The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998

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==Phrack Inc.== Volume Three, Issue 28, File #8 of 12 PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN { SummerCon '89 } PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ ^*^ PWN P h r a c k W o r l d N e w s PWN ^*^ ~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~ ^*^ PWN Special Edition Issue Three PWN ^*^ ^*^ PWN "Meet The Hackers Behind The Handles" PWN ^*^ June 23-25, 1989 ^*^ PWN PWN ^*^ Created, Written, and Edited ^*^ PWN by Knight Lightning PWN ^*^ ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN { SummerCon '89 } PWN ^*^ PWN ^*^ PWN SummerCon... What is it? In many ways, SummerCon is much more than just a convention that attracts America's greatest phreaking and hacking personalities. SummerCon is a state of mind. Hackers by nature are urged on by a hidden sense of adventure to explore the unknown, to challenge the unchallenged, to reach out and experiment with anything and everything. The realization that we are not alone in our quest sometimes comes as a great gift and the opportunity to meet one's heroes, partners, and idols can be the most awe-inspiring aspect of the hacker community -- this is what SummerCon is all about. On the surface, SummerCon looks like a handful of youths hanging out at a hotel in St. Louis, Missouri. To me, it is more like one of those madcap movies you see on late night Home Box Office or something. No real point or direction, rebels without cause, all in the name of frantic fun and games. The atmosphere surrounding SummerCon is that of a dream world where once a year you can escape to a fantasy where ingenuity is king and you have friends around you at every moment. SummerCon itself may only last a weekend, but the friendships last a lifetime. Welcome to SummerCon '89! This special edition of Phrack World News contains the exclusive coverage of the events and activities of a handful of the nation's greatest hackers on June 23-25, 1989. PreCon '89: Knight Lightning and Taran King Make Plans ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We remembered the fun at SummerCon '87 and how SummerCon '88 had lacked something. In a sense, the first SummerCon was very private because almost all of the attendants were members on Metal Shop Private, the bulletin board that was once the center of the "elite" modem community. The second SummerCon was a little different. Both Taran and I had been out of action for nearly a year and we had not intended to hold another convention ever again until June 1988 when we both decided that one good convention deserves another. SummerCon '88 was thrown together and a few changes were made. It was good, but this year we decided to set our sights higher than ever. PreCon '89: The Early Birds Thursday Evening, June 22, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The first guests to this year's convention arrived a day ahead of schedule. Control C, a veteran of the previous two conventions, and Erik Bloodaxe flew in to St. Louis on Thursday evening, June 22, 1989. They were greeted by Forest Ranger and then after some rowdy activities at the airport, the threesome adjourned to the Best Western Executive International hotel -- The very same hotel where the first SummerCon was held in June 1987. Around 10 PM, Taran King and I met up and being unable to locate Control C, Erik Bloodaxe, and Forest Ranger, we decided to take a trip to the hotel on the chance that they would be there by the time we showed up. As we approached the hotel, I felt a strange sensation like deja-vu. It had been two years since I had been to the Executive International, or even anywhere near that part of town (with the exception of the airport). At any rate, luck was on our side. We raced through the newly remodeled hotel lobby and out past the pool. Control C's and Erik Bloodaxe's room stuck out like a beacon. Their room became known as the "Doom Room" in recognition of the many members of the Legion of Doom/Hackers that stayed there throughout the course of the weekend. Control C and Erik Bloodaxe told us all about Black Ice-Con which had taken place the weekend prior to SummerCon '89 in Dallas, Texas. The supposedly secret convention had been infiltrated by security agents from U.S. Sprint. They believed that the leak existed on Black Ice itself, the bulletin board from which the con took its name and all members were invited (there were less than 20 people on the board). They named who they thought the leak was, but discretion prevents printing his name here. On a side note, Black Ice was crashed by SuperNigger and abandoned by the members of LOD thereafter. Erik had some interesting business cards with him. He passed several of them out to interested hackers and other miscellaneous people at the hotel and in the St. Louis metropolitan area as well. These cards featured Erik Bloodaxe and the following organizations; - American Telephone & Telegraph [AT&T] - Federal Bureau of Investigation [FBI] (Department of Justice) - Secret Service (Department of Treasury) - Southwestern Bell Telephone Company - Tymnet (McDonnel Douglas) Erik gave Taran and I each a set of the cards as souvenirs of his visit. Both of us had to work early morning shifts the next day so a little after midnight we decided to leave. I finally went to sleep around 1 AM. SummerCon '89: The Adventure Begins Friday Morning, June 23, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I woke up around 5 AM to begin my day. I had arranged to work the morning shift 6-10 AM in order to avoid having to work the rest of the day and weekend. I returned home around 10:30 AM and I began the final work on Phrack 27. Although the issue date is June 20, 1989, we did not really release the issue until June 27, due to complications with SummerCon '89 and other events. All of the sudden I received a call from another veteran of SummerCons past, a person who swore that he would not appear at this year's convention... TUC! He tried to convince me that he was in Florida or anywhere but St. Louis. I asked him if he needed a ride from the airport to the hotel or something. The call sounded local as hell, but he insisted on remaining consistent with his story for another few minutes. Then my call waiting beeped and it was Taran King. I juggled the lines for a few minutes and then had Taran call Tuc (who was at the Executive International) while I got ready to go meet him at the hotel. As I was leaving my home, I noticed something sticking to the front door. It was a notice from United Parcel Service. How odd. I did not notice it at 10:30 AM when I returned home and I did not not hear anyone knock on the door since I had been home. Still, the note said that they had left my package at the subdivision club house. So I dropped in there and found my package... would you believe it came from Francis J. Haynes... Frank of "Frank and the Phunny Phone Call" himself and that is exactly what was inside: A cassette tape sampler of Frank and the Phunny Phone Call. Incidentally, Frank is being mastered on to compact disc and will be available for sale soon. More details on this will appear in Phrack World News in the near future. Eventually, I reached the hotel. Control C and Erik Bloodaxe were nowhere to be found and Forest Ranger and Taran King were unavailable. I found Tuc and we decided to go grab lunch and drive around for a while. We returned to the hotel and traded war stories about the past year and decided to call the hotel office to see who might have checked in during the past few hours. No one we recognized was here yet, but there was a call for Tuc on another line. The lady at the office switched the call into Tuc's room and I picked it up. It was Crimson Death of 618. He wanted us to know that he was arriving by bus later that evening and would need a ride at about 10:45 PM. He also informed us that Dr. Cypher was on his way in and would arrived at the airport's bus terminal and take the shuttle to the hotel. He was unsure about what time this would occur. I told him I could pick him up at the bus terminal and that I had to get off the phone. I did, you see because it was at about this time that Tuc had opened the windows and looked out by the pool terrace. Control C, Erik Bloodaxe, Forest Ranger, The Urvile, and a guy by the name of Phil Free (known under various other handles including Judas Christ) were out poolside and upon noticing us had run over to climb through the window into the room. A Gathering Of Phreaks Friday Afternoon, June 23, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Finally the convention began to get underway. Greetings were exchanged and some discussion about last year's convention took place. I had brought laser printed copies of Phracks 21 - 26 into Tuc's room and everyone was interested in taking a look. The Urvile was especially curious about a certain quicknote that appeared in Phrack World News Issue XXV/Part 3. I would guess that the particular quicknote in question was number five...it was about Telenet security, but this is a story for another day. The phone rang and Tuc answered. He handed the phone to Control C, who then disappeared without saying anything. It was obvious that Lex Luthor had arrived. However, he wished to make his current state of residence remain anonymous and so he decided to park his car someplace other than the hotel parking lot and thus he needed covert assistance. After a few minutes Control C returned with Lex and then all of the LODies ran quickly to the Doom Room. Taran King showed up around this time and then Tuc, FR, TK, and I joined the others. Shortly afterwards, Taran King, Erik Bloodaxe, and I decided to go have a listen to Frank and the Phunny Phone Call. I had not played it yet and so we set up in the hotel lobby. The first part of the tape was not about Frank at all. It was a never-released, newly produced musical selection that seemed to be called "My Telephone Is Acting Crazy." It was interesting as it employed different familiar telephone error messages, common types of recordings, and touch tones. When the actual Frank messages began, we stopped the tape and left the lobby immediately to avoid being thrown out -- the language was a little too obscene for the conservative employees behind the desk. So we wandered the hotel looking for a place to play the tape. In the process we met Doc Holiday and Hugo Danner. We finally gained access to Tuc's room (he was with Forest Ranger, Phil Free, and the LOD in the Doom Room). Doc Holiday and Hugo went to drop their bags off in their room and ended up in the Doom Room as well. TK, EB, and I remained in Tuc's room to hear the rest of the tape. There was a knock at the door... it was Bill From RNOC. Taran and BFR disappeared almost instantly as Erik Bloodaxe began to pursue Bill. He evidently had some score to settle. However, TK and BFR were gone as if they had become invisible. Erik decided to finish listening to the tape. We did and then went on to the Doom Room where we discovered Lucifer 666 and Synthetic Slug had arrived. L666 had many stories to tell about their trip to St. Louis and he also brought a video camera. His biggest concern was that his camera would scare the hell out of Lex... and to some extent it did. You see, as it was explained to me by the LOD members (with Lex Luthor absent at the time) there is paranoia and beyond paranoia, there is Lex. SummerCon Craziness Friday Afternoon, June 23, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ As many readers might already known, St. Louis is the world headquarters for McDonnell Douglas Aircraft, the firm that also owns Tymnet. This was no secret to the Legion of Doom, who led a series of successful trashing raids on them as well as Southwestern Bell and IBM. The way I heard it, they even took pictures. Meanwhile, after spending some time hanging out with the gang at the Executive International, Bill From RNOC, Taran King, Tuc, Lex Luthor, and I went to get a bite to eat. We ended up at Wendy's because Tuc, being a vegetarian, wanted the salad bar. We had a little fun harassing the staff (who still owes BFR an iced tea). We began to speculate on who this year's security agent would be... after all there is always some informant or plant at SummerCon -- it has become a tradition. At this point, everyone's best bet was on Dr. Cypher. Cypher had admitted to having connections on the security side of things, had once claimed to be busted and/or retired, supposedly told U.S. Sprint all about Black Ice Con (to hell with discretion), and all in all, was the major unknown who best fit the mold set forth by Dan The Operator at SummerCon '87 (although his friend that showed up with him, Cryptic Fist fit the mold rather well too, but this is detailed later). This is just what I had gathered from various people at the convention and are not necessarily my personal views. The obvious telephone security person there was from Michigan Bell -- Control C -- But no one was really worried about him. He had been able to attend Black Ice-Con and SummerCon '88 all expenses paid by Michigan Bell, but he said that since his superiors have read the PWN reports of SummerCons past, they felt that this trip was pleasure, not business, and would not give him a free ride any longer. I hate to break this to the security folks out there, but honestly, do you think I would write an article and include information like whose computers, passwords, codes, and whatever were handed out and discussed? Why create negative publicity like that. Don't you all worry though... none of that EVER goes on at SummerCon :-) Before we left Wendy's, Tuc and BFR grabbed a stack of taco shells and as we journeyed towards the hotel, BFR and Tuc proceeded to throw parts of these shells at other vehicles and pedestrians. A few minutes after we had returned, everyone began getting together to go pickup Android Pope (aka Cisban Evil Priest) at the airport. It was 7:15 PM by now and his flight from New Jersey was supposed to arrive at 7:54 PM. "Are you an agent of the FBI or Secret Service?!" This was Lucifer 666's standard question that he asked everyone he came into contact with at the hotel -- guests, office personnel, porters, and even the shuttle bus driver. They all replied with a confused "no." It seemed to take an hour to get the shuttle bus ready for passengers. Bill From RNOC, Taran King, and I were going to just hang out at the hotel, but I was shanghaied on to the bus to the airport. Just before we took off, the older gentleman that was serving as our bus driver turned around and said, "You know how you fellas were asking me if I was with the FBI..." We all froze instantly as he pulled out his badge. No, he was not with the FBI, but he was a recently retired deputy police chief for the St. Louis County Police Department. Control C later remarked to me that when the driver had shown his badge, he had half expected to hear a loud series of clicks as the locks to all of the doors on the shuttle bus shut and a barrier of some sort appeared between the driver and the passengers... all of whom were SummerCon guests. Instead, several of the hackers, Hugo and Forest Ranger for the most part, began to question the retired officer about his gun fights. The driver remarked how he had been shot before and even went so far as to show us some of his scars. Lucifer asked, "Did you kill the guy who shot you?" The driver responded, "Certainly." This line of questioning went on for the duration of the trip. We got to the airport and moved out. Erik Bloodaxe: Missing In Action Friday Evening, June 23, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Upon entering the lower terminal of Lambert Field (St. Louis International Airport), this "motley crew" encountered a blonde bombshell named Stephanie on one of the nearby payphones. Control C was the first to approach her and he asked her if she was talking to her boyfriend. She wasn't and so he proceeded to take the handset and talk to her friend. In the meantime, Lucifer 666 was filming the entire affair and several members of the group (not including Lex or Tuc) began having their pictures taken with blondie. This situation soon turned to riot as almost everyone wanted in on this action. Eventually we shuffled off to the American Airlines ticket counter to check up on Android Pope's flight while Forest Ranger apologized for our behavior. The scene at the ticket counter was somewhat grim. You see Android Pope was scheduled to arrive at 7:54 PM and apparently the flight's arrival had been delayed... until 9:00 PM at the earliest. In the meantime, Forest Ranger was having a little chat with Erik Bloodaxe. He told EB that the blondie chick thought he was a big geek and some other nasty things. Erik became so depressed that he headed back to talk to her again, but none of us knew it at the time. So now we had to kill an hour. We started towards the far end of the airport where a restaurant and bar were located. On the way, we encountered some people striking against Eastern and Continental Airlines and handing out stickers that showed "Lorenzo" with a circle around his name and a line through it (much like a no U-turn sign or the NO FEDS pin from SummerCon '88). We took a lot of those stickers and put them on unsuspecting people all over the airport. Upon reaching the area just outside of the bar, we found a row of payphones, a fancy vintage replica of a car, and a wheelchair. Control C hopped into the chair (deja vu of SummerCon '87 occurred here when I remembered how Control C ended up in a swimming pool last time) and Lucifer 666 started driving him all about the airport. The problem was that the wheelchair belonged to this lady who was on the payphones and when she finally noticed that it was missing she tracked Control and L666 down screaming theft. Finally we got to the bar. We sat down and talked for a while watching planes take off and land. After a few minutes I noticed that Erik had disappeared. We retraced our steps all the way back to the payphones where we encountered blondie without any success whatsoever. Then we went to the American Airlines ticket counter and had Erik paged. We also did the same thing at the Trans World Airlines and Braniff ticket counters. Since we could not find him, about half of us decided it was time to head back to the hotel and let the rest of the group wait for Android Pope. We all went out to the street where the buses stop and waited. A very strange incident took place here. Another group of guys ventured forth with a person who was blindfolded and handcuffed. They said, "This is what happens when you break the law guys... illegal trafficking in cocaine... Columbian." Forest Ranger asked if they had any to spare. Oddly enough, they had their own video camera and were filming this and us while we were filming them. They soon disappeared into a parking garage. Eventually the bus came and picked us up. The Urvile, Lucifer 666, Tuc, and Doc Holiday stayed behind to search for Android Pope. They caught a later shuttle bus back to the hotel. However, mere moments after they had arrived, Dr. Cypher showed up claiming he had just got off the shuttle bus. Obviously this could not be true because these buses are very small and there is no way L666, Urvile, Tuc, DH, and AP could have missed him and his friend Cryptic Fist. It was around 11:00 PM when I remembered that Crimson Death was due at the bus station downtown. Bill From RNOC and Taran King accompanied me to go pick him up and were we ever surprised when we saw him. He was no longer the short little kid we had met at SummerCon '88. We returned to the hotel to discover that Erik Bloodaxe had finally made it back. After hearing what Forest Ranger told him about what Stephanie had to say (calling him a geek or something similar), he decided to go to her again. He walked with her to her gate and stayed until her plane left. He later remarked that he had heard us paging him, but decided to ignore it. After his return, the entire SummerCon group headed out to the midnight showing of the premiere day of "Batman." L666 attempted to sneak his video camera into the movie, but changed his mind and did a "jaywalk" instead. After the flick everyone just hung out for a while. The Doom Room crew went to sleep because Control C had an early flight to catch the next morning and Taran and I crashed around 5:30 AM. Conference Day A.M. Saturday Morning, June 24, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The hotel was trashed. Forest Ranger and Lucifer 666 watched as the hotel employees were forced to clean up the mess that was left behind after the previous evening's activities. One maid remarked, "I know my boss wants your business, but he sure as hell don't want all these beer cans." Control C was gone, but he had performed a practical joke on Lucifer 666 and Synthetic Slug before he left, leaning a trashcan full of ice on their door so that when it was opened, all of the ice would fall into the room. According to Erik Bloodaxe, Control C also walked off with a jean jacket that did not belong to him -- No honor among hackers? Aristotle and Predat0r arrived sometime during the morning with a small suitcase full of TAP issues and other materials for the convention. Crimson Death lit a pizza on fire in one of the rooms in order to perform a demonic ritual that was reminiscent of the first SummerCon (1987) when Lucifer 666 attempted (unsuccessfully) to eat fire. The Conference Saturday Afternoon, June 24, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It was at this time that Taran King, Forest Ranger, and I handed out the Official SummerCon '89 buttons and posters. In addition to this, I handed out keychain flashlights that showed the logo of Ameritech as well as a few specially designed "Legion" buttons to the LOD members that were there. Forest Ranger got things started by welcoming everyone to the conference and asking them to take a seat. Mysteriously, Dr. Cypher had decided not to attend the conference, but his pal Cryptic Fist was there with a micro-tape recorder in the pocket of his leather jacket (that he refused to take off even though it was a blistering 94 degrees). Our first speaker was Aristotle. He talked for a while about the new TAP Magazine, how it worked, and how to subscribe. He took quite a beating from the large amount of criticism directed at him because of the lack of originality in the name of the publication as well as not having been given official permission to use the name. As it turns out, the ownership of the TAP name currently resides with Tuc. Tuc was there at the conference, so Aristotle put the question to him, "Can I do it?" Tuc basically said he thought it was ok, but he wanted to talk to Cheshire Catalyst about it. The situation remains unresolved. The next speaker was Lex Luthor. Lex discussed a topic that was a little more familiar to most everyone at the conference -- Code Abuse. For the most part, he presented the standard methods in which companies try and track down code abusers and strongly advised that everyone not abuse codes. He also went on to criticize Brew Associates for releasing a new edition of Code Thief. Taran and I spoke next. For the most part we talked about Phrack Inc. and what lies ahead concerning the newsletter. We also brought up discussion on the Internet and the plausibility of security agencies using "grep" to track down hackers across the world. We also discussed our recent excursion through a GTE Central Office and what we found. The Urvile gave a short lecture on Unix hacking and then it was Bill From RNOC's turn to speak. For the most part, he discussed 2600 Meetings (that take place once a month at The Citicorp Center in New York City). He spoke briefly about Eric Corley and the publication 2600 Magazine. Afterwards, he played a humorous recording in which he engineered an insane gentleman to believe that he was a news reporter and got his story about computers in Utah taking over the world. That concluded the regularly scheduled speakers. Group discussion began and the topics included: TelePub '86, Scan Man, Cheshire Catalyst, The Bootleg, and Red Knight. We listened to segments of Frank and The Phunny Phone Call and Group Bell Presents the Adventures of Dom Tuffy for a while and then started being really creative. In a high spirited moment we formed a large human pyramid and took pictures (that are supposed to appear in TAP Magazine's next issue). Poolside and Mellow Saturday Evening, June 24, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Aristotle, Predat0r, Doc Holiday, and Hugo Danner had to hit the road soon after the convention ended. However, another friend named Stephan showed up after the conference and so did Doctor Cypher with ParMaster and Rabbit. Cypher told us a story about how PM and Rabbit had carded plane tickets to St. Louis and stayed at the Holiday Inn-West. However, after running up huge tabs at the hotel, the management asked them to pay up in cash and would not accept their credit card numbers. They made a narrow escape from the hotel and arrived at Best Western to stay the night. Par and Rabbit were very outgoing, they wanted to have Tuc, Lex, and Erik come to their yacht in New York and go sailing. It was a very strange situation and parts of their story still do not seem to make sense even today. However, they proceeded to "fuck the phones" at the hotel so that all calls going to the front desk would be intercepted into BFR's room. This was not very pleasurable. Most people went downtown for dinner that night and then everyone ended up outside by the pool having a few drinks. At one point in the evening, Taran, BFR, Stephan, Forest Ranger, and I went back to BFR's room and were followed by Erik Bloodaxe. He accused Bill of being a cocaine dealer and Forest Ranger erupted, "THAT'S NOT COOL FUCKING WITH RNOC MAN!" and the two of them (Erik and FR) came very close to blows. It was soon settled and the partying resumed. A small group of us went on a mission that night and what we discovered is a story for another day, but it kept us busy until almost 6 AM. So Long Farewell Sunday, June 25, 1989 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ With the exception of Erik Bloodaxe, the Legion of Doom gang had disappeared by the time Taran and I showed up at Best Western. In fact, the only other hackers remaining in the vicinity were Forest Ranger, BFR, Stephan, L666, and Synthetic Slug as far as we could tell. We said goodbye to L666 and SS and the rest of us (not including Erik Bloodaxe, Tuc and Crimson Death who we found out later were still in town) journeyed to Westport Plaza where we spent the rest of the afternoon until it was time for BFR and Stephan to catch their flights. And that was SummerCon '89. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - The following are the people who attended SummerCon '89: (23 Total) Android Pope \ Aristotle \ Bill From RNOC \ Control C Crimson Death \ Cryptic Fist \ Doc Holiday \ Doctor Cypher \ Erik Bloodaxe Forest Ranger \ Hugo Danner \ Knight Lightning \ Lex Luthor \ Lucifer 666 ParMaster \ Phil Free \ Predat0r \ Rabbit \ Stephan \ Synthetic Slug Taran King \ Tuc \ The Urvile - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Who Didn't Attend SummerCon '89... And Why! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Ax Murderer: "Definitely next year." Bad Subscript: "Dan wouldn't pay for me this time." Broadway Hacker: "I have a date that weekend." Cheshire Catalyst: "I have a HAM convention." CompuPhreak: "I was trying to fix my Watson." Eric Corley: "It's either this or GHP." Cray-Z Phreaker and SkunkWorks gang: "I was competing in a regatta." DarkMage: "My hard disk drive broke and I need the cash to fix it." The Datamaster, Peter Pulse, Magnetic Surfer: "It should be in New York City." Dave Starr: (Disappeared off of the face of the earth again) Dead Lord: "I was at camp." Delta-Master: "I am going to the Galactic Hackers Party too." (No show) The Disk Jockey and Shade: "I thought it was next weekend...sorry." Epsilon: "My mom said she didn't feel like going to St. Louis." The Executioner: "I had a beauty shop appointment." Katie Hafner: "Forest Ranger would not let me go." Hatchet Molly: "I got married." Karl Marx: "I had a job interview... sue me." The Leftist: "<Sniff> I'm in the hospital." MAC???: "Why don't you guys have it in California this year?" John Maxfield: "I was there... the Holiday Inn-West, right?" The Mentor: "I'll have my own in Texas instead." Oryan QUEST: "I got deported." Phantom Phreaker and Doom Prophet: "We went camping... with our parents." Phrozen Ghost and Surfer Bob: "Scared of seeing Crimson Death." Promethius: "I decided to spend the weekend with Broadway Hacker instead." Red Knight: "I was in Kenya visiting relatives." Remington Steal and Chanda Leir: "We'd rather be alone if you don't mind." Sigmund Fraud: "I still have another 7 or 8 weeks of basic training." Silver Spy: "I'll be there if I can." Sir Francis Drake: "Had to get my other nostril pierced." The Renegade Chemist: "I didn't feel like taking the heat for MY TAP." Tuc: "I am never coming to another convention again... whoops!" VaxCat and Phase Shifter: (In August) "When is that anyway?" Violence and The Scythian: "We got busted by SoutherNet, but we'll be there!" Needless to say, those who missed the convention, missed out. Plans are already underway for SummerCon '90 --KL __________________________________________________________________