Back in early 1982 four of us used to hang out and hack on code, radios and electronic gadgets. We authored some of our earlier hacks Group of 4. A little while later Nickle started a 24 hour a day 300bps BBS in the 707 area code and called it Group 4. In early 1984, Group 4 had got tangled up in all the fone codez, diskfer+catfer/send'ing warez, and hacking on the fone systems. With our AppleCat modems purring all night gathering the critical warez, and with the only elite BBS in the area, interest in Group 4 started to grow. This interest became growth for Group 4.

Someone pointed out that Group 4 was some sort of investment company, and we no longer had just four in our little circle, so it was time we changed our name. And of course 42 is/was the answer!

This symbol represents the ideals of Group 42. The bottom 4 sides are the foundation and represent Information, Knowledge, Wisdom and Resourses.

The top three sides represent the goals of Group 42 they are Power, Progress and Freedom. We came up with this when we all went on a 10 day retreat with no food except what we could catch or shoot, up in Modoc County, California.

The members of Group 42 are getting older with ages spanning from 26 to 31. Most of us have careers and new families to deal with now and can't afford to explore the system at the levels we once did. Especially in the light of new laws that tend to make everything illegal, and law enforcement that seems to only enforce laws when it deems it necessary. So it was decided that we would package some of our information and warez, combined it with some other critical warez and infos that are available, and offer it to anyone who wanted it in an easy to read and accessible format.

The net and computers are helping make information exchange easier, they are also making the government paranoid. This disc seeks to preserve ideas and information, in a very permanent form, that governments of this world may soon seek to regulate if not destroy.

Yes, much more. We have made a great effort to get this disc out by the first of January 1996. With this time constraint we could not convert the masses of the Group 42 archive in time for this release. But we do expect to do a second release of the Group 42 Information Archive before the end of 1996 that will contain the complete Group 42 archive.

Current Members are:


• Nickle (Founding member) - The man that holds the group together. Futurist philosopher and software engineer, Nickle is the man who gives the group vision. In the beginning was he and Wheats who pushed for mutual cooperation, cooked up scenarios for if we got caught and for what kind of profile members would show, and instilled a realist-libertarian outlook on life for us all. With Nickle's planning and "3-ring" binder of well thought out scenarios Group 42 has done, seen, and been; without getting busted.
• 4x (pronounced four by) - Our resident Hardware Hacker, has designed many little nifty hardware gadgets. Working with G-man he has developed cable fixes, DDI and other radio to digital interfaces, radio mods and other grey market stuph, many of which are being sold in the back of many US magazines right now. Joined Group 42 in 1986 when we were at college.
• G-man (Founding member) - G-man is kinda jack of all trades. He is currently working for some large company that builds networking equiptment. He knows the TCP/IP and IPX protocol stack like the back of his hand, and also has alot of experience with wireless data transmissions. He along with 4X have developed many interesting devices, that use or decode Manchester datastreams, and are sold on the hacker market today.
• Redwoods (Founding member) In the old days was also known as Lord Frobo and then The Rifter. Always wanted to publish our findings to the public hacker forums to gain a name for Group 42. The Group let him do some limited publishing in the early 80's under the above names. He took acid for the first time in 1986 and realized that his old hacker names were lame and that publishing to gain notoriety was stupid and dangerous to the groups activities. Took the name Redwoods when some Delta Zeta started calling him Randy of the Redwoods after a co-ed retreat in the North Western Sierras. Redwoods is another one of Group 42 that works for a large company, he develops Windows Apps.
• Codemaster - Codemaster was always around in the early days. Group 4 knew him because he was always skammin the warez with his Applecat and was a good friend of the Red Headded Freak (of Diskfer fame.) We didn't really let him in on much in the older days because he was a little reckless the way he operated. He finally got popped by MCI for using codez from his house. A year or so later he had mellowed out and learned self control and we gradually let him in on what we were doing. He has grown to become a great asset to Group 42. He has a great ability to weed out information on line and has developed software to monitor, scan, log and filter the IRC and USENET, keeping Group 42 on top of all things that are happening on the net.
• Clark Kent - Clark Kent is the newest and youngest member of Group 42. He was a freshman at our almamader when the rest of us were Juniors, Seniors or had Graduated. He has a sharp mind and is a knowledge freak, reading and skamming any file, book or disc he can find. It was Clark Kent's idea to blaze the CD-ROM pulishing fronteer and HTML'ize the Group 42 Information Archive when we decided to Sell Out.
• FNF (Pronounced eff-in-eff,Short for File Not Found) - FNF brought us the internet. Back in 1985 most of us were in college studying computer science, math, or electrical engineering. This is where we met FNF. FNF was the collage USENET guru and quickly became close friends with Group 42. It wasn't long before FNF had hooked up an unused PDP computer to the campus port selector giving Group 42 its own private email and news feed. FNF also brought us great quantities of Unix knowledge and later became the system admin for the campuses AT&T computer. Most of the Unix cracking information is FNF's work.

Previous Members were:



• Wheats (Founding member) - Stopped associating with the members of Group 42 a few years ago since he became a researcher for CERT. For the longest time Wheats was our projectile weapons expert. We can remember the day he turned 18, with $2500 in his hand he headed down to Tri-City and bought 6 long guns including an AK-47, AR-15 HBAR, and a SPAS shotgun. His 21st birthday was celebrated much the same way but buying hand-held projectile weapons. Remembering back as a kid, those of us that knew him and of his wacky adventures of shooting home made cannons, rockets, and bombs; were amazed on how well they worked and how much Wheats cared about safety. This care for safety and Wheats wise words helped temper some of the attitudes of the members of Group 42, cautioning us to lay low and explore the world without disturbing the dangers that lie, instead of drawing attention to ourselves. He also helped alot of us learn how to shoot straight, to understand and support the 2nd Amendment to our constitution, and to respect weapons (which was his first love); for this we owe him alot.
• Mad Max- We lost track of him a while back. Purportedly working in Singapore now. He was an adrenelin addict, who coined the phrase No Risk, No Rush. Part hacker, comidian, and adventurer; Mad Max's positive outlook on life helped bring necessary balance and insight to Group42. He instigated us into some crazy pranks and could always be counted on to go to any extreme to get information. Used to hangout with the SF Cacophony Society and occasionally brought some of the others in Group 42 along for the experiences. His love for Asia and asian woman finally dragged him away a few years after college.

Information regarding updates can be found on the Group42 Web Site at http://www.sonic.net/~group42