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- ==Phrack Inc.==
-
- Volume Two, Issue 20, File 2 of 12
-
- ==Phrack Pro-Phile XX==
-
- Written and Created by Taran King
-
- 1/5/88
-
- Welcome to the Phrack Pro-Phile XX. Phrack Pro-Phile was created
- to bring info to you, the users, about old or highly important/controversial
- people. This month, I bring to you someone who you all have seen and heard
- of...
-
- Taran King
- ~~~~~~~~~~
- (me!)
-
- Taran King (I) was the sysop of Metal Shop Private, a private
- exchange for telecommunications enthusiasts (phone phreaks and hackers) as
- well as being the home-base of Phrack Inc. which I ran. I also had a hand in
- the organization of SummerCon '87 and PartyCon '87.
- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Personal
- ~~~~~~~~
- Handle: Taran King
- Call him: Randy, Randster, Randall, whatever (real name is Rand)
- Past handles: None
- Handle origin: The main character in The Chronicles of Prydain by Lloyd
- Alexander
- Date of Birth: 7/11/69
- Age at current date: 19 years old
- Height: 5'10" or so (give or take an inch)
- Weight: 135-140 lbs. (I hate fat people)
- Eye color: Brown
- Hair Color: Brown
- Computers: IBM PC, later with a hard drive added.
- Sysop/Co-Sysop of: Metal Shop Private, The Brewery, Quick Shop/Metal Shop
- AE, Whackoland, The Dark Tower, Digital ITS (proud of
- that one) and probably a few more I've forgotten about.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- I started out in the BBS world in September of 1983 when a friend
- gave me numbers to different modems which included things to hack on as well
- as bulletin boards. I actually got my computer in late June of that year, but
- didn't understand the concept of the modem until that point. I got involved
- with David Lightman (314)'s board before it went up by beta-testing it for him
- at times and when he put it up, I ended up being user 2 and then soon after,
- co-sysop of The Dark Tower. It was there that my local notariety became
- strong and a few people from the nation started calling in. His board was
- very good with what he had and the little advertising that it got, but it
- eventually went down. It was at that point when I started getting around
- nationally and was able to make connections of my own. I put up Metal Shop:
- The Dark Tower Phase II a bit after because St. Louis totally lacked bulletin
- boards that dealt with hacking or phreaking. I advertised around the country
- and drew in quite a crowd. The board excelled with time to the point of
- having around 500 users when it got to be a security risk in my eyes and we
- put in the general password system (made by Cheap Shades, of course).
- Eventually, that crowd got weeded down to a lot fewer people and some time
- after that, I was hospitalized. After my release from the hospital, Cheap
- Shades and I (me on the ideas and Shades on the programming) created a
- modified version of WWIV BBS program to suit my wants/needs and it resembled
- the old Shop set-up. As time went on, it became a name of its own through the
- crowd that hung out on it as well as having Phrack Inc. as being based there.
- For more detailed explainations of how things came about and about a few
- things mentioned above, see the big history file in this issue of Phrack Inc.
- I've met a few members of the phreak/hack world including the following:
- Knight Lightning, Cheap Shades, Forest Ranger, The W(hack)o Cracko Bros., Dr.
- Forbin, Data Line, and Reverend Enge (all local to me), as well as Jester
- Sluggo, Blue Buccaneer, Phantom Phreaker, Doom Prophet, Bill from RNOC, Tuc,
- Dan The Operator, Lex Luthor, The Leftist, Sir Francis Drake, Loki, Disk
- Jockey, Control C, Synthetic Slug, Lucifer 666, Mad Hatter, Cutthroat, The Mad
- Hacker (219), Sir William, Dr. Cypher, Hatchet Molly, Bad Subscript, The
- Mentor, Cisban Evil Priest, Phrozen Ghost, Surfer Bob, Crimson Death (618), The
- Dictator, Doc Holiday (901), and The Ur-Vile. Some of the memorable phreak
- boards I was on (besides my own) included The Dark Tower, The Pipeline,
- Broadway Show, Zyolog, Stronghold East Elite, Stronghold North, Hell Phrozen
- Over, Private Sector, Pirate-80, Stalag 13, Lunatic Labs UnLtd., Quick Shop,
- Metal Shop Brewery, NetSys, The Private Connection, ShadowSpawn, RACS III, The
- Pearly Gates, Brainstorm Elite, Metalland North, The Alliance, Intergalactic
- Dismantling, Inc. (IDI), DUNE, Speed Demon Elite, The Abyss, MetroMedia/Danger
- Zone Private, The Matrix, Thieve's World, FreeWorld II, Flying Circus, Twilight
- Zone, Septic Tank, The Lost City of Atlantis, Phantasie Realm, CHAMAS, and
- probably a few others I forgot that were important. Certain knowledge I've
- gained over the years is attributed to various boards forementioned as well as
- people like Bill from RNOC, Phantom Phreaker, Doom Prophet, The Videosmith, and
- many others not to mention reading (a key part to learning technical things)
- and social engineering.
-
- I utterly hate working with computers for anything other than
- communicating with friends and occasionally word processing. Programming on
- them is the most repugnant thought in the world to me (no offense Shades!).
-
- I've really never been much for hacking at all, although I did gain a
- bit of an interest through the legitimate accounts I gained on systems such as
- NetSys run by Terminus in Maryland. Hacking was never really much for me
- (besides looking at things on dull systems that were totally useless) when I
- first got the modem. Now that I'm at college and have access to it, I'm
- learning VM/CMS a bit so that I can use Bitnet and work through/with it.
-
- I attended and had a part in organizing both SummerCon '87 and
- PartyCon '87 (very much in SummerCon and very little in PartyCon). I also
- attended SummerCon '88 for a little while on each of the days except Sunday. I
- was supposed to be on the NEW TAP staff, run by the W(hack)o Cracko Bros. as
- well as being on the staff of Telecomputist (which sponsored SummerCon '87) and
- doing all but writing articles for Phrack Inc. Other than that, I'm not
- terribly involved with phreaker/hacker media.
-
- The only group I was ever in was The 2600 Club! which later revised
- into The NEW 2600 Club! which was just as ignorant with more interesting names
- but about an equal participation in anything. I learned I was able to advance
- through the phreak world without the booster of a club besides using my board
- as a reference. I didn't need to rely on the work of others.
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Interests: Telecommunications (basically phreaking knowledge-wise
- now), music (heavy metal of all sorts plus so much more
- and playing electric guitar), fraternity life (party), women
- (white ones, blond, with blue eyes, and NO FAT CHICKS!
- Namely, Kimberly), driving (and one day, I'll drive that
- fucking DeLorean!)
-
- Taran's Favorite Things
- -----------------------
-
- Women: Kimberly (see above...I went all out!)
- Cars: Lamborghini Contachs, DeLoreans, Lotuses, Vectors, etc.
- Foods: NO VEGETABLES!
- Music: Heavy metal, Pink Floyd, classic rock.
- Leisure: Partying, playing guitar, spending time with the woman.
- Alcoholic fun: Tequila shots, Rum & Coke, good beer (pretty much anything),
- Long Island Tea, and those funky teas you find at college
- parties in garbage cans lined with garbage bags (hmm!)
-
- Most Memorable Experiences
- --------------------------
-
- Forest Ranger's conferences (what would YOU do for a Klondike Bar at 3am?).
- Car accident with Jester Sluggo as well as almost a 2nd time afterwards (keep
- drinking!).
- Bell Shock Force conferences (yes ma'am, I'm sorry but you'll just have to cut
- those wires)
- Getting busted in late May '87 (don't try it, it ain't fun).
- SummerCon '87 (a better party than PartyCon '87, met a lot of great people).
- PartyCon '87 (a lot of fun, but too unorganized although I met a few more
- people that I had wanted to).
- SummerCon '88 (wait, did I attend that???).
-
-
- Some People to Mention
- ----------------------
-
- Knight Lightning (my right hand man; although he wasn't terribly
- knowledgeable, he was always there and trying to help out and still
- is!|)
- David Lightman 314 (for allowing me to use his program to start what turned
- out to be Metal Shop Private)
- Man-Tooth (my original 2nd co-sysop next to KL who drove me down to David
- Lightman's house in South-fucking-County St. Louis for 30 minutes)
- Dr. Forbin/Mr. Modem (for re-transferring the original program after something
- got fucked after the ride to South-fucking-County)
- Forest Ranger (wild man, can't say much about him without getting hurt|)
- Phantom Phreaker (we found ya for 2600 Club and you excelled far beyond any of
- the rest of us in the club did, plus you helped my board immensely)
- Barbie Doll (for suggesting the idea of Phrack Inc. in different words even if
- nobody knows what or who you were or where you were from)
- The W(hack)o Cracko Bros. (what a couple of idiots)
- Oryan Quest (never has there been as bad a pest as this man, but he turned out
- to be human Mexican, but human| after we were both busted,
- interestingly enough)
- Lex Luthor (for freaking me out when he first called my board and contributing
- a bit here and there)
- Capt. Hook (taught me a bit about social engineering here and there and
- introduced me to a few people as well as helping out a couple of
- times)
- Cheap Shades (what would Metal Shop have been without the programming mastery
- of this individual; my left hand man and great friend as well)
- Tuc (generally a good friend and historical reference as well as creating the
- Pro-Phile that I based the rest of them on)
- Bill from RNOC (another one of my best friends who is the smartest person
- potentially, and definitely the smartest when it comes to phreaking
- and hacking put together; a great source of information, and one of
- the most hilarious people I know)
- Olorin The White (if this guy puts me in his group one more time, I'm gonna
- kill him!)
-
- Inside Jokes
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Mary likes corn. Are you stupid (corn, cheese, free)? Supervisors at Pizza
- Hut? Essscuse me Mr. Corley, but I was juss lookin' fo sum bonez...I'm Bosco.
- What's the worse that could happen? Smoke. Raggy! Raggy! HeeheeHEEHeeheehee
- hee. KS-KS-KS <Gulp!>. Do you know any phreaks who carry around their own
- trunks. IIIII Like Chi-Nese! Listing for Dalkon Shields please. I know
- that's a blue box! Hello, security? Do we have a trace? We do. Good.
- <LAUGHTER!>. AMD. We make display. We're hopping on a plane now and coming
- to Maryland to kick your ass! For $20 I'll sell you 5 lbs. of baking soda.
- Doesn't he look like The Fly? You almost just hit the car again! Keep
- drinking! It was the other side of the car this time! Keep drinking! Do you
- know what your aunt would do to you if you got in another accident? Keep
- drinking! I hate it when your dick hits the water in the bottom of the
- urinal, don't you? But what do you think about it? But what do you think
- about it? But what do you think about it? And a complimentary beer comes
- with the room. Domino's dude! Ya wanna get paid? Run to me boys. Guess
- where I'm calling from? NO! NO! COCKSUCKER! I'mLuckyI'mLuckyI'mLucky! But
- first off, do you have Karl Marx's phone number? Dude. NAA. Dude. NAA.
- Dude. NAA. The meat was SOOOO tender, it just slid off the bones. Chicken.
- Hey, you know like you have a little piece of wire hanging down from your
- nose? Jolly Green Faggot. That made me pucker my lips. Sweet. Baksketball
- Jones. HAHAHAHAHA<fart>HAHAHAHA. You Bonehead. I would have reached my hand
- in but I had just finished deficating. Dan, you're too thin for your voice.
- You can almost hear the dogs across the street barking. I only want to know
- two things: 1) How do you blue box off of CCIS and 2) how do you remotely take
- total control of LMOS? NO! I'M BIOC! <STAMP> BIOC <STAMP> BIOC <STAMP>
- BIOC. "BIOC Agent 003 was arrested today for stamping his name on his RA's
- forehead."
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- I'm against pretty much all forms of fraud now that I've spent the
- night in jail, the summer of '87 in pain and waiting, and will spend the next 3
- years of my life on probation. I'm not informing to anyone about anything if
- you have thoughts about that statement, but I have no part in anything
- fraudulent. I've always thought that carding was the most stupid crime
- connected with computers and that it's too risky to be worth it in the end. I
- hope that the future phreaks and hackers keep around and retain what's been
- built up over the many years since long before I'd heard of phreaking or
- hacking.
-
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- I hope you enjoyed this file. Although I had at one time intended on this
- being my last Pro-Phile, it's actually the first of many to come...And now
- for the regularly taken poll from all interviewees.
-
- Of the general population of phreaks you have met, would you consider most
- phreaks, if any, to be computer geeks? Generally, the cool ones aren't, but
- of course, in every large group of people, you'll probably find a few geeks
- here and there. Thanks for your time, Randy. No problem, Randy.
-
- Taran King
- =========================================================================
- =========================================================================
-
-