364 DEAR HACKER

364 DEAR HACKER

Dear 2600: First, let me get my nose brown here by saying your magazine is

excellent. Now that that’s out of the way, I’m a 44-year-old male who did phreak

back in the 1980s (using 950 numbers to call long distance BBSes) so I’m not squeaky clean here, but that was a youthful digression.

Having said that, I feel you are hypocrites. I’ll explain: You say that hacking (or using vulnerabilities) in the system shouldn’t be for gain. But in 23:2, you printed a letter from Zenmaster who wanted to know how to “hack into ‘Fastpass’ machines” at Disney World. Yet, two pages before, you had a letter from Jeff who was replying to an earlier letter to Jack whose father wouldn’t let him subscribe to 2600 because of the word “hacking.” Jeff said to let Jack’s father read the magazine. If I was Jack’s father and saw the letter from Zenmaster, that would reinforce my beliefs about hacking, thereby perpetuating the myth about hackers being bad people. There are a lot of closed minds out there. We need to open them, not add dead bolts.

Computer Bandit

You generally don’t open closed minds by keeping your mouth shut. And it would

be wrong for us to restrict knowledge and tell people not to ask certain questions because there was no seemingly legitimate reason for asking. As far as we’re con- cerned, there is always a legitimate reason: curiosity. And while we’re not kidding ourselves into believing that there aren’t lots of people with ulterior motives who could also benefit from such knowledge, if we help others learn how things work, we’re doing what we set out to do. Some parents get that. Many, sadly, don’t. But we can’t change who we are in order to appeal to people who don’t like who we are. There’s too much of that in our culture already.

Dear 2600: This is just a friendly reminder to please print the full portion of

people’s letters to you. An editor’s job is to edit, not to slice people’s

OUR BIGGEST FANS

I could be selfish and just ask that you extend me this favor for my own letters, however I must speak up for everyone else who I know has written you letters which you decided are unworthy to print.

Censorship sucks, and yes, 2600 has even censored. Please stop, or at least separate your mail into “moderated” and “unmoderated.”

Anonymous Perhaps you’re unfamiliar with how magazines operate. Let us enlighten you. Editors

edit things. That means trimming extraneous bits, cutting repetitive or irrelevant sections, fixing grammar and spelling, and otherwise making the submission fit for printing—assuming it’s even selected for printing at all. And all of this is at the hands of an editor.

The “moderated” and “unmoderated” divisions you wish for can be found on something called Usenet, as well as countless blogs and forums throughout the Internet. That’s not what we are and it never will be.

And as for the censorship allegation, please. If you were forbidden from expressing certain opinions by a government, that would be censorship. If a magazine doesn’t print your letter, that’s their decision and their right. You are still free to express yourself on your own.

Dear 2600:

I am a Sergeant currently supporting the National Security Agency and I thought I’d let you know: Big Brother is watching you. Also, we think you guys look like dorks!

Hooah. dave