Stupid Customer Tip #2

So, you have caught your son misbehaving. Maybe he killed an animal, looked at porn, his room is messy, or he has bad grades or something. Whatever. Has done something that requires you to swiftly and harsly punish him. You then suddenly remember that he has a computer in his room, and you can punish him by taking away his access to the internet.

If you switch the breaker on your son's room so he can't use his computer, but the modem and wireless router are also in his room, you won't be able to get online on your computer either because there is no power to these devices. Don't call your Internet Service Provider (or ISP) saying that their service is horrible, because you are just being too stupid to realize that you are an idiot.

This equipment shouldn't be in his room anyway.

Attacking a Time Warner Call Center

Last year, I mentioned that I would tell a true story of an attempt from someone in the Netherlands to break into a router at the call center I work at. As you already know, I took a years hiatus from this blog due to personal matters. Well, I figured I would tell the story as I wrote it to 2600 Magazine. They never published it, so don't look for it in any of the issues. **NOTE** All names and IP addresses have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty.

Attacking a Time Warner Call Center

I work for Time Warner Cable as a Tier 3 Technical Support Rep in a northeastern division of the company. The following is a report of the events that took place on a Friday evening while I was at work. It's about someone from Germany who tried desperately to get into a residential modem and router that are in the Time Warner call center I work at.

When I walked into work at 5:00 PM, I was thinking it was going to be a normal Friday night in the call center. I would take some calls, help some customers, and when 9:00 PM rolled around, I would go home. I didn't think that I would be fending off a German intruder trying to gain access to our router.

As Tier 3 tech support representatives, we are allowed to bring in personal laptops and connect them to various wireless networks throughout the call center. We use these for testing purposes and for added troubleshooting when we are talking to a customer on the phone. Therefore, we depend on these internet connections that are specially setup for the Tier 3's to use. Usually there is no problems connecting to them, but tonight was different. Tonight we were gonna be fighting to use them.

It started practically when I walked into the door. I had just sat down in my cubicle and logged into my work computer when I booted up my laptop. I got my work desktop all situated with the billing and service call system, Outlook, Firefox, and AIM. I looked over at my laptop and saw the Gnome log-on screen, so I logged into my laptop and opened up terminal once it had fully booted. I pressed Fn+F2 to turn on my wireless card configured my wlan0 card to the essid, "Isle A near DNOC" and ordered DHCP to give me an address. I opened up Firefox and I was unable to get a webpage.

I checked my IP address using iwconfig and I still had an IP, but I could not ping out. Thinking maybe the router got unplugged, I did a quick iwlist scan on my wlan card and there was no "Isle A near DNOC"; only "NETGEAR". Someone had done a full factory reset on the router. I stood up and talked to Garry who was sitting in the cubicle next to mine and asked him if he was having problems getting online with his laptop. He told me he was and then Jared walked over and said that someone was hitting the router with Denial-of-Service (DOS) attacks. We were actually getting DOS attacked from two separate IP's: 77.177.201.255 and 71.167.8.76

Using tracert in Windows, Jared was able to determine the domain names where these IP's were originating from. 71.167.8.76 was pool-71-167-8-76.nycmny.fios.verizon.net (out of NYC) and 77.177.201.255 was blfd-4db1c9ff.pool.einsundeins.de (somewhere in Germany). I asked him to give me the IP's and let me do nmap on them to see what ports were open on their end to see how we could send our own DOS attacks and get them to go away. The FIOS connection was easy, because we sent DOS attacks to him, and he just disappeared. Either he didn't know what he was doing, or he didn't care to pursue whatever was behind our router. It didn't matter though, because either way, we only one adversary was left to fight off.

This fight was not going to be quite so easy. While I was nmapping the attacker from Germany, Garry came to me and asked what the name of my computer was. I told him that it was Unr3a1r00t and he told me to stop DOS attacking the network. I asked him what he meant and he said that the log files on the router showed that DOS attacks were coming from my IP. Puzzled, I assured him that I wasn't and took a look at the log files. Sure enough the private IP address that was linked to my computer was sending DOS attacks. This could mean only one thing: the attacker from Germany was using the nmap connection that was made between us and either spoofed my IP, or was sending DOS attacks through the connection to make it look like they were coming from me. In addition, he started to use proxy servers to make it look like some attacks were coming from different IP addresses in different countries throughout the world.

I immediately stopped the nmap process and went over to Jared to tell him what had happened. He carefully watched the log file and saw as it grew that the attacker was not just making it look like attacks were coming from my laptop, but his as well. We were all very frustrated and perplexed how and why someone would be doing this. We knew at this point that we were dealing with somebody that greatly surpassed our abilities.

I came up with the idea to try and change the public IP address of the router, thinking that the attacker would potentially go away if he couldn't connect anymore using the original IP. So we switched which modem the Netgear router was getting it's internet from. Now it would get a totally different IP address and because the two modems were getting their connections from completely different regional switches, he would have to actually look at a different spot on the internet for the router. Unfortunately for us, literally within a few minutes of making the swap, he had found the router again. We knew this meant that he had to have found the router using it's MAC address.

He then proceeded to hit the router with everything he had. DOS attacks were coming from completely different proxies every other second. We had to constantly reconnect our laptops to the router and the internet was unbearably slow. He was able to get into the router and assign his computer a local IP address within our network. I quickly told Jared to change the router's management log-on password and gave him a 27 character password that had a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers, and symbols. It was at this point he was brute forcing the modems management log-on trying to get a remote connection. These attacks were coming in at one point, as frequenly as four times a second; from completely different proxy IP addresses that never once repeated.

Jared was constantly refreshing the log file and within five minutes, the attacker had already attempted to remote into the routers management system a few hundred times. We concluded the obvious fact that he had to be using some kind of bot that was able to change proxy connections every ¼^th of a second. Since the password that I came up with is very secure, for the time being he wasn't going to get in any time soon. Therefore, Jared took this time to look at all the configuration settings on the router.

It was now 9PM and we still really had no fully usable internet connection. Jared asked me if anyone had turned on UPnP. We never found out who turned it on, but we believe that it was this connection type that the attacker was using to try and get into our network. We came to this conclusion, because as soon as Jared turned it off, the DOS attacks stopped and there were no more attempts to log into the router's management system.

Now whether or not turning off UPnP was really the reason the attacks stopped, or because the attacker figured it was no longer worth the fight, could probably still be debated. The point was to try and get these attacks to stop, so we could actually use the wireless connection to troubleshoot for customers calling in. Jared sent me the log text files for me to try and find information on what exactly went down.

I concluded that the attacker was only initially trying to get into our router so he could use the connection for his personal use. When I nmapped him, it piqued his interest in trying to get in, because to him this meant that whoever was behind that router atleast knew halfway what they were doing. He knew he wasn't dealing with complete newbs because we blocked him from getting in and he was ready to face the challenge.

Once it was all done, I was able to go home. I told Jared I would look a little into the issue over the weekend and he said he was gonna do the same. The internet connection was fully restored and all was back to normal. The next day, we still saw some random DOS attacks on the router so we eventually just swapped it out for a different and better wireless setup. Since making the swap to a different modem/router, the problems have gone away completely.

We have since upped the security of the router and are taking measures to ensure that the log files are constantly monitored to avoid anymore intrusion attempts. I do have to say, that it was very interesting to see how someone who was essentially breaking into a network wouldn't care that he had been found out. Instead he actually chose to fight the people behind the router for access to a network he shouldn't have been accessing.

At this point though, it doesn't matter. I had fun playing with the attacker and I am sure it was fun for him to try and get in. We also learned a lot and that of course is always a good thing. Shout outs to Jared, Garry and Justin; you all know who you really are. Finally, a shout out to The Q 357 for just being a good friend and for helping me stay motivated.

Stupid Customer Tip #1

I am going to start posting a series of "Stupid Customer Tips" for those of you who are subscribed to a service of some kind (phone, cable, etc) but may not be the brightest light bulbs in the box. These tips are meant to HELP you understand a little more in a straight-forward in your face kind of way. Basically, these are customer bitch slaps for the absolute DUMBEST people on the planet. If you are a dumb customer of a service provider (again, phone, cable, etc) then please heed these tips.

If you do not have power in your home, it should come as no big surprise when your cable services do not work. Electricity is an absolute NECESSITY to power your cable equipment and any other electronic devices in your home (TV, computer, etc.). This is also why if you do not have electricity, your lights do not turn on. Now, as the cable company, we do not provide or control the flow of electricity to your home. Your ELECTRIC COMPANY controls this.

So if you are in the middle of a power outage, do NOT call your cable company and bitch and moan that 10-year old Jimmy cannot watch Dora the Explorer or that you are missing your precious soap operas. You will want to call your ELECTRIC COMPANY to complain about their service not working. Jimmy should be outside playing anyway, and you shouldn't watch soap operas; they are not helping your intelligence levels.

A Year and A Bunch of New Gadgets

So it has been more than a year since I have posted anything on here. There have been a lot of personal things that have happened over the last year. I will have more time now a days to post on here more often, so it should definitely not be another year before I post again.

So where to start? Well, around this time last year, I found out that my oldest sister had uterine cancer. Turned out to be lymphoma as well, but she had to have a hysterectomy done, as well as having to go through chemotherapy. She completed chemo about Feb of this year and so far she is still cancer free. Which is good. There have also been some very personal things in my family, that I will not go into here, but lets just say I now have a totally ass-hat of a brother-in-law who married my other sister. Can't stand him, but whatever.

In other news, I have also broken up with my girlfriend of 3 years. It was not working the way that I had hoped, and it was in the best interest of both of us to end it. I have begun to move on with my life, and I really hope she has done the same.

So now that those are out of the way, it's time to get to the new gadgets in my life. Hehehe. Lets, see, the list starts with a Xbox 360 purchased at a Circuit City earlier this year. I have since gotten Halo 3 of course, which I liked a lot. The multiplayer part of the game is definitely the best part of the game, however, Microsoft in it's infinite greediness forces you the player to download the first three map-packs released for Halo 3. This means that if you buy the game off the shelf, and go to play on Live, you will have to spend an additional $30 on maps in order to play online. Of course these maps will now be included with the upcoming Halo 3: ODST. I really hate M$.

Then I finally joined the HD class. I got a Sharp AQUOS 40” 1080p HDTV. Cost a pretty penny, but I definitely like it, and like looking at the nice HD picture while watching the Yankees on YES. It also goes good with my 360 cause now I can game in high definition, which is certainly helping me in CoD4.

Finally, I have also gotten a new computer to replace my old Gateway laptop. It is a Lenovo Ideapad S10 netbook. Has the Intel Atom processor, 1GB of memory, 160GB HDD with no CD-ROM and a 10” screen. It's really nice, and a solid little computer. I have actually since purchasing it back in.... February I think, gotten upgrades for it. First, I got a Rosewill external DVD burner for it, which is really good. I have also gotten a larger HDD, 500GB and upped the RAM to 2GB.

The most recent thing I have gotten for it, and for a computer I plan on building over the next year is a keyboard. It is the Happy Hacking Keyboard Lite 2. I purchased it from Amazon.com for around $90 after shipping. It is a great little keyboard with only 65-keys and I fucking love this thing. I will post a picture of it tomorrow with a full review on it. In the meantime, the Yankees are playing the Mariners, so I am going to go watch the game.

Hackers, Shitheads, Anonymous & Three New Fish…

So here I am, sitting at a community college in upstate New York waiting for my girlfriend to get out of class. It's been a while since I posted again, and again, I am sorry for that. Seems my life is constantly a big clusterfuck. Shit is always crazy in the life of Unr3a1. I turned 24, been working my ass off, went on vacation, and been dealing with some personal shit.

So I will start with the more useless news. I now am the proud parent of three fish. My girlfriend really wanted to get fish, so we went down to the local PetSmart to pick a few up. We got a starter kit that included a 10-gallon tank, tank filter, water conditioners, and instructions on how to care for the tank and the fish themselves. We then picked up some really pink tank rocks, a little mountain with a bunch of holes in it, and a fake plant. It looks ok, except the girly looking rocks at the bottom of the tank. The three fish we have are a Black Moore goldfish, a Calico goldfish, and then some gold and black one that I have no idea what the name of them is. My two crazy cats love to just stare at the fish in the tank and try to paw at them through the glass. And fish are a pain the ass to take care of. You gotta feed them, change the water in the tank on a weekly basis, make sure the PH levels of the water are normal… just a hassle. But they are interesting to look at, so for now they can stay.

So a guy on 4chan posted information that he got when he hacked into Governor Sarah Palin's personal Yahoo e-mail account. Of course you really couldn't call it "hacking" because all he did was reset the password on her account using public information. All he really accomplished there was showing how retarded Palin was by using information that was readily available to the public as her security information for password recovery. I mean, you work in a public position; why the fuck would you have your security questions ask you shit that I can Google? I mean, in her defense, I never even heard of her until she was announced as McCain's running mate, but even still. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that maybe you shouldn't use the date you met your husband when the date is on friggin' Wikipedia.

Besides exposing Palin's total lack of concern for proper security, the intruder in her account was able to take several screenshots of what he found. I will not post any links here, as I do not feel compelled to give the FBI any reason to shut down my site here. It is obvious that they shut down wikileaks because the site was mysteriously unreachable for almost 20 hours starting shortly after the information was posted. It has since been restored to an online status, but for a while there, it was touch and go…

The big thing about what happened is the individual who posted the information to 4chan entrusted that information to them. The whistle might not have been blown so quickly if had not been for some shithead who decided that it wasn't "right" to break into her account. While technically what the guy did was illegal; it was still the search for information. I mean it wasn't revealed until later, but for a while there people thought that Palin was using this Yahoo e-mail address so that she could hide behind privacy laws. So basically, for the future security of our people and to ensure that she wasn't using her personal email for governmental purposes, it was almost necessary to get in to see what exactly she was using it for. Now, the intruder admitted that she didn't have anything incriminating that would suggest that we should question her reasoning for using this address, so as far as I am concerned this should be considered a "no harm, no foul".

Also, the anon on 4chan who took it upon himself to be the good Samaritan by revealing to her and to the public of what happened fucked it up, which could have potentially made it a hundred times worse for Palin. She is lucky that Yahoo has a security feature that locks the account for 24 hours after too many failed logon attempts. According to Wired, when he posted on 4chan that he had changed the password to her account and alerted friends of hers as to what happened, he posted a screenshot of the email he sent to Ivy Frye, a Palin aide. In this email was the password that he had changed her account to; and the dumb white knight fucker didn't blotch it out. So everyone on 4chan saw the new password and tried to log into the account to change it again causing it to lock up.

Palin has since deleted the account from Yahoo and understandably so. She got pretty close to yet another scandal. However, I think that all of us can learn some valuable lessons from this whole debacle. First off, I think we can take from this, is that since it has also been reported that the Secret Service is investigating who broke into Palin's account, one should never break into any government official's email. Considering everything that has happened with Palin's e-mail address getting deleted, Wikileaks being shut down, the Secret Service being involved in finding out who did it, I would say it was a BIG no-no. Second, you should never trust anyone on 4chan with any kind of sensitive information (no offense anon). Last - but certainly not least - if one should try and be a hero and save the day, for shits sake make sure you smudge out the new password when trying to tell people to give up on breaking into the site. Palin's moron for a white knight fell of his high horse pretty damn quickly.

In different news, a hacker from the Netherlands tried desperately to get into a router in the call center that I work at. I wrote up the whole story, but since I am trying to get it published in 2600, it will have to wait to be posted here. They won't publish it if it has been published elsewhere and that includes my own blog. But as soon as I know whether they will publish it or not, I will post it here as it is a pretty interesting story. Until next time, please remember to try and not break into any politicians e-mail. It's bad joo-joo.

A New Book, Firefox 3, and Converting Girlfriend to Ubuntu... Maybe.

Wow, it has really been a long time since my last post; three months. A lot has happened since then and I am excited for the changes that are on the way. I mean, the editor-in-chief of 2600 is coming out with a new book, Firefox 3 was released a little while ago, Microsoft has dropped full support for XP... I mean a bunch of things are changing. It's crazy.

First and foremost, Emmanuel Goldstein, who is the Editor-in-Chief for 2600: The Hacker Quarterly magazine has written a book. It is called, The Best of 2600: A Hacker Odyssey and it basically tells the story of the evolution of technology, the Internet, computer related laws, and hacking by way of the articles that have been printed in the magazine in chronological order from the magazines inception in 1984. It comes out later this month, and I am really super excited about it. I will definitely be picking it up before I go on vacation.

So Firefox 3 was released a couple weeks ago, and of course I have updated to it and I must say that it is definitely the best version of the great browser to date. With a reported 15,000 security and performance updates, it is advertised as the fastest and most secure Firefox yet, and so far, it is proving to be so. The folks over at Mozilla decided to hold a “Download Day” to see if they can set a Guinness Book World Record for the most software downloads in a 24-hour period. I helped out in this number by downloading the application three times that day; once for me, once for my work computer, and once for my girlfriends computer at home. The final number was over 8 million downloads in a 24 hours. Which is awesome. I think IE just lost some market usage. The world becomes a better place as more and more people move from Microsoft to open source options.

So a few weeks ago, I was talking with my girlfriend about possibly switching her over to Ubuntu Linux. She is very reluctant because she is afraid of the unknown. I told her that Ubuntu could do everything she would need it to do. So, I asked her if I could see if I could get Ubuntu setup with everything that she would need from it. She said yes, but that even if I do show her that it can, she would not guarantee that she would actually allow me to install it on her laptop. Oh well, one can dream. But I am getting it to work how she would need it to, which is good. So maybe she will let me install it on her laptop; we shall see. I mean, everything is already in place.

I was really surprised to see that Ubuntu natively supports and recognizes the Apple iPod. It has a great default application to add and manage music on the iPod, Rythmbox, which in almost every aspect, is just a Linux clone of iTunes. The only things it cannot do is access the iTunes music store, or access any firmware updates that Apple may have released for your version of the iPod. However, it does automatically download the album art work for any albums you have, and there is another iPod application you can download, GtkPod, that can automatically delete any duplicate music it finds on your iPod. The only thing I really gotta get working now, is Office in Wine. I think if I can get that working in Ubuntu, she would be convinced to make the switch. Gotta keep at it though.

Finally, in other news, Microsoft, has finally stopped allowing PC manufacturers such as Dell, HP, and Gateway, from selling OEM versions of Windows XP to customers. As I am sure everyone already knows, Vista was released last year. What you might not know, is that it had a lot of problems when it was first released, and because it was to terrible, and demand from not only home consumers, but also businesses, was so high for Windows XP licenses rather than Vista ones, Microsoft allowed manufacturers to continue to offer laptops and desktops preinstalled with Windows XP. Well, Microsoft finally pulled the plug on this, and now the manufacturers are only limited to installing XP by default on the micro PC's – those PC's that are extremely small, with not a lot of RAM or HDD – that have begun to be really popular in the last few months. While I can initially understand this from a business prospective, I can't help but think that this is really such a damaging move for Microsoft to make. I mean, don't get me wrong, I am happy about it, but how can it be that Ballmer is continuing to make these mistakes? It has been almost a year and a half since Vista's release, and people and businesses are STILL opting to purchase Windows XP machines over Vista ones. Why would Microsoft think that it is safe to stop allowing manufacturers to sell them? Makes no sense to me whatsoever. Oh well; hopefully they will continue to make these mistakes and Linux can take over.

I will be moving soon, so I really don't know how often I will be able to update the site for the next few weeks, but I will try to be on here from time to time. I will definitely be updating on the whole girlfriend running Ubuntu, though.

Ultimate Star Wars Fanboy Movie.

Of course, every Star Wars fan has heard of this movie. I forgot about it for the longest time, because it has been literally 10 years in the making. I first heard about it 8 years ago from a friend who was all excited about it. I haven't even thought about it in probably 3 of those 8 years because I have not heard any new news about it. Of course, until now. The movie in question is Fanboys. It is what they call the "ultimate Star Wars fan movie".

Set in 1998, it centers on a group of friends that go on an adventure across the country to break into George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch and steal a copy of Episode I: The Phantom Menace before it hit theatres. So why is it in the news? The reason is because the production company that funded the film is now trying to change a key element in the plotline. The original plot had a character with terminal cancer that is a major Star Wars fan. It is for him, that his friends embark on their quest to break into George Lucas' ranch. They are unsure if he will live to see the movie in theatres, so they want to get it for him so he can watch it before he dies.

The Weinstein Company, who is distributing the film under Miramax, is unsure about the cancer plotline. Steven Brill, who was brought in to do reshoots and re-editing of the film said, "It would be irresponsible to release it." The film company is unsure how they will be able to make people laugh in the movie theatre after the mention of cancer.

A very large online protest has been formed and you can read about all the news on it here: Stop Darth Weinstein! I of course agree with their feelings on this. I think that the move should be released with its original plotline. Two reasons I feel this way, is one that I don't like political correctness, and I feel that this is what it is ultimately about. The movie studio does not want to feel responsible if people who have cancer are offended by the movie because they may see it as "making fun" of people who are dying from cancer. Also of course, they wouldn't want to lose money by people not going.

The other reason is that they didn't come up with a good alternative. They just reshot the movie with no mention of cancer. So it will seem as if these guys just woke up one day and felt like stealing the movie. While yes, it might still be really funny, I think that it would take away a whole depth to the movie. What's interesting is that Ernie Cline, who wrote the original story for the movie, realized what the movie industry can do. "Unless you're putting up all the money yourself, making a movie seems to be an endless series of compromises," he said. "It's hard to know what that means until you actually go through it. The Weinstein Company can do whatever they want. They put up the money. But it is against our wishes and it's done purely for monetary reasons. The cancer version had heart. It's now a forgettable road comedy with no heart and no soul."

We'll see when the movie is released what is going to be done about it. Hopefully the original plotline makes it to theatres. Support the cause!

Why We Use Linux?... To Be Different.

    Saturday, An Amazing Mind posted a blog about the real reason we use Linux. He suggests that regardless of what people say, or what the "norm" is, the reason that Linux users use that perfect OS is because it is "fun". Yes, this is definitely one of the many reasons… it is a lot of fun to use. But I do not think that is the only reason. Let me explain.

    Linux is largely unknown. For centuries, one of the constants in human nature is the exploration of the unknown. I firmly believe that no one person can know everything about the Linux OS. This is because Linux is constantly changing. Like in a previous post that I had, currently, ndiswrapper is set to not be compatible with the newest version of the kernel. Slackware 12.0, which was release last year, is fully compatible with the ndiswrapper application by default. That will change with Slackware 13.0 (or 14.0 if they are superstitious) if it uses the newest version of the kernel. This means people like me, are going to have to figure out a new way to get their wireless card working if they want to upgrade to the newest version of Slackware.

    This makes the world of Linux unknown again in regards to wireless networking to people in my situation. It opens the door for new challenges and new obstacles to overcome. In contrast, Windows is largely the same from version to version (all versions since Windows 95 have been based on the same layout). Because Microsoft does everything for you, if something doesn't work, Microsoft fixes it, releases an update, and you install it. Now whatever wasn't working before, is working now. This presents no challenge, nothing interesting, just... "Oh look… my sound doesn't work anymore. Microsoft released an update. Downloaded it, installed it, and now my sound is working again… yayyyyyy….". Windows turns your average computer user, and even techie geeks into robots.

    Linux is so much more than just having fun. It's about expressing your personality, challenging your mind, and educating yourself on how exactly computers do certain functions. Linux is almost like snow… no two systems are exactly the same. Windows is all about making everyone follow a mandatory standard that some rich 40-year old in an Armani suit, who knows nothing about how computers work, decides is the "best" standard. Windows strips people of their individuality and their creativity. Of course it also strips them of their security and their rights to manage their own computer. Linux just frees people to be themselves and work against the grain to come up with new and daring ideas without taking control out of their hands. Linux is just… freedom.

    Besides, windows are stupid pieces of glass that only allow you to look at your world. Penguins allow to you experience and interact with your world.

Ndiswrapper… Farewell?

Ok, so it is well known on here that I am an avid Linux user and supporter of the Open Source community and also support the freedom of software, the freedom to do what I want on my computer and on the web. Now it seems, however, that that community has taken a step towards becoming what I hate so much about the Microsoft business model: loss of freedoms. And this is being begun by none other than Linus Trovalds.

Now, if you don't know who Linus Trovalds is, he is the man who originally wrote the Linux kernel back in the early 1990's. He is now the project coordinator for the kernel development team, and he has final say as to what goes into it. This is all fine and dandy, however there are a few problems that could arise out of this, and I feel that one has.

The kernel development team is working hard on the next stable version of the 2.6 kernel, 2.6.24. According to this report the most recent update to the 2.6.24 kernel "…broke ndiswrapper by accidentally removing its access to GPL-only symbols." According to the report, Pavel Roskin, who is an avid supporter of the GNU Operating System, said, "Revert that change and add comments about the reasons why ndiswrapper and driverloader are treated in a special way."

Linus responded with the following statement:

"I'm not seeing why ndiswrapper should be treated separately.

If it loads non-GPL modules, it shouldn't be able to use GPLONLY symbols.

So if ndiswrapper needs GPL-only symbols, you'd better ask the people who made those symbols GPL-only whether they could be made available to ndiswrapper.

ndiswrapper itself is *not* compatible with the GPL. Trying to claim that ndiswrapper somehow itself is GPL'd even though it then loads modules that aren't is stupid and pointless. Clearly it just re-exports those GPLONLY functions to code that is *not* GPL'd."

My biggest confusion with this whole thing is I am not sure if this is a legal issue or not. If what the developers of ndiswrapper are doing technically doesn't follow copyright law with the windows drivers, then I would understand why Linus and other authors of the new kernel would want support dropped for it.

However, if it is not a legal issue, in anyway, and the only reason that they are trying to basically get rid of it is because THEY don't see a point in the app, or don't particularly care for it, then I think that they should just suck it up, and let it stay. There are many people out there (including myself) who are pretty much forced to use ndiswrapper because there are no default Linux drivers for their wireless cards.

I know that as of right now, I would be unable to use my Linux laptop wirelessly if ndiswrapper, or another app similar to it, was not available. Taking out the ability for the app to work to push a personal agenda will only deter potential Linux users away from the OS, and undermine what the whole ideology of the open source community. I honestly feel that they are starting to make themselves no better than Microsoft by wanting to take support out for something they do not care about. Hopefully the developers of ndiswrapper will combat this change by rewriting their code to allow ndiswrapper to work in the new kernel.

Puppy Torture Outrage

Wired.com posted a story about three Marines who supposedly threw an 8-week old puppy off of a cliff out in Iraq. You can see the article here: Puppy Torture. After the article, there were a bunch of comments left by people who bashed people in the military, and here is my comment that I left on the site. Please post your comments on what I said here.

My biggest problem with this, is not the fact that it could be real (even though I think it is fake), but the fact of what image things like this gives to people about the military.

My girlfriend is a prime example. She gets upset, when we are at the movies and they have one of those military ads before the movie starts. She feels that the makers of the ad (the military) should be required to show what "war" is really like to give people a "more realistic" idea of what the military is. Which in her eyes of course, is an extremely violent and horrible experience.

While fine, she is allowed to have this opinion, I really think this kind of attitude is detrimental to the needs of not only the military, but this nation. We need people to join the armed forces. Do I agree with the war in Iraq at this point, no; I do think we need to start coming up with an exit strategy, but right now, we are out there, and we need people to be ready to support our military personnel that are currently deployed in the event that something happens unexpectedly that requires more troops to be deployed. If something were to happen, and no one is joining the military, we won't have enough personnel to go out and support our troops that are already out there.

The other point I want to make right now is that we need to support our troops, because for the most part, they are only following orders from their superior commanders. Yes, obviously, there comes a point where moral responsibility overrides an order from a superior officer and they should have the moral fortitude to say no to an order that violates that moral responsibility.

The other reason of course, is that people who join the military are NOT dumb people. Overall, they are NOT evil by nature. It takes a great deal of courage, honor, and duty for an individual to sacrifice what our men and women sacrifice for their country. People who join the military need to be honored, respected, and remembered for their service to this great country of ours. Talking down about them and spitting on their memories and sacrifices is like talking down, and spitting on the flag of our country and on its citizens.

I am not one to say, "My country: always right". However, I think it is much more damaging, and wrong for people to say, "My country: always wrong." As far as I am concerned, if you hate this country so much, then why are you here? I cannot remember who said it, but one of my favorite things to say to people who hate this country: "Yes, you have the freedom speech. However, you also have the freedom to leave".

The Force Is Strong With This One...

So sometime in October, I covered a story of a few folks that were making an actual X-Wing rocket that they would launch somewhere in California. I expressed an extremely high interest and excitement into this, and a few days ago, I was just browsing around the internet and decided I would see what the update was on it, and if there was in fact a video of it. There is, and I am posting it here from YouTube for your enjoyment. There was also a Y-Wing that was made as well, and I have a video of that. The video will show the X-Wing launching first, then the Y-Wing, and the video will end with a random rocket launching into the great beyond. Enjoy the videos young padawans, and remember that the force will always be with you...

I'm Subscribed!!!

The following is a letter that I submitted to 2600 a few days after Christmas. Hopefully it will be in the Summer issue later this year. Enjoy.

Dear 2600,

I just wanted to pass on the good news. I have been a loyal reader for the last three years and I have thoroughly enjoyed all the articles and letters that are put into your fine publication. I have written a few letters myself that have been published in your magazine. I wrote these under the alias of P3ngu1n, but I have since decided to start going by the alias I have been known by on the Internet for well over a decade now. Anyway, I digress a little.

First and foremost, I have learned a lot about the hacking community from reading 2600 that I never knew before. It has helped me come up with new ideas and new solutions to problems that I have run across in my daily life and for this I thank you. It has also helped me gain a much higher respect for the hacking community than I ever held before. I try on a daily basis to spread the message that you have worked so hard to get out.

Now, time for the good news. After reading your magazine religiously for three years, and dating my girlfriend for a little more than half that time, my girlfriend did something very special for me this holiday season. She was a little short on funds and had a little difficulty coming up with a good gift idea that wouldn't break the bank. She had already gotten me a few things, but she felt that there was one other thing she had to get me. Her mother suggested getting me a subscription to my favorite magazine and lo and behold, she got me a subscription to 2600.

She had tried earlier in our relationship to get me to read a more "normal" magazine like Maxim or Stuff, but I am not really into those magazines all that much, and 2600 is the only one that I actually look forward to every time. She finally realized this, and got me a subscription for Christmas. The winter (24:4) issue was the first one that I received, and I was really excited to get it. I am looking forward to this years magazines, and I will definitely be renewing my subscription in a year. The best part about it, is that my girlfriend told me that if she could have afforded it, she would have gotten me the lifetime subscription. I told her that was a good gift idea for next year.

On a final note, I was not surprised at all by the message on the spine. I really like how you literally use every square millimeter of space that is available to you on your mag. What I was surprised by was the fact that the message on the spine looks proper when you move the summer issue to the top of the stack. If you keep the stack in order which they were published, "Surprised?" doesn't look right at all. I am currently trying to figure out the riddle to the reason you made it so the summer issue had to be on top. Any hints?

Well, once again, thank you for putting out such an important and great magazine and keep up the good work. Don't be discouraged by people judging your magazine who have no idea how to make one or maintain one for as long as you have. I have no idea what it takes to do what you do, so I will not pretend to know what is best for your magazine. The only thing I can say is make decisions that are best for 2600 and it's readers and don't hold any regrets about those decisions. Good luck at the HOPE conference this year; I wish I could go, but I have no extra money to go. I wish it wasn't the last one, but thats life. Also, good luck in the fight to save Hotel Pennsylvania.

Unr3a1

There is an interesting article on a type of P2P that I will write about in a little while. I would like to do my research on it first.

Ho... Ho... Ho... And A Happy New Apple!

Ok, so Christmas has come and gone, and 2008 is less than 5 hours away. I am stuck here at work with Time Warner until 9pm. No one is really calling, which is good because it gives me a chance to finally update my blog.

Christmas was good for me. I got a lot of really cool stuff which included a bunch of t-shirts, other clothes, Converse All-Star sneakers, and a subscription to 2600. That's right. My girlfriend, the bestest of best people in the world got me a subscription to my favorite magazine. And she said I could renew it next year! That makes me so happy! I got her a really nice blue topaz ring to replace the cheaper one I had gotten her last year. So both of us actually had a really good Christmas, because she also got an iTouch, which if you haven't heard, is like the coolest iPod ever. Basically it is an iPhone without the phone and camera. She really likes it.

I didn't get any cool electronics this year, but that's ok, because as long as everything goes well, I will have a new computer soon. My laptop, which is a Gateway 7422GX is finally starting to shit the bed. It likes to randomly overheat and shut off, it doesn't read DVD's that it has burned anymore, and the monitor needs to be replaced again because of stress fractures that occur on the hinges of the monitor. My parents bought it for me from Best Buy back in 2005 along with the Performance Service Plan (PSP). It runs out in February, so I took it into BBY today to see if they could replace it.

I used to work there, so I figured I would go in, and talk to one of the managers who I have a good relationship with and just have them swap it out. Well, they couldn't find him, so they asked a manager who I did not end on the best terms with. He was polite to me, but told me that they had to send the laptop out to service instead of just swapping it out. So I was denied. Sucks, but because there is so much work that has to be done to it, I am hoping that the service center just tells them to swap it out. In which case, I will be getting a brand new Macbook.

That's right, I am making the switch to Apple if I can. It is a really nice computer that has an Intel Core 2 Duo, 1GB of RAM, 120GB HDD, and most importantly, it does NOT have Vista. I am really crossing my fingers on this one, because I really do not want a Vista computer, and I will still be able to run XP on it if I need to, and I will definitely be able to put Linux on it. Working at TWC, I have really solidified my hatred towards Vista. It is just a pain in the ass to work with, and it doesn't like wireless networks that much.

In other news, one of my favorite TV shows is ending next year. The Shield on FX. It has been a really good show the last 6 years, even though I have not seen the 6^th season yet. I will definitely be DVRing the show next year as I will probably never get a chance to watch it when it actually airs. The one thing that I am really disappointed in, is the creator of the show, Shawn Ryan, is loyal to the Screenwriters Guild. So when they went on strike, he did not assist in, or allow the writers of the show to write the final episode. He was also not be present, and did not allow his writers to be present on the set of the show when they were filming the final episode.

I think this was really shitty of him considering that he likes to think of the show as “his baby”. He takes great pride in the quality of the show, and in it's most important episode, he did not assist in the writing, and wasn't present on the set. All so that a bunch of greedy bastards could get more money. I can't make a final judgment on his actions until I actually see the episode. If it is unaffected by it, then I suppose we could write this as a no harm, no foul. But if the final episode is really weak in comparison to the rest of the show, then I will truly be very upset about it, and I will lose all respect for Shawn Ryan.

StarCraft 2 is still being worked on. Blizzard is releasing a lot more information and photos about it. I am getting really really excited about it. There are a multitude of new units being introduced, and they are bringing back a lot of the key heroes from the first game. Marines will now have a shield upgrade that you can get for them, the Zerg are going to look a hell of a lot cooler now. I really think they are going to make a really great game. Here is hoping, because I loved playing the first game when I was younger. I have even picked it back up. I am not really playing it that much now that my laptop is in for service. Oh well. I am just hoping that Blizzard will make it so that it can run on older hardware (incase they just fix my laptop), or allow it to run on 144mb of shared video memory (incase I can actually get my new Apple computer). I am really crossing my fingers on this one, because I do not want to miss out on this game.

Well, 2008 is now less than 4 hours away, and my shift is almost done here, so I will say goodbye for now. I will try and keep this more updated with newer posts in the future. Probaby right around when I get a new computer, or when mine gets fixed. Have a fun and safe New Year! See you in 2008!

Caught Red Handed

So the cat is out of the bag. My girlfriend discovered my blog. She did indeed call it gay, but she is actually not making me take it down. She actually said that I could keep it up, and she will just check periodically for updates. So that's pretty cool.

The holidays are almost upon us. Less than 10 days to go before Christmas. I am really excited for this year because I got my girlfriend a really nice gift. I won't share right now, because she will read this and I don't want to give it away. But rest assured that it is really nice. I am also excited for all the cool stuff I am going to get as well. It will definitely be a good Christmas this year.

As for new news for me, I am finished my training at Time Warner Cable, and am now on the phones full time. I already have a few funny stories, but I will not post any of them here... sorry. Things at TWC though are going really well. The job is a lot of fun, and pretty challenging. I thourouly enjoy it. Unfortunately, there is one backdrop, and that is the fact that I do not have an Apple computer to reference with customers. I need an Apple machine, so I will probably have to take my laptop into Best Buy and try and get them to swap it out.

Thats all for now; I know it was a short post, but it's all I really had time for. I will post soon with more technical stuff.

The Power of You

Hey all. Oh my God, it is going on two months since I have posted. I have been absolutely crazy. All sorts of shit has gone down, I don't even know where to start. I have a fairly new job, new computer, FTP server that I have set up; all sorts of insane stuff has happened. Let me start from the beginning (I know, another boring story. Too bad for you I don't give a fuck).

It all started about two months ago, when the company I was working for up in Clifton Park, NY was really fucking me over. They had me going on business trips and weren't compensating me for the proper overtime, they were making me work for 60 hours without getting compensation, it was just an all around poor situation to be in. I was working way too much, and not getting the amount of pay I wanted. I was severely underpaid for the amount of work I was doing. So I started looking for another job. I applied to the state, went to hiring agencies, and it wasn't looking like I was going to get anything. Then, on channel 0001, my girlfriend saw that Time Warner Cable was hiring.

They had a job fair scheduled for later that day, actually. So I quickly updated my resume, and drove down to the Rotterdam office. I had to be there by six, and I got out of work at five. I went about 90 mph in order to get there in time, but I did. Handed in my resume, interviewed, and who thought, they offered me a job as a Tier 3 tech support specialist. I take all the advanced computer and VoIP calls (although they won't be that advanced, but at least I am not a Tier 1).

So I left the company I was with up in Clifton Park, and started with TWC in late October. I left on good terms with the company I was with before, and they actually offered me a part-time position so that I can help them out with testing. They understood why I had to leave, and didn't bitch too much about it.

So far, TWC is really fun. We are in a very difficult (yea right, very difficult my ass. This is like taking kindergarten all over again.) 7 week training course that teaches you about the ropes of being customer service representative. Half this shit is completely useless to me, but thats ok. The trainers are very nice, and the whole company has a really nice atmosphere (I can hear my girlfriend calling me a fag right now). Not to mention the free cable.

Thats right, you heard me correctly; because I work for the Albany division of TWC, I get free cable and a free internet connection. A 10mb connection at that. It is fucking cool as hell, because I get EVERYTHING. I have every single channel that can be subscribed to as a constant service - like Playboy TV. I get a DVR, and up to three digital boxes. Not to mention the sweet partner discount on the most random shit (i.e. cars, certain electronic stores).

It is going really well, and I am excited to start doing stuff over the phone with a customer. They had all sorts of rules on the first day of things that apply to everyone in the call center:

1. There is NO downloading/uploading of ANY KIND.
2. There is NO running plugging in personal external storage devices on a company machine.
3. There is NO bringing of laptops onto company grounds unless ordered to do so.
As a Tier 3 tech support agent, I am not required to follow those rules. I am allowed to download, up load, have a flash drive, bring in my laptop whenever I feel like it.

Like I said earlier, because I have a free 10mb Road Runner connection, what is better than hosting my own FTP with all sorts of cool stuff? Well I did it and will only allow certain people access to it, so there is no hope in it for you, unless you become good friends with me. I am also working on hosting my blog on my computer. That is in the process right now, and I have no projected time frame as to when it will be functional.

Lastly, I took the police exam last Saturday. I took it for Albany and Schenectady county. Hopefully it will work out for me. Well, thats about it. I had to edit this post because I first wrote it at like, 2 in the morning and was fucking tired as all hell. I said some really weird shit, that when I read today, I was like, "what the fuck was I thinking?". Anyway, I will be able to post a lot more now that I have an Internet connection. Look forward in the future to a lot more posts on the inane ramblings of technology, guns, video games, and other such nonsense.

May The Force Be With You…

"A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away…" I remember when I first saw those blue letters fade onto the screen when I was 4 years old. Star Wars amazed me when I was a little kid. I actually believed that the world existed and I used to fantasize about leaving earth in the Millennium Falcon and cruising around the galaxy going from system to system as a smuggler or bounty hunter. I still believe that the world exists, actually. I refuse to believe that it is all just a fantasy. It's just a matter of time before we discover a fourth Death Star and Earth sends it's young men to the Rebel base to defend our galaxy. I will be the first in line for that draft.

I have probably seen the original trilogy over 900 times. I used to watch the three movies, rewind all the tapes, and watch them again. The Star Wars universe absolutely fascinated me growing up, and it still fascinates me today. So knowing all this, wouldn't I be absolutely thrilled to find out that a rocket team out in California actually made a flying model of the X-Wing. It actually flies – well not literally as it is more of fancy rocket, but even still – it flies! It will even lock it's S-Foils in attack position in mid flight! How fucking cool is this?!

It is a 21-foot long model that has four solid liquid fuel rockets on it. They are the kind that burn red to resemble the engines of the X-Wing in the movies. It is mostly made out of wood with the exception of some solid aluminum rods to support the wing motion for when the wings open up. It is unmanned, which sucks, but I suppose in this case safety really does come first. They are planning to launch it on October 10^th and it will land with three man-rated parachutes. All I have to say is that they better fucking video tape it. Being that is made out of wood, it will probably explode into a ball of fire, and here is hoping. I would want to see a real life X-Wing explode in a great ball of fire. Then people could edit the movie and make it look like a TIE-Fighter shot it down. This is so cool and so right in so many ways.

The next step of course is for someone to make a real one and let me pilot it as I am not such a bad pilot myself. I would zip around the world, blasting stuff. It would be so much fun. Then all I would need is a Lightsaber, and my life would be complete.

Read the whole story here: http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/star-wars/rocket+powered-21+foot-long-x+wing-model-actually-flies-305976.php. There are pictures of how it was built, and a full explanation of how it will work. These workers are strong with the force. Learn much from them we may and our lives fulfilled will be. May the force be with us all…

Too Long

    Wow, it has really been a long time since my last post. Things have been absolutely insane for me. It has honestly been too long since my last post. I have really been putting it off to get other things done. I will start to post more regularly and keep things updated.

    In recent news for me, my sister got married. I wasn't at the wedding, because of family issues, and I didn't really care to be there. She is a self-righteous bitch, so I didn't bother. Work is still going good. I am, however, going to take the police exams for Albany and Schenectady counties in NY. I am also going to take the NY State Trooper exam in January. I am looking to eventually become a computer forensics detective, but I gotta be on the street for a while before I can do that.

    In more exciting and technology related news, there are a couple of stories that I think any Linux and open source software supporter would like. The first one is actually old news, but it is new to me, as I never heard of it before. It is the One Laptop Per Child program. You can read about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XO-1_(laptop) . Basically it's a program that distributes $100 laptops to deprived countries so that children in these countries can learn how to use a computer, and can have access to the Internet for their education. It's a great program, and they are distributing these laptops with a stripped down version of Fedora Linux. Since 2005, there have already been over 10 Million children that have received one of these notebooks. That means that for the last two years, over 10 million people have had Linux as their first operating system.

    The second piece of news, which is new for everyone, is that the Linux Foundation has signed a deal with the Japanese government to help promote Linux to the Asian companies. This is another big thing since Japan is one of the economic super powers. Read the full story here: http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071002-linux-foundation-establishes-partnership-with-japanese-government.html.

    The world gets closer and closer to a Windows free society. Bad Vista!

Insecurity at Myrtle Beach.

Wow, it has been a while since I posted as I have been very busy the last two weeks. The week of July 21 – 28 I was on vacation in Myrtle Beach, SC with my girlfriend and her family and last week I was on a business trip all week, so I was unable to publish any new posts for that period.

In SC, we stayed at a hotel that was no more than 50 yards away from the beach. Every morning at 8AM we were putting our chairs on the beach to claim our spot. We would then actually go out to the beach around 9 and just lay around. We would stay on the beach until about 2 or 3 PM every day. During that time, we swam in the ocean, the pool at the hotel, and just sit on the beach.

The first night we were there, we ate at a seafood buffet where I had my first crab legs. They were very tasty and I would definitely have some more. On Tuesday we went to NASCAR raceway and raced around on go karts. That was an absolute blast, as I ::cough:: won all the races ::cough::. Wednesday I went with my girlfriend to Broadway at the Beach and we got our picture taken a lot. Thursday was deep sea fishing where I got seasick and puked over the side of the boat. Friday was another day at Broadway at the Beach, and Saturday we came home.

Thursday night we lit off fireworks on the beach, and something really funny happened. So here we were, lighting fireworks and this guy keeps pacing back and forth around us. After about 10 minutes, he finally approaches us, and the conversation went something like this:

Man: Hey, you guys speak English?

My Friend: Yea.

Man: You got a good lighter?

My Friend: Yea, why?

Man: ‘Cause I got a good firecracker.

The man then proceeded to pull out of his pocket a quarter stick of dynamite. This thing was huge. It was probably 2 inches or more in length, and the diameter had to be the same as a U.S. Quarter. The fuse it had was only a half inch in length, so lighting it was a little nervous. We got close to the water and shoved it into the sand, lit the fuse, and walked away. This thing went off, and it sounded like a land mine had just exploded. It echoed off the hotel buildings, and everyone that was watching us light the fireworks gave us a big round of applause. We ran right up to our room in fear of local law enforcement. We didn’t look at the crater this thing had to have left and in hindsight we probably should have. But what was done was done, and we certainly weren’t going back down to the beach that night. We weren’t the only ones scared off the beach either. Other people were lighting fireworks, and when we set the quarter stick off, they cleared out too. The beach was empty for about an hour before people cautiously returned to the beach and lit a few sparklers. The fireworks were over for the night.

Probably the most interesting thing about the whole thing was the way the room key system worked. They gave you the little credit card type key that you slid into the door when you wanted to unlock your room. Just in case the hotel had used this type of room entry system, I brought my computer and my homemade magnetic stripe reader/writer. Since we each got a card, I was able to use mine for my experiment. I swiped the card through my reader and I was able to extract the data from it. The only data on the card was the following string of numbers:

01140805073007

At first I did not know how it was constructed, but after studying it for about a half an hour, it was actually very simplistic.

01 = Building, in which case is the North Tower (South Tower being 02)

14 = Floor of the building

08 = Room number

05 = Number of occupants in the room

073007 = The date the occupants were set to checkout of the hotel (July 30, 2007)

Now take quick note, the information provided above is different from what I actually saw, to protect myself from prosecution. Moving on, there were four other people in our party that were staying in another room in the building. Letting me borrow their card, I was able to extract this information:

01031204072907

Based off my earlier information, stood for this:

01 = Building (North Tower again)

03 = Floor number

12 = Room number

04 = Number of occupants

072907 = The date the occupants were set to checkout of the hotel (July 29, 2007)

So I changed the code on my key to match the one on theirs. I tried my key, and was granted access to their room.

Wanting to see if I would be able to find out the information I needed from the front desk, I took an elevator ride down to the Lobby floor and approached the counter. I politely told the girl at the counter that I was a friend of the people in room 12 on the third floor and that I needed some information on them to give them a surprise party. Without question, she agreed to the inquisition, and answered all of my questions truthfully giving me all the information I would have needed if I hadn’t already known it. Obviously, she is not the brightest light bulb in the box, and neither is the security team.

What hacking is...

I know it’s been a while since I posted anything, but this past week has just been really crazy. I moved into a new apartment, I am going on vacation next week which I had to prepare for. It has just been really insane. I cannot wait until I am on Myrtle Beach. It will be a blast.

So I picked up the latest issue of 2600 over the weekend. Oh boy, is it a good issue. However, someone wrote a letter that was a little upsetting. He was questioning why the editors always answer repetitive questions and articles, and why they “waste space” in their magazine telling people over and over again how to submit letters, articles, etc. I wrote a letter to the magazine with this response, which explains what “hacking” really means:

“This is in response to MS3FGX’s letter in 24:2. The editors at 2600 are doing a fine job with the magazine and their website. You should realize that there is a lot of work that has to be done between each issue. I know that four months seems like a lot of time for only a 70 page magazine, but I would not be surprised to find out that it is actually very difficult for them to do what they do.

You need to remember that hacking is not merely an action that a person does on a computer. It is a state of mind; a way of thinking. You say that they waste space in their magazine answering repeat questions and they probably get a lot of duplicate articles. Yes, they do repeat a lot of the same questions and yes, I am sure they get tons of duplicate articles. However, I do not see this as a bad thing.

First I will discuss the questions. People of all ages and life styles read this magazine. There are people that do not have an Internet connection (as farfetched as that may sound, it is true). Or they may not know of the 2600 website, or don’t know how to search for it. So if the editor’s post answers to frequently asked questions on their website, and poor 14-year old Billy doesn’t have an Internet connection, how is he supposed to get his question answered if the editors refuse to answer it in the magazine? He won’t, and a question not being answered is never a good thing.

The other thing about having all the information provided on the website goes back to my statement that hacking is not an action, but a way of thinking. If all the information on how to do things, proper formatting, electrical schematics are spoon fed to us, how are we supposed to hack? Hacking is the search for information to try and find a better way of accomplishing a goal. Whether that is to get an iPod to snag all the passwords off a computer, or finding a different road home when the normal one you travel on is closed down for construction. As far as articles go, I really don’t think the editors mind if you send in a banner or not. If you do, and it can be formatted to their magazine, I am sure they will use it. If not, then maybe they will find one of their own. Who knows unless you either ask, or try?

I have been using Linux for the last 4 years. Not until just recently though have I been really trying to learn how to manage a Linux box. You can’t learn how to properly administrate a Linux box by reading a book, or by always being given the answers. I have used Fedora, Ubuntu, Red Hat, and SuSE. None of which really let you learn how the OS works, because a lot of functions are done for you. A week ago as of writing this, I switched to Slackware 12.0. The reason for this is because it will give me the opportunity to actually learn Linux, because hardly anything is done for you. Actually, applications work better and faster if you compile the source code yourself, rather than running an installer. Some people don’t need to know how to fully administrate a Linux distro, and that is fine. But for the people who want to learn how to do things in Linux at the command line, you don’t learn unless you do.

Regarding the complaint about not knowing what topics were posted before, everything has been. I have only been reading this magazine regularly for the last three years, which are only 12 issues. If I remember correctly, out of those 12 issues, there have been FOUR articles about some sort of Wi-Fi hacking. Whether it was breaking the WPA code, or Wardriving, the topic of Wi-Fi intrusion has been talked about a lot. The reason is, as technology changes and gets better, the way of accomplishing things you want to do with that technology changes. Do you think that for the last 23 years this magazine has been published there hasn’t been a MULTITUDE of duplicate topics? Look at all the articles there have been on social engineering. The reason for this is twofold.

First, let’s think of poor 14-year old Billy again. In the Spring 2005 issue, magnetic stripe reading was discussed, but Billy doesn’t pick up his first 2600 until a later issue. Meanwhile, someone submits an article on magnetic stripe reading, and while being innovative, and different from the article in the Spring 2005 issue, the editors reject the article because they are following a new “no duplicate article” policy. Or maybe the author of this article goes to 2600’s website and sees that magnetic stripe reading was already published, so he decides not to submit it in fear that the editors will reject the article. Either way, Bill is now denied information because people are afraid to print the same thing twice.

This of course brings me to my second point: there is always something different in each article even if the topic has been covered before, because again, technology changes every day. I read the article in the Spring 2005 issue, and I did it. I made my own magnetic stripe reader. There is a casino – that will remain nameless – that uses a gift card system to manage the information of customer’s balances. I went to this casino, and tested my stripe reader on their card. When I outputted the data, I was able to see where the balance was stored, and I was able to change that amount. I only went from having $40 on the card, to $45 and I took the card back to the casino to cash out. I wanted to see if they would be able to notice that I went from having $40 on the card to $45 without even gambling. They didn’t, and I made a fast five bucks. A year later I did the same thing, and almost got my ass arrested when they couldn’t match up the data on the card with the game logs on their servers. So if I were to write an article on this topic, should it be rejected on the basis that it was discussed already, even though the original article is no longer accurate for this situation? I think not.

Information should never be kept from anyone, but there should not only be one way of obtaining it either. This magazine has been published for the last 23 years. They must be doing a lot of things right to survive the troubles that they have probably had to go through. Remember, hacking is not just an action that is done on a computer; it is a way of thinking. Once again, editors of 2600, thank you for putting out such a fine publication and keep doing what you are doing. I look forward to reading all the future articles on Wi-Fi intrusion and social engineering. Hack on!”

Technilogical and Interactive Experiences

So a while back, Blizzard announced the development and future release of StarCraft 2, which is the sequel to one of the greatest PC games ever created. My best friend and I ruled those U.S. West servers in Battle.net. We were Pheonix~Flame and Pheonix~Tornado. To this day, you can still find someone on those servers who remember who we were.

Flame primarily played as the Zerg. He would have a massive army of Hydralisks and Zerglings within 15 minutes of playing the game. I was primarily Protoss and I could have 10+ Carriers that were fully upgraded in 15 to 20 minutes. He and I rocked the planet in that game, and it showed. Because we always played together, if he was struggling, he would move his units into my base, and if I was struggling, I would move my units into his. Hardly anyone ever beat us.

Back to SC2, one of the more exciting features in this game is the fact that there is no unit build limit. You can create as many units as you want. I seriously cannot wait. Hopefully Flame and I will be back on the Battle.net servers wreaking havoc throughout them once again. Should be good times.

On a separate note, the latest issue of 2600 was release on Friday. I will be picking it up today, and I will post on the interesting things that are included into that issue.