Group Reviews: This is the editorial portion of our newsletter where we (OK, I) give opinions of various groups. Here goes: ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ The first group we are going to "review" is TPU. TPU is a new group that stands for, with alternating caps removed for your viewing pleasure, The People Upstairs. I recently got my hot little hands on their first release, Elite Acro List v1.0. Lo and behold, it was none other than BTW's Cheat Sheet repackaged! It took us HOURS to assemble it, and five minutes for them to hack it! I called up their WHQ to flame those lamers! I logged on, filled out the usual crap, sent my validation letter, and got full access to all elite areas! I didn't have to get validated! Any fed could have called up, filled out (even blatantly phony info) and busted 'em in all of five minutes! While I was there, I checked out their file bases. They had TWO! One was "TPU releases" and had THREE files in it! I downloaded another release of theirs (one was the acro list and one was 1.5 megs and I didn't feel like racking up my phone bill too much.) The transfer was fast (it was a 50K file) and error-free. When I got it back onto my computer, I tried to unzip it. The ZIP was corrupt! Off of their WHQ! I PKZIPFIXed it and extracted a semi-working "K00L 3Li+3 TrAnSlAtOr". Pathetic, I tell you, utterly pathetic. I ran it. First I saw their logo. Amateurish as all hell. Must have took 'em five whole minutes. Then I translated their NFO file for the hell of it. I looked at the results. They had stripped it of all CR/LFs. It was just one big jumble! And the translation was to high-bit ASCII. Someone ought to tell these guys that high-bit ASCII went out with alternating caps, if not earlier! All in all, TPU is the lamest group I've EVER seen. ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ The next group we'll review is NWO. NWO stands for New World Order. History students may notice that was a slogan used by none other than Adolf Hitler. Also, it's a group "of Asians, by Asians, and for Asians". Nice attitude to have, eh? ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ As is discussed in Scene News, PE & MAD recently merged to form a group called "The FiRM Inc." While I do wish them the best of luck and everything, maybe they should have used a more original name. Astute readers of my Cheat Sheet (by far the best acronym list in the business!) will notice that FiRM is already used by another group to mean "First in Releasing the Most". Sorry, The FiRM Inc. ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Two more REDICULOUSLY overused acronyms are MAD and ATM. *PLEASE* don't use 'em... Think of something a bit more original! ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Well, I found yet ANOTHER Cheat Sheet hack... This one by Matrixx [UBiC]... I called up Black Sunshine, which he is co of... As soon as I logged on, I got locked out! Why? Because these fucking jerks don't want to hear MY anger over the theft of a BTW release! ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ I know this isn't exactly a group but TWATINFO.ZIP *REALLY* pissed me off! It was someone (who called himself "2 Elite 4 U") bashing SWaT. I d/led it and read it. After the fifteenth time 2E4U called CyberChrist (the President of SWaT) CyberCrud, it started to get boring. Maybe 2E4U should have checked who else he was hurting before he parodized SWaT as TWaT. As some of you may know, one of the precursors of this group was called TWaT, for Text Writerz and Traderz. That article was one of the reasons why BTW was formed. One of the main criticisms that 2E4U has of SWaT is that it recently expelled several seinor staffers. 2E4U also says that 2E4U is a nom de plume he adopted for this article. My hypothesis is that 2E4U is a disgruntled former senior staffer of SWaT who adopted a handle to protect his credibility. Several others have bashed groups & BBSes when they got thrown out, most notably The Producer's ANTI-TUN.ZIP. ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ Well, that's enough bashing for this issue. Just a reminder: the above does not represent the opinions of either BTW or of any of its members. Finally, cya next issue. - (Compilation of Anonymous Submissions)