==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 . 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. . 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. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. 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! BIOC BIOC 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 =========================================================================