EPISODE #2 *****THE ADVENTURES OF MOLLY MODEM***** In episode #1 we left Molly perusing the technical manual for the BEAST super computer. Which has as its heart the 80666 processor.   "So that's what parallel architecture is all about" thought Molly. It's going to be hard to return this baby to Joe when I'm through with it! Molly was learning that in computing it was very easy to get hooked on speed. 8MHz, 12MHz now half a giga-hertz. Going back to the XT was going to be hard even if it did have a new V20 chip! Molly returned from her reverie and decided to call Ren of Farwest bulletin board. She dialed up his secret voice line and was soon filling him in on the evil doings of VonCriptic. In the last few days Ren had been receiving reports of other hacker problems in the Victoria area. Trojans had been found in two other local boards. Even the Victoria Real Estate computer had been broken into. Whenever a real estate agent tried to access data on a house it was listed "SOLD BY OWNER"!!!! They were frantic!! Ren suggested a meeting that night to discuss tactics for protecting Farwest and trapping VonCriptic. Molly requested that Michael, Farwest's co-sysop join the discussion. His technical skill and far reaching knowledge would be an asset. That night they met in one of the unused rooms at the Big Blue and Cousins club house. A noisy advanced SIG was going on in the front room and no one disturbed their small group. Ren was adamant "We've got to track this turkey down and turn him over to the law before he causes any more trouble." Molly explained her ideas for out hacking VonCriptic and quietly brought out the manuals for the BEAST. As soon as Michael saw some of the specifications for the 80666 processor he let out a low whistle. "I won't ask where you got this thing but if half of this stuff is true we should be able send VonCriptic a super headache if he tries to crash Farwest!!!" Michael detailed the plan. They would connect the BEAST to Farwest using it's own built in ultraheterodyne modem. In essence they would be using it as a super ROM burner to reprogram VonCriptics own BIOS! Molly thought it was a fantastic idea and promptly volunteered to pick up the one thousand Ever-Ready batteries the circuit would use. When connected in series through the BEAST these would provide the power pulses to reprogram Voncriptics machine. Ren was getting excited "Before that guy can send one block of a trojan we'll have him!!! If he's touching a water pipe at the time we may even reprogram his cerebral cortex!" That decided it. Ren and Michael would build the super ROM burner interface and Molly would write the code for the BEAST. Molly left the club house and drove back to her apartment. Ideas for the program to be written ran through her mind. As she drove past the Empress Hotel she did not realize that in one of the upper story rooms a special receiver was being tuned. This receiver was capable of detecting the telltale microwave emissions from an operating 80666 processor! Doctor Node was turning the dials on the small gray box, but only getting static."DOUBLE DOS DAMN @#*!" he cursed. His clandestine sources had tipped him that an 80666 system was secretly being shipped to Victoria. His receiver should have picked it up by now. "Maybe dey got it in a shielded room, boss" said Baud Job from his comfortable position on the bed. Baud Job did not like being cooped up in musty hotel rooms. He would have preferred practicing some karate katas. A seventh dan black belt master of Wang-Noh-Guchie usually spent several hours a day kicking holes in concrete slabs. Baud Job especially enjoyed practicing the deadly SIDE KICK!!! SQUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAK!!!! came from the speaker of the gray box. Doctor Node turned dials and wrote down bearings on a tourism department map. "Soon! soon we will have it!" whispered Doctor Node. "Now to clean this up a bit and put in another subroutine...." thought Molly as the cursor danced across the screen. Working with the BEAST was easier than she would have guessed. Having such huge memory and incredible speed made it almost like using the fictional computer in the Startrek series. Whole areas of RAM could be set aside for artificial intelligence programming aids. "That's enough for now" Molly clicked off the power switch and headed for the bedroom. ************************************************************** Will Molly be able to finish writing the program for zapping VonCriptic? Will Baud Job catch up to her and use his deadly SIDE KICK? Will Ren win BIG bucks at LOTTO-649 and install three more phone lines? For answers to these and other questions stay tuned for ......EPISODE #3 of ....... ****** THE ADVENTURES OF MOLLY MODEM ****** X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm) & the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845 Rat Head Ratsnatcher 510-524-3649 Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766 realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 415-567-7043 Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 415-583-4102 Specializing in conversations, obscure information, high explosives, arcane knowledge, political extremism, diversive sexuality, insane speculation, and wild rumours. ALL-TEXT BBS SYSTEMS. Full access for first-time callers. We don't want to know who you are, where you live, or what your phone number is. We are not Big Brother. "Raw Data for Raw Nerves" X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X