137 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
137 lines
7.1 KiB
Plaintext
+----------------------------------+
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! !
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! The Hacker Syndrome !
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! =================== !
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! By Tad Deriso !
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! !
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+----------------------------------+
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Part I
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======
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There is some impelling force in all Hackers that seem to draw them to their
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computers every day. Why they get up at 4am to use the modem, and why they can
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rack up a truly incredible phone bill is beyond me.
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Most computer areas, at your home or at your office, tend to be messy. Even
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you try to keep it clean, it is truly impossible. Whether it be empty Coke cans
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laying all around, soldering devices, electric diodes, computer parts, or
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Integrated circuts. Not only is a pain for your mother to look at, but a prime
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Russian ICBM missile target as well.
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There is much detail needed to explain a Hacker. For instance, instead of
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organizing his clothes by color, best ones, or style, he organizes his by pile.
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Also, he likes to sing songs such as, "Let's get Digital", "We All Live In a
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Yellow Subroutine", and "Somewhere Over the RAMbos".
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Most Hackers do well in school. The reason is, not to impress their teachers,
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not to get money from their parents, and not to be educated, but they do it so
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they can hopefully get a scholarship to MIT. You can't blame them though if
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they are looking out into space. It might be because they are worried if MCI
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traced the call that you sent to NORAD.
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All Hackers, big or small love computers. Wheather it be Trash-80's, or an
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IBM 360/VM workstation. When they get on one, it's mighty hard to get them off
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of it.
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There are 2 types of Hackers. One who likes to crash local BBS's, and the one
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who writes programs in Assembly Language. The Hacker who crashes systems is the
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one that most people think that a Hacker is. A typical example of one is John
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Fredrickson (A.K.A. The Phone Man). He loves to crash computers, and break
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into illegal systems. The one that he has gotten in to are MCI, CitiBank,
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School systems, IBM, Southern Bell, and Georgia Tech, not to mention all the
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ones in between.
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The second type of Hacker is the programmer. He writes games, utilities, and
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anything else that he can think of. Take for example, John Harris, a freelance
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software writer for On-Line Software co. John had a brainstorm one day, and
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decided to write Frogger for the Apple. He thought that it would take about 3
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weeks to complete. He started on Frogger a week late, because of the
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complicated music set that he had to write. After two months, he was almost
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done. He decided to take a break and go to the Software Expo. He decided to
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take his nearly completed Frogger, and show it to the consumers at the show. He
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also took with him, the only back up copy, in case the main disk did not boot.
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While at the fair, he was talking to the Manager on getting a booth. He had
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his disks with him. Then when he got a booth reserved, he reached down to get
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his disks, and they were gone! All his hard work, including the MultiLevel
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character generator, music lines, disk subroutines, assembly routines, debugging
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programs, etc. All gone.
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After that tragedy, John was in a deep depression. He finally started working
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on it again in 3 months. He completed it in 4 months, and 3 days.
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Part II
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=======
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Hackers always take time off. There is always one way to notice a true
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Hacker. At a party, the true Hacker is the one in the corner thinking about
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operating system security and how to get around it. At the beach, the True
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Hacker is the one drawing flow charts in the sand. At a football game, the true
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Hacker is the one comparing the football plays against a simulation printed on
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11 by 14 fanfold paper.
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Most Hackers work for the U.S. Government - mainly the Department of Defense.
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you can see the best Hackers at the Jet Propulsion Labratory in California.
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What sort of enviroment does a Hacker function best in? No, not a heated room
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with a clean table and disks orgainzed neatly, but they do best in rooms that
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have line-printed Snoopy calendars from the year 1969. They do not know how to
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cook, so they survive on Twinkies and coffee. Instead of wasting electricity
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for a heater, they spend it on air-conditioners to cool of their computer system
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in mid-January when the temperatures are below freezing. They wear layers and
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layers of clothing to keep the body heat in. When you see one of these people,
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instead of a Hacker coming into your mind, you think that he is about to go on a
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Polar expedition somewhere in the North Pole.
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Hackers also like to hang around arcades. (This is also true for kids, little
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old ladies, and fighter pilots.) There, secluded in their own enviroment,
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Hackers can talk freely on computer hints and short cuts while playing Pac-Man,
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or Joust.
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All Hackers like Graphics. They like low-resolution, but prefer
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high-resolution the best. Those graphics, such as Sine waves, rotating 3-D
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boxes, and little ballons, are confined to the limits of a systems capability.
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The older more experienced Hackers are the ones who are lucky enough to get to
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work on a CRAY-1 SuperComputer, and maybe even a VAX system. If they use these,
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they have only the limits of their imigination to stop them.
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Most Middle School Hackers between the ages of 10 through 14, like to use
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computers to do reports on, and play games. Some of these younger generation
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Hackers have gotten into BASIC programming.
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Some people, like to impress real Hackers by making them think that they know
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everything. There is a certain name for this kind of person. He is
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Sub-Hacker.(Intillectious dumbfoundeth) For instance, you come up to them one
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day, and say,"Hey so-and-so what does BASIC stand for?" and you could sit there
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for days, and he would act like the answer was on the tip of his tongue, when it
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was probablly in his toes. It is people like this that give Hackers a bad name.
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Part III
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========
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All Hackers have certain rules that they go by. One is to never call long
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distance on Monday, because of the high phone charge. Another is If builders
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built buildings they way programmers wrote programs, the first woodpecker that
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comes along would destroy civilization. Another is, if the computer accepts a
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program on the first run without any errors, either there is a malfunction, or
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it must be a dream.
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Hackers are a unique breed. Combining intillegence, personality, and a morale
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sense of good taste. A Hacker enjoys the enviroment that appeals to him the
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most. Such as, the computer room, the arcade, science lab, or the Atari
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downstairs. They like to be alone. Secluded in their own thoughts, thinking of
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what the password could be to log on to General Electric.
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Hackers are the people who are going to make our future brighter, and more
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exciting in the field of electronics, data processing, artificial intillegence,
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and programming. We need to support these people in all the ways that we can,
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so we will be insured of a more happier future in the world of technological
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advacements.
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Tad Deriso
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that we can,
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so we will be insured of |