Notorious M.O.D.
John Lee is revved for his next hack, but this time around he's more concerned with deflating egos than disrupting phone lines. In the early '90s, Lee did time for his antics as Corrupt, the phone phreaker from the hacking collective Masters of Deception. Last June, using the alias Crispus Attucks, Lee started Urban Exposé (www.urbanexpose.com), a Slashdot-style free-for-all that lambastes the whole range of media. Anonymous tips and Lee's extensive connections led to countless scoops, but his ties to Urban Exposé were concealed until February, when he outed himself to announce his next project, Media Threat (www.mediathreat.net). Lee describes the site, scheduled to launch this fall, as "Entertainment Weekly meets FuckedCompany with a bit of Spy." He asks with a wink, "Why can't everybody have a little fun?"
Whirling Dervish
Sci-fi maverick Pat Cadigan is the only writer who's won two Arthur C. Clarke awards, and she has been nominated for both the Hugo (by fans) and the Nebula (by fellow writers). In addition to five novels and 60-plus short stories, the 47-year-old London-based American expat has penned everything from Hallmark greetings to pro wrestling profiles. Her latest novel, Dervish Is Digital, will be published in the US in July. Cadigan describes the book as a detective story that explores privacy, surveillance, and law in the virtual world. "Science fiction has always been about the present, not the future," she says. "It's a reflection of what we think about our time."
Tech Incubator
The father of robotics is hoping for another son. Joe Engelberger, who founded the first commercial robo firm in 1961, has been trying for four years to sire an automaton to care for older folks. Now, the 75-year-old is closer than ever to producing the Bellwether Robot, which can cook, clean, and converse with human masters. Engelberger estimates the monthly cost of his robot plus a part-time aide at $1,800, 50 percent less than traditional care. With a prototype built on NASA's tab and $1 million in funding lined up, Engelberger is expecting to offset the projected shortage of caretakers needed for seniors who want to avoid nursing homes - including himself. "Barring an earlier end, I'll eventually become handicapped," he says. "Everyone does."
Handyman
The Pets.com sock puppet is out of a job, but the man behind the mutt has a regular gig: Michael Ian Black plays Phil, the bowling alley manager, on NBC's Wednesday night sitcom Ed. (The show is expected to return this fall for a second season.) Black, a veteran of MTV's cult comedy The State, ad-libbed most of the sock puppet's lines and says he still gets calls from Hollywood sharpies pitching movies and talk shows for the out-of-work spokesdog. Black, who embraces all forms of character acting, says that he's not worried about becoming typecast as the sock if he ever reprises the role, because no one can see his face. "One of the great appeals of the part," he says, "is that I can do it and not end up being the åWhere's the Beef?' lady or the Dunkin' Donuts guy."
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