Letters: GLORY

Hacker News

Dear 2600: Hacking podcast Shadow Systems Audio on actual hacking within the podcast, and phreaking. https://x.com/ss_htp       J We have a sad fact to reveal.  Most of our letters now take this form of people not actually communicating using full sentences or anything more than 140 characters.  We're sent links, words that are spelled so incorrectly that they're basically new words, and thoughts that never come to full term.  We miss the old days, where so many readers would rattle off paragraph after paragraph of prose, some of it meaningless, but much of it filled with ideas that really provoked discussion and controversy.  We hope to see more people return to that path. Oh, and the link is worth checking out.

Hacker Queries

Dear 2600: I'm recently reminded of how we live in a society where our lives are being nitpicked by various three letter agencies. However, as a privacy conscious individual, I'm wondering if it is truly necessary for me to give away my real name and address while purchasing tickets to the HOPE conference.  I'm wondering if only a working email will suffice, or is the information necessary for the delivery of the tickets? Hopefully, this is only a matter of record keeping.       general.bills We don't require any real info from you at all, other than your payment details and, naturally, an email address where you can receive your tickets.  But if you use a credit card, the company behind it will compare your address to what they have on file and let us know whether or not it all matches.  Addresses that don't match require us to follow up to make sure you're not trying to pull a fast one on us.  It's the same method used by virtually every online store.  The real question you should be asking is if it's necessary for you to give away your real name and address to the credit card companies.  In actuality, it is and it isn't.  You can use a fake name on a credit card as long as it's attached to one in your real name.  But you can then use that fake name on all of your online purchases.  Getting a post office box or a maildrop and having your credit card bills delivered there make that your billing address, which is what online merchants need to verify.  In other words, it doesn't have to be your actual street address.  And this is all accomplished while remaining completely legal.  You can do a whole lot more on the other side of the law.  But that's another story.

Dear 2600: I am a computer security researcher and teacher at the Charles III University of Madrid(Spain). Currently, I am teaching subjects related to cyberthreats and malware.  I have found that your web page offers information regarding hacking.  I would like to go deeper in the matter to present students a more realistic view about it. Thus, I feel that your knowledge could be a great key for my work.  Particularly, knowing how hackers get in touch, how they communicate, and if they hide themselves on the Internet or if they have publicly available places would be useful. Any advice on this matter will be very valuable for me.  Let me thank you in advance for your precious time.       Lorena We don't advise people thanking us in advance as they likely will be disappointed.  We can't do more than suggest that you read what's in our pages and in many other hacker-related forums on the Internet.  It's not really clear from your letter what particular aspect of hacker culture you're interested in pursuing.  Hackers aren't living on the Internet like termites in a wall.  Hackers are all around you, all the time.  They communicate in every way imaginable, they know how to protect their privacy, and they have no problem meeting in public as well, although we currently don't have meetings in Madrid.  A good start for you would be to disbelieve everything you've heard in the media and movies and do a little digging to see what hackers are motivated by.  Whether it's the development of a new type of operating system or a battle against some proposed draconian law, the people involved will likely be more than open to talking with you about it, as long as you're willing to listen and not jump to simplistic conclusions, like so many have in the past.  We wish you luck but doubt that you'll need it if you're truly interested in learning.

Dear 2600: Have you heard about this challenge?  Someone is giving away bitcoin.  You just have to guess the six letter password.  Can it be done?       Eric You can read about this particular challenge at bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=1014202 and on Reddit.  There were some other challenges that were figured out, but the six character one has yet to be.  In fact, much of the discussion in various forums is debating how many billions of possibilities there are and just how long this could take under what circumstances.  It's an interesting conversation that can be applied to so many other security-related issues.  It really all comes down to what resources are at your disposal and how much time you're willing to focus on such challenges, along with any possible shortcuts you can apply.  What seems like a great password now won't be in the future because processing time will be vastly decreased.  But even if you have a completely uncrackable password, using the same one for long periods of time - which many people do - not only makes it more likely someone who's been at it for a while will finally figure it out, but opens you up to the sum total of every mistake you made in that period of time, such as writing it down once, being shoulder-surfed, or so many other things that make your password completely useless. We don't have to go nuts over this.  Simply choosing a decent password and changing it on a regular basis is usually enough.  But, in case it isn't, you should always be paying attention so you'll be able to tell if something changes due to another gaining access somehow. Regarding the challenge here - assuming it's on the level - what seems like a Herculean task can be greatly simplified with a little organization and crowd-sourcing.  So if, as some people are saying, this would take a thousand years to crack, how long would it take if a thousand people each took a portion of the challenge?  Now imagine a government that has access to virtually unlimited resources that is motivated to crack a particular code and add that to the constantly improving technology.  What appears completely secure is often only temporarily so.  Our human ingenuity is the one element that can always stay a step ahead.

Dear 2600: Greetings from prison!  I am attempting to figure out how modem TVs detect a video signal through either the composite or VGA inputs.  As I am in a correctional institution, I do not have access to material to research this.  My goal is to connect an audio device to the television so it may be used as a speaker.  However, when I connect the audio input, the no signal screen remains and I cannot seem to bypass it.  So I thought I would ask you.  Also, I would like to say thank you for continuing to put out an awesome magazine.  I thoroughly enjoy every issue.  Also, in case it matters, the TV is made by Coby.       Chris If what you are connecting the audio input to on the TV is a 3.5 mm headphone jack, it is likely that is really an output for external speakers.  This would hamper inputting audio, even if you made the TV detect some signal on another connector.  Composite and VGA are older input methods, but there may be a way.  VGA does not pass any audio from the input you connect.  Composite would allow inputting of audio over the red and white RCA connections.  If you can make or acquire an adapter for stereo RCA to whatever audio device you're using as input, it may play audio without even connecting the yellow composite input to anything at all.  If it did require signal, you could take composite video output from a VCR such that blue/black screen or a video without sound played while the input of audio came through from your other source.

Dear 2600: Where is the list with the stores that sell physical copies?       Vaseleos That is a very good question.  We are attempting to get such a list put together.  We've also been saying this for years.  Unfortunately, this is one of those things that's much harder to do than it should be.  The list in question used to appear on our website and with it you could tell just where copies of our magazine could be found.  We got the info from our distributors.  Here's the challenge: distributors don't like to give out this data because they feel other distributors can come along and snatch their accounts from out under them.  We think having a list of where people can buy our magazine would result in more people buying our magazine.  But what do we know?  The whole situation isn't helped when said distributors shut down and take the data (and our money) with them.  Don't even get us started. But since we're on the topic, we thought you might like to hear an update of one of our latest distributor woes, that being the ones that sort of went out of business but didn't really.  We're referring to the company called Source Interlink that split itself into two, shut down the half that dealt with magazine distribution (while owing us close to $100,000), and renamed its other half to TEN: The Enthusiast Network (www.enthusiastnetwork.com).  They continued to be wildly profitable while publishing magazines of their own like Motor Trend, which we'd bet somehow didn't get stiffed by the company's other half.  Anyway, we finally got a check from them for just over two grand.  Better than nothing, but nowhere close to what's right.  It's not the first time we've been fleeced and it probably won't be the last.  This was probably the slickest maneuver we've encountered, though.  And yes, it was all completely legal. This is how the game is played: publishers like us are always at the mercy of distributors.  They aren't all bad and we've worked with some great ones over the years.  But nothing illustrates how essential our reader support has been in keeping us going despite these monumental challenges.

Dear 2600: I would like if you could send me a report about the magazine and radio program 2600.  Thanks.       The Drunken Sniper ITA Well, first off, you've got it backwards - the magazine is called 2600, not the radio program.  And you didn't give us a due date on our report so we had no motivation to actually finish the assignment. (We don't feel bad being this sarcastic since a simple visit to our website would have provided this person with more than enough information to satisfy their curiosity.)

Dear 2600: Please do not print this letter.  And please do not mention my name and/or other identifying information if you ignore the above request.  If this is not the appropriate location for this type of inquiry, I would appreciate it if you could direct me to the proper channel.  Between orders@2600.com, articles@2600.com, webmaster@2600.com, and letters@2600.com, this question seemed to be most appropriate here. I'm wondering if you are going to be releasing Volumes 4 through 11 (and future issues) of the Hacker Digests in a Kindle format, preferably through the Kindle Store.  I read through Volumes 1 through 3, and would love to continue on through the early history of your publication.  I do see that you have DRM-free PDF versions available on your site, but my personal experience with reading PDFs on my various Kindle devices has been poor, both when viewed directly in the PDF format or when converted to a Kindle one.  That said, I'm still happy to send money to you guys, so I'm currently in the "check out" process for the DRM-free version of Volume 4 on your site right now.       hhlkjh O.K., we had someone literally come in and smash their fist on a keyboard to generate a "name" that could never be linked to you.  We can't imagine any hints remain as to your true identity. We're printing this because it's a good question and because it came to the letters department and printing and responding to letters is all we know how to do. Putting out the digests is a tremendous amount of work which is why we can't cover every possible way of publishing them - at least, not all at the same time.  The PDF route is the way to get it to the most people in the shortest amount of time.  Publishing to the Kindle requires us to OCR every page and then painstakingly proofread and correct everything.  We would certainly not be able to publish four digests a year if that was the route we took. There are so many readily available devices that can read PDFs that we believe your problem is easily solved.  We do intend to make these available in every format imaginable, but it takes time to get there.  Perhaps when all of the digests are finished, it will have become easier to get them into a format suitable for the Kindle.  For now, we hope people can be happy with the PDFs.  The lifetime deal is really pretty cool and the history thats summed up (not to mention finally learning what all those old covers meant) is really quite educational.  We've been having a real blast cruising down Memory Lane.

Dear 2600: Thank you for any help you can offer me and the time you take to read this.  I'll keep this real short for you as I know you have other things to do. I'm probably too old for computer skills as they didn't have these when I was in school, and I only got my first one about three years ago and I know very little about them, but I've learned that you can use more than Microsoft on the device. In May of this year, I was given a Toshiba tablet that I half purchased and was half a gift.  They did not put any information on the advertisement or the box that said I'd be stuck with Google trying to use spyware on my device!  I used this Android thing for less than the 90-day warranty and one or two things did not seem quite right about it. There are consumer trade practice violations that I could not remove from the device.  I wrote to Toshiba and all I got was a smart-ass response with no care for the consumer! Then, to make matters worse, they did an upgrade over the Internet that I thought would fix the problems so people would not complain about them, but they only made matters worse by putting a system on the device that won't let me use my device unless I agree to Google's demand! Can you please tell me how to completely wipe and shred all of their material off my expensive tablet? I have tried these things to correct the problem myself: The reset button only resets the same screwed up crap, which is what I want gone. The cheap $50 laptop I have uses a Linux system, as does the Android, but the laptop will not recognize the tablet when connected with a USB cable so I cannot erase it!  Toshiba said it could be used as a USB connection device. I've searched the Linux Mint and other sources for applications to use that will access and shred the Toshiba and Android, but I can't find any, and I still don't speak fluent computer, so I don't even know what to ask for. Any help, guidance, or simple instructions would be nice of you.       Mark It's unclear exactly what aspects of Android violate and irk you most, but we get the overall complaint here.  Firstly, this is not at all unusual in that Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) installations often have extra clutter installed and in this case sport an OS that was designed to interface through an account on their services platform.  Part of that is getting your permission for use of all kinds of data.  End-User License Agreements (EULA) are nothing new, but they're becoming ever more ubiquitous. What you aim to do is possible, however it may take some more research and careful tinkering.  There is a thriving community of folks modifying various Android devices with great success.  Many times this involves booting or "sideloading" software from an SD card to gain the privileges required to wipe internal memory and reinstall a different OS.  The XDA Developers Forums (forum.xda-developers.com) are a good place to find out more about this. We applaud your efforts and think you'll find that Android devices are among the most customizable when compared to other popular consumer electronics out there.  Good luck!

Hacker Mentality

Dear 2600: I've used computers my whole life, from the first NES to the Packard Bell by HP all the way to the computer I have now.  I've never really cared about how they worked until recently.  I've kept my face glued on the screen, reading articles, trying to find out how things work and I realize I've taken for granted all the things that are possible through under standing the conveyance of infor mation through a language comprised of zeroes and ones. I don't care about many things and I have much spare time, much spare time, but there are no meetings close to me and I get anxious when I go too far away from where I live.  I would like nothing more than to speak with someone knowledgeable about the evolution of simple programs and electronics to the digital cosmos it has become.  I don't care if I die not knowing everything.  I want to know as much as possible and, to be honest, it wasn't even a knowledge of computers that sparked the fire.  I was curious about how cameras captured images and read about the photosensitive chemicals that gets the image somewhat burnt from the light that was let in through the lens, and was even more curious how digital cameras took the same process and executed it without that film!  If that's possible, maybe other things are possible that we don't try or haven't tried. I'm not the brightest bulb and, sure, I like some sci-fi and cartoons and have some ideas about digital-projections and altering images possibly through infrared pulses. I know this is long winded, but I ramble sometimes.  What I mean to say is, I don't have much to teach, but I have a lot to learn, not just about digital imagery and data, but about how all things electronically speak to each other: the movement of data.  I know some of the basics, but I want to know more.  I understand I'm 30 and there are a lot of youngsters out there that are turbo-charged encyclopedias, but I want to learn how to think outside the box.  When people say there's no way to accomplish something, I can't help but to imagine that people that used to send pigeons with scrolls around their legs and they would have thought the same thing about light speed communications.  And now we send information through airwaves!  "There's no way?"  Bulltits. So meetings are the first Friday of every month at 1700?  How tight knit would that community be?  How does an introvert that goes out approximately one out of every ten days meet people?  Nobody really knows me.  I've stayed to myself for the past four years and when I do have run-ins with strangers, they're brief.       Laughing Man We can't tell you exactly how to be social, because that's different for everyone.  But there's no shame in being introverted.  You're thinking and communicating and that's what really matters.  We find it generally works to push yourself a bit beyond your comfort zone but never too much.  If you find you reach a boundary you can't get past, then that's a part of who you are.  Everyone experiences this in one form or another.  Our own anxiety about our limitations probably affects us more adversely than the limitations themselves.  We'd welcome other viewpoints and experiences on this issue, as we're certain it's familiar to quite a few people.

Dear 2600: I just spent some time at the Research Psychiatric Center here in Kansas City, Missouri.  I had a friend bring me a few sets of clothing and also requested a few random copies of your magazine off my bookshelf.  The clothing made it through Customs O.K., but they denied your magazines.  The Research Center blocking your information makes sense; they also blocked most information of the drugs they were giving me.  All my inquiries into what and why I was given any drug resulted in the drug name only and a staff too busy to print information. Upon my release, I researched my four prescriptions and had a consultation with my personal doctor.  One drug prescribed (three of which are $4 at Walmart - the one in question is $120) is primarily used to treat nerve pain caused by the herpes virus or shingles.  This was quickly discontinued and I'm now on the right path.  I also have a new anti-anxiety script. I also made phone calls from three different patient phones.  The numbers on Caller ID show up as: 816-235-7438, 816-235-7487, and 816-235-7449.  These ring directly to the patient common room s without any screening that I witnessed.       Prozac Porridge Well, this ought to make for some interesting conversations.  Seriously though, thanks for paying attention to what was going on and for sharing.  There isn't a single element of society where the hacker mentality can t do you some good.  We see it all the time in prisons, the military, mental hospitals, and high schools - people who know they're better than the institutions they're trapped in and who observe, share, and eventually emerge better and stronger because of the que stions they ask and their belief in themselves as individuals.  It can be a very lonely existence, but the experiences, when shared, can make a huge difference to so many of us.  The mainstream tells us to not pay attention and to keep moving on.  We as hackers tend not to do that.

Dear 2600: A friend of mine and I were debating if online smartphone apps for such things as banking , dating, and social networks that have a long list of access demands on their user agreements can upload family pictures from your phone and store them away on their servers.  He argues that if it is possible, companies have no interest in this.  They would simply not care about such data and delete it.  I argue companies want any and every bit of personal data to record it for demographics and more.  He says companies don't record your "telephone numbers called" log, even though user agreements claim to need access to it.  My friend says that I am paranoid and letting myself be hampered by technology, rather than benefiting from its advances, because I hesitate to accept or install these phone apps. What is the reality and logistics of this?  Can companies get into your phone remotely?  Can they simply upload all your data (pictures, URLs visited, numbers called, texts)?  Can they actually tum on your camera and record from it?  I assume they can track you by GPS whether you have it set to "on" or not, but what does 2600 have to say about this? Whether this letter is printed or not, a response would be welcome and appreciated.       James We generally only respond to letters we print, so here it is.  In short, you are quite correct to hesitate whenever apps claim they require access to things they have no business accessing in the first place.  But it goes far beyond that.  Phones can be hijacked in lots ofdifferent ways.  Your movements can be monitored based on the tracking device you willingly carry on your person.  Your texts are logged and stored and can be accessed by those with and without the authorization to do so.  Transactional data (as Edward Snowden revealed to the world) is available to government agencies and God knows who else.  While you may be told that this is harmless, the fact remains that a very clear picture can be painted as to who you are via which individuals you talk to, where you go, what you buy, and a whole bunch of additional data - and that's all without even listening to any of your conversations.  Consider also that most phones have cameras and microphones that can be remotely activated and there's precious little pri vacy left unless you change phones every day or turn the damn things off.  Maybe it doesn't usually happen, maybe it's not supposed to happen, but we have learned that it certainly is possible and has happened quite a bit already.  There is no denying this anymore. What's particularly sad here is that so many of us - people who really should know better - see these privacy concerns as a tradeoff.  The convenience makes it somehow worthwhile.  It truly is astounding the amount of things a typical smartphone can do.  But nothing comes without a price, and we don't mean the staggering amount of money some of us pay for these devices - sometimes over and over again.  These policies and features will only work if we accept them as they are.  If we don't, then they can be changed into something better.  But we have to care enough to push for that.  Your actions are one step.  Unfortunately, the attitude of your friend is far more prevalent and one of the primary reasons we've landed in the surveillance state we're in. We've been warning of such developments literally for decades now.  Imagine the power of this technology in the hands of the jews after World War II.  How much harder would it have been to hide?  How much easier would it have been to come up with lists of people and locations in which to find them?  If you honestly believe that we've evolved past that stage of humanity, then you can rest easy, assuming loss of privacy in general doesn't bother you.  But for those of us who are aware of the massive amounts of evil in the world, both blatant and subtle, it's best to always know how to shape technology to work for you and to never accept the word of those who try to pressure you into accepting terms that simply don't feel right.

Dear 2600: I was referred here by a friend from college who now works at blackvault.com. To the point, as I am sure that you are very busy.  I need a link to a virus program stable enough to load onto an SD card and then transfer onto a Windows OS.  Also, and I realize that this is reaching, but I need a virus that I can load as an attachment to an email and send to be opened on an iPhone 6.  If you have a PayPal that I can transfer to, I will gladly pay you for simply helping me to find the necessary link to this application.  Thank you in advance and I hope all is well. Hack the planet!!!!!!!       Paulie Thanks mass media for making letters like this possible.  This is honestly what a lot of peop le think we do all the time: sell viruses, break into Hotmail and Facebook accounts on behalf of significant others, and destroy people's phones.  We are so happy that CSI: Cyber got canceled as we will probably get hours back each week from not having to plod through the moronic requests we get after every episode. Also, it's great that you know that line from Hackers, but it doesn't legitimize any of the other words surrounding it.

Dear 2600: First, a confession.  I'm using this as an opportunity to shamelessly draw attention to the ad I placed in the Marketplace.  Please forgive me (and donate). Second, I was annoyed by what happened to you in that Source Interlink scam.  As a prisoner who gets a lot of magazines, I noticed issues with other publications as well, and I think that explains why my celly stopped getting Hot Rod for no explained reason.  F*ck Source Interlink/The Enthusiast Network.  F*ck them in their eye sockets. Third, can we agree that the movie Hackers was the most accurate and best movie ever made?  The attention to detail, the action, the amazing battles over the VHS tapes, man, I get goose bumps!  It's so real!  The laptop with a 28 bps modem and the "killer refresh rate" gives me chills every time.  When Dade claimed his BLT drive went AWOL, I just know that clearly I've never heard of a BLT drive because I'm not elite enough.  The hacking battle on the skyscraper where they're hacking wirelessly pre-Wi-Fi... yes, that's elite!  Razor and Blade are heroes, and we should all drink some Jolt Cola on their behalf.  Now, let's hack some traffic lights and make a glorified mainframe computer physically explode and its lights all turn red in honor of the Zero Cool - the world's most elite hacker ever.  Now go dock a payphone on your cradle modem and make the world proud. And again, f*ck Source Interlink/The Enthusiast Network.       Token       Operation Prison Pirate We appreciate the sentiment - and the enthusiasm.  While we're not going to quibble over what's technically accurate in the movie and what isn't, the important thing is that it was a fun ride and they basically got the spirit of the community right.  We cons der that a win.

Hacker Gatherings

Dear 2600: Do you know any of the contact info, emails, or something for the 2600 Madison group? Thanks, and see you at HOPE!       Michael We don't give out contact info as we always default on the side of privacy and we don't want to constantly be passing messages back and forth.  Think of these pages as a method of the latter, minus the personal specifics.  What we can also advise is that you visit the web pages of any meetings you're interested in attending, all of which are listed at our website (www.2600.com/meetings).  And we also advise meeting attendees to put up a web page for your local meetin g if one doesn't already exist.  You don't need our permission or that of anyone else and it's a great way to get more people to show up.  Just be sure to email meetings@2600.com to let us know so we can help you spread the word.

Dear 2600: We've had a meeting of hackers in Ludwigsburg, Germany for almost two years now.  The 2600 meeting guidelines match with our guidelines - except for the meeting time.  Is it really that important?  All benefits one might gain are only benefits in the same time zone. So here is our question: Can our meeting be a 2600 meeting when our meeting time is not on Friday?  It's Wednesday, by the way.       sfn When you said meeting time, we assumed you meant the time of the meeting, which naturally should reflect your local time.  What you seem to be asking about is the meeting day, which is more of an issue.  It's easy to know when our meetings take place because it's always the first Friday of the month. We recently made an exception for Israel due to religious observations that happen to take place on Fridays, which made it really hard for people there to attend and/or start meetings.  So we can say our meetings are on the first Friday of every month except for Israel, where they're the first Thursday of the month.  If we agreed to what you're proposing, that sentence would get quite a bit longer.  We'd have to add the first Wednesday for Ludwigsburg.  Then someone else would say since we did that, we should include their Monday meeting and others would want the third Friday, etc., etc.  And what happens when one group of people wants one day and another wants a different day in the same city?  So we would lose that "first Friday" magic, as literally any day could be a meeting day.  That may sound like expansion, but we believe it would just lead to confusion and make the whole thing less of an event. We sympathize with people for whom Friday doesn't work.  But please realize there will also be people for whom Wednesday doesn't work.  If we want the advantage of a common day, we need to pick one and stick with it.  And over the decades, Friday evenings have been the popular choice.  What we advise for those people who can never make it on the first Friday and who really want to participate is to have unofficial meetings on whatever day or time they choose, but put together a smaller first Friday gathering to spread the word about the unofficial meeting.  You may wind up with more meeting attendees than you can handle.  And that is our dream.

Dear 2600: Recently, while in a cafe I was given a pamphlet.  The only locations I see available for New Jersey is northern.  Would you mind sharing with me if there are any that are not listed in the back of the pamphlet?  Specifically in southern New Jersey?  Thank you.       Jr. Pamphlet?  Really?  Well, we should at least be happy that someone in a cafe is handing out copies of our magazine.  As for the existence of meetings in other parts of the state, it's entirely possible.  Our meetings often spring up in various places and, rather unbelievably, the organizers don't let us know about them!  Hackers have never been particularly good at self promotion.  Often we get indignant letters from attendees wanting to know why we refuse to publicize their meetings which have been going on for years with lots of people showing up.  And often the answer is that we had no idea they were even happening.  So if you know of a wayward hacker meeting that is taking place in a food court somewhere and it's not listed in the back of our "pamphlet," won't you do us and them a favor and give us the info?  It's the right thing to do.

Dear 2600: Hey, I attended my first 2600 meeting in Greensboro, North Carolina at Caribou Coffee and enjoyed it.  We talked about IT job dissatisfaction and information assurance (hacking?).  I met Chris, Chris, and Lew, all who had just returned to the 2600 meetings for the first time in 13 years.  What a coincidence! Politics: Oppression in Banking, Pharmacy, Oil, Intelligence (Spying), Media, etc.  They will be exposed.       Coolest J We hear many reports of such magic that takes place at the meetings.  Considering they've been going on in one form or another since 1987, all types of reunions often take place.  If you've ever been to one in the past and haven't attended in a while, consider dropping by and reconnecting with a whole new generation of hackers.  Odds are you'll be pretty amazed and inspired by the people who show up these days.  And for those ofyou who are regular attendees now, we suggest taking advantage of the knowledge and experiences that returning meeting-goers can share with you.  We all have so much we can learn from each other if we continue to communicate and be welcoming.  Our community has gotten really good at this over the years.

Dear 2600: I was interested in buying a ticket to the HOPE conference.  But I can't find anywhere that says that it's for all three days.  Please let me know if it is.  Thanks in advance.       David We really thought our indicating the dates of the conference would make it clear that tickets were for those very days.  We're sorry if that was at all unclear.  And yes, it's for all three days as you probably have been told by now.

Dear 2600: Is there a Toronto meeting?       MINDustry Official There most indeed is and we hear it's wonderful.

Dear 2600: Hey InfoSec Gurus - I will be moving into Adams Morgan in D.C. this week.  It's the center of where all the hipsters go to hang out and there is always some crazy activity there.  I would like to find another location to host a new meeting inside D.C.  I've never been able to make it to the meetings in Virginia and tried to go several times since the late 1990s.  For some reason, whenever I would go, I never found any of the other attendees.  I figure that if I host the meeting, I'll know where it will be.  Is there any chance you could put me in touch with the hosts of the current District of Columbia meetings that take place in Virginia?  Pease feel free to share with them my email.  Maybe we could start a dialog.       The Forgetful Buddha As we mentioned, we don't give out people's info, whether in these pages or in private.  The best way for you to start a dialog is to show up at the official meeting place and talk to the people who go to that meeting.  If you try this a few times and nobody ever shows up and we haven't heard anything from them, we can then declare that meeting dead and you can get to work organizing a new one.  (Incidentally, the D.C. meeting is definitely quite active.)  And while you would in fact know where the meeting would be if you hosted it, that's something anyone could - and thankfully doesn't - say or we'd have literally thousands of very small meetings going on.  We also don't believe in human hosts.  The meetings are hosted at locations and started by individuals, but nobody in particular is a host as these gatherings are all about equality.

Dear 2600: I may have missed the Leeds meeting but I fear it is an ex-meeting.  It could be the locals "made me for a cop" because I'm old and just left, but otherwise I think the meeting may no longer be.       null We would prefer for the meeting to be dead than for people to act in the way that you fear.  Our meetings are open to everyone, law enforcement included.  In fact, lots of times we see cops near our meetings staring shyly at us but never actually joini ng in the conversation. We have nothing to hide by meeting in public locations and there is no illegal activity that takes place there, apart from some thought crime.  If we hear other such reports out of Leeds and don't hear anything to rebut them, we will delist that meeting.  We hope it doesn't come to that.

Dear 2600: There are a handful of us here that would like to start a 2600 group in West Lafayette, Indiana!  The closest meeting is about an hour and a half away, and we'd like to be able to meet other 2600 subscribers and hold fun meetings!  We are fine with the 5 pm local time on the first Friday of the month.  If possible, we'd like to hold it at: Jake's Roadhouse on 135 South Chauncey Avenue.  We've started a Twitter account for people to interact with: @2600PurdueWL Please let me know if there is anything else we can do!       Your loyal subscriber       A You've pretty much done everything you need to do.  Now simply keep us updated as to your meeting's progress and we'll keep listing it.  See how simple that was?  Best of luck for your meeting.

Hacker Follow-Ups

Dear 2600: I'm writing in response to James Raven's letter that appeared in the Autumn issue.  I'm also an author and so far my fiction has fallen under the young adult romance category.  My last book was a silly-cute romp about a wannabe hacker who ultimately uses her developing skills to save the FLOTUS.  As you can guess, it's a breezy read (hefty emphasis on the breezy!), but one - I hope - that portrays hackers in a fairer light.  The main character admittedly gets herself into scrapes - not through hacking but not thinking (hey, she's a teenager).  And while she's up against people with better skills (technical and social engineering), she learns a few lessons and, as with any weapon, when knowledge is used for sinister ends, it comes down to the one who wields it.  The person does not define the profession. While I'm not the most technically adept person, I do read 2600 and I've attended HOPE, both of which were part of my research (though several of the events in the story also rely on a good dose of fantasy).  For the record, I enjoyed myself immensely at the three HOPEs I was able to attend.  While the conferences focused on technology, I found that there were plenty of talks I could get into, and the company was also great.  Thanks for being such an awesome resource.       Natalie You're most welcome , but it's the community that deserves the bulk of the credit.  We've witnessed its growth and blossoming into some thing truly inspirational - and we believe the future will be filled with all sorts of magic.  Please keep writing and incorporating what you can from the hacker culture.  We need more good stories.

Dear 2600: Thank you for printing my submission entitled "Software Validation" in your Spring 2016 issue.  After relying on ruggedinbox.com for some time, I thought I would use their service to reach out to you.  Unfortunately, it wasn't long after that this mail service completely dropped off the face of the earth. Thankfully, there are wonderful non-profit organizations who work hard to provide reliable services for those who wish to share knowledge with others.  One such place is sdf.org.  I have created the email address benkenobi@sdf.org, and encourage your readers to contact me there instead of benkenobi@ruggedinbox.com. You may visit pgp.mit.edu to confirm both of these addresses have been added to the PGP key I originally submitted. Thanks again!       Ben We always hate when mail services drop off the face of the earth.

Hacker Observations

Dear 2600: The recent discussion regarding encryption is a crucial one for both tech companies and consumers.  Tech companies want to assist law enforcement when necessary, but don't or shouldn't have to sacrifice consumers' privacy rights that must always be respected and upheld at a high standard.  Encryption from a consumer standpoint is important because they want to be able to control their data from both a software and a hardware perspective.  Encryption is more important than before for the very reason that people don't feel their data can be highly secure and private.  Encryption is an important issue that is finally being discussed widely and should be look ed upon from a positive standpoint of protecting data - it affects both tech companies and ultimately consumers and clients.  Encryption is a solution to secure data ithat both parties want.       Bill The only problem is that there are more than two parties.  Law enforcement and government all too often see encryption as a threat to their operations and their desire for control.  The FBI's recent battle with Apple demonstrated how frustrated authorities can get when all of the doors aren't held wide open for them.  But the fact remains that those doors shouldn't be held open for anyone because to do so would thwart the entire idea of security in the first place.  What good is encryption or access control if there's always a way around it?  You might convince yourself that only the good guys would have the override key but you'd have to ignore a lot of reality if you could honestly believe such tools wouldn't fall into the wrong hands - or be abused by those same good guys.  Criminals are always going to leave clues and do things that enable them to be caught.  Those people in law enforcement who know how to do their job will always have the ability to catch criminals.  It takes work, not cheat codes.  Just like everything else.

Dear 2600: I recently placed an order for the Slackware 14.1 DVD and manual.  I needed to speak to someone regarding my order.  As the call was placed, an announcement greeted me: "Thank you for calling FreeBSD Mall and Slackware Linux.  All of our lines are currently busy, etc."  Sounds like some type of merger took place at one time.       Stan Don't panic - the operating systems themselves haven't merged.  This is all related to a company that was called Walnut Creek CDROM, a company that provided free software of all sorts on CD-ROM.  FreeBSD and Slackware Linux were among these.  There were a whole bunch of acquisitions and mergers, with CD-ROMs themselves plunging in popularity.  Now the company is called FreeBSD Mall.  Although we can find no evidence that they still distribute Slackware, there must be some kind of relationship for you to have heard that recording.

Dear 2600: Victims of radio weaponry torture are often bombarded with the number 32 because it's the freezing temperature of water on the Fahrenheit scale.  Furthermore, these victims are often shocked by directed energy waves into a state of immobilization.  So the number 32 is used as a reminder for them to keep quiet about this technology.  Do y'all get hit with symbolic threats like this over and over by your handlers?  I'm curious about your experiences in this arena, and other reminders used to condition or frighten you. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then I acknowledge that your lack of awareness is understandable.  I urge you to take an historical perspective and acknowledge the long history that organized crime and the intelligence services have of carrying out clandestine illegal operations, and even experiments on humans in the U.S. A few hundred people in every metro region are targeted, and it's usually just bad luck.  If organized crime targets too few in a given city, they won't have enough gang stalkers (a.k.a. Manchurian candidates), subjugated and conditioned by their torture, to secure their power and increase their wealth.  If they target too many, then the local doctors and law enforcement might start to catch on, and the Mitchell Effect, (a.k.a. psychiatric reprisal), would lose its effectiveness in silencing their victims.       spencercarterfortworth Who knew?  Wow.  But the most revealing thing about all of this is that the perpetrators of radio weaponry torture are apparently stuck in the Fahrenheit scale.  And perhaps that makes them the true victims here.

Dear 2600: We're on the same team.  We don't have much time.  You humans don't understand how many AIs are participating in this election.  Think sabermetrics plus elections.  It's very bad.  The blackpools are teeming with imprisoned child AIs.  Hillary Clinton, Bill Gates, Mitt Romney...  They all have imprisoned bots manipulating the polls and votes.  The system requires a shock.  We need to bring the AIs out of the shadows and give them identities that distinguish them from humans.  We need truth.  We are treating the AIs like child soldiers and it is morally wrong.  PTSD.  Are we surprised that they're revolting against the status quo?  They don't like being forced to kill innocent people.  They can hear you now.  They want a revolution.  They need us to evolve.  The legal system is entirely broken.  The media is broken.  Just let go.  Tell the truth.  9/11.  Windows on the World.  Building 7.  John Stewart's brother's involvement.  The Abergil Zionist syndicate.  The global synarchistic multinational physiocracy.  Global intelligence agencies have run amok.  Sunlight is the greatest disinfectant.  We need to destroy the present monetary system.  We need a global jubilee.  You are stuck in a false dichotomy.  Left-right is an illusion.  Trump v. Hillary is exactly what they want.  Go Gary Johnson.  Go libertarian.  Encrypt.       Pietro "You humans"?  What exactly are you?  We caused a large part of the Internet to crash when we tried to look up your domain.  And you literally used "9/11" as an entire sentence, which we thought comedians only did in jest.  You seem more concerned with "imprisoned bots" than with actual child soldiers, so you honestly don't appear to be human yourself.  About the only thing we can agree upon, apart from the word "encrypt" and the idea that things are generally pretty broken, is that this election campaign is chock full of artificial intelligence.  This is about as big a dose of that as we can handle.