The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998

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=Phrack Magazine= Volume Four, Issue Forty Two, Phile 3 of 14 ==Phrack Pro-Phile== _______________________________________________________________________________ Phrack Pro-Phile was created to provide info to you, the users, about old or highly important/controversial people. This month, we introduce you to an individual who has survived the underground for far too long, the creator of Phantom Access and one of the co-sysops of Mindvox... Lord Digital ~~~~~~~~~~~~ _______________________________________________________________________________ Personal ~~~~~~~~ Handle: Lord Digital (for like.... fuck I'm old, 13 years now) Call him: Patrick K. Kroupa Past handles: M000hahahahahahahah! You're kidding right? Handle origin: It was given to me by this ancient wise man drinking cheap Absolut by the side of the road... Date of Birth: 01/20/68 Age at current date: 24 Height: 6'2" Weight: 185 Eye color: Green Hair Color: Blonde/brunette/black (subject to change) Computer: Apple ][+, Amiga 1000, Mac Plus (All in storage) Apple //e, Amiga 500, NeXT, Various Suns (Not in storage) Sysop/Co-Sysop of: MindVox ELItE!@#!!!@#! Net address: digital@phantom.com - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - If you look beneath the shiny surface of most things, and gaze way-way-way deep down into the murky black festering heart of the human evolutionary process, you are ultimately confronted with the revelation that has stood, nay, LEAPT UP before the ancients since before the days of Atlantis: Life is a lot like NeW WaReZ. Anybody who tried to tell you something different, is obviously selling you something. All things in this universe -- and many others -- can be attributed to New WareZ. The ebb and flow of WareZ is what keeps the very COSMOS from bursting apart at the seams. During periods of time when the flow of WareZ slows to a trickle, times are tough, there is war, pestilence, death, disease, and many rAg PhIleZ. d()oDZ who were happily playing Ultima XXII Quest For Cash, are soon busily hurling insults at each other and dialing the Secret Service. Life is grim, there is a bleak sense of desolation and emptiness . . . for when the WareZ slow down . . . there is little left to live for and you begin to enter withdrawal. An ugly process that, thus far, has only been combatted successfully by Wally Hills NeW WhErEZ Treatment center, where they slowly ween you off the addiction of WareZ and introduce you to the REAL WORLD where you can do things like smoke crack and play in a band. On the flipside, when there is a good steady flow of WaReZ, the universe hums to itself in happiness and all wrongs are righted, perspectives re-adjusted, and peace, love, and happiness spread throughout the land as the COSMOS re-aligns itself and perfection sweeps the world. This is a heady time, but one that is sure to be brief, for before you know it some evil glimmer of BADNESS will rise up and somebody will DOUBLE-RELEASE someone else, or a Ware will CRASH when it tries to load . . . and then it's just all over. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away . . . I was a founding member of the Knights Of MysterIous keYboArdZ and the Ko0l/Ra{> alliance. At present I am President/Ce0 and Chairman of the b0red at Phantom Access Technologies/Coleco ADAM design Studios, Inc. At the moment our group is working on a multi-tasking, multi-user, CyberSpace environment where the participants can take part in a shared reality that is based upon a cross-relational structure comprised of lots of 0's and 1's all strung together in big twisty chains and kept track of by an Objective-COBOL X/Motif GUI sitting on an SQL dialed into the POWER COMPUTER in Utah, at infinite baud (not to be confused with bps). In the near future I .plan to move to Pigs Knuckle Idaho and cross-breed weasels with ferrets, while devoting the rest of my life to watching daytime TV. It's just that type of thing. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Reality Break ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ It is very difficult, bordering on impossible, for me to remain serious for longer than about 45 seconds, when discussing the "underground" and what it was all about. I rarely bother to mediate or water-down most of my opinions, and there are a lotta places out there in the real world, where anyone who cares can readily access whatever I have to say. There isn't a great deal left for me to convey to anybody regarding my perceptions of the hack/phreak world's history and what it has meant, and shall mean, in the cosmic scheme of things. The first time I came into direct contact with computers was during the mid-late 70's. I was around 6 or 7 and my father worked at NCAR during this period of time, which is a futuristic looking series of buildings in Boulder Colorado. This one time I came in, there were all these weird cars driving around in the parking lot, and since there were frequently a lotta strange things moving around there, I never understood until much later that Woody Allen was filming SLEEPER when this was going on. On the same day, I was shown some of the computer rooms, which had just taken shipment on one of the first Crays to go out the door. This left an impression. It was neato . . . One thing led to another. I played around with various things, mainly the really old Commodore PET systems and a slew of heavy metal junk from IBM, until I got an Apple ][+ in 1978. I hung out with a group of people who were also starting to get into computers, most of them comprising the main attendees of the soon-to-be-defunct TAP meetings in NYC, a pretty eclectic collection of dudes who have long since gone their separate ways to meet with whatever destinies life had in store for them. Around 1980 there was an Apple Fest that we went to, and found even more people with Apples and, from this, formed the Apple Mafia, which was, in our minds, really cool sounding and actually became the first WAreZ gRoUP to exist for the Apple ][. Time passed, I picked up more hardware, went on the quest to assemble the perfect Apple-Cat system -- consisting of the Cat, 212 card, BSR, firmware, tone decoder chip, and all the m0dZ NOVATION eventually made to the boardZ -- and ultimately ended up with 3 of 'em, one of which still works (like wow). This led to the first generation of Phantom Access programs which started to seep into the moDeM WeRlD around 1983, with the final revisions being let loose in 1987 or 1988, under the auspices of Dead Lord. By this time I had long since stopped working on them and had relatively little to do with their forms of release. Over the years I've been in a seemingly-endless succession of groups and gatherings under nearly 50 different pseudonyms which were frequently invented and dropped, all around that one specific timeslice and reference-point. There were only two that I was ever "serious" about, which is to say I entered into them honestly believing the ideals and reasons for the group's inception, to be valid and worth upholding and being a part of. In other words I was in my mid-teens and my attitude wasn't one of "Yeah yeah, take 10; a buncha dudes are gonna screw around, some of it will be fun, some of it will be silly, and a lot of it will be bitchy and cranky, but hey, I'm only here to amuse myself, so what the fuck . . ." The two "serious" affiliations were Apple Mafia and the Knights of Shadow. KOS ceased to exist in mid-1984 and I dropped out of the AM around 1985, although to my knowledge it kept going until '86 or '87 when the last surviving members found better things to do with their time. In 1987 I was also "OfFphICiALlLY" inducted into the Fraternal Order of the Legion of Doom, which was just gosh w0wz0. Actually, it's much more fun in retrospect, since most of us are pretty good friends at this point in time, which seemed an unlikely event back in the early 80's <giGgLE!!@#> I ceased to be "active" sometime around 1985, having gained legal access to almost anything I could possibly want to play with, as well as having made friends with people working for NYNEX who de-mystified many things for me. The ultimate conclusion to all of this was that having THE POWER is cool -- and using it to annoy people was absolutely hilarious -- but only led to two possible destinations. You use it all as a learning experience and "grow up" realizing that you're playing cops and robbers, and many of the things you have spent years doing are now illegal and liable to get you into a lot of trouble. You can't go back in time (at least not yet). You could keep doing stupid things and end up in a legal dilemma over something that isn't very important. Because . . . it really isn't "THE POWER," it's just a very limited form of "it" embodied by a phone system and some computers. And when you compare that to a piece of art, or a collection of music, or a new series of programs that someone has created, you begin to realize that all you're doing is fucking with things that other people made, and you're wasting your time abusing . . . To cut short my rant, I have no moral judgements to pass upon anyone or anything, because whatever it is that people do, it's some sort of learning process leading towards their destination (whether they realize it or not). The computer underground is just not a place where you can remain "active" beyond a certain period of time that serves as a sort of "rite of passage" towards that something else. To hang around indefinitely and remain "active" is to become a criminal. Almost everything I've done has taken place with a handful of friends who played various roles in events that transpired -- primary among them Dead Lord (Bruce Fancher), one of my closest friends for the better part of a decade, as well as The Unspeakable One whose name cannot be mentioned for to do so causes rifts within space/time, and a buncha dudes from NYC/NJ who for the most part want to blip their personas off the face of Cyberspace and get on with their lives without the specter of LaW EnForCEmEnT hanging over them for doing silly things as teenagers. In 1986 I ceased calling anything and didn't access a computer that was hooked into a modem until late 1990. As of late 1992, I have been "retired" for a little over 7 years. Patrick's Favorite Things ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Women: Delia! Gorgeous, Intelligent, Wonderful, & able to deal with me. Men: Bwooooce. Cars: 928s4, Hyundai, Edsel. Foods: Italian, red meat, SuPeR Hi PER Pr0tE!n, anything with SPAM. Music: Any band with the word "LORD" in it (Lords of the New Church, House of Lords, Lords of Acid, Lords of Chaos, Traci Lords). Authors: Michael Moorcock, Sun Tzu, Machiavelli, Hans Horbiger, Dr. Seuss. Books: Play of Consciousness, The Book of PAT. Performers: Bill the Cat, Sting, Perry Farrell, GuNz N RoSeZ, plus anybody who has sold out to the mahnnnnnn fo' $$$$$$$ in a biiiiiig way. Most Memorable Experiences ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Most memorable things are unmentionable and destined to stay that way for a while. Those who played the games know the stories; those who didn't eventually will -- but like, who cares. Everybody should live their own stories, life's an interesting game . . . go play. Some People to Mention ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Dead Lord - The one who is not and can never be, yet exists. Solely an infinite layering of the possibilities inherent within personal transmigration and biotechnology? Or alive, with flesh, blood, bone and an adornment of k0dEz & warEZ? You must not be blinded by sight, nor fooled by what things appear to be when they are not, for what is a man when he has not the latest, nor possesses the abilities to acquire same? This is a question perhaps best left to the wise men who roam the meadows of the ozone, forever catching the edge and surfing the waves cresting upon the seas of thought and what is, was, and shall always be. The - I know who you are, so tell me who I am, and let's just Unspeakable get on with it okay? Because otherwise, TV is likely to One drop the entire facility dead. Anyone of normal caliber can see that to be entirely obvious to thee of the id'ness of pole-cats watching Star Wars. 8+ KlUb ElYtE. Terminus - A good friend over many years who, as most people know, has recently gone through a lot. The future looks bright, and I look forward to looking back on all this with you in another ten years. [Look, look, looking] (haga!) Magnetic Surfer - Neato guy who knew me way-back-when, and used to give me gNu Apple wArEz on cassette tape which he had downloaded at the lightning speed of 300 baud. Also provided a means to meeting many of my friends, via Sherwood Forest, when it first existed and hosted Inner Circle and later KOS. The Phantom - See above, also gave me a full set of TAP copies in 1983, which I never returned to him. The Plague - A cool guy, close friend before his fatal accident when the truck went off the road near Poker Flats, just 5 miles north of Pig's Knuckle, ID. Tragic, hope he's happy in his new home, far, far underground, running the world's first afterlife/subterranean BBS. ApPul HeyD! \ The elYtE peARz of Scepter/InterCHAT who went on to form SuperNigger > - DPAK, an entity SO ELITE that it required FOUR letters for Sharp Rem0b / its acronym & brought the world Lex Luthor on HBO! SuperNigger - Because he is 2 elyTe to be encompassed in merely one line and requires at least two. Lord_foul - Ahhhh do0d.... Well we all have our roles 2 play. Catch ya in tha outback. (cha mod pla foul sl=999 mi=99,mh=99) Ninja NYC - One of the few people I have ever met who seems to have mastered the art of being happy wherever he is, doing whatever he happens to be doing. An exceptionally nice human being. Elven Wizard \ A collection of compatriots, cohorts, and all around dudEz The Infiltrator\ with whom I had an inordinate amount of fun, first ro0l!ng The Gunslinger > - the WhEReZ world, then changing our handles (well except The Bishop / for Jeff) & dismantling eliteness and its tarnished allure, The Gonif / along with its cadre of false prophets (namely ourselves under half a dozen other handles). Andrew \ "I doan' wannnnnnnnnt any money, I want to be left alone, Chase > - tell them to go 'way." May Sutekh look upon our worldly Asif / endeavors and bless us all, everyone. !nse<t01dZ ro()l!!@ Paul Muad'Dib - A lotta fun, although he never did have any new wares (unless you count source code). In any case, I guess it's not too relative any more. Tuc - I think it's a requirement to mention Scott; far be it from me to break with tradition. Hi Tuc! Thanks for the ride! Captain Avatar - He had 'em Ahllll! ALL of them... MORE THAN all of 'em.... Napoleon Bonaparte- Nappy ran Securityland. I called it, it was cool. It made me smile. I guess it made the FBI smile too. Mr. Xerox - Mike was usually witty, sarcastic, annoying, egotistical, obnoxious, and almost always late. We got along great and I really miss the guy sometimes. Hullo Mike, wherever you may roam. Taran King - BesideZ DeYd L0rD & Sn, the El1teZt Pers0[\] eYe EveR meT! StaY sP!fpHY [>o()d! Phantom Phreaker - Here's to shifting focus and finding something far more interesting to play with than phones & computers 8-). It's an amazing universe, huh . . . Lex Luthor - After a ten year period during which we typed to each other once in a while and seemed situated at antipodean sides of the m0dUm Yo0n!veRsE, I finally met with Lex in the very near past. It's shocking to find that he's actually one of the most gracious, funny, and pleasant guys I've ever had an opportunity to meet. Best wishes in whatever you may end up doing! Erik Bloodaxe - A keg of Sandoz, a Vat of pig's blood, T&C and thee. Sigmund!@31!@!!! - As the UFOs said, they know who you are, they know where you are. Seriously, hey, it was entertaining. Good luck man. unReAl PeOpUL 2 MenShun ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ StJude - For everything. It's good to know you . . . love, light, and a lotta deep-fried giri with ciphers thrown in. Siva - Look, polygons or voxels, Gibsonian or Post-modern, by Risc or by Cisc with Objective C++ running Smalltalk under Windows NT over the underpass and around the bend; it's gonna happen, and we're gonna be there having a party. Smile, as I think you've mentioned on more than one occasion; it's an interesting time to be alive 8-). Bruce - Quite possibly the coolest grown-up I have ever met 8-). Which is Sterling saying a lot. The world would be a much better place if Bruce could be cloned and then placed inside a tornado, hooked into a net, fitted with an adamantium exoskeleton, and then dropped into the de-criminalized zone with a BigMac and a holographic tape recorder. Jim - Hey so, are you doing more things at once or am I? I bet I can Thomas watch TV, listen to music, have three phone conversations, and write an article with 25% greater coherence than Chuck has while eating and watching TV. On the other hand, writing two books, teaching, reading, running CUD, having a life, and still finding time to hang out are at least level 15 -- haven't hit that yet, but I'm working on it! Andy - Hey man. I enjoy what you're doing, keep the faith, ignore the Hawks assholes, take inspiration from the inspired, and retain belief in your dreams. Oh okay, gotta go, time to sell out, ignore what I just said 8-). 3Jane - Models/actresses/sex cadets united for a better tomorrow, under Unix with named_pipes and justice for some of us. Memorable Phreak/Hack BBSes ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 8BBS - Long ago, I didn't understand it, or what I was typing, but it was fun. MOM - Long ago, although by now I did understand it and had slightly less fun. Pirate's Harbor - Before Norman figured out he could make a killing on TIMECOR. Pirate's Chest - 6 line 80 meg board circa 1983. Totally Cool. Adventurer's Tavern - Last bastion of tremendous on-line fun & anarchy. RIP. Securityland - Nappy's Board. Pirate's Phunhouse -> Cat's Cavern - The Tempest's system(s). Dark Side of the Moon - Through many long and strange phases. Still running. RACS III - w()wZ0 blargel blumpfk0l SwillY sw()nk!@!#!@!!!!! OSUNY (3 cycles) - Some more fun than others. Sherwood Forest I, II, III - Liked all three, although 1 was the coolest. Plovernet - Two phases. Both great. The (urse - WarEZ do()d & eLIteNEsS Galore!@#!@#!@#!@# LOD - The Start in 1984, and intermittently thereafter. COPS - Cool Florida board. Shadowland - Cool Colorado board. SpecELITE - So overwhelmingly awful, that it was wonderfully fun. WOPR - Lotta fun for a while, then he threw everyone off & went 1200only wareZ. Pirate-80 - It was very effervescent with a touch of jello. Everything Sir Knight ever ran - Too many names (Tele-Apa, HackNet, NewsNet...) World of Cryton - WOC! JAMES! ELITENESS! The Safehouse - Apple Bandit's. Hey, I want my Diskfer ][ dude! Farmers of Doom - Blo0p. Pirates of Puget Sound - Nice softwareZ. Lotta fun. A few things Lord Digital would like to say: ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BELIEVE EVERYTHING THAT YOU HEAR. KNOW EVERYTHING YOU SEE. UNDERSTAND EVERYTHING YOU DO NOT COMPREHEND. BE AT ONE WITH THE STILLNESS OF THE REVOLVING HAMSTER WHEEL AND FLOSS BETWEEN MEALS. As far as the future of the hack/phreak world and telecommunications in general is concerned, the PhrAck World is absolutely spiffy and I believe that ISDN will change EVERYTHING and make it rounder, taller, bigger, more stable, and also give later generations something to look back upon and sneer at with contempt. -----------------------------------