April 15, 2009
Flame War in 1k
Flame War: A Cyberthriller
By Joshua Quittner and Michelle Slatalla
William Morrow & Company
1997
291 pp.
“Are you running a CD-ROM?” I asked. … “Each one of these is a different Web site, a different multimedia document stored on a computer somewhere that’s programmed to let the public in,” she said. “Don’t you have a home page?” … Actually, I no longer thought of her as Annie but as ala5@columbia.edu. … “Ah, a Macintosh. An anachronism, but supposedly so easy to use,” I said, sinking into the chair. … “Ha, PPP controls your modem, my dear. I have discovered its secret.” … “It’s a MOO,” Annie said. “I didn’t know my dad was into them.” … “Man or a woman?” I asked. “Man.” “What was he wearing?” “Pants.” … So I turned to BOMB-3 (THE HACKER). … “It’s called The Zoo.” … But after the Data Encryption Standard was adopted as a federal standard to scramble data, everything changed. … Yuri put together a “VRML walkthrough” of Lionel’s house and put it on the Web, where people could visit. … She tried to cancel her latest command and start over. But still we were locked in place. NO CARRIER.