Bridewin

ASP .Net Web Handlers

2011-02-19T00:42:00.000-08:00

ASP .Net Generic Handlers

Generic handlers are also called as web handlers. Just as ASPX files can be compiled on the fly (just-in-time), so can handlers. Generic handlers have an extension of ASHX. They contain classes that fully implement IHttpHandler. They're convenient in the same way ASPX files are convenient. You simply surf to them and they're compiled automatically.

Now you would probably have a question in your mind that “why should I use a generic handlers when I can do same thing using web service? “ Now if you know web service needs a consumer event or page to consume its output but in case of Generic Handler you do not need a consumer service. You just can browse through the page where IHttpHandler will do the rest of the work for you or maybe you are in a situation where you need output from something without calling any function, in such scenario web handlers are very handy!

So suppose you want to start using a web handler you can learn to use the same thing from here:

http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/UploadFile/prathore/ASHXfileHandler03272009023910AM/ASHXfileHandler.aspx

My point is to help people know things as easily as possible so I use copy paste since everything is available in internet! Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V the most prominent tool!

My main reason to come across Web handlers is due to auto complete feature in my project where I was not allowed to use Ajax since I work in a domain which is mainly linked to banking sector, where security and machine speed is considered at high end! In short there are lot of bankers who are very high profiled and they don’t have high configuration machine and they have requirement of security and high functional application with less trouble. So I was enforced to use Jquery.

Ah!! I was at auto complete. Now you must have seen in www.google.com when you type something you get the rest of the things coming up in text box! Ya that is auto complete. Now this one I got it from some site which seems to be worthy for me http://www.aspsnippets.com/Articles/Using-jQuery-AutoComplete-Plugin-in-ASP.Net.aspx try it out!

So Happy Learning!

2011-01-16T02:10:00.001-08:00

How to develop an application from the Scratch?

Pre-requisite:

You should know to copy paste (Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V). This helps to increase your speed since there is no point in reinventing the wheels.
You should know OOPS .If you don't know OOPS refer to this section before proceeding further (http://www.codeproject.com/KB/architecture/OOP_Concepts_and_manymore.aspx). Now you must be knowing basics of OOPS and how to apply it.
Once you are done with OOPS you should know what is Three-Tier Architecture? If you don't know what is Three-Tier Architecture you can refer to this link http://www.codeproject.com/KB/architecture/three_tier_architecture.aspx .In today's world all application is build in Three-Tier and N-Tier architecture. So following this structure is most important since it reduces programming complexity and redundant coding as well as helps to maintain integrity and consistency.
Now if you want to Most Valued Professional then you should follow a Coding Standard. I have chosen a best coding standard specified by dotnetspider.com http://www.dotnetspider.com/tutorials/CodingStandards.doc here is it!
You must have noticed by this time that I am copy pasting most of the contents and links from most of the sites since this is available easily. So without explaining itself you should know how to search using search engine.
You should know how to create a database either in Ms Access, Ms SQL Server or Oracle.
You should have good knowledge of programming either .net or free sources such as Java.
As well as you should know how to use IDE such as Visual Studio or Eclipse or Net Beans.

Application Development

This is the simplest phase of a project. Once you have done with the Pre-requisite you would be having good knowledge about OOPS and programming so in no time or with less time you will be able to make an Application.
The first and most important thing you need to know is what you are going to develop. You should have a proper idea in your mind about how thing should flow.
The other important part if you are developing an application for a client you should cull out entire proper requirement from your client so that you can develop application efficiently if you have not done the same in Software Engineering Phase otherwise simply ignores this.
Now you must choose a language to use during software development. For my flexibility I am choosing C# .net so that I get most of the content easily available in internet as most of the developer stick with this. Remember Copy Paste!
Now you should make
1. Database (Ms Access, SQL Server or Oracle)
2. DAL (Data Access Layer)
3. BAL (Business Access Layer) or BLL (Business Logic Layer)
4. UI (User Interface)
5. You can follow the same as shown in this sample project http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vb/N-Tier_Application_VB.aspx. Just follow this structure you will be able to reach proper end. Now in this DAL should be made first then BAL or BLL then UI. As per the sequence.
I hope you have used proper coding standards! Now your application would be able to run at most of the condition. Now slowly and slowly you can enhance your application if you have used proper coding standards as I have mentioned.

Code Enhancement:

When you go for a bigger application you should always make sure that you should not use stored procedure just to avoid SQL injection. Instead you can validate the same with the help of replace ' with '' and trim.
For Eg.:

String QueryString(String str)

{

Return Str.Replace("'","''").trim();

}

http://www.4guysfromrolla.com/webtech/061902-1.shtml as shown in this link you can make a Common.cs file (in case you are choosing C#) containing such validations in DAL.
Always remember you should not mix up programming logic with database logic. Always keep them at there on place.

There are several such tips for development which I will be explaining in my coming articles.

4G Technology Our Future....

2010-03-21T19:15:00.000-07:00

We all are the prominent users of mobile technology. At present 2G Technology (GSM) is widely used worldwide. The problem with 2G technology is that the data rates are limited. This makes it inefficient for Data Transfer applications like video conferencing, music or video downloads, etc. To increase the speed various new technologies have come into picture. The first is 2.5G (GPRS) and second is 2.75G (EDGE) technologies that allows data transfer at a better rate than 2G and recently 3G (WCDMA/UMTS) technology has come into picture. The maximum theoretical data transfer with this 3G technology is 2Mbps (practically it could be a 384Kbps max or even less).

4G refers to the fourth generation of cellular wireless and is a successor to 3G and 2G standards. The 4G technology which is at its infancy is suppose to allow data transfer upto 100Mbps outdoor I.e while moving and 1Gbps indoor I.e while on stable position.4G is capable of providing users with streaming high-definition television, the content of a DVD-5 (for example a movie) can be downloaded within about 5 minutes for offline access. The main objective of the 4G technology is to accommodate the Quality of Service and rate requirements set by forthcoming applications like wireless broadband access, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), video chat, mobile TV, HDTV content, Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB), minimal services like voice and data, and other services that utilize bandwidth.

For getting Quality of Service 4G working group has set some standards such as spectrally efficient system (in bits/s/Hz and bits/s/Hz/site) , High network capacity: more simultaneous users per cell, smooth handoff across heterogeneous networks (that means there won’t be any call failure if there is change in network), Seamless connectivity and global roaming across multiple networks, High quality of service for next generation multimedia support, Interoperability with existing wireless standards (so that the old model cell phone can also be used with the new network without any changes) , An all IP packet switched network.

As described in 4G consortia including WINNER (Wireless-World-Initiative-New-Radio) and WWRF (Wireless World Research Forum), where WINNER is a consortium to enhance mobile communication systems and a key technology based approach has summarized and considered points as "Coverage, radio environment, spectrum, services, business models and deployment types, users".

The principal technologies used are :

Baseband techniques:

OFDM: To exploit the frequency selective channel property
MIMO: To attain ultra high spectral efficiency
Turbo principle: To minimize the required SNR at the reception side

Adaptive radio interface
Modulation, spatial processing including multi-antenna and multi-user MIMO
Relaying, including fixed relay networks (FRNs), and the cooperative relaying concept, known as multi-mode protocol

Unlike 3G, which is based on two parallel infrastructures consisting of circuit switched and packet switched network nodes respectively, 4G will be based on packet switching only. This will require low-latency data transmission.

By the time that 4G is deployed, the process of IPv4 address exhaustion is expected to be in its final stages. Therefore, in the context of 4G, IPv6 support is essential in order to support a large number of wireless-enabled devices. By increasing the number of IP addresses, IPv6 removes the need for Network Address Translation (NAT), a method of sharing a limited number of addresses among a larger group of devices, although NAT will still be required to communicate with devices that are on existing IPv4 networks.

The current 4G service providers in the world are Clear, Sprint & T-Mobile and some other very few worthy to be counted on our fingers. But these services are not full fledge and it is available in only few cities across the world like Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Philadelphia etc.

Where as in India current technology being used is 2G and 3G, where as 3G is only provided by only BSNL & MTNL service provider. Any how these technology has not fully flourish since MTNL is still testing its connection in Delhi. Moreover BSNL 3G service charges Rs. 1/MB for limited type connection and Rs. 3000 Monthly for Unlimited connection.

comparing 4G technology with 3G technology we can easily find that resource utilization is less hence we can expect low cost if 4G technology is implemented in India. According to a recent news item, China has decided to move to 4G networks, bypassing 3G. Since there are many problems in allocating 3G spectrum to telecom networks and in setting up 3G mobile networks at high costs and China have been examining these issues since 2003.

Some of the mobile phone that support 3G technology are like Nokia, Lure, Motorola, BlackBerry where as some of the mobile phone that support 4G technology are like HTC, iPhone, Motorola. So its not difficult adopt to changing technology with a little bit of high cost for a new Mobile Phone!!

Anyhow who does not want a 1Gbps connection...!! Everyone love’s to have the fastest technology on there hands!! so lets hope for the 4G connection to be launched in India as soon as possible like it happened in China!! Since other service providers did not launch 3G so we can still have a hope..!!

- Palakal Bridewin Durandose

B.E.(I.T)

Query Processing & Deductive Database

2009-11-02T06:19:00.000-08:00

Case Study: Query Processing & Deductive Database

Query processing:

The retrieval of information from a database according to a set of retrieval criteria, the database itself remaining unchanged.

In the context of a specific query language, the technique of translating the retrieval criteria specified using the language into more primitive database-access software, including a selection among different methods to choose the most efficient in the particular circumstances.

We now give an overview of how a DDBMS processes and optimizes a query. We first discuss the communication costs of processing a distributed query; we then discuss a special operation, called a semijoin, that is used in optimizing some types of queries in a DDBMS.

1. Data Transfer Costs of Distributed Query Processing:

In a distributed system, several additional factors further complicate query processing. The first is the cost of transferring data over the network. This data includes intermediate files that are transferred to other sites for further processing, as well as the final result files that may have to be transferred to the site where the query result is needed. Although these costs may not be very high if the sites are connected via a high-performance local area network, they become quite significant in other types of networks. Hence, DDBMS query optimization algorithms consider the goal of reducing the amount of data transfer as an optimization criterion in choosing a distributed query execution strategy.

We illustrate this with two simple example queries. Consider the relations EMPLOYEE and DEPARTMENT.

There are three simple strategies for executing this distributed query:

1. Transfer both the EMPLOYEE and the DEPARTMENT relations to the result site, and perform the join at site 3. In this case a total of 1,000,000 + 3500 = 1,003,500 bytes must be transferred.

2. Transfer the EMPLOYEE relation to site 2, execute the join at site 2, and send the result to site 3. The size of the query result is 40 * 10,000 = 400,000 bytes, so 400,000 + 1,000,000 = 1,400,000 bytes must be transferred.

3. Transfer the DEPARTMENT relation to site 1, execute the join at site 1, and send the result to site 3. In this case 400,000 + 3500 = 403,500 bytes must be transferred. If minimizing the amount of data transfer is our optimization criterion, we should choose strategy 3.

2. Distributed Query Processing Using Semijoin:

The idea behind distributed query processing using the semijoin operation is to reduce the number of tuples in a relation before transferring it to another site. Intuitively, the idea is to send the joining column of one relation R to the site where the other relation S is located; this column is then joined with S. Following that, the join attributes, along with the attributes required in the result, are projected out and shipped back to the original site and joined with R. Hence, only the joining column of R is transferred in one direction, and a subset of S with no extraneous tuples or attributes is transferred in the other direction. If only a small fraction of the tuples in S participate in the join, this can be quite an efficient solution to minimizing data transfer.

3. Query and Update Decomposition:

In a DDBMS with no distribution transparency, the user phrases a query directly in terms of specific fragments. For example, consider another query Q: "Retrieve the names and hours per week for each employee who works on some project controlled by department 5," which is specified on the distributed database where the relations at sites 2 and 3 are shown in the figure and those at site 1 are shown in the figure as in the earlier example. A user who submits such a query must specify whether it references the PROJS5 and WORKS_ON5 relations at site 2 or the PROJECT and WORKS_ON relations at site 1. The user must also maintain consistency of replicated data items when updating a DDBMS with no replication transparency.

On the other hand, a DDBMS that supports full distribution, fragmentation, and replication transparency allows the user to specify a query or update request on the schema of the figure just as though the DBMS were centralized. For updates, the DDBMS is responsible for maintaining consistency among replicated items by using one of the distributed concurrency control algorithms. For queries, a query decomposition module must break up or decompose a query into subqueries that can be executed at the individual sites. In addition, a strategy for combining the results of the subqueries to form the query result must be generated. Whenever the DDBMS determines that an item referenced in the query is replicated, it must choose or materialize a particular replica during query execution.

To determine which replicas include the data items referenced in a query, the DDBMS refers to the fragmentation, replication, and distribution information stored in the DDBMS catalog. For vertical fragmentation, the attribute list for each fragment is kept in the catalog. For horizontal fragmentation, a condition, sometimes called a guard, is kept for each fragment. This is basically a selection condition that specifies which tuples exist in the fragment; it is called a guard because only tuples that satisfy this condition are permitted to be stored in the fragment. For mixed fragments, both the attribute list and the guard condition are kept in the catalog.

Deductive Database:

A deductive database system is a database system which can make deductions (ie: conclude additional facts) based on rules and facts stored in the (deductive) database. Datalog is the language typically used to specify facts, rules and queries in deductive databases. Deductive databases have grown out of the desire to combine logic programming with relational databases to construct systems that support a powerful formalism and are still fast and able to deal with very large datasets. Deductive databases are more expressive than relational databases but less expressive than logic programming systems. Deductive databases have not found widespread adoptions outside academia, but some of their concepts are used in today's relational databases to support the advanced features of more recent SQL standards.

Deductive databases and logic programming:

Deductive databases reuse a large number of concepts from logic programming; rules and facts specified in the deductive database language Datalog look very similar to those in Prolog. However, there are a number of important differences between deductive databases and logic programming:

· Order sensitivity and procedurality: In Prolog program execution depends on the order of rules in the program and on the order of parts of rules; these properties are used by programmers to build effective programs. In database languages (like SQL or Datalog), however, program execution is independent of the order or rules and facts.

· Special predicates: In Prolog programmers can directly influence the procedural evaluation of the program with special predicates such as the cut, this has no correspondence in deductive databases.

· Function symbols: Logic Programming languages allow function symbols to build up complex symbols. This is not allowed in deductive databases.

· Tuple oriented processing: Deductive databases use set oriented processing while logic programming languages concentrate on one tuple at a time.

OODBMS (Object Oriented Database Management System) Basics

2009-11-01T07:25:00.000-08:00

OODBMS System

An object database (also object-oriented database) is a database model in which information is represented in the form of objects as used in object-oriented programming.

Object databases are a niche field within the broader DBMS market dominated by relational database management systems (RDBMS). Object databases have been considered since the early 1980s and 1990s but they have made little impact on mainstream commercial data processing, though there is some usage in specialized areas.

When database capabilities are combined with object-oriented (OO) programming language capabilities, the result is an object database management system (ODBMS).

Today’s trend in programming languages is to utilize objects, thereby making OODBMS ideal for OO programmers because they can develop the product, store them as objects, and can replicate or modify existing objects to make new objects within the OODBMS. Information today includes not only data but video, audio, graphs, and photos which are considered complex data types. Relational DBMS aren’t natively capable of supporting these complex data types. By being integrated with the programming language, the programmer can maintain consistency within one environment because both the OODBMS and the programming language will use the same model of representation. Relational DBMS projects using complex data types would have to be divided into two separate tasks: the database model and the application.

As the usage of web-based technology increases with the implementation of Intranets and extranets, companies have a vested interest in OODBMS to display their complex data. Using a DBMS that has been specifically designed to store data as objects gives an advantage to those companies that are geared towards multimedia presentation or organizations that utilize computer-aided design (CAD).

Some object-oriented databases are designed to work well with object-oriented programming languages such as Python, Perl, Java, C#, Visual Basic .NET, C++, Objective-C and Smalltalk; others have their own programming languages. ODBMSs use exactly the same model as object-oriented programming languages.

Advantages:

The main benefit of creating a database with objects as data is speed.
OODBMS are faster than relational DBMS because data isn’t stored in relational rows and columns but as objects.
Objects have a many to many relationship and are accessed by the use of pointers.
Pointers are linked to objects to establish relationships.
Another benefit of OODBMS is that it can be programmed with small procedural differences without affecting the entire system.
This is most helpful for those organizations that have data relationships that aren’t entirely clear or need to change these relations to satisfy the new business requirements.
This ability to change relationships leads to another benefit which is that relational DBMS can’t handle complex data models while OODBMS can.

Disadvantages:

Slower and more difficult to formulate than relational.
Lack of interoperability with a great number of tools/features that are taken for granted in the SQL world, including but not limited to industry standard connectivity, reporting tools, OLAP tools, and backup and recovery standards.
Lack a formal mathematical foundation, unlike the relational model, and this in turn leads to weaknesses in their query support.

Applications:

Object databases based on persistent programming acquired a niche in application areas such as engineering and spatial databases, telecommunications, and scientific areas such as high energy physics and molecular biology. They have made little impact on mainstream commercial data processing, though there is some usage in specialized areas of financial services. It is also worth noting that object databases held the record for the World's largest database (being the first to hold over 1000 terabytes at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center) and the highest ingest rate ever recorded for a commercial database at over one Terabyte per hour.

Another group of object databases focuses on embedded use in devices, packaged software, and real-time systems.

Hackers the true Heros

2009-09-23T06:47:00.000-07:00

Jonathan James:

ames gained notoriety when he became the first juvenile to be sent to prison for hacking. He was sentenced at 16 years old. In an anonymous PBS interview, he professes, "I was just looking around, playing around. What was fun for me was a challenge to see what I could pull off."

James's major intrusions targeted high-profile organizations. He installed a backdoor into a Defense Threat Reduction Agency server. The DTRA is an agency of the Department of Defense charged with reducing the threat to the U.S. and its allies from nuclear, biological, chemical, conventional and special weapons. The backdoor he created enabled him to view sensitive emails and capture employee usernames and passwords.

James also cracked into NASA computers, stealing software worth approximately $1.7 million. According to the Department of Justice, "The software supported the International Space Station's physical environment, including control of the temperature and humidity within the living space." NASA was forced to shut down its computer systems, ultimately racking up a $41,000 cost. James explained that he downloaded the code to supplement his studies on C programming, but contended, "The code itself was crappy . . . certainly not worth $1.7 million like they claimed."

Adrian Lamo:

Lamo's claim to fame is his break-ins at major organizations like The New York Times and Microsoft. Dubbed the "homeless hacker," he used Internet connections at Kinko's, coffee shops and libraries to do his intrusions. In a profile article, "He Hacks by Day, Squats by Night," Lamo reflects, "I have a laptop in Pittsburgh, a change of clothes in D.C. It kind of redefines the term multi-jurisdictional."

Lamo's intrusions consisted mainly of penetration testing, in which he found flaws in security, exploited them and then informed companies of their shortcomings. His hits include Yahoo!, Bank of America, Citigroup and Cingular. When white hat hackers are hired by companies to do penetration testing, it's legal. What Lamo did is not.

When he broke into The New York Times' intranet, things got serious. He added himself to a list of experts and viewed personal information on contributors, including Social Security numbers. Lamo also hacked into The Times' LexisNexis account to research high-profile subject matter.

For his intrusion at The New York Times, Lamo was ordered to pay approximately $65,000 in restitution. He was also sentenced to six months of home confinement and two years of probation, which expired January 16, 2007. Lamo is currently working as an award-winning journalist and public speaker.

Kevin Mitnick:

A self-proclaimed "hacker poster boy," Mitnick went through a highly publicized pursuit by authorities. His mischief was hyped by the media but his actual offenses may be less notable than his notoriety suggests. The Department of Justice describes him as "the most wanted computer criminal in United States history." His exploits were detailed in two movies: Freedom Downtime and Takedown.

Mitnick had a bit of hacking experience before committing the offenses that made him famous. He started out exploiting the Los Angeles bus punch card system to get free rides. Then, like Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, dabbled in phone phreaking. Although there were numerous offenses, Mitnick was ultimately convicted for breaking into the Digital Equipment Corporation's computer network and stealing software.

Mitnick's mischief got serious when he went on a two and a half year "coast-to-coast hacking spree." The CNN article, "Legendary computer hacker released from prison," explains that "he hacked into computers, stole corporate secrets, scrambled phone networks and broke into the national defense warning system." He then hacked into computer expert and fellow hacker Tsutomu Shimomura's home computer, which led to his undoing.

Today, Mitnick has been able to move past his role as a black hat hacker and become a productive member of society. He served five years, about 8 months of it in solitary confinement, and is now a computer security consultant, author and speaker.

Kevin Poulsen:

Also known as Dark Dante, Poulsen gained recognition for his hack of LA radio's KIIS-FM phone lines, which earned him a brand new Porsche, among other items. Law enforcement dubbed him "the Hannibal Lecter of computer crime."

Authorities began to pursue Poulsen after he hacked into a federal investigation database. During this pursuit, he further drew the ire of the FBI by hacking into federal computers for wiretap information.

His hacking specialty, however, revolved around telephones. Poulsen's most famous hack, KIIS-FM, was accomplished by taking over all of the station's phone lines. In a related feat, Poulsen also "reactivated old Yellow Page escort telephone numbers for an acquaintance who then ran a virtual escort agency." Later, when his photo came up on the show Unsolved Mysteries, 1-800 phone lines for the program crashed. Ultimately, Poulsen was captured in a supermarket and served a sentence of five years.

Since serving time, Poulsen has worked as a journalist. He is now a senior editor for Wired News. His most prominent article details his work on identifying 744 sex offenders with MySpace profiles.

Robert Tappan:

Morris: Morris, son of former National Security Agency scientist Robert Morris, is known as the creator of the Morris Worm, the first computer worm to be unleashed on the Internet. As a result of this crime, he was the first person prosecuted under the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

Morris wrote the code for the worm while he was a student at Cornell. He asserts that he intended to use it to see how large the Internet was. The worm, however, replicated itself excessively, slowing computers down so that they were no longer usable. It is not possible to know exactly how many computers were affected, but experts estimate an impact of 6,000 machines. He was sentenced to three years' probation, 400 hours of community service and a fined $10,500.

Morris is currently working as a tenured professor at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. He principally researches computer network architectures including distributed hash tables such as Chord and wireless mesh networks such as Roofnet.

Vladimir Levin:

Mass media claimed at the time he was a mathematician and had a degree in biochemistry from Saint Petersburg State Institute of Technology.According to the coverage, in 1994 Levin accessed the accounts of several large corporate customers of Citibank via their dial-up wire transfer service (Financial Institutions Citibank Cash Manager) and transferred funds to accounts set up by accomplices in Finland, the United States, the Netherlands, Germany and Israel.In 2005 an alleged member of the former St. Petersburg hacker group, claiming to be one of the original Citibank penetrators, published under the name ArkanoiD a memorandum on popular Provider.net.ru website dedicated to telecom market. According to him, Levin was not actually a scientist (mathematician, biologist or the like) but a kind of ordinary system administrator who managed to get hands on the ready data about how to penetrate in Citibank machines and then exploit them.ArkanoiD emphasized all the communications were carried over X.25 network and the Internet was not involved. ArkanoiD’s group in 1994 found out Citibank systems were unprotected and it spent several weeks examining the structure of the bank’s USA-based networks remotely. Members of the group played around with systems’ tools (e.g. were installing and running games) and were unnoticed by the bank’s staff. Penetrators did not plan to conduct a robbery for their personal safety and stopped their activities at some time. Someone of them later handed over the crucial access data to Levin (reportedly for the stated $100).

David Smith:

David Smith, the author of the Melissa virus, was facing nearly 40 years in jail when he decided to cooperate with the FBI. Facing jail time, public wrath and a fortune in potential fines, the 30-year-old sender of the fast-spreading Melissa computer virus did what hundreds of criminals have done before. He agreed to go undercover. Federal court documents unsealed at the request of the Associated Press show that for almost two years, Smith – then out on bail – worked mostly full time cruising the dark recesses of the Internet while the FBI paid his tab.
What did the FBI get? A windfall of information about malicious code senders, leading directly to two major international arrests and pre-empting other attacks, according to federal prosecutors.
What did Smith get? Just 20 months in federal prison, which was about two years less than the minimum sentencing requirement, and about 38 years less than he faced when initially charged.
Sometimes it takes a thief to catch a thief, said former federal prosecutor Elliot Turrini, who handled Smith’s case and agreed to the reduced sentence.
About 63,000 viruses have rolled through the Internet, causing an estimated $65 billion in damage, but Smith is the only person to go to federal prison in the United States for sending one.

Michael Calce:

The computer hacker known as “Mafiaboy,” who crippled several major Internet sites including CNN, arrives in court Thursday, Jan. 18, 2001 in Montreal, Canada. He pleaded guilty on Thursday to 55 charges of mischief. The trial of the 16-year-old Montrealer, who can not be identified under Canadian law, was set to begin Thursday on 66 charges relating to attacks last year on several major Web sites, as well as security breaches of other sites at institutions such as Yale and Harvard.

Mark Abene:

Mark Abene (born 1972), better known by his pseudonym Phiber Optik, is a computer security hacker from New York City. Phiber Optik was once a member of the Hacker Groups Legion of Doom and Masters of Deception. In 1994, he served a one-year prison sentence for conspiracy and unauthorized access to computer and telephone systems.
Phiber Optik was a high-profile hacker in the early 1990s, appearing in The New York Times, Harper’s, Esquire, in debates and on television. Phiber Optik is an important figure in the 1995 non-fiction book Masters of Deception — The Gang that Ruled Cyberspace.

Stephen Wozniak:

"Woz" is famous for being the "other Steve" of Apple. Wozniak, along with current Apple CEO Steve Jobs, co-founded Apple Computer. He has been awarded with the National Medal of Technology as well as honorary doctorates from Kettering University and Nova Southeastern University. Additionally, Woz was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in September 2000.
Woz got his start in hacking making blue boxes, devices that bypass telephone-switching mechanisms to make free long-distance calls. After reading an article about phone phreaking in Esquire, Wozniak called up his buddy Jobs. The pair did research on frequencies, then built and sold blue boxes to their classmates in college. Wozniak even used a blue box to call the Pope while pretending to be Henry Kissinger.
Wozniak dropped out of college and came up with the computer that eventually made him famous. Jobs had the bright idea to sell the computer as a fully assembled PC board. The Steves sold Wozniak's cherished scientific calculator and Jobs' VW van for capital and got to work assembling prototypes in Jobs' garage. Wozniak designed the hardware and most of the software. In the Letters section of http://woz.org/

Earn 1$ in a minute

2009-08-29T09:13:00.000-07:00

Get $1 for entering a referrals contest ($50)!

Contest site is here: http://shetoldme.com/referral/73686a57
It's a social bookmarking site with a 100% adsense revenue sharing program.

Here's what the contest is about: (Follow The Steps Given Below)

1. Register a free acount on the site.

2. Create a blog post or an article anywhere on your sites or on other sites (squidoo, hubpages, xomba,blogger etc.) with your referral link.

3. Post a reply (by PM only because replying with simple words on this thread is not allowed by DP rules) and mention your username on the site as well as the URL where you posted your referral link.

4. Send a message to http://SheToldMe.com/contact with your paypal email and receive $1 for entering the contest!

5. You'll find in your user account a referral link to be used to get new members to sign up (for free) under you, promote the site with this link

Note By Admin : On thursday 1st october 2009, I'll will check the list of participants to the contest and count their referrals. $50 will be awarded to the winner, if several participants have the same amount of referrals, the prize will be shared.

BSNL Dataone in Fedora (specially Fedora 11)

2009-07-08T04:36:00.000-07:00

In Fedora, you may use either the Network GUI or the rp-pppoe-gui package.

Network GUI Method:
- In Fedora, go to: Desktop --> Administration --> Network,
OR
just type the command "system-config-network" the shell prompt to get the same GUI (both of these methods will ask for root password). The window you will get will have title of "Network Configuration".

- From the toolbar of this new window, click on "New" button. You will get a window with title "Add new Device Type".

- In this new windoe, choose xDSL connection, click "Forward" and follow the prompt. It will ask you for the provider name (type anything. e.g. BSNL Dataone), your connection username (bridewin@dataone in our example in case if you are using Fedora 11 just type bridewin i.e your username there is no need for @dataone) and password.

- Once setup is complete, to test the connection, go back to the "Network Configuration" window (or open it again as specified in the first point above), and select the new connection and click on Activate button in the toolbar (If the active and Deactive button does not appear to be available then edit the BSNLDataone connection using edit option and deselect the controlled by network manager option and save it..!!) . Wait a few seconds and give the following commands in a terminal:

$> ping 4.2.2.2
$> ping google.com

The first one if successfuly, will prove that the internet connection is working, the second one, if successful, will prove that your DNS nameserves are also working.

Then make sure that the device will become automatically active when the computer boots up by selecting this connection in the network configuration window and by editing its profile and by checking the option that tells the device to activate on boot ups. Also, give normal users the option of controlling this device.

Copy Files From Multiple Places and Paste it as per your Requirement where ever you wanted

2008-07-27T08:01:00.000-07:00

Copy Files From Multiple Places and Paste it as per your Requirement where ever you wanted

For doing this you need a simple Software, The link is given Bellow:

PkySetup

With Piky Basket, you can reduce repetitive tasks when copying/moving files and folders in Windows. Piky Basket allows you to select files/folders in to a "basket" from different locations. Once you are done selecting, you can paste them all at once to the target folders. It also allows you to selectively paste the files to the target folder.

Piky Basket is integrated with Windows Explorer. You do not have to run Piky Basket as a separate program. It can be accessed from the menu which appears by right clicking on any files/folders in Windows Explorer.

If you didn't get it how it work just look at the screen shot Carefully...!! It will Help you out...!!

Copying And Droping content into Basket

Pasting all content To the Required Places

Shutdown any computer in Network and File Sharing in network

2008-07-26T08:59:00.000-07:00

Check this out Guys you can shutdown any computer in the network and also copy there content without permission This is only for Educational Purpose Don't Misuse it.....!!

The methods are :

For shutdown computer in your network:

1>First Download the netscan software it is freely available at sourceforge.net or just google it

2>scan the computer in the network with netscan it will show all the computers in the network which are present with there ip address....now look carefully there are some computer with ip address and its host name these computers are on..!!

3>now to shutdown them just right click them and select shut down there they goes...!! Voodo..!! hacker Rocks..!!

Now for Connecting to any computer which are on in the network without there permission and copying files:

1>First Download the netscan software it is freely available at sourceforge . net or just google it ,now download Putty(this is nothing but an SSH client used for connection that is known as tunneling) and now download Totalcommand software this is not free but you will get for 30 days trial...!! it is more than enough(This is just for giving command in the network for the files and all). Don't worry about the configuration and all.

Its all given in its respective Websites it is very easy because event the screen shot is also given..!!

2>scan the computer in the network with netscan it will show all the computers in the network which are present with there ip address....now look carefully there are some computer with ip address and its host name these computers are on..!!

3>Right click them and open with putty ...now you are connected to that computer

4>now right click the file you want to copy..and copy it..it is very easy..!! Voodo.!! Hacker Rocks..!!

WARNING: DON'T CROSS THE LIMIT BY SPREADING THIS INFORMATION TO ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS BECAUSE TOO MANY USE AGE CAN JAM THE NETWORK

How to Record Phone Conversations in the PC

2008-07-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

How to Record Phone Conversations in the PC

Did you know that it is possible to use the computer as an electronic bug? To use PC to record phone conversations is much more practical – and cheaper – than to do so using a conventional tape recorder, besides being able to record hundreds of hours of conversation, for the audio is recorded in a file in the hard disk of the computer. And you may also convert the audio files into MP3 so they take even less space in the hard disk, or you may even save the files in an audio CD so the recorded phone conversations may be played in any CD player.

Until not long ago voice modems were very popular in the market. These modems had an answering machine, speaker phone, and phone conversation recording system as extra features. For not knowing those features existed, most users did not fully use the potential of their modems, so the manufacturers ended up removing them from the newest models to reduce their price.

Some of the most modern modems have an output channel called TAD (Telephony Answering Device), which can be used to connect the modem to the sound card, through a cable similar to the one used in the connection of CD-ROM drive to the sound card. You may record phone conversations through that connection using your sound card. In order to do that, your sound card also needs to have a TAD input and you will have to install the cable connecting the modem to the sound card.

With the popularization of the broadband Internet connection, less and less users have modems in their computers.

The solution to transform the PC into a phone conversation tape recorder is the construction of the small circuit we describe next. This circuit is very simple to be assembled, and it is very cheap too.
Even a user without a deep knowledge in electronics can assemble it without great difficulty.

The parts you will have to buy are:
1> 4K7 x 1 W resistor, --------------------------------------------->(only 1)

2> 220 nF x 200 V capacitor,----------------------------------------------------------->(only 1)

3> 5 V x 1 W Zener diodes,--------------------------------------------------------------->(only 2)

4> 10 K logarithm potentiometer (that will work as the volume control)------------------------------------------------------------->(only 1)

5> mono P2 male plug.-------------------------------------------->(only 1)

There is also a phone transformer. To reduce the price of the equipment, we suggest you simply remove the transformer of an old modem (from a 2400 bps one, for instance). See in the picture how the modem transformer is.

Images :-

Phone Transformer

Circuit

line on one side and to the Mic In channel of the sound card on the other. To record conversations, you will need a recording program, like Sound Forge or Audacity. In case you don't have any, use the Sound Recorder for your Windows. Since the phone line quality is not high, you may record at 11.025 Hz mono so the recorded file is the smallest possible.

Lock Windows Drive Or Hide Windows Drive

2008-07-22T10:57:00.000-07:00

Lock Windows Drive Or Hide Windows Drive

I use this technique to Lock Or Hide my Drive You can also Follow it.

Procedure:

1>Go to control Panel
2>Then Open Administrative Tools
2>Then Open Computer Management
3>Now Expand Storage(On Left Side)
4>Now Open Disk Management
5>Now Select Which Drive you want to Lock or Hide(By Just Clicking it)
6>Now Just Right Click and Select Change Drive Letter and Paths
7>Now Select Remove Drive Letter
8>And now Just Close it normally

Now Open your My Computer It won't show that Drive....That is Totally Hidden...!! I Use this Trick In Windows XP Professional for Hiding Drives.

And for Unlocking the Locked Drive
Just Click on Add Drive instead of Remove Drive and the Drive will be back..!!

This is a bit Old trick some of the people might be knowing this..!! If not then Well and Good..!!

2008-07-17T06:13:00.000-07:00

RPM - The Redhat Package Manager
Article Contributed by TLDP
(For being a Hacker you should know how to work on Linux)

The Redhat Package Manager or ``RPM'' for short is a common way to distribute
precompiled binaries as well as source code, used in a few popular distributions like
Redhat, SuSE, Mandrake. The binaries are in the form of `*.rpm' files which may be
simply called rpm's.
These are manipulated by the rpm command with relevant options, some of which are
listed below.

Installing
usage: rpm -ivh Package_name
This is used to install a new rpm (package) on the system.

Uninstalling
Usage: rpm -e Package_name
This is used to erase, ie, uninstall existing packages on the system.

Upgrading
Usage : rpm -Uvh Package_name
This is used to upgrade an existing package or to install it if it does not already
exist.

Note: On distributions which use RPM such as Redhat and SuSE, the installer itself is
capable of taking care of dependencies. Thus when installing Linux for the first time,
in custom mode, the user can just specify what packages are needed. The installer
scripts will automatically include packages to satisfy any dependencies and prompt the

2008-07-16T11:14:00.000-07:00

Remote OS detection

Remote Operating System detection is definitely an essential part of a successful hack. It helps in knowing about the vulnerabilities of the Operating System running on the remote system. There are a lot of tools and techniques to find the Operating System running on a remote system

The telnet method: This is a very simple technique to know about the remote OS and the version running from the welcome banner when telnet daemon is running. But there is no guarantee that you will definitely find the OS running from the welcome banner. There are an increasing number of cases that system administrators turn these banners off or provide fake information. Below is an example of a telnet session that gave some valuable information about the OS running on a remote server.

Connected to xyz.org.

Escape character is '^]'.

UNIX Type: L8

Login:

The FTP method: This method is similar to the above method. Normally the welcome banner displayed when you connect to an FTP server will reveal some information about the OS running on the remote system. But there is a possibility that the administrator may disable the banner. But don't worry; the 'SYST' command will feed you the information you want.

Connected to ftp.2600.com
220 - You are 9 out of a possible 20.
220 ftp.2600.com FTP server ready.

User (ftp.2600.com:(none)): anonymous
331 Guest login ok, send your email address as password.
Password:
230- Welcome to ftp.2600.com, the 2600 FTP server. 230 Guest login ok, access restrictions apply.
ftp> literal syst
215 UNIX Type: FTP2600
ftp>

The above example shows how it is possible to find the OS running from the FTP

The HTTP method: This method is very useful and the OS running on a remote system can be easily known with this method. But there must be a web server running on the remote system to determine the remote OS and the version of the web server running on that remote host.

This is quite easy, all you have to do is to telnet to port 80 (the HTTP server port) of the remote system. Any server running a website will accept such connections on port 80. After you've connected to that, type something and press enter twice. That will display an error message with information about the type of web server running, its version and sometimes the Operating system running.

2008-07-14T08:15:00.001-07:00

Hacking Software Collection

Trojan Horse

- Yuri RAT

- MofoTro

- Charon

- Beast

- Omerta

- Theef

- Combined Forces R.A.T

- MoSucker

- ProRat

Keylogger

- Elite Keylogger

- SKL

- KeySpy

- A++++

- Curiosity

- Keylogger

- KeyCopy

Binder

- Daemon Crypt Public v2

- NT Packer v2.1

- EES binder v1.0

- File Injector v3

- Bytes Adder

- FreshBind v2.01

- YAB v2.01

- NakedBind v1.0

- Amok Joiner

WebHack/WordList

Brute Forcer

- Munga Bunga 's Official

- Brutus - Authentication Engine Test 2

- wwwHack v1.946

- FTP Brute Hacker

- FTP Brute Forcer.tar.gz - Unix

- Wbrute.tar.gz - Unix

- Shadow Scanner-Brute Forcer

- Hackers Utility v1.5

- POP3 brute forcer.tar.gz - Unix

CGI-Bug Scanner

- NStealth HTTP Security Scanner v5.8

- Attack Toolkit v4.1 & source code included

- Scanarator

- Legion NetBios Scanner v2.1

- NetView v1.0

- CGI Vulnerability Scan

- CGI Scanner v4.0

- VoidEye CGI scanner

Virus!

Viruse

- Hippi virus

- Sasser

- W32. Blaster .Worm

- Midnight Massacre

- 00001

- Nimda

- Loveletter virus

- Happy '99

- MXZ

Virus Builder

- DR VBS

- VBSwg 2 beta - Virus builder

- p0ke's WormGen 2.0

- RESIDUO - DoS Virus

MSN Hack & Bot

- HoaX Toolbox 1.1

- MSN Extreme 3.0

- MessenPass v1.06

- Advanced Blood Scroller

- Nudge Madness

- Advanced Instant Messengers Password Recovery

- Contact Spy

- Msn Explosion

- Encrypted Messenger

Port & IP Scanner

- Blues Port Scanner

- ProPort v2.2

- SuperScan v3.0

- Net Scan Tools v4.2

- LanSpy v2.0

- Bitchin Threads v3.1

- Trojan Hunter v1.5

- SuperScan v4.0

- Neotrace PRO v3.25 trial

20 Hacking Softwares

rapidshare.com/files/91730792/Seria-of-Soft.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91624959/hide_ip_plantinumwith_key.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91023193/Account-Locker.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91023633/Anti-Mail-Bomb.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91024117/Emoticon_Creator.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91025261/Frez-Accont.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91027689/Kitle.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91029795/Msn-Block-Checker.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91032421/Proyect_Lithium_Version_0.2.0.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91033497/skinnerv12setup.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91025674/Hot-Hack.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91026666/Hotmal-Kiler.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91027055/Hotm-Crak.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91028264/MSN7UniversalPatcherPlusPlus.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91028827/Msn-_Dondurucu-hhhh.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91029357/Msn-Auto-Responder.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91030167/Msn-Clean.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91030644/Msn-Pass-Grab.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91031205/Msn-Pass-Recouvery.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91031509/My-Pass.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91035275/t__T__T8f_OnT2.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91035276/Yah-Boter.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91035277/yahoocrack.rar

rapidshare.com/files/91035278/Yaho-Web-Hak.rar

put http:// before the links

Ethical Hacking Tools
Screenshots:

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w24/mr_mahesh_in/nettools960x600.jpg

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w24/mr_mahesh_in/Screenshot.jpg

Download:

h**p://rapidshare.com/files/70063126/Net_Tools.rar

Begin Hacking.........!!(@ ur own risk.......)

2008-01-29T07:54:00.000-08:00

Introduction: The State of the Hack
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After surveying a rather large g-file collection, my attention was drawn to
the fact that there hasn't been a good introductory file written for absolute
beginners since back when Mark Tabas was cranking them out (and almost
*everyone* was a beginner!) The Arts of Hacking and Phreaking have changed
radically since that time, and as the 90's approach, the hack/phreak community
has recovered from the Summer '87 busts (just like it recovered from the Fall
'85 busts, and like it will always recover from attempts to shut it down), and
the progressive media (from Reality Hackers magazine to William Gibson and
Bruce Sterling's cyberpunk fables of hackerdom) is starting to take notice
of us for the first time in recent years in a positive light.
Unfortunately, it has also gotten more dangerous since the early 80's.
Phone cops have more resources, more awareness, and more intelligence that they
exhibited in the past. It is becoming more and more difficult to survive as
a hacker long enough to become skilled in the art. To this end this file
is dedicated . If it can help someone get started, and help them survive
to discover new systems and new information, it will have served it's purpose,
and served as a partial repayment to all the people who helped me out when I
was a beginner.

Contents
~~~~~~~~
This file will be divided into four parts:
Part 1: What is Hacking, A Hacker's Code of Ethics, Basic Hacking Safety
Part 2: Packet Switching Networks: Telenet- How it Works, How to Use it,
Outdials, Network Servers, Private PADs
Part 3: Identifying a Computer, How to Hack In, Operating System
Defaults
Part 4: Conclusion- Final Thoughts, Books to Read, Boards to Call,
Acknowledgements

Part One: The Basics
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
As long as there have been computers, there have been hackers. In the 50's
at the Massachusets Institute of Technology (MIT), students devoted much time
and energy to ingenious exploration of the computers. Rules and the law were
disregarded in their pursuit for the 'hack'. Just as they were enthralled with
their pursuit of information, so are we. The thrill of the hack is not in
breaking the law, it's in the pursuit and capture of knowledge.
To this end, let me contribute my suggestions for guidelines to follow to
ensure that not only you stay out of trouble, but you pursue your craft without
damaging the computers you hack into or the companies who own them.

I. Do not intentionally damage *any* system.
II. Do not alter any system files other than ones needed to ensure your
escape from detection and your future access (Trojan Horses, Altering
Logs, and the like are all necessary to your survival for as long as
possible.)
III. Do not leave your (or anyone else's) real name, real handle, or real
phone number on any system that you access illegally. They *can* and
will track you down from your handle!
IV. Be careful who you share information with. Feds are getting trickier.
Generally, if you don't know their voice phone number, name, and
occupation or haven't spoken with them voice on non-info trading
conversations, be wary.

V. Do not leave your real phone number to anyone you don't know. This
includes logging on boards, no matter how k-rad they seem. If you
don't know the sysop, leave a note telling some trustworthy people
that will validate you.
VI. Do not hack government computers. Yes, there are government systems
that are safe to hack, but they are few and far between. And the
government has inifitely more time and resources to track you down than
a company who has to make a profit and justify expenses.
VII. Don't use codes unless there is *NO* way around it (you don't have a
local telenet or tymnet outdial and can't connect to anything 800...)
You use codes long enough, you will get caught. Period.
VIII. Don't be afraid to be paranoid. Remember, you *are* breaking the law.
It doesn't hurt to store everything encrypted on your hard disk, or
keep your notes buried in the backyard or in the trunk of your car.
You may feel a little funny, but you'll feel a lot funnier when you
when you meet Bruno, your transvestite cellmate who axed his family to
death.
IX. Watch what you post on boards. Most of the really great hackers in the
country post *nothing* about the system they're currently working
except in the broadest sense (I'm working on a UNIX, or a COSMOS, or
something generic. Not "I'm hacking into General Electric's Voice Mail
System" or something inane and revealing like that.)
X. Don't be afraid to ask questions. That's what more experienced hackers
are for. Don't expect *everything* you ask to be answered, though.
There are some things (LMOS, for instance) that a begining hacker
shouldn't mess with. You'll either get caught, or screw it up for
others, or both.
XI. Finally, you have to actually hack. You can hang out on boards all you
want, and you can read all the text files in the world, but until you
actually start doing it, you'll never know what it's all about. There's
no thrill quite the same as getting into your first system (well, ok,
I can think of a couple of bigger thrills, but you get the picture.)

One of the safest places to start your hacking career is on a computer
system belonging to a college. University computers have notoriously lax
security, and are more used to hackers, as every college computer depart-
ment has one or two, so are less likely to press charges if you should
be detected. But the odds of them detecting you and having the personel to
committ to tracking you down are slim as long as you aren't destructive.
If you are already a college student, this is ideal, as you can legally
explore your computer system to your heart's desire, then go out and look
for similar systems that you can penetrate with confidence, as you're already
familar with them.
So if you just want to get your feet wet, call your local college. Many of
them will provide accounts for local residents at a nominal (under $20) charge.
Finally, if you get caught, stay quiet until you get a lawyer. Don't vol-
unteer any information, no matter what kind of 'deals' they offer you.
Nothing is binding unless you make the deal through your lawyer, so you might
as well shut up and wait.

Part Two: Networks
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The best place to begin hacking (other than a college) is on one of the
bigger networks such as Telenet. Why? First, there is a wide variety of
computers to choose from, from small Micro-Vaxen to huge Crays. Second, the
networks are fairly well documented. It's easier to find someone who can help
you with a problem off of Telenet than it is to find assistance concerning your
local college computer or high school machine. Third, the networks are safer.
Because of the enormous number of calls that are fielded every day by the big
networks, it is not financially practical to keep track of where every call and
connection are made from. It is also very easy to disguise your location using
the network, which makes your hobby much more secure.
Telenet has more computers hooked to it than any other system in the world
once you consider that from Telenet you have access to Tymnet, ItaPAC, JANET,
DATAPAC, SBDN, PandaNet, THEnet, and a whole host of other networks, all of
which you can connect to from your terminal.
The first step that you need to take is to identify your local dialup port.
This is done by dialing 1-800-424-9494 (1200 7E1) and connecting. It will
spout some garbage at you and then you'll get a prompt saying 'TERMINAL='.
This is your terminal type. If you have vt100 emulation, type it in now. Or
just hit return and it will default to dumb terminal mode.
You'll now get a prompt that looks like a @. From here, type @c mail
and then it will ask for a Username. Enter 'phones' for the username. When it
asks for a password, enter 'phones' again. From this point, it is menu
driven. Use this to locate your local dialup, and call it back locally. If
you don't have a local dialup, then use whatever means you wish to connect to
one long distance (more on this later.)
When you call your local dialup, you will once again go through the
TERMINAL= stuff, and once again you'll be presented with a @. This prompt lets
you know you are connected to a Telenet PAD. PAD stands for either Packet
Assembler/Disassembler (if you talk to an engineer), or Public Access Device
(if you talk to Telenet's marketing people.) The first description is more
correct.
Telenet works by taking the data you enter in on the PAD you dialed into,
bundling it into a 128 byte chunk (normally... this can be changed), and then
transmitting it at speeds ranging from 9600 to 19,200 baud to another PAD, who
then takes the data and hands it down to whatever computer or system it's
connected to. Basically, the PAD allows two computers that have different baud
rates or communication protocols to communicate with each other over a long
distance. Sometimes you'll notice a time lag in the remote machines response.
This is called PAD Delay, and is to be expected when you're sending data
through several different links.
What do you do with this PAD? You use it to connect to remote computer
systems by typing 'C' for connect and then the Network User Address (NUA) of
the system you want to go to.
An NUA takes the form of 031103130002520
\___/\___/\___/
| | |
| | |____ network address
| |_________ area prefix
|______________ DNIC

This is a summary of DNIC's (taken from Blade Runner's file on ItaPAC)
according to their country and network name.

DNIC Network Name Country DNIC Network Name Country
_______________________________________________________________________________
|
02041 Datanet 1 Netherlands | 03110 Telenet USA
02062 DCS Belgium | 03340 Telepac Mexico
02080 Transpac France | 03400 UDTS-Curacau Curacau
02284 Telepac Switzerland | 04251 Isranet Israel
02322 Datex-P Austria | 04401 DDX-P Japan
02329 Radaus Austria | 04408 Venus-P Japan
02342 PSS UK | 04501 Dacom-Net South Korea
02382 Datapak Denmark | 04542 Intelpak Singapore
02402 Datapak Sweden | 05052 Austpac Australia
02405 Telepak Sweden | 05053 Midas Australia
02442 Finpak Finland | 05252 Telepac Hong Kong
02624 Datex-P West Germany | 05301 Pacnet New Zealand
02704 Luxpac Luxembourg | 06550 Saponet South Africa
02724 Eirpak Ireland | 07240 Interdata Brazil
03020 Datapac Canada | 07241 Renpac Brazil
03028 Infogram Canada | 09000 Dialnet USA
03103 ITT/UDTS USA | 07421 Dompac French Guiana
03106 Tymnet USA |

There are two ways to find interesting addresses to connect to. The first
and easiest way is to obtain a copy of the LOD/H Telenet Directory from the
LOD/H Technical Journal #4 or 2600 Magazine. Jester Sluggo also put out a good
list of non-US addresses in Phrack Inc. Newsletter Issue 21. These files will
tell you the NUA, whether it will accept collect calls or not, what type of
computer system it is (if known) and who it belongs to (also if known.)
The second method of locating interesting addresses is to scan for them
manually. On Telenet, you do not have to enter the 03110 DNIC to connect to a
Telenet host. So if you saw that 031104120006140 had a VAX on it you wanted to
look at, you could type @c 412 614 (0's can be ignored most of the time.)
If this node allows collect billed connections, it will say 412 614
CONNECTED and then you'll possibly get an identifying header or just a
Username: prompt. If it doesn't allow collect connections, it will give you a
message such as 412 614 REFUSED COLLECT CONNECTION with some error codes out to
the right, and return you to the @ prompt.
There are two primary ways to get around the REFUSED COLLECT message. The
first is to use a Network User Id (NUI) to connect. An NUI is a username/pw
combination that acts like a charge account on Telenet. To collect to node
412 614 with NUI junk4248, password 525332, I'd type the following:
@c 412 614,junk4248,525332 <---- the 525332 will *not* be echoed to the
screen. The problem with NUI's is that they're hard to come by unless you're
a good social engineer with a thorough knowledge of Telenet (in which case
you probably aren't reading this section), or you have someone who can
provide you with them.
The second way to connect is to use a private PAD, either through an X.25
PAD or through something like Netlink off of a Prime computer (more on these
two below.)
The prefix in a Telenet NUA oftentimes (not always) refers to the phone Area
Code that the computer is located in (i.e. 713 xxx would be a computer in
Houston, Texas.) If there's a particular area you're interested in, (say,
New York City 914), you could begin by typing @c 914 001 . If it connects,
you make a note of it and go on to 914 002. You do this until you've found
some interesting systems to play with.
Not all systems are on a simple xxx yyy address. Some go out to four or
five digits (914 2354), and some have decimal or numeric extensions
(422 121A = 422 121.01). You have to play with them, and you never know what
you're going to find. To fully scan out a prefix would take ten million
attempts per prefix. For example, if I want to scan 512 completely, I'd have
to start with 512 00000.00 and go through 512 00000.99, then increment the
address by 1 and try 512 00001.00 through 512 00001.99. A lot of scanning.
There are plenty of neat computers to play with in a 3-digit scan, however,
so don't go berserk with the extensions.
Sometimes you'll attempt to connect and it will just be sitting there after
one or two minutes. In this case, you want to abort the connect attempt by
sending a hard break (this varies with different term programs, on Procomm,
it's ALT-B), and then when you get the @ prompt back, type 'D' for disconnect.
If you connect to a computer and wish to disconnect, you can type @
and you it should say TELENET and then give you the @ prompt. From there,
type D to disconnect or CONT to re-connect and continue your session
uninterrupted.

Outdials, Network Servers, and PADs
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In addition to computers, an NUA may connect you to several other things.
One of the most useful is the outdial. An outdial is nothing more than a modem
you can get to over telenet- similar to the PC Pursuit concept, except that
these don't have passwords on them most of the time.
When you connect, you will get a message like 'Hayes 1200 baud outdial,
Detroit, MI', or 'VEN-TEL 212 Modem', or possibly 'Session 1234 established
on Modem 5588'. The best way to figure out the commands on these is to
type ? or H or HELP- this will get you all the information that you need to
use one.
Safety tip here- when you are hacking *any* system through a phone dialup,
always use an outdial or a diverter, especially if it is a local phone number
to you. More people get popped hacking on local computers than you can
imagine, Intra-LATA calls are the easiest things in the world to trace inexp-
ensively.
Another nice trick you can do with an outdial is use the redial or macro
function that many of them have. First thing you do when you connect is to
invoke the 'Redial Last Number' facility. This will dial the last number used,
which will be the one the person using it before you typed. Write down the
number, as no one would be calling a number without a computer on it. This
is a good way to find new systems to hack. Also, on a VENTEL modem, type 'D'
for Display and it will display the five numbers stored as macros in the
modem's memory.
There are also different types of servers for remote Local Area Networks
(LAN) that have many machine all over the office or the nation connected to
them. I'll discuss identifying these later in the computer ID section.
And finally, you may connect to something that says 'X.25 Communication
PAD' and then some more stuff, followed by a new @ prompt. This is a PAD
just like the one you are on, except that all attempted connections are billed
to the PAD, allowing you to connect to those nodes who earlier refused collect
connections.
This also has the added bonus of confusing where you are connecting from.
When a packet is transmitted from PAD to PAD, it contains a header that has
the location you're calling from. For instance, when you first connected
to Telenet, it might have said 212 44A CONNECTED if you called from the 212
area code. This means you were calling PAD number 44A in the 212 area.
That 21244A will be sent out in the header of all packets leaving the PAD.
Once you connect to a private PAD, however, all the packets going out
from *it* will have it's address on them, not yours. This can be a valuable
buffer between yourself and detection.

Phone Scanning
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally, there's the time-honored method of computer hunting that was made
famous among the non-hacker crowd by that Oh-So-Technically-Accurate movie
Wargames. You pick a three digit phone prefix in your area and dial every
number from 0000 --> 9999 in that prefix, making a note of all the carriers
you find. There is software available to do this for nearly every computer
in the world, so you don't have to do it by hand.

Part Three: I've Found a Computer, Now What?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This next section is applicable universally. It doesn't matter how you
found this computer, it could be through a network, or it could be from
carrier scanning your High School's phone prefix, you've got this prompt
this prompt, what the hell is it?
I'm *NOT* going to attempt to tell you what to do once you're inside of
any of these operating systems. Each one is worth several G-files in its
own right. I'm going to tell you how to identify and recognize certain
OpSystems, how to approach hacking into them, and how to deal with something
that you've never seen before and have know idea what it is.

VMS- The VAX computer is made by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC),
and runs the VMS (Virtual Memory System) operating system.
VMS is characterized by the 'Username:' prompt. It will not tell
you if you've entered a valid username or not, and will disconnect
you after three bad login attempts. It also keeps track of all
failed login attempts and informs the owner of the account next time
s/he logs in how many bad login attempts were made on the account.
It is one of the most secure operating systems around from the
outside, but once you're in there are many things that you can do
to circumvent system security. The VAX also has the best set of
help files in the world. Just type HELP and read to your heart's
content.
Common Accounts/Defaults: [username: password [[,password]] ]
SYSTEM: OPERATOR or MANAGER or SYSTEM or SYSLIB
OPERATOR: OPERATOR
SYSTEST: UETP
SYSMAINT: SYSMAINT or SERVICE or DIGITAL
FIELD: FIELD or SERVICE
GUEST: GUEST or unpassworded
DEMO: DEMO or unpassworded
DECNET: DECNET

DEC-10- An earlier line of DEC computer equipment, running the TOPS-10
operating system. These machines are recognized by their
'.' prompt. The DEC-10/20 series are remarkably hacker-friendly,
allowing you to enter several important commands without ever
logging into the system. Accounts are in the format [xxx,yyy] where
xxx and yyy are integers. You can get a listing of the accounts and
the process names of everyone on the system before logging in with
the command .systat (for SYstem STATus). If you seen an account
that reads [234,1001] BOB JONES, it might be wise to try BOB or
JONES or both for a password on this account. To login, you type
.login xxx,yyy and then type the password when prompted for it.
The system will allow you unlimited tries at an account, and does
not keep records of bad login attempts. It will also inform you
if the UIC you're trying (UIC = User Identification Code, 1,2 for
example) is bad.
Common Accounts/Defaults:
1,2: SYSLIB or OPERATOR or MANAGER
2,7: MAINTAIN
5,30: GAMES

UNIX- There are dozens of different machines out there that run UNIX.
While some might argue it isn't the best operating system in the
world, it is certainly the most widely used. A UNIX system will
usually have a prompt like 'login:' in lower case. UNIX also
will give you unlimited shots at logging in (in most cases), and
there is usually no log kept of bad attempts.
Common Accounts/Defaults: (note that some systems are case
sensitive, so use lower case as a general rule. Also, many times
the accounts will be unpassworded, you'll just drop right in!)
root: root
admin: admin
sysadmin: sysadmin or admin
unix: unix
uucp: uucp
rje: rje
guest: guest
demo: demo
daemon: daemon
sysbin: sysbin

Prime- Prime computer company's mainframe running the Primos operating
system. The are easy to spot, as the greet you with
'Primecon 18.23.05' or the like, depending on the version of the
operating system you run into. There will usually be no prompt
offered, it will just look like it's sitting there. At this point,
type 'login '. If it is a pre-18.00.00 version of Primos,
you can hit a bunch of ^C's for the password and you'll drop in.
Unfortunately, most people are running versions 19+. Primos also
comes with a good set of help files. One of the most useful
features of a Prime on Telenet is a facility called NETLINK. Once
you're inside, type NETLINK and follow the help files. This allows
you to connect to NUA's all over the world using the 'nc' command.
For example, to connect to NUA 026245890040004, you would type
@nc :26245890040004 at the netlink prompt.
Common Accounts/Defaults:
PRIME PRIME or PRIMOS
PRIMOS_CS PRIME or PRIMOS
PRIMENET PRIMENET
SYSTEM SYSTEM or PRIME
NETLINK NETLINK
TEST TEST
GUEST GUEST
GUEST1 GUEST

HP-x000- This system is made by Hewlett-Packard. It is characterized by the
':' prompt. The HP has one of the more complicated login sequences
around- you type 'HELLO SESSION NAME,USERNAME,ACCOUNTNAME,GROUP'.
Fortunately, some of these fields can be left blank in many cases.
Since any and all of these fields can be passworded, this is not
the easiest system to get into, except for the fact that there are
usually some unpassworded accounts around. In general, if the
defaults don't work, you'll have to brute force it using the
common password list (see below.) The HP-x000 runs the MPE operat-
ing system, the prompt for it will be a ':', just like the logon
prompt.
Common Accounts/Defaults:
MGR.TELESUP,PUB User: MGR Acct: HPONLY Grp: PUB
MGR.HPOFFICE,PUB unpassworded
MANAGER.ITF3000,PUB unpassworded
FIELD.SUPPORT,PUB user: FLD, others unpassworded
MAIL.TELESUP,PUB user: MAIL, others
unpassworded
MGR.RJE unpassworded
FIELD.HPPl89 ,HPPl87,HPPl89,HPPl96 unpassworded
MGR.TELESUP,PUB,HPONLY,HP3 unpassworded

IRIS- IRIS stands for Interactive Real Time Information System. It orig-
inally ran on PDP-11's, but now runs on many other minis. You can
spot an IRIS by the 'Welcome to "IRIS" R9.1.4 Timesharing' banner,
and the ACCOUNT ID? prompt. IRIS allows unlimited tries at hacking
in, and keeps no logs of bad attempts. I don't know any default
passwords, so just try the common ones from the password database
below.
Common Accounts:
MANAGER
BOSS
SOFTWARE
DEMO
PDP8
PDP11
ACCOUNTING

VM/CMS- The VM/CMS operating system runs in International Business Machines
(IBM) mainframes. When you connect to one of these, you will get
message similar to 'VM/370 ONLINE', and then give you a '.' prompt,
just like TOPS-10 does. To login, you type 'LOGON '.
Common Accounts/Defaults are:
AUTOLOG1: AUTOLOG or AUTOLOG1
CMS: CMS
CMSBATCH: CMS or CMSBATCH
EREP: EREP
MAINT: MAINT or MAINTAIN
OPERATNS: OPERATNS or OPERATOR
OPERATOR: OPERATOR
RSCS: RSCS
SMART: SMART
SNA: SNA
VMTEST: VMTEST
VMUTIL: VMUTIL
VTAM: VTAM

NOS- NOS stands for Networking Operating System, and runs on the Cyber
computer made by Control Data Corporation. NOS identifies itself
quite readily, with a banner of 'WELCOME TO THE NOS SOFTWARE
SYSTEM. COPYRIGHT CONTROL DATA 1978,1987'. The first prompt you
will get will be FAMILY:. Just hit return here. Then you'll get
a USER NAME: prompt. Usernames are typically 7 alpha-numerics
characters long, and are *extremely* site dependent. Operator
accounts begin with a digit, such as 7ETPDOC.
Common Accounts/Defaults:
$SYSTEM unknown
SYSTEMV unknown

Decserver- This is not truly a computer system, but is a network server that
has many different machines available from it. A Decserver will
say 'Enter Username>' when you first connect. This can be anything,
it doesn't matter, it's just an identifier. Type 'c', as this is
the least conspicuous thing to enter. It will then present you
with a 'Local>' prompt. From here, you type 'c ' to
connect to a system. To get a list of system names, type
'sh services' or 'sh nodes'. If you have any problems, online
help is available with the 'help' command. Be sure and look for
services named 'MODEM' or 'DIAL' or something similar, these are
often outdial modems and can be useful!

GS/1- Another type of network server. Unlike a Decserver, you can't
predict what prompt a GS/1 gateway is going to give you. The
default prompt it 'GS/1>', but this is redifinable by the
system administrator. To test for a GS/1, do a 'sh d'. If that
prints out a large list of defaults (terminal speed, prompt,
parity, etc...), you are on a GS/1. You connect in the same manner
as a Decserver, typing 'c '. To find out what systems
are available, do a 'sh n' or a 'sh c'. Another trick is to do a
'sh m', which will sometimes show you a list of macros for logging
onto a system. If there is a macro named VAX, for instance, type
'do VAX'.

The above are the main system types in use today. There are
hundreds of minor variants on the above, but this should be
enough to get you started.

Unresponsive Systems
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Occasionally you will connect to a system that will do nothing but sit
there. This is a frustrating feeling, but a methodical approach to the system
will yield a response if you take your time. The following list will usually
make *something* happen.
1) Change your parity, data length, and stop bits. A system that won't re-
spond at 8N1 may react at 7E1 or 8E2 or 7S2. If you don't have a term
program that will let you set parity to EVEN, ODD, SPACE, MARK, and NONE,
with data length of 7 or 8, and 1 or 2 stop bits, go out and buy one.
While having a good term program isn't absolutely necessary, it sure is
helpful.
2) Change baud rates. Again, if your term program will let you choose odd
baud rates such as 600 or 1100, you will occasionally be able to penetrate
some very interesting systems, as most systems that depend on a strange
baud rate seem to think that this is all the security they need...
3) Send a series of 's.
4) Send a hard break followed by a .
5) Type a series of .'s (periods). The Canadian network Datapac responds
to this.
6) If you're getting garbage, hit an 'i'. Tymnet responds to this, as does
a MultiLink II.
7) Begin sending control characters, starting with ^A --> ^Z.
8) Change terminal emulations. What your vt100 emulation thinks is garbage
may all of a sudden become crystal clear using ADM-5 emulation. This also
relates to how good your term program is.
9) Type LOGIN, HELLO, LOG, ATTACH, CONNECT, START, RUN, BEGIN, LOGON, GO,
JOIN, HELP, and anything else you can think of.
10) If it's a dialin, call the numbers around it and see if a company
answers. If they do, try some social engineering.

Brute Force Hacking
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There will also be many occasions when the default passwords will not work
on an account. At this point, you can either go onto the next system on your
list, or you can try to 'brute-force' your way in by trying a large database
of passwords on that one account. Be careful, though! This works fine on
systems that don't keep track of invalid logins, but on a system like a VMS,
someone is going to have a heart attack if they come back and see '600 Bad
Login Attempts Since Last Session' on their account. There are also some
operating systems that disconnect after 'x' number of invalid login attempts
and refuse to allow any more attempts for one hour, or ten minutes, or some-
times until the next day.
The following list is taken from my own password database plus the data-
base of passwords that was used in the Internet UNIX Worm that was running
around in November of 1988. For a shorter group, try first names, computer
terms, and obvious things like 'secret', 'password', 'open', and the name
of the account. Also try the name of the company that owns the computer
system (if known), the company initials, and things relating to the products
the company makes or deals with.

Password List
=============

aaa daniel jester rascal
academia danny johnny really
ada dave joseph rebecca
adrian deb joshua remote
aerobics debbie judith rick
airplane deborah juggle reagan
albany december julia robot
albatross desperate kathleen robotics
albert develop kermit rolex
alex diet kernel ronald
alexander digital knight rosebud
algebra discovery lambda rosemary
alias disney larry roses
alpha dog lazarus ruben
alphabet drought lee rules
ama duncan leroy ruth
amy easy lewis sal
analog eatme light saxon
anchor edges lisa scheme
andy edwin louis scott
andrea egghead lynne scotty
animal eileen mac secret
answer einstein macintosh sensor
anything elephant mack serenity
arrow elizabeth maggot sex
arthur ellen magic shark
asshole emerald malcolm sharon
athena engine mark shit
atmosphere engineer markus shiva
bacchus enterprise marty shuttle
badass enzyme marvin simon
bailey euclid master simple
banana evelyn maurice singer
bandit extension merlin single
banks fairway mets smile
bass felicia michael smiles
batman fender michelle smooch
beauty fermat mike smother
beaver finite minimum snatch
beethoven flower minsky snoopy
beloved foolproof mogul soap
benz football moose socrates
beowulf format mozart spit
berkeley forsythe nancy spring
berlin fourier napoleon subway
beta fred network success
beverly friend newton summer
bob frighten next super
brenda fun olivia support
brian gabriel oracle surfer
bridget garfield orca suzanne
broadway gauss orwell tangerine
bumbling george osiris tape
cardinal gertrude outlaw target
carmen gibson oxford taylor
carolina ginger pacific telephone
caroline gnu painless temptation
castle golf pam tiger
cat golfer paper toggle
celtics gorgeous password tomato
change graham pat toyota
charles gryphon patricia trivial
charming guest penguin unhappy
charon guitar pete unicorn
chester hacker peter unknown
cigar harmony philip urchin
classic harold phoenix utility
coffee harvey pierre vicky
coke heinlein pizza virginia
collins hello plover warren
comrade help polynomial water
computer herbert praise weenie
condo honey prelude whatnot
condom horse prince whitney
cookie imperial protect will
cooper include pumpkin william
create ingres puppet willie
creation innocuous rabbit winston
creator irishman rachmaninoff wizard
cretin isis rainbow wombat
daemon japan raindrop yosemite
dancer jessica random zap

Part Four: Wrapping it up!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I hope this file has been of some help in getting started. If you're
asking yourself the question 'Why hack?', then you've probably wasted a lot
of time reading this, as you'll never understand. For those of you who
have read this and found it useful, please send a tax-deductible donation
of $5.00 (or more!) in the name of the Legion of Doom to:
The American Cancer Society
90 Park Avenue
New York, NY 10016

********************************************************************************
References:
1) Introduction to ItaPAC by Blade Runner
Telecom Security Bulletin #1
2) The IBM VM/CMS Operating System by Lex Luthor
The LOD/H Technical Journal #2
3) Hacking the IRIS Operating System by The Leftist
The LOD/H Technical Journal #3
4) Hacking CDC's Cyber by Phrozen Ghost
Phrack Inc. Newsletter #18
5) USENET comp.risks digest (various authors, various issues)
6) USENET unix.wizards forum (various authors)
7) USENET info-vax forum (various authors)

Recommended Reading:
1) Hackers by Steven Levy
2) Out of the Inner Circle by Bill Landreth
3) Turing's Man by J. David Bolter
4) Soul of a New Machine by Tracy Kidder
5) Neuromancer, Count Zero, Mona Lisa Overdrive, and Burning Chrome, all
by William Gibson
6) Reality Hackers Magazine c/o High Frontiers, P.O. Box 40271, Berkeley,
California, 94704, 415-995-2606
7) Any of the Phrack Inc. Newsletters & LOD/H Technical Journals you can find.

Acknowledgements:
Thanks to my wife for putting up with me.
Thanks to Lone Wolf for the RSTS & TOPS assistance.
Thanks to Android Pope for proofreading, suggestions, and beer.
Thanks to The Urvile/Necron 99 for proofreading & Cyber info.
Thanks to Eric Bloodaxe for wading through all the trash.
Thanks to the users of Phoenix Project for their contributions.
Thanks to Altos Computer Systems, Munich, for the chat system.
Thanks to the various security personel who were willing to talk to
me about how they operate.

Boards:
I can be reached on the following systems with some regularity-
The Phoenix Project: 512/441-3088 300-2400 baud
Hacker's Den-80: 718/358-9209 300-1200 baud
Smash Palace South: 512/478-6747 300-2400 baud
Smash Palace North: 612/633-0509 300-2400 baud

************************************* EOF **************************************

X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
Another file downloaded from: The NIRVANAnet(tm) Seven

& the Temple of the Screaming Electron Taipan Enigma 510/935-5845
Burn This Flag Zardoz 408/363-9766
realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510/527-1662
Lies Unlimited Mick Freen 801/278-2699
The New Dork Sublime Biffnix 415/864-DORK
The Shrine Rif Raf 206/794-6674
Planet Mirth Simon Jester 510/786-6560

"Raw Data for Raw Nerves"
X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X

Hacker's Mindset.......according to me.....!!

2008-01-29T07:50:00.000-08:00

So you wanna be a HACKER huh? It's a state-of-MIND!
..you can induce it - but only if you are willing to drive yourself
mad enough! Go read and practice until you have mastered at least
Assembly language and Intermediate Level Electronics! Without this
foundation you'll be just another little geek, who might know the magic
words to the spell but dosent understand what he's doing! So RTFM!
..so what does that mean? Read The Fucking Manual! You will be sooo
amazed at how easy most things are if you just try to read the manual
first! The truth is: Most people cant read. Or they read poorly if
they read at all. So if you can't really read...STOP RIGHT HERE. GO
learn to read first. If you can't read at a minimum 12th Grade level
you cant be a hacker. Reading is the basic skill you must have to do
EVERYTHING BEYOND THIS POINT.

Tell your friends you cant party...you're busy. Spend at least 4
hours a day at your new-found fascination...or decide right here
and now that you cant cut it! If you CAN, get a copy of MINIX or
LINUX...start learning about OPERATING SYSTEMS. Then start your
1st real hack...try building a computer-controlled, DTMF dialer
card for your cheap PC...write the code to use it with, make it
a TSR to keep life interesting...now port it to MINIX or whatever
...better yet, port it as an IOCTL call at kernel level! You keep
reading...

Now you're ready to take on something more complex - go to the
Library, start a literature search; topic: Telephone Technologies.
RTFM! Learm about the ancient cross-bar, the Pre-ESS systems, the
fab MFTSS, the TELEX boxes and circuits...keep reading...buy up
an older, cheap (like under $50) cellular phone...by this time
you should already have a subscription to 'Nuts & Volts" as well
as a few other grassroots technology pubs....buy a copy of the
"Cellular Hacker's Bible"....start by doing something simple..
..disassemble and re-write the phone`s control ROM to allow it
to function as an 800MHZ scanner...hopefully you've assembled
a large array of tools and test gear by now. You've got a good
dual-trace scope, some pc-based PROM burner, a signal generator,
a logic probe or two, maybe even a microprocessor-emulator for
the 5051, the Z80, the 68010 or something....you may have been
dragged into some fields-afar by life - incorporate them: If
somebody drasgged you into SCUBA, build your own sonar. If you
have gotten interested in amateur radio, you can build a lot
of swell stuff...I recommend you checkout Packet's AX25A level2
protocol...very slick stuff! If your bud's are all into motors,
take a whak at doing your own Performance PROMS for GM's F.I. and
spark advance curves...or try adapting some Volkswagen/BOSCHE
Kjetronics F.I. to a Harley Davidson!..maybe you're into music
so you buy a synthesizer and learn all about electronic music,
you start hacking analog modules and build a nicer synth than you
could buy! Then you interface it to a MIDI port on a cheap 286AT
and then hack up some sequencer software, or buy some and then
disassemble it to fix all the bugs! You keep reading...

By now most of your friends are also "far into the pudding", you
have either gained 50 lbs or gone totally skinny...your skin tone
is 2 shades lighter from being indoors so long...most of the opposite
sex is either totally freaked by or with you - they either dig you,
or they dont!...you're probably knocking on the door of what will
be a $60K+/yr job as a systems analyst...and you are well-aware that
90% of the people in this world can't talk their way out of a badly
cooked steak at the local eatery, let alone install a new motherboard
in their PC! So you pick up some extra cash on doing shit like that
for the straights...you keep reading, and RTFM'ing higher and higher,
learning about networks...the VCR breaks down and your SO bitches
about having to wait till monday to have it fixed...you fix it in
about 40 minutes....the next day the clothes dryer starts to make
squeeking noises like a 50' mouse, you've never fixed one before -
but somehow it's not that difficult to open the bastard up and find
the squeek and fix it...and suddenly it dawns on you that hacking
code or hardware is pretty much the same! You keep reading...

Congrats, you are now a real hacker. Absolutly nothing but a lack of
time (or in some cases money) can stop you. You are a true Technologic
Philosopher...you can function in places a mere Engineer or Scientist
would truly FEAR TO TREAD! You can read better than Evelyn Wood, you
have a collection of tools that would make a Master Machinist and a
Prototype EE or ME cry. You can calculate series and parallel resonant
circuits in your head. You can fix any consumer appliance - if you can
get the parts. Your car has either become one of your main hacks or
you'ver deligated the job to a mechanic who you have found to be a
fellow hacker; and you work on his homebrew 68010 unix box...because
you've got a 68010 emulator and he works on your car because that's
the kind he specializes in! Maybe you trade services with people
for 50% of what ordinary people have to BUY WITH CASH!...you keep
reading...

(this is the stage where the author now finds himself...16 years
into a career at a Fortune 5 company and age 42...still reading...
your mileage may vary! <-((that's my code too! I co-wrote VEEP,
(vehicle-economy-emissions-program, a complete auto-simulator,
written in Fortran-5 for the Univac 1108 system using punch-cards!)
for the Ford Foundation and the DOT while at JPL in 1973)) )