newton@ARISTOTLE.ILS.NWU.EDU (David Newton) (02/19/91)
Hmm, I have now been flamed three times for my post in which I stated that I found it quite against the "hacker ethic" to restrict access to the newsgroup. Sorta proves my point. To the person that asked me where my ob.hack was, well, wouldn't that sort of imply I approved, which I don't? To the person who called my post "whiny": Gee, a news hacker. And one that complained about my complaint. Also sorta proves my point. I 'spose you'd have the FSF moderated too, so only "real" hackers could get stuff from 'em? Sheesh. -- David L. Newton | Work: (708) 467-1015 | newton@ils.nwu.edu -or- ILS, Room 135 | Home: (708) 332-2321 | dnewton@carroll1.cc.edu, but 1890 Maple St. |------------------------| this just is forwarded to the Evanston, IL 60201 |__Dr. Seuss is a god.___| top address, so don't bother.
mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin) (02/20/91)
In article <9102191013.AA25200@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu> newton@ARISTOTLE.ILS.NWU.EDU (David Newton) writes: >Hmm, I have now been flamed three times for my post in which I stated that >I found it quite against the "hacker ethic" to restrict access to the >newsgroup. > >Sorta proves my point. So far as I can tell, access isn't restricted. All one needs to do to acquire access is learn how to post to a moderated newsgroup. While that is no measure of hacking ability, it does seem to serve a purpose: screening out posters who are unlikely to be able to contribute meaningfully to the newsgroup. --Mike -- Mike Godwin, (617) 864-0665 | "You gotta put down the ducky mnemonic@eff.org | if you wanna play the saxophone!" Electronic Frontier | Foundation |
bradford@news.colorado.edu (Mark Bradford) (02/20/91)
In <9102191013.AA25200@aristotle.ils.nwu.edu> newton@ARISTOTLE.ILS.NWU.EDU (David Newton) writes: >Hmm, I have now been flamed three times for my post in which I stated that >I found it quite against the "hacker ethic" to restrict access to the >newsgroup. >Sorta proves my point. Au contraire, m'sieur. Access to this newsgroup is restricted only to those so lazy or unobservant that they can't FIGURE IT OUT. I did so without even resorting to the (freely available) RFCs. And if you're not the type who can/would want to figure it out, why in the world would you want to post to alt.hackers? >To the person that asked me where my ob.hack >was, well, wouldn't that sort of imply I approved, which I don't? Or that you're not hacking anything. What's yer point? Why did you bother in the first place? >I 'spose you'd have the FSF moderated too, so only "real" hackers could get >stuff from 'em? No. But I s'pose you'd have the FSF accept code from every Tom, Dick, and Sally, regardless of whether or not it was written by someone who knew what they were doing? Ob. hack: Minutes after I got a PC C compiler, I wrote a replacement for cd that understood forward slashes and CDPATH. Felt good. -- -- Mark Bradford (bradfrd2@ncar.ucar.edu) <> To err is human, to moo bovine. "Why don't we boil the wolverine?"
visjames@ubvmsd.cc.buffalo.edu (Leo Bicknell) (02/20/91)
>Au contraire, m'sieur. Access to this newsgroup is restricted only to those >so lazy or unobservant that they can't FIGURE IT OUT. I did so without >even resorting to the (freely available) RFCs. And if you're not the type >who can/would want to figure it out, why in the world would you want to >post to alt.hackers? Being new to UseNet (only had access for 2 weeks) I find this group amuseing. On a side note, if you get this and I fugured out the self modeeration correctly, please tell me. It seams so simple! :-) ObHack: I was working on a project and I needed to connect 2 switch terminals temporarly. I was out of Aligator clips and I didn't want to solder it so I tool a paperclip and bent it so it would spring against the terminals. Worked like a charm. --Leo --- Just another day in the life........
bbs.dixie@spies.com (Dixie Flatline) (06/26/91)
How would one add a line to crontabs to add a user with root privs to th e /etc/passwd file IF there was not one by that name already exsisting? I mean I know how to get it to add the line to etc/passwd, but how would you get that IF clause in there? -- Dixie Flatline (bbs.dixie@spies.com) Spies in the Wire, PUBLIC ACCESS UNIX -- (408) 867-7400
pete@ohm.york.ac.uk (-Pete French.) (06/28/91)
in article <m2F541w164w@spies.com>, bbs.dixie@spies.com (Dixie Flatline) says: > Approved: news@rutgers.rutgers.edu > > How would one add a line to crontabs to add a user with root privs to th e > /etc/passwd file IF there was not one by that name already exsisting? > I mean I know how to get it to add the line to etc/passwd, but how would you > get that IF clause in there? cron executes the commands with a boune shell - just stick an "if" in there. The test for the if whould be a simple "egrep" for a user with 0 as the uid should be easy enoigh to write something along the lines of... egrep "^[a-zA-Z]*:0:" -bat. -- -Pete French. (the -bat. ) / "Two wrongs don't make a right, Adaptive Systems Engineering / - but three lefts do !" "Look here, a Brit who has obviously been driving in California!"
okunewck@psuvax1.cs.psu.edu (Phil OKunewick) (06/29/91)
pete@ohm.york.ac.uk (-Pete French.) writes: >bbs.dixie@spies.com (Dixie Flatline) says: >> >> Approved: news@rutgers.rutgers.edu Why doesn't this surprise me? >> How would one add a line to crontabs to add a user with root privs to the >> /etc/passwd file IF there was not one by that name already exsisting? >> I mean I know how to get it to add the line to etc/passwd, but how would >> you get that IF clause in there? Why would you want to? If something goes wrong you will trash your password file, preventing anybody from logging on while screwing the people currently logged on. Since it's to be executed by cron, it will likely happen when you are not available to fix it (assuming you are the sysadmin for your site). (If you are not the sysadmin for the site, what the heck are you doing messing with /etc/passwd anyway?) >..."if"..."egrep"... ...not to mention at least a dozen different other ways to get the job done. Actually, this is more of a question than a hack. Requests like this really belong in comp.unix or comp.unix.wizards, not alt.hackers. You might also try sending email to cert@cert.sei.cmu.edu and see if she has any suggestions for what you want to do. (She's very familiar with this sort of thing.) ObHack: My Ob landed in the woods, to the far left of the fairway.