Connection Lost

// Tracklist

1. Video: Carrier Detect
2. Track 01: Carrier Detect

   You’re listening to a signal from the past A transmission that was never meant to last This is bitwize… logging on one final time To tell you what we lost, line by line

   Boot sequence running, memories cascade Every sector of my brain got data that won’t fade I remember when connection meant something real Before the feeds and algorithms told us how to feel Cathode ray glow on our teenage faces We were pioneers in digital spaces Now I’m sitting here, a relic of the code Time to tell the story that the world forgot

   So let me log back in, one more time Download the past before the server dies

   Carrier detect, signal acquired Logging into ghosts of networks long expired Carrier detect, are you still there? Transmitting to the void, does anybody care?

   They paved our playground, parking lots of chrome Monetized the commons we used to call home So gather round the terminal, let me testify A digital eulogy before the last bit dies This is Connection Lost, the album and the truth A grizzled hacker pouring out his misspent youth Eight tracks of memory, fragmented, compressed From carrier detect until we lay the net to rest

   So let me log back in, one more time Download the past before the server dies

   Carrier detect, signal acquired Logging into ghosts of networks long expired Carrier detect, are you still there? Transmitting to the void, does anybody care?

   If you remember… this is for you If you don’t… this is what you missed bitwize… signing on

3. Track 02: 2400 Baud

   Ten years old with a 2400 baud Watching characters crawl like a message from God ANSI colors painting worlds in my room Every phone call could’ve sealed my doom Parents asleep, I’m jacked into the void Trading text files, every packet enjoyed Anarchist Cookbook next to Phrack Magazine Living in a world that they’d never seen

   Waiting on the handshake, static on the line Every byte downloaded was a sacred sign

   2400 baud, patience was a virtue Watching characters crawl, every byte had worth to you 2400 baud, we were never in a rush In a world made of text, we found more than enough

   Elite boards hidden behind area codes Long distance calls, heavy financial loads SysOps were kings of their digital domain Ratios and uploads, that was the game Download a demo, let it run overnight Wake up to magic if the transfer went right No screenshots, no streams, no clout to chase Just the glow of green text on a terminal face

   Waiting on the handshake, static on the line Every byte downloaded was a sacred sign

   2400 baud, patience was a virtue Watching characters crawl, every byte had worth to you 2400 baud, we were never in a rush In a world made of text, we found more than enough

   They’ll never understand the weight of ATDT The anticipation, the static, then CONNECT for me A handshake in the dark between machines Building futures in those phosphorescent screens

   Carrier lost… but I remember the signal Still waiting on the tone

4. Track 03: You've Got Mail

   Welcome… You’ve Got Mail

   Ninety-six, AOL disc in every magazine Ten free hours to explore the unseen Keyword CHAT, entering rooms unnamed A-S-L was the question in the game IRC channels, Undernet, EFnet Building personalities before we ever met No profile pics, just words on a screen Imagination filled in what wasn’t seen

   Log on, jack in, world wide web Building digital lives inside our heads

   Before the algorithm told you what to think We built our own worlds, one broken link at a time GeoCities shrines with MIDIs that would play You’ve got mail from a world that’s fading away

   Web rings connecting weirdos worldwide Angelfire pages, nothing to hide Under construction GIFs, visitor counters Personal expression without content mounters Napster loading overnight for one MP3 Limewire roulette, never knew what you’d see Forums with signatures, post counts for days Communities forming in a thousand different ways

   Log on, jack in, world wide web Building digital lives inside our heads

   Before the algorithm told you what to think We built our own worlds, one broken link at a time GeoCities shrines with MIDIs that would play You’ve got mail from a world that’s fading away

   Hotmail accounts with ridiculous names Before our data became someone else’s gains When being online meant you chose to connect Not an always-on prison of dopamine and debt

   Away message set… gone but not forgotten

5. Track 04: Packet Storm

   Packet Storm archives, reading exploits for days 2600 meetings in the food court maze DEF CON badges, spot the fed in the crowd Goons at the door, paranoia allowed l0pht Heavy Industries testifying to Congress Telling suits their systems were defenseless We weren’t criminals, we were scientists Probing the boundaries of digital limits

   Root access to the truth they tried to hide Every system had a backdoor, we slipped inside

   We weren’t criminals, we were cartographers Mapping systems they said we had no business in Packet storm incoming, knowledge wants to be free This was the scene that made a hacker out of me

   Cult of the Dead Cow, releasing Back Orifice Proving point made, corporate edifice Full disclosure debates raging on the lists Responsible reporting versus anarchists White hat, black hat, shades of grey between Most of us just wanted to see the machine Understand the system, find the hidden doors Not for profit, just to see what’s in store

   Root access to the truth they tried to hide Every system had a backdoor, we slipped inside

   We weren’t criminals, we were cartographers Mapping systems they said we had no business in Packet storm incoming, knowledge wants to be free This was the scene that made a hacker out of me

   They called us threats to national security We were kids with curiosity and impurity Learning systems by taking them apart Every vulnerability was a work of art Now they hire us to do what they once feared The scene commodified, pioneers disappeared

   Handle retired… but the packets still flow

6. Track 05: LAN Party

   Friday night, trunk full of hardware CRT monitor, handle with care Fifty pounds of phosphor, worth the hernia Converging on a basement in suburbia CAT5 cables running room to room IPX-SPX, pray the config blooms Sixteen players on a local net Before matchmaking, good as it gets

   Everybody’s here, no one’s alone Gaming face to face, not through a phone

   Fifty pounds of monitor, worth every hernia Fraggin friends face to face, not through a server Pizza boxes stacking, Mountain Dew flowing LAN party til the sun starts showing

   Quake III Arena, rocket jumps for days Counter-Strike hostages, terrorist plays StarCraft rushes, Zerg versus Terran Trash talk hits different when they’re right there staring No lag, no latency, pure connection Screaming in their face was social perfection Sleep deprivation hallucination mode Six AM fragfest, everyone slowed

   Everybody’s here, no one’s alone Gaming face to face, not through a phone

   Fifty pounds of monitor, worth every hernia Fraggin friends face to face, not through a server Pizza boxes stacking, Mountain Dew flowing LAN party til the sun starts showing

   Now we play alone in separate rooms Matchmaking algorithms seal our tombs Discord calls ain’t the same as being there Sweat and pizza, recycled basement air Something human lost in optimization Digital efficiency killed the celebration

   GG… lobby’s empty now

7. Track 06: Terms of Service

   Two thousand four, something shifted in the code Facebook opened up and we moved our abode Left the forums, left the blogs, centralized Didn’t see the trap until it crystallized User-generated content, we’re the product now Engagement metrics, they milking the cow Every click tracked, every scroll recorded The open web got quietly deported

   Read the terms, click agree, sold your soul Didn’t cost a dime but they own you whole

   Click accept, click accept, sign your rights away The commons got enclosed and we let em take the space Terms of service, nobody reads the fine print While they build the walls around us, brick by brick, cement

   Google indexed every thought before you finished typing YouTube algorithms got the whole world swiping Amazon killed Main Street, one click at a time Convenience was the cover for the crime Walled gardens where the flowers can’t spread seeds Platform capitalism feeding platform needs They told us we were sharing, building community Turns out we were livestock, digital impunity

   Read the terms, click agree, sold your soul Didn’t cost a dime but they own you whole

   Click accept, click accept, sign your rights away The commons got enclosed and we let em take the space Terms of service, nobody reads the fine print While they build the walls around us, brick by brick, cement

   I watched the weird web die in real time Replaced by templates, metrics, paradigms The freaks went underground or just logged off The rest of us kept scrolling, couldn’t get off Data brokers trading dreams we didn’t know we sold Digital serfdom, new form of controlled

   Terms updated… agree to continue existing

8. Track 07: 404

   Click the bookmark, 404, page not found Another piece of history in the burial ground Wayback Machine catches fragments, ghosts But you can’t archive the feeling of those posts Forums where I learned who I wanted to be Error 404, couldn’t find me Dead links to dead friends in digital graves Handles that went silent, lost in the waves

   Searching for a signal that went dark Nothing left but echoes of a spark

   404, 404, soul not found Refresh the page but I’m still not around 404, 404, searching for home In a world made of links that lead to unknown

   GeoCities graveyards, Myspace tombs Livejournal confessions in abandoned rooms The internet never forgets, they say But I watched whole worlds just fade away Screennames I’ll never see type again Digital death of digital friends No funeral, no closure, just absence One day online, next day past tense

   Searching for a signal that went dark Nothing left but echoes of a spark

   404, 404, soul not found Refresh the page but I’m still not around 404, 404, searching for home In a world made of links that lead to unknown

   I’m a dead link walking through a modern web Everything I loved reduced to archived dread They optimized the soul out of the connection Left us with engagement, lost the true affection Who do I ping when the network’s down Who remembers the signal when there’s no one around

   Maybe we’re all cached pages now Copies of copies, forgetting how To be present in spaces that don’t track time Before the feed became the paradigm I pour one out for every site that died For the weird ones who had nowhere left to hide This is the eulogy nobody asked for But someone had to speak before we 404

   Page not found… But I remember I remember

9. Track 08: Connection Lost

   Distant signals fading in the void

   So here we are at the end of the line Eight tracks deep in this memory mine Poured out everything cached in my brain Every packet of pleasure, every byte of pain The old web’s dead, I won’t pretend it’s not But something in the signal never really got caught In the fediverse corners, in the IRC rooms Small fires burning, pushing back the gloom

   Still transmitting even when the line goes dead Carrying the signal forward in my head

   Connection lost, but the signal’s still inside Every packet that I sent is how I know I was alive Connection lost, but I’m still transmitting To whoever’s out there listening, whoever’s not quitting

   Maybe the spirit survives the platform death Maybe we carry the code with every breath The corporate web can wall us out But they can’t delete what we were about Curiosity, community, creation free The hacker ethic lives inside of me You can monetize the surface, track the clicks But the underground network still exists

   Still transmitting even when the line goes dead Carrying the signal forward in my head

   Connection lost, but the signal’s still inside Every packet that I sent is how I know I was alive Connection lost, but I’m still transmitting To whoever’s out there listening, whoever’s not quitting

   To the ones still running servers in the dark To the ones who never lost that original spark To the kids who’ll never know what we had I hope you find your own spaces to be mad Build your own worlds, break their rules We were freaks and weirdos, beautiful fools The connection might be lost but the protocol remains Data persists even through the pain

   This is bitwize, signing off From the old web to whatever comes next Keep the signal alive Keep the weird alive Connection… lost