100 DEAR HACKER

100 DEAR HACKER

majority of their central offices cut over to ESS, why can’t someone at the phone company modify the switches to accept dimes as dimes and quarters as quarters?

Mary M. Comland, Iowa

Why indeed? Let’s hear some “explanations” for this one from the folks on the inside. If we don’t get a satisfactory answer, you may be looking at next year’s project to combat consumer fraud.

Dear 2600: Here’s a note of possible interest. Congressman Kweisi Mfume (D-MD) introduced a bill (H.R. 1504)

that would make it a criminal offense for persons under the age of 21 to possess a beeper. Presumably, this is because many drug dealers use beepers to keep in touch with their customers. But banning the use of an innocent piece of telephone technology by the young is a pretty screwy way to deal with the drug problem. Also, why age 21 instead of 18? What happens to college students and others trying to earn a living as messengers, field technicians, or some other job requiring the use of a beeper? Maybe we should lobby against this bill. (H.R. 1504 was referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.)

Phil We certainly should lobby against this bill. It’s another crystal clear example of high

tech phobia. This time, instead of trying to figure out why drugs have become such an essential crutch to so many of us, the authorities think that making a small bit of technology illegal will somehow solve the problem. For one thing, beepers don’t make drug deals. People do. Beepers are a tool, like telephones, notepads, pock- etbooks, and automobiles. Should all of these be made illegal to certain people who might use them to deal drugs? More importantly, these well-meaning clods are overlooking a grossly obvious fact. Dealing drugs is illegal. So how can they

THE CHALLENGES OF LIFE AS A HACKER

a beeper? The only people who will be inconvenienced by this law will be the law- abiders, who obviously are not the targets of the law!

Dear 2600:

I thought I’d share with you a story, and a tribute to the downward spiral of our society.

I am enclosing a clipping from the course descriptions for my high school. When I read the description for a computer technology course,

I said to myself, “Cool, I can finally use my school time to expand my knowledge of something useful.” I talked to the counselor and he ar- ranged for me to be interviewed by the teacher who asked me a few general questions that alluded to my character, which I answered quite well, and he asked me why I wanted to take this “select class.” I told him I wanted to learn more about operating systems and software that

I haven’t yet been exposed to. He next asked me what I knew already. I told him I’d programmed in BASIC and C and was familiar with UNIX and MPE XL operating systems. He told me I’d be considered.

As you may have guessed, I was not allowed to enroll in the class.