262 DEAR HACKER

262 DEAR HACKER

When I was told what this “hacker” had done, I proceeded to laugh hysterically until tears were pouring out of my eyes—all to the blank and expressionless stares of the people who told me about it. What a bunch. You want to know what he did? He reset the proxy settings in Netscape so it didn’t go through the filter system I was testing. Yeah! What a hack! This kid got punished and derided for changing the proxy in Netscape! What a bunch of morons.

I have found school corporations so totally inept at understanding anything to do with curiosity or discovery. It’s a sad thing when a kid like this has the biggest reputation of hacking of anyone in the student body. I have continually been disgusted with their treatment of stu- dents that “hack.” They just want to enforce their petty little rules so they will seem validated by their subsequent authority.

Shouldn’t educators understand the thirst for knowledge? Believe me, they don’t! Their definition of obtaining knowledge is so narrow that it only covers going to class. God forbid we could learn anything on our own! Do that and you’re a hacker!

I have mentioned to my superiors that I would like to take the kids that get caught hacking and interview them, then put them to work. Their answer: That would be rewarding misbehavior. Instead they run a rod up their butt and hang them like a trophy for the rest of the student body to see.

Hey, teachers, get a clue! If you don’t like computers and are scared by the kids who know 10k times more than you, retire now! You’ll be lengthening your life and making life better for teenagers who actu- ally need to learn.

G Man in the Hole

The biggest defense against this kind of stupidity is to simply get the details out to the public. By doing that and by reaching out to this kid, you’ve helped out on many levels. We can only wonder how many people have wound up taking a bad road in life because so many morons have told them they were guilty of something. Idiots in authority must be challenged at every opportunity.

T H E M A G I C O F T H E C O R P O R AT E W O R L D

Dear 2600: The letter in 22:4 from Ben, a high school student in the Atlanta

area, stated that he was surfing from the school’s computer lab and was prevented from accessing 2600.com because it was blocked as “Criminal Skills.”

I work for a company that makes a web filtering product for schools and businesses. I had personally categorized 2600.com as “Computer/ Internet” several years ago. When I saw that letter, I thought, “Oh,

I hope that’s not our product.” I checked today and one of the other technicians had changed the category to “Hacking.” That maps back in older versions of the product to “Criminal Skills.” I changed it back to “Computer/ Internet,” but there’s no telling how long that will last.

So in this case, it’s not the school that is at fault. It was our product and I’m sorry about that. Of course, Ben’s school could be using one of the other filtering products, so this might not help him. But I’m glad

he gave me a reason to check and fix it in ours. Toots

We’re fortunate to have people like you in these companies who can do something about such injustices. Let’s hope it makes a difference.