It has been possible to maintain a machine half way around the world for some time now with SSH. OpenSSH replaced the old commercial F-secure. It is highly advised to use OpenSSH. It was written outside the USA without input from any government, (_ssh_ it's free), contains protocols 1 and 2 and it even compiles on Windows! If you are stuck somewhere and only have a 'doze machine, you can download a quick 'throw-away' binary called putty.exe This is relatively fast (for Windows) and works properly on win2000 and higher. "Me" and older Windows may dump you as most Unix servers use 'keep-alive' signalls which newer Windows versions, know. It is NOT advised to use Windows at all if you require good security, particularly if you do not know or trust the owner or operator of the machine. Best know what you are doing and try to use a Unix type system when using any security application. This is no joke.

BillSF

mailto: (coded below)

Its 30-08-03 and finally time to do something silly and update my page. How long does Google to update their listings? Google is unquestionably the best general search engine. AltaVista is another fine search engine geared to more technical searches. Look up a chemical or electronic component and it probably finds it.

BillSF has been my logname for nearly twenty years. The SF is for San Fransisco, a city I once lived in, at the very edge of North America. It came from my "foon phreak" handle. While I actually used blue boxes in the US, It was a very private activity due to unusually harsh laws. When I moved to Amsterdam it was possible to be open about using boxes and amused both the telephone company and the press for many years. "billsf" has remained my logname. Almost any press interviewer will ask what the "SF" stands for. I'm also BillSF Holding BV which is simply, well, just a personal holding! "Squire for Hire" is my other alias and also has a bank account and very good credit. In Nieuw Zeeland, it takes on a dark meaning so. Excuses if you are a .nz resident or happen to know the slang there. Otherwise, both handles, that reveal my true name, are perfectly acceptable otherwise, worldwide.

The photograph above was taken at my home in Amsterdam. The syatem I'm on is an 'old' AMD Athlon running FreeBSD slightly overclocked at 1236MHz. It is connected to an E1 circuit and used to maintain this and other servers and general use. It is also a server that I can access when away. Because of the limited bandwidth no public web pages are served from this location. These machines and myself are in the basement of a relatively famous building building near the center of Amsterdam. It may be interesting to note that my physical desk is about 5m (16') below sea level. This may seem strange to some, but hundreds of years ago, this area was dijked off and the water was pumped out. This is macro engineering at its very best and nobody worries about flooding. (Denial of service flooding, is something completely different.;)

There are now thousands of pages on this server. Some are linked to the front page, many are not linked by request of the owners and others are simply not linked within this machine. Go here for a huge list of links from Google. Possibly get some others from AltaVista here or try your favourite search engine.

(Hint. Typing in a specific URL will not give the desired results. You should enter "host .domain .tld" or "host domain tld", possibly without quotes, to see all the linked pages a particular robot has found. The exact method depends on the "search engine" you use. Each hit may contain links and / or you may get ALOT of irrelavent results!

PLEASE realise many files are BIG and some are HUGE. If you are in Holland and on a fast link, take what you want. On the fastest ADSL and TV cable links, you may exceed your limit rapidly. On the other extreme, the largest files may take hours on ISDN and even longer with a 'fast modem'. Are you sure you really want to download something like this on a slow connection? If it is going to take too long, it is your choice to cancel the download or not. Better to check the size and decide if it is what you want.

If you are not in the Netherlands, and on a fast link, BANDWIDTH can COST! The logs are checked. If there is excessive use from "expensive countries", your entire 'prefix' (That is your provider's whole range.) May be 'throttled' to the speed of a DUAL ISDN connection or less. To prevent this drastic condition, be sure you provider has a cacheing web proxy and it is used. If you have any doubts or don't know, e-mail your provider and ask. (Be kind to the help desk, these people have a really nasty job and they can do without needless calls.)

Spam mail is illegal in Holland and it is going to stay out of my private ini-box. Here is the key to the variables below that will get mail to me.

THIS_HOST="cuba.calyx.nl"
^2="@"
WEB="web_master"
ME="billsf"

Maybe you want to know what the web has to say about me? Try Google, AltaVista, Yahoo!, Lycos, or the online database / "search engine" of your choice.

Obviously, the web regards me as a true hacker in the real sence and not generally in the 'tabloid tact' where hackers are criminals. Most definitely, my 'education' in this area was seeded by the 'first generation' allowing myself to lead the 'second generation' who will teach the 'third generation'. Interest in phone systems, computer systems and electronics in general are tightly intertwined. Please feel free read some of my articles, papers, postings and numerous citations by others that will normally in one step (through myself) and never more than two, (someone I know) lead to every 'hacker' in the world. A reporter once asked me: "How many real hackers are there? My snap answer was: "Twenty thousand". This estimate took well. Maybe I really believe that answer from about 1990?

If all this interests you and you fit the right profile, you might get good information from myself and others at the Klaphek meetings. Currently atleast ten and sometimes more quite interesting people show up. Here is your chance to meet people with technology interests and see systems that will be in widespread in the future. Hackers are currious about everything, particularly systems, which even people are when the top hacking skill, 'social engineering', is employed. Hackers are expected to be smart, but not allways highly educated. A technical university is certainly a good place to learn the basics and possibly meet other hackers. Most hackers who would attend meetings and events have social skills than one would not expect from stereotypes. Almost all of the real crowd, are on 'college prep', in university and many have graduated. Almost all will eventually graduate or obtain an equivalent status. Universities are the environment that can make it happen.

"Script kiddies" are not hackers, but this is the very crowd the lesser press has chosen to attach 'hacker' too. These are the ones that never create but only abuse other people's work and get in trouble for it. This crowd is disruptive and destructive, often in an indirect way, to all what the real hackers create. They may use worms and trojans that clog our networks, crash routers, break into critical systems or even do the electronic equivalent of common crime. These types are easy to pick out as they often boast about trivial actions. Some can be reshaped if they meet the real crowd at an approiate age. These kids are also easy to pick out. Almost all "script kiddies" fade into obscurity in their twenties. Most have absolutely no social skills and would prefer a 'lan party' to an educational experience.

You can mail ${ME}${^2}${THIS_HOST} if you wish to make contact with myself. Just figuring out the address tells me you have atleast a very basic ability an abuser may not have.

The next line is bait for spambots: DO NOT USE! It is for gathering statistics.
mailto: Joe Sheep

If you think you found anything that may be illegal under 'Dutch' law, write ${WEB}${^2}${THIS_HOST} or use the finger information, if you know how, to contact me. I have nothing to hide and therefore don't want to hide anything.

Registered mail is never accepted from the post without a prior email, call or normal letter. There is a serious Nigerian bank scam problem associated with Amsterdam.

Anyone threatening action better be very clear that your beef against this server, myself or any registered user of this service has merrit and is in violation of current interpretation of 'Dutch' law. Remind yourself how seriously linked this site is by checking the example searches and ask yourself if you want to harass any user on this system. Nasty "lawyer letters" will be opened, scanned and returned or destroyed. They will be placed on this site in a manner that will reach a potential audience that can only be described as 'vast in size and scope'. If you happen to a lawyer, that doesn't mean you can't write a nice letter as a normal human being, using email or normal post.