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                        >> "Alfheim Fuzes with Tlorah" <<
                             by -> Ilsundal & Rattle

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

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                                                   |		

 TABLE OF CONTENTS:

 1.  "The Digital Underground in a Nutshell"  +- by Ilsundal
 2.  "History of Alfheim Systems" +- by the elves of Alfheim
 3.  "Alfheim, that sounds familiar, what is it?" +- by multiple authors
 4.  "Tlorah, Could Jesus Have done Better?" +- through the eyes of the norm
 5.  "The Mission of the Alfheim Network" +- by Ilsundal  
 6.  "This is the Present" +- by Rattle

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 The digital underground in a nutshell,  By Ilsundal

 +-(1)- -

 The Alfheim Network's primary function from present to beyond will be to
 act as a host for scene unity.  When referring to the "scene" we're talking
 about four major areas which brought together the digital underground;
 these areas include (but are not limited to) the art, hp, zine, and demo
 scene.

 The art scene was extremely significant during the BBS era, for without it,
 our bulletin boards would lack style, and taste.  Countless numbers of
 underground ANSI graphics were constantly being pumped out from art groups
 such as ACiD, iCE, Blade, CiA, Union, Spastic, etc.  I don't know how we
 could have gotten by if it wasn't for these wonderful doodle boys.

 What fun is computing without a little digital terrorism?  The h/p scene
 (which stands for hacking, and phreaking) has been around since the dawn of
 computing.  According to Webster's dictionary, the definition of "hacker" is
 described as, "One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively
 overcoming or circumventing limitations," which I find best describes the
 word.  Hackers do not exist to crash your computer, destroy your data, or
 implant viruses on your system; as Dagmar of SE2600  once put it, "We call
 those people criminals."  Hackers are usually information gatherers,
 security buffs, unix geeks , or any combination of the three. Organizations
 such as 2600, l0pht, DoS, and others are compiled of everyday hackers who
 share information about computer security in order to make this world a
 safer, and more secure place.

 The zine scene (referring to electronic and/or independent paper magazines)
 is probably one of the most significant of the four scenes, for without
 the zine scene, most of our scene history may have been lost.  Zines
 targeted a large array of categories such as humor, information, and
 editorials for all of the four scenes.  Electronic magazines such as Cult of
 the Dead Cow, Fucked up College Kids, Doomed to Obscurity, Beyond the
 Horizon, Jonas, and Phrack are all good examples of the underground scene's
 best work in the zine department.

 Last, but most certainly not least, the demo scene, which included tracking,
 loaders, and the amazing use of the programming language assembly, provided
 invaluable resources to BBS sysops, art groups, and e-zines.  The demo scene
 contained a bulk of the DOS coders who could easily whip up an art viewer,
 bbs loader, or an e-zine viewer which would make some commercial coders
 shiver.  Groups such as Future Crew, and Phluid completely maximized the
 potential of the IBM PC, and Sound Blaster.

 +-- -

 History of Alfheim Systems, by the elves of Alfheim

 +-(2)- -

 Alfheim, the name alone, has always provided some form of public service
 ranging from electronic zines, to low-level internet service providing.  The
 first public access system to wield the name Alfheim, would be the infamous
 Alfheim Forest Bulletin Board System.  At it's peak, it controlled the
 entire southern 908/609 area, providing all of it's digital and underground
 needs.

 Come the dawning of the internet, the local BBS scene started to wither, so
 Alfheim Forest swallowed it by flipping the switch off forever, before the
 BBS scene simply burned out.  It was time to do something new, it was time
 to do something adventurous, it was time to install LINUX! Wiping the sweat
 off our brows, we said goodbye to the DOS days forever, and proceeded with
 the installation of Slackware 2.2.0.

 As any novice Unix administrator, we were hacked, we hacked others, and were
 just grasping the feel of this complex operating system.  Our system now had
 a presence on a large TCP/IP network known as the internet, and we were
 known as alfheim.csionline.com.

 After acquiring a feel for the Unix operating system, our sole, and chief
 administrator Joe Gruppuso (aka: Ilsundal) acquired employment at a local
 Internet Service Provider, CSI Online Services.  During this period, his
 skills and abilities grew stronger, and finally decided to register the
 domain alfheim.net.  Our primary machine was now sitting on a 1024 KPS
 frame-relay connection (as opposed to our prior 28800 connection), and was
 stronger then ever.

 The time at CSI Online services was well spent; Joe Gruppuso discovered and
 learned many things, but it was time to move on.  Packing up his bags, and
 leaving behind everything he's ever known, it was time to start a new
 project.  This project consisted of constructing a commercial internet
 service provider, the right way, in a non saturated internet region; that
 region being Murfreesboro, TN.

 The heart of the Alfheim Network presently resides in beautiful
 Murfreesboro, Tennessee and is sitting on a point-to-point 1.536 MPS
 connection to the internet.  We've recently taken a new outlook on Alfheim's
 mission, and are preparing a plan for scene unity once again.

 +-- -

 Alfheim, that sounds familiar, what is it?, by multiple authors

 +-(3)- -

 Aside from being a piece of digital history, the word "Alfheim" is also a
 piece of Norse mythical history.  For a much more clear understanding on
 Norse culture, lets present some background.

 The Norse story of creation:

 In the beginning, there was only an open void, called Ginnungagap. The first
 world to come into existence was Muspelheim, a land of fire. This land was
 located in the Southern part of Ginnugap.  The second world to come into
 existence was Niflheim. Located in the Northern part of Ginnungagap, it was
 a land of swirling fog and ice.  Eleven rivers flowed down from Niflheim.
 Eventually, the cold ice from Niflheim met the warm air of Muspelheim.  Life
 formed from the ice that melted.  The first creature was Ymir, a huge frost
 giant.  A giant cow, audhumla, was also created from the thawed ice.  An
 evil creature, Ymir drank from the rivers of milk formed by Audhumla.  When
 Ymir slept, he sweated.  From the moisture in his left armpit, a male and
 female frost giant were formed.  They became the parents of the frost giant
 race.  For nourishment, Audhumla constantly licked a salty block of ice.  In
 a day, a head of hair appeared in this block. After the next day, the entire
 head became visible.  The third day, the entire male, Buri, emerged from the
 block of ice.  He had a son named Bor, who married Bestla, a frost giant.
 These two had three sons -- Odin, Ve, and Vili.  These three sons became the
 first Norse gods.  Odin, Ve, and Vili worked together to kill the evil Ymir.
 A huge amount of blood flowed from his wounds, creating a flood which killed
 all the frost giants except two.  A male and a female had climbed into a
 boat to save themselves, and they became parents of the next race of frost
 giants.  The earth was fashioned by the gods, from the corpse of Ymir's
 body.  Each of Ymir's bodyparts were used in different ways to create the
 earth.  The land called Jotunheim was given to the frost giants, and the
 land called Midgard was given to the human beings who would eventually live
 there.  The stars were created by sparks from Muspelheim.  The sun and the
 moon were also created from Muspelheim, and a wolf is chasing each one of
 them, forcing them to move across the sky.  The gods created humans when
 they came upon two trees. Ask, the first male, was made from an ash tree.
 Embla, the female, was created from an elm tree.  Odin gave them blood and
 the breath of life. Vili gave them understanding and the power of movement.
 Ve gave them shape and the ability to hear, see, and speak.  Yggdrasil (no,
 not the Linux distribution) is the name given to a huge ash tree. Sometimes
 called the world tree, it has three great roots.  One lies in Niflheim, one
 in Jotenhiem, and one in Asgard, the home of all the gods.

 Listed below are the nine worlds associated with Norse mythology:

 Asgard       - The abode of the Aesir and the Vanir after the two tribes
                were at peace.
 Midgard      - The abode of humans.  It means middle earth, or middle
                garden.
 Vanaheim     - The abode of Vanir before the peace.
 Alfheim      - The abode of the light elves and their ruler, Frey.
 Niflheim     - A region of cold.  Hel's realm is here (in some sources).
 Hel          - The land of the dead.  The way to this realm was through
                the land of the mountain giants.  The connection between
                this and Niflheim is confusing.  Hel is also the goddess of
                the underworld.
 Jotunheim    - The abode of the Jotuns -- giants.
 Muspelheim   - A region of fire.  The fire giants -- sons of muspel --
                live here, ruled by Surt.
 Svartalfheim - The abode of the dark elves.  It is underground.
 Nidavellir   - The abode of the dwarves.

 Some background on Alfheim specifically:

 Alfheim ("elf home"), in Norse mythology, is one of the nine worlds and also
 one of the twelve realms. It is located on the highest level of the Norse
 universe.  Alfheim is also the palace of the god Frey and the homeland of
 the elves of light.  Frey is the god of sun and rain, and patron of
 bountiful harvests. He is both a god of peace as well as a brave warrior.
 He is also the ruler of the elves. Frey is the most prominent and most
 beautiful of male members of the Vanir, and is called 'God of the World'.
 After the merging of the Aesir and the Vanir, Frey is called 'Lord of the
 Aesir'.  Much of the Norse myths have been lost over time.  In the few myths
 we know of today neither the elves of light nor the elves of darkness
 participate in any of the events described in the Norse myths.  Elves do,
 however, have active roles in the literature of quite a few of the other
 branches of Indo-European mythology.

 Ragnarok, the end of the world:

 The first sign that Ragnarok, the end of the world, is approaching will be
 the death of Balder. Loki will play a great part in his death.  For revenge,
 the gods will lock him in a cave.  For three years, war will be waged
 throughout the world.  Evil will run wild upon the earth, which after the
 three years will lie in ruin.  Next, there will be three years of continuous
 winter bringing endless snow and hardship.  The wolfs who are chasing the
 sun and moon will eventually catch them.  The sun and moon will be
 swallowed.  Surt, Ruler of Muspelheim, will tear apart the heavens with his
 scorching flames, causing the blazing stars to fall upon the earth.  The
 tremendous earthquakes that result will free Loki, and other evil creatures
 that have been imprisoned.  These creatures will join with the frost giants
 for the final great battle.  They will battle the gods.  Fighting on the
 side of the gods will be 960 noble warriors who have died, but have been
 bought back for this final battle.  Nevertheless, the high gods and the
 warriors are slain. Also dead are Loki, and other monsters.  The entire
 earth will be set ablaze.  Facing their destiny, the doomed human race will
 join the dead in Hel.  Then the devastated earth will fall into the sea.
 However, the earth will rise from the sea once again, fresh and renewed.
 Several of the gods that survived will return. Balder will also return from
 Hel.  Two human beings, who managed to survive the great fire and flood by
 hiding in the branches of the World Tree, will be the parents of the next
 human race.  Evil will have left the earth.

 +-- -

 Tlorah, Could Jesus have done better?, by the eyes of the normal.

 +-(4)- -

 The history of Tlorah starts long before it was given a name.  A BBS is not
 a static thing, the history of one (and anything thereafter) is a product of
 it's Sysop.  So this is where the story begins.

 Nick Levay's path down the road to digital stardom started around age nine
 when he was given the three objects that would lead him for the rest of his
 life:  A computer, a guitar, and an ego.  He learned to use two of them
 quite proficiently.  The computer sat pretty much ignored until a modem was
 connected to it.  Nick tried calling a few BBS's with his computer system,
 but was unable to really enjoy doing so because its 110 baud modem was quite
 limiting, even by the standards of the early 80's.  When this system
 mysteriously broke one day, an Apple IIc with a blazing 1200 baud modem was
 introduced.  Shortly after, the handle of "Spade Rattle" was adopted.  This
 came from a stage name used in a really pathetic Jr. High punk band Nick
 pretended to be able to play that guitar in.  Eventually, this was shorted
 to Rattle.  Around 1992, Rattle slowly took over Nick and his phone line and
 became obsessed with the then booming BBS community in the 908 (NJ) area.

 Well into 1993, Rattle was geeking up a storm on his rockin Apple IIc.  
 Rattle spent most of his online time reading text files from local ezines
 (although the term zine wasn't applied to such publications in the 609/908
 area Rattle frequented until 1994) such as The Lawless Society and Phoenix
 Modernz.  Rattle was limited to this, reading message bases, and playing
 some online games occasionally due to his Apple computer which was only
 capable of downloading uncompressed text in ascii transfers.  The Apple IIc
 blew up in much the same fashion as the IBM PcJr, and a new 486/sx25 and a
 2400 baud modem was acquired.  Now having computer capabilities never before
 possessed, Rattle was introduced to something he had always dreamed of.
 Warez.  This is when Tlorah was born.

 The system was named after some album by some band he just happened to be
 listening to while unzipping Renegade for first time.  After finally
 figuring out what the hell a "Fossil Driver" was, the part time warez board
 called Tlorah was born.  After the novelty of free software wore off, Rattle
 went back to what got him addicted to the computer in the first place: Text
 files (now called zines his his area) and good message bases.  As he became
 more involved with the scene around him and the people in it, he knowledge
 level and maturity slowly grew.

 Several years passed, many people came and went.  Several "modem
 generations" passed and after a while time caught up.  Tlorah had become a
 very well respected system, with content filled message bases, over 15
 echonets (sidenote:  To this day, no other BBS system has been found that
 had more message activity.  This excludes FidoNet systems, which for the
 most part contained nothing but junk), a hoard of really good users, several
 nodes, hacked 800 numbers, multiple gigs of storage, and all the fixings
 that go along with it.

 At that time, it wasn't uncommon.  There were tons of systems like Tlorah.
 The sysops were pretty much obsessed with making their system "the best".
 Looking back at what various sysops went through, its quite insane.  Rattle
 spend well over $500 a month out of his own pocket paying for hardware and
 phone bills, even with the incredible amount of phreaking and carding going
 on.  In that world, being under 18 was enough to make you feel invincible.

 Having turned 18, all that came to a end real quick.  It's one thing to be
 put on probation if you get caught phreaking up a storm, its a completely
 different thing to be put in jail.  In the time before the Internet
 was in its glory, no long distance calling = no fun.  That, and the killer
 of all BBS systems came: k0lledge.

 Tlorah had reached its first peak.  And then on August 14, 1995, Rattle
 pulled the plug on BBS.

 Rattle went to this little piss ant town called Murfreesboro, just south of
 Nashville in TN.  He enrolled in Middle Tennessee State University's
 Recording Industry program, and being a techie in nature, excelled in the
 program.  His first year in TN, Rattle suffered a lot from computer
 withdraw.  He pretty much spend the entire first semester there learning
 as much as possible about unix and drinking way more than anyone should.
 Even so often an attempt was made to abandon computers because it "just
 wasn't fun anymore."

 After finding much success in the music industry Rattle decided he hated it
 even more and went back to computers.  After several late night discussions
 with long time friend Joe Gruppuso (Ilsundal) about how the online community
 they both were a part of had turned to complete shit, they decided it was
 time to do something.  While Alfheim (Ilsundal's freenet) was quite active,
 it wasn't enough.  It completely lacked the sense of community that had
 gotten the both of them into computers in the first place.  The Internet,
 while an amazingly powerful media, Sucked.  At least it did in the eyes of
 Rattle, Ilsundal, and many others they spoke with.  Many of which were the
 people who had large parts in running sections of it.

 Something had happened.  All the sysops had become sysadmins, and largely,
 no one was happy with it.  Going back was pointless and impossible.  We
 couldn't change.  The Internet could.  Its a dynamic medium, we create it as
 we go along.  We always have.  And we will continue to.  That's the past.

 The Mission of the Alfheim Network, by Ilsundal

 +-(5)- -

 The Alfheim Network along with Tlorah, Children of the Cron, has recently
 fused together in order to create the ultimate essence of scene unity, and
 has accepted the responsibility of preserving digital culture.  It's time
 to "give something back" to the computing world, and create a home for the
 very culture that has forged us into the people we are today.  

 The Alfheim Network, previously being compromised of a series of daughter
 Unix machines each representing one of the four natural elements (fire,
 water, wind, and earth), has been elected to perform the "Then and Now"
 side of this project.  Currently, the only remaining machine on the
 Alfheim Network is Fire, which is of course, the heart of the Alfheim
 Network.  Our current objective is to find three more suitable Unix
 machines to represent the three missing elements.  Each of the four
 elements will represent a vital function of the digital underground, and
 act as a host to provide archives, information, humor, and history of it's
 particular scene.

 The element "water" has been chosen to represent the art scene, for the
 non-stop creativity of these guys flows like a raging river.  The element
 "fire" was given to the hacking/phreaking scene, for the intellect and
 determination of these highly educated legends burns bright like a raging
 inferno.  The element "earth" has been casted upon the zine scene, for it
 provides housing for all of the other scenes, just like mother earth.  The
 element "wind" has been chosen for the demo scene, for the beautiful music, 
 and graphics arising from this area are as whimsical as the almighty wind. 

 As previously stated, The Alfheim Network is currently seeking three other
 Unix machines to play the roles of water, earth, and wind.  The requirements
 for these machines are as follows:

 +  Computer running a Unix variant Operating System
 +  128k ISDN uplink (or higher)
 +  Self sufficient Unix Administrator
 +  Static IP address, and successful reverse resolution capability for
    given hostname.
 +  A love for the underground scene, and it's history

 If you meet these requirements, and are interesting in participating in
 this project, please leave e-mail to ilsundal@alfheim.net immediately with
 your system statistics, operating system type, and a brief background on
 yourself.

 Also, we're looking for a plethora of talented folk who would like to aid
 in this large undertaking; html ninjas, ansi/ascii logoists, coders, vga
 photoshop rabbits, please, inquire within.  If you have any ability that
 you feel would be useful, defiantly send some e-mail over to
 ilsundal@alfheim.net describing it with no hesitation. 

 +-- -

 This is the Present, by Rattle

 +-(6)- -

 Welcome.  Welcome to the Internet.  You can now access information from
 anywhere in the world, talk to people thousands of miles away, and
 communicate in ways impossible until now.  We have our quick-cam-video
 conferences, our super blazing multimedia sound, and instant responses to
 any malformed though we enter in a chat box.  It's a perfect mirror to
 society.  We can see the ad banners so clearly.  We know what to buy.  We
 know where the porn we all want to see is.  The naked teenage girls are just
 a click away.  And while it's all going on, you can email your mom in
 another window just to say "I love you!"

 How fucking great.  What's missing?  Hell, all this is only costing me
 $19.95 a month!  I love it!

 Why the sarcastic tone you ask?  Well, its simple.  Remember back in High
 School (I don't care if you are 19 or 91, you will understand this) when the
 world was small and you had a sense of community that you always knew you
 felt comfortable in?  It was pretty cool wasn't it?  You thought you had
 real problems at the time, it all seemed like such shit.  And at the time it
 really was, you would have done anything to get out of it.  Then finally,
 you got into the real world (or at least college) and all the advantages of
 it were perfectly clear.  You were free.  Of course, this came with real
 responsibility, but it was still better.  A few years went by, and you just
 wish you could go back to high school and visit.  See the same people, do
 the same things, only knowing what you know now.  You certainly would not
 want to say, just visit.  Well, you can't.  It's tough shit.  Live with it
 sucker.

 Now, this is somewhat like the old computer underground scene.  In fact,
 its almost EXACTLY like the old computer underground scene.  Only there is
 one supreme difference.  You can go back, and take what you have now with
 you.  Unlike my high school example, Digital Culture has absolutely nothing
 to do with passing a bump on a time line.  It is "Culture".  And culture 
 cannot die, but it certainly can be overlooked or forgotten. This is our 
 mission.  To preserve Digital Culture.  No, wait.  Let me expand upon that
 a little.  To preserve Digital Culture, and great a place for it to blossom.

        "Errr...  Isn't that already happening?"

 Nope.  That's a TV commercial, change the channel.

 Remember what I said above about how culture can be overlooked or forgotten?
 Well, let us focus on the "overlooked" portion of that for a moment.
 Because thats what's happening here.  The portion of Digital Culture that's
 being overlooked is, for lack of a better word, the underground.  Things
 like the zine scene, the art scene, the hacking scene (which is grossly
 misunderstood in the media and the public eye), and the demo scene.  Most
 people don't even know they exist.

 Even since I was a child, I have always been interested in culture.  I
 always dug all that stuff on the Discovery Channel, National Geographic
 Magazine and other things of the sort that showed me distant far off places.
 Although, I think the ones that always interested me the most where the ones
 that showed things "close to home" that I just never really though about.
 There can be a booming culture of some sort right in front of you, and you
 can easily dismiss it..  Sometimes its really cool when someone shows it to
 you.

        "Hmmm... I think I see where you are going with this."

 About time...

 Well.  That's the overall mission of this project.  To show you something.
 And in the process, give that something a home and allow it to grow.

 It is time for us, The Children of the Cron, to take back the land which
 has been poisoned.  It was ours, and it will be ours again.  We are just
 looking for a few good geeks.

 Interested?

                                        Love,
                                        Rattle

 +-- -

 Please direct all feed back to ilsundal@alfheim.net and/or
 rattle@tlorah.net.  Don't bother visiting our web sites, for they are
 extremely out of date, and lacking content; again, if you feel you have
 some form of ability that you can offer to aid with this project, don't
 hesitate to send of some e-mail to your 'ol friend Ilsundal here with
 exactly what that ability is, and what you're exactly interested in doing.
 Also, if you have any "ideas" which you would like to present, feel free
 to let us know!

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 * (c) HoE publications.  HoE #216 - written by Ilsundal & Rattle - 3/19/98 *