245 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
245 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
___________________________________________________________
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GUIDE TO (mostly) HARMLESS HACKING
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Beginners’ Series #1
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So you want to be a harmless hacker?
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____________________________________________________________
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“You mean you can hack without breaking the law?"
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That was the voice of a high school freshman. He had me on the phone because
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his father had just taken away his computer. His offense? Cracking into my
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Internet account. The boy had hoped to impress me with how "kewl" he was.
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But before I realized he had gotten in, a sysadmin at my ISP had spotted the
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kid’s harmless explorations and had alerted the parents. Now the boy wanted
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my help in getting back on line.
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I told the kid that I sympathized with his father. What if the sysadmin and
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I had been major grouches? This kid could have wound up in juvenile
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detention. Now I don’t agree with putting harmless hackers in jail, and I
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would never have testified against him. But that’s what some people do to
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folks who go snooping in other people’s computer accounts -- even when the
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culprit does no harm. This boy needs to learn how to keep out of trouble!
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Hacking is the most exhilarating game on the planet. But it stops being fun
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when you end up in a cell with a roommate named "Spike." But hacking doesn't
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have to mean breaking laws. In this book we teach safe hacking so that you
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don’t have to keep looking back over your shoulders for narcs and cops.
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What we're talking about is hacking as a healthy recreation, and as a free
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education that can qualify you to get a high paying job. In fact, many
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network systems administrators, computer scientists and computer security
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experts first learned their professions, not in some college program, but
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from the hacker culture. And you may be surprised to discover that
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ultimately the Internet is safeguarded not by law enforcement agencies, not
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by giant corporations, but by a worldwide network of, yes, hackers.
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You, too, can become one of us.
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And -- hacking can be surprisingly easy. Heck, if I can do it, anyone can!
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Regardless of why you want to be a hacker, it is definitely a way to have
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fun, impress your friends, and get dates. If you are a female hacker you
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become totally irresistible to men. Take my word for it!;^D
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These Guides to (mostly) Harmless Hacking can be your gateway into this
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world. After reading just a few of these Guides you will be able to pull off
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stunts that will be legal, phun, and will impress the heck out of your friends.
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These Guides can equip you to become one of the vigilantes that keeps the
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Internet from being destroyed by bad guys. Especially spammers. Heh, heh,
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heh. You can also learn how to keep the bad guys from messing with your
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Internet account, email, and personal computer. You’ll learn not to be
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frightened by silly hoaxes that pranksters use to keep the average Internet
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user in a tizzy.
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If you hang in with us through a year or so, you can learn enough and meet
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the people on our email list and IRC channel who can help you to become
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truly elite.
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However, before you plunge into the hacker subculture, be prepared for that
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hacker attitude. You have been warned.
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So...welcome to the adventure of hacking!
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WHAT DO I NEED IN ORDER TO HACK?
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You may wonder whether hackers need expensive computer equipment and a shelf
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full of technical manuals. The answer is NO! Hacking can be surprisingly
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easy! Better yet, if you know how to search the Web, you can find almost any
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computer information you need for free.
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In fact, hacking is so easy that if you have an on-line service and know how
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to send and read email, you can start hacking immediately. The GTMHH
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Beginners’ Series #2 will show you where you can download special
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hacker-friendly programs for Windows that are absolutely free. And we’ll
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show you some easy hacker tricks you can use them for.
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Now suppose you want to become an elite hacker? All you will really need is
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an inexpensive "shell account" with an Internet Service Provider. In the
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GTMHH Beginners’ Series #3 we will tell you how to get a shell account, log
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on, and start playing the greatest game on Earth: Unix hacking! Then in
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Vol.s I, II, and III of the GTMHH you can get into Unix hacking seriously.
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You can even make it into the ranks of the Uberhackers without loading up on
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expensive computer equipment. In Vol. II we introduce Linux, the free
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hacker-friendly operating system. It will even run on a 386 PC with just 2
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Mb RAM! Linux is so good that many Internet Service Providers use it to run
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their systems.
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In Vol. III we will also introduce Perl, the shell programming language
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beloved of Uberhackers. We will even teach some seriously deadly hacker
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"exploits" that run on Perl using Linux. OK, you could use most of these
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exploits to do illegal things. But they are only illegal if you run them
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against someone else’s computer without their permission. You can run any
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program in this book on your own computer, or your (consenting) friend’s
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computer -- if you dare! Hey, seriously, nothing in this book will actually
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hurt your computer, unless you decide to trash it on purpose.
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We will also open the gateway to an amazing underground where you can stay
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on top of almost every discovery of computer security flaws. You can learn
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how to either exploit them -- or defend your computer against them!
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About the Guides to (mostly) Harmless Hacking
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We have noticed that there are lots of books that glamorize hackers. To read
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these books you would think that it takes many years of brilliant work to
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become one. Of course we hackers love to perpetuate this myth because it
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makes us look so incredibly kewl.
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But how many books are out there that tell the beginner step by step how to
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actually do this hacking stuph? None! Seriously, have you ever read _Secrets
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of a Superhacker_ by The Knightmare (Loomponics, 1994) or _Forbidden Secrets
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of the Legion of Doom Hackers_ by Salacious Crumb (St. Mahoun Books, 1994)?
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They are full of vague and out of date stuph. Give me a break.
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And if you get on one of the hacker news groups on the Internet and ask
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people how to do stuph, some of them insult and make fun of you. OK, they
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all make fun of you.
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We see many hackers making a big deal of themselves and being mysterious and
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refusing to help others learn how to hack. Why? Because they don't want you
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to know the truth, which is that most of what they are doing is really very
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simple!
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Well, we thought about this. We, too, could enjoy the pleasure of insulting
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people who ask us how to hack. Or we could get big egos by actually teaching
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thousands of people how to hack. Muhahaha.
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How to Use the Guides to (mostly) Harmless Hacking
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If you know how to use a personal computer and are on the Internet, you
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already know enough to start learning to be a hacker. You don't even need to
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read every single Guide to (mostly) Harmless Hacking in order to become a
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hacker.
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You can count on anything in Volumes I, II and III being so easy that you
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can jump in about anywhere and just follow instructions.
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But if your plan is to become "elite," you will do better if you read all
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the Guides, check out the many Web sites and newsgroups to which we will
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point you, and find a mentor among the many talented hackers who post to our
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Hackers forum or chat on our IRC server at http://www.infowar.com, and on
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the Happy Hacker email list (email hacker@techbroker.com with message
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“subscribe”).
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If your goal is to become an Uberhacker, the Guides will end up being only
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the first in a mountain of material that you will need to study. However, we
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offer a study strategy that can aid you in your quest to reach the pinnacle
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of hacking.
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How to Not Get Busted
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One slight problem with hacking is that if you step over the line, you can
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go to jail. We will do our best to warn you when we describe hacks that
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could get you into trouble with the law. But we are not attorneys or experts
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on cyberlaw. In addition, every state and every country has its own laws.
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And these laws keep on changing. So you have to use a little sense.
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However, we have a Guide to (mostly) Harmless Hacking Computer Crime Law
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Series to help you avoid some pitfalls.
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But the best protection against getting busted is the Golden Rule. If you
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are about to do something that you would not like to have done to you,
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forget it. Do hacks that make the world a better place, or that are at least
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fun and harmless, and you should be able to keep out of trouble.
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So if you get an idea from the Guides to (mostly) Harmless Hacking that
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helps you to do something malicious or destructive, it's your problem if you
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end up being the next hacker behind bars. Hey, the law won't care if the
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guy whose computer you trash was being a d***. It won't care that the giant
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corporation whose database you filched shafted your best buddy once. They
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will only care that you broke the law.
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To some people it may sound like phun to become a national sensation in the
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latest hysteria over Evil Genius hackers. But after the trial, when some
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reader of these Guides ends up being the reluctant "girlfriend" of a convict
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named Spike, how happy will his news clippings make him?
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Conventions Used in the Guides
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You've probably already noticed that we spell some words funny, like "kewl"
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and "phun." These are hacker slang terms. Since we often communicate with
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each other via email, most of our slang consists of ordinary words with
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extraordinary spellings. For example, a hacker might spell "elite" as
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"3l1t3," with 3's substituting for e's and 1's for i's. He or she may even
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spell "elite" as "31337. The Guides sometimes use these slang spellings to
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help you learn how to write email like a hacker.
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Of course, the cute spelling stuph we use will go out of date fast. So we do
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not guarantee that if you use this slang, people will read your email and
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think, "Ohhh, you must be an Evil Genius! I'm sooo impressed!"
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Take it from us, guys who need to keep on inventing new slang to prove they
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are "k-rad 3l1t3" are often lusers and lamers. So if you don't want to use
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any of the hacker slang of this book, that's OK by us. Most Uberhackers
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don't use slang, either.
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Who Are You?
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We've made some assumptions about who you are and why you are reading these
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Guides:
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· You own a PC or Macintosh personal computer
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· You are on-line with the Internet
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· You have a sense of humor and adventure and want to express it by hacking
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· Or -- you want to impress your friends and pick up chicks (or guys) by
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making them think you are an Evil Genius
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So, does this picture fit you? If so, OK, d00dz, start your computers. Are
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you ready to hack?
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_________________________________________________________
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Want to see back issues of Guide to (mostly) Harmless Hacking? See either
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http://www.vcalpha.com/silicon/void-f.html or
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http://www3.ns.sympatico.ca/loukas.halo8/HappyHacker/
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http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/4594
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We have a discussion group and archives hosted at
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http://www.infowar.com/cgi-shl/login.exe.
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Chat with us on the Happy Hacker IRC channel. If your browser can use Java,
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just direct your browser to www.infowar.com, click on chat, and choose the
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#hackers channel.
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Subscribe to our email list by emailing to hacker@techbroker.com with
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message "subscribe"
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Want to share some kewl stuph with the Happy Hacker list? Correct mistakes?
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Send your messages to hacker@techbroker.com. To send me confidential email
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(please, no discussions of illegal activities) use carolyn@techbroker.com
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and be sure to state in your message that you want me to keep this
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confidential. If you wish your message posted anonymously, please say so!
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Direct flames to dev/null@techbroker.com. Happy hacking!
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Copyright 1997 Carolyn P. Meinel. You may forward or post on your Web site
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this GUIDE TO (mostly) HARMLESS HACKING as long as you leave this notice at
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the end..
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________________________________________________________
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Carolyn Meinel
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M/B Research -- The Technology Brokers
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