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==Phrack Inc.==
Volume Two, Issue 14, Phile #2 of 9
==Phrack Pro-Phile X==
Written and Created by Taran King
5/24/87
Welcome to Phrack Pro-Phile X. Phrack Pro-Phile is created to bring
info to you, the users, about old or highly important/controversial people.
This month, we bring to you a sysop and user of past days...
Terminus
~~~~~~~~
Terminus is the sysop of NetSys Unix and, in the past, ran Metronet.
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Personal
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Handle: Terminus
Call him: Len
Past handles: Terminal Technician
Handle origin: Terminal Technician originated because of Len's view of
himself as a hacker. Terminus was an offshoot of that
and, although it is an egotistical view, it means he has
reached the final point of being a proficient hacker.
Date of Birth: 1/10/59
Age at current date: 29 years old
Height: 5'9"
Weight: About 190 lbs.
Eye color: Hazel
Hair Color: Brown
Computers: 6800 home brew system, Apple ][, Altair S100, 2 Apple
][+es, IBM PC, IBM XT, IBM 3270, IBM AT, and 2 Altos
986es.
Sysop/Co-Sysop of: MetroNet, MegaNet, and NetSys Unix.
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Terminus began with the 6800 home brew system which he built himself.
It was built on a STD44 bus and it had 8K of memory. He then got the Apple ][
(plain old ][) which was impressive with its cassette drive and RF modulator.
He then got an Altair S100 which he liked because it looked like a mainframe
and he also enjoyed building it. The 2 ][+es came along and he got himself a
few floppies and a hard drive. He then sold 2 of the Apples and gave away all
his software (and kept 1 Apple with a 15 meg hard drive) and got the IBM PC.
He was impressed at the time and ditched the Apple. Due to frustration from
switching from an Apple Cat to a Hayes, he sat down and wrote a hacker which
eventually turned into CodeBuster, which was, for a long time, the only good
hacker available on IBM. He then expanded and got an XT and slowly increased
his amount of storage. When the AT came out, he got rid of the PC and got the
AT and at the same time, bought the IBM 3270. After playing around with the
AT for a long time, he sold it because he needed some money so he was left
with the XT and 3270. The XT was sold to make money to buy the Altos 986 and
he sold the 3270 about 4 months ago, now leaving him with the 2 Altos 986es.
Terminus started running a bulletin board with an unmentionable board
to start with in 914 (where he met Paul Muad'Dib), and eventually got MetroNet
going. MetroNet's original purpose was to be a phreak/hack board. It was run
on an Apple ][ with 4 8" drives and 2 floppies plus a 5 meg hard drive, which
made for an impressive system. It was going really well for a while, but then
the hard drive crashed, leaving the board down for about a month and things
slowed down after that. At that time, he got a 15 meg drive, and a 1200
modem soon followed and it stayed up for about a year and a half total, at
which time Lord Digital was co-sysop. It finally went down because he moved.
MegaNet was his next system, which ran under Concurrent PC-DOS. It looked
like a public domain system, but that was camouflage. It was multi-user (2
phone lines) and it ran on the XT. That went down because he moved again
after being up for over a year. He is currently running NetSys Unix on his 2
Altos 986es which are networked. The system consists of 2 Altos 986es, an
Ethernet link, 240 megs, and 4 phone lines on a hunt, 3 of which are 1200 baud
and the final line is 2400 baud. To get on NetSys, it is just $5 a month and
it can be reached at 301-540-3659 (2400 baud), and 3658-3656 (300/1200 baud).
Terminus has never really met anyone in person from the phreak/hack
community, although he had many chances to in New York when he lived there.
He did go to a couple of Tap meetings, but doesn't remember anyone in specific
from when he went.
Len started phreaking and hacking through a friend who worked in the
phone company that told him about various things that could be done with
electronics to play with the network. He was very paranoid about boxing so he
never did anything like that (from his house anyway). He started hacking
naturally after he got a computer. His favorite system was the University of
Illinois because of its huge size and capabilities.
Some of the memorable phreak boards he was on included Plovernet,
L.O.D., Pirate 80, OSUNY, Sherwood Forest I, and Shadowland.
Terminus is an electrical engineer and he designs boards for
different minicomputers like PDP-11s, Data Generals, VAXes, and Perkin-Elmer.
He also writes some software to interface the boards that he makes. He's
pretty decent at machine language, but recently (maybe because of the Unix?
Maybe?) he's gotten into C.
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Interests: Telecommunications (modeming, phreaking, hacking), music,
and smoking (ahem).
Terminus's Favorite Things
--------------------------
Smoking: Let's leave it at that.
Music: Hard rock and progressive jazz (he used to be a drummer).
Programming: Writing software for fun.
Most Memorable Experiences
--------------------------
Getting interviewed by the FBI in 1983 due to someone in Iowa getting busted.
The first time he discovered Alliance Teleconferencing and ran a conference.
Some People to Mention
----------------------
Krackowicz (Just a big "Thanks.")
The (414) Gizard (Sysop of Cryton Elite, thanks for giving him the phone
numbers and names to everyone on your system.)
Lord Digital (For being a good friend [Where the hell are you?].)
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Terminus shares Tuc's views on carding and feels it's a big gap
between committing fraud and learning the network. As he got older, he got
more paranoid about things like that. He also feels that the phreak/hack
"community" has already crumbled. He also feels that the old days were
better.
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I hope you enjoyed this file, ...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? No, none of the people that he hung
out with. Thank you for your time, Len.
Taran King
Sysop of Metal Shop Private
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