> GUIDE TO (mostly) HARMLESS HACKING
> 
> Vol. 2 Number 1

> Technical tip: If you wish to become a *serious* hacker, you'll need Linux
>(a freeware variety of Unix) on your PC. One reason is that then you can


Linux is a good start, but not NEEDED by any means. A good hacker
can make due with any Operating System they find, as hacking 
is a concept, not a checklist.

> This anarchic system remains tied together because its users voluntarily
> obey some basic rules. These rules can be summed up in two words: Unix and
> TCP/IP (with a nod to UUCP). If you understand, truly understand Unix and
> TCP/IP (and UUCP), you will become a fish swimming in the sea of cyberspace,
> an Uberhacker among hacker wannabes, a master of the Internet universe.


I don't exactly like them, but you forget that many boxes on the net are
Windows based, Mac Based, etc. Unix is not a rule at all. TCP/IP is.

> There is the cybercouch potato connection that every newbie uses. It
> requires either a point-to-point (PPP) or SLIPconnection, which allows you
> to run pretty pictures with your Web browser. If you got some sort of
> packaged software from your ISP, it automatically gives you this sort of
> connection.


And since I use SLIP to connect my dedicated box to the net, I am
a cybercouch potato? Give the whole story please.

obscure.sekurity.org maintained a 128k dedicated connection using PPP. I don't
believe that qualifies as "cybercouch potato".

> But how is the host computer you use attached to the Internet? It will be
> running some variety of the Unix operating system. Since Unix is so easy to
> adapt to almost any computer, this means that almost any computer may become
> an Internet host.


*cough* NT *cough*

Besides, adapting a unix box to be a secure anf fully functional  internet host 
is only easy if you are familiar with them. If not, it will usually be a chore.

> Internet host by running one of the Linux flavors of Unix. After setting it
> up with Linux you can arrange with the ISP of your choice to link it
> permanently to the Internet.


Using SLIP or PPP which you denounced as lazy above.

> However, all these wonderful features are also profoundly hackable. The
> Internet is robust enough to survive -- so its inventors claim -- even


They made that claim in the Arpanet days, not with today's internet.

> * Internet relay chat -- real-time text conversations -- used primarily by
> hackers and other Internet old-timers


Primarily by hackers?! Not even.

Primarily used by newcomers to the Internet with their MIRC clients 
on Win95 boxes, looking for someone else to chat with.

> We discuss "shells" which allow one to write programs ("scripts") that
> automate complicated series of Unix commands. The reader is introduced to
> the concept of scripts which perform hacking functions. We introduce Perl,
> which is a shell programming language used for the most elite of hacking
> scripts such as SATAN.


SATAN uses more languages than just PERL.

Consistancy Alert! First you called SATAN an "awesome tool", then you call 
it a" lame, canned hacker tool", and now you call it "elite" here.