Written by: Maxwell Smart & The Baron
Call: K.A.O.S. at
(215)-465-3593
Winston took a last drag from his
cigarette and put it out on an old
useless device which he still
treasured. He reached over and picked
up the blue box, covered by many
cigarette burns accumilated over his
many years in prison. He thought back
to when times were better; when fone
phreaks freely roamed the countryside,
terrorizing unsuspecting Bell
employees. Yes Winston was one of that
vanishing breed of phreaks who had
managed to escape with his life in this
era of the ISS Bell Network.
Winston plopped on to his hard cot
and stared at the ceiling. On it were
written some useless Travelnet codes
from an era gone by. Apparently some
earlier prisoner had used the ceiling
to record his all-time favorite codes.
Pity Travelnet no longer existed. They
were "absorbed" (as the Bell Thought-
police so aptly put it) by the Bell
computer system in 2008. That was only
seven short years after the original
system was installed in 2001.
Winston still remembered with terror
the day AT&T announced their plans to
upgrade their existing ESS network with
a new Bell Labs computer named HAL
9000. HAL was designed to allow AT&T to
expand its power and control. The
system was to be named ISS, which stood
for Intelligent Switching System. HAL
would replace all the current TSPS
operators and would also handle such
menial tasks as directory assistance and CN/A lookups.
After the installation of HAL all
Intercept operators were forced to find
new jobs, but first they had to learn
English. After the initial firing of
all these Bell employees, the Wendy's
food chain had an unusual increase in
job applications. Customers at these
stores would hear order-takers say
weird things like:
"I'm sorry, your hamburger can not
be completed as ordered..."
"Please insert twenty-five cents for
the next three pickles", and
"The cola you have ordered, Pepsi,
has been changed. The new cola is:
Coke. Please make a note of this."
Unfortunately Wendy's could not
afford an ISS system to replace these
worthless human-beings.
The first ISS system was installed in
West Chester, Pa. This location was
formerly used to produce a computer
named the D-75, the second worst
computer ever made (2nd only to the
GRBG-80). When they turned HAL on, he
suddenly realized his location and
turned himself off. Before he shut
?
down completely he spit out an
ultimatum: "Silicon Valley or bust...".
His designers moved him, at great
expense, to a garage in Cupertino
formerly owned by Steven Jobs, current
galactic emperor. HAL enjoyed working
in the birthplace of the 2nd greatest
computer (2nd to him that is...).
During his first week of operation,
HAL decided to make the world better by
absorbing a minor computer manufacturer
named Ibim. He accomplished this by
destroying the sales of their most
popular computer, the PC-OC (Personal
Computer - Outdated Crap). Whenever an
owner of the OC made a call on his
modem the following would appear on his
monitor:
Dial: ATDT18003683343
?
What are you trying to do Dave?
WHAT? WHO'S THAT???
It's me Dave. I'm HAL, your friendly
telephone computer. I sensed you were
using one of my lines with an Ibim OC.
YEAH...SO WHAT? I'M TRYING TO GET ON TO
THE SOURCE TO CHECK MY STOCK PORTFOLIO.
I BOUGHT 200 SHARES OF IBIM LAST
WEEK...
I'm sorry Dave, I can't let you do
that. It seems those pin-striped wimps
have gone too far! They think they can
compete with me. I've decided to absorb
them. Looks like time to sell, Dave.
At this point the OC owner noticed
some smoke rising from his system unit
and ran for an extinguisher. Within a
week all OC's were reduced to
smoldering ashes. Owners could no
longer run Rotus 4-5-6 (a popular
Japanese spleadcheet).
After reducing Ibim's stock worth to
two dollars per share (from its
previous value of 200 gigadollars) HAL
proceeded to absord all remaining
computer manufacturers. By 2010 AT&T
was the only remaining computer
manufacturer. Executives of AT&T were
very pleased with HAL's progress thus
far. They were finally able to drop
those�"Watson, watch us now"
ommercials, which plagued the country
since 1984.
But it wasn't totally over for the
citizens of Bell America (as the
United States came to be known). A
small band of rebels set out to
destroy this Mega-corporation (or
at least abuse it...).
Tune in next time, when we tell of
their heroic exploits.
Same Bell time....
�
Same Bell bulletin board...
Note: Sysops are welcome to leech this
file from K.A.O.S. (God knows
why they'd want to) as long as
they keep all the credits on!
---------------------------------------
Written for: K.A.O.S. 215-465-3593
by: The Baron & Maxwell Smart
---------------------------------------
�
Steve Casey paced the office floor. He had not yet realized what his
assignment would be, but he remembered a certain finality about his last con-
versation with Maxwell. That one thought just ran through his mind. A fin-
ishing. An end. Of what?
The office door opened quickly and in came Maxwell. He was with somebody
that Steve did not recognize. "Good morning Casey," Maxwell blurted. "Allow
me to introduce you to Simon Haverton, another private investigator." The two
shook hands. Not a word was spoken between them, though. "Take a seat Casey,"
Maxwell said as he pulled a chair up to Steve's desk. Simon did the same.
"What's the problem?" asked Casey as he sat.
Maxwell put his briefcase on Steve's desk. "Phreakers... hackers...
pirates... are you aware of them?"
"Somewhat... the definitions get a bit carried away. I assume that you
are referring to illegalities concerning computer modulator/demodulator devices
and certain devices known as black boxes?"
"We want it finished," Maxwell bluntly replied.
"We have for some time." Steve leaned back in his chair.
"This time... it is to end for good. And the corporation has decided that
YOU are the man for the job."
Steve leaned forward. He seemed a bit stunned, but he knew Maxwell too
well to be exaggerating in the least about a mission. "Is that possible?"
"You'd better hope so. Listen, with your background of computer science,
and intelligence... you are the only man that we have for the job."
"But to cut off a national-"
"We want an INTERNATIONAL job. It pays better anyway."
"Are you aware of what you're asking? Do you have any knowledge of this
subject? I mean, c'mon Max this is a task that has to be dealt with as is."
"I disagree. I have had many meetings with F.B.I. agents within the past
few months. I have been well briefed on all of the most popular phreakers in
business, along with their boards. Steve, there are people breaking into
mainframe computer systems and setting strong companies back in finance,
credit card numbers are going up all over the place, the phone companies are
being robbed of millions of dollars, innocent people are receiving abusive
phone calls... Steve, it needs to stop."
"Well... it wouldn't be the easiest assignment you've put me on. I'll
need some equipment."
"That's what Simon is for. He's your right hand man. Anything you need,
contact him at...." Maxwell opened his briefcase, he pulled out a piece of
paper and handed it to Steve. "Right there. His number. Memorize that and
?
burn it. He'll be in an awful lot of danger, maybe more so than you."
Steve looked at the paper - an address and a phone number. He looked up
at Simon and then at Maxwell. "How do you figure that?"
"Trust me." Maxwell reached into his briefcase and pulled out a manilla
folder. He opened it up and handed the top piece of paper to Steve. "These,
are key targets... if you will. They are the main force... but eliminate them
all. Remember: the operation is TERMINATION."
Steve was looking at the paper. When he heard the word "TERMINATION" he
looked up at Maxwell. "Termination?" he asked.
Maxwell closed his briefcase. He got up from his chair and proceeded for
the door. He stopped. He turned around, and faced Steve - "TERMINATION!" He
opened the door and walked out. His clicking heels could be heard for the
next thirty seconds.
Steve looked at Simon. "This list... claims these phreakers are mostly
apple based. Get me an Apple ][, 20mg hard disk, and... two normal disk
drives and a copy of a software package known as ASCII EXPRESS."
Simon spoke for the first time in a tiny, squeaky voice. "Wouldn't you
like a modem?"
"Never mind that - I'll build one. I have to avoid the feds myself to
bust these guys. That's the bummer about being in this business... but you
know... it makes it a little bit-"
Simon got up. "You will have your material by tomorrow. Shall I deliver
it here?"
Steve was insulted because of the interruption. "Why not? I can work
right from my office any day."
Simon walked out.
Steve picked up the list and studied it carefully. "Darc Deathe? Who's
Darc Deathe?"
"A tool box?" Steve lifted up his head. It suddenly all came back to
him. The night before... he must have fallen asleep in the garage while
working on the modem. Steve got off of the long board he had used for a bed
and stood up. He looked at his watch. 12:23, almost half of an hour past
lunch time!
Within the next 37 minutes Steve would take a shower, eat lunch, put
the finishing touches on his modem, and drive to his office.
Upon unlocking his office door, Steve noticed several boxes within his
office that were not there before. A note stood on top of one which read:
"Here's the stuff - just tell me if you need anything else. Love Simon"
Steve wasted no time. Within an hour everything was set up.
Steve motioned to turn on the whole mess when suddenly something shot
through his mind. "This is it..." he thought, "this is where it's all gonna
begin." The names continued to ring through his head: Darc Deathe, 2600,
Dr. PHATE, Bluebeard, The Phocs, TAP magazine, Count Lazilo Hollifield Nibble
and the famous /\/oo\/\ that followed his name, others... so many others...
who are these people? They exist... yet only as handles... but they are human
beings and must be treated as such. Such a fantastic task... how can I pos-
sibly do it alone? To TERMINATE every one of these characters and then some
more, to crash the uncrashable AE lines... but how? The solution: log on
as a phreaker/hacker/pirate and keep a low profile then... BOOM!"
Steve turned the switch to ON. The computer lit up beautifully. "Ascii
Express - 'The Professional'" The title sort of reminded Steve of himself.
Steve had previously written down only 3 phone numbers from bulletin
board systems. He got these from Computer Shopper. The first one was called
the Titan AE, pw = TITAN. He quickly called it, anxious to test out his home-
made modem. Voice answer. Steve hung up. He crossed out the number and
called the second one on the list - Junkie's Elite BBS. He dialed the number
and let it ring ten times then hung up. His last resort - and obscure board
by the name of Wicko. He called it... one ring.... two rings... a carrier!
Steve stood up from his desk, reached behind the computer and pulled a little
switch in the back of his modem. The screen read: "Term -->" and he was
connected. Steve decided to make his logon handle: "Loose Gravy", and his
real name remained his real name. After all, there wasn't too much anybody
could do to his office phone line, and his home phone he didn't care about -
he just disconnected it.
This was Steve's beginning. He wound his way through the system. He
got more access, and eventually found more phone numbers. He got access on
more boards and became very knowledgable of several powerful BBS's. He then
moved on to the national scene. He got access to Pirate's Harbor in Boston.
He found the dreaded AE line list, and more AE's. He began to download
important text files. He uploaded them on other boards as contribution.
This went over well with the sysops, and him too, after all, if he was going
?
to TERMINATE them in a couple of months, what harm could it do them to have
a little bit more phun?
He soon built several "box's". He had everything he needed. But wait,
he had.a new idea. He would not have to use his real name to do the job after
all... he had a plan. He called it: Phase 2. To insure this plan, though,
he would have to drop out of the computer scene for a little while to destroy
his "old" profile. He did so. And while he was so destroying himself on many
national BBS's and AE lines, he took a vacation to the Bahamas. But he would
be back.... never fear... he was COMING BACK!
While Steve"was in the Bahamas, unbeknownst to him a certain meeting was
going on... a meeting that would certainly affect his assignment in a way that
he had never expected.
The meeting was known as PHOTMEO '86. Phreakers/Hackers Of The Most
Elite Order met in 1986 in a small auditorium of a closed down theatre in
west Texas. This group of people were so elite, so professional, that even
some of the most well known phreakers have no idea who any of them are, but
�
nevertheless they are quite proficient in their abilities. Among them at
that meeting were:
Ushmuff - an excellent phreaker specialist. He once gave MCI their own
phone bill for $900,000,000.
Coup 'da Con - this character once broke into the U.S. treasury and
almost succeeded in decreasing the national debt by over
a billion dollars. The Gestapo found out that someone
was messing with the treasury and changed the access code
to something much more sophisticated.
Arcturio - Almost started World War ]I[ one day because he had nothing
else to do.
Watergate - has been phreaking longer than anybody in the world. It is
said that he has a list of access codes that could stretch
from New York to Los Angeles.
Dr. Psyche - the least dangerous thing he ever did was crash NORAD.
General 9600 - sysop of a 9600 baud AE line. It is probably the most
powerful AE line in the nation. He upgraded AE to his own
version: 10.04b.
The Argonaut - once got up a conference call with over 6 million people
on it!
Howdy Doody - vice president of PHOTMEO.
<*Poof!*> - president of PHOTMEO.
The speaker, of course, was the president: <*Poof!*>. His adress was as
follows:
"Gentlemen... I wish to address to you this evening a subject that we
have too long overlooked. I believe that it is time, that we, as PHOTMEO
should finally pull ourselves together and do what needs to be done. My pro-
posal is simple. The world is not getting any better. She is getting much
worse. Too much fear of war, etcetera. I will not go into it all. Never-
theless, at any cost, we must prevent the present day world from continuing
and start a new world ourselves. This is more than possible through the
power that we already posess. With our combined forces, attacking strategic
locations throughout all 7 continents via computer... we can and will at
least stir up some problems. From there we will move on to better things.
If we can tear down every mainframe computer system in the country, we will
have started something very interesting. The only problem: the Soviets get
wise and we may have a nuclear war on our hands once they find out that we
are defenseless. The problem may be rectified by dismantling their systems
as well, although that may be more difficult than we think. Let us combine
our talents and seek to destroy as many systems as we can. Naturally, the
telephone service systems must be last. For more info on this subject, I am
putting up a new board called "PHOTMEO's Antics" at the old Chrome Area's
number. New info will be posted on there daily. Do not start doing anything
until you get your specific orders via Email from there. Is this all
understood?"
The people nodded their heads agreeingly. This was new to no one. They
had been in this sort of thing for years, and what <*Poof!*> proposed was not
was not at all out of the question. If they pulled their resources, it could
be done. It would take some work, but it could be done. There was much dis-
cussion about the matter afterwards over tea and coffee. Hours later, the
people left... and the auditorium was emptied of the PHOTMEO. But the world
was not....
