crunch@well.UUCP (John Draper) (11/26/88)
I'm glad to be getting all this amazing feedback. Here are some more of my comments based on the material posted in "comp.misc". VIRUS ISSUES: >>True. I don't think he realized how grave a mistake he was making at >>the time he was comtemplating releasing his program upon the net. Jail >>would have no affect in any way upon his understanding of this. Sadly, >>the kind of punishment we have nowadays (jails) is the kind which does >>not intend to teach the person why he is being punished. This applies >>to more than just Morris: there are more than one kinds of crime. > I don't think that if Morris is jailed, it will be to teach HIM a >lesson- it will be to scare off other people. That probably would do *some* >good, as some people respond well to intimidation. On the other hand, some >personalities simply take that as a challenge. I don't think, however, that >the press' hyping this talk of 'computer virus' is very healthy. Jail would be the absolutly WORST POSSIBLE thing to do for Mr Morris. Let me explain what I mean by that: About 10 years ago, I was jailed for hacking the phone system as Cap'n Crunch. One thing the authorities completly overlooked was the possibility of the information getting into the wrong hands. I don't know how many people know what it's like in jail, but speaking from experience, there is a LOT of interest among drug dealers, and organized crime in knowledge of hacking. While serving time, I was approached and "pursuaded" by physical violance if I DIDN'T "tell all". So I was forced to give "in gory detail" information on hacking phone systems and computers. Unfortunately, this information is STILL in use by druggies, and mafia types. Jails are schools for crime, and doing time in jail inspires all to "pass the time" by having classes in criminal activities like "lock picking" burglaries, fraud, and other nasty things. ------------------------------------------------- SOVIET RESPONSES: > I have lots of things I'd like to know about them... are they using >tools like spreadsheets, word processing, pop-ups? Can the average >professional hope to have a PC, and if so would it be a model 100, a >C64, or an AT type machine. Do they have a BBS in the USSR? Are there >any decent ales over there? Yes, they are using spreadsheets in a very big way. Mostly FrameWork, and Lotus 123. Most us Microsoft WORD, and use Windows and OS/2. PC's are available from a number of sources, cheapest is from Bulgaria where they manufacture PC Clones for the USSR. No, I suspect that the Soviet Computer user is a little more sophisticated than a model 100. They are into AT's XT's and such. NO unix machines except in Institutions, like the Academy of Sciences. I have not seen any BBS'es nor do I think they will be that popular, unless the revemp their entire phone system. Their phone lines are very noisy, but the bandwidth is slightly better than the USA phone system (they have NO "T" carrier limiting bandwidth). Error correcting modems would be needed, and cannot be purchased by Rubles (As far as I know). Re the last question "decent ales" I fail to understand what that means. you might want to re-phrase that... ------------------------------------------------- >Have you ever been in Soviet? Have you ever heard of the massive interest >that the Soviet people shows about USA? No, they don't listen on the >American radio broadcasted to the Soviet (they are already fed up with >propaganda), but they read all the magasines and newspapers they can get. >A surprisingly big part of the younger people speeks english, and takes >every opportunity to practise. The younger generation is very tired of the >old peoples demagogic speeches of old times, and they regard western countries >as something very exciting and as a source of new thinking. >You can quite comfortable regard the people of the Soviet union as your >friends. I won't say though that all of the leaders in Soviet are your best >friends, but that doesn't differ from USA, does it? This is MY case in point. Americans, and other Westerners in general are VERY ignorant about the USSR. And unless they have been there RECENTLY (I repeat-- RECENTLY), they shouldn't make assumptions. The Soviets are "right up there !!" as far as knowledge of what computer systems are available (in the WEST). They read about them in magazines, but have NOT seen most of the NEW ones like Macs and SUNs. Especially the younger people. They are very eager to pursue capitalistic ideas and are even encouraged to do so by their government. Keep those inquirys coming in, as I am collecting them to pass on to our Soviet friends anxiously awaiting to get a view of what the Americans think of them. I won't send them any postings as I recieve them (unless specifically directed to do so), instead, I'm collecting a short summary of the responses like: xx% Negative, yy% positive. Etc. John D. Programmers Network uunet!acad!well!crunch