Have a Great Life! Stories about People Who Use Hacking to Do Good

From: "Matt Smith"
Subject: nice job Carolyn!
Date: Fri, 10 Oct 2003 11:16:45 -0400

I just read the article at http://www.happyhacker.org/wargame/howtob.shtml and have to commend you and Matt for doing such a great job on the article. I also do this at my house which I wired for Ethernet and have 4 boxes running in the LAN... My UNIX system hosts my IRCD and my webpage now....you may remember my domain. That site is now gone and an IRC portal has been created. I let GoDaddy handle the DNS I handle everything else. My IRCD also hosts the chatrooms for both Team Chevelle (http://www.chevelles.com) and Team Camaro (http://www.camaros.net). Connection info for my IRCD is is my signature line. I invite people to drop by, they can join #lobby when they get in or take the #lobby link on my site. Also note the change of my E-mail address.

Matt Smith aka Ratman

IRC administrator, homecomputersecurity IRC
irc.homecomputersecurity.net, port 6667
http://www.homecomputersecurity.net:81

From: "Mike McDade"

The tactics included within these pages [of the Überhacker book] could be the vital information that you need to jumpstart a career in Network Security. I'm living proof of that!

Carolyn, I'd like to add a personal note here. I've been following
your work since I was somewhere between 10 and 12 years old (I really can't remember), back when it was hosted on cmeinel.com. You were one of the crucial figures in my life to jumpstart my future in Information Technology, and largely due to your documentation, I've been able to build a successful career in this field. I now have strong experience with all versions of Windows and Macintosh (yes, even the black and white versions of both), MS-DOS, and multiple versions of both Unix and Linux. I just resubscribed to all of your mailing lists (I was subscribed when I was much younger), and have begun to contribute by answering some of the questions that people have. I've recommended many, many people to your website over the years, because I like to see it help people in the way that it helps me.

Some of the things that I've accomplished in my young and early career, that I would like to give you some credit for:

- An 6-month internship at a National ISP, that I completed before turning 17; thus making me the youngest graduated intern ever from that corporation and securing me an additional year of employment at that location

- Speaking on Network Security at the International Summit of Youth Technology Leaders in Austin, TX (July-August 2002)

- Speaking on and directing all Network Security affairs (including an internally-hosted and self-designed Hacking Challenge lab!) at the National Youth Leadership Forum (July-August 2003)

- Contracts for building and maintaining computers over the past two years

- High-paying contracts for Network Security and Topology Assessment over the last year

- A two-page resume at the age of eighteen that rivals many IT professionals twice my age

I have no desire to boast of these things; rather, I would merely like to give credit where credit is due. I owe my career success largely to our selfless determination and efforts to better the hacking community, and our desire to not leave out the "little guy". I even called you at your office once, when I was writing a dissertation on the crucial differences between computer hackers and crackers in 10th Grade; I was astounded that you were willing to take half an hour out of your busy schedule to point me in the direction of some magazine articles and resources to jumpstart my project. Thank you again for your undying devotion to this field... your work, I am sure, will live on far longer than you or I ever could.

Carolyn replies: Mike gives me way too much credit. He's the one who worked so hard to take advantage of what others offered to him. Still, it's emails like his that keep me motivated to keep working on this web site and writing books.

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