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This article was posted to the Usenet group alt.hackers in 1995; any technical information is probably outdated.

Re: Hackers vs. Crackers (long reply)


Article: 8941 of alt.hackers
From: riffer@freenet4.freenet.ufl.edu (Jeff Mercer)
Newsgroups: alt.hackers
Subject: Re: Hackers vs. Crackers (long reply)
Date: 26 Oct 1995 04:55:04 GMT
Organization: Green Hell, Inc.
Lines: 55
Approved: riffer@afn.org
Message-ID: 46n4b8$4nl@huron.eel.ufl.edu
 <461qpn$4t3@fullfeed.msn.fullfeed.com>
 <4644ic$t5v@news1.halcyon.com>
 <46h1a7$ml7@qualcomm.com>
Reply-To: riffer@afn.org
NNTP-Posting-Host: freenet4.afn.org
X-Newsreader: NewsWerthy 2.00
Status: RO

fknauss@qualcomm.com (Friedrich Knauss) wrote:
FK>In article <46d06g$qiu@huron.eel.ufl.edu>, Jeff Mercer
<riffer@afn.org> wrote:
FK> [...]
FK>>The other day I had to help someone get into her car, which she
had locked
FK>>her keys into. DOn't ask me how someone can leave their keys *in the
FK>>ignition* and lock themselves out... *sigh*
FK>>The solution? The only one available: break the window.
FK>I don't see this as the only solution. Which is why I don't really see
FK>it as a hack.

I didn't say it was a hack. You forgot to quote the line after that in which
I indicated that.

FK>Why? Because I was faced with the same situation (I still
FK>don't know how I locked myself out with the keys in the ignition).

Yeah, this must require extreme distraction...

The reason why we broke the window is because of the circumstances. It was
late at night. No tools were available to speak of except for a small
hammer and a few screwdrivers. All the windows were rolled up tightly. This
older car had the "pop-proof" type of door latches with no
head. And worse,
the driver side didn't have a lock knob at all. There were no extranal
rivets or bolts that could be removed either.

Given a longer span of time and/or more tools and better lighting, we might
have been able to break into it eventually without damaging the window. But
the car owner needed to go to a concert within the hour and so time was
pretty important. And she didn't care at all about it, so it was the quicker
solution.

It certainly wasn't a hack... Breaking the window is the obvious way and could
never be called a hack. Unless I found a really special way to break it, :).

FK>Problem:  Keys in car. Motor running. Door locked.

I'm amused. You locked yourself out with the motor running... Oh dear... :)

FK>          Pick the Lock? Better, but I don't carry a pickset anymore.

And of course, not all of us have developed lock-picking skills... I probably
should do this, considering how many times my apartment's lock has gone FUBAR
for no aparent reason... *grumble mutter*

ObHack:

Quick way to kill all the old lock files in /var/spool/mail:

dir /var/spool/mail | grep lock | grep -v "Oct 24" | cut -c55-95 |
xargs rm


 riffer@afn.org   : "How's life treating you Norm?"
 Jeff The Riffer  : "Like I ran over it's dog."
    Drifter...    :
Homo Postmortemus :



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