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- ==Phrack Inc.==
-
- Volume Two, Issue 20, File 12 of 12
-
-
- PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN { SummerCon '88 } PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN
- ^*^ ^*^
- PWN Phrack World News PWN
- ^*^ Issue XX ^*^
- PWN PWN
- ^*^ "SummerCon Strikes Again" ^*^
- PWN ----- PWN
- ^*^ Created, Written, and Edited ^*^
- PWN by Knight Lightning PWN
- ^*^ ^*^
- PWN (It is good to be back!) PWN
- ^*^ ^*^
- PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN { SummerCon '88 } PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN
-
- Welcome to Phrack World News Issue XX. Whew! Issue 20 already? I have been
- gone too long. This issue features the exclusive coverage of SummerCon 1988,
- which took place in St. Louis, Missouri during the weekend of July 22-24, 1988.
- Before we get to the bulk of the issue I'd like to make a note that this year's
- turnout was even greater than last year's with the majority of those claiming
- they would attend, actually showing up... we had a great time. -KL
-
- Please Note: All the events depicted in this story are based on the
- observations as seen by Knight Lightning (me).
-
- PreCon '88; A Little Background
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- When Taran King and I went off to college, Sir Francis Drake picked up running
- Phrack Inc. and PWN. Taran gave the rights to SummerCon to Sir Francis Drake
- as well, although it was not really his right to give away. At any rate, SFD
- intended to hold SummerCon '88 in New York City, possibly by trying to get Bill
- >From RNOC or Tuc to help him out, since SFD lived out on the west coast. A lot
- of publicity was put out in both 2600 Magazine and WORM (a hardcopy magazine
- for "cyberpunks" written and distributed by Sir Francis Drake himself).
- However, eventually it became quite clear that SummerCon '88 would not be held
- in NYC, at least not by SFD.
-
- In the meantime, there was quite a bit of controversy concerning SummerCon '88
- on a bulletin board known as The Forgotten Realm, run by Crimson Death 618.
- Apparently the members of TFR were trying to figure out where to have the
- convention. Control C said that he would hold SummerCon '88 in Detroit,
- Michigan, but the only person who really liked that idea was Ax Murderer.
-
- Eventually it came down to two places; New York City or St. Louis, Missouri.
- The discussion went on for over a month with everyone leaning heavily towards
- St. Louis. The clincher came when Prime Suspect received word from myself,
- that we were indeed planning SummerCon '88 here in St. Louis. So on June 19,
- 1987 (the ONE year anniversary of SummerCon '87) Crimson Death contacted
- Phantom Phreaker to get to Taran King who in turn passed the word on to me and
- I called Crimson Death. We set the date and as such, the actual preliminary
- planning for SummerCon '88 had begun.
-
- Crimson Death sent the word out and I finally had a chance to release the idea
- I had conceived two months prior... The Phoenix Project. The new millennium
- has begun and the rebirth of the phreak/hack community has been achieved. In
- fact, this rebirth is currently evident in a more physical fashion on a fairly
- new bulletin board earning its name from my idea...
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- The Phoenix Project
- 300/1200/2400 Baud
- (512) 754-8182
-
- Brought to you by The Mentor!
-
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
-
- SummerCon '88; Not As Planned... Friday Morning, July 22, 1988
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Coincidentally, Tuc was again this year's first arrival from out of town.
- Taran King, Forest Ranger, and I arrived at the airport to greet him and after
- some hassle at Lambert Field, we grabbed some lunch and went to this year's
- official SummerCon hotel; the Ramada Inn - Westport.
-
- >From here things did not go exactly to plan. Over three weeks in advance I had
- reserved a double room in Forest Ranger's name to serve as the Phrack Inc. room
- or whatever as sort of a base of operations. Ramada had a super savers weekend
- promotion going on all through summer where a limited number of rooms (doubles)
- could be purchased for a special weekend rate of $33.90. Well I was sure to
- get this rate and was given a reservation identification number. However, the
- check-in counter at first denied this and then finally pulled up the file.
- They insisted that the room was for $68.00 and that was what we were told.
- They were incorrect. At about this time, Taran and I had wandered into the
- main lobby where we were confronted by a guy who subtly said, "Are you here for
- SummerCon ?"
-
- It was The Dictator, who had come from Phoenix, Arizona (602 NPA). He had
- already gotten a room (211) at the ridiculous price of $68.00. Unfortunately,
- we still had a problem, because the hotel supervisor insisted that we weren't
- 21 anyway and by Missouri State Law they could not legally rent us a room at
- any rate. This is when I jumped in saying we had reserved the room for Tuc who
- was 22 and I had been promised the rate of $33.90. The supervisor began to
- tell some story of a computer error (yeah right) and the person who guaranteed
- the room was wrong. I argued that it was their problem and not ours if there
- was indeed this computer error and that this gross display of bad business and
- false advertising would be reported to the Better Business Bureau. In the
- meantime Tuc, Taran, and Forest Ranger had grabbed a copy of the Southwestern
- Bell Yellow Pages (it really is easier to let your fingers do the walking) and
- were checking out other hotels in the Westport area. My biggest concern was
- for all the guests driving in who thought we would be at the Ramada. It was
- not long before the hotel supervisor had spoken to the hotel manager and they
- offered us the room for a flat rate of $40.00. We took it. The rooms were
- quite nice actually and would serve our purposes well.
-
- Taran and I ran off on separate errands, while Forest Ranger and Tuc visited
- Westport Plaza to do some shopping. When Taran and I returned, we ran into
- another interesting person who said, "You guys here for SummerCon?" It was
- Dr. Cypher of Bellcore and with him was Mike (a non phreak/hack type, but cool
- just the same) and Hatchet Molly, a 23 year old graduate student at Northern
- Illinois University who was working on his thesis; the social atmosphere of the
- phreak/hack community or something like that.
-
- It was only about 20 minutes later when I wandered down to the lobby and found
- Lucifer 666 and Synthetic Slug checking in. Standing five feet behind them was
- another fearsome threesome made up of Crimson Death 618, Phrozen Ghost, and
- Surfer Bob. PG and SB had been visiting Crimson Death earlier that week prior
- to reaching SummerCon and they all arrived at the same time. Lucifer 666 and
- Synthetic Slug got a room, while the others crashed in the Phrack Inc. room.
-
- SummerCon '88; Back At Lambert Friday Afternoon, July 22, 1988
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- It was time for another trip to the airport for me, Taran, Tuc, and Forest
- Ranger. We arrived just in time to meet up with The Mentor and Cisban Evil
- Priest. They were easy to spot because they were the only guys on the plane
- that were not wearing suits and/or did not have any children with them.
-
- Once greetings had taken place, Mentor unveiled a surprise -- buttons
- especially made for distribution at SummerCon '88. Created with a laser
- printer they displayed a large "NO FEDS" with a circle and line through it
- (like a No U-Turn sign), and also naming The Phoenix Project (the board), the
- baud rate, and phone number. He brought more than enough for everyone.
-
- After some running around the airport and a brief lounge at one of the
- airport's bars, we proceeded to meet up with Control C and Bad Subscript who
- had flown in from Detroit, Michigan. We divided up again and headed for the
- hotel. Taran King, Tuc, and Cisban Evil Priest rode with me while The Mentor,
- Control C, and Bad Subscript rode with Forest Ranger. Control C decided he was
- hungry and FR drove to the nearest McDonald's where he went on to cut off a
- customer in the drive-through lane and pulled right to the window to pick up
- some food... not his food, but who cares.
-
- "That will be $3.00, sir."
- "What exactly do I get for my $3.00?"
- "Two regular cheese burgers, a large fries, and a large Coke."
- "Okay!"
-
- They took it and left, leaving McDonald's in a total disarray for at least a
- half hour.
-
- The Mentor and Cisban Evil Priest as well as Control C and Bad Subscript both
- got rooms and from there SummerCon '88 really began.
-
- SummerCon '88; Let The Good Times Roll Friday Night, July 22, 1988
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Basically it was just a big party from here on, with the old phreaks meeting
- the new, and some re-acquaintances. Control C brought down some gifts as well
- -- posters from Michigan Bell.
-
- "I would shred everything, because we get so much
- information out of the dumpster, it's unreal..."
-
- It was signed by Control C himself and he told us that these posters now appear
- in all Michigan Bell central offices and other places of business. The picture
- on the poster featured Control C's own personal stash that he had gotten from
- Michigan Bell.
-
- We had some other guests arrive during the night. Terminal Technocrat and a
- friend of his (who did have a handle, but I didn't catch it) arrived from
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin. A friend of Forest Ranger's named Mike also showed up
- with Kari, Cary, Katie, Susie, and Amy [some serious bitches]. The main party
- ran through The Dictator's room until a series of threatening calls from the
- front desk forced TD to clear everyone out of his room.
-
- In the meantime, Cary (a nymphomaniac 14-year old) was running up Tuc's phone
- bill and hitting on everyone at the convention. She ended up with Cisban Evil
- Priest in his room (that he shared with The Mentor). However, since clearing
- out of The Dictator's room the majority of the party crew all ran into Mentor
- and Priest's room causing quite a disturbance. When The Mentor heard about
- this he ran to his room and threw them all out. This action set the rest of
- the night's activities to a certain theme -- The Fury of Forest Ranger.
-
- You see Forest Ranger was quite a bit drunk and became incredibly pissed off
- when he found out that his friends were mistreated. A few of us returned to
- The Dictator's room where FR made several threatening phone calls to The Mentor
- and was promptly hung up on. Apparently that was the last straw because FR
- went into an unstoppable rage that trashed most of the items in the room and
- then he started through the hotel. After damaging several items in the hotel
- hallways, Forest Ranger proceeded to attack a light fixture in the emergency
- stairwell and in doing so, sliced his hand open on the newly broken glass.
-
- Emergency measures were called for -- Tuc and Lucifer 666 played rescue team
- and took Forest Ranger to a not so nearby United States Air Force Hospital in
- Illinois, where Forest Ranger was stitched up.
-
- After the excitement, most of the people at the convention had mellowed out and
- Dr. Forbin left to take Cary home (we still don't know what happened to the two
- of them, but rumor is that Forbin is making a tremendous recovering from
- several serious venereal diseases.)
-
- At some point this evening Terminal Technocrat, Dr. Cypher, and a few others
- decided to go on a trashing run. It didn't really turn out as planned and they
- ended up at Southwestern Bell Publications (where the cameras are almost as big
- as the dumpsters). It was unsuccessful, but at least there were no casualties.
-
- The final interesting part of this evening was the arrival of The Leftist and
- The Ur-Vile from Atlanta, Georgia. This arrival is important to make a note of
- because with the exception of the time spent immediately after they got to the
- hotel, The Ur-Vile spent the entire remainder of SummerCon '88 asleep.
-
- SummerCon '88; So What Now? Saturday, July 23, 1988
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Just about everyone went to Union Station, a luxurious shopping mall in
- downtown St. Louis. However, a few of us including Taran King and myself
- arrived at the hotel in time to meet our final guests for the weekend --
- Phantom Phreaker and Doom Prophet.
-
- Taran King and myself took a Crimson Death back to TK's to let him copy some
- unreleased files for Phrack Inc. (since he had been running it at the time).
- However, now those files will be put out by the original Phrack team.
-
- The main part of the convention started sometime after that and I presented the
- second public hearing of the now famous Dan The Operator/John Maxfield and the
- Dan The Operator/Il Duce (Phiber Optick) recordings which were featured in
- Phrack World News XV, which was published last year. I have decided to make
- this an annual event and those wishing a copy of the tape should get in contact
- with me through Epsilon, The Prophet, or through Bitnet.
-
- Unfortunately, the most important information learned at this year's convention
- cannot be published. However, when looking at the amount and the extent of
- information brought forth at this year's convention, it makes last year's look
- like a day at pre-school. If the level jumps like this next year, I think that
- the world had better watch out because today's phreak/hacks are definitely
- getting smarter and better every year. The key is to stay out of trouble long
- enough to gain experience that will keep you out of trouble.
-
- The Leftist brought a terminal with him and it would have been a great "toy" to
- have at the convention except no one had the extra phone cord necessary to put
- it to good use.
-
- The rest of Saturday evening was just a mix of story telling, partying, and
- some deep technical discussions. There was some element of danger present. It
- would seem that because of the trouble from the previous evening that the hotel
- management had arranged to have some extra security present in case things got
- out of hand. The Maryland Heights police force sent a pair of officers over,
- and they were indeed the rudest individuals I have ever met.
-
- At one point in the evening, Lucifer 666 and I had traveled down to the lobby
- by way of the stairs and when arrived, the greetings from "officer friendly"
- reminded me of last SummerCon's police incident ("Run to me boys!").
-
- (We were wearing our "NO FEDS" pins during this incident)
-
- "You two come here, NOW!"
- "What? Waitasec we are guests here (holding up keys)."
- "I can't see that far, you come here, NOW!"
- "Why did you take the stairs instead of the elevator!?"
- "The elevator was too slow, sir."
- "What are you doing down here?"
- "Going to the soda and candy machines."
- "I don't want any messing around here tonight, you got that!?"
- "Yes, we are not looking for problems."
-
- A couple of hours later, I had decided to go to my car to drop a few items off
- and found myself being followed by the same officer. After I had been to my
- car, I started back towards the hotel with this jerk eyeballing me. When I had
- reached the building I asked him...
-
- "Is there a problem officer?"
- "No, you got a problem!? Do you want to have a problem!?"
- "Nope."
-
- After this incident I returned everyone's room keys, exited the hotel by a back
- stairway, hopped into my car and pulled around to the front where the lobby and
- the two officers were. I calmly honked a couple of times and with my lights
- off so as not to reveal my plates, gave them "the bird." I left the area at a
- rather fast pace after that.
-
- SummerCon '88; All Good Things Must Come To An End Sunday, July 24, 1988
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- By the time I returned on Sunday morning, Terminal Technocrat and his friend
- had long since been gone as well as Dr. Cypher, Hatchet Molly and Mike. The
- rest of us hung out for a while as we prepared to pack everything up and send
- everyone home. The Leftist, The Ur-Vile, Lucifer 666, and Synthetic Slug had
- to cruise and in the meantime I took Tuc, Control C, and Bad Subscript to the
- airport breaking five speed limits in order for them to catch their newly
- scheduled flights.
-
- After which this left me, Forest Ranger, Phantom Phreaker, Doom Prophet, The
- Mentor, Cisban Evil Priest, Crimson Death, Phrozen Ghost, and Surfer Bob. We
- were soon joined by Amy and Katie and we all headed out to the St. Louis
- Galleria, another shopping plaza. On the way, we toured through some of StL's
- richer sections of town and as we went on became separated from Forest Ranger
- in downtown Clayton. After five minutes of massive confusion we were once
- again on track and eventually met up with Forest Ranger and Surfer Bob who was
- with him at a music store inside the plaza.
-
- We killed about two hours there between lunch, Phrozen Ghost's Unix Manual
- heist from B. Dalton Booksellers, and the Phantom Phreaker/Doom Prophet Vs.
- "Goons From Hell" skateboard confrontation. So after all was said and done,
- Forest Ranger took Crimson Death, Phrozen Ghost, and Surfer Bob back to Ramada
- to get their car, Phantom Phreaker and Doom Prophet hit the highway, and The
- Mentor and Cisban Evil Priest went with me back one last time to Lambert Field,
- where I dropped them off.
-
- And that was SummerCon '88 ...
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- PostCon '88; Some Things To Make A Note Of...
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- This year's SummerCon posters were made by Knight Lightning and they featured
- AT&T, MCI, U.S. Sprint and the FON card, Southwestern Bell, ISDN diagrams, Pink
- Floyd, Domino's Pizza, and many other interesting items including; Oryan QUEST!
-
- "I *Demand* you attend SummerCon!"
-
- "I demand to be let back on MSP! or I will UNLEASH
- with FULL FORCE (and put a maintenance busy on you!)"
-
- To obtain a copy of this poster contact
- Epsilon, The Prophet or try and find me on Bitnet.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Control C and The Mentor were both made members of the Legion Of Doom/Hackers.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The Mentor's now famous Hacker's Manifesto which was first released in Phrack
- Inc. Issue VII appeared in the September issue of Thrasher Magazine.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- The Dictator is looking for users to call his bulletin board...
- The Dark Side (Commodore 128) 602-789-9269
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Who Was This Year's Fed/Informant? I have some strong possibilities about
- that, , but there is an interesting twist to the story. On Monday evening,
- July 25, 1988, Forest Ranger claimed that he had received a call (from a source
- he refused to disclose) stating that Secret Service was indeed at SummerCon '88
- and were in room 209 (right next to 211 - The Dictator's room) and another room
- supposedly under Control C and Bad Subscript's room.
-
- There were reports of supposed Secret Service agents at Ramada, but the general
- idea was that even if they were legitimate, it was because of Democratic
- Presidential nominee Govenor Michael S. Dukakis, who was visiting St. Louis
- that weekend. When I heard all of this, I paid no attention to it because the
- way it was described, it was just a bunch of jerks being pesky about the "NO
- FEDS" pins.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Special Thanks goes to Epsilon and Crimson Death. Without their help, there
- would not have been a SummerCon this year and thanks to their efforts, I will
- see to it that there will be a SummerCon for many years to come.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- According to Dr. Cypher, Byteman was supposed to fly down to St. Louis for the
- convention, but ran into a mishap with airport security. In his carry-on bag
- he had several switch blade knives and six blue boxes, which at the time were
- believed to be detonators for some kind of explosive. After being held at the
- airport, Byteman was met by the FBI who had verified that the items in question
- were not detonators, however they did recognize what they were and now Byteman
- is facing charges of conspiracy to commit toll fraud, etc.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Crimson Death claims to have received a call from John F. Maxfield a few days
- preceding SummerCon '88. Apparently he wanted an invitation to the convention.
- Nevertheless, he did not show up. Also, there was some talk about Richard
- Sandza going to SummerCon, but he was not there either.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Ramada Inn Lost And Found:
- - Has anyone seen the 1981 Employee Of The Month Plaque?
- - Whoever took it must have been out of CONTROL.
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- SummerCon '88 Guest List
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- Bad Subscript / Cisban Evil Priest / Control C / Crimson Death
- Dr. Cypher / Dr. Forbin / Doom Prophet / Forest Ranger / Hatchet Molly
- Knight Lightning / Lucifer 666 / Phantom Phreaker / Phrozen Ghost
- Surfer Bob / Synthetic Slug / Taran King / Terminal Technocrat / The Dictator
- The Leftist / The Mentor / The Ur-Vile / Tuc
-
- Plus;
-
- Katie, Cary, Kari, Amy, Susie, Mike1, Mike2, and Terminal Technocrat's friend.
-
- Bringing this year's total attendance to 28 people.
-
-
- Hope you enjoyed the article because the future is forever.
-
- :Knight Lightning - The magic is back... With a VENGEANCE!
- _______________________________________________________________________________
-
- <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><K><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
- <> <>
- <> THE COMMUNICATIONS FRAUD CONTROL ASSOCIATION IS DEADLIER THAN WE THOUGHT <>
- <> <>
- <> Even the most elite fear for the fate of the phreak/hack world... <>
- <> but Knight Lightning has a plan <>
- <> <>
- <> <>
- <> THE VICIOUS CIRCLE <>
- <> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ <>
- <> Shadows Of A Future Past \ The Judas Contract \ Subdivisions <>
- <> <>
- <> A three part series appearing in Phrack Inc. Newsletter. <>
- <> <>
- <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><L><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
-
- ^*^
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