278 DEAR HACKER

278 DEAR HACKER

I call a lot of BBSes and they are easy to use. My time is too valuable to waste, and even more so when it is long distance to learn some stupid system just to use a silly BBS.

Too bad, you lose. I am a telecom tech at a large Centrex customer of Pac Bell (actually, a management position). We are such a good customer that I can call the CO and get them to do anything. They do it because we are such a good customer. Not because I lie and tell stories like some do.

I had hoped to share some of this information and my 40+ years of experience with others, but I am not going to waste my time to learn your BBS.

I was a writer for TAP and know the whole story of what happened. Would like to share this also—but your damn BBS pisses me off!

I also have a patent in telephony and a manufacturing company that makes telephone stuff under the patent.

Whenever you get a normal BBS, let me know and maybe I will change my mind.

Boy, it sure feels good to write this letter. Am in San Francisco today to tour Pacific Bell’s San Ramon complex.

I am their guest. They pick me up at my hotel and give me lunch and a tour. This is because I am a good customer of theirs and I am designing the telecommunications facilities for a $44 million building going up in the next two years.

See what you missed! Boy, it even feels better now. Change those BBSes! Sorry, I can’t leave you my name. I am somewhat well known in the

field and information I provide must not have my name on it.

Unsigned

We enjoyed your letter very much. We can certainly see how you managed to become so well known. And, no doubt, using your name would not be a good idea, in this or any circumstance. But we do want to thank you for finding time in your busy schedule to convey your concerns.

OUR BIGGEST FANS

Unfortunately, no one here has any idea on what you could be talking about. We operate four BBSes, each running on completely different software. You seem to have had a run-in with one of them. Why don’t you tell us exactly what happened so we can do something about it?

Dear 2600: Thank you for publishing such an informative well-written

magazine.

I only have one complaint. Please try to deal more with phone phreak- ing than hacking. Anyone can get access to a phone, but not all of us have computers and modems to participate in computer hacking.

Thank you. Grand Rapids, MI

Dear 2600: Through the years, 2600 has received from its readers much praise for

its efforts to make available a certain amount of information to the computer/telecommunications hobbyist that can be found nowhere else. But I think that 2600’s actions of late are nothing less than rep- rehensible and are detrimental to the very same community it tries so hard to defend. It is my hope that you will print this letter in full, as lengthy as it may be, to allow the members of the hacker community outside of the New York City area to understand the recent turn of events you alluded to on pages 38-39 of the Spring 1990 issue.