Basic Hacking Part III - Hacking Windows 95! (Warning)
Important warning: this is a beginners lesson. BEGINNERS. Will all you super k-rad elite haxors out there just skip reading this one, instead reading it and feeling all insulted at how easy it is and then emailing me to bleat "This GTMHH iz 2 ezy your ****** up,wee hate u!!!&$%" Go study something that seriously challenges your intellect such as "Unix for Dummies," OK?
Have you ever seen what happens when someone with an America Online account posts to a hacker news group, email list, or IRC chat session? It gives you a true understanding of what "flame" means, right?
Now you might think that making fun of dumb.newbie@aol.com is just some prejudice. Sort of like how managers in big corporations don't wear dreadlocks and fraternity boys don't drive Yugos.
But the real reason serious hackers would never use AOL is that it doesn't offer Unix shell accounts for its users. AOL fears Unix because it is the most fabulous, exciting, powerful, hacker-friendly operating system in the Solar system... gotta calm down ... anyhow, I'd feel crippled without Unix. So AOL figures offering Unix shell accounts to its users is begging to get hacked.
Unfortunately, this attitude is spreading. Every day more ISPs are deciding to stop offering shell accounts to their users.
But if you don't have a Unix shell account, you can still hack. All you need is a computer that runs Windows 95 and just some really retarded on-line account like America Online or Compuserve.
In this Basic Hacking Part III we cover several fun things to do with Windows and even the most hacker-hostile Online services. And, remember, all these things are really easy. You don't need to be a genius. You don't need to be a computer scientist. You don't need to won an expensive computer. These are things anyone with Windows 95 can do.
Section One: Customize your Windows 95 visuals. Set up your startup, background and logoff screens so as to amaze and befuddle your non-hacker friends.
Section Two: Subvert Windows nanny programs such as Surfwatch and the setups many schools use in the hope of keeping kids from using unauthorized programs. Prove to yourself -- and your friends and coworkers -- that Windows 95 passwords are a joke.
Section Three: Explore other computers -- OK, let's be blatant -- hack -- from your Windows home computer using even just AOL for Internet access.
Hacker's Black Book
