| ==Phrack Magazine== |
|
|
| Volume Five, Issue Forty-Five, File 11 of 28 |
|
|
| **************************************************************************** |
|
|
| Ho Ho Con Miscellany |
|
|
|
|
| HoHoCon '93 review from the European point of view |
| <=====================================================> |
|
|
| This is Onkel Dittmeyer telling you his experiences at |
| the HoHoCon, which no-one really gives a @#*! about. |
| It might be fun reading anyway. |
|
|
| " Maybe I am just a lumpy coder, but at least my |
| dad is not selling WOMEN'S SHOES. " |
|
|
| - Guess Who |
|
|
| I arrived at the con one day too early, before anyone else |
| had showed up, and started striving through the |
| neighborhood. Well, this looked like fun. The Hilton and the |
| Super-8 were, along with a mall and a South Western Bell |
| building with light-at-night, wide open, overflowing |
| dumpsters situated between highways, a couple miles outside |
| of town. Cool. Used to Europe, where there is more public |
| transportation than cars on the street, I was kinda stuck in |
| there, so I spent my time chatting with the front desk clerk |
| of the motel ("Monty? Ahh, ya mean Monty from the hotel |
| security? Well, don't spread the word, he has a penis |
| problem.."). Everybody was able to confirm this a day |
| later during on a police raid, but let's save that for |
| later. So stuck between a WAL-MART ("SHOTGUNS! ON SALE! JUST |
| $99"), a movie theater and a cheap mall I spent this day |
| sipping complimentary tea at the front desk and watching |
| Wayne's World 2. ("A Unix Book. Cool.") |
|
|
| On the next day, all kinds of people started to flow in, and |
| I spent my time following around various people since I came |
| to the con alone, not seeing one familiar face around. I |
| bumped into Minor Threat and his trusty friend Mucho plus |
| a bunch of other guys trying to fix something with ToneLoc. |
| Walking around a little more, I ran into some dudes that |
| were busy hacking into the hotel's PBX using its 1200-bps |
| line.. Walking over to the Hilton, I found a tone in a wall |
| jack and called home. Still talking, hunger overcame me and |
| I decided to go to the mall and grab munchies. Walking past |
| the Hilton's pool, a kid was trying to fish his scanner out |
| of the water. Remember: A PRO-43 does NOT stay afloat! Later |
| that night, the whole place was pretty crowded already. It |
| was unreal. The lobby was crowded by at least two dozen |
| scanner-wielding kids, trying to find the frequency for the |
| hotel security. The guards must have been felt pretty |
| strange - each time they talked, something like five people |
| with frequency counters walked past them. Finally, the word |
| spread (466.025/825) and each time some guard started |
| talking, it was echoing back over everyone's scanner in a |
| two-mile range around the party place. I soon left the 3L3eT pIt |
| and hung out with AKA to play some stupid games ("Oh, there |
| is a calling card on the floor." "Where??" "You can't see it, |
| its eleet!") when we saw red and blue lights in front of the |
| Super-8 Motel. Three cop-cars had arrived, and they busted |
| an about 14-years old kid for scanning local numbers from |
| his motel room. While everybody stood around in front of the |
| room where they hold (or ABUSED) the kid, people were |
| thinking if this would be legal, arresting and squeezing |
| this kid with no lawyer and no parents around, they sped past |
| us with their victim, and someone told the kid that it was his |
| constitutional right to remain silent until he would get a |
| lawyer or at least a parent. And guess: The cops pulled the |
| guy out and told him that he should not stand around and |
| advise people about their constitutional rights. Quote: |
| " This is the manager, this is a police officer, I am the |
| security guard. LEAVE! " - "And I will NOT leave." Good |
| thing that someone was videotaping the whole thing. So much |
| action, and the con hadn't even started. Tired of so eViL |
| K-r0cKinG rAcIsM I stumbled to my room and fell asleep on |
| some standup comedy on TV. Tomorrow was the con! |
|
|
| The next morning around 9, I found the food court in the |
| mall crowded. It seemed like everybody on the con was going |
| to eat the last time for his life, or at least the last |
| time before the 6-hour Con-A-Thon started. Walking around in |
| the empty conference room, some hotel employee asked me |
| "HoHoCon? Is this like a Santa Claus meeting or something?" |
| Maybe it was just cause I wore a santa-hat. When Drunkfux |
| finally started the meeting one hour late I found myself |
| squashed in between some system administrator and another |
| guy from some three-letter-agency that typed everything that |
| was said into his laptop at something like 2.000.000 |
| characters a second. Scared shitless, I was listening to the |
| events, still a little drowsy from very little sleep the |
| last night - I only remember Cap'n Crunch talking about |
| boxing in Russia (something that interested me, at least), |
| and the LOD members talking about some data preservation |
| project - if you are interested what in detail was talked |
| about, I'm sure Drunkfux will sell you the videotape for a |
| couple hundred $. In a break, he was selling merchandise, |
| and I think he didn't look more happy during the whole con |
| than in the moment everybody was waving with twenty-dollar |
| bills.. Phat pockets was also what the LOD guys were looking |
| for.. (just in case you don't know: They are collecting old |
| message boards and sell the printout for something like $35). |
|
|
| After this sellout session, I found a sign on the wall: |
| "hoho.con.com --->", and, in room 260 someone piled up an |
| enormous mass of equipment, including something like 4 UNIX |
| machines, a SLIP connection, 20" screens, PET's.. Plus, the |
| room was stacked with 30-40 people, and I mean STACKED. Most |
| people were wasting their time entering commands like |
| "mget /warez/eleet/hot/0-day/*.*" Sick of that, I grabbed a |
| bunch of people and we went trashing at SW-Bell around the |
| block, and whoops! we found a diagram like this: |
|
|
|
|
| (Europe) (Asia) (Australia) |
|
|
| ______ |
| ____| |____ |
| | | |
| | Texas o <====== Austin |
| \ / |
| \ / |
| \_________/ |
|
|
| (North America) (South America) |
|
|
| Now we know it: South Western Bell believes that Austin, Texas, |
| is the center of the world. Well, from the 17th to the 19th of |
| December, 1993, it was. |
|
|
| TEN THINGS I LEARNED AT HOHOCON '93 |
|
|
| 1. Social-Engineering the front-desk clerk PAYS! |
| 2. If you drink 20 cups of complimentary tea, they WILL hassle you. |
| 3. If the guard hears his voice over your scanner, he WILL hassle you. |
| 4. If you sign on as CLIFF STOLL and pay cash, they WONT hassle you. |
| 5. Don't scan from a hotel room. But feel free to hack the PBX. |
| 6. Pizza Hut accepts all major credit cards. |
| 7. Austin, Texas, is the center of the universe. |
| 8. Some people really want room service in a Super-8 Motel. |
| 9. A radio shack is not lighter than water nor water-proof. |
| 10. Barney is a purple penis. |
|
|
| Shouts to Tr8or and SevenUp: Why didn't you join me? |
| Write to onkeld@ponton.hanse.de for further discussion.... |
|
|
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
| Conference Behavior - a Study of the Lame and the Damned |
|
|
| by Holistic Hacker/R2 |
|
|
| [This little file was inspired by a talk Phantom Phreaker and I had at |
| HoHoCon last year, after some of the stupid shit that went on at it and |
| SummerCon. The rough draft was written on my laptop on the flight back |
| from Austin.] |
|
|
| It seems some little kids are having problems figuring out how to act |
| at the various hacker cons around the country. Hacking has nothing to do |
| with how many smoke bombs you can drop in the hotel or how many fire |
| extinguishers you steal. If you lamers think that being away from mommy |
| for the first time in your life means that you can trash a hotel, then do |
| it. By all means make it a local one first, so Mom and Dad can bail your |
| sorry ass out of jail. |
|
|
| I get really tired of going to a con and some little punk wants to play |
| eleet anarchist and then the cops show. Cons are a chance to learn and/or |
| share info, see people, and have a good time. Shit like what has happened |
| this last year just isn't needed. All that comes out of stupid actions is |
| a bad rap on the "underground." Some friends and I were in the hotel bar |
| Saturday night and the bartender was telling us how the hotel people were |
| really getting tired of the lame shit. |
|
|
| I was in one room Saturday night, swapping files and talking when the |
| smoke alarm went off at 3 AM or so. I bet whoever did it got a real kick |
| seeing all of the people up, and he probably creamed his jeans when the |
| fire truck showed up. Emergency personnel don't need to waste their time |
| on wannabe anarchist weenies, it isn't their job. |
|
|
| Another brilliant soul decided to set off one of the fire extinguishers |
| in the Super 8. I saw other jerks trying to wake up the people on the top |
| two floors of the Hilton at 2 in the morning. I saw another guy carrying two |
| extinguishers off, and he didn't look like hotel staff. Another genius |
| tried cutting a hole in the vending machine with a glass cutter. Just |
| because it isn't your property means you can trash it. The fucked-up |
| elevator control panels, the damaged exit signs, etc. are costs the hotel |
| passes on to the customers and to us. Even worse, when the word gets |
| out, the hotels don't want the cons back. Why would they want to rent us |
| rooms, if they are just gonna get trashed? If this is how you want cons |
| to be, then hold your own. |
|
|
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
| All typos are intentional. The following summary of HohoCon 93 |
| is based solely upon my perceptions and are subject to the laws of |
| physics. Take these comments as you see them. |
|
|
| By Frosty |
|
|
| First off, there was a $5 charge at the door. This also entitled you to |
| partake in the raffle offered of lame-to-cool objects. $100 would rig the |
| raffle in your favor. One person walked away with a full //e system, and |
| another with a 486 system. |
|
|
| The Conference --- |
| ------------------ |
|
|
| Bruce Sterling - A humorous talk that thrashed virii. Informed us of the #1 |
| anti-virii person in Russia, Dimitri. Generously gave away |
| several copies of "The Hacker Crackdown" on disk. |
| Famous quote, "Information wants to be free." |
|
|
| Ray Kaplan - A humorous security consultant. Wants to establish a site for |
| security holes to be available. Had a brief Q&A session. Wants |
| interaction between the security consultants and hackers. Also |
| stressed protecting information and privacy. |
|
|
| Douglas Barnes - Representatives from CypherPunks. Works in cryptography. |
| Jim Famous quote, "I want to talk to my lawyer." Another |
| quote, "Hackers are requested to call between 9 and 5." |
| There are several Fidonet sites not allowing encrypted |
| messages to go through. The liability decreases with a |
| site allowing encrypted messages. ViaCrypt PGP is the |
| legal version of PGP. Another quote, "A triple DES file |
| is as good as unbreakable." Pushed the book "Applied |
| Cryptography." Working on a digital Credit Union. |
| System Administrators are not responsible for passing |
| codes. Quote, "The net perceives censorship and routes |
| around it." |
|
|
| Grayareas - Made a magazine plug. Looking for information for the 'zine. |
|
|
| Damien Thorn - Works on the 'zine "Nuts and Bolts." Talked about cellular |
| tracking and hacking. Informed that a cell hacking program |
| can be obtained from mkl@nw.com. |
|
|
| Captain Crunch - Talked on the San Francisco raves and how they utilized |
| aka John Draper networking and encryption to get their rave information out. |
| Gave history and information on hacking Soviet phones and |
| the KGB lines. |
|
|
| Simmion - Attendee from Moscow. Stated there was no evidence of virii being |
| highly prolific in Russia. Almost all software is free in Russia. |
| Most conferences in Russia are done by BBS's. Russians can not |
| afford the high software prices legally. |
|
|
| LOD/Comm - Project information on their Digital Archive project. |
| Also, presented a cash donation to the SotMESC to help fund |
| a scholarship campaign for those involved in the hacking realm. |
|
|
| Erik Bloodaxe - Conversed about wireless modems and Email networks. |
|
|
| The Omega |
| White Knight - gave out copies of a government document on UFO coverups. |
|
|
| Count Zero - Members of the cDc/RDT. Handed out fliers and gave a packet |
| Kingpin radio demonstration. Informed they would be coming out with |
| the 'Jolly-Roger Dialer' for $80 approx. that would be better |
| than the 'Demon-Dialer' offered by Hack-Tic. |
|
|
| Brian Oblivion - Conversed about legalities and the Clipper Chip. |
| Informed us that the EFF is not promoting help on court |
| cases ( they're too big ). Quoted, "The Internet is the |
| collective consciousness of the community." Quoted |
| Compuserve that, "The Internet is sewage." |
|
|
|
|
| Errata |
| ------ |
|
|
| The Unix at the Super 8 Hotel was hacked. |
| Room 293 at the Super 8 was raided the day prior to the conference starting. |
| A LAN was set up in 260 at the Super 8 ( Thanks Georgia Tech ). |
| Kudos to Annaliza / Torquie for filming the conference for her documentary. |
| Kudos to 'Vibe' for giving away free shirts to the public. |
| DO NOT leave anything expensive out, it will be stolen !!! |
| Kudos to Malicious and his group for being the friendliest hacks. |
| Kudos to Grayarea, who will be providing her coverage of the Con. |
| The Techno-Porn party the SotMESC sponsored went well through the night. |
| Many thanks to the mall-girls that showed up to lend themselves to the masses. |
| Cold Pricklies to whoever set the fire alarms off Saturday night. |
| A big question mark to whoever acquired the large 30' inflatable balloon. |
| Warez Boards -> 214-642-0003 NUP: flying man |
| 214-642-1940 / 264-6269 NUP: london run |
| 817-551-5404 NUP: none |
|
|
| THE CHEAP-SEX AWARD |
| ------------------- |
| The personnel in room 508 at the Hilton that provided strippers, |
| but enforced a door-charge and sex-charge for services. |
|
|
| THE MOST OBNOXIOUS PERSON AT HOHOCON 1993 AWARD |
| ----------------------------------------------- |
| The AT&T person who took pictures of EVERYONE |
| in the line going into the conference center. |
|
|
| A Gif of this individual will be provided later =:) |
|
|
| This is just a 'Spur of the Moment' release. |
| We look forward to view-points from other sources. |
|
|
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
| HoHoCon '93 - Out With A Bang January, 1994 |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| by Winn Schwartau (Page 8) (Security Insider Report) |
|
|
| The hackers did it again. A monster party, several hundred strong, where |
| hacking was the agenda. HoHoCon is the annual hacker's convention in Texas, |
| where all hell breaks loose. December 17-19 in Austin was the host of this |
| last one. |
|
|
| According to the hackers, it was a great party; the ethernet lines were run |
| between rooms; the net was connected, and everyone consumed mass quantities |
| of their favorite legal substance or controlled substance. One hacker was |
| busted, apparently, for breaking into the hotel's PBX system and dialing the |
| Planet Krypton (or some such place) and the cops sat outside the front door |
| just in case. In case of what? According to the hotel, in case of crazy |
| kids getting too crazy. |
|
|
| This last HoHoCon was the biggest yet; estimates from 250-500 people attending |
| to learn about hacking; keep tabs on the hackers; or hack themselves into |
| position of respect amongst their peers. One attendee took roll after roll |
| of photos of hackers; some hackers got paranoid, others laughed at him hiding |
| behind pillars and jumping out to snap a pix. Whatever. |
|
|
| On the other hand, some security professionals who attended were absolutely |
| aghast at what they saw; wild kids, with no reins, breaking into computers |
| over the net is not fun nor legal. The drug and alcohol consumption was |
| too extreme, and the messages and conference sessions somewhat disorganized. |
| But, nonetheless, not one person I spoke to said they wouldn't attend again |
| next year. So there must be something to it. Even legendary phreaks like |
| John Draper aka Captain Crunch were there, despite his tenuous hold on |
| reality and emanating odor. |
|
|
| This was the minority, though, and most security pros said they picked up a |
| few tricks here and there. HoHoCon next year, the organizers fear, will |
| turn legit if too many 'suits' come so they have to promote the event better. |
| Next year's HoHoCon won't be held until January of 1995, making attendance |
| easier for those who have Holiday conflicts. |
|
|
| We'll keep you informed. |
|
|
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
| HoHo Con '93 |
| by Erik Bloodaxe |
|
|
| It was the eve of HoHoCon 93 and I found myself caught in a serious |
| dilemma. I had promised to provide this year's "entertainment" yet |
| I knew I was going to back out of it. I had received about a million |
| emails and chat messages bugging me about the "bondage show" that was |
| supposed to transpire that Saturday night and had tried my hardest to |
| give them little or no commentary, knowing full well that I was going to |
| flake out at the last moment. |
|
|
| So here I was, driving towards the Austin Airport Hilton, trying to come |
| up with excuses about why there would be no show to some 300 hormonal |
| sociopaths. Every scenario seemed bleak: "Phrack Editor Vivisected!" |
| "Hacker Revolt Leaves Three Dead, 15 Wounded." I tried to blow it off, |
| consoling myself that no one would really give a shit, and that it was |
| only my own ego that demanded that I fulfill the promise of sleeze. |
|
|
| Upon arrival at the Hilton, I was amused to find some 30 or more |
| miscreants milling about the lobby, amusing themselves with house phones |
| and sordid tales of last week's hack. As usual, there was not a |
| payphone to be had, a direct result of the numerous Radio Shack dialers |
| on hand (model 43-141). |
|
|
| I mingled somewhat distantly, looking for Chasin, Tcon, Lex, Drunkfux or |
| anyone else I needed to talk to. Of course they weren't there. I was |
| beginning to wonder how in the hell I could pass the time when I was |
| paged by Lex. |
|
|
| Lex Luthor was staying a safe distance from the main fracas. In typical |
| Luthorian paranoia, he was determined to not have his name on anything, |
| such as car rental or hotel room, so by staying just far enough away he |
| hoped to not have his name on any arrest reports either. Lex, Professor |
| Falken, Al Capone, Mark Tabas, The Mentor and I were all supposed to |
| have dinner that evening. After getting Lex's room information, I took |
| off to get Mentor. |
|
|
| Getting everyone together was somewhat of a clusterfuck. Tabas was |
| located at the bottom of a 151 bottle, but surfaced in time to grab |
| dinner. |
|
|
| During dinner at Baby Acapulco's, as the award-winning waitstaff lost |
| most of our orders, Mentor reminisced about some of my more unbalanced |
| teenage moments such as: the time I cut the break cables on a Mercedes |
| because its owner had made the moves on my evening's female target, the |
| knife and gun wielding passout on the railroad tracks, etc. He ended |
| with, "You sure have changed. I'm surprised you aren't dead." |
|
|
| I suddenly felt old. It would not be the last time I felt that way that |
| weekend. |
|
|
| After dinner I decided to be a jerk and lash out at Tabas for insulting |
| my overinflated ego on the net. It accomplished nothing, except to further |
| distance ourselves but this evil voice in my head deemed it necessary. |
| We agreed to disagree and to try to put aside our numerous past |
| problems for the interim, although I doubt either of us believed |
| in the resolution. |
|
|
| Once back at the Hilton, things were beginning to heat up. Some hundred |
| or more conferees were loitering back and forth from the Hilton to the |
| Super 8 next door. I finally managed to hook up with Chasin, Tcon, Koresh |
| and Louis Cypher in their room at the Super 8. Lcypher was enjoying what |
| would probably be his last taste of freedom, since he was due to ship out |
| to federal boot camp the next month. |
|
|
| Sometime thereafter, a score of people began running upstairs with |
| computer equipment, laughing to themselves. As would be typical, a short |
| time later several police cruisers showed up. The kids had broken into |
| a phone closet and ran extra lines to their room to either: a) run a bbs, |
| b) wardial the city or hotel, or c) prove once and for all they were the |
| dumbest people in attendance. A member of the Austin EFF chapter ran |
| about screaming about the rights of the accused. The police told him |
| that if he didn't shut up he would be going downtown as well. The |
| silence came instantly. |
|
|
| The appearance of police so soon on the first evening made several |
| people quite nervous, especially those guests with rather large pupils, |
| whose numbers were growing in abundance. They sat in their rooms with |
| the lights dimmed (or off) peering out the curtains wondering if the cops |
| would be knocking on their doors next. |
|
|
| Word reached us that KevinTX had shown up. In typical flair, Kev had |
| blown in straight from Las Vegas where he had just won some $20,000 |
| playing Blackjack, and was in a very festive mood. Once we reached his |
| floor, we were greeted with the sounds of a dozen tropical birds in |
| terrible agony. Obviously "the tank" had been filled, and was being |
| rapidly drained. |
|
|
| Inside the room black plastic bags lined the floor giving the |
| appearance of a recent trashing run, but in reality were the |
| victims of an unforgiving blast of n2o. Some Andrew Blake film played |
| on the VCR Kevin and his crew had brought, and a new camcorder was being |
| erected to capture the planned debauchery on tape. |
|
|
| We asked Kevin how on earth they managed to wheel in a 20 lb tank of |
| nitrous through the lobby and up to the room without being questioned. |
| Kevin said they put it under a jacket and just walked right through. I |
| wondered how long it would be before everyone else began wheeling in |
| kegs. |
|
|
| I begged everyone not to put the bags over their heads, as resuscitating |
| any potential asphyxiation victim was not in my agenda. (Quick flashback |
| to a blue-faced man spasming from oxygen depravation, "No really officer, |
| I don't know why he put that bag on his head and went to sleep.") |
| Besides, it would be too far to drag a dead body down to the dumpster |
| from the hotel room without attracting suspicion. |
|
|
| The tank was drained and the crowd dwindled. |
|
|
| Reflecting upon the altered states of those wandering almost zombie-like |
| around the hotels, I decided that if anyone were to be raiding the con |
| it should be the DEA rather than the FBI. |
|
|
| I arrived at the con the next morning lugging a box full of my t-shirts, |
| ready to make the rent. In the conference room Bruce Sterling was in the |
| middle of an incredible rant about the evils of Virii. I don't know what |
| the hell he was talking about. I'm not quite sure if anyone did, but |
| I got the impression that he got zapped. A note to the kiddies: don't |
| copy that floppy! |
|
|
| At the door, dFx was busily commandeering the five dollar "voluntary |
| contribution." I asked him how the take was and he whipped out a stack |
| of money that would choke an elephant. I asked him for my share |
| for being his marketing and advertising rep. The money and dFx disappeared. |
|
|
| Damien Thorn of Nuts & Volts, whose column is the ONLY reason I subscribe, |
| took the stand and talked about the magazine and his column. I |
| jumped up and asked him about his involvement with Phoenix Rising |
| Communications, and suggested they not use the name "The Phoenix |
| Project" as their BBS name. Damien seemed somewhat apologetic when |
| he said that he didn't realize that it had already been used in the past. |
| (Obviously Sterling's book didn't get read by everyone.) |
|
|
| I took off to find out where the casualties from last night were hiding. |
| After a lengthy and fruitless search for Chasin, Tcon or KevinTX, I stumbled |
| back into the con area just in time to find out that LOD Communications would |
| be hitting the podium next. |
|
|
| As we all wandered up front, (we being me, Lex, Tabas, Phantom Phreaker, |
| Professor Falken and Al Capone), an explosion of camera flashes shook the |
| conference room. It was the most ridiculous thing I have ever been a |
| witness to. I felt pretty sorry for Lex, who had managed to avoid |
| being photographed as "Lex Luthor" for his entire life, now being the |
| target of every butthead with a Nikon in the greater Austin area. |
|
|
| After we rambled about the BBS archive project, I got the chance |
| to give one of the worst presentations of my life. I will credit |
| some of this to the lack of display technology (mainly overhead projector |
| and VGA adaptor) but the main fault was my own. I spoke for a bit about |
| wireless wide area networking via commercial packet radio and about |
| services such as RadioMail. |
|
|
| Afterwards, Chasin and I introduced White Knight and The Omega who, |
| in typical cDc fashion, relayed the further adventures of "America's |
| Favorite Hacker: Quentin." At the end of their speech, they offered |
| about a dozen copies of Quentin's latest exposure of a government cover-up. |
|
|
| The madcap dash of reporters, hackers and various other would-be |
| co-conspirators to grab the sacred printout was like the closing scene |
| of "It's a Mad Mad World." The stage rush was not terribly unlike |
| my first Metallica concert: people diving over chairs, crawling over |
| heads, screaming, arms flailing. The only difference were the |
| reporters yelling "Press! Press! I must have a copy!" |
|
|
| The conference wrapped up with attorney Steve Ryan talking about the |
| sorry state of computer law. |
|
|
| Bernie Milligan of Communications & Toll Fraud Specialists from Houston |
| finally ran out of film. (Bernie, if you recall, was at HoHo '92 |
| sitting at the back of the room with the Super Ear. I wonder how much |
| he gets for the photos. Maybe he just tacks them up on his wall |
| and has little fantasy conversations with them as he spanks his monkey. |
| I don't know.) |
|
|
| After the speaking was concluded, Weevil wandered over and asked me when |
| the bondage show would be going on. I told him that it would not |
| be happening. Weevil, still very elated over his rave reviews in |
| "Dazed and Confused," looked at me and in a stereotypical Hollywood-esque |
| display of confidence said, "Don't worry about it dude. I'll take care of it." |
|
|
| A 17 year old actor and would-be pimp. Yeah, right. |
|
|
| I got shanghaied by John Littman who was working on his book about Kevin |
| Poulsen, Agent Steal and friends. We talked for a bit, and I came to |
| the following conclusions: |
|
|
| 5 REASONS WHY I AM LIKE AGENT STEAL |
|
|
| 1. We both shared a knack for dating strippers. |
| 2. We are both long haired, skinny, aging hackers. |
| 3. We both know the value of a carefully placed camcorder. |
| 4. We both have been the subject of investigations by the government. |
| 5. We both have assisted the government. |
|
|
| 5 REASONS WHY I AM NOT LIKE AGENT STEAL |
|
|
| 1. I have both my original legs. |
| 2. I only use Saran Wrap for leftovers. |
| 3. I would never dress like any member of Poison. |
| 4. I stopped breaking into buildings when I was 14. |
| 5. I would never turn in my friends to save my own ass. |
|
|
| That evening as everyone was getting antsy, Frosty popped up with |
| his "Techno-Porn." Something like 24 hours of non-stop pornography |
| compressed into 6 hours. You'd have to see it to understand. |
|
|
| Everyone seemed to migrate towards 508, most likely a direct result |
| of the internal sex & drug divining rods built into the subconscious of |
| every attendee. Sometime around 9 or 10 in the evening, Weevil |
| showed up parading five very attractive, scantily clad young women. |
| The strippers made their way through the lobby of the Hilton evoking |
| a Pied Piper effect, dragging hundreds of drooling hackers in their |
| wake. |
|
|
| They managed to get into the hotel room unscathed. Outside the room |
| the crowds gathered, anxious to get a peek at the girlies. |
|
|
| The girls, meanwhile, got somewhat agitated, looking around at their |
| predicament. They had given up their Saturday night shift at Sugar's |
| Cabaret (an Austin upscale nudie bar) for the prospect of making some |
| easy cash at HoHoCon. Apparently Weevil exaggerated a bit about the |
| quality of the attendees in his fervor to coax them back to the hotel. |
|
|
| I, being a take charge kind of guy, asked the girls what they needed, |
| took some orders, and announced to the crowd that anyone who did not have |
| at least forty dollars needed to get the fuck out. Once word of the |
| necessity of money spread among the riot-like crowds swarming the 5th floor, |
| they became like Donn Parker's hair and thinned quickly and ultimately |
| disappeared entirely. |
|
|
| Zar took over the job of guarding the door and making sure that no one got in |
| without showing that they had cash for the girls, and KevinTX rounded up cash |
| from within the room and manned the camcorder and radio. After a few beers, |
| everyone loosened up and the show began. |
|
|
| Soon, there were topless women everywhere. There were "table-dances" |
| happening on the toilet, there were women on the beds, and grinding away |
| on the floor in front of a mirror. |
|
|
| It was the kind of thing that I'm sure Dr. Mitch Kabay would be shocked |
| and dismayed by, but unfortunately he wasn't in the room. Perhaps |
| he didn't have the cash to get in. |
|
|
| Everyone in the room was having a blast. Consultants, reporters, and hackers |
| all equally sharing in the debauchery. Zar gave new meaning to the word |
| "man-handling." I can only thank God that I had sold all my shirts, |
| so I had cash to spare. |
|
|
| The night went on, the beer flowed, the dopamine inhibitors kicked |
| in full force, and the money changed hands faster than could be counted. |
| By the end of the evening, everyone had received several "table dances," |
| KevinTX had whip marks on his back, Weevil had won my complete admiration, |
| and the girls made a small fortune. Each of the dancers walked away with |
| over $200 in cash. The biggest winner was a really hot little 18 year-old |
| named Cathy who raked in almost $400. |
|
|
| As the night drew to a close, the room emptied, the girls gathered up |
| their outfits and made for home, or paired up to go somewhere else. |
|
|
| I awoke Sunday somewhere else. No comment. (I couldn't anyway, since I |
| have no recollection.) |
|
|
| So ended HoHoCon. |
|
|
| --------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
|
|
| Additional HoHoCon Reviews: |
|
|
| HoHoCon Review Spring 1994 |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| By Netta Gilboa (Gray Areas) (Page 30) |
|
|
| Rising From the Underground March, 1994 |
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
| by Damien Thorn (Nuts & Volts) (Page 100) |
|
|
| ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
|
|
| (Vibe Magazine & Aasahi Computing to have articles soon) |
|
|