"FWLS60" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

"--net ground to a complete halt today as a group junior
high school students on America On-Line proceeded to launch a
program that would propagate the Make.Money.Fast file to any
computer that could receive net mail," the newsman said.
"Portions of the information superhighway, clogged with mail from
the faulty, out of control program shut down. The students, who
simply wanted to get the most money they could out of the illegal
chain letter, are currently remaining anonymous until the
legality of their actions is determined and a juvenile court date
set."

Whoa. That's why I remembered it... the Make.Money.Fast
wars, just before the splitting of the net. The original burst
of e-mail hit enough gullible users to produce a smaller burst,
which produced another burst and shrunk at an exponential rate...
ending after a few months, but causing chaos and flames beyond
comprehension. This and the fabled Internet Worm were the only
times in history that the Internet had to be turned off. The
sheer bulk of chain letters and angry replies to chain letters
did the net in. The infamous Dave Rhodes was finally tracked
down and assassinated by a group of net.fanatics.

So... someone's using a concept similar to and named after
make.money.fast to get himself stinking rich. But even if the
letter does what it says it will do, won't the users be richer
than Dave... Rhodes the second? Who WAS he really?

A mystery, but one that could wait. I shut down the
library, vowed never to hire temp help again and jacked out.

*

I jacked in the next day, vowing to get those tapes sorted
after I found the kid and officially fired him. Where to find
him wasn't that hard; he liked to hang out at the Hackburger down
the virtual street and impress girls with his stories of
corporate ice and dangerous code.

UberNet has always been crowded, but it seemed like a lot of
them were on the street that day. Probably twice the amount that
would normally be walking around... it's too easy to get
pickpocketed or infected with a virus if you wander the streets
all day. We never said UberNet folk were nice, just that they
were cheap.

"Shine your shoes?" a user asked, waving a cheaply rendered
metal polisher in my face. "Just fifty credits."

"Fifty?" I exclaimed. "For a little more shine on my
nonexistent spats? Are you nuts?"