116 DEAR HACKER
116 DEAR HACKER
make, model, color, year, bla bla bla. I was wondering if you could be so kind as to show me the way to tracking these guys down. Do it for the children, man. I’ve tried searching the WWW but can’t find it.
Jakob14246463526390210
Don’t you have a gang of men with guns in your town who prowl around all the time? They usually take an interest in this sort of thing. Plus they’re a lot better equipped to handle crimes like this.
Dear 2600:
I was recently on the IRC channel #c when I noticed someone using the nickname “Mitnick”. I asked them about it, and they claimed to
be the son of Kevin Mitnick. A few minutes later he said it was “time to go back to his cell” and logged off. The fact that someone can pre- tend to be Kevin Mitnick, or his son, and has the audacity to do so, contributes to the downfall of the computer underground.
Archmage
The fact that someone takes IRC so seriously contributes to their own downfall. e
Dear 2600: For the last month and a half, I have been planning to start 2600
meetings in my town. All the publicity has been done and the meet- ing is set. The problem is that my mother doesn’t want me to go—I can’t tell her I planned it, but I need to be there. How can I get her to change her mind?
xxxxxx
We put x’s over your fake name so that nobody could ever figure out who you really are and jest you about this for the rest of your life (or theirs, depending on how upset it got you). Your parents should be proud of you for organizing some- thing in the first place. But keep in mind they watch TV and they probably believe
THE CHALLENGES OF LIFE AS A HACKER
everything it says. Those are the images you will have to disprove. Perhaps show- ing them our meeting guidelines (available by emailing meetings@2600.com ) might
be enough to sway them. Failing that, consider the unthinkable—bringing them along! It happens a lot more often than you think and we find a diverse crowd makes for a much better gathering. People who go to meetings just to hang out with their friends are missing the point of them. Plus it can never hurt to have big people around when the security guards start getting bitchy.
Dear 2600: We recently attended a 2600 meeting in Dallas. We were surprised
to see only small children who knew nothing of importance and had little discretion as to the purpose of the meetings. We propose a new meeting location in Lewisville, TX. This we hope will increase the local following and adult attendance, or at least those of us who are out of the seventh grade. We will anticipate a direction from you, oh lords and masters.
The Phrkman and Cybrthuug First off, you mailed us this letter in all caps and it was really annoying. Second,
rather than run away from these “small children,” why don’t you stick around and share your ideas with these people? They might even teach you something.
Dear 2600: I’m a rather new reader of your magazine and I love it. I went to my
local Barnes & Noble for the latest issue and searched the stands for a copy, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. Then I noticed that there were drawers below some of the stands, and sure enough, I found about 20 copies there. I was rather pissed that they weren’t on the shelves, and when I asked a couple of employees, they claimed they’d never even