The Syndicate Of London
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Syndicate of London (SOL) are a UK based hacking/hacktivist and "general user group" which has been in existence since the early 90's in one form or another. They are noted in particular for two hacktivist ezines published by the group The Syndicate Of London Journal/Annuals and The Discordant Opposition Journal. The Soljo is considered one of the two largest "underground" ezine's in the UK, the other being SWAT. Many of SOL's members past and present also have been or are involved in the popular security portal Whitedust.
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[edit] Name
SOL's name "The Syndicate" originated from the Syndicate (computer game series) and the base location of the group; London, UK.
[edit] History
From the groups website: "The Syndicate of London (or SOL as it is more usually known) was formed back in 1992 as a demo/pirate group (before the term "warez" was common place in the UK and the internet was a means of communication available to the masses, SOL was an original snail mail/hand to hand kru) for the Amiga and Atari ST range of home computers (taking some inspiration from the location of formation, and some from a certain video game that was once long ago popular on the Amiga). It's founding members were PaRiS aka psg, Llama, Captain Cake and The Animal Child. Back then no one had any clue just how far the project would go. But go it has. On and on..."
The group is known to have formed originally in 1992; and disbanded for a time at some point between 1994 and 1997. The group definitively reformed in 1998. This reformation was inspired by JerichoZZ aka. GoF and |PaRiS| aka psg and lead to most of the projects SOL are recognised for today.
[edit] The SOL Propaganda Machine
The Syndicate Of London prides itself on what it refers to as it's 'propaganda machine'. This term basically describes all active SOL projects at any one time. At present SOL directly or indirectly run; Whitedust, Games @ Soljo.org, Stuff @ Soljo.org and the entire 'Soljo Publishing' house. SOL have also recently released an album of their "musical misadventures in the digital underground." inspiring Grandmaster Ratté of Cult Of The Dead Cow to comment on SOL on the main cDc communications site saying "...they're up to a lot of good creative stuff".
[edit] End Of Dayz
On the 10th of December 2006 SOL released their first printed book entitled [End Of Dayz]. The book is described as "An eclectic collection of underground text files compiled from Soljo Publishing’s full 1992 to 2006 run - a snapshot of creativity and opinion from the digital jilted generation, right from the ASCII edge and onto your bookshelf. Hacking, politics, science, fiction and humour from the group that brought you The Soljo, The Discordant Opposition Journal, SPACT and the RWM Collective. A must read for any self respecting old school geek, or indeed any geek interested in the history and traditions of underground geekdom. Internet counter culture at it's best." End of Dayz is available from lulu.com.
[edit] Members
SOL has had numerous members over the years the main constants in the group being |PaRiS| aka psg (Mark Hinge of Whitedust), Steinsky, Chickensoup (Peter Prickett of Whitedust) and Cronus (Mark Anderson, also of Whitedust).
