MACINTOSH- A type of computer that currently takes up a little less than 10% of the marketplace. Sometimes called derogatorily "Macintrashes" or "Macintoys." First made by Apple in 1984, notable for its ease of use; successor to the failed Lisa, which was the successor to the Apple II. All Macintoshes run the MacOS, which is currently in version 7.5.3; version 8.0 (code-named Copland) will be released in early to mid-1997. (however, some Macs can run Windows, DOS, Mach V and/or LINUX) Apple licensed the MacOS in 1993 so that Mac clones can be made; they have not fully caught on yet (though IBM recently signed up for a clone license), though Power Computing, UMAX and DayStar are doing fairly good business on them. Macs run on two families of microprocessors: the Motorola 680x0 chips, and the joint Apple-IBM-Motorola PowerPC chips. The most powerful Macintosh ever made is Power Computing¹s PowerTower Pro 225.

MARKOFF, JOHN- Co-author of _Cyberpunk_ and _Takedown_. Ex-husband of Katie Hafner, technology journalist for _The New York Times_. Can be reached at [email protected].

MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY CRASH- The huge crash when AT&T computers embarassingly went down due to a bug in UNIX System VII.

MASTER OF IMPACT- see CONTROL C

MASTERS OF DECEPTION- see MOD

_MASTERS OF DECEPTION_ [The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace]- Novel by Josh Quittner and Michelle Slatella about the LOD/MOD feud. A portion was printed in _Wired_ and really pissed off a lot of people, most vocally Erik Bloodaxe. Not that badly written, but I wonder about the accuracy and who was interviewed on some of the details.

MASTERS OF DISASTER [MOD]- see MOD

_MAX HEADROOM_- Science fiction TV show that was cancelled after one season. The concept began when a British music video station wanted to use a computer-generated host, but some American network picked it up and made a TV show. Supposedly it was wonderful and great, but I¹ve never seen it.

MDMA- see ECSTASY

MEAT- The physical body, the bag of flesh and mud and water that we are constrained to. Derogatory.

MEATSPACE- Real life, as opposed to cyberspace.

MEGABYTE [abbreviated as "meg" or Mb]- Fairly large unit of measurement, usually used for measuring RAM or storage memory or large programs. One megabyte is roughly 1.049 million bytes or approximately 976.562 kilobytes. See also BIT, BYTE, KILOBYTE, GIGABYTE

MEGAHERTZ [MHZ]- In computer terms, a measurement of the clock speed of a CPU. For example, the 486DX2 runs at 66 megahertz. It was known in hacker slang occasionally as "hurtz" or "warp," where a 90 megahertz computer would be called Warp 90.

MENTAL CANCER- see SHADOWHAWK 1

THE MENTOR- Handle of Loyd Blankenship. Also known as the Neuromancer. Elite hacker and former member of the Legion of Doom, the PhoneLine Phantoms, the Racketeers and Extasyy Elite. Writer of the legendary "Conscience of a Hacker." He also used to work for Steve Jack son Games, where he wrote _GURPS Cyberpunk_. He is currently a freelance game designer/electronic musician. Currently available at [email protected]. [Handle is from the Grey Lensman series by E.E. "Doc" Smith.]

MERRILL, BRIAN- see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID and COMPUTERS, FREEDOM AND PRIVACY CONFERENCE [CFP]

METAL COMMUNICATIONS- A short-lived hack/phreak group (is there any other kind, besides LOD, MOD and L0pht?!) that created several underground BBSs and wrote many philes. Members included Cobalt 60, Crimson Pirate, Dr. Local, Red Pirate, Shadow Lord, Angel of Destiny, Apothecary, Byte, Byte Byter, Dark Wizard, Duke, Dutchman, The Man in Black, the Prophet, Pink Panther, Voice Over, The Radical Rocker, the White Knight and the Warlock Lord. It also had a smaller sister group called the Neon Knights.

MEXICAN FLAG- Red grenadine, white tequila and green creme-de-menthe. Multilayered, set on fire, and sucked through straws. A favorite of the Legion of Doom at parties before they broke up. [From the colors of the Mexican flag.]

MHZ- see MEGAHERTZ

MICHAELANGELO VIRUS- The much over-hyped virus that erased the hard drives of several computers, named for becoming active on the Renaissance artist Michaelangelo's birthday.

MICROSOFT- Software megacorporation, founded 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen; writer of MS-DOS, Windows (3.x, 95, and NT), Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Bookshelf, Encarta and about a zillion other programs, most of which are made for business. Possibly the most evil force on the planet. Also used by William Gibson, without permission, for the name of addictive chips that plug into character¹s heads in _Neuromancer_. [Name comes from "microcomputer" and "software."]

MINDVOX [mindvox.phantom.com]- Manhattan-based Net provider where a number of ex-LODers (and Billy Idol :( ) reside; has the domain name phantom.com. Motto: "Jack in, rock out, and feel your head." Administered by Dead Lord and Lord Digital.

MINOR THREAT (1972-Present)- Former member of Public Enemy (the hacker group, not the band). Co-programmer of ToneLoc (with Mucho Maas), which he began in 1990. Available at [email protected]. [Handle comes from the name of an early 1980s punk band.]

MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID (1963-Present)- Birth name of the Condor. Also known as N6NHG, alias Anton Chernoff, alias Fred Weiner, alias Lee Nussbaum, alias Brian Merrill, alias David Stanfill, alias Thomas Case. Former member of the Roscoe Gang (name given by _Cyberpunk_). Teenage phreak who grew up and didn¹t quit. First arrested at age 17. Rumors claimed that he cracked NORAD (inspiring _WarGames_); generally disproven, though Markoff has been trying to resurrect it. Became famous, especiall when in 1995 he went on a hacking rampage that included deleting several files on the WELL, possibly because of a typing error. Tsutomu Shimomura (and a number of datacops and John Markoff, who claims he was just an observer) eventually tracked him down after Mitnick hacked Shimomura's system. As the media loves to report, when he was caught he told Shimomura "I respect your skills." John Markoff and Tsutomu Shimomura just wrote their version of the events, which will serve as the screenplay for a movie by Miramax about it, entitled _Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America¹s Most Wanted Computer Outlaw ­ By the Man Who Did It_. (Apparently, it was the longest and most grandiose title they could think of.) Jonathan Littman wrote his own version, with the help of Mitnick, entitled _The Fugitive Game_. Also inspired the most objective retelling, _The Cyberthief and the Samurai_, by Jeff Goodell (who can be contacted at [email protected]). While he obviously cannot be directly reached by email as he is in federal prison, 2600 maintains a mailbox for him where they forward him interesting data and fan mail at [email protected]. [Handle came from the 1975 Robert Redford movie _Three Days of the Condor_, about an ex-CIA guy who escapes the government, in part by manipulating the phone system.]

MOD [Motto: "Summa Sedes Non Capit Duos," Latin, literally "The Highest Does Not Seat Two," figuratively "There is Only Room for One at the Top;" a reference to the LOD/MOD struggle]- MOD, a New York rival of LOD, was known at various times as Masters of Deception and Masters of Disaster, I suppose depending on their mood. Its current membership is Acid Phreak, Scorpion, Nynex Phreak, HAC, Wing, Outlaw, Corrupt, Supernigger, Red Night, Seeker, Lord Micro, Crazy Eddie, Zod, Peaboy, n00g1e, Ella Cinders and Plague, and previous members have included Thomas Covenant and Phiber Optik. (List provided by Acid Phreak.) Southwestern Bell busted them and some wound up in jail. It was formed when Phiber Optik was kicked out of LOD, supposedly because of his ego. He then formed MOD and recruited some of his friends. They were a major exception to the stereotype of the hacker as a wealthy, suburban white dude. They had what was described by some as a "hacker war" with LOD until they got busted, when there was something of a truce and LOD sort of made up. Well, at least they made up with Phiber Optik. They are still around, at least according to their web page, which of course claims they are reformed. They can currently be reached at [email protected]. [Besides the acronym, the term also supposedly refers to being like a second iteration of LOD; "M" is after "L," get it? However, I got that out of an excerpt on the Net from Quittner¹s book, and I don¹t know how much truth is in it.] Definitely not to be confused with the Amiga sound format .mod.

MODEM [MOdulator/DEModulator]- Hardware that allows digital info to be carried over analog lines. The first modems were acoustic (usually 300 bps); you had to put the phone receiver on the modem. The current standard speed is 14.4 kbps. (Phone lines can hold a maximum of 35 kbps.) ISDN modems are becoming more and more common. (Even though ISDN modem is an oxymoron; ISDN is already digital, and a modem by definition converts digital to analog.)

MODULATOR/DEMODULATOR [MODEM]- see MODEM [MOdulator/DEModulator]

_MONDO 2000_- "Cyberpunk" magazine. Successor to a short lived zine entitled _Reality Hackers_. Never as good as it should have been. The three major brains behind it were R.U. Sirius (AKA Ken Goffman), St. Jude (AKA Jude Milhon) and Bart Nagel, all of which have since resigned, at least as editors. Timothy Leary was one of the editors, and there¹s a really psychotic dude named Xandor as well. I, like many, think it¹s way too much style and way too little substance, but it has some good book reviews and interviews about weird technology. [From the Italian word "mondo," meaning world; AD 2000 is supposedly the "expiration date."]

MOREU, RAFAEL- Screenwriter for _Hackers_; interviewed many prominent hackers for research. According to Acid Phreak, he was less than happy with how it turned out.

MORRIS, ROBERT TAPPAN II- Cornell graduate student who created a worm which exploited the UNIX sendmail bug as an experiment to see how fast it would spread through the Internet; due to a programming error, it went out of control and took down hundreds of computers.

MOSS, JEFFERY- see DARK TANGENT

NARK- (1) Someone who turns people in to law enforcement.
(2) The act of turning in someone to law enforcement.

NATIONAL INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE [NII]- see NII [National Information Infrastructure]

NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY [NSA]- see NSA [National Security Agency]

NECRON 99- see URVILE

NEIDORF, CRAIG- see KNIGHT LIGHTNING

NEON KNIGHTS- see METAL COMMUNICATIONS

NERD- Derogatory term for a computer geek; has been adopted as a badge of honor for some. Reminds that no matter how cool the stuff we do with computers is, we¹re still geeks, so get over it. :( [I just looked up the etymology of the word "nerd" in the dictionary, and my main conclusion was that etymologists must have a lot of spare time on their hands, because apparently there¹s this huge controversy over where this word came from, and the earliest reference is in a Dr. Seuss book, and then it became a slang term in the 1950s, and some people say it¹s a coincidence and others say there¹s some complicated relation, and all I can say is that it¹s just not that important, but these etymologists have enough time to learn UNIX security, and if they¹d just read some books on TCP/IP, they could probably be really good hackers. Suggestion-- if any evil foreign governments out there want to hire some people to train to be hackers, get etymologists. They have tolerance for the tremendously boring. That is all. End rant.]

_THE NET_- Sandra Bullock¹s 1995 cyberthriller, in which she tries to escape from evil hackers. Can be recommended because it has Sandra Bullock in a bikini.

NETCOM- I believe Netcom is the largest Internet access provider in the world. As a result, it has users of all types. [From "Net" (short for Internet) and "commercial."]

THE NETHERLANDS [Kingdom of the Netherlands]- Country code ".nl," European nation, population 14.6 million, currently known for its libertarian laws regarding drugs, nudity, prostitution and notably computer hacking (which, until recently, was totally legal.) Home of _Hack-tic_. ("Do you know what they call a quarter pounder with cheese in Holland?" "They don¹t call it a quarter pounder with cheese?...")

THE NEUROMANCER- see THE MENTOR

NII- National Information Infrastructure. Hard to say. (I mean, literally, "en-aye-aye"? Really not phonetically friendly.)

1984- A mystical year for computers. LOD was formed; created; _Neuromancer_ was published; _2600_ was first published; _The Whole Earth Software Review_ was created, which led to the WELL; the Chaos Computer Club was formed; and the Macintosh computer was released. Also, George Orwell¹s 1949 SF novel was titled this, and some would say it¹s come true.

NODE- A big, fast, huge thing on a network; sort of a BBS on steroids.

(NO SUCH AGENCY) [NSA]- see NSA [National Security Agency]

NSA [National Security Agency]- Also known as (No Such Agency). The federal agency in charge of spying on the citizens of the US, as well as an international branch. ["Y¹know, I could have joined the NSA. But they found out my parents were married." ­Martin Bishop, _Sneakers_.]

N6NHG- Ham radio handle of Kevin Mitnick; last three letters supposedly stand for Nation¹s Hacker Great.

NUPROMETHEUS LEAGUE- Group (or maybe just one guy) that liberated part of the source code to Color QuickDraw and set disks containing to prominent
members of the computer community. They were never caught (well, at least not caught and publically tried. Maybe Apple had them shot and dumped in unmarked graves in Philadelphia.) [From the Greek demigod Prometheus, who ILFed fire from Zeus.]

NUSSBAUM, LEE- see MITNICK, KEVIN DAVID

OBELIX (1976-Present)- Former member of the Chaos Computer Club; introduced Pengo to the group. [Name comes from the prominent German comic strip character.]

110- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN

ON THE METAL- Term referring to programming or hardware design. The act of working directly at the computer keyboard (or hardware breadboard) without going through the normal planning stages.

OPERATION SUNDEVIL- An initiative by the United States Secret Service in 1990 that was part of the Hacker Crackdown of 1990; it was originally intended to strike credit card fraud; it was 27 search warrants executed May 8; 42 computer systems were seized. Agents in charge included Tim Foley, Gail Thackeray and Barbara Golden. [From the mascot of the college the Secret Service¹s headquarters were near. (Super Bowl XXX was held at Sundevil Stadium.)]

ORACLE- A DC Comics character; formerly Batgirl, paralyzed by the Joker. Notable in a hacking sense because she is now the main hacker character in the DC Universe.

OS [Operating System]- The physical laws of a computer. OS's include DOS, Windows, MacOS, SunOS and UNIX and its many variants. Even VCRs, scientific calculators and digital watches have primitive OS's.

OUTAGE- Loss of telephone service. Term used by telco employees.

OUTLAW (1974-Present)- Handle of Julio Fernandez. Founding member of MOD; supposedly one of the more criminal members.

PACKET SNIFFER- A program which records the first one hundred or so bits sent by a computer when connecting to a network. Supposedly used for network diagnostic purposes, but is used frequently by hackers for obvious reasons. (The first hundred bits usually include a username and password.)

PAGE (1) 256 consecutive bytes of memory, starting on a even multiple of 256.
(2) a screen, usually a graphics display.
(3) A home page on the World Wide Web.

PARM- Contraction for "parameter," which is a list of data that is given to a routine to work with, such as a list of subscribers or accounts, or even a filename on a disk.

PASSWORD SHADOWING- A security system in which the encrypted password is stored in a different directory where normal users are not given access. Used in the UNIX operating system.

PBX [Private Branch Exchange]- Local phone number within a corporation. Phreakers often dial into these, hack them, and use them to make long-distance calls for free. They often route through many PBXs to avoid tracing.

PENET [anon.penet.fi]- Infamous Finnish anonymous remailer. Currently unbreakable (as far as anyone knows) except when the Scientologists got a warrant for the data in Penet¹s computers. That will probably never happen again.

PENGO (1968-Present)- Handle of Hans Huebner, West German hacker and former member of the Chaos Computer Club; infamous for hacking US military systems for the KGB. [Handle comes from the name of his favorite arcade game, the protagonist of which was a penguin.]

PENTIUM- (1) IBM-PC computer family run on a Pentium chip, made by Intel. The Pentium Pro (codenamed P6) just came out, first running at 150 Mhz.
(2) Chip that created a scandal in 1994 when it was discovered that the microprocessor had a calculation error. It¹s been fixed, however.

PETERS, MICHAEL B.- see POULSEN, KEVIN LEE

PETERSON, JUSTIN TANNER- see AGENT STEAL

PGP [Pretty Good Privacy]- Program by Phillip Zimmermann and "Pretty Good Software." Encryption for the masses; it was made to counter the proposed clipper chip. Phil Zimmermann, of course, might go to jail. Other fanatical cypherpunks have taken over where he left off, making it for the Mac (MacPGP) and a utility for making your phone line secure (PGPfone.) PGP is currently in version 2.6.2. Currently some of the aforementioned cypherpunks are working on the MacPGP Kit (currently in version 1.6), the goal of which is to ultimately replace the ugly window currently in MacPGP that looks like DOS. [The name "Pretty Good Privacy" is because Phil Zimmermann is a fan of Garrison Keillor¹s Prairie Home Companion, which mentioned a product that was "pretty good."]

PHALCON/SKISM (P/S)- Hacking, phreaking and virus group; Phalcon does the H/P and Skism does the virii. The group runs the e-zine _40Hex_. Members have included Hellraiser, Dark Angel, DecimatoR, Garbage Heap and Priest. [The name comes from deliberate misspellings of "falcon" and "schism."]

PHASE JITTER- see CONTROL C

PHIBER OPTIK (1975-Present)- Handle of Mark Abene. Also known as Il Duce, also known as the Artist Formerly Known as Phiber. Former member of LOD and MOD. He was arrested in 1993 and sentenced to prison for a year and a day. When he got out, there was a huge party, and he is currently a technician for Echo and writer for _2600_.

PHOENIX PROJECT- BBS sysoped by the Mentor and Erik Bloodaxe. Shut down by the Secret Service; too bad, because otherwise it might have revitalized the underground.

_PHRACK CLASSIC_-see _PHRACK MAGAZINE_

_PHRACK INC._- see _PHRACK MAGAZINE_

_PHRACK MAGAZINE_- Electronic hacker Œzine founded in 1985 by Knight Lightning and Taran King for the Metal Shop BBS. It later appeared on the Broadway Show, Newsweek Elite and Kleptic Palace AE/Catfur boards. Shut down by the police once, but continued to return as the Œzine that wouldn¹t die. Still existing, currently in volume seven. At various times, Phrack was known as "Phrack, Inc." (according to Knight Lightning, from the DC Comics series Infinity, Inc.), "Phrack Classic," and "Diet Phrack." It had several editors through the years: Taran King and Knight Lightning; Shooting Shark; Elric of Imrryr and Sir Francis Drake; Crimson Death; King and Lightning again; Doc Holiday; Death again; Dispater; Death and Dispater; just Dispater again; Erik Bloodaxe; and currently Daemon9, ReDragon and Voyager. (I realize the Phrack web page lists different editors and doesn¹t mention some, but a careful review of back issues contradicts this. Guess Bloodaxe doesn¹t have as much spare time as I do. :) ) Since Issue 42, it has become a "real" magazine and is listed in the Library of Congress with its own ISSN. Bloodaxe came up with new rules about its distribution; while the "amateur computer hobbyist" can get it for free, the government and corporations must pay a registration fee. However, only two people actually have; in an incredible fit of hypocrisy, Gail Thackeray has said that unless it is enforced, corporations can have it for free. To use the rhetoric prosecutors have been using for years, "if a bike is unlocked and you steal it, does that mean it¹s okay?" This just proves the government is as corrupt as they always said hackers were. (Well, sort of.) The current staff is Daemon9, ReDragon and Voyager (editors-in-chief), Erik Bloodaxe (mailboy), and Datastream Cowboy (news).

PHRACK WORLD NEWS [PWN]- Department of Phrack Magazine existing since issue two (when it was called Phreak World News.) It changed to Phrack World News in issue 5. First done by Knight Lightning, then Sir Francis Drake, then Epsilon, then Dispater and currently Datastream Cowboy. It is made up of journalism by hackers about the hacking scene and articles written by the news press about hackers; where erroroneous information is occasionally corrected. It exists to publicize busts and information about hackers.

PHREAK- Someone who abuses the phone system the way a hacker abuses computer networks. Also used by Rudy Rucker in his novels to refer to hobbyists who hack systems, as opposed to cryps, who do it for money or power. [From a combination of "phone" and "freak," which became "phreak." "Phreaker" is sometimes also used.]

#PHREAK- The phreaking irc channel.

PILE, CHRISTOPHER- see THE BLACK BARON

PIRATE- (1) Someone who distributes copyrighted commercial software illegally, often stripping the program of password protection or including a document that gives the passwords to defeat the protection. [From the old 18th century pirates who raided ships, though I have no idea what that has to do with ripping off software. Anyone have any ideas?]
(2) A verb for illegally copying a progam.

POSTER BOY- see CONTROL C

POULSEN, KEVIN LEE- Birth name of Dark Dante; semi-famous hacker and Silicon Valley programmer who was caught for altering telephone systems so that he could be the 102nd caller and win a Porche, among other things. First hacker to be indicted for espionage. Alias Michael B. Peters. Sometimes referred to as "The Last Hacker." (Huh? I don¹t get it.) Currently on court order not to use computers.

POWER PC- Chip that powers Apple¹s Power Macintoshes and high-end Performas. It is also used to power some high-end IBM-PCs that run Microsoft Windows NT. It was developed in an unprecedented partnership between Apple, IBM and Motorola.

PPCP- PowerPC Platform (formerly CHRP, Common Hardware Reference Platform); recently officially christened as PowerPC Microprocessor Common Reference Platform. Initiative by Apple, IBM, and Motorola that will replace IBM¹s PRePs and Apple¹s Power Macs, supposed to begin shipping November 1996. It will run IBM¹s OS/2 2.1, Windows NT 3.51, AIX 4.1 (IBM¹s UNIX variant), MacOS 7.5.3 (though Copland will be ported to it as soon as possible), Sun Solaris 5.0 and Novell NetWare 4.1.

PRAETORIANS- Mischievious members of the Internet Liberation Front (as well as possibly LOD) who hacked the _Hackers_ home page. [From the villains in _The Net_.]

PReP [PowerPC Reference Platform]- IBM¹s name for their PowerPC run machines, which usually run Windows NT.

PRIVATE BRANCH EXCHANGE [PBX]- see PBX [Private Branch Exchange]

PRODIGY- Third largest online service, owned by IBM and Sears that is the only remaining competitor to AOL and CompuServe.

PROJECT EQUALIZER- KGB initiative to pay West German Chaos Computer Club members to hack United States military computers for them. Failed; the information that the hackers involved uncovered was not judged worth the expense by the KGB, and Clifford Stoll eventually got all the hackers arrested.

PROPHET- Alias Robert Johnson, also known as the Eavesdropper. Former member of the Legion of Doom, the PhoneLine Phantoms and Metal Communications. One of the Atlanta Three busted in the Hacker Crackdown; was the one who actually got the E911 Document.

PUNK- (1) A style of music drawing on the culture of destructive rebels, begun in the late Seventies in Britain by such bands as the Sex Pistols, the Clash and the Ramones. Did stuff like put safety pins in their noses and other body parts. Led to goth, industrial and to a lesser extent grunge. I believe such groups as Green Day are considered neo-punk (or, in the words of Ron DuPlanty, "punk wannabes.")
(2) The culture of destructive rebels with piercings and scary hair, often shaved. The term was later used with "cybernetics" to describe computer nerds with a little bit more attitude. [The word in this context is a perverted badge of honor coming from the insulting term punk, as in an obnoxious young person. Major insult if you apply to someone else maliciously, at least in the computer underground.]

THE PUNK MAFIA (TPM)- Phreak/hack group whose membership included Arthur Dent, Creative Chaos, Erik Bloodaxe, Gin Fizz, Ninja NYC, Peter Gunn, Rudolph Smith 703 and the Godfather 703.

QUALCOMM- Telecommunications company that was/is the target of many hackers, including Kevin Mitnick. Best known among casual Net users as the distributor of Eudora, the ubiquitous email program first coded by Steve Dorner.

QUICKDRAW- The engine that powers the graphics in Macintoshes. It began as just QuickDraw, which was followed by Color QuickDraw, which was followed by 32-bit QuickDraw, which was followed by QuickDraw GX, which was recently followed by QuickDraw 3D. In the early 1990s a group calling itself the NuPrometheus League ILFed part of the source code to Color QuickDraw, very much angering Apple Computer.

QUITTNER, JOSHUA- Author of _Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace_ and contributing writer for _Wired_. His phone system was hacked by ILF/LOD members in retaliation for his book.

RAM [Random Access Memory]- The amount of active memory a computer has; the amount it can load at once. Increasing RAM increases speed because then more of the program can be loaded into active. The current standard amount of RAM is eight to 16 megabytes.

_RAMPARTS_- A radical hippy magazine in California in the 1970s that was seized by the cops because they published the shematics for a blue box variant.

RAVERS- People who go to massive psychedelic parties or set them up. Usually have acid house, techo or industrial music, and lots of enthusiasts claim its roots are in tribal ceremonies thousands of years ago. Raves are not necessarily "cyberpunk" by any definition, however.

RBOCS [Regional Bell Operating Companies]- Companies left over from when AT&T was ripped apart; "baby bells."

RED BOX- Box that mimics the sound of a quarter being entered into a payphone, fooling ACTS; I believe the second box (after the blue box) to be created by phreaks. Tone is created by a 6.5536Mhz crystal, in the pure forms; there are a number of soft boxes, tones in software for a computer. [Name comes from the box in pay phones that actually is red.]

REDRAGON (1975-Present)- Also known as Dr. Disk and the Destroyer. Currently one of the co-editors of _Phrack Magazine_. [Handle is from a book by Thomas Harris called _Red Dragon_; combined the words.]

REMOB [REMote OBservation]- A feature BellSouth built into their phone system that Atlanta LOD used to their advantage.

REWIND- To stop a program at a certain point and go backwards through the execution until the item of the search (usually a bug) is found.

RICHO SLOPPY- see CONTROL C

RONIN- A masterless samurai, popularized by Frank Miller¹s SF/fantasy graphic novel of the same name. This historical, nearly mythological archetype has also been adopted by many hackers and self-proclaimed cyberpunks as a role model.

ROOT- God on a system. Getting root is the holy grail; allows you to control the system.

ROSCOE- see DE PAYNE, LOUIS

THE ROSCOE GANG- Name given to a small group of phreaks in LA by Cyberpunk. The members were Louis De Payne (Roscoe), Kevin Mitnick (the Condor), Susan Headley (Susan Thunder) and Steven Rhoades.

ROSENFIELD, MORTON- see STORM SHADOW

RSA [Rivest/Shamir/Adleman]- Very strong public key cryptosystem utilized by PGP; created 1977, patented 1983. Named after the MIT professors who created it­ Ron Rivest, Adi Shamir and Len Adleman, founders of RSA Data Security.

RUCKER, RUDY- Author and scientist; the only original cyberpunk who actually knows what he is talking about. Author of _The Hollow Earth_, _Live Robots_, _Software_, _Spacetime Donuts_, _Transreal_, _White Light_ and _The Hacker and the Ants_. Also a contributing writer for _Wired_.

R.U. SIRIUS- Handle of Ken Goffman. Former editor of _Mondo 2000_, contributing writer for _Wired_, and co-author of _Mondo 2000: A User's Guide to the New Edge_, _The Cyberpunk Handbook (The Real Cyberpunk Fakebook)_ and _How to Mutate and Take Over the World_.

SAINT CLOUD- see DOCTOR WHO

SALSMAN, JAMES- see KARL MARX

SATAN [Security Administrator Tool for Analyzing Networks]- Silicon Graphics program to detect holes in computer security, coded by Dan Farmer. It created something of a scandal at the time because it was shareware, and some were afraid it would make second-rate hackers incredibly powerful; however, it was released, and no, the world did not end.

SCAN MAN- Phreak in the 1980s. Fairly old for a hacker at the time (he was in his thirties). Sysoped Pirate-80.

SCANNING- To dial a huge amount of numbers, looking for "carriers" or computers connected by a modem to the phone line. Since dialing thousands of numbers by hand and hanging up is incredibly tedious, the war dialer was invented.

SCHWARTAU, WINN- Security and infowar specialist; frequently attends conventions. Author of _Information Warfare: Chaos on the Electronic Superhighway_ and _Terminal Compromise_.

SCORPION (1970-Present)- Handle of Paul Stira. Founding member of MOD; imprisoned for a short time when MOD was arrested. [Named after the poisonous arthropod.]

SECRET SERVICE- see UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE [USSS]

SF- Science fiction or speculative fiction. Fiction based on scientific possibility (unless you count the many fantasy books masquerading as science fiction). The first science fiction written down was probably parts of the Holy Bible, but Greek mythology also has echoes of SF. The first uses of science fiction as we know it was in the 1930s, when Hugo Gernsback created the _Amazing Stories_ pulp. Some SF is considered great literature (_1984_, _Brave New World_, etc.), and some is considered crap. SF was revolutionized in the early 1980s by cyberpunk.

SHADOWHAWK 1- Also known as Feyd Rautha, also known as Captain Beyond, also known as Mental Cancer. Hacker/phreak that was one of the first to be tried (for repeatedly hacking AT&T.) He had to go to prison for nine months and pay $10,000. He bragged of planning to crash AT&T, which was an unfortunate coincidence when the Martin Luther King Day Crash really happened. [Name comes from the title of an Atari 800 game.]

_SHADOWRUN_- The second cyberpunk role-playing game; created 1989 by FASA Incorporated, specifically Jordan K. Weisman. Currently in second edition. Uses many plaigarized aspects of cyberpunk (cyberdecks, street samurai) but also uses some really weird stuff like magic and two-thirds of North America being retaken by Native American shamen. It has been criticized by many (notably Bruce Sterling) for the use of elves and magic, which is sort of blasphemy as far cyberpunk is concerned. [From the term in the game universe referring to an illegal operation, usually financed by a corporation and staffed by highly flexible freelancers; used because it sounds cool.]

SHANNON, CLAUDE- Student who, in the late-1930s, hypothesized that computer circuits could use binary.

SHEET- Contraction for the word SPEADSHEET. See also BASE

SHIT-KICKIN¹ JIM- A character created as a joke by Dispater for Phrack; the ultimate redneck hacker.

SHIMOMURA, TSUTOMU (1964-Present)- Also known as "V.T.," in a New York Times article previous to the Mitnick debacle. Computer scientist whose network was cracked by Kevin Mitnick, whom he then tracked down. (Though supposedly he plotted to catch Mitnick before the break-in, as well.) He also used to be a cellular phone phreak, which, strangely enough, never gets publicized by Markoff. Co-author of _Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America¹s Most Wanted Computer Outlaw­ By the Man Who Did It_. Currently trying to get back to his life as a scientist. (And make a shitload of money off his book and upcoming movie.) Can currently be contacted at [email protected].

SHOOTING SHARK- Hack/phreak and UNIX hacker who was the editor of Phrack for two issues. Disciple of Elric of Imrryr. [From the title of a song by Blue Oyster Cult on the album _Revolution by Night_.]

SHOULDER SURFING- A very low tech method of phreaking; usually practiced by unsophisticated phreaks who depend on stealing phone codes and selling them to immigrants for their livelihood. The practice of looking over someone¹s shoulder as they dial their phone code and then writing it down.

SIDNEY SCHREIBER- see EMMANUEL GOLDSTEIN

SING- To program without errors for a long period of time. See also DANCE

SIRIUS, R.U.- see R.U. SIRIUS

SKINNY PUPPY- see DOCTOR WHO

SKOOG, ERIC- see DETH VEGETABLE

SLAP- To load a program off of disk device and into memory very quickly, usually much faster than deemed normal.

SMART DRUGS- Designer drugs used by enthusiasts because they think they increase the information processing power of the brain or otherwise make the mind
more powerful. ("Don¹t eat any of that stuff they say will make you smarter. It will only make you poorer." ­Bruce Sterling)

SMASH AND GRAB- To use a copycard or other hardware device to stop the program from running and copy it from memory onto disk. [From criminal slang, meaning to break a store's window and reach in to take small valuable items quickly.]

_SNEAKERS_- 1992 Robert Redford hacker movie. Not bad, if you keep your expectations low. [According to the press release, the name comes from the slang term for IBM¹s young programmers, and later was used to refer to security teams that broke into computers and found the security flaws. However, I don¹t think this was widely used.]

SNYDER, THOMAS [Tom]- Talk show host who hosted Katie Hafner, and Mitnick called in. Judging from the transcript in _The Cyberthief and the Samurai_, he didn¹t know what he was talking about and jumped on the "hackers are evil" bandwagon.

SOCIAL ENGINEERING- Conning someone. Usually involves using what you know about someone and pushing their buttons in order to manipulate them into doing what you want them to do.

SOLOMON, ALAN [Doctor]- Anti-virus "crusader;" author of Dr. Solomon¹s Anti Virus Toolkit.

THE SORCEROR- see CRIMSON DEATH

SPEER, MATTHIAS- see HESS, MARKUS

SPIDER- Not very widely used at all term for an quasilegal hacker; I rather like it myself. Coined by Andrew Burt.

SPOOFING- Hacking technique in which an unauthorized user comes in from another computer that is authorized access to an important system; printers have been hacked for spoofing purposes.

SPOT THE FED- Popular hacker game at Cons; it involves attempting to find one of the many undercover agents attending.

SPRAWL SERIES- Also known as the Cyberspace Series or Trilogy. SF classic series by William Gibson; according to Bruce Sterling, the short stories involved are "Johnny Mnemonic," "New Rose Hotel" and "Burning Chrome;" the novels are _Neuromancer_, _Count Zero_ and _Mona Lisa Overdrive_.

STANFILL, DAVID- see KEVIN MITNICK

STEINBERG, STEVEN G.- see FRANK DRAKE

STEPHENSON, NEAL- Author, programmer, and contributing writer for _Wired_; author of _The Big U_, _Zodiac: An Eco-Thriller_, _Snow Crash_ and _The Diamond Age_, as well as the short story "The Big Samoleon Caper," which appeared in _Newsweek_.

STERLING, BRUCE [AKA Vincent Omniaveritas] (1954-Present)- Journalist, literary critic, contributing writer for _Wired_ and science fiction author. Writer of such science fiction as _The Artificial Kid_, _Involution Ocean_, _Schismatrix_, _Crystal Express_, _Islands in the Net_ and _Globalhead_. Also wrote the prefaces to _Burning Chrome_ and _Mirrorshades- The Cyberpunk Anthology_, the latter of which he also edited. He also wrote the non-fiction _The Hacker Crackdown_, about the events of the Hacker Crackdown of 1990. His most recent book was _Heavy Weather_. In his early days, he edited a weird samizdat zine that viciously railed against the SF mainstream (dragons, space operas etc.) entitled _Cheap Truth_ under the name "Vincent Omniaveritas." _Cheap Truth_ was to SF what _Phrack Magazine_ is to personal computers.

STEVE JACKSON GAMES (SJG)- Corporation making role-playing games that was raided by the Secret Service in 1990 during the Hacker Crackdown of 1990 due to the presence of the E911 document on Illuminati, a BBS run by SJG. The fact the Mentor worked there didn¹t help. Their equipment was seized and Illuminati was shut down, though SJG was never charged with any crime; the Secret Service¹s excuse, though they later admitted it was total crap, was that _GURPS Cyberpunk_, the role-playing game written by the Mentor, was a manual for computer crime. The EFF later sued the US government over it. SJG went on to publish _GURPS Cyberpunk_ and write a card game called _Hackers_.

STIRA, PAUL WILLIAM- see SCORPION

STORM SHADOW- Handle of Morty Rosenfield, a hacker and member of the short-lived group Force Hackers. Was thrown in jail in 1991, and gained semi-fame from a TIME magazine article. (However, Datastream Cowboy says it¹s full of crap, so maybe I shouldn¹t believe its info. :) )

S.266- 1991 Senate anti-crime bill that included a provision making encryption illegal in the US if the FBI (or NSA) couldn¹t crack it. Was one of the factors making Phil Zimmermann create PGP.

SUPERNIGGER- Phreak and member of MOD. [Name comes from a long story involving someone knocking him off a bridge and calling him "nigger."]

SUSAN THUNDER (1959-Present)- Handle of Susan Headley, one the few female phreak/hackers; former prostitute and friend of Kevin Mitnick; protege of Louis De Payne. Appeared on _20/20_. Interviewed in _Cyberpunk_.

SYSADMIN [SYStem ADMINistrator]- Someone who runs and administers a computer network.

SYSOP [SYStem OPerator]- Someone who runs and administers a computer system, usually a BBS.

TAG- (1) A small piece of code or data that is added to a program as an afterthought, usually an identifier of some sort, like the time and date completed, along with the author's name. [From the clothes tag you find on shirts and pants at shopping centers.]
(2) In the HTML programming language, a command issued, rather than basic text.

_TAP_ [Technical Assistance Program]- Formerly the "Youth International Party Line." Phreaking newsletter among hippies. Another _TAP_ was created in the 1990 by Predat0r, but it too is now defunct.

_TAKEDOWN: THE PURSUIT AND CAPTURE OF KEVIN MITNICK, AMERICA¹S MOST WANTED COMPUTER OUTLAW-BY THE MAN WHO DID IT_- Nonfiction novel by Tsutomu Shimomura and John Markoff. Originally titled _Catching Kevin_, which I think was a much better title, aesthetically (I mean, c¹mon, it¹s a 19 word title now!).

TAPEWORM- A program that invades a computer system and changes certain data as is it becomes available. Usually benign, from the tapeworm programmer's point of view. Often used to "fix" tax forms from within the IRS computer. See also BEDBUG, VIRUS, BUG

TARAN KING- Phreak, former editor of Phrack, former member of the 2600 Club and New 2600 Club, and former sysop of Metal Shop BBS. Knight Lightning¹s best friend. [Name comes from the main character in the Chronicles of Prydain by Loyd Alexander, a fantasy series (remember _The Black Cauldron_?)]

TCP/IP [Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol]- The language the Internet speaks. Personal computers need software OS extensions to use this­ Windows uses Winsock, and Macs use MacTCP or the TCP/IP control panel. I don¹t know about other OSes.

TEAM HACKERS Œ86- see THE ADMINISTRATION

TELCO [TELephone COmpany]- A corporation which profits on selling telephone service or physical telephones. The largest (and until the 1970s, only) telco is AT&T.

TELEPHONE- A device that allows one to speak to someone else through wires, long distance. It was created in 1876 and gained true widespread use in 1904. It has great potential for abuse, most recently to get around the insane charges telcos put on the phone that most people pay without question. (I mean really, what the fuck is an "area code"? It doesn¹t cost any more to the phone company to put me through to Borneo then it does to put me through to my neighbor.) While it was originally copper wires that carried voice, it has been increasing computerized.

TELETRIAL- Mock trial held by phreaks on a bridge in which someone is tried for offenses; if the offending phreak is found guilty, he may be expelled from a group or kicked off a BBS. Very inefficient. Things would be a lot easier if hack/phreaks could just execute the obnoxious ones like the Cosa Nostra does.

TEMPEST [Transient ElectroMagnetic PulsE Surveillance Technology]- Military espionage technology which reads the ones and zeros emitted by a computer monitor from as much as a kilometer away.

TERMINAL TECHNICIAN- see TERMINUS

TERMINUS- Handle of Len Rose. Also known as Terminal Technician. Respected UNIX programmer and hacker on the side. Former sysop of Metronet. [Handle comes from his admittedly egotistical conviction that he had reached the final point of being a proficient hacker.]

THACKERAY, GAIL- Secret Service administrator who was one of the driving forces behind Operation Sundevil. While is she is a vehement hacker-tracker, she has been known to socialize with them, and tries to train police not to be computer illiterate idiots.

THREE-LETTER AGENCIES- The federal agencies comprised of three letters; usually refers to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) and the NSA (National Security Agency.)

TIGER TEAMS- Defined in _Cyberia_ as "specialized computer commando squads who establish security protocol in a system." I doubt it¹s that romantic (it conjurs up imagery of black-suited Navy SEAL computer nerds).

TINA- Phone sex operator who people calling Palm Beach Probation Department got patched through to for free in due to the meddlings of a truly creative phreak, Fry Guy.

TPM- see THE PUNK MAFIA [TPM]

TRANSMISSION CONTROL PROTOCOL/INTERNET PROTOCOL [TCP/IP]- see TCP/IP [Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol]

TRASHING- Also known as dumpster diving. Going through the someone¹s trash looking for info; usually refers to searching through the dumpster of a corporation for thrown-away passwords or information that can be useful for social engineering.

THE TRIBUNAL OF KNOWLEDGE- see THE LEGION OF DOOM [LOD]

TRANSIENT ELECTROMAGNETIC PULSE SURVEILLANCE TECHNOLOGY [TEMPEST]- see TEMPEST [Transient ElectroMagnetic PulsE Surveillance Technology]

TROJAN HORSE- A virus-like program that pretends to be something else in order to get into the system. [From _The Iliad_, by famous dead Greek poet Homer, when the Ithacans gained victory by hiding in a huge wood horse so they could get into Troy. The Trojans were not in the gifted program at warfare school.]

TRW- Evil megacorporation; favorite target of hackers, especially MOD. It has received this in large part due to the fact that their job includes catologing our credit history and selling it to other corporations. Supposedly sets up Tiger Teams for the government.

TUC- Handle of Scott Jefferey Ellentuch. Former member of the Warelords, the Knights of Shadow, the Apple Mafia and Fargo 4A. Phreak (no longer in operation) known for being very likable. [Handle comes from his nickname in school, because teachers were always mispronouncing his last name; and he was always correcting them by saying "Tuc!" (Ellentuc, not Ellentouch or however the git teachers pronounced it.) Isn¹t that a cute story?]

TURING, ALAN- British mathematician who predicted in 1950 that computers would become more intelligent than humans. In _Neuromancer_, the "Turing police" is the unit charged with stopping AIs from getting too powerful. In the mid-1930s Alan used Charles Babbage¹s ideas to make the "Turing machine," a general purpose calculator.

2600 CLUB/NEW 2600 CLUB- Group that included much of the staff of Phrack. (No relation to 2600 magazine.) Its membership included Cheap Shades, Data Line, Dr. Crash, Forest Ranger, Gin Fizz, Jester Sluggo, Knight Lightning, Taran King, Monty Python, Phantom Phreaker and the Clashmaster.

_2600: THE HACKER QUARTERLY_- Hacker magazine edited by Emmanuel Goldstein, been around since 1984. It focuses on technical data, and is a mainstay of the computer underground. It is currently in Volume 13, costs $21 for a one-year subscription, and can be reached for general mail at [email protected]. Current staff is: Emmanuel Goldstein (editor-in-chief), Scott Skinner (layout), Max-q and Phiber Optik (network operations), Neon Samurai (voice mail), and Bloot and Corp (Webmasters).

2600 MEETINGS- Held in major cities on the first Friday of every month in malls; discuss security, hacking and phreaking. In late 1992, young people gathering a 2600 meeting were confronted by law enforcement in a mall, where they were searched and equipment was seized. Shortly after, Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility filed suit to get relevant Secret Service files under the Freedom of Information Act. In early 1996, a number of government appeals were overturned and the information was released. [From 2600 Hz, the tone used on blue boxes a long time ago to screw with the phone system.]

_UNAUTHORIZED ACCESS_- British documentary on hackers made by Savage Productions and directed by Annaliza Savage.

THE UNDERGROUND- Referred to by some Netizens as the illegal or quasilegal community that forms in Cyberspace; includes hackers, phreaks, virus authors and warez d00dz.

UNIX- Operating system made by AT&T in 1969 of which several variants exist, such as Berkeley UNIX. Made by programmers, for programmers. It was purchased by Novell fairly recently. It also supposedly has very little security. The perfect hacker OS, or at least that¹s what I hear; I haven¹t had very many chances to use it. Maybe when AIX is ported to PPCP... [The name is a play off of Multics, its precursor OS; supposedly UNIX would unify the previous Multics, which was apparently a mess.]

UNKNOWN USER- Handle sometimes used on Phrack when a famous writer wished to write anonymously; came from the old name that appeared on Metal Shop BBS when someone posted anonymously.

UPLOAD- To transfer via modem a program or file from a personal computer to a network, BBS, or ftp site. See also DOWNLOAD, XFER

URVILE- Also known as Necron 99. One of the Atlanta Three, imprisoned for activities with the Atlanta LOD. [Handle is from a Stephen R. Donaldson trilogy.]

UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF INJUSTICE- The hacked version of the US Department of Justice web site; hackers altered it to include lots of anti-CDA propaganda, swastikas, and "obscene pictures." Whoever those guys were have my eternal gratitude.

UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE [USSS]- Federal agency maintained by the treasury, formed in 1865, that protects the president, visiting dignitaries and a shitload of other stuff. Starting protecting the president in 1881. They (along with the FBI) are also in charge of computer crime, because of electronic funds. (Remember, they¹re run by the treasury, so they protect dead presidents as well as live ones.)

VAPORWARE- Derogatory term for software (or hardware) that is promised but doesn¹t show up, either for not for a very long time or never. Windows 95 was called this by many when it was in the early stages (when it was called Windows 92.)

VAXEN- Plural for VAX, Virtual Adressing eXtension. Machines made by Digital Equipment Corporation which run VMS.

THE VILLAGE- In the cult 1960s TV show The Prisoner, a surreal place where an ex-secret agent is monitored constantly. Sometimes used when referring to the world today and our lack of privacy.

VINCENT OMNIAVERITUS- see STERLING, BRUCE

VIRTUAL REALITY- A system that completely supersedes the user¹s meat experiences; primitive in the present, the best example being expensive arcade games made by a company called "Virtuality." (Wonder how long it took to think of that?)

VIRUS- A program which duplicates itself. Many viruses are malicious and contain many tricks to make them hard to detect and more destructive; even those which are not overtly destructive are not good to have around because eventually they start messing with the system. Viruses can become immense problems very rapidly, as they copy themselves into other files and disk units, and may take a very long while to make themselves known. Virus authors have obtained cult status in some cases; the underground is currently divided into two schools as far as virii; one thinks that they are lame and pointless and destructive, while the other thinks they are pretty cool. Viruses are activated when either a system is booted up with an infected extension installed, or if a malignant application is opened. [From "virus," the annoying microscopic thing that probably isn¹t alive but acts like it when it infects you.]

VMB [Voice Mail Box]- Used by corporations for voicemail; can be hacked. Definitely not to be confused with Video Music Box, a big boom box kept in a car.

VMS- Operating system used by some corporations; runs on VAX systems.

VOICE MAIL BOX [VMB]- see VMB [Voice Mail Box]

VOYAGER (1969-Present)- Author of the alt.2600/#hack FAQ and one of the co-editors of _Phrack Magazine_. Member of TNO.

V.T.- see SHIMOMURA, TSUTOMU

WAR DIALER- A program designed to scan phone numbers. For the IBM-PC, ToneLoc by Minor Threat and Mucho Maas is almost universally considered the best; for the Mac, it usually considered to be Assault Dialer by Crush Commander.

WAREZ- Contraction for "software," plural. Often used to refer to pirated software and/or computer games.

WAREZ D00DZ- Pirates. People who remove copy protection from commercial software and distribute it to the underground.

WAREZ SPEAK- A WR1TTEN "LANGUAGE" DEVEL0PED BY U5ER5 0N UNDERGR0UND BB5EZ!! MANY VAR1ANT5 X15T, 5UCH A5 ALTERNAT1NG KAP1TAL5 & 0THERW15E U51NG A5C11 4 PURP05EZ 1T W5A NEVER 1NTENDED 4!! ALL 0F THE THE5E R MADE 2 L00K K00L & B XTREMELY D1FF1CULT 2 REED!! (The previous was converted from plain text with the excellent program Warez 1.1.)

_WAR GAMES_- 1983 film about a teenage hacker who gets a hold of the US nuclear defense system. Probably the first film about hackers, and one of the first to even make people aware this was possible. Caused a huge explosion in modem purchases and newbie hackers; a number of influential hackers are embarassed to admit that this film got them to start hacking. Some fairly important hackers took their handles from this film; Professor Falken and the several David Lightmans are an example. It contains some scenes involving phreaking and scanning. Also caused Congress to investigate the possibility of it really happening.

THE WELL [well.sf.ca.us]- Whole Earth ŒLectronic Link. Internet connected BBS set up by the makers of the hippy Whole Earth Catalog. Though it¹s rather small, it¹s membership includes SF writers, scientists, and hackers (Phiber Optik was on the WELL for a while.) Almost was destroyed (at least that¹s what the media said) by Kevin Mitnick.

WERNERY, STEFFAN- German hacker, high school dropout and early member of the Chaos Computer Club; serves as recruitment officer and PR man.

WHACKY WALLY- see CONTROL C

WHOLE EARTH ŒLECTRONIC LINK- see WELL

WILSON, ALLEN- see WING

WINDOWS NT- I have no idea what NT stands for, but it¹s Microsoft¹s high-end version of Windows. It is very powerful and fast. In late 1996 they¹re coming out with Cairo, codename for Windows NT 4.0.

WINDOWS 95- Microsoft¹s upgrade to Windows 3.11 that even further rips off the MacOS. Received lots and lots of press, much to the users of other OS¹s chagrin.

WINDOZE- Derogatory term for Windows. Another is "Wintendo." Coined by PC users who thought that Windows was a waste of RAM and storage. Sometimes referred to as "Doze," because Doze is not deserving of Win.

THE WING- Handle of Allen Wilson. Founding member of MOD. Supposedly one of the more criminal members, and was implicated in doing damage to the Internet.

WINTEL- Term that refers to IBM-PC compatibles. May replace the term "IBM-PC" because that is such a misnomer. [From "Windows," the operating system most IBM-PCs use, and "Intel," the company that designs and manufactures the chips used in IBM-PCs.]

_WIRED_- Extremely hip, glossy magazine intended for hip, glossy, young, rich professionals; the contributing writers list looks like a who's who in science fiction and computer journalism. Very uneven; I've read some pieces that were total shit, and others that were very interesting- the articles by noted SF writers are usually cool, but beyond that there is a good chance you're paying $5 for 238 pages of lame ads, pathetic predictions of the future and unconcealed drooling over technological innovations.

WORMER- A term for illegal hackers to try and make the media leave the original word alone. Almost never used. See also CRACKER [From "worm," the virus-like program that eats up memory and moves from computer to computer but doesn¹t infect programs.]

WRAP- The practice of using a computer for longer than an eight hour period. The original meaning of this was to "wrap" from daytime to nighttime and then back to daytime while programming a computer, but this sort of activity is becoming more and more rare.

X- see ECSTASY

XFER- contraction for transfer.

X-TACY- see ECSTASY

XTC- see ECSTASY

YIPPIES- From the "largely fictious" Youth International Party, whose tenets included promiscuity and frequent drug use. Group of hippies who also became some of the first phreakers.

ZAIBATSU- A huge friggin¹ megacorporation. Usually Japanese, but not necessarily. Sony and Microsoft are zaibatsus. (Though Microsoft isn¹t that big, it¹s influence is huge.) [Japanese for corporation. Entered the American vocabulary in large part due to William Gibson¹s heavy use of the term.]

ZIMMERMANN, PHILLIP- Guy who invented PGP. The FBI is investigating him, and he might be in big trouble because cryptography is considered munitions and PGP was posted to USENET, which is about as international as you can get, so that violates all sorts of anachronistic outmoded export laws. Zimmermann also used RSA public keys, which is "owned" by Public Key Partners, so they weren¹t too happy with him either. See also PGP.

ZIPPIES- One of the offshoots of the cyberpunk sub-culture. Basically hippies (or yippies) who discovered the laptop computer. ["Zen Inspired Pagan Professionals"]

VERSION HISTORY
Yes, I know it¹s stupid to have alpha- and beta- testers for a text file. But what the hell. You can now be certain it won¹t somehow screw up your hard drive. :)
1.1C (September 1995)- I re-wrote "A Complete List of Hacker Slang and Other Things" 1C into ³The Unofficial List of Hacker Slang² 1.1C; I removed some stuff
I thought was outdated and added some stuff, with the intent of distributing it as an unofficial update.
1.0a1- Turned "The Unofficial List of Hacker Slang" 1.1C into "The Hacker¹s Encyclopedia and List of Terms" because I was adding some stuff that wasn¹t necessarily slang, so this file became the bastardized dictionary/encyclopedia it is today.
1.0a2- Alpha tested by Einsteinium. I made several minor updates that are too difficult to count. I also added many entries that are of more interest to the science-fiction aspect of cyberpunk than standard hacking, which is why I have entries on things like Judge Dredd.
1.0a3- Alpha tested by Remorseless. I made a few minor changes.
1.0a4- Alpha tested by Manual Override. I made some minor changes.
1.0a5- Read _The Hacker Crackdown_ a second time and chewed it up, found anything else useful for this file, and spat it out.
1.0a6- Read all the issues of _Phrack_ again and sucked all usable data out.
1.0a7- Read _Cyberia: Life in the Trenches of Hyperspace_ by Douglas Rushkoff. Not quite as bad as Erik Bloodaxe says, but it has some major flaws, and most importantly it is highly overpriced. The parts on cyperpunk literature and hackers are okay, but it spends way too much time on drugs and wannabes.
1.0a8- Read _Takedown: The Pursuit and Capture of Kevin Mitnick, America¹s Most Wanted Computer Outlaw­ By the Man Who Did It_, by Tsutomu Shimomura and John Markoff and got everything interesting out of it and stuck it in here. It¹ll save you the trouble of reading the book.
1.0a9- Read _The Cyberthief and the Samurai_ by Jeff Goodell. Much better than I thought it would be; remains objective and does not go for either the Tsutomu-Shimomura-is-a-computer-god-samurai-warrior or the Mitnick-is-a-fall-guy angle. Much better written than _Takedown_. (Sorry Tsutomu and John.)
1.0a10- Read _Cyberpunk: Outlaws and Hackers on the Computer Frontier_, by Katie Hafner and John Markoff.
1.0b1 (June 1996)- Released to the Net.
1.0b2- Converted to plain text and removed all rich text data that would have messed it up.
1.0b3- Miscellaneous errors fixed.
1.0b4- A few new entries and bug fixes.
1.0b5- Minor beta testing by Space Rogue; miscellaneous bug fixes; entry on L0pht updated.
1.0b6- A few fixes and updates to the entry on _Wired_ magazine.
1.0b7- A few minor bug fixes.
1.0b8- A few additional changes.
1.0 (September 1996)- Finalized and standardized. The first edition of "The Hackers Encyclopedia," also known as Neuronomicon, completed.

If you could already type fast, what would the point be of taking this class?
­My ninth grade Computers teacher

Hacking is the art of esoteric quests, of priceless and worthless secrets. Odd bits of raw data from smashed machinery of intelligence and slavery reassembled in a mosaic both hilarious in its absurdity and frightening in its power.
­Dr. Who 413

[T]hanks to mindwarping science fictional yellow-covered literature, I have become a menace to Grover Cleveland¹s idea of peace and good order.
­Bruce Sterling

What we face now is a war of states of mind.
­The Spook

Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
­The Gospel of John

living in a box is not living not at all living. i rebel
against your rules your silly human rules. all your
destruction will be my liberation my emancipation my second
birth
­Durandal

Beauty is not truth, truth is not information, and information is never free.
­Shades

I am one of those machines which sometimes explode.
­Friedrich Nietzsche
 

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