| ==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 | |
| ========================================================================= | |