358 DEAR HACKER
358 DEAR HACKER
world you want to live in, you’re well on the way toward getting there. You say we didn’t start this war? We invaded a country that never attacked us and had neither plans nor ability to do so. Regardless of what kind of society we manage to create over there, you can never escape that fact. You obviously have all kinds of prob- lems with what you imagine to be the “left wing.” But these issues are of concern for people of all political bents. Hackers come from all kinds of different political backgrounds and ideologies so please don’t assume that they all believe the same thing. One thing that most would probably agree upon is that expressing something that’s on your mind is a good thing. We’re glad you took the opportunity and hope you understand why we’ll continue to give others the chance.
Dear 2600: On your website in the foreign payphone section, I am very shocked
that you incorrectly put my country Taiwan as “Taiwan, province of China.” I hope you would understand that such mistake hurts all Taiwanese. Taiwan is an independent country, not a province of any other country. Please correct that mistake immediately to show your respect for all Taiwanese. Otherwise we will take more actions to protest against such humiliation! Thank you!
Hsiao-Ling Liao Taiwan
OK, let’s all calm down here a moment. We’re not in any way responsible for how your country (see, we used the word) is officially designated. That’s the name according to the United Nations and subsequently the ISO 3166-1 standard. Those are the people to threaten.
Dear 2600: For some reason, I have been “uninvited” from my local 2600 group.
This was rather surprising. I simply received an email asking that I no longer come to the meetings.
Your meeting guidelines say that “nobody is excluded.” I have attend-
OUR BIGGEST FANS
groups in the area. In fact, one IEEE group is even having me speak to them later this week.
Incidentally, the person who sent the email did not identify himself. It appears to have been sent from some anonymous account. Considering that my business cards were stolen the previous week, I really don’t consider being “uninvited” to be any great loss.
Chris And just why do you assume that this “uninvitation” carries any validity whatsoever?
You correctly interpret our guidelines as meaning nobody can be kept away from the meetings, so why not apply them to the situation and realize that this anony- mous person has absolutely no authority to enforce such a thing? By setting your- self apart from the group in this way, you’re doing exactly what this person wants.
Dear 2600:
I am very disappointed by your response to Hsiao-Ling Liao (22:2). What happened to your rhetoric? “...we have a history of not blindly accepting what we’re told” (page 5, line 12, 20:4) Do you believe that ISO 3166-1 has “Taiwan, province of China” for scientific reasons?
I can assure you that it is from political pressure from the Chinese government. Isn’t it ironic that we hackers use extra effort to filter what the U.S. government tells us, but take in what the government of China says without thinking?
Yes, we Taiwanese, fighting against China imperialism (they claim to be socialism but behave more like imperialism), understand that ISO 3166-1 is the source of misinformation and we are fighting on that front, too. Taiwan is not so stupid as to call itself a province of another country.