Letters: SYMPTOMS
Propositions
Dear 2600:
Hi from Spain. I'm very interested in starting a project in order to write a book about the "History of Hacking."
I will start a crowd funding project to achieve a minimum quantity of money in order to buy the entire 2600 collection and ship it to Spain, but before I do that I need the 2600 editor's permission to use the 2600 issues as base information. "Base information" means that I will not include any material property of 2600 in the book; I will only use the information in order to compile the book using the articles as reference and, also, I will indicate the origin of the information.
May I obtain this permission? Maybe you are interested in promoting and guiding me in this process or playing the role of editor of the book. If not, please contact me in order to sign an agreement for using the 2600 issues as reference for the project and your conditions about this use.
Thank you in advance.
Javier
It's incredible to us the things people ask permission for. By all means, use anything that we print to compile whatever you're working on. If you give attribution, we couldn't ask for anything more. We print information so that the information gets out. The more people who support us by buying the magazine (paper or digital), the more we're able to be a part of this process. It's not necessary to ask us if you can do this, nor do we think it should be necessary to ask anyone else. Best of luck with your book.
Dear 2600:
I'm a big fan of your quarterly, having read it off and on for years at local newsstands in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
We'd like to speak with you about doing some co-promotion. Ideally, we'd like to buy or rent an email list, but I'm guessing that might be difficult. I'm working with a program to enlist hackers for good through a local, New York statewide educational program for 18-24 year olds.
Is there a good time we can chat by phone - or would you prefer email?
Geoffrey
We'd actually prefer neither, as we can address our proposal right here. Our mailing lists (printed, digital, etc.) are off-limits without exception. We're not keen on the concept of "enlisting" hackers, regardless of how pure the motivation might be. Our readers are individuals who ask a lot of questions and generally have a free spirit that tends to annoy and frustrate recruiters of all types. If, however, you're working on a project that you consider to be worthwhile, let us know about that and, if interested, people will contact you to get involved. Anything beyond that would be intrusive to our readers.
Dear 2600:
I am dumps, track 1&2, cc, fullz dealer here but i need a good hacker that can supply me all this kinds of stuffs thats why am here, so pls help me get a good hacker and my contact is yahoo ID: [redacted] email: [redacted] ICQ: [redacted], thank you very much... hope to get good hacker to deal with....
Mu Dee
Wow. Not that this kind of inquiry is that unusual, but words fail us. But, we have to agree, you certainly are dumps.
Commentary
Dear 2600:
Where do I start? With all due respect, until the WBAI bosses dig their heads out of their collective asses, I guess I won't be sending any more contributions to them! They had no reason to do what they did to you guys. You have (or possibly, by the time this letter gets published, had) probably the only seriously intelligent program left there.
Hopefully, you'll get the situation straightened out, even if that means going to a different station. (Have you considered airing the show on WUSB by chance, or do they not allow people to have more than one show?)
I wish you guys the very best of luck, whatever or wherever you end up doing or going. WBAI lost a listener, but you didn't. Keep the faith, my brothers.
Wolverine Bates
We understand the sentiment, but we hope you reconsider your overall condemnation of the station where our show (Off The Hook) is aired. True, we were all rather livid of the way we were kept off the air in the crucial weeks following the disaster of Hurricane Sandy. Other programmers were equally upset, and we did not hold back in expressing that sentiment, on-air as well as directly to those in charge. We hope that our words meant something and that this kind of a thing will never happen again. To ensure that, we will need the help of our listeners, so that hackers continue to have a voice on the radio in the New York City region and subsequently throughout the world over the Internet.
While we've had offers from other stations, we're not ready to write off WBAI, a station whose signal reaches four states, a significant and rare achievement that needs to be recognized and preserved. We know that a number of imprisoned people throughout the region depend on the show to find out what's going on in our community and we don't want that link to be severed. In addition, the aftermath of the storm has led to some significant and permanent changes, specifically the fact that the station is abandoning its overpriced facilities in favor of something far more economical, a step in the direction of eventually finding its own building to buy. So these are historic times that we'd be foolish to walk away from at this point. If it doesn't lead to improvement over time, however, we may indeed look at alternatives.
In the meantime, please continue to listen to us (nearly) every Wednesday from 7 to 8 pm ET on 99.5 FM in New York City or online/archived at www.2600.com/offthehook. And please listen to more of the other material that's broadcast over the station. Some of it is quite remarkable.
Dear 2600:
Grandma would love your footage. Want to go and visit her and all the spoofers and spammers and phishers? You might know computers, however you do not know human resources.
angelsbrothelsgrandmalives
There's pretty much no part of this that makes any sense to us whatsoever. Perhaps readers can help us decipher it. In any event, this should be all the inspiration anyone needs to go right ahead and send us a letter. Whatever you choose to say will certainly be of more relevance than this.
Dear 2600:
I never foresaw watching the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Olympics while writing a letter to 2600 from the confines of a prison cell. Since I am here, why not use this time to sober up, get healthy, and expand the mind? I would like to use this platform to send a shout to #OpIran.
This dubstepping, raving, pill popping animal has been caged. This pilsner is less than half full. Caught two years on a State PV stemming from the visit by the Boys. No textiles were called for.
Arash - I hope so much that you are safe and free. I am incarcerated in a country where there are repercussions for losing prisoners. Can I implore you to stay in one with the same standards?
German Beer Mug - Surprise! I tried to reach out to you as the bracelets were inbound but was suffering from Gran Maul. Out of the whole crew, I most want a line from you. Backtrace my current addy.
Medvedev - I wish you the best. Enjoy the rain forest and your travels. Dinner and drinks on me when I see you, babe.
Tope and flow - Tighten your backbrace up. Balance loyalty with the idea that you are the most important people in your lives.
Remember that nothing is forever and quietly relish the force of an elite few. On some real shit, it could always be worse. This is why we fight. Keep in touch on the lowlow sometime.
191104 - Nothing but respect. No hard feelings. Best of luck to the Southern Canadian football team.
Peanut Butter India - two bad golf shots. Was still seeking Lee as of June. Check for being too sweet. Seems too obvious.
Another round of pats on the back for the 10K. We came to FSU for .gov.ir and FSU we did.
Who would have thought we could have the time of our lives drinking, smoking, chatting, and hacking? I will forever remember the true friendships made with other minds who choose to stand up to any authority who treats its subjects with anything other than complete universal fairness.
In a fitting ending, NPR is playing an Avicii song as I pen this letter to a close. Nothing like a little house/trance music to write a jailhouse letter to. If I may leave on some advice, I wish I read when I was a preteen just discovering my first high: hacking. Breaking into networks or websites residing physically in your country is just as illegal as breaking into your neighbor's house. Especially nowadays as children of the Internet are entering the workforce. You will get caught, the police may very well try to make a case out of it, and the courts are equipped with the knowledge to prosecute hacking cases. There are lifelong consequences for a 60 second exploit. Save yourself the trouble and pick targets, not for their ease of exploit, but rather for their jurisdictional consequences. Or go work for the "good" guys. Whatever you do, don't come to prison for hacking. It sucks.
Keep your heads held high, feet firmly planted, and minds razor sharp. Arm yourselves not with guns, but rather knowledge and resolve.
Greetz, 73s, and Peace and Love.
Anonymous
If only the penalties for breaking into websites matched those of breaking into actual buildings. The disparity is staggering.
As you didn't sign this, we're omitting the name you included with your personal letter to us. This may not be what you wanted and it may make it hard for the people above to know who you are, but we'd rather be safe than sorry. We wish you luck getting through this and hope the idealism doesn't fade or turn to cynicism. Actions like #OpIran have made a difference and will continue to change lives throughout the world. But that's the last thing any government would ever want you to know.
Information
Dear 2600:
I have read about the profuse speculation by the 2600 reader base regarding a possible conspiracy by Barnes & Noble to hide, obscure, or otherwise relegate the 2600 periodical to questionable locations on the magazine rack.
I would like to let readers know that, at least in this Barnes & Noble store at the Tysons Corner Center mall in McLean, Virginia, they proudly display the magazine on a front shelf of the rack, with nary a Computer Shopper or Macworld rag to hide behind!
Unfortunately, by the number of available copies (near the number I saw two weeks ago upon discovery), it would appear that there are:
A) A lack of bloodthirsty hackers in the region to gobble up the issues, or
B) Nobody was sure what to think of the chocolate milk photo on the front cover, and thought it might be a misplaced copy of Bon Appétit, or
C) The hackers would rather buy a copy with a photo of Club-Mate on the front.
I almost felt guilty enough to buy a copy (it would be my first ever printed copy; I get the Kindle subscription) to relieve them of at least some of their stock, but I decided against it. Maybe on the next issue!
Keep up the fine work.
str8ball
Thanks for the update. Sometimes stores get too damn many copies and (more often) not nearly enough. We're working on making sure people know exactly where they can find copies and filling the voids.
Dear 2600:
Wanted to say thank you for keeping 2600 what it is, and wanted to comment on its availability/stock position in Barnes & Noble, as noted by ghostguard.
I have been reading 2600 since I was a young teen about 15 years ago, and always purchased this from Barnes & Noble. The cover was always facing out, and kindly placed in front of the taller mags to give it a chance to be seen.
Fast forward to my adult life. I was in the Bethlehem, Pennsylvania branch (my local) and, lo and behold, it was in the Starbucks cafe premium spot for everyone to see, and about 15 of them! No one hides them here in Pennsylvania, and they actually promote it!
Just didn't want all the Barnes & Nobles to get a bad rap - they brought me 2600 for years, and they always had it displayed, so I'd never have trouble finding it.
Thanks for being the most legit magazine I pay cover price for, as it's worth every penny.
Lithium187
For all the troubles we run into throughout the retail world, it's always been the case that the vast majority of places treat the magazine the way they should, specifically putting it out on time and displaying it in a somewhat prominent position. Sometimes they even go way beyond that. That's a fact that needs to be acknowledged.
Dear 2600:
Every four years, there's a big (3000 people) hacker festival in the Netherlands. Is there room in 2600 Magazine to publish something about their call for participation or the event itself?
ohm2013.org/site/call-for-participation
Elger "stitch" Jonker
Level 5 insane hackerYes, we're quite aware of these conferences as we've been promoting them since the very first one. You'll find updated info in this issue, as well as the last two. We do encourage as many Americans as possible to go to these things as they're incredibly fun and memorable.
Dear 2600:
You suck! Just kidding - you're awesome! First, I want to thank you for your comments in 28:1 on the prison newspaper I previously sent you containing my article about Linux. That really is a boost to get some positive feedback. Prison is full of haters. So, here I have another article to pass your way (just for fun).
I read Kevin's new book, Ghost in the Wires, procured through a prison library system where we can obtain books from public Minnesota libraries. It was a good read, so once again I found it my duty to inform the prison population about hacker awesomeness.
The mailroom rejected one of your issues for security reasons, but then I started receiving them again after that. I have been a little surprised at some of the books I've been allowed to receive lately, such as: O'Reilly's Hacking: The Next Generation, The Best of 2600, Dear Hacker, Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide, Maximum Linux Security, The Cuckoo's Egg, The Software Vulnerability Guide, Just for Fun by Linus Torvalds, Steal This Computer Book 4.0, and The Art of Deception. I would recommend any of these to your readers!
Ultimate Peter
Thanks for forwarding the article along, which was a review of the recent Kevin Mitnick book. Putting out a printed publication in a prison is a daunting task, and we hope that efforts like this one continue in your institution and others. We also hope people on the outside continue to support anything that helps educate and expand the minds of those less fortunate.
Observations
Dear 2600:
I was just reading through some articles on how to combat predatory file-sharing lawsuits and came across this. I like the judgment amounts!
David
The link you sent us is for a case involving someone who had links on a website to "unauthorized" sports broadcasts. Somehow, the figure of $2,600 was reached as the amount of restitution that had to be paid to each of five sports leagues (for a total of $13,000). In addition, the defendant was imprisoned for more than nine months and ultimately deported. It was all part of "Operation Fake Sweep," which seems a bit much for shutting down a website that simply linked to another site that was streaming material that was already available for free to much of the world. But that's how the corporate world works.
Dear 2600:
I opened my 2013 calendar and was about to toss the package when I heard a noise inside. I found a conference badge for The Next HOPE. I checked with the 2600 website, looking at the calendar section, and did not see any mention of the badges. Was this included erroneously, or is this your Xmas gift to the community?
Bishop 341-B
Those of you who actually order things from the 2600 store (store.2600.com) will often find additional items added into your order as our way of saying thanks. It's no secret that we sometimes accumulate a whole bunch of extra stuff over the years and, rather than toss them, how better than to send them to the people most likely to actually appreciate them? This is done completely at random and you can't request what items to include, nor what items we have in the first place. That would spoil the surprise.
Dear 2600:
Concerning the ten horns in a contained/noncontained computer language universe, remember:
Internal (let, goto), Control (if-then, for-next, (begin, stop, end).
That Internal has two horns, Control has three horns, External has two horns, Temporal has three horns. That the containment between Internal and Control has six choices (2*3); that the containment between Control and External has six choices (3*2); that the containment Between External and Temporal has six choices (2*3). This is how man is similar to the beast that is Internet and its computers, understood by containments.
Therefore, the number of the Beast - that is the Internet and its computers - is the number of a man: 666. That it is the ten horns of the computer, that of the containments the program loves, this makes the man. That the ultimate containment is in fact the (containment the human is, in terms of the human internal, the human control, the human external, the human temporal. This is the human exact, and the machine exact - this is wisdom.
The ten horns have no power yet; only in cases of information explosion do the horns have reality. The Internal shows no personality, the Control has no emotion, External has no creativity. But when and if something like 9/11 happens, and lots and lots of information is created, then and only then will the ten horns contain power of their own - when emotion and creativity and personality are needed in the calculation in that information. Or perhaps if Los Angeles gets the major, major earthquake - lots of information created. Then there is begin, stop, and Los Angeles.
John Bajak
And there you have it. Incidentally, there was a much longer article to go along with this, but this seems to sum it all up nicely. Any questions?
Dear 2600:
I enclose a copy of the receipt for your magazine. I've been a reader of your magazine ever since a security manager for my then-job told me about 2600. I found it amusing that the price of your magazine, plus my state's tax comes to $6.66.
Thanks for all you do!
John R. Sullivan
There certainly seems to be an increased interest in this magical number lately. Incidentally, we can't help but notice that on the receipt you sent us, you would have saved 63 cents if you were a "member" of some kind of Barnes & Noble club. Then you would have only paid $6.03, which isn't nearly as scary a number and is also below our own price. Just one more way of outwitting Satan.
Dear 2600:
Recently I sent you a letter requesting a test issue and I am glad to say I can receive 2600. I am so happy that I can keep up in some way with what is going on in the world. The articles in 2600 are excellent and I am pleased to have this new source of information. Until 2016, I will be confined to a Washington State correctional institution. The phone system used statewide is V-Connect. They charge almost $4.00 for a 20 minute in-state call. Out-of-state is $3.50ish for the first minute and then $.79 per minute up to 20. Crazy monopoly on phone time. We even have a for-profit email system offered by jpay.com. If you have a credit card, you can send inmates email by purchasing virtual stamps. However, unless you have a credit card, you cannot send email. The prison systems have so many monopolies it is ridiculous. Also, quick shout out to Deviant Ollam, my Defcon/hard drive swap buddy.
Staticblac
Chris Berge
#339317
Coyote Ridge Corrections Center
1301 N Ephrata Ave
P.O. Box 769
Connell, WA 99326-0769Thanks for keeping us informed on how things work on the other side of the wall. Hackers have this uncanny ability to notice things and share information which transcends all borders.
Questions
Dear 2600:
I would like to write an article for you, but I don't know what format I should put it in. Would plain text work? No matter where I look, I cannot find a list of formats you accept. Sorry for being a noob.
Charles
We generally accept any format, but we prefer the kinds that work on many different platforms without a lot of fuss. So, that means that ASCII is generally best. We'll make a valiant attempt to read any other format, but we get a lot of submissions and will eventually move on to the next one if we run into too many problems or incompatibilities. There's nothing wrong with sending us multiple formats. There's also nothing wrong with being a "noob," unless you use it as an excuse to let people walk all over you.
Dear 2600:
I caught part of an Off The Hook show where you were talking about pirate radio. I'm writing to get some advice about possibly establishing a local radio station in central Jersey. What do you suggest?
Tony
This is really an extremely vague question. Are you looking for advice on what hardware to use, where to establish a transmitter, what frequencies are good to use, or what kind of programming to carry? Before doing anything, you need to figure out where you're coming from and how that could translate into something good and constructive in the form of a radio station. Once you've got that sorted out, you can start researching where and how to set up an operation, along with the risks that are involved. (Or you can go the legitimate route with a low power FM license.) Done well, any kind of a broadcasting project can be beneficial, both to the broadcaster and the community. But it's most definitely a lot of work, and the payoff may not be quite what you expect. We suggest watching some of the talks from HOPE conferences where these issues are discussed, as well as checking information from the Prometheus Radio Project, which can be found at www.prometheusradio.org.
Dear 2600:
Helo please how can i be a mermber?
Anagbogu
Since we get about a thousand similar emails every time we put out an issue, we feel it's occasionally a public service to answer them. So here goes.
We are not a member-based organization. You cannot become a member, therefore. You can, however, become a subscriber, which might have been what you meant. Subscription info can be found in any of our publications or web pages. Or perhaps you wanted to know how to become a member of the hacker community in general. Again, it doesn't work that way. Hackers don't thrive on formality. You are a hacker if you think like a hacker and act like a hacker. You can claim to be a hacker without doing any of the above, but for anyone who is paying attention, the truth will soon become apparent. Thinking and acting like a hacker are qualities we constantly focus on in these pages. The articles we print are written by people who fit this description. If you find yourself captivated by their words and feel you could also contribute something, and you actually have the desire to share your knowledge and experiences, you're well on the way to becoming a part of the hacker community.
Of course, we're also assuming that this letter was meant for us and isn't just another piece of spam. If it is, please excuse all of the above. It's also possible you really are interested in becoming a "mermber," which is something we can't really help you with at this time.
Dear 2600:
If my brain is digitized and put into a robotic body and I am no longer considered human, does this mean I cease to exist and my lifetime subscription is void?
Future Cyborg
We can't really say we're surprised that this is the direction our thinking is heading towards, but we probably should address the issue now to avoid any unpleasantness with robots in the future. We don't really care what you do with your brain, or actually any of your organs, as long as you're able to continue receiving mail from us. That means working all of this out with the post office, who we understand already have robots in positions of authority.
Dear 2600:
I am writing to share a rather interesting experience I had a few days ago, and to ask for a little help. I go to a local high school in a relatively small community of around 50,000 people. However, the school district is most likely one of the largest in the nation.
Anyways, I was poking around their website when I found myself on a page labeled "Employee Resources." Interesting, I thought. Even more interesting, however, were the numerous links below the header. Scrolling through the list, I clicked on one labeled "Forgot Account Password."
I found out later that employees used this to change their password every 90 days, as per district policy. Being a curious student, I clicked it and it brought me to a simple form, asking only for the assigned employee email address and their mother's maiden name. Wow! I mean, this couldn't be real. This is all I needed to know to access a teacher's account! Not possible. I knew the maiden name of my "health and well-being" teacher due to the fact that she had brought in a family photo album only the day before.
Tentatively, with sweat on my palms, I entered her email address and mother's maiden name and waited as the form was processed. I simply didn't believe it when the exact same page popped up, except this time there was only a string of text stating "Your current password is: ********" and two buttons stating "Back to District Website" and "Change Password." My jaw still aches from when it hit the floor. I now had access to my teacher's email, online grading software, and a whole lot more.
After doing some favors for a few friends whose grades were... less than great, I logged off and wondered what I should do next. That was when I realized that the district superintendent had Facebook, Twitter, and Blogger accounts, all chock full of personal information. It was surprisingly difficult to find her mother's maiden name in the vast web, but I eventually got it.
Going to the same online location as before, I slowly entered this information. It worked. I now had read and write access to every single student's and staff's health records, communication software (including email), grading software, and a crud load more.
Let me remind you again that this is one of the largest, most populated school districts in the entire United States. Due to the fact that it was almost lunchtime, I came very close to changing the cafeteria schedule to pizza for the rest of the year, but I didn't do anything. It scared me, actually, that I had gained this access.
So I logged off, swore I'd never do that again, and shut down the computer. I wrote this so that my fellow hackers could see how horribly insecure many education networks are, but I also want to ask for help.
I've seen many articles in your magazine about responsible disclosure, but I still don't know what to do. I'm a straight A student who was just a little curious and I'm worried that a blemish will appear on my record if I tell anybody.
Last time a computer breach incident happened at the school district, the county police had to get involved, and I definitely don't want to mess with them. So what do you think, 2600? What should I do?
Jack
What we would suggest at this point is that you just keep your mouth shut about this. The main reason is because you stepped beyond the boundaries by actually making changes to grades using the knowledge you gained. That makes it a lot harder to be seen as someone who was just curious with no ulterior motive.
What we would have suggested, had you asked us what to do when you first discovered this, was to point out the vulnerability publicly. That would mean going to the media and showing them how easy it would be to gain access and invade a lot of people's privacy, making it very clear that you didn't do this yourself. The reason we suggest the media rather than the school district is that once the revelation is public, it would look really bad to punish you for discovering it.
However, that's often exactly what happens when such things remain in-house. Many people in authority - and schools are at the top of this list - have trouble differentiating the messenger from the message.
Smart kids wind up being punished for discovering things that make powerful people look bad or that results in more work for them. The stress and hardship that such punishment can cause, particularly to people dealing with so many other difficulties (school, parents, growing up), can become too much to bear and nobody should have to deal with that.
So we always suggest going public on such things for this reason. In your case, an anonymous disclosure would be best, so long as you never reveal what changes you made inside the system, assuming you didn't fix them. You would be amazed how quickly you would become an enemy of the state if that information became known. Good luck.
Dear 2600:
I'm curious as to why you don't sign your pages, or encrypt them in SSL, as all traffic is leachable.
Jake
We'll get there. We need to do a complete overhaul on all of our web pages and we're very open to ideas and offers of assistance. Our main thing is the magazine, which is where we devote more than 90 percent of our time and effort. Everything else we're actually amazed that we can keep running. (We do need to note, however, that all of our store.2600.com pages use SSL (Secure Socket Layer) to protect transaction information.)
Dear 2600:
I'm requesting a change of address due to the denial receipt I received from the institution I'm currently incarcerated in. You better believe as a longtime fan and reader, I'm fighting tooth and nail against a misinformed institution to receive your magazine. As an example of incompetence, let me explain how simply ending the Fortress Security thread and helper service prompted a $250,000 computer upgrade. Or the attempted reprimand when modifying the nibbles.bak file to work on Ghz class processors. Incompetence is rampant. Thanks for the awesome magazine and the late nights spent listening to your radio broadcasts. Enclosed, you'll find an official form that has the "new and improved," now with 30 percent more doom, "paper terrorism" classification. If nothing else, I thought you'd find this entertaining.
I would appreciate any suggestions you might have on how to fight for the freedom of information. It's not like we have computers in our cells.
I am an innocent man who was offered a plea agreement and refused on the belief that our justice system was "just." I've spent the last 6.5 years trying like hell to keep up on all I've missed. You wouldn't happen to know where to find a bookbound version of the Linux kernel, would you? Anyway, thanks for listening to the ramblings of a sarcastic anti-gov bastard.
Another Innocent Man in Prison
"Paper terrorism," incidentally, is defined as "the use of fraudulent legal documents and filings, as well as the misuse of legitimate documents and filings, in order to intimidate, harass and coerce public officials, law enforcement officers, and private citizens." Fake bankruptcy petitions designed to ruin credit ratings, tying up courts with invalid land claims, and reporting enemies to the IRS without merit are all examples of this. As for obtaining a printed version of the Linux kernel, we're sure something is out there. If not, it wouldn't be too difficult for someone to self-publish such a thing for relatively little money and, hopefully, it wouldn't be too strange an item to get into your facility. You might also consider books like Linux Kernel Development, which, while not giving you the actual kernel, provide a good amount of discussion and analysis. The best way you can fight for freedom of information from within such an institution is to make sure there's always a plethora of reading material available from a whole variety of sources. A reading mind is a thinking mind, and that can lead to all sorts of positive things, especially in an information-starved environment. The rest of us on the outside need to support these efforts, however we can.
Dear 2600:
Some company is spoofing my phone number to make its sales calls! I have a very easy and longstanding telephone number and receive about ten calls a day on my voice mail indicating that each caller noticed my telephone number on their Caller ID and each has, thereafter, called "the number displayed" and wondered who I was and what the purpose of my call was.
Apparently, some company is spoofing my telephone number to make hundreds of sales calls every day. When the person called doesn't answer, my spoofed number is left on the recipient's Caller ID. The calling company never leaves any messages on voice mails or answering machines that it calls and it never calls back.
I won't change my telephone number! I need help/suggestions as to how I can find out what unscrupulous sales company is spoofing my number so that I can put a stop to it. I can always ask the people who call me what telephone carrier each of them has and the time and date of the Caller ID information, but how could their telephone carrier trace the originating call since it has been spoofed with my telephone number and, more importantly, how could I persuade any telephone company to help me by tracing the originating real telephone number from which the sales call was placed since I am a third-party victim and not even their customer?
JT Simpson
This is rather tough, as you don't know when whoever this is will call or what number they'll call next. It's a trivial matter to spoof Caller ID. There are many services that allow you to do this. A telephone carrier could use ANI to find the actual number that originated the call, presuming they were willing to do this and accurate date/time information was given to them. You'd better believe they would do this quickly if law enforcement told them to. In your case, you'll have to rely on your wits and a bit of luck. At some point, someone will contact you who has gotten a little more than a missed call on their Caller ID.
Perhaps they will have received a message or picked up the phone when the call was made - something to at least indicate the name of the company or what they are trying to sell. That little bit of information can lead to more substantial clues as to who the culprits are. You might also try looking for your phone number online to see if anyone has complained about it and possibly given more information out.
There are other more technical ways of getting more information out of them, usually involving having their ANI displayed through calling a toll-free number or other service, but you would have to have more info on when they were going to call, which seems unobtainable currently.
Fun With Meetings
Dear 2600:
I would like to get some information on starting a meeting near my home in Gwinnett County, Georgia. The only listed site in Georgia is in Atlanta and while I am only 30 miles away, it is in Fu*khead, uh, Buckhead and I am too frackin' lazy to drive all the way into town at 5 pm. Sorry! (Well actually I'm not; traffic sucks in Atlanta.)
I am looking for a site at or near a university or college and would like to start a networking group with people in the tech field who are interested in security or even old hacks like myself. I can't call myself a hacker yet, but I've been in the telecom business for 39 years and 2600 is one of my favorite reads.
Paul
We encourage you to try and get to the Atlanta meeting to at least meet other like-minded people, perhaps some who feel as you do about the location and name of that particular part of town. These meetings only take place once a month, so it's generally worth the hassle. You'll either find it worthwhile to keep going or you'll be more inspired to start something closer to home either on a first Friday or something unofficial on another day of the month.
Dear 2600:
I see there is a meeting in South Africa (Johannesburg), but I can't find any details. If it doesn't exist anymore, then I would like to start one.
Philip
We've gotten word that the Johannesburg meetings have stopped, so this would be the perfect time for someone to step in and revive them. Please check out our guidelines on www.2600.com/meetings and keep us updated. Good luck!
Dear 2600:
I was catching up on some reading of the mag when I read one of the sent-in letters in the meeting part. Someone called "Roel" asked if the meeting in Utrecht was still active because he would have to travel three hours to come from Belgium. I wanted to let you know that the meetings are still pretty much alive and that it even spawned a local community that's been going strong for the last few years. I'm a bit confused that he didn't find this information himself seeing that if you google [2600+Utrecht] you cannot miss information about it. Besides that, our IRC channel is pretty active, although not on the netsplitting 2600 network anymore. Also, if you are in contact with him, I saw on the meeting page that there's also a meeting in Antwerp, which is a lot closer to him.
Over the years, I kinda forgot to check in now and then about our activity, but we're still going "strong" and have a meeting nearly every month (sometimes we get pwned by failing train systems or hacker cons where most people are at).
Best of luck with the magazine.
zkyp
Dear 2600:
Do you know if the Montreal meetings really take place? If so, what is the exact location? The location on the website states "Amphiteatre Bell, 1000 de la gauchetiere." Problem is that Amphiteatre Bell is a few blocks away from 1000 de la gauchetiere. Moreover, I don't recall a Dunkin' Donuts in either place. That is a good drive for me plus parking, so I just want to make sure the meeting really takes place and I can find it.
Tazmatt
We do know that meetings have taken place there in the recent past, but the address may be a bit confusing as it's all a part of a massive underground city that exists there. We also can't say for sure whether or not Dunkin' Donuts is still in existence at that location. We hope to hear from someone in the area who can clarify these points and provide any updates.
Dear 2600:
I've attended the meeting place in Melbourne, Florida (House of Joe) for the last three months and no one has a clue about the 2600 club. I have emailed Cheshire in the last month and heard nothing.
I'd be interested in running the meetings if they are not currently active. I would gladly help if the current facilitator is not active or needs help to organize the meetings. I would like the meetings to happen here in Melbourne since I believe there is a following that would participate.
Ross
Meetings happen if people show up. No one person is required to be there in order for the meeting to take place. If you show up and nobody else does, letting us know will help us decide whether or not the meeting should continue to be listed. You can also do whatever you can to get more people to come to that location. There really is no further organization needed, other than to follow the guidelines listed in our meeting section on the 2600 website. Each attendee runs the meeting as much as the next one.
Dear 2600:
Sorry you didn't read my email about meetings. The sponsor isn't showing up, although meetings are scheduled. It's been that way for the last three months for sure, and for a long time according to the House of Joe manager (the location of meeting) since it's not listed on their event calendar for a long time.
Since it is listed as the place, I guess I'll just show up then and start our own Melbourne Club. Not sure if we'll have your "blessings," so I won't use your name for the club unless I get a confirming email that it's O.K. Gee, this is the same type of response I have gotten from this organization for years. I tried this many years ago, and form emails were all I got. I wanted to purchase some shirts and zines and was never returned any information then either. Cool. I guess it's time to step up on my own then.
I do hope to hear from you, but if not, please know that the meetings will be great and have some guest speakers from major organizations like Grumman, Harris and USA, etc. (They've already said O.K. since they've spoken at my cybersecurity classes at the college.) I hope it'll be in the name of the 2600.org club. I also just left a phone message.
Ross
We appreciate your enthusiasm, but you need to slow it down a bit. Understand that we have close to 150 meetings going on around the world and even a full-time office staff dedicated to nothing but this would have a real challenge coordinating it, if that were the way things were run. It's not. As we've stated here numerous times, as well as on our assorted web pages, meetings are fairly autonomous and don't need supervision from us, other than to make sure that attendees are aware of the guidelines and to deal with reports of meetings that no longer have attendees.
We're sorry that you don't like the fact that we couldn't immediately correspond with you personally about this one particular gathering, but that's the reality of the situation. We're not sure you quite get where we're coming from, so we again advise that you take a look at the meeting guidelines (www.2600.com/meetings/guidelines.html) and proceed from there. You don't need to have big name speakers or meeting sponsors or anything like that. A bunch of people with similar interests gathering at a public location on the first Friday of the month pretty much sums it up. It doesn't have to be any more complicated than that.
[Actually, it did get a little more complicated than that after we wrote that sentence, so we're stepping in to give a little bracketed update. The venue where the Melbourne, Florida meetings have been held has now gone out of business, so we have a whole new location listed. And, as luck would have it, our Melbourne, Australia meeting also moved to a new venue within days of this happening. We live in mortal fear of one day mixing those two listings up.]
We honestly don't know what you mean when you say you never got information in the past on how to buy shirts and issues. All of that information is available online, over the phone, and in the magazine. If you expected a lot of additional hand holding and guidance on how to obtain these things, we probably didn't have the time then and most likely wont in the future. People sometimes treat us like we're some massive faceless corporation and then get upset when we don't act like one. We believe we've made all of the tools available for people to use. Hopefully, that will be enough for the vast majority.
Dear 2600:
I host one of the 2600 meetings. Mine is in Titusville, Florida. I send out email invitations to my friends, and include a link to my personal web page for the meeting. Of course, it would be nice if I could refer my friends to the "official" meeting site, with a link to the Florida meetings so they didn't have to search through the entire list themselves (I have some very lazy friends). I was angry that the meeting lists (both the mtg.html and pages.html) on the 2600.com site did not have named tags in them allowing me to link directly to where I wanted to direct my friends. And, like any true geek, I don't get mad. I get - odd. I stole your pages, edited them to my liking, and put them up on my website. After all, I don't have FTP access to your website to make them right, do I?
Please feel free to steal these web pages to replace the ones you have at 2600.com/meetings. They can be found at: CheshireCatalyst.Com/mtg.html#us-fl and CheshireCatalyst.Com/pages.html#us-fl.
The #us-fl shows an example of how to reach Florida meetings using the named tags. All countries use their two letter ISO 3166 code, and U.S. states have their two letter postal code added (Canada has two letter provincial codes added to ca). Using the ISO code means I used gb instead of the Internet TLD (Top-Level Domain code) of uk for England. I should have used gb-eng since England is only one division of Great Britain, and Wales does gets gb-wls. Anyone who wants to can do a View -> Source on the page to see what named tag to use when they want to connect directly, of course. I looked and didn't find any, which sent me on my odyssey.
And you wonder why a fellow I work with at a place I volunteer said to me, "I understand you better after having watched a couple of episodes of The Big Bang Theory."
Richard Cheshire
This is a good example of how we could be doing things a little better if we had some more time to devote to constant maintenance and updates. In this case, we really don't think it's that big a deal and, as far as we're concerned, it would turn into more trouble than it's worth since it's so easy for users to just look up the information on the existing pages.
Also, just to clarify, we don't have "hosts" for the meetings, other than the venues themselves. Perhaps you could clear that up with the previous writer. A hierarchical system doesn't serve the purpose of the meetings, but we do recognize that certain individuals put in significant time and effort to get them set up and running smoothly, and for that we are very grateful.
Dear 2600:
In the current issue of 2600, I found a meeting place for New York City (Citigroup Center). It does not give date and time. Can I possibly obtain an up-to-date schedule of these meetings in this area and possibly the agenda discussed?
Derrick
If you glance at the bottom of that page, you'll see these words: "All meetings take place on the first Friday of the month. Unless otherwise noted, they start at 5 pm local time."
If you email meetings@2600.com, you'll receive an up-to-date list of meetings around the world. And we should point out that there is no agenda required at our meetings (although sometimes people do organize speakers and presentations). Think of them as gatherings of like-minded individuals meeting in a public space where dozens of conversations can be going on at the same time.
Dear 2600:
Re: 29:3, page 36 ("More on Meetings"), I went to the meeting at Northwoods Mall, Chick-fil-A. First time there were people there. Hackers. Probably 30 percent of those attendees were undercovers. The feds want "one-in-four" because one informant can only watch three people (time and motion studies). All the attendees got up like a covey of birds. Your organization needs to know who ratted me out (I am on a national security letter) because that is a sure pimp. Your outfit doesn't spend much time identifying these extremely harmful behavioral types. Your magazine has one at a very influential level. I think your boy Assange is almost certainly one. Never met a skirt he didn't like. Destroyed his financial backers. The Swedish setup is an almost typical CI ops.
Enough rambling. You need some serious history on the Chick-fil-A area at Northwoods Mall.
Clarence E. McBride, Jr. called his residence from the payphone on the Sears wall across/beside the Chick-fil-A. Went to see him at his residence in North Chuck. He was suffering from a serious respiratory illness and on oxygen. He was a former federal supervisor (WS-12) and he knew about my FOIA/PA lawsuit against the U.S. Navy. He agreed to testify on behalf of the plaintiffs. A few days later, he was dead! How: his second wife (he had not divorced his first) removed him from the well-appointed, comfortable residence he was residing in and placed him in a unit with no electricity/running water. This felonious act surely killed Mr. McBride. He was the premiere witness in a massive PA/FOIA lawsuit (480 plaintiffs, mostly ProSe.,) 02-092-0184-18aj. My windshield on my old Ford truck was shot out with a potato gun by a Navy undercover and North Chuck and mall security refused to give up the tapes identifying the Navy perp. For the record, a high-ranking Navy security officer was married to the North Chuck chief of police. Here it's just one cozy little clique.
The value of these meetings is to expose wrongdoing to the unaware. The CI teams have a full court press on you. They hate hackers. I desire the widest possible exposure of the CI threat to our civil liberties!
Haskell
And people think our meetings are just a bunch of kids who want to talk about computers. Thanks for injecting the world of action/adventure and international intrigue into the mix. As we always say, meetings are what you make them. (This one in South Carolina was actually discontinued a year ago, due to lack of attendees. Perhaps they were all out in the parking lot chasing each other.)
Reader Feedback
Dear 2600:
A response to The Prophet's response to my letter in 29:3: he is wrong, unfortunately, about the bitrate of a GSM channel. Quoting Wikipedia, which is accurate according to my calculations, "The channel bit rate of a full-rate GSM channel is 22.7 kbit/s, although the actual payload data rate is 9.6-14 kbit/s, depending on the channel coding."
So a GSM channel has a raw bit rate less than half what The Prophet believes, and in practice less than one quarter. I think there may be confusion between the air interface bandwidth and network bandwidth, which usually is 56 or 64 kbps.
D1vr0c
His reply to your reply, etc. follows: "I would like to offer D1vr0c some of my graying hairs as a prize, as he seems to enjoy splitting them. Before compression on the air interface (which can vary depending on the codec used) GSM channels are 64 kbps PCM and this is what we use in figuring bandwidth on the network side. I will not respond to responses to the response to the response, because at some point it becomes too recursive and I'm concerned that the planet may implode if we push this any further."
Dear 2600:
Not bashing anyone - these were good articles, just ensuring correct info is disseminated.
In 29:4 in the article "An Alternate Method for Creating an SSH Tunnel with PuTTY and Squid," Synystr references another article and reiterated the idea that PuTTY can't use dynamic port forwarding. This is not true. There are three radio buttons under the destination section of the tunnels subsection of the SSH option in PuTTY that correspond to the three primary tunneling techniques: local, remote, and dynamic. If you put a port number in and click add after selecting the dynamic radio button, then connect, you'll see a port open up on your local box. Set your proxy aware device to use this instant SOCKS proxy and, bam, you're gold. I respect the neat alternative method with Squid, but wanted folks to be clear it can be done with just PuTTY.
Also in 29:4, in the article "WordPress Exploit Immunization" under "The Root Causes,' Seeker7 describes a cross-site scripting attack. However, what he really describes is a cross-site-request forgery attack. It can use similar vectors, but results usually differ.
pipefish
Dear 2600:
I am not a serious hacker, nor even a very serious software guy at all - hardware production engineer is my limit. But I own a small toy R/C helicopter, so the quadcopter article (29:3) rang some bells with me. I jumped into it without even reading the rest of the magazine up to that page.
If UAVman is going to direct others in building or modifying a UAV, he needs to do some hardware homework first. I can't fault his prices or product reviews, but his idea of electronics has a couple of major flaws.
First, electricity is the flow of electrons down a conductor and, since they are moving, we can use them to do useful work. You need to make them move, however, and that's what voltage (volts) does. Voltage's full name is electromotive force because that's what moves those electrons, i.e., electrical pressure. One ampere (or amp) is a huge mess of very tiny electrons and it measures the volume of those electrons. Voltage is the equivalent to the water pressure and current (amps) is equivalent to the volume of the flow. This is contrary to what UAVman wrote, and, while we are in different hemispheres, I don't think it reverses when you cross the equator.
And yes, generally, red means positive and black means negative. He explains that 1000 milliamps is one amp (which it is), but then he talks about motors pulling 80-120 amps. This has to be milliamps, not amps. If he really is putting 100 amps into his motors, he needs power wiring like the usual battery jumper cables you would use on your car! If he is using smaller wire, he is organizing a pretty good ignition source, although I can recommend better - Zippos, Bics, matches, rubbing a couple of Boy Scouts together, etc. (Community Note: Many UAV or radio-controlled car motors really do pull 80-120 AMPS or more.)
And one note on batteries and charging - give no worries about the C and S factors. Get the battery charger that fits the batteries you are using and use it carefully. Anything more than that and you need more info than he gives you anyway.
A suggestion for your readers (and maybe UAVman): get a copy of Electronics for Dummies or The Radio Amateur Handbook and go through some of the elementary chapters. You will make far fewer foolish mistakes, believe me!
Igner
Dear 2600:
Re: Storm Clouds in 29:4: We are retired, but that has not stopped us from using modern technology - cell phones, computers, the web. We live in the country 20 miles south of Huntsville, Alabama.
April 28, 2011. Thursday. I watched the tornadoes from our back porch traveling northeasterly about 20 miles away go past Decatur. I then went to the front porch to watch them traveling in the same direction about 30 miles away go past Guntersville. We live in between on high ground. The most we were getting was rain. Not much wind.
The power went out at about 4 pm. We picked up immediately, grabbed the dog, and drove the nine miles to Walker's Bar-B-Que for a quick dinner. The place was mobbed with folks from Arab and Guntersville doing the same thing. They all had lost power. Walker's had no power. We got the last of the sandwiches.
On the way home, we stopped at Christie's, where we had bought our dog the previous July. She said that she had lost nine family members in Ruth, Alabama from the tornadoes of that day. The baby boy of the family was found in the wreckage and was in the hospital.
Friends from Chicago, New York, and Delaware called us that night on the landline to see if we were O.K. (The house battery phone goes out when the power is gone, which it does frequently out here in the country, so we keep the wall phones.)
We tried to call local people on cell phones - they were not working. Called them on the landline - a few responded that they were O.K., and without power. That was unusual, as Huntsville always had power.
We had the candles out as usual. Could not use the computers. Went to bed early.
The next morning, still no power. Got all in the pickup and stopped at Bobby's GRO six miles away. Place was mobbed. Bobby said that there was no power in Huntsville, so not to bother to go in. That was really unusual.
We went back home. Power came on at about 10 am. So did the computers. And the web.
Turns out that the cell phone towers not only were without power - many were knocked down. To our surprise, our property and immediate neighbors were on the main electrical bus which fed a hospital about 20 miles away, also between Guntersville and Decatur. Neighbors a mile away in both directions were without power for a week. Walker's and a gas station on 231 were on the same electrical bus. The cars waiting for gas were in a line two miles long in both directions. We had a full tank in the pickup.
Power was not fully restored for some for as long as ten days later. Landline phone service was fixed for most almost immediately.
The church in Huntsville where I was rector scrubbed that Sunday's services. All of the Huntsville parishioners were without power.
We'll keep the landline.
The baby later died at the hospital.
Edson+
In times of tragedy and hardship, a lot of what we take for granted simply isn't there. We've seen this happen repeatedly, which is why it's so essential to have backup methods for getting things done. Our technology is amazing and can be used for so many incredible things. But we need to also know how to survive when it fails, because it always will at some point. That may mean learning how to do without things we're used to, like power or transportation. Or it may mean finding an alternative, and often older, method of accomplishing the same tasks. Landlines are a great example of this. They tend to have a much lower failure rate during storms and power failures, yet many choose not to have them in their homes or workplaces, opting instead for the most modern communication tools, which often are simply not as robust. Of course, it's just as wrong to cling to old technology and not experiment with and utilize the newer inventions of our time. The key is to combine the old and the new into something that works for us and is versatile enough to keep going during hard times.
Thanks for sharing this tough story and for staying strong in the midst of disaster. We can all learn from this.
Dear 2600:
A few quick points about R. Toby Richard's letter in 29:4... FreeBSD's stated goal is "the power to serve" and, therefore, you alone must work to make it "available to the masses." I'm surprised you missed the news that FreeBSD is indeed working on a new installer (in addition to package tools, a hypervisor, a new compiler, zfs...).
FreeBSD is not designed for a desktop, so when you decide for whatever reason you choose to engage in this sadomasochist act, yes, you will have to configure everything. There is no hand holding. This carries over to maintenance, too.
I love FreeBSD as an upstream contributor, but for your stated goals I would very much recommend Debian GNU/Linux. Their mission statement is that they exist to serve their users. Furthermore, configurations are more automated than FreeBSD, which means you can spend less time editing text files and enjoying the (assuming you're American) spring weather.
"A guy who thinks of himself as intelligent for using needlessly complex and time-consuming methods of accomplishing simple tasks is truly the worst kind of idiot." - Unknown
zenlunatic
Dear 2600:
I'm part of a generation where privacy doesn't matter anymore, where people would rather spend time on Facebook than with people in life. A generation, I feel, that doesn't care or do anything interesting. Long gone are the days where people would actually go outside, explore, and have fun. Gone are the days where people wanted to learn, where people did exciting things. Of course, I'm only generalizing, but you get the point. I just wanted to let you guys know how appreciative I am for everything you do and how much of an impact 2600 already has on my life. You guys have literally opened a new world for me! A world in which I feel I belong. I jump into this "world" with each turning page of the latest 2600 Magazine, and, of course, with each episode of Off The Wall and especially Off The Hook. Off The Hook becomes my transport whenever I want to delve into this world, where issues and topics of importance are discussed. Whether it's Off The Hook, or 2600 in general, hackers like you guys serve as inspiration to guys like me: a teenager still trying to find his place. You've helped me embark on a most fruitful and exciting adventure for which I cannot thank you enough. You guys have helped me discover my sense of curiosity and discovery. You've helped me realize that I too am a hacker.
Jeff
Letters like these mean a whole lot to us, but give yourself some credit for being open to this sort of thing in the first place. It's a quality that not everyone has. And the quest to find one's place is an ongoing one, despite the pressures put upon us by those in control to figure it all out quickly. This is perhaps the greatest injustice to creative and curious minds everywhere. The journey lasts a lifetime, and our place in the world is never truly defined until that journey comes to an end. So, anything is possible at any time. That's what hacking is all about.
Dear 2600:
Mr Icom's article was pretty fair. A level above the usual submission by 2600 freaks whose mothers didn't (don't) masturbate them enough.
Unsincerely yours,
AnymouseWell, it's praise of a sort, so we'll take it. For now.
Dear 2600:
This is in regards to Lifetime Subscriber's invitation for proof about anonymous speech as a tenet of free expression (29:1, page 35).
"As with other forms of expression, the ability to speak anonymously on the Internet promotes the robust exchange of ideas and allows individuals to express themselves freely without fear of economic or official retaliation or concern about social ostracism." The above statement was written by Judge Margaret McKeown in an opinion on the legal merits of anonymous speech (in re Anonymous Online Speakers, 661 F.3d 1128 (9th Circuit, 2011)).
Judge McKeown based her statement on a few (but well established) Supreme Court decisions recognizing that the First Amendment protects the right to speak anonymously. Although the decisions deal mostly with political speech, the reasoning in both McConnell v. Federal Election Commission, 157 L.Ed 2d 491 (2003), and McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission, 131 L.Ed 2. 426 (1995) applies to most forms of anonymous speech or expression, including online communications.
Not all speech is protected and there are certainly examples of federal and state courts ruling against anonymity but, by and large, the right to anonymous expression is still recognized as fundamental. Whether the argument can be made that case law can correctly or adequately express society's views is another matter. But for "proof," there can't be anything much more definitive.
One of the best ways to ensure that the right to anonymous speech remains protected is to continually challenge it through both content and ideas. As Congress and the courts take more and more interest in regulating the Internet, issues of free speech will be enormously important. For a chilling example of how misguided the court system can be when it doesn't correctly understand the nature and functioning of the Internet, look at Doe v. Shurtleff, 628 F.3d 1217 (10th Circuit, 2010). In upholding a state law requiring the disclosure of "Internet identifiers" by registered sex offenders, the court held that: a) "Computer users lack an expectation of privacy in their online identifiers that society would recognize as reasonable," and b) "The possibility that a government agent would have access to an offender's identifying information ... does not impose a constitutionally improper burden on speech" (88 Crim Law Rep 295). Although the law applies only to sex offenders, the precedent the court established could easily be applied to other broad limit on free expression through the Internet. Thankfully, at least for now, these kinds of decisions seem to be the minority view.
Zek
Dear 2600:
I am quite sadly surprised by your response to my letter in the Winter 2012-2013 issue of 2600. As a longtime member of what I view as the 2600 community, I see your response as very poorly thought out, to say nothing of the fact that you exposed my name when I explicitly did not sign my letter with my name, but with a pseudonym. In the past, you have respected my privacy when I sent emails which I did not sign, or signed with a pseudonym, but for reasons that are beyond me, you chose this time to ignore my pseudonym and insert my name, I suppose which you gleaned from my email address.
Besides this serious breach of confidentiality and back-stabbing nature, I really only wanted to address one item in your response. You wrote: "... we don't see why what was fair in the past wouldn't be considered fair today." This is exactly what my letter (and a few previous letters) was about! You have changed your policy regarding how you reward authors and I have consistently written to you that you should change them back to the way they used to be. As a magazine that is filled with writing, I would think that the quality of articles would be of paramount importance to you and there is usually some relationship between quality of articles and payment.
I have always trusted 2600 to keep my information private both as an author and subscriber, when I requested it, and it's a sad state of affairs when your magazine needs to expose my name for the sake of petty and defensive editorials that do not actually make sense. If you are in need of copy editors who actually pay attention to letters and know how to be coherent, I would be more than happy to join the 2600 team. Otherwise, I would warn future writers of emails to 2600 that 2600 can no longer be trusted to keep your name private if you write to them with a pseudonym and that is very sad indeed.
Barrett D. Brown
As we've said to you numerous times now, we're doing the best we can and are trying to be fair to everyone regarding what writers get for printed articles. We're always open to new ideas and to discussing different approaches, but we don't seem to be making any progress explaining things here, so we'll have to just agree to disagree.
What demands more attention, however, is the allegation that we somehow aren't taking the anonymity of any of our writers seriously. This strikes at the very core of what we do, and these allegations are about as unfounded as anything could conceivably be. You most definitely did sign the letter in question, just as you signed this one. If you keep your outgoing mail, you will quickly be able to verify this. Perhaps you're confused because you sent more than one email to letters@2600.com for that issue, and an alias was indeed used there.
No matter what somebody says to us (and your critique is fairly tame compared to what we're used to), we would never violate someone's privacy out of spite. In fact, many times we have omitted identifying information that could wind up being used against a writer, when they themselves didn't think to do this. In all of our years of publishing, we know of only one instance where we made the wrong decision by printing someone's email alias for an unsigned piece. Usually, that's not a problem, but in this case it was unique enough for the writer to be tracked down and disciplined. In all other cases, we've been extremely careful to err on the side of caution.
We've also been pressured on a number of instances to reveal true identities or email addresses of writers, at the behest of companies, schools, and even governments. In no case did we comply with these requests/demands and we have no intention of doing so in the future. You'll find that any journalist or publisher worth their salt will take a similar stance. Unfortunately, there aren't all that many left.
Most letters and articles to us are signed, but those that aren't are either printed with no name at all, a completely fake name, or a first name or piece of a username that isn't identifiable. In all cases, whatever someone requests from us concerning how or if their name is displayed is honored completely. We hope you realize and acknowledge this inaccurate conclusion you've reached about us.
Digital Issues
Dear 2600:
Hey I was just wondering if it would be possible to add "Kindle for PC" to the list of supported devices on the Kindle subscription of 2600? If not, I was just wondering why it's not there already.
Caleb Coffie
That is up to Amazon. For some reason, they only want subscriptions to be available on handheld devices and apps. This is why we have a current issue available for PC/Mac at the same price as a single issue elsewhere.
Dear 2600:
Just letting you know the PDF versions of the mag doesn't work on the Kindle DX. The Kindle version from Amazon works great, however. Will other annual digests be released soon? Thanks.
Karsten Anderson
We'll look into this. The Kindle editions are optimized to work on Kindle devices and Kindle apps. If someone really wanted to, they could convert the PDF version to a .mobi file using a program like Calibre. Other annual digests are being released, but it's really hard work to get them presented as they were published. We don't want to do a sloppy job. Support from readers (that is, actually buying the things) is essential for this project to continue.
Dear 2600:
Just wanted to let you know that I attempted to purchase the Winter 2012-2013 edition of 2600 for my Nook yesterday and was surprised to find that instead of the mag, I got The Hacker Digest, Volume 2. While I am glad to have the Digest, I now can't read the latest issue until Barnes & Noble gets this resolved. I have contacted customer support and am waiting for them to respond.
Thank you for all the work you put into the magazine.
Adam
This was a mistake on our end and, when we found out about it, we replaced the files and got the correct ones to those affected. So those people got the current issue and the digest for $3.99, instead of just the current issue for $6.00. When we screw up, everyone wins.
Dear 2600:
I am responding to linhat, an avid reader and caring supporter (29:4):
I have found a satisfactory solution to preserving my 2600 digital editions. First, I use a Mac, however the process I am about to describe should also work in Windows, and, provided that you have a way of getting your .AZW files from Amazon, this should work on Linux.
It's pretty simple, really. First, download Calibre, which is ebook management software. Then, assuming you haven't already, install the Kindle app for Mac or PC (as far as I know, there is no Amazon app for *NIX platforms, but I'm sure your resourceful readership can probably hack something together).
Step 1: Synchronize your Amazon account and download all of your 2600 purchases using the Kindle app. On Mac, this will create a folder under your user account at: /<user>/Library/Application Support/Kindle/My Kindle Content which contains all of your downloaded purchases in .AZW format (I assume that's Amazon's proprietary format, but I've not ventured to investigate). The Kindle will create a folder on Windows too - I'm just not sure where it will be.
Step 2: Install Calibre (which does have a *NIX edition), open the application, and click the big red Add Books button. Navigate to the folder containing all of your Kindle 2600 purchases and select the corresponding .AZW file. This will import your Kindle 2600 editions into Calibre for reading. Now, right-click your newly imported issues of 2600 and select Convert Books -> Convert Individually. This will prompt you with a fairly simple-to-use dialog that will allow you to convert your issues into a format of your choosing. Of particular importance is the drop-down box to the top right of the first screen labeled Output Format - you guessed it, select anything other than AZW3 (I prefer EPUB - but PDF works in a pinch).
Click the O.K. button and wait. Once finished, you can back up your books to any device you wish, and read them in any format you like. And, I'm pretty sure that Calibre isn't going to complain very much (or even know) about the borders you happen to cross.
To be clear, I employ this method for the purpose of preserving content which I have paid for. I share the sentiment that paying for that which I value is st the right thing to do. However, I find it generous that you at 2600 advocate for your readers to share issues with their friends and associates. Very classy.
Thanks and good luck.
sn0tec
We greatly appreciate your providing this info which will help people hold onto the content they purchased, just like in the real world. We also want to thank all of you who support us by buying digital or paper copies, which enables us to have this conversation in the first place.
Dear 2600:
About seven years ago I bought a lifetime subscription to 2600. I was wondering if/hoping I could get my editions digitally now without having to buy another "lifetime subscription" through Amazon. If not, thanks anyway and keep up the great work!
Andy
We don't have the ability to do this, as Amazon handles the electronic subscriptions. We don't have access to any subscriber info on their system. Also, they don't support lifetime subscriptions. For now, this is how it works. That may change. These are different items in different formats, and everyone will get what they asked for. We're really happy at the progress that's been made in a few short years and eagerly look forward to where we'll be heading in the future. This discussion is helping to determine how that future will work.
Dear 2600:
Saw yet another letter in the Fall issue about the images not showing up on Kindle DX. Since you've asked for suggestions on how this could be addressed, what about hosting the images for each issue on your website and just providing a link to that page in the Kindle edition? You could, of course, get fancy and include links to individual images under every picture in the Kindle edition, but that would mean a lot of extra work and inconvenience for readers with Wi-Fi Kindle models. Or, there is always the ever popular suggestion to let us download PDF copies of the mag. Those display brilliantly on the Kindle DX. Thanks for considering.
Alex W
We don't like the links idea for this or most anything, simply because links can change years or even months down the road and then you wind up with a different problem that doesn't go away.
Every format requires work and coordination and we're working on a bunch of them now. We do support PDF copies of the year-end volumes and that's an enormous job to tackle. But we're getting better at it, so we should be able to do more such things in the future. For now, we're working hard to fix any remaining problems with existing formats, and also find the time to put out the ever-popular printed edition. One thing is for certain: it's all constantly improving. Our goal is to put it all out in formats that we are proud of and to not do a shoddy job on any of it. Our goal is to only displease those people who object to our existence in the first place.