day. Makes you want to make a stack RIGHT NOW.
The Payphone Project
If I just caused a resurgence of interest in payphones, perhaps you'd enjoy looking over this fine collection of payphone information and phone numbers from across the world. Articles, links and photos, and you'll note that many of them are still on the wall.


Rubicon Talk: Apple II Pirate Lore
I gave a talk on Saturday, March 29th at Rubicon called "Apple II Pirate Lore", in which I talk about some of the history of Apple II piracy, including some mentions regarding Commodore, Atari, BBSes, Nibble Copies, Steven Wozniak, Hardcore Computist, and, of course, Apple II Pornography. It was generally well recieved, and got a little out of hand at the end. Here's a copy of the talk and links to some of the subjects I mentioned.
Apple II Pirate Lore, by Jason Scott (80kbps MP3, 46:00, 26mb)
Apple II Pirate Lore, by Jason Scott (96kbps OGG, 46:00, 26mb)
Contains Profanity. There are a small number of corrections I should mention: I was being very conservative in saying Apple IIs were $1400 and memory additions were $100; actually it was significantly more in both cases. If you weren't at the talk, people start flipping out at the end because I start putting up naked pictures of people on the Apple II clone I'm running on a projector. I also don't go into some vital aspects of the history, like memory capture cards, Apple Cats, and Dalton's Disk Disintegrator (DDD).
Hardcore Computist Magazine Archive
Graphics Intensive. This is an archive I acquired from other sources of the premiere Apple II disk copy magazine, Hardcore Computist. Just leafing through these digitized pages will give you some idea of the difficult and complicated processes involved.
French Postcards Disk Images: 1 2 (First Version) 1 2 3 4 (Second Version)
These are disk images of the Apple II x-rated cartoon disks called "French Postcards". There are two different versions that I've found (and there's a third one I'm still tracking down), but the general idea is pretty clear. An Apple II Emulator will be needed to look at these images. You must be over 18 to view these, please.
The TEXTFILES.COM Apple II Crack Screen Archive
Here are hundreds of Apple II crack screens, basically captures of graphics that show before many pirated programs, and the source of lots of interesting lore in themselves. I referred during the speech to a screen that mentioned summer camp... that was this one. Dedicated to the Wardon, who's at Summer Camp for 8 WEEKS!!
Apple II Piracy Textfiles You Can Read (Plus Others)
TEXTFILES.COM has, of course, tons and tons of Apple II piracy files written over the past 20 years. If you need a few pointers to must-reads, I would highly suggest The Apple Mafia Story, My Day With the Secret Service, and The Tales of the Unknown Elite and the Martyr (as well as Part 2). If you are feeling particularly inspired, then you will want to look at what was nearly a half a year of work on my part: the Annotated Pirates' Guide. You'll want to set aside a couple hours on this one: Read the Original File and then read my Massive Annotated Version.
Your Jason Scott System Beep (.WAV, 590k)
While giving the speech, I mentioned I had 1.6 terabytes of disk space at home. Reverse Corruption sneered from the crowd "but it's all Firewire". I quickly reposited with a witty and thought-provoking answer. Makes a good system beep.