Hacker Chronicles 2/HACKER2.BIN/584.FIC3

Text File | 1993-08-21 | 8KB | 201 lines

The SysOp's Tale
Copyright (c) 1993, Karl Weiss
All rights reserved



He slouched in his chair, legs crossed yoga style, peering
at the glowing screen.  The clock in the screen corner said
2 A.M.  His eyes watched the letters form commands, and he
shivered a bit in anticipation.  He had another leech on the
line.  Crom, how he hated the file hoovers.  He still had
the feeling that files were wealth, and couldn't get over
the way they could be reproduced. Things were different in
this new country.

He peered again, myopically, and saw the leech was using
Zmodem and doing a batch download of file section 18, DV and
QEMM programs.  Blast!  He'd worked long and hard to get
those files. But he could be patient.  If nothing else, his
forbearers, working in the mines of the old country, had
instilled patience in his genes.

He stuck a finger in his ear, and wormed some wax on it.
Sticking his finger in his mouth, he sucked on it
absently, wondering about the best way to reel in this
leech, this particular file sucker, into his reaches.
Another thing about this particular hoover - his ANSI
signatures really grated on his eyes.  The leech must have
spent *days* working on getting just that particular
combination of glaring, screeching colors and shapes.  Ugh.
And like the rest of his kind, he seemed to be completely
incapable of writing in compete sentences, didn't know how
to turn the caps lock off, and the only kind of punctuation
he knew was !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, it was just a matter of time.  Reaching into his snack
bag, the Sysop pulled out a BBQ rib.  Even through the tang
of the sauce, his taste buds could sense the chemicals used
to fatten the animal, and it was far too greasy for his
preference.  He much preferred the taste of free running
stock, even if it was stringy and tough.

"OK, he's finished with that load, let's CHAT."  Pressing
the F3 key, the Sysop's software sent a message, " Hi, this
is the Sysop, and we are in CHAT mode!"

"HEY, HOW DONG D00D, WATCH KIND MACHINE YOU RUNNNIG?"

Sysop sighed.  The hoover couldn't type or spell, either.
And if the twit had read Bulletin 3, he would know.   Typing
rapidly, the Sysop replied, "Got 486/55, 2 Intel 14.4s, 3
megs online, SVGA, HPSJ2c, running DV and Dos 6a."  "OK,
let's see if he can read," thought Sysop.

"WOW D00D, WHERE U GIT ^^6A!!!!!ALL I GOT IS A LOSY AT MY
MOM GAVE ME WHEN SHE GOT A 386!!!"

The hoover couldn't carry on a coherent conversation,
either, which further grated on Sysop's nerves.

"I know guy, frind of his fathrs progrmas for MS, and gave
hs odl man a copy, and i got it frm him."  If nothing else,
Sysop had learned protective coloration.

"WOW, CAN I GET COPY!!! I GOT SOME NEAT STUFF TO TRAID!!!!"

Settling even further into his chair, the Sysop took the
keyboard off the desk and put it in his lap.  Pecking
quickly and proficiently, he typed "What got??????"

"SUPPER TETRRS!!! ITS A NEAT GAME WITH BOMBS AND COLORS, AND
SOUND.  I GOT IT FOR MY BIRTHDAY.  ITS A GGOD GAME."

"No, i alredy got it, what else u got?  Any good warze?"

"I CAAN GET WORDPER51 MY MOM HAS IT ON HER MACHNE!!!"

"I got WP 5.2c for Windoze and the beta test ofr WP5.3.  u
got anythng else.\?"

Sysop was in his realm now, trading, and going against an
inexpereinced pup at that.  Wealth - this was it.  Data
meant power, and power meant wealth.  He continued to play
the fish.

"Naw, i got all that stuff.  u got gifs?  good stuff?"

"YEAH, I FOUND THE STUFF MY DAD HAD HIDD, I CAN GET
SOME!!!!"

"OK, gif me", Sysop typed, and then hit F5.  The screen
showed "CHAT mode over, Sysop says Goodby." and the main
menu for the BBS came back up.  As he slouched even further
in his chair, Sysop peered intently at the screen.  After a
few seconds, "U" for upload showed.  Zmodem was selected,
and BEVERLY.GIF started its way over the phone lines to his
hard drive.  Grimacing, Sysop scratched himself.  He hadn't
bathed in a long time, and his skin was becoming patchy.

"Huh, Beverly again."  She seemed popular this year.
According to the descriptions, she was some kind of
something on a TV show. Sysop never watched TV.  Too boring.

At long last the upload was finished.  At 2400 baud, it had
taken several minutes, and the phone lines in the area were
pretty bad, resulting in several transmission errors.  The
speaker in his machine started beeping.  The pest had paged
him.  Pressing the F3 key, the Sysop's software again sent
the message, " Hi, this is the Sysop, and we are in CHAT
mode!

"HEY D00Z, THAT GOOD ONE, FROM  STAR TREK, NEW GENERITON
GOOD PROGRAMM, I LKE IT, DO YOU!!!!!  THE GIF SHOWS
EVERYTHING."

Sysop quickly typed back "Ok, I got it.  u got more good
gifs?"

"YESS, LOTS, YOU WANT ME TO SEND THEM TO YOU?"

Shuddering, for he despised that type of data, Sysop
answered "No way, at 2400 take too long.  dos is 8 1.4 meg
discs, and gifs take way too long at 2400,,, where cna we
meat?"

"I GOTTA GO TO SHCULL TOMORO, HATE IT, MRS TROUBLE BUTT FOR
SCOCIANCE, BUT I SLEEP THRU IT CAUSE I LIKE COMPUTERS AND
STAY UP ALL NITE TO HACK ON THEM.  CAN WE MEET AFTER SCHOOL
IN GYM OR SOMETHIN!!!!  WOW D00DZ, I GOTTA GET THAT VR DOS.
MY FRINDS REALLY LIKE SEE IT!!!!

Smiling now, Sysop typed back, "Can you get Huntington
Metro, upper parking lot, row K, at midnite tomorrow?"

"HEYHEYHEY, TOMOROS A SCHOOL NITE, DON'T KNOW IF I ACN GET
OUT OF THE HOUSE, MY OLD MAN SETS THE ALARM, CAN W E MEET IN
THE DAY SOMETIME"

"No, I go to a private school, and we don't get off until 5,
then I have to do homework.  I live by huntington and can
make it there.  If you cant then I cant givb you the warze"
was typed with a smirk on Sysop's face.

"OKOKO, I BE THERE"

"Bring the gifs - and I want them on high density files and
make sure they zipped, and not with that 204c crap, use the
old one!!!!and no ARJ or LZH"  As Sysop had learned, making
the deal sound too good could lose him the trade.

"YEHA, OKOK, YOU WANT 3.5 AOR 5" DISKS"

"Either one will be fine, just make sure they are zipped."
And with an evil grin, Sysop did a Ctrl, Alt, Del before his
correspondent could answer, watched his machine reboot
into the BBS, and went to bed.

At midnight, Sysop waited for the meeting.  He crouched
behind some cars and watched.  He had a good idea what his
trading partner would look like, and he was right.  At 11:54
P.M., a pasty faced, pudgy nerd walked into sight, his Nikes
lisping on the concrete.  He had a disk box in his hand and
was looking around with more than a hint of fear.

"Over here" Sysop whispered in a harsh voice.  Pasty face
jerked around and stumbled toward the voice.

"You got the Dee Oh Ssss?  Man my friends are really looking
to see this stuff, hope it's rad."  Poor pasty face.  His
voice cracked in the middle of the sentence.  " I brought
some other stuff too, like how to make gunpowder, and TNT,
and the directions for some really powerful acid that will
eat anything."

Thinking how stupid the last was, since you couldn't keep it
in anything, he stepped out from between the cars and the
user got a good look at him.  "Hey dude, why are you wearing
Spock ears?  Are you a Vulcan or something?"

"No, I just came from a Star Trek convention.  You got the
gifs?"

"Yeah, right here.  I looked, some of it was really neat,
all skin."

"OK, let me have it."  The deed was quickly done, and Sysop
went home.

Later on, as Sysop watched his screen, he reached across the
to the plate of roast meat.  Grimacing, he choked it down.
It was loaded with carbohydrates and chemicals.  Seemed the
animal had eaten nothing but junk filled with preservatives,
and once again, it was full of fat.  Well, anyway, that was
one leech less.  No one would question his disappearance
except his immediate family. He would just stop posting and
none of the BBS operators would miss him.

As Sysop picked his teeth, he figured that he was going to
have to trap a runner next time.  All the fat was bad for
his heart, he had heard.