174 DEAR HACKER

174 DEAR HACKER

card and listen for the unit to go “bleedunk.” Now hit the “CE” key. You will see the contents of the numeric track of the mag strip on the screen. Use “CE” to scroll through all the digits. Wala! Eight dollar mag strip reader. I have read credit cards, ATM cards, a university ID, and airline frequent-flyer cards.

This unit has another interesting feature—a built-in 300 baud mo- dem. To use this, connect the unit to a phone line. Hit the “ function” key, then hit 9. Now enter the number you want to dial and follow the instructions. The unit will dial the number and attempt to connect at 300 baud. You may want to monitor on an extension.

In addition, if you hit the “reset” key while the initialization mes- sage is still present on power-up, the unit prompts for a password. Haven’t been able to hack that yet. Plus, if you can find no other use for this unit, it has a “calculator mode.” Hit the * key twice to use that. Overall, a pretty nifty little gadget. I guess now it’s only a matter of time before the hackers of the world encode viruses on their magnetic strips and hold the California DMV hostage.

Mr. Upsetter

Dear 2600:

I have a complaint. I have been out of the BBS scene for several years, but recently I decided to break out my old 300 baud modem and call some of the local boards. I was surprised to find that not one of the local boards would let me log on using “only” 300 baud. Now, call me

a Luddite if you want, but I remember not too long ago when 300 baud was the standard, and my modem served me quite well then. Now it seems that 2400 baud is the standard, likely to change again to 9600 baud in the near future. Exactly why shouldn’t I be able to log on at 300 baud if I am perfectly satisfied with that speed and have neither the money nor the desire to buy a new modem every two years? This sort of baud rate supremacy and the very concept of planned obsoles- cence nauseates me to no end.

Henry H. Lightcap Seattle, Ecotopia

TECHNOLOGY

To understand why people aren’t overly thrilled with slow modem users, consider that they wind up tying up lines for much longer than most other callers. It’s unfair that we all have to keep upgrading to stay with it, but that’s the nature of rapidly developing technology.

Dear 2600: You might have seen a television advertisement from Bell Atlantic

promoting their package of optional features, namely Call Waiting, Call Return, and Caller ID.

The basic story of the commercial is that a husband at work calls up his very pregnant wife who can’t make it to the phone before he hangs up. But no problem, she has Call Return so the phone will “remem- ber” and return the call. And he, at work, has Caller ID so he knows it’s her calling.

An hour later, she starts having labor pains and calls him again. He can’t leave work, so he calls a friend (thanks to Call Waiting which “lets important calls get through”). Interestingly, there are two ver- sions of the commercial at this point—one of them simply has the friend calling out. The other has a voice-over which says “Tone Block” keeps anyone from interrupting your important calls.

At the end, husband and wife are in the hospital with new infant, and they get an incoming call from their friend who used Call Return to get back to them. However, if you think about it, in most cases hospital PBXs will not send out a “proper” ANI. (Nor, for that matter, would other businesses.)

Danny New York

It’s not the first time that phone companies have resorted to lies and deception to make a quick buck. It won’t be the last.