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____________________________________________________________________ [ 1:. - [ The Tao of TCP/IP ] [phlux] :. ] ____________________________________________________________________ First off, this article touches on a volatile subject. If the words spirituality, religion, or god make you feel queasy, skip this article. However, if you are an open-minded person, as every good hacker ought to be, then read on. To avoid any hostilities, when referring to a higher-power (Allah, Yahweh, God, etc...) I will substitute the variable $hp. Please insert whatever string you please to fill in for $hp. An idea came to me the other night when I was writing a shell script to automate some DNS tasks. I was knee-deep in the script when an interesting parallel hit me. Bear with me as I explain. People's minds operate basically like a PC. As a society we have common languages, or protocols for communication. We have different GUI's (faces and clothes, etc...) and different kernel builds (personalities). To take the analogy a bit further, everyone capable of communication has an IP address. We're subneted according to race, religion, income, nationality, or what have you. When it comes down to it, DNS (the phone company, governments, etc...) can't sort us all out. Just as every domain has an SOA (start of authority), humans have local leaders; for example your mayor, your mom, or your priest. These local leaders supply you with a hosts file. I know this sounds obnoxious, just keep with me here. This hosts file starts with the bare essentials. For example: 10.0.3.1 mom mommy Leslie 10.0.5.2 dad papa daddy Fred Freddie 10.0.8.3 localhost me myself I phlux wickedbadass As time goes on, your hosts file grows and gathers information on networks (groups). For example a die-hard Israeli's host file might look something like this: 28.21.133-136.* muslims bastards 199.2.67.* family 86.75.30.9 jenny 199.2.67.23 localhost me herman 199.1.1.1 Yahweh Or maybe a Muslim's would look like this: 199.2.67-72.* jews infidels 28.21.136.144 localhost me ali 42.42.42.42 NES 199.1.1.1 Allah I think maybe you have seen my point by now. Both hosts point to the same address on the last line. However, the hostnames are different. This is the parallel I was speaking about earlier. In my studies, the similarity of monotheistic religions has always struck a cord with me. The only differences in the world's one true power have been its name, and the methods used to worship/understand it. What this breaks down to for me, is that $hp only has one IP address. The difference in us all is what we have assigned to it in our hosts files. We may interface with $hp on many different levels, but it is still the same thing, the same host. All of us connect on different ports, using different protocols. The key of all of this is to recognize, that we all have the same entry in our hosts file. I know this article is quite a stretch. But the message of tolerance is vital. In the coming future, as corporations buy our freedom and sell it back to us; as governments try to regulate what they do not own, as privacy is taken from us with a smile, we are going to need each other. The ones who understand how it all works, the ones who are not afraid of the .com's and .gov's, and you, the reader. We are approaching a time where knowledge will be more valuable than cash. Arm yourself well, and update your hosts file. b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@! b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@! http://www.b0g.org where fear meats joy b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@! b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!b0g!#@!