Blacklisted! 411 Magazine
Downloads & Information
    The Official Hacker's Magazine    

Introduction

(Adapted From About Us / FAQ / Make Money)

The question often arises on the subject of, "How did it all start?" in reference to our magazine and it's history.  In response to this popular question, here is a quick history lesson of Blacklisted! 411 magazine, including names, dates and little known facts which have, thus far, been hidden away for years...

Blacklisted! 411 magazine dates back to October 1983 with a group of friends from a Southern California high school that shared a common interest.  We were all into our Atari computers, Commodore computers, electronics, sciences, arcade games, etc.  We built projects, hacked into this n' that, came up with grand ideas and tried to make them into some sort of reality.  The group started a monthly hackers "disk magazine" (an early form of what is now known as an e-zine) called "Blacklisted! 411 - The Hacker's Monthly."  This may sound strange today, but circulating information on disk was the best way to get it out without all the cool toys of today.  We didn't have the Internet to send it out, and no one had printers that could print anything other than plain text (and didn't even do that well).  With a disk based system we could send text files, primitive graphics/pictures, and utilities more easily and it could be copied by anyone who had a compatible computer.  At our peak we distributed 150 disk copies <per month> of the disk magazine, though there is no way to know how many were copied by others.

Eventually modems caught on and we began to distribute the monthly via crude BBS systems.  Using the power of a Commodore 64, we put up a Blacklisted! 411 info site, which anyone could log into without handle or password.  It was a completely open message center.  Using X-modem or Punter file transfer protocols, you could download the latest Blacklisted! 411 files or read/leave "messages" which later became known as a "message base" and has evolved into what are now commonly known as "newsgroup postings" or "forum postings."  We had only one message center, no email capability & only 1 phone line.  Primitive, indeed.  Effective, however.

Around 1984, we purchased a 9-pin dot matrix printer that could <gasp> print basic graphics.  We experimented with printing out copies of the Blacklisted! 411 monthly and copying them at the media center at the high school.  The media center staff graciously allowed us to make these copies free of charge which was very cool at the time.  We'd pass these out at the local "copy meets" (an interesting phenomenon of past times - hordes of computer users would meet at a predetermined location and setup their computers with the sole purpose of copying software and exchanging this software with each other).  We'd leave a pile of our magazine copies anywhere we were allowed to do so.  One popular location was next to the Atari Gauntlet and Gauntlet II arcade games strategically located at 7-11's all over the place.  We're only guessing here, but we think people photocopied our copies and then those were photocopied, etc.  There's no telling just how many generations of early printouts of Blacklisted! 411 monthly made it out there.

Years went by and Blacklisted! 411 evolved.  The short life-span of the printouts was both a great success and a miserable failure.  No matter where we left them, they were taken - and taken quickly!  The feedback was awesome in that people wanted more.  The interest was very high, but our inability to meet this growing demand was completely overlooked.  We had to officially pull the plug on the printout experiment and we stuck with electronic files.  It was really the easiest way to go.  The Blacklisted! 411 info site grew into a 2-line system.  This was a big deal in 1985.  By that time, information was almost exclusively passed around by modem (unofficially on paper) and we were still releasing disks at this time.

June of 1987 marked the end of Blacklisted! 411 - The Hacker's Monthly.  Our last disk-based magazine was distributed that month.  Now that all of us were out of high school and onto college, work and the bigger/better things in life, nobody had the time or inclination to put any effort into the disk-based magazine anymore.  The once thriving Blacklisted! 411 group broke up and people went their separate ways.  Naturally, we all assumed this was the end and Blacklisted! 411 would never come back in any form.

In the summer of 1993, one member (and the original editor-in-chief), Zachary Blackstone, felt it was time to revive the Blacklisted! 411 concept, but this time do it as a print magazine.  It was extremely difficult to get started because the group was no more.  He was the only one of the original group members remaining that had an interest in bringing the hacker group and magazine alive again.  With some money, will to make it happen, and with the help of some top of the line (at the time) computer gear and page layout software, Blacklisted! 411 was reborn.  Blacklisted! 411 Volume 1, Issue 1 was released in January 1994.  Blacklisted! 411 was finally BACK.  The Issues were released monthly and distribution was small.  After a year passed, it was decided to try a quarterly format in an effort to increase distribution.  During that year, Zachary managed to get in contact with many of the old group members and they are now active staff members once again.

In 1999, we published what was to be our last issue of Blacklisted! 411 (Volume 5, Issue 4) for many years to come.  We didn't know it at the time, but many pitfalls would ultimately cause the demise of the magazine.  After 4 years of regrouping and planning, Blacklisted! 411 magazine is back in print form again.  We are one of the oldest group of hackers still remaining and releasing gathered and compiled information within the hacker community and the mainstream community as well.  We still have the same hacker mentality and code of ethics from the 80's.  Hackers are not thieves - they're curious people.  We are not elitist hackers by no means and no question is a stupid question.  We're not going to knock you down, call you a "lamer," "lamah," or give you crap for being a newbie!  Every hacker started somewhere.  We remember this most fundamental fact and we will never forget it.

(Adapted From syntelvista.com/blacup82.html)

Update 8/22/2000

A lot of people have been asking us a lot of similar questions about Blacklisted! 411 Magazine, relating to why they have not seen the latest issue of the magazine in the stores for some time.  This also includes subscribers and people who have asked for ads to be placed in the magazine.  We decided to put up this letter to answer most of these questions.

Brief History

Blacklisted 411! Magazine was started in early 1994 with 12 monthly installments.  These were small issues distributed locally.  In the spring of 1995, the decision was made to go to a quarterly format and distribute nationally.  Since that time, the magazine has grown tremendously, crossing over the boundary of a zine to a full fledged magazine.

In 1997, a major magazine distributor went out of business, owing the magazine (and many others, including 2600) a large sum of money.  While it was not serious enough to put Blacklisted! 411 out of business, it did put quite a strain on the business, and took some time to recover from it.

In late 1998, issue 5.2 of Blacklisted! 411 came out, and was an extreme success.  More copies were sold than any previous issue.  However, the next issue, 5.3 kept being pushed back further and further.  This was due to many reasons.

Issue 5.3 - Version 1:  In early 2000, a concerted effort was made to publish the next issue, 5.3.  The issue was completed, and sent to the printer in February.  The issue was due back from the printer about 3 weeks later, with an expected street date of mid to late March.  The issue was printed and sent to the bindery where the issues are cut, folded, and stapled together.  During this process, there were mistakes made by the bindery, and the issues were not put together correctly.  Unfortunately, the only way to resolve the problem was to reprint the issue, and bind them again.

Issue 5.3 - Version 2:  The printer agreed to reprint the magazine and send it to the bindery again.  This was started about the beginning of April.  The issue was printed, sent to the bindery, and the process was completed.  Unfortunately, things went awry again.  The printer picked up the issues from the bindery and preceded to ship the issues to us even though the contract said "will-call," meaning we were supposed to be contacted and we would come and pick them up ourselves.  The printer contracted some fly-by-night shipping company to ship the order to us, and somewhere along the way the issues disappeared.  The shipping company kept telling us that all was OK, and they would find the issues.  This dragged on for weeks, and actually several months.  At the same time, the printing company, even though they admitted that they were supposed to "will call" the order, refused to reprint the order one more time.  We went round-and-round with both of them, and nothing was ever resolved.  It appears we will have to pursue this matter in court.

Issue 5.3 - Version 3:  Since the first printer would not reprint the order, we contacted another printing company to print Vol. 5, Issue #3 for the third time.  The new printer was very eager to work with us, and finished the issue on time.  Unfortunately, since the order was not placed until late June, it was not completed until early July.  We arranged for the printer to send the issue to the distributors with the agreement that the issues could only be sent by a major national carrier whose initials are like TOR but one letter up.  All was thought to be well, considering past experience with this carrier.  Based on the time-line we had experienced before, the issues should have hit the street the first week of August.  We heard nothing, and no one had seen the issues on any newsstands.  We just figured there were some unforeseen delays at the distributors.  On August 18th, we had a conversation with our three largest distributors, and they all said that they never received the issues.  Our printer assured us that the shipment was insured, and that they will reprint the order if necessary, but even in best case scenarios, it will take about another 4-6 weeks for the issues to hit the streets, 8 months after we first ordered the issue to be printed.

So in a nutshell, we have tried since February to get another issue out, and due to problems outside our control we have not been able to.  We will get a new issue out soon ,even if I have to drive it to the distributors myself.  All subscriptions will be fulfilled with the correct number of remaining issues.  The subscription orders will be sent as soon as we get them from the printer (we will pick them up ourselves).  Anyone who has requested advertising in the magazine will get their ads, and considering that 5.3 will have a considerably larger distribution that 5.2, you will be getting a good deal.

I hope this answers most of the related questions.  Alex Tolstoy - Syntel Vista

(Adapted From Famicoman)

Blacklisted! 411 was a quarterly printed (ISSN: 1082-2216) hacking magazine by editors Zachary Blackstone and Alexander Tolstoy, and was similar in (print) format to 2600 Magazine.  It was sold on store shelves and available via subscription.

Blacklisted! 411 first appeared on store shelves in 1994.  It lasted a few years and disappeared.  There are many theories and explanations of this disappearance.

Blacklisted! 411 re-appeared in 2003/2004.  As of July 2007, they have not released an issue in over a year.  They claimed in their own forums that they had lost their distributor, but the web site has also disappeared, leaving many people questioning what the true story really is.

In the first generation issues of the magazine, there were accusations that the magazine was copying articles from 2600 Magazine, including entire pages of ads that still included the email addresses and references to 2600 Magazine.

"The subject of the marketplace ads.  It was stated that we placed advertisements taken out of 2600 magazine for people/companies without their permission  When we first added the marketplace section in the Volume 1, Issue 7 copy of Blacklisted! 411, we wanted to have a HUGE marketplace for people to browse through.  Since we could not generate a large enough base of marketplace advertisements, we DID search through other magazines of similar format (including 2600 and Nuts & Volts and a few others) picked out ads we felt were appropriate and commenced to contact each one of these advertisers, explaining to them that they were going to be getting FREE advertising.  Nearly every single one of them agreed to it.  Hell, why not?  It's FREE!!  Anyhow, there were a few who did not want to commit to free advertising, so we left them out of our magazine..."

...

The first allegation was that we were plagiarizing material, 'taking it from 2600 and printing it without proper credit given.'  We deny this statement entirely.  We never took material out of ANY magazine and reprinted it.  Here's the example.  It was stated that our April 1995 issue's 5ESS article was a clear act of this crime.  Why?  Apparently this same article was printed in an issue of 2600, Phrack, and Hack-Tic, which we completely unaware of, as we find it very difficult to check the origin of every single article submitted to our office.  Anyhow , the claim goes on to state that we gave no credit to the author nor the magazine it was is, etc.  First of all, we did NOT steal any material.  Someone submitted this article to us, claiming to be the author of said article.  The fact is, the person who submitted the article asked to remain anonymous, which we honored and did not include his name with the article.  We will state at this time that "WE" did not write this article.  Yes , it was submitted...and printed.  As for it being in an issue of 2600, Phrack, and Hack-Tic as said previously, we were not aware of this, it was not our intent to steal or plagiarize any material."

Many allegations were made against the magazine over the years about non-payments to the authors.  The most recent came from a staff writer named Israel Torres who created a site called Blackballed411.org showing the first evidence of foul play on the part of the Blacklisted! 411 magazine staff.

(Adapted from Velocity Reviews, by Ray)

Blacklisted! 411 Magazine Ripoff Artist

I have been trying to get a response from Zachary Blackstone, or whatever he calls himself today, about getting a refund he promised me for equipmet that was never delivered.  I wired him the money over 6 months ago and he says he got it.  He recently appologized for the non-delivery and offered a full refund.  But I just keep getting one excuse after another as to why he hasn't delivered.  Now he doesn't even respond to my emails!

While I like the magazine, I recommend against it because of the questionable people who sell and profit from it.

(Adapted from Collecting Your Freelance Money, by Gary Drobson)

The editor, Zachary Blackstone, emailed me about an essay that I had on my website.  We chatted back and forth and I told him about some content I had written for a book that wasn't going to happen.  Two of the chapters from that book would make fine feature articles for his magazine: The Origins of Phreaking and Hacker-Phreaker BBS Stings.  After a bit of negotiation, I told him he could run the essay free if he paid for the other two.  All was well.

I sent him the two articles, and after he checked the word count, he told me that he'd pay $1,125 for them.  The essay ran first, then Origins of Phreaking.  I expected a check within 30 days, but it didn't come.  A string of emails with Blackstone followed, during which payment was processed and didn't happen.  While this was going on, the next issue came out, with my BBS Stings article in it.

Promises continued (I wrote a lengthy description of the dispute including email excerpts on Writer's Weekly's "Whispers & Warnings") and I grew more and more concerned about getting paid.  Blackstone stopped responding to me, and all of my research failed to come up with a physical address.  Everything was P.O. boxes.

Clearly, it was time to step up the game.  First, I placed the articles on my personal website and added this paragraph to the beginning of each:

WRITERS BEWARE!!!  Blacklisted! 411 claims to be a paying market, but they have not paid me for the articles I wrote for them.  The Editor-in-Chief, Zachary Blackstone, told me on March 8, 2004 that payment of my $1,125 had been authorized and a check would be on its way shortly.  All I have received from him since then is excuses.  If you have a telephone number or physical address for Zach Blackstone or Blacklisted! 411 Magazine, please email me as soon as possible!  Thank you.

I went through the magazine and collected contact information for all of the other authors and sent them emails asking if they had been paid for their work.  Most didn't respond.  A few said that yes, they were having trouble getting paid.  Several said they had donated their articles without expecting to be paid.  Nobody said that they were paid promptly.

Then I hit paydirt.  I found out that they had reserved an exhibit table at a huge hacker conference called DEFCON.  I went to the appropriate newsgroup online and posted this:

Anyone going to DEFCON?  I can't make it this year, but I understand Blacklisted! 411 Magazine is going to have a booth.  I'm a professional writer who wrote some articles for them, and they owe me over $1,000.  The Editor-in-Chief, Zachary Blackstone (blacklisted411@comcast.net) promised payment on March 8, but has delivered nothing, despite using my articles as cover stories in the past two issues.

If anyone has a physical address or telephone number for Blacklisted! 411 or Mr. Blackstone, I'd appreciate hearing from you.

If you're going to DEFCON, please stop by their booth and ask them why they don't pay their writers.

If you're a writer, STAY AWAY from these folks.

Thanks!

Apparently, that was the straw that broke Blackstone's camel's back.  I received an angry phone call asking, "If I send you a cashier's check by FedEx, will you shut the f*ck up?"

"Yep!"

"Will you take all that crap down?"

"You know perfectly well I can't take down posts to USENET newsgroups.  I will, however, take down the other notices and make it public that you've paid me.

I had my money the next day.

Postscript: A few years later, I happened to come across a website created by one of Blackstone's former staff members, Israel Torres.  He dedicated this entire website, blackballed411.org, to describing the issues he had with Blackstone.


	Blacklisted! 411 Subscription Dept.
	P. O. Box 2506
	Cypress, CA 90630

	Office Line: 310-596-4673
	Fax Line: 310-493-3998

	Published by:
	Syntel Vista
	P. O. Box 2506
	Cypress, CA 90630

        Blacklisted! 411 BBS (1983-1995)
	213-493-1820 (C-Net)
        Zachary Blackstone

Download Print Issues



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 2, Issue #1  January 1995

Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 2, Issue #2  April 1995



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 2, Issue #3  July 1995



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 2, Issue #4  October 1995



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 3, Issue #1  January 1996



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 3, Issue #2  April 1996



Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 3, Issue #3  August 1996



Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 3, Issue #4  November 1996



Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 4, Issue #1  January 1997



Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 4, Issue #2  April 1997



Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 4, Issue #3  October 1997



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 4, Issue #4  January 1998



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 5, Issue #1  April 1998



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 5, Issue #2  Fall 1998



Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 5, Issue #3  Winter 1998



Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 5, Issue #4  Spring 1999



Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 6, Issue #1  Winter 2003/2004



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 6, Issue #2  Spring 2004



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 6, Issue #3  Summer 2004



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 6, Issue #4  Fall 2004



Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 7, Issue #1  Winter 2004/2005



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 7, Issue #2  Spring 2005

"This issue was first released in early Spring 2005.  Distribution was strong, however a long time distributor of ours, Desert Moon Periodicals, finally went under which caused this issue to temporarily disappear off of the shelves of several bookstore chains.  We knew the end was near with Desert Moon, but the end happened somewhat abruptly which caught the magazine off guard."



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 7, Issue #3  Summer 2005

"This issue was first released in the late Summer 2005 at DEFCON 13.  Alex, Dark Paladin, and the booth babes (Rochelle, Elka, Kieu) attended the convention and gave away approximately 1700 free copies of this issue along with SWAG (shirts, hats, stickers) and 20GB IPODs.  Attending DEFCON 13 was a great success for Blacklisted! 411 Magazine."



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 7, Issue #4  Fall 2005

"This issue is scheduled for on-sale date of 11/18/05.  This issue marks a sizable increase in our circulation numbers, distribution into additional nationwide chain stores and an increase in page count.  Readers will be able to find this issue in nearly every major bookstore in the U.S."



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 8, Issue #1  Winter 2005/2006

"This issue is scheduled for on-sale date of 02/10/06.  This issue marks a sizable increase in our circulation numbers, distribution into additional nationwide chain stores and an increase in page count.  Readers will be able to find this issue in nearly every major bookstore in the U.S."



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 8, Issue #2  Summer 2006



  Blacklisted! 411 - Volume 8, Issue #3  Fall 2006


Download Online Issues

That's right!  Long awaited, we are proud to announce the release of Blacklisted! 411 .NET, the official online counterpart to the print version of Blacklisted! 411 magazine.  The premiere edition of our online release is available in PDF format right now!

The content of the online edition contains entirely original material not available in the print version of our magazine, so be sure to take a look at it, download it, copy it, P2P it, pass it around to friends and mirror copies of it anywhere you'd like.  You're welcome to repost our online edition anywhere, as long as you give us proper credit.  You wanted FREE information, well here it is, people.  We're doing what no other in-print hacker magazine does!  Don't forget who made it possible.


THUD Magazine


Welcome, ladiez, gentz, hackerz, phreakerz, wormz, and whachamacallitz.  You're staring at the premier issue of THUD, The Hacker's Underground Digest.  First, let me tell you what we're all about.  Basically, we're a bunch of twits who figured we could make our own hacking magazine, and guess what!  We did!!  Cuz you're looking at it!  But seriously though, we're not a bunch of people who think we can be better than anyone else.  I, for one, hate people like that.  I've been reading magz like 2600 and Blacklisted! 411 forever, and they're both really good.  Each has it's strong points, as well as weaknesses.  No publication is perfect, and I'm sure there's gonna be people out there who have their problems with THUD.  Frankly, I'd be upset if people didn't write in spouting off shit about what's wrong with this, what's f*cked up there, and what not.  That's called feedback.

But anyway, what I am hoping to do with THUD is to provide yet another source of information for those of you out there that are into this shit.  I am a firm believer in the phrase 'knowledge is power' and when I seek knowledge, I do not seek it from only one source.  I try to corroborate by searching in many places.  I would like to provide yet one more source for you.  I would also like to provide more technically detailed information on the subjects we talk about.  Oh, of course we're gonna have the usual shit like lists of freqencies, or what chemicals you 'shouldn't' be playing with and other general stuph like that.  But beyond that, we're going to present to you articles written so that the beginner can understand, yet provide such a vast amount of information that even more advanced techno-philes should still learn a thing or two; or maybe to remind them of what they may have forgotten.  We're gonna show you pictures, we're gonna give you schematics, we 're gonna give you part sources, we 're gonna give you assembly instructions, we're gonna give you operating instructions, we're gonna give you what you need to succeed.  All you have to do is pay attention and understand and learn.

THUD Magazine
P.O. Box 2521
Cypress, CA 90630

Download Print Issues

  THUD - Volume 1, Issue #1  Spring 1998



  THUD - Volume 1, Issue #2  Fall 1998



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