The BustCon raffle won me complete back issues of the Women's Day zine and the keys to one of the FBIs undercover vehicles out in the parking lot and El_Jefe scored the complete set of Phiber Optik trading cards. We returned home in one piece and the whole thing was a spiritial mecca for El_Jefe, causing him to finally clean up that shithole he calls a room.

"Horseplay will not be tollerated..." -Hotel manager

"Anyone want to buy some creidt cards with full info?" -Netta

"Any you cuties over the age of 14? I'm feelin' nasty tonight!" -Gail T

"Last call for my LOD-MOD t-shirts! They're almost gone! I swear!" -uh, guess

"Let's get outta here!" -Special Agent Bill Riley

"Go away PLA" -Hotel Security Guard

Circle highest year of grade school completed: 1 2 3 4 5 6

[ ] Burger King            [ ] McDonald's             [ ] Taco Bell
[ ] 7-Eleven               [ ] Circle K               [ ] RoyCo
[ ] Kentucky Fried Chicken [ ] Burgerville            [ ] Burger World

1. I want to be an OCI operator because:

 A. I feel this job is a great opportunity and that there is room for
    advancement and a long-lasting career.
 B. My past experience in the fast food industry qualifies me to be the
    best operator I can be.
 C. $4.95 an hour sure beats the $4.75 an hour I made at McDonalds.
 D. My mama says I got to get a job or she gonna throw me in the street.

2. A customer asks you to make a call and bill it to his home. While getting
   third-party acceptance, the third party says that this must be some sort of
   fraudulent call. What do you do?

 A. Immediately transfer the phone call to my supervisor.
 B. Tell the customer that I have caller I.D. and the police are on the way.
 C. Apologize to the customer but charge the call to them anyways.
 D. Say, "Yo mama" and disconnect the call.

3. You receive a phone call in which the customer states he has planted a
   bomb in the employee break room and it will go off in one hour. Do you:

 A. Ask the customer how he'd like to bill his collect call.
 B. Go to the employee break room to dismantle the bomb yourself.
 C. Tell the customer that his mama so stupid, she didn't go to school.
 D. Yell, "Yo mama" and disconnect the call.

4. If you recieve a harassing phone call you should:

 A. Transfer the call to the supervisor.
 B. Do whatever the caller asks you to, even if it involves taking your shirt
    off and flapping your boobs around or doing a kickflip.
 C. Try to argue and outsmart the caller.
 D. Blurt out the first "yo mama" joke that comes to mind and hang up.

5. The most important priority while working at OCI are:

 A. The customer is always right.
 B. The third-party who's being harassed is just as guilty as the guy who's
    harassing him/her.
 C. Picking your nose and eating your boogers while the supervisor isn't
    looking.
 D. If a customer gives you any shit, say, "Yo mama" and hang up.

Signature:______________________________________________________Date:______

  INTEROFFICE MEMO:
  TO: All operators
  Recently our offices have been plauged with harassing phone calls by a
  group known as the Defcon Hackers. If you are contacted by one of these
  people, stay calm. Tell them that you know that they're Defcon hackers.
  This will let them know that we know who they are and eventually they
  will get spooked enough to stop calling. If the calls persist, explain
  to them that you have caller I.D. on your phone and that the police are
  on their way. If they ask you to prove you have caller I.D. just explain
  that you don't have to give it to them cause you know what it is. If all
  else fails, reply with the standard, "Yo mama!" remark and hang up.



  INTEROFFICE MEMO:
  TO: All employees
  System upgrades are scheduled for the next few weeks so you may experience
  bad connections or be cut off from your party. Please be patient and if an
  irate customer asks what happened, tell them it must be THEIR phone. You
  will begin to notice alot of improvements in the near future. Our best
  enhancement will be the ANI feature which allows you to identify who's
  calling from anywhere inside the building. Plans for out-of-building ANI
  are still in the making and expected to be installed by the 21st century.
  One of the more noticeable features will be the pre-recorded announcement
  buttons on your switchboard. This feature will let you skip the task of
  wishing customers a nice day by letting a recording do the work for you.
  Also programmed into the system will be the phrases, "OCI, how may I help
  you?", "Operator leaving line", "Thank you for using OCI", and of course,
  "Yo, mama." Keep an eye out for this new conveinence! Classes on how to
  push these new buttons will begin on Monday, February 3rd.

I finally got around to reading Brian's follow-up article on the PLA. The BND was nice enough to mail me the article along with a bill for five dollars. I still haven't decided whether to send them Monopoly money or just send the bill to Greg Carson. In any case, here it is.

Hackers Group Founder Disclaims Responsibility - by Brian D. Crecente
From the Belleville News-Democrat, Sunday, September 10, 1995

The founder of the Phone Losers of America -a group of computer hackers who harass their victims by phone- says he doesn't feel responsible for the group's actions.

"If someone ticks one of us off, we put them on the list, but we aren't responsible for anything that happens," said the hacker, who goes by the nickname RedBoxChiliPepper.

"I think that what we are doing is wrong, but I'm not really a morally structured person," he said in an interview. "I'm not a bad person either, though."

The young man admitted his interest in computers and phone lines has "sort of become an obsession."

The Belleville News-Democrat reported last Sunday that PLA has been linked to the harrassment of at least seven metro-east families.

The victim's names are listed in a computer text file that is distributed by the group on local computer bulletin boards. Many of the victims believe they are on the list because at one time they may have angered one of two members of the group who have local ties.

RedBoxChiliPepper said he makes the final decision on whose name goes onto the harassment list. Victims' names are submitted to him by e-mail from computer users around the world.

He said that last month he went on a "spree" and drastically increased the number of distribution sites for the group's text files.

"We now have well over 70 established sites all over the world," he said, "including some in Belgium, London and six in Canada."

Two local sources say that RedBoxChiliPepper is a 22-year-old former Madison County man who now lives in Texas. The other local member is a Granite City teen who goes by the nickname Zak.

On April 2, 1993, while living in East Alton, RedBoxChiliPepper was charged with felony theft over $300 for stealing from a Wood River 7-Eleven store where he worked. On May 7, 1993, after moving to Highland, he was charged with disorderly conduct for calling in a false fire alarm to the Highland Fire Department.

He was placed on two years probation for both offenses, but in November 1993 the probation was revoked because of his failure to cooperate with a probation officer, according to court records. A warrant was issued for his arrest, which still is outstanding.

"When you're caught stealing, you'll be fired, that's all," he wrote. "I've never seen a store try to take legal action because of employee theft, even if they have it all on video tape. (Well, except for that time I looted the Wood River, Ill., 7-Eleven of about $4,000 in cash one night, but I won't get into that.)"

Zak's compuer bulletin board, called Roy's Place, is the local distribution site and self-proclaimed "Illinois World Headquarters"for the Phone Losers of America and can be reached by dialing a number Ameritech lists under a Granite City teen's name and address. Attempts to reach Zak were unsuccessful.

Law enforcement officials said they are investigating the activities of RedBoxChiliPepper and the PLA.

A high school senior with almost no computer skills is accused of changing her grades and college admission test scores by using a school office computer.

An admissions officer at a California university noticed a discrepancy in the 17-year-old girl's records and called West Linn High School. The student had grades ranging from As to Ds, Principal Clark Irwin said.

"She's not even interested in computers," Irwin said. "I doubt she has one at home. She discovered this on her own." Irwin said the girl was able to change the grades on her Scholastic Assessment Test, or SAT, which is widely used by colleges and universities to evaluate applicants.

A spokesman for the Educational Testing Service in Princeton, NJ, which administers the SAT program, said he never heard of a similar case in the United States.

Irwin said the girl worked at the main school office. Staff found her trustworthy enough to let her use the school computer. Within a week's period in February, she broke into her transcripts twice - once to change her grades from a C average to a B average, a second time to beef up her math and verbal SAT scores by 400 points each to put her near the top rank.

But the student didn't realize the Educational Testing Service also sent a copy of her SAT scores to each college. An admissions officer at the University of Southern California noticed the discrepancy. When Irwin confronted the girl in early March, she admitted what she did.

Anyway, we went there and met a bunch of kidz who go to school at the school they shot that fucking "Hackers" movie in. It was kinda funny as I watched the kids show up with Jolt and roller blades. You kinda have to wonder which came first. Anyway, it was those guys from #stuy95 (so named after the school, Stuyveseant or someshit) ya know, Loc, entropy, dokie, and the girls ladydeath, jammie, and zengrrl. They were all kinda cute, but way too young for me. [Come on Apok, you can't let that stop you. -ed]

At first we hated loc and them on irc, but when we met them, they weren't too bad. We all kinda hung out and shit. blah blah...you get the idea. Anyway, jammie's dad was really nice driving us around and shit. We saw loads of stuff.

Next, I guess I could tell ya about spiff.net. Yes, we *did* have our own little ISP. We lost it when we lost control of RoyCo. Now some guy who has never touched linux before in his life has it. I think he is getting paid the same we were, NOTHING!!! He's doin ok though. At least it will be easy to own it. :)

OK, now I can tell ya about f0f0. f0f0 is this new "group" in 618. Sc0rpion is the head of it and I think [z3ns] and eightball are in it as well. They like to harass on irc, so if your bored, come to #rock and say you don't phear da f0f0. That's enough, I'm bored. Oh yeah, the technical portion of this article:

Greets go out to: jammie's dad, ladydeath, n0rik0 (god your cute!!) quinbus, loc and crew, giggler, dhate (where the fuck you hiding?), and all the rest. Hey n0rik0, you really are cute!