Abstracts

History of Phreaking 101

Presented by Jason Scott

Jason Scott of TEXTFILES.COM offers to help PHREAKNIC live up to its name with a hundred-year history of Phone Phreaking. Rise above your friends who think that "To Phreak" just means "To Steal" and hear some interesting stories, trivia, and examples of this long-beloved art.

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Starting an ISP

Presented by NotLarry / The Angry Lemming

This panel will include a presentation and open discussion on starting and maintaining a rural ISP for fun and money using the skillz available to most any PhreakNIC participant (no, drinking and smoking are not quite what we are talking about:). We will cover choosing an area, startup and operating costs, Quake, Quake3 and IRC as network monitoring tools, customer support, community relations, pr0n, viral infections, and any other related topics that come up.

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Rebel with a Pringles Can

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HAM Radio Panel

Panel Hosted by RIMboy

This panel will be an open discussion of the latest technologies in HAM radio, as well as an opportunity for those interested in becoming involved in HAM to ask questions of experts. Packet radio will also be discussed.

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Demise of Internet Radio

Panel Hosted by JonnyX and Laughing Boy

This panel will be an open discussion around the recent legislative actions that have forced many radio stations, both traditional broadcast and internet only, to cease streaming.

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Asterisk Open Source PBX

Presented by Mark Spencer

Asterisk is a hybrid TDM and VoIP Open Source PBX and IVR system. It allows someone both to build a PBX out of totally Free software and also build their own telephony apps (something akin to Apache for telephones). It provides all standard call features (Caller*ID, Call Waiting, Three-way calling, conferencing, etc etc) and can talk both to regular analog phones and VoIP phones.

Project Home Page

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DashPC Project aka The Linux Car

Presented by Christopher Bergeron

The dashPC is an integrated computer console built on the Linux operating system, and integrated into the dashboard of my car. The computer is interfaced via a 6.5" Touchscreen VGA LCD display mounted in the center console. In addition, a wireless keyboard / mouse combination is used for text entry. The dashPC has Global Positioning and Navigation (GPS), Digital Versatile Discs (DVDs), Games (Wolfenstein 3d, SoF, UT), Address book database, etc. I can run any programs that will run on an Intel/AMD i686 class computer.

DashPC Project Page

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Steganography

Presented by Elonka Dunin

After September 11th 2001, Elonka Dunin, prize-winning solver of the PhreakNIC v3.0 Code, contacted the FBI to ask if she could help with the war on terrorism. Come join her in this session, as she shares some of the same information she used in one of her FBI presentations. This is a beginner-oriented explanation of what steganography is and how it's used, and covers some of the media and academia reports on terrorists' possible use of steganography, along with Elonka's observations on how accurate those reports may be.

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Überfish

Alternatively - Rendering Equal Probability Via Deterministic Output

Presented by Justin Troutman

An overview of two proposed classes of encryption methodology, known as BEvUC and VSBXF, comprising the central algorithm, known as uberfish.

BEvUC, or Bisymmetrical Encryption Via Unary Complementation, is of the stream cipher design. It consists of two keys, one being pseudo-randomly generated and applied to the plaintext, with modular addition or XOR, to render an output which is then carbon copied (this carbon copy, being the second key) and subtracted from itself to render the final unary output. All variables and constants in this method are equal in size. Speed is of the essence in this method.

VSBXF, or Variable Size Block XOR Folding, is of the block cipher design. It consists of a set of subkeys, which total the size of the plaintext. The default block size is 128-bit. During encryption, the block is divided, or "folded", in half, with the latter half becoming a subkey, which is applied with XOR against the first half, rendering an output of 64 bits. This same folding technique is used throughout the system until the block is broken down to one bit. This final bit is then carbon copied and subtracted from itself, just as in the BEvUC, rendering a single unary output of O. The total subkey space will equal that of the block. After all blocks are encrypted, the strings of unary output are then folded likewise, thus rendering a single bit of unary output for the entire plaintext.

The true, theoretical goal of uberfish is to further prove equally probabilistic measures via deterministically processed output. This is a countermeasure to true entropy, with aims of obtainable practicality, practical applications, and low-cost.

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Clustering 101

Presented by Jeff Tillotson

"Clustering 101" is a discussion/HOWTO on running a parallel-processing cluster, striving for supercomputer performance on a minimal budget. A basic understanding of networks and UNIX is assumed. Topics of dicussion will include: a history of cluster computers, hardware selection, initial setup, software tools, concepts of parallel programming and some interesting uses for a cluster. A Linux cluster is assembled using the OSCAR tools for demonstration purposes and will be available for attendee use, prior to and after the presentation.

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MemeStreams

Presented by Decius

There is a popular myth that a small garage band may one day become famous without the need for a recording contract by distributing their music directly to their fans over the Internet. Thus far, this has not come to pass. While personal computers give the garage musician unprecidented production and distribution capabilites, there is one element which remains missing from the puzzle: marketing. You still need the resources of a large record company to have your voice heard above the rabble.

For the past year or so I've been working on a solution to this problem. The heart of the solution can be seen in the War Chalking phenomenon, which came out of nowhere into the mainstream through the weblog network. Weblogs allow each of us to voice our opinion about whats interesting, even if its obscure, and without approval from an editor. Whats needed is technology that greases the wheels of the weblog network, and allows us to sift the information we really want out of millions of weblogs without having to read them all. We need knowledge management technology for weblogs. MemeStreams is that technology.

MemeStreams Home Page

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Why You Suck

Presented by Neoteric (aka Timball) and Abaddon

The typical userbase of a ``scene'' is filled with many well meaning people who superficially believe that computers are "cool". This talk is aimed at identifying those users and explaining in concrete terms why they suck. The underlying goal of the talk is to help reintegrate (l)users into normal productive society.

Specific members of the audience will be polled and asked to defend themselves. Anyone who successfully defends themselves will receive one (1) free drink.

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