130 DEAR HACKER

130 DEAR HACKER

spam—even at their request—is unlikely to accomplish anything except to waste even more resources. By calling for government action, you may one day actually get your wish—and live to regret it. The last thing you should want is government regulation of something like the Internet. It would wind up extending far beyond commercial email. All aspects of online speech could be endangered by having an overseeing body. Spam does need to be fought but we believe it can be done using available technical means. We also think that with a little imagination, we can make it pretty uncomfortable and unprofitable to be identified as a commercial spammer. Ideas are welcome.

Dear 2600:

I have a problem and thought maybe you or my fellow readers could assist me. Every day I receive ten annoying phone calls that say long distance on my display. I pick up and there is no one there! I have tried yelling and screaming and punching my phone and nothing seems to work. Today within a timeframe of five minutes I received probably

20 phone calls from the same long distance number. The difference with this one is that instead of silence there is a beeping noise every so often. What can I do about this huge annoyance?

Adam from Ontario

We’re surprised that screaming and punching the phone didn’t work. That usu- ally does it for us. But let’s explore an alternative method. It sounds to us like this is a fax machine calling you. The beeps usually indicate this. Since you have the phone number, you might be able to figure out who it belongs to, either through

a reverse directory lookup or by calling a variation of the number—if it belongs to a fairly large organization you might find their main number ends with “00” in the

same exchange. Sometimes fax machines also pick up with humans or voicemail systems that give you the name of the company/person. You could even try hook- ing up a fax machine and receiving the fax yourself! That’s a sure way of getting some info. If all else fails and you still wind up getting these calls, contact your local phone company’s annoyance call bureau and get them to deal with the situa- tion. This is a free service unlike the *57 rip-off that many phone companies will try to get you to use.

THE CHALLENGES OF LIFE AS A HACKER

Dear 2600: So I was there waiting in line at the local FedEx for my laptop to come

back from being serviced. I was behind three gentlemen of Middle Eastern nationality. Two of them were at the counter talking to a lady who worked there. I think they were trying to figure out when a pack- age was going to arrive at its destination. Anyhow, while I was looking at my slip, I glanced over at the very quiet third man who was sitting in

a chair in front of me. He had a piece of paper and a manila envelope in his hand. On the white piece of paper he had written everywhere “INS.DA.DOJ.DO?” (I couldn’t make out the last character). This was written everywhere, on both sides too. Then he flipped his hand over and on the envelope he had a bunch of words written like a list or address. The only words I could make out were [something] Middle School. That’s all I could get before he got up to leave with the other two men. I don’t think the envelope had been sent yet because the stamps didn’t appear to have been crossed out yet by the post office. There were big stamps on it with pictures of a man with a hat on like Eddie Murphy wore in The Golden Child. The first thing that came to mind when I saw the characters on the letters were those letters with the anthrax. I didn’t get their license plate for further tracking but they were driving a late ’80s silver Honda Accord. My second thought was why the hell would an international terrorist just walk into a building holding “evidence?” So what the hell do I do? If I let it go and they kill someone, I am a bad person. If I call the police and he turns out to be practicing his English or he was just sending money to his family, I am

a bad person. I haven’t judged yet, but what would you do? I turned to you guys because you’re probably the most neutral people I know. Any input would be appreciated.

Lectoid This may be the first time we’ve ever been called neutral. It’s important in a case

like this to take a step back and look at the conclusions you’ve already reached. People of Middle Eastern descent are considered suspicious by default. Would you have given the same amount of scrutiny to someone who looked more like you? This guy being quiet also made you suspect something. But what’s so unusual about someone being quiet while they wait in a chair for someone? As for the let-