Real hackers

From: Daniel A. Seagraves <DSEAGRAV_at_toad.xkl.com>
Date: Fri Feb 6 12:30:44 1998

[Sending in public]
That's alright. I've already done it too many times...

[The book _Hackers_]
Sounds good, I'll go see if I can locate a copy somewhere.
I have a copy of _The Hacker Crackdown_, it's on my 486 at home. In electronic
form. Do you have a copy? It's pretty good, and it's freely distributable
(The author calls it "literary freeware")

[Myths (slide rules and etc.)]
True... I'm not going to need them much... Actually, I can wirewrap in a way -
I can operate a punchdown tool. That's kinda the same thing - and I used that
a lot to run 'phone cables. I'm gonna be doing it in about 2 days again,
we're hanging a modem off the Linux box here so me and a few of the teachers
can get free internet. (I already have free internet, I'm the admin at umtec.)
I'll probably never have to KNOW how to use a slide rule, unless I get a pilot's
liscense and have to use one of those navigation calculators. They have
electronic versions, but all I've ever heard of them is that they fail at the
worst times... Of course, I won't really KNOW until I go try it.
Maybe after I graduate and can afford it. I had a friend who was going
to teach me, but he died 1 day before I was supposed to go up with him. His
VariEze flipped on him during final approach, he hit a fence, inverted, and dug
a rut. The weight of the aircraft prevented him from breathing. I wasn't there.
They dug around for why he crashed for awhile. I was never told what the FAA
said, but I have my own theory. He'd added a headlight to the very nose of the
craft. If you've never seen a VariEze, it's a little pusher-prop affair
invented by Burt Rutan. (He made Voyager.) It's also a canard aircraft.
That means that the tailplane is out front, holding the nose up. You've
seen the pictures of the cube in the wind tunnel before, right? The airstream
comes off at a 45deg angle. With that relativley flat surface at the nose
of the plane instead of the sleek nosecone it was supposed to have, the wind
did similar, blanking the inner 1/2 to 1/4 of the elevator. This worked
OK at higher speeds, the lift generated was enough to work. But, low and slow
with the added weight of his son in the back, there simply wasn't enough lift
to keep the nose flying. So, down it went. The bad part was, he was giving
his son a ride as his 16th birthday present.

Anyway, enough of that... That's one of the bad points to a line editor, you
can't edit the message much afore you send it!
You asked if I'd come to California and work... not sure.
What are you doing out there?
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Received on Fri Feb 06 1998 - 12:30:44 GMT