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 7.6 (however, some Macs can run Windows, DOS, MachTen and/or LINUX). Apple licensed the MacOS in 1993 so that Mac clones can be made; they have not fully caught on yet, 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 MARKOFF, JOHN Co-author of _Cyberpunk_ and _Takedown_. Ex-husband of Katie Hafner, technology journalist for _The New York Times_. Can be reached at markoff@nyt.com MARTIN LUTHER KING DAY CRASH The huge crash when AT&T computers embarassingly went down on Martin Luther King Day due to a bug in UNIX System VII, though speculation existed that malicious hackers had done it 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 I’ve 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 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 Jackson Games, where he wrote _GURPS Cyberpunk_. He is currently a freelance game designer/electronic musician. Currently available at loyd@blankenship.com. [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, NT and CE), 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 character’s 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 mthreat@paranoia.com. [Handle comes from the name of an early 1980s Straight Edge 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 didn’t 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. 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, America’s 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 jg@well.sf.ca.us). 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 kmitnick@2600.com. [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 of current members 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 guy. 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 mod@gti.net. Definitely not to be confused with the Amiga sound format .mod. [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 Quittner and Slatella's book, and I don’t know how much truth is in it.] 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 there’s a really psychotic dude named Xandor as well. I think it’s 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 MUDGE Leader and sysop of the L0pht. Can be reached at mudge@l0pht.com