jss@rochester.UUCP (01/24/84)
At the University of Rochester, there was an incident of wire fraud committed by one of my fellow students. An article in the school newspaper reviewed the events that had taken place. "Computing items were seized from his room... Among the the items taken by the F.B.I were a computer, floppy disks, and a recent copy of 'Newsweek' magazine containing an art- icle about computers." Obviously this student will serve five to ten in the state pen. If only he didn't have that magazine. It went on to list the stakeout operations and the like and then explained what this kid was actually doing: An unidentified student said that [this student] was involved with a process called computer hacking. Computer hacking is the programmed dialing of a specified number of digits until an access number is found into computerized telephone accounts such as SPRINT or MCI. This was all done with a "motem" by the way, "a computer accessory". Now, is there anyone out there in netland that is a little annoyed about this slandering of hacking, a decent profession? I would like to write an editorial but would prefer statements from a group rather than limit it to just my own. Slightly perturbed, Jon S. Stumpf U. of Rochester rochester!jss P.S. Please keep comments on the net. Thank you in advance.
rpw3@fortune.UUCP (01/31/84)
#R:rocheste:-454400:fortune:14500020:000:551 fortune!rpw3 Jan 31 00:44:00 1984 And please, while we're at it, let's not malign "ferrets"! Ferrets are fine little animals (if a bit bloodthirsty) that track and dig out snakes and rats and the like. In fact, the phrase "to ferret out" ... The Stanford and UCLA systems staffs were ferreting when they were closing in on the {worm? snake? rat?}. Hackers sometimes ferret out buggy code (and sometimes add more). Rob Warnock UUCP: {sri-unix,amd70,hpda,harpo,ihnp4,allegra}!fortune!rpw3 DDD: (415)595-8444 USPS: Fortune Systems Corp, 101 Twin Dolphins Drive, Redwood City, CA 94065
saj@iuvax.UUCP (02/15/84)
#R:rocheste:-454400:iuvax:9100003:000:684 iuvax!apratt Jan 25 12:44:00 1984 I'll post to that. Hacking is when you shave 3 milliseconds off a loop which normally only executes once. It's when you agonize for an hour over the relative value of trimming the core requirement or speeding up the algorithm. Hackers don't mess with security (etc.) unless they're writing the program or else they are also worms (ferrets? snakes?). Me, I enjoy an all-night session which results in no change in visual performance of a program, but which makes the code run much cleaner. That's what it's all about! (This is only half joking; I really DO love hacking!) Ever wake up feeling like a null pointer? -- Allan Pratt ...decvax!ihnp4!inuxc!iuvax!apratt