Hang on to your hats, folks. Now that Uberhacker!
is at the printer, scehduled for July 2000 release, Carolyn Meinel
is writing a new book.
Mostly Harmless Hacking will be the MAD
Magazine of computing. It offers even novices a high-octane
education in how to master - heck, bludgeon into submission --
Windows, Linux, LANs, modems and the Internet. Humorous screen
shots and anecdotes from the wacky world of real hackers spice
up keystroke - by - keystroke instructions. Meinel has collaborated
with hundreds of her hacker confidants to bring these amazing
techniques to the public.
The title is a play on the Douglas Adams science fiction book,
Mostly Harmless. ("Mostly harmless" is
the two-word description of Planet Earth in the Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy.) As with Planet Earth, there are some parts
of Mostly Harmless Hacking that are definitely
not harmless. However, this book emphasizes legal pranks and
self-defense techniques. It tiptoes away from activities that
can win the user a long vacation
at government expense with roommate Spike.
Who will want to read this book? How about people ranging
from computer novices through experts who seek to impress their
friends and torment computer criminals unlucky enough to try
to pick on them. Many techniques in this book will be new even
to experts. Yet even beginners should be able to master Mostly
Harmless Hacking.
What will be in this book? Here's the tentative outline:
Introduction
Absolutely anyone should be able to learn anything in this
book. No genius required. "Newbie notes" will explain
all technical terms. "You can get punched in the nose"
and "You can go to jail" warnings will make it easy
to understand in what could get the user in trouble. Screen shots
will make everything perfectly clear.
Section I: Hacking with Windows
Happy Hacker web statistics reveal that over 95% of all viewers
use some form of Windows, and currently most of them use Windows
95 or 98. However, we also will cover Windows SE, which will
soon dominate the consumer market, as well as Windows NT and
2000, which many readers use at work.
Chapter 1: How to Warp Windows - and
Live!
This chapter reveals how to control the look and feel your
Windows desktop. Big deal, huh? Hang on --this is not about merely
using Control Panel. This chapter shows how to make hilarious,
profound changes that Microsoft doesn't want you to make. When
done with this chapter, your Windows operating system will look
totally unique. These techniques work on Windows 95, 98, SE,
NT and 2000.
The magic tool is a hex editor such as the ms-dos "edit"
command, as well as some free programs that are easier to use.
We show where to get them. This chapter makes it fun and easy
to edit your operating system so that it does what YOU want it
to do.
We show how a text editor can, with amazing results, alter
absolutely any program, without having to anything at all about
programming.
More about the Mostly Harmless
Hacking book--->>
