Letters: VAPORS

Notations

Dear 2600: In 30:3, pixter warns that you cannot connect a power supply capable of delivering more than one amp to a Raspberry Pi, or it will destroy the processor. Having read the cited Nuts & Volts magazine article, it simply states that if you use a power supply that can deliver more than one amp and you do something stupid and cause a short circuit, you might draw so much current that you bum out the polyfuse permanently instead of just tripping it temporarily.  The processor will be fine and, should this happen, the polyfuse can be bypassed (as some people do already if the voltage on the downstream USB ports is too far below 5V). If you're careful, then there is no problem using a high current power supply.  I just wanted to set the record straight as the warning sounded so dire!       Malvineous

Dear 2600: In issue 30:2, Les Hogan fantasized in the letters section about coming back to life and scaring the crap out of his four time great grandson, Little Jimmy. He had asked if anyone knew who has the record for having the same phone number the longest.  I did a little digging around and found that the Guinness World Records folks have a... well, you guessed it, a world record for "most durable mobile phone number." The record goes out to David Contorno, of Lemont, Illinois.  Mr. Contorno has had the 312-550-0512 number since August 2, 1985!  The first mobile phone David owned was an Ameritech AC140 put out by Ameritech Mobile Communications.  The article goes on to say that David has used Ameritech Mobile Communications ever since 1985.  That must have been a heck of a contract! I can't find who has had a landline the longest, but it seems it's common to have grandparents that have had the same phone number for the past 40 or 50 years. In any case, I think Les should call the Guinness World Records organization and get the wheels rolling for a "most durable landline number" record: 718-513-7270       Samuel Just to be clear, that phone number at the end isn't durable at all, but is the actual phone number for the Guinness people.  (You can tell it's not that old since the middle digit of the exchange is a one, which wasn't possible before the 1980s.)  We can't imagine why David allowed his phone number to be printed by Guinness like that (we wouldn't have printed it ourselves if it wasn't already public knowledge).  Regarding landline longevity, we again feel compelled to point out that the home of the HOPE conferences, New York's Hotel Pennsylvania, has had the PEnnsylvania 6-5000 phone number in the 212 area code since around 1930.  Who can beat that?

Dear 2600: In 30:2, Les Hogan commented about phone number legacy.  My father lives on the family farm, which has the same number my great-grandfather had - and he died in the late-1960s.  In fact, it's still in his name.       T That opens the door to another interesting question: how many phone bills (or other bills, for that matter) have remained in the name of someone who's long since passed?  It's not like utility companies come out and take pulses occasionally.  We wonder what the longest period is that someone has kept a deceased relative listed as an active bill payer.

Questions

Dear 2600: I apologize for contacting you, however, I am writing to you as scientist in relation to my master thesis research project at Queen's University Belfast (School of Psychology).  I am doing my master thesis in the field of political psychology and analyze stereotypes within the hacktivist community.  As in previous interviews, participants were often referring to 2600.  I was hoping that someone within the board of The Hacker Quarterly might help me with my qualitative research and would be interested in participating in an approximately one-hour interview through Skype or any other preferred service. To make this email more reliable, I would like to outline the research in detail:       L O.K., let us stop you right there.  Had we printed your "outline," it would have gone all the way to the end of the entire letters section.  While we support what you're doing, nobody here has the time to do this sort of thing.  (We didn't even have time to skim the entire outline.)  What we suggest is that you reach out to the hacker community, perhaps through one of our free Marketplace ads, and you might get some decent responses that way.  But we're just too busy with magazine-related stuff and we get so many requests of this nature that this is the best we can offer.

Dear 2600: If this photo is not good enough quality and you'd like a better one then please let me know and I'll take another.       Rob You should probably take another or at least remember next time to attach the one you're referring to here.  It is simply unbelievable how many such emails we get each month.

Dear 2600: From the Fiat I rented recently in Toronto.  The PIN number to connect my Bluetooth phone looked strangely familiar!       Saskman We can only imagine.

Dear 2600: Found dozens of these booths all over old city Quebec.  They looked rather unloved.       Drax26 Not as unloved as not being seen at all.

Dear 2600: Can you see it?       kmk The fact that someone would ask this indicates that they knew there was a decent chance of their sending 110 image at all.  Or perhaps it's more of a metaphysical question.  Regardless, we don't see an image, we don't see a point, and we don't see any reason to subject our readers to more of these.

Dear 2600: Hey!  I want to submit two articles to 2600.  The reason why I am emailing is because I want to know if the subject matter is O.K. before sending in the articles. The first article I want to write will be about being polite within the hacker and tech community.  I feel that many people offend each other by accident.  My article would focus on how to avoid offending people or avoiding arguments. The second article would be on how to apologize and reconcile within the hacker and tech community.  I feel that many people may have tech skills but lack skills in communicating with others.  Both my articles will be based on interviews from one of the keynote speakers of DevCon 5 Los Angeles.  Please let me know if either topic is acceptable for printing at 2600.       Glenn We find ourselves offended by the suggestion that people in our community are offending other people.  We hope that your second article contains a suitable apology for the suggestions contained in the first one.  And we hope you also focus on the sense of humor that infests the hacker world.  We look forward to seeing your articles.  Seriously.

Dear 2600: A quick search of your archives yielded no articles on securing industrial control systems.  Can you point me to any relevant articles?  I purchased the last three years of annual digests but have not been provided a link to download yet.       John Hang on.  You're saying you bought our online digests and didn't immediately get a download link?  How are you not filled with utter rage and threats?  This definitely isn't acceptable.  Please email orders@2600.com immediately so we can resolve that.  Whenever you order any of our online content, you should see the blue download link in the upper right-hand side of your screen as soon as your order goes through. Regarding the archive question, the best way to search our content currently is to use the search mechanism at store.2600.com.  In addition to articles, this will also give you results from all of the HOPE conference presentations.

Dear 2600: I am interested in locating an article you published a few years ago on hacking the Target department stores' wireless networks.  I looked in the archive and was not able to find it.  Could you please give me a reference location for that article.  With the current news about Target, I would like to check the article out again.  The news media is now stating that the hack has taken place through the credit card clearinghouses.  The article would still be of interest.  Thanks.       Chuck We do seem to have had a number of articles on Target over the years, again all findable through the search mechanism at store.2600.com.

Dear 2600: I found really dangerous malware and servers in China (I think) that almost all anti-virus companies could not detect! Would you please help me to complete my report and publish this news in your magazine?       M Y We can't help you write your report, but we'd be interested in seeing what you discover.  If we find it something our readers would benefit from, there's a good chance we'll print it.

Dear 2600: I recently went through a divorce.  How would I go about changing my address?       Norman Moving is the easiest way to change your address, regardless of whether or not you're divorced. Assuming you didn't want a wise-ass response to your inquiry, we have to try and figure out the context with which you posed the question.  It's most likely you were asking us how to change the address we have on file for you for the magazine.  For that, you need to contact us either by mail, email, or phone.  We'll need the info that's on your address label for verification.  Of course, that's something your divorce partner might also gain access to if you're not careful.

Dear 2600: We see you are the owner of the domain 2600.com.  We are developing a project and need the domain.  Please let me know if it's for sale.       Eric Lee Well, we had a good run, but we always said that if somebody else needed the domain, we wouldn't stand in the way.  And a "project" certainly sounds like something worthwhile.  By the time this is printed, we will have made the transfer.  So... now we need a new name.

Dear 2600: After several years reading 2600 off and on via over the counter purchases, I have articles to share that will interest your readers. Article guidelines?  Submission guidelines?  Terms and conditions I should know up front? From past readings of 2600, content guidelines seem kinda loose and free flowing, and I know that asking for guidelines up front can make a big difference. What moved me?  The tone and flavor of 2600 editor responses in the letters section (Fall 2013 edition).  I was amazed at the supportive and positive editorial replies, and the general positive tone and demeanor presented.  I have done technical writing in several creative hostile and emotionally hostile environments.  The tone and demeanor of the Fall 2013 editorial feedback was inspiring - an impressive effort to uplift your readers from their "funk" - even in the cases where your readers exhibit some emotional and technical "brain damage" to their writing approach. We all have writer's "brain damage" - it is just a matter of degree. Feedback welcomed.       Juan We're glad you appreciate our "style" and hope to see your articles soon.  The guidelines are simple - make it interesting to a hacker audience, write from a hacker perspective, don't be too brief, but don't be too long-winded either.  The best way to see what we mean is to simply read a dozen or so articles that we've printed.  As for what happens once you submit something to articles@2600.com, you should get an immediate auto-response (no more than one every few days in case you send multiple submissions).  You will generally hear if it's been selected before the next issue goes to print and, if that happens, you'll get more details as to when your article is likely to be published.  Sometimes we fall behind and sometimes it's lightning fast.  We'll contact you after it's printed to give you a choice of various items we offer to authors.  We do insist that any articles we publish not have been made available elsewhere (in print, on blogs, websites, sides of buildings, etc.) until after it comes out in our pages.  After that, you're free to do whatever you wish with it as it's still your article.  It may appear in future volumes or collections that we publish as well.  We hope that answers your questions.

Dear 2600: wht is this hello i just got your web site on search tell me what your goals?       Tina We would absolutely love to see just how people arrive at this stage of befuddlement.  Some kind of a web search gone wrong leads them to us and their lives are, at least temporarily, thrown into confusion and turmoil.  That is the true beauty of the Net. If this writer actually manages to get a copy of the magazine and sees our response, all we can say is to read what goes on inside these pages and that ought to give you at least a partial view of what some of our goals are.

Dear 2600: Hello?  I want to get data that come from encrypted database of chat records of Tencent Weixin.       zhangganghong18 We thought you'd never ask.  Seriously, what exactly do people think we do with our time?  (For those who may not know, Tencent is a massive Chinese Internet company and Weixin is a chat app.)

Dear 2600: In the vein of Joe's letter in 30:3 about securing payphones, I am doing some research on parking meters.  I mean the old school meters that take coins which are still plentiful here in New York City.  I am trying to find out how the companies go about securing these parking meters, where the locks get made, and how one can go about unlocking one.       Brainwaste We imagine this would indeed be similar to unlocking the cashbox on a payphone, particularly back in the old days when one key would work for a and large number of phones.  Getting a copy or a mold of a parking meter key would likely give you access to quite a lot of them.  We'll print the info if we get it but strongly advise against actually opening up one of these things.  There are few activities which could look more suspicious than opening up a parking meter.  And, of course, the people who unlock such devices with theft in mind often tend not to think of just how heavy coins can get relatively quickly.

Dear 2600: I am interested in a subscription. However, it is near impossible for me to arrange a money order.  Would it be possible for me to pay via U.S. postage "forever" stamps?  Obviously, I under stand there may be an extra surcharge.       Michael       Federal Prison In special circumstances such as yours, we try to accommodate when possible.  As those particular kinds of stamps don't lose value, we're willing to accept them as the equivalent of cash without any additional charges.  So this doesn't get out of control, these are the only kinds of stamps we'll consider taking and only as an experiment.  We hope it works out.

Accusations

Dear 2600: We are a small business starting up a website which has just been hacked and destroyed by one of your readers.  Of course, it could be anybody, but signing off "Hack2600/MFAD" does point perhaps unfairly in your direction. On the publisher's web site, the subscribers to Hacker 2600 and the magazine itself are described thus: "Published by hackers since 1984, 2600 is a true window into the minds of some of today's most creative and intelligent people."  I can hardly agree with "creative and intelligent," since all they have done is guess our moderate and temporary password while we get up and running.  Lesson learnt. It will take a fair amount of work to rebuild - time and resources which should be spent on other aspects of the business.  I doubt that any of "today's most creative and intelligent people" even consider this when they do what they do in cowardly anonymity. This is not a first for me; I've been in IT for many years and seen this many times.  Hackers and spammers have over the years gradually worked their way into third place, just below National Socialist Party and pedophiles on a list of people I'd have sent to one way out of the solar system. But who cares?  I'm just some little guy trying to run a business.  Oh well, back to the rebuild.       Simon       England Wow.  So perhaps every time somebody named Simon says or does something stupid, we should look your way?  Just because a name is used does not mean there's any affiliation or connection to anyone else using that name.  Even if you assume that somebody is a reader of ours simply because they have "2600" as part of their name, how does that equate to representing all of our readers?  You don't even know the context of their signature - "Hack2600" could mean that we're the next stop on their hacking rampage.  And you certainly aren't looking into the MFAD connection, whatever the hell that is.  Clearly, you're not that familiar with what we're all about (for instance, we're not called "Hacker 2600").  We believe you would benefit greatly from listening to what our writers (and readers) say.  You would learn a ton about security and how to avoid the kinds of things that you say you keep encountering.  More importantly, you would learn not to lump a whole group of people into a category based on perceptions obtained from dubious sources.  And, as you continue to work on your rebuild, take some time to acknowledge the people designing some of the software you're using because it's very likely they're a part of the very community you're condemning.

Dear 2600: Your whiny editorial bleatings about loving freedom of information and knowledge might have been believable if you were agitating for disclosure of the full fact-set regarding the Benghazi massacres, or of the Vince Foster papers. But you aren't, because you ain't.       Lifetime Subscriber One might almost suspect there's an agenda here.

Litigation

Dear 2600: I was wondering if you could help shed any light on legal rights around readers republishing content from 2600 Magazine. More specifically, there is a website that has republished a couple of articles I wrote that were published in 2600 several years back.  The site hosts anti-Semitic and bigoted opinions and views that I don't agree with and don't wish to be associated with and, as such, I requested the webmaster remove those articles.  He has refused to comply. I know that 2600 says that authors retain the right to publish their articles anywhere that they'd like after they have been published in the magazine itself.  Likewise, do authors retain their right to control where the content is or is not published?  Does 2600 retain rights on who cannot republish? Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.       Nick This is certainly an interesting situation, one which has never come up before.  We try to keep things as simple as possible without injecting a lot of legalese that tends to stifle the creative process and keep material from being shared.  In general, if someone asks us if they can reprint something from one of our issues, we permit it provided they give attribution.  If, however, one of our writers specifically requests that an entity outside of 2600 not be permitted to do this, we will honor that request and not grant such permission.  Assuming we didn't already give permission for reprinting this material, your wishes should be followed.  It gets a bit sticky, however, when someone refuses to honor such a request.  You could go after him legally, but odds are that would cost you money and get him publicity, even if you won.  It being the Internet, it can be impossible to remove content and, often, attempts to do so wind up backfiring.  We think there must be a more creative hacker-inspired solution to this.  We ask our readers to help us come up with ideas.

Dear 2600: Just a heads up: your YouTube videos aren't available in all countries.  Can you resolve this?       Very Anonymous The way Google/YouTube operates on such matters is quite disconcerting.  Both audio and video content are analyzed and compared to ensure there are no copyright violations and aggressively restricted if there are.  Of course, we're forced to live by extremely strict interpretations of what a copyright violation is.  A song playing in the background could trigger this, as could an image from a movie or television program.  There are different levels of what can happen when violations are found, ranging from account suspension to being forced to run an ad for the company claiming ownership of the audio or video content.  And in many cases, those rules differ from country to country.  We've found that a number of our HOPE videos are restricted from being seen in Germany because of some legal issue involving rights to a bit of music heard before, during, or after a talk that weren't cleared in that country.  It's an insane system that hinders so much creativity and dissemination of information.  Does it really matter if you hear a snippet of a song in a video that clearly isn't focusing on the music?  In the world of litigation, it apparently does, but we shouldn't be forced to accept those draconian rules in the course of our daily lives. One of the best examples of the absurdity of this system came when we tried to share a video of a talk given at The Last HOPE.  One of our speakers had been featured on The Colbert Report and showed an excerpt during his talk.  When we made this available via Channel2600 on YouTube, our account was suspended for violating Viacom's copyright.  So, even though this brief clip was completely about the person giving the talk, and that person clearly wanted it to be seen, in this crazy copyright-crazed society we're building, they had absolutely no right to share this material.  It gets better.  Not only could we not share it in any way (audio or video), but the clip wasn't available on The Colbert Report's website or anywhere within (((Viacom))).  So it's not like they wanted to be the sole providers of the content; they didn't want anyone to provide the content, period.  And legally, they can get away with that.  But that doesn't mean it's right or makes any sense.  Incidentally, all of this is automated; it's next to impossible to actually speak to a human about any of these actions.  We've tried.  What's frightening is that the technology is only going to get more advanced and "intelligent."  There is great potential for far-reaching restrictions that we can't even imagine.

Conversation

Dear 2600: In response to Barrett D. Brown (30:3), respectfully, you seem to have missed the point.  If you're writing for compensation, go send your articles to some commercial magazine.  There are plenty around.  If you're writing to contribute to a community, send your articles to 2600.  At any rate, please stop complaining.  It's rude, and kind of annoying. 2600, thanks for continuing to put out the best rag on the planet.  Having read back issues from 1984 to 1990 and every issue since 1999, I can pretty confidently say that you have done a great job of filling the magazine with relevant, interesting articles since day one.  (Nothing from 1991 to 1998 is going to make me a liar, is it?)  Hopefully, one of these days, I'll write an article worth printing and when I do, you can keep the t-shirt.  Seeing my words in your magazine will be payment enough.       Tyler Thanks for the kind words, but let's be clear about who makes this magazine truly magical.  Our readers who become writers and share their experiences, thoughts, and ideas with the rest of the community are the ones who make the framework.  We provide the vessel and a bit of guidance.  But what we do is merely a reflection of what's already out there.  It's an honor to be able to wrap it into cohesive bits four times a year.  Regarding the meager compensation we do offer, please accept and wear the shirt.  The more people walking around with these things on, the more new people we can reach.  You'll probably have some really interesting conversations, too, as a result.  As for the content from 1991 to 1998, we believe it stands up, even the stuff from the gas-leak year.

Dear 2600: Feelings on "Black and White - The Growing Schism Between Hackers and the Law" (30:4) by Scott Arciszewski: I found this article particularly important, not in that I've been negatively impacted by the law (thankfully) for any type of hacking, but I really felt it was important to touch on the note of anonymity he stresses.  In regards to the wonderful article by lg0p89 about my hacker maturation cycle, I'd like to say I'm in the "sapling" stage.  Maybe his message might just be the obfuscation of mine...  We just need to plant more seeds. Mr. Arciszewski states that being anonymous is the first priority.  I realize, ironically, I'm planning on sending this from my personal email address... and I don't care.  Now, I don't mean to say that and imply he's wrong - in fact, I completely agree.  It amazes me to this day how difficult it is becoming to remain truly "anonymous" as well; I find myself in a new career position in which a lot of my co-employees would benefit from certain articles or perhaps some of my own "white hatting."  My desire to share with them is immense, but my worry of where their mind goes the moment they see the term "The Hacker Quarterly" across the magazine certainly comes to mind.  Or , mainly, if I present these ideas, am I going to be thanked, or be without a job?  How can I prevent the latter from happening? Before reading the article, I had just purchased my 2600 shirt and calendar - the calendar I intended for work.  Sadly, it may have to stay at home.  But I want to point out, I think there are other methods we can use to get people at least thinking like "we" (hackers) do; I ultimately feel that a lot of our movement fails in the classification/labels that we hold so dearly.  I simply wish there was some way of changing the public's perception of what a true "hacker" is, which I think is embodied in the 2600 community I've read and come to know since I was 12. It's almost like 2600 30:4 came at a critical moment for me, and it's great to be able to say that back in even 1987, you guys were already blowing the whistle on these agencies like the NSA, etc.  Everything is so relevant to the fact that the government seems to really like making whatever is a threat to their power (knowledge being the largest) the perceived enemy or bad guy. Mr. Arciszewski states (in regards to getting the feds/police to stop arresting us): "that won't happen."  I agree, although I'll point out I still feel, through the venues like 2600 and by maybe more obfuscated methods, we can get our message out.  For multiple years, I've had the tendency of leaving copies of 2600 in restroom stalls, or I just happen to leave a copy at a few friends' houses...  I always make it a point to have the conversation about my interpretation of what "hacking" politically and sociologically means to me.  The only reason I have any grasp on that is what I can thank 2600 for.  But 2600 is more than a number, more than a magazine, more than the definition of "hackers;" it is a movement, and a positive one, which can collectively grow if we just work on eliminating that fear of the "H" word. Thanks for reading, and thanks for everything.       Phedre And thanks to you for this thoughtful letter.  One way of working to correct the inaccuracies concerning hackers in the media is to call them out when they clearly get it wrong.  How many times have we seen stories that report a massive security hole, yet the only threat is what might happen if "hackers" gain access to it?  As if these were the only people who could eve r do something malicious with an insecure system.  We've seen an increasing number of media outlets use a more accurate term like "attackers" to describe those who, well, attack a system or security hole.  To be clear, these could very well include hackers.  But they can include all sorts of other people because there's not a whole lot of technical ability that's needed to exploit a lot of vulnerable systems.  Just like you don't have to be a computer programmer to run a program, you don't have to be a hacker to mess with technology.  What hackers will do is figure out entirely new methods of both exploiting and protecting systems - and they will usually tell anyone interested in learning.  The people labeled as such in the media almost always have no such interest or skill.

Dear 2600: What exactly is the status of Tor? It seems to be a back-and-forth yes/no between the media and Tor itself.  I was surprised to see an article in the Winter 2013-14 issue of 2600 recommending the Tor Browser Bundle, considering all of the videos and news articles as far back as August of last year when The Guardian was releasing detailed articles on how the NSA "cracked" Tor.  I would really like to hear 2600's opinion on this in the next issue. If the NSA manages to circumvent every attempt at anonymity, maybe it's time the people of the free (and/or not so free) world went head-to-head with them.  Yes... they have ridiculous computing power, storage facilities, etc., but combined computing, like the SETI and Genome projects could rally the resources of pissed off people who are sick of their privacy rights being violated on an unprecedented scale.  If the NSA was overwhelmed with anonymous/randomly generated key words, trigger phrases, etc., maybe it would render them ineffective, at least until (hopefully) their current methods are curtailed through legal avenues. I think the number of participants would far exceed any of the well known combined computing projects in existence.  When I asked my friend's grandmother if she would install such a thing on her computer, she replied "in a heartbeat!" because she is so pissed at the government. Of course, for the average non-techno-savvy Joe, the deciding factor could be their anonymity in being involved in such a project, which would require many Tor-like services.  This brings me back to my original question.  (It's just something to ponder.)       ~justanothersubscriber We believe Tor is still one of the best means of anonymously using the Net.  But that doesn't mean it's secure for people who don't take certain precautions.  Some would argue that using Tor Browser Bundle in Windows is a security risk in itself.  We also see advice to not use Tor from your home or to use it for too long from the same place.  If you're involved in some thing truly risky, these precautions are common sense.  But for those who simply want to hold onto a bit of their privacy and aren't expecting to have their doors kicked in if it's violated, we find Tor is enough to at least slow the surveillance process down significantly.  If it's only used by people who are on a government list of subversives, then it's a whole lot easier for them to be tracked down.  However, if it's used by a significant percentage of the population, especially those who have "nothing to hide" but choose to protect their private info anyway, then the job of the trackers becomes incrementally more difficult and frustrating.  So, in short, Tor is still one of the most useful tools out there but, as with most of these things, its true strength comes in numbers and in user awareness.

Clarification

Dear 2600: What I like about 2600 is I get to read about topics I know next to nothing about, such as what "Telecom Informer" brings us each quarter.  Other times, I learn more about a topic I thought I already knew a lot about, such as Tor.  But then I read articles such as Part Two of the Minuteman III weapons systems and feel compelled to respond. The idea that VHF radios can only be operated on water is false.  The VHF maritime band is a tiny sliver of the VHF spectrum (30 to 300 MHz) and, while it's true those frequencies are only to be used on or near water, the FCC does allow them to be used for other purposes in areas without major bodies of water.  Police departments, highway patrols, aircraft, ham radio operators, businesses, FM radio broadcasters are among the countless users of the VHF spectrum.  What prohibits transmitting is the lack of a license.  It has nothing to do with water.  Additionally, it's illegal to intentionally interfere with the primary license holder. A quick glance at RadioReference.com shows many missile bases in the U.S. are using UHF trunked systems and they're all encrypted.  Trust me, anything remotely related to our nuclear weapons has long been encrypted. Given that, it's not a complete waste of time monitoring an encrypted channel.  Sure, you won't understand anything being said, but you will know something is being communicated.  If, under normal circumstances there's chatter, say, once an hour, and all of a sudden the chatter is nonstop, something is happening.  Probably a drill, but it could be the start of World War III.       byeman

Dear 2600: In 30:4, Bad Bobby's Basement Bandits had an article about the Minuteman III weapons systems and the crews that operate them. In this article, he (they?) mentioned VHF radios, and that civilian use of VHF radios was strictly for boating. The VHF band is a very large space, ranging from 30 to 300 MHz.  It includes, amongst other things, 12 channels used for TV broadcasting, the entire FM broadcast band (201 channels there), three ham radio bands, old (very old) cordless phones, aircraft (private, commercial , and military), railroads, various fire, police, and ambulance services, and random businesses including, as so nicely demonstrated in Freedom Downtime, the local McDonald's drive-through window.  There are even five channels set aside making up the Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS) which can be used by any U.S. citizen for most any purpose - much like a CB, but with smaller antennas and fewer users. VHF is hardly the sole domain of maritime and military users.  The band is crowded, but it holds many different classes of user.       Glenn

Dear 2600: I just wanted to make a correction to the article on the Minuteman III system article in 30:4.  The author states that the VHF radio bands are only to be used near large bodies of water.  This is actually not entirely true.  The marine band portion of the VHF radio system is this way, but the marine band is in no way the only VHF radio service out there.  Two-meter amateur radio is VHF, as is the Multi-Use Radio Service (MURS), which is license-free if you meet the power requirements.  Many local police, fire, and EMS agencies still use VHF systems, as well as businesses, individuals, and yes, the military as well.  The key to remember is the frequency used.  Most of the VHF military frequencies are in the 160-174 MHz range, as well as some in the 138-150 MHz range, and still more in the low VHF range of 29-50 MHz.  Marine radio frequencies are in the 156-160 MHz range.  The only military traffic you will hear on marine radio is likely the Coast Guard.  And yes, it is illegal to use a marine radio in an area not near a large body of water.  It is not illegal to use VHF in general inland, as long as it's a frequency you are authorized to use.       William This certainly generated a good amount of responses correcting the initial statement.  Thanks to all of you for the clarification.

Dear 2600: In 30:4 of 2600, the column "Transmissions" by Dragorn mentions building a device to indicate when an E-Z Pass is triggered by a reader.  In the January 2014 issue of Popular Science, on page 72, there is a mention of how to do this and a link to the circuit at popsci.com/ezhack.  These instructions were written by Puking Monkey, the same person mentioned in Dragorn's article.       Bandersnatch

Donations

Dear 2600: I'm not sure if I'm the only one vibing on the community here, but what if you asked for volunteers willing to OCR and correct old issues? I'd be happy to do a few.  I don't think I can commit to a whole volume.  But if you need a few issues digitized, let me know.  I already have copies of most of them (inherited from old friends and sought out) and wouldn't expect anything in return, except maybe gratitude.  Those old issues are a treasure trove of interesting information, the annals of hacking, if you will.  And I'd be happy just knowing I did my part to allow the young ones of today to experience the magic.       T We do appreciate such offers.  Our project is to present these issues in a number of formats, both text and graphically based.  That means it's not simply a matter of scanning, and the limitations of OCR software coupled with our frequent use of microscopic text makes this a very time consuming project.  But it's one we care about and one we want to really get right.  As of now, the amount of people buying the older digests doesn't justify the amount of work we're putting into them.  We understand it may seem strange to pay up to ten bucks for a year of material that's more than one or two decades old.  But that investment helps us make the archiving project possible.  We fully intend to get it done one way or another.  The only real question is how long it'll take.

Dear 2600: I am the proud owner of the account @2600 at app.net.  Since I never used it after I created the account (I just followed a few people, but did not even read the timeline), I decided that I should give this away to you.  If you are interested, please let me know.  I ask for nothing in return, but if you want to do something, I suggest you donate a real good sleeping back to a random homeless, or something like this? Deal? Best regards and thanks for all the good work.       Dennis Thanks for the offer - it sounds like a fair deal.  (We assume you mean "sleeping bag" as we have no idea what donating a "sleeping back" would entail.)

Contributions

Dear 2600: I am interested in purchasing some annual digests in PDF format.  May I suggest a subscription type product? For a $260 single payment (same as for my lifetime print subscription), the buyer gets PDFs of all the annual digests currently available and, for life, each additional digest (both filling in old ones and adding new each year) as they become available.  By purchasing this "subscription," the reader makes a significant financial contribution to the project of digitizing all past issues. What do you think?       sol That's a damn good idea and one we're going to seriously consider.  But it would have to apply only to the PDF version as we have no access to customer information for the Kindle version.  We're curious what others think of this creative solution.

Dear 2600: I have been a faithful reader for the past ten years.  Keep up the inspiring and innovative work!  Also, for the past ten years, I have been a malware analyst and an inventor.  For the past two years, I have been working on my XE-2600b malware interceptor, which will hopefully allow me to capture malicious code trying to attack my test network for studying and reverse engineering.  I was wondering if there were any such projects already in development.  Keep up the good work.       flames As there is no shortage of malicious code trying to attack networks, there is an abundance of creative types looking for ways to counter that and provide a valuable tool to the community.  You can read about their exploits (pun intended) here or find others who would be interested in this sort of thing at hacker conferences and 2600 meetings.  We look forward to following the progress.

Investigations

Dear 2600: I have no one else to turn to.  Authorities won't help me and I have tried my best to find this person.  He has been harassing my sisters and now one of my friends.  And now he's threatening to expose her on every social page.  I want his address and his name.  If you are interested in helping me, I will give you his phone number and the email address.       Jeremy First off, if you have someone's phone number and email address, that's enough information in most cases to track them down if they are truly posing a threat.  Have you asked yourself what you would actually do if you knew exactly who and where this person was?  And, having answered that, is it really a good idea?  It's easy to get wrapped up in this kind of crap and make it a whole lot bigger than it really is.  You can block phone numbers and filter out email addresses.  Most of the time, it's the reaction that fuels a harasser.  Take that away and they tend to lose whatever power they're holding onto.

Dear 2600: I recently had a first-hand experience with social engineering.  My significant other began playing a popular word game with an ex.  At the time, we shared a mini-tablet and it seemed innocuous enough at first, but some messages came through that proved otherwise.  In a small fit of anger, I put a keystroke logger on a semi-shared laptop.  I got three of the four relevant passwords that I needed to more closely monitor the situation.  The fourth proved to be quite stubborn since it was for an account that wasn't accessed on the laptop, but on my SO's phone.  Here 's where the engineering came in.  I have a PoS phone that I have complained about regularly.  I used this to my advantage.  I requested to be sent a photo that was only on the laptop and further required that it be sent from said fourth account.  This was under the guise that "I can't save photos to this PoS phone that are sent from any other account."  Voilà!  (I will add that the logger was eventually discovered due to user error, but by then it had well served its purpose.) P.S.  Do you send notification if a letter will be published, or if it will just be ignored?       pathos.ethos We look forward to seeing this story play out on an afternoon talk show, hopefully with flying chair and phones.  As for notification of letter publication, you're looking at it.  Hopefully.

Dear 2600: Recently, while working on a client's computer, I was asked to install a Wi-Fi adapter dongle that has no markings as to make or model.  The device itself would not install device drivers onto the computer.  Having left my Ubuntu Live USB drive at home, which normally is able to tell me deeper information of hardware on a device, and only being left with my R&D laptop (Toshiba Portege M405) with a base install of Windows Vista, I had to resort to other methods.  The dongle has Wi-Fi N on the top and, past that, any user trying to determine what this was to get a driver for it would have had to do an image search and hope they found what they were looking for.  In the process of looking through the scant documentation, I noticed that the chipset is a Ralink RT5370 which, after a quick Google search, brought me to www.ralinktech.com which has recently merged with MediaTek.  Both of these companies I have personally never heard of, but I was able to click through and find proper drivers for it and was able to finish my task.  Thought this would be an interesting little tidbit for anyone going through the same issues that I just went through. Love the magazine - glad to have such a great source of technical information at my fingertips that is created by the readers.       --handle-need-not-apply--

Dear 2600: I don't know if you all get these kinds of requests or not, but I'm a student at one of the local community colleges here in Denver.  I've been reading your mag for quite some time.  I know you all ask to subscribe to the mag and have a subscription if you want to even think about posting, but in truth I was a little skeptical about who all had access to that information.  Now, years later, I've kind of cleaned up my act and am trying to move over to the other side of the hats.  Hence, the schooling.  Now for the main reason for this rant...  I'm doing a report mainly based on privacy and, hence, am including info on SOPA and PIPA.  The thing is, most of my works cited are conglomerate B.S., if you know what I mean.  I was wondering if maybe anybody there at headquarters might be willing to help me out with any info regarding privacy and how it affects society today that you might have in that vast library of yours.  If so, I would be more than grateful.       Joseph The Electronic Frontier Foundation has a real treasure trove of material online that should help you get a sense of the history and the significance.  You can also find quite a bit from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center.  Through all of these, you'll undoubtedly find more. Please don't worry about who may find out what you're reading, at least not to the extent that it changes what you read.  The more people who refuse to take this seriously, the less serious it can be.

Suggestions

Dear 2600: I want to ask you if you'd be interested in publishing an article about our latest discovery: how to scam 2600 Magazine and gain free subscriptions, magazines, t-shirts, email bounce backs, etc.  This should work worldwide.  By the way, I belong to an intergalactic white hat, elite hacking, super illuminated, certified, white hat hacking federation called White Jacket Hacking Group Worldwide.  LOL       Bob Hardey's Mom Let's see if we can guess.  You send us an article which details how to get free stuff from us by writing articles to get free stuff and then we send you some free stuff in exchange for the article.  If you can put something together that goes on for more than a sentence or two, it might be worth it.

Dear 2600: In a recent tidy-up, I found some old 28.8k dial-up modems.  I remember experimenting with them years ago, and I discovered that if you connected two modems to the same phone line (by plugging them into a double-adapter and plugging that into the wall socket), they could be told to connect without making a phone call - very exciting at a time when this was your only means of connecting two computers together! However, if you just connected the modems together (into the same double-adapter but not plugging it into the wall socket), it wouldn't work.  The modems couldn't hear each other without a live phone line being involved, even though the line was not used to dial out. I have always wondered why this was the case.  Do modems require line voltage to be present before they can communicate?  If one was feeling nostalgic and wanted to experiment again, could a phone line be "faked" by just sticking -48 VDC onto the cable connecting the two modems?       Malvineous You are absolutely correct, line voltage must be present.  In fact, you've stumbled upon an old, inexpensive method for connecting two computers together for simple point-to-point networking or file transfer.  For this reason, many companies sold "phone line simulators."  Not only was their primary purpose for testing telephone equipment, but they were also very useful for connecting two computers together via modems within the same building over much greater distances than a simple null modem serial cable would allow, given the higher voltage and current of the (simulated) phone line.  A Google search will reveal commercial phone line simulators for a wide price range, in addition to simple, no-frills, do-it-yourself versions for as cheap as ten bucks in parts.

Dear 2600: FreeSpeechMe.org deserves a serious look.  It's based off of Namecoin, and the idea behind it has been out for a while now.  I believe Aaron Swartz was eyeing it at one time.  In the end, it's a really cheap way to register a domain (Dot-Bit for mere pennies) that has jack squat to do with ICANN (totally different, almost "bulletproof" infrastructure).  See how you guys size it up.       Chris This is the kind of thing we like to see.  We want to know if our readers have been making use of this and, if so, what their experience has been.

Observations

Dear 2600: One personal realization I've come to during this NSA debacle is that security is like gaming: it stops being fun when someone cheats.  While the tech giants are surely scrambling to capture their customers' trust, and more importantly their shareholders' appeasement, I hope the subversion of security - through methods which deserve no merit - doesn't extend this disturbance to those among us who contain the true hacker spirit: the mindset and capability of overcoming the odds using ingenuity rather than unlimited resources and show-of-force.  To them I say: don't give up!  And to those other guys I say: cheaters never win. Potissimum Libertas.       Justin

Dear 2600: This does not warrant a full article, but I just wanted to point out to your readers through you, that if they love their privacy, an old-school technology can help them. Being a privacy lover myself, I grew concerned to learn, through the Snowden revelations, of the extent of surveillance on cell phone users.  I remembered that pagers don't have transmitters, and discovered that there are still two nationwide paging companies (USA Mobility and American Messaging).  Deals can be had through a few online resellers if you are willing to pay for several months upfront. New to this old technology on the back-end, you can have copies of pages emailed.  This is great if you want to create redundancy to a cell phone for spotty reception situations.  That's an option they charge you for, but you can have a free recording of yourself when the pager company answers their number. I've also found that I can eliminate voice mail, which I find quite inconvenient, by forwarding my wire-line phone to the pager company.  This also eliminates robo-calls, campaign calls, etc.  Auto-dialers are baffled by the pager company, which is great, IMHO. I hope some in our community will welcome this old-school, but private, technology.       DeepGeek

Dear 2600: I came across this while reading Love and Math: The Heart of Hidden Reality by Edward Frenkel.  This may be the quintessential essence of hacking!  In reference to Galois' approach to solving polynomial equations: Galois did not solve the problem of finding a formula for solutions of polynomial equations in the sense in which it was understood.  He hacked the problem! (circa 1820)  He reformulated it, bent and warped it, looked at it in a totally different light.  And his brilliant insight has forever changed the way people think about numbers and equations.  You'll need to read the book to learn more about the Langlands program, a transformational unified theory of mathematics.       William

Dear 2600: This is in regards to Steam's (the largest computer game marketplace out there) Valve Anti-Cheat now mining your DNS cache history to see which domains you've pulled files from (whether that be an image loading or a page load). I don't condone cheating in online games.  In my personal opinion, based on my tens of thousands of hours of gaming online, I'd have to say that the majority are out to make up a lack in their life by acting on sociopathic impulses (trolling and griefing). That said, Privacy should always be written with a capital P. In the near future, someone will write an app to automatically clear the DNS cache on a computer, and evolutions of that will hopefully be truly "protected storage" in the form of locking it down and making it unreadable, spoofing the data so that only what the user wants to be seen is shown to any third-party application reading it, or hell, knowing about hardware bootkits, software rootkits, and NSA's PRISM, the operating system too! Maybe one of you readers will be that someone. Distributed DNS, Undernets, AlterNets, and the like aren't a reality yet.  They're not "vaporware," but they're not "good software" yet either.  So in the meantime, some security specialists need to get cracking on some of the concepts I outlined in "Anonymity and You, Firefox 17 Edition" (30:4) and this.  Preventing insecure local data storage that can currently be abused from staying open to such attacks is a priority.  Don't trust the hardware, don't trust the operating systems, and sure as hell don't trust software, even if it's something you or someone you trust wrote. There are plenty of factors in play now that we've seen.  Examples of this are rootkits in Linux distributions put there by intelligence agencies, backdoors in hardware and operating systems put there by manufacturers or "Men In The Middle," as well as huge third-party software vendors like Valve. How would you like the United Kingdom's "Ministry of Truth" reading your DNS cache every time you run a BBC news applet?  Flagging a user to be banned from their ISP for using a VPN to read blocked content or things not available in their country is not just possible, it's likely.  This applies everywhere, though the U.K.'s recent "efforts" to block more than just pornography and copyrighted content are visible in the media at the moment, so it makes a great example. Get to net work, folks!       L0cke

Dear 2600: The craziest thing happened today at Target.  Wife and I went to see what a friend's gift card issue was since they couldn't use it at the restaurant (how embarrassing).  Anyway, we went to the return center, had a little chit chat, and they would've given us a replacement IHOP card but, unfortunately, they were out.  So we got a different card of equal value and went back to the return center.  The lady over there had a return ticket already prepared for us to do an exchange.  She held up the ticket to scan it, beep, then all of a sudden the register crashed and forced a reboot.  She was like "Uh oh, the register crashed, let's try a different one."  She went to register #2, beep, same thing.  Once again frustrated, she tried register #3 in the same returns area.  Beep, same thing.  The returns area was now out of registers, so basically my wife and I shut down the returns area without even lifting a finger.  We eventually had to go to the checkout area.  So on register #4, the lady entered her worker ID, the password, then beep!  You guessed it!  It crashed!  I was laughing up a storm deep down inside thinking that Target actually generated a return ticket that made their point-of-sale systems crash.  It would have been hilarious if I had gotten a hold of that ticket and published it in the magazine.  In reality, I was a bit aggravated that it took so long to exchange a gift card.  I just thought it was worth mentioning that a simple ticket being scanned caused reboot chaos across four registers.       CasperGemini As if Target hasn't had enough problems lately, this is something they really ought to lose sleep over.  We'd like to hear some theories as to what may have been going on here.  Now that we know such a thing is possible, we're sure all kinds of experimentation will ensue, not only at this retailer but at many others.  Bad software allows for so many possibilities.

Dear 2600: I understand that "three letter government agencies" by law cannot collect the facial recognition information, but can "buy" it from Walmart and other entities.  Walmart tries to match "faces" with credit card information, which then will give them names and addresses.  Even if you usually pay cash, if you paid by credit card or check even once, they gotcha!  It also appears that Walmart and Target collect information from RFID tags placed in high end clothing like expensive jeans (under labels) and other clothing customers are likely to wear again while shopping at the store.  Walmart calls their program EPC.  There is a sign on the door saying you can look up EPC at walmart.com if you want to know more.  I did find a funny looking RFID tag in some underwear I bought at the Walmart in Franklin, Tennessee.  It appeared to be over an inch wide and half an inch high.  Had a chip in the middle with big wings attached on either side.  I asked a relative that works in IT security what I should do with it.  He said to find a cart in the parking lot and tape it to a not so prominent part and they'll be tracking that cart forever.  I would send it to you, but it got lost in the car trunk.       Boxholder

Versification

Dear 2600: Of copper, light, and waveform spawned, The Argus' gaze pierces from beyond. All man's deeds simultaneously recorded, Myriad strands of data, all hoarded, To this multi-eyed and mindless being, Was given the gift of being all-seeing. A mass of sesors, ubiquitously extended, Regardless of source, all feeds comprehended. Bentham's design, reaching greater height, Achieved not by brick but by patterns of light. In omnipresence, there can never be break, For when one eye lies sleeping, another's awake. With such density of bits flowing through the wire, Increasingly murky is the Boolean mire. Yet there remains hidden, despite highly sought, No datagram yet can encapsulate thought.       Evan Krell

Dear 2600: My computer is not a tool.  It is a person, just as I am.  If I treat it like a person, it will treat me like a person.  My enemy is strong, but I am stronger.  My enemy brags about his ten gigaflop computer, but I am more powerful with my 30.68 gigaflops of fury. I must know my computer, inside and out.  I must know its hardware, its software, its networks, and its capabilities.  If I am one with my computer, my computer will be one with me.  I must destroy my enemy, and he will be nothing but a pile of bullshit and shitty computer parts.  I swear by this creed and my country should stop all of this "hackers are criminals" stuff.       Neo Anderson

Convocations

Dear 2600: How does one go about getting added to the meeting list?  I was told by the meeting organizer that he had submitted to be added, but it has been months, and we're still not on the list.  Is there a submission process?  Any information you could provide would be awesome. There are no other meetings listed even remotely nearby this area so it would be great to be added.  Thank you.       Johnson It can take months because we're a quarterly publication and meetings are updated for each issue.  Plus, just submitting a meeting location is only the first step towards getting listed.  There has to be follow-up as well, letting us know if the meeting took place, how many people showed up, if everyone was bailed out, etc.  We're happy to say that your meeting is now on the list.

Dear 2600: I saw that you have taken out the Orlando meetings at the Fashion Square Mall at the Panera Bread.  Could you please tell me why?       youssef Due to numerous complaints about nobody showing up and a dialogue right here in the letters section, we felt it was best to remove it until and unless it becomes more organized.

Dear 2600: I'm a technology enthusiast down here in Costa Rica and wanted to start a 2600 meeting.  What are the requirements for me to get listed down here?       B We're happy to say that you've already met them.  By posting the proposed meeting location, holding a couple of meetings, and letting us know how they went, you've given us enough reason to believe that this is going to be taken seriously and our sending people in your direction won't be a waste of time for them.  We wish you the best of luck and hope to hear more.

Dear 2600: I've tried to make contact with the organizer for the Ann Arbor meeting and haven't had any luck.  I've tried to catch them in IRC, etc. as well to no avail.  Are you aware of the current status of the meeting?  If it's dead, which it really seems as though it is, I'm located in Detroit and am considering starting up a group here since one doesn't even exist for Detroit.  Please let me know what you know!       B Regardless of whether or not Ann Arbor is still happening, a meeting in Detroit is some thing we'd support.  We'll look for more reports on the status of the Ann Arbor meetings and act accordingly.

Dear 2600: Friday between 5 and 8 pm is difficult for both religious jews and Muslims, as Friday until sunset is a holy day for Muslims, and Friday evening to Saturday evening is the jewish Sabbath.  Is there any room for scheduling a meeting Saturday night instead, a common time off for everyone?  (Sunday is a regular work day here.)  I know it's a long shot, but because of the surrounding circumstances as far as the work week and religious issues, I had to ask.       S This was discussed a bit in our last issue and, as it turns out, a group has put together a meeting in Israel that doesn't conflict with the Sabbath.  So, for the first time, we have 2600 meetings that don't take place on a Friday evening.  Since such a sizable amount of the population wasn't able to participate on that day, this exception makes sense in this situation.  Below are some details on how it all went.

Dear 2600: Here is a summary of the first 2600 meeting in Israel: 5:40 pm:  Guy walks by "2600 mah ze" and says to his companion ("what's 2600?"), responding to the fact that I perched the magazine at the end of our table in the food court.  The guy keeps walking. 5:51 pm:  Balloon popped, echoing around the food court and scaring everyone.  Whew, not a bomb.  No, it wasn't an attempt to drum up some attention for our meeting. 6:25 pm:  The same guy approaches and again asks me in Hebrew (not his companion this time) "what is 2600??"  Told him briefly, showed him the magazine, he thought it was cool even though he couldn't read English, shook my hand. 7:05 pm:  Second meeting attendee shows up. We discussed IPv4 compared to IPv6, related security issues, how to promote the meeting, and the best flavor of ice cream milk shake at McDonald's.  (Having a kosher McDonald's around is always a treat.)  The meeting was held in English. The second person attended through word-of-mouth and not because of my posting online. Incidentally, I posted different versions of the following: "Putting together a 2600 meeting, getting it off the ground according to the suggestion in the latest issue of 2600 to hold it Thursday instead of Friday (Shabbos).  Therefore, it will be on Thursday, February 6,2014 from 5-8 pm in the big Fashion Mall in Beit Shemesh, second floor, food court.  (Mall is across from the Beit Shemesh train station.)  Please print and hang on bulletin boards, repost online, and spread the word."       S Congrats and please keep us updated.

Dear 2600: This recent Friday was the first meeting I attended, and I brought a friend with me.  Unfortunately for us (and I don't want to call anybody out), we went to the meeting location listed at dc2600.com.  This week, the meeting organizer(s) decided to try a new location which they announced on Twitter (which I saw after arriving and two other new people showed up as well) but didn't update the website.  The new location was several metro stops away and by the time we would have gotten there, the meeting would likely have been over already.  So those of us at the old location had a nice dinner and chat, and I jokingly christened us the 5200.  We all now know the meetings are in a new location and will be there next time, but that's my report from the underground.       Matt We're sorry this happened, but to the best of our knowledge the meeting location in Washington D.C. hasn't changed.  Twitter really isn't the best way to announce a change, especially if there's an existing website.  Hopefully, this was an anomaly, but if there is a change to the location, we'll be sure to publicize it.

Appreciation

Dear 2600: I finally did it.  After living the minimum wage lifestyle for so long, I managed to find actual, meaningful employment in the IT field.  A week ago, I was stacking cans of soup in the world's sleaziest health food store.  Today, I was restructuring the VoIP system of a corporation with offices around the country.  Once I get my first paycheck, I'll be making exactly twice as much per month as I was at my last job.  At the very least, after three months I'll be able to say I'm an IT guy and never return to retail.  I sincerely want to thank the editors, contributors, and readers of 2600 for making a worthwhile magazine which kept me sharp and ambitious while I wasted my life doing pointless work.  To anybody out there who can relate, and who knows what it's like to be stuck in the meaningless cycle of unskilled labor, I want to say that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.  Even if you lack degrees, certifications, or ten years of "real" experience, there's an opening out there somewhere where you can break into the field.  Use the same hacker skills you've used your whole life to outsmart the other nine candidates who've applied for the job, because you're absolutely capable of doing so.  Be ambitious and confident, and just go do it.       Anonymous We appreciate the words, but the credit goes to you for not losing sight of the potential that's always out there.  While there are many "meaningless" jobs, what's unique in all of us is our imagination, something that all of the oppression, boredom, and discouragement of the world isn't able to crush.  That uniquely human characteristic is the shining light that brightens the daily drudgery and which can often lead us out of it.  The point is never to give up on yourself or on the potential for change.

Dear 2600: I have read your magazine for quite some time and I love what you do.  After my computer teacher introduced me to your magazine, I have wanted to learn hacking because it sounds like a fascinating field.  The trouble is, I have searched far and wide for directions on how to begin learning about hacking.  While the information in your magazine is intriguing, I admit that most of it is incomprehensible to me due to my lack of experience.  Can you tell me where and how to begin?       A loyal reader You have already begun.  The thing to remember is that there's always going to be material that appears to be incomprehensible to you.  This is true of everyone, whether they care to admit it or not.  The more you read, obviously, the more familiar you'll become with the subject matter.  But even in those articles that you believe are shooting well over your head, we believe you can grasp the overall meaning of them, even if the particulars escape you.  Otherwise, why would you be even slightly interested?  So, since we've established that you have in fact already started to learn quite a bit about hacking, the best way to keep or increase your momentum is to become more a part of the community, whether it be by going to meetings, becoming part of a local hackerspace, or engaging in a dialogue here.  You will never know it all.  But you're in as good a position as anyone to get a firm appreciation and overall understanding of what the hacker world is all about.  That alone puts you ahead of just about every elected official and media pundit out there.

Dear 2600: A couple of comments.  First, while none of us either like DRM or the MPAA/RIAA Mafia or much of their illegal actions, we cannot change them without letting our money and doing business with them speak loudly.  Next, having been a victim of ID theft twice, I do not do online transactions.  Since Amazon will not do business with you unless you provide both personal information and do it all online where you are again subject to exposure, I simply will not do business with them. That is why I have a subscription to 2600.  I enjoy it immensely.  I laugh more often than not as I read the letters, sometimes from the content and frequently from 2600's reply.  I love the sardonicism and often excellent sarcasm.  I do not always agree with you, though, and I think you are making a mistake with Amazon as Amazon is well on the way to pushing out many small bookstores, as I learned while searching for two books recently.  I paid almost triple to avoid Amazon and I don't regret it.  I will continue to keep up my subscription to 2600 and pray that they are not forced to deal only with Amazon as time goes on and as a number of small bookstores have been forced to.  They won't take checks and if you won't pay online, they "can't" do business with you, and that includes credit cards over the phone.  That's what the market e.g. Amazon requires. I particularly enjoy the fact that 2600 encourages the younger folk in more positive ways than my generation did.  I don't get all the techie stuff but I get enough that my network hasn't been intruded upon since 2006, and I haven't been tagged with malware in nearly as long.       Captain V. Cautious We have supported local bookstores from our beginnings and we're always happy to be carried in one.  As a magazine, however, we want to make our publication available in as many places as we can, in print and through digital methods.  Expanding into chain stores years ago helped us gain many new readers.  More recently, through the Kindle, we've managed to reach many thousands of people who we may otherwise never have reached, as well as reestablished links with readers who, for one reason or another, were no longer able to find us in their local stores.  We're now reaching even more people through Google Play.  Our goal is to have as many options available to readers as we can, so that if one doesn't work for you for whatever reason, there will always be another.

Dear 2600: This comes to you from DownUnder and via snail mail - guess you could say I am of the old school and sit on the fence between old and new with a foot in each. Having said that, I have to say how delighted I am to find such a tome as yours - sort of unlocks the Pandora's Box of computers for me.  Your zine came by way of my new Kindle - an unexpected birthday present which opened a new window in my "reading soul" and showed me the way to San Jose and back with a cache full of books I never expected to access.  Glorious fun for a bookworm such as I! So, worming my way through the many categories and subcategories, I spied the Internet and Technology section... whereupon I thought "Well, this could be interesting..." Oh, the delight of my left brain!  Here it is, the way through the maze and labyrinth of "how it bloody well works."  Hats off to all ye hacker folk who delve deeply where angels fear to tread. Seriously, my knowledge of the deep stuff is limited, but 2600 has given me a new lease on life to go where my angels said "No, not there, 'tis the devil's playground."  Devil be damned, so Volumes 28 and 29 were added to the cache and thus it is I begin my new lessons. My original lessons began on a Mergenthaler Linotype as I decoded the art of good old fashioned typesetting in the days when you had to learn what all the fonts looked like or were going to look like in a given text, how much kerning and leading were required, not to mention the art of drawing a line.  That required an X and Y coordinate plus the point size, and hopefully you did not end up with an elephant's footprint rambling across the page to infinity.  All done, of course, looking through the glass darkly on a screen which simply blinked in black and green.  Keying in the daily horse racing guide required the use of left-hand mouse action, right-hand typing, and a memory which contained the endless parameters for font changes, lines, dots, white space, and alignments!  Would I thus be correct in surmising that the HTML used today is a child of the original typesetting codes and parameters?  Has to be, methinks. Well, I am still finding my way to get "more private" in my computer land and the many hints I've found in 2600 are inspiring to say the least.  For some reason, I always felt the need to use totally different passwords - just seemed to make sense and I simply keep a hard copy.  A clever little "grimoire" in an alpha-lingo of my own creatings... So, as left brain would have it, I figured I needed to educate myself on a bit of terminology and, to that end, discovered techterms.com, a great resource of just about any bit of lingo housed in computer land.  Guess you have to start somewhere and, as much as I loved the articles, I was stymied because I didn't have a clue what most of it meant. Of a couple of articles which grabbed my attention, one was on bitcoins (I had been looking for an online business and found reference to this, but left it alone).  Then came along 2600, and said article inspired me once again.  Thanks for that!  I kinda feel this bitcoin thing is important in the coming time.  Most folk are aware that worldwide finance is a bit of a mess and the crunch will come.  Things in Australia are not too bad, but poor old New Zealand is like the testing ground for what will come here.  I sense that bitcoins will put money power back into the hands of ordinary folk.  Maybe it will morph in the years to come, but it certainly rings a bell in my mind as being something to watch - and hopefully get into! Well, that's it from DownUnder... go all ye hackers, go!  Never stop inquiring and light the wise fire of divine intelligence which we all possess.  I go now to disciplined study and uncover the hacker within...       Ed       Australia