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I know I'm being a nitpicking a$$hole here, but if that was how the question was worded, exactly, only C would be correct. A date in 2003 or 2004 could not have already passed as indicated by the word 'was'. Sorry.

BZZZZZT! And thank you for playing! Here's your lovely parting gift.

You just fell victim to the (newly named) "Reverse Y2K syndrome".

9/11/03 = 9/11/1903 or 9/11/1803 or ...
9/11/04 = 9/11/1904 or 9/11/1804 or ...

People are not claiming the right to cheat: I have never heard anybody complain that online chess servers don't allow them to log in and remove the other guys queen while he is taking a bathroom break.

(<sarcasm> tags omitted as I'm not really sure I'm 100% joking....)

We need to start reporting him as a terrorist to the FBI. We know how pushy they can be. :) As was mentioned in the Buckeye case from last night, they'll steal^H^H^H^H^Hconfiscate all his equipment during the "investigation"...

Now, now, we don't want to encourage people to file false police reports. True reports are a different matter, of course. For instance, the Secret Service might be interested in learning about his attempts to violate computer security. That was, after all, their official reason for going after Steve Jackson Games...

Interesting, some company that I have absolutely no business relationship with (never bought anything, never registered) and whose site I just went to and searched on a book title is now going to start sending me checks.

Thanks Mr. Illuminati, this here internet thingy sure does rock!

* Sigh *

If it makes you feel any better, here's another link to the book from the publisher. In my opinion, the barnes and noble link has more info, but this link might be less offensive. If you really want my bookstore marketing plug, I say buy the book at one of these locations and help keep independent booksellers alive. Regardless of your interesting take on my motives, it really is a fantastic book and is worth a look.

You may also obtain slack via Chez Geek, an excellent game from Steve Jackson.

It's nice to see how well your tax dollars are at work,
as others have commented.

It's probably important to point out however, that is this by no
means the SS's first foray into matters having very little to do with
what we traditionally expect of them, nor into so-called "cyberspace."

Look here
for the article entitled "STEVE JACKSON GAMES WINS LAWSUIT AGAINST
U.S. SECRET SERVICE" on the Electronic
Frontier Foundation's Legal
Cases archive.

Alternatively, look at the summary
on the Steve Jackson Games site itself, where the answer to "Why was
SJ games raided?" is answered... "guilt by remote association".

How many of us know someone who would also fall under the "guilt
by remote association" blanket? (Have you watched the evening news
recently?)

Perhaps the moral is: Beware of men with dark clothes and sunglasses
eating commercial potato chips these days. (Their initials may be more
than just coincidental, eh?)

The only up side to this that I can see is that this incident led to
the creation of the
EFF itself.

Ahoy! 'Tis talk like a pirate day!

Yeah, but GURPS uses too much algebra.

Any advantage an anti-tank system gains over tanks is to a large extent transitory, lasting only until tank design or operational theory can be changed.

Whatever form the defensive system may take, as missile technology advances, so does anti-missile.

The limiting factor on anti-tank warheads normally is not the effectiveness of the warhead, but the difficulties in getting the warhead to the target. The missile or aircraft delivering the warhead can be jammed, shot down, etc., and if you are firing it from a gun, you will have to have something about the size of a tank to carry it anyway.

Current research on high energy laser weapons centers around the rocket pumped laser. The rocket exhaust supplies both the energy and cooling for the laser. If this laser system develops as expected, it could provide an effective tank weapon. The weapon would be heavy but the 120mm high velocity gun and shock-absorbing mounting on tanks today are in the weight area of two tons already. Will the laser become the tank's major weapon? Quite possibly, but only time will tell.

Where was all this stuff when I was playing Killer? =)

If you haven't already run across it, Munchkin is a card game that contains a Gazebo monster. The game's pretty good for a laugh.

The raid on Steve Jackson Games was for the GURPS Cyberpunk supplement, written by Lloyd Blankenship (and a first-printing autographed copy sits proudly in my collection). It is now out of print.

The raid on Steve Jackson Games was for the GURPS Cyberpunk supplement, written by Lloyd Blankenship (and a first-printing autographed copy sits proudly in my collection). It is now out of print.

... too many (*$#^@^# different dice! That's why Steve Jackson gave us GURPS ;-) Incidentally, these were the folks that got raided a while back for their BlackOps supplement...

Pray you never find out the hard way.

Have you ever played Knightmare Chess? It is basically the game you describe.

Am I the only one who sees OGRE and thinks of giant tanks?

Heh. The first thing I thought of when I read the headline was the Ogre wargame from Steve Jackson. Just showing my age, I guess.

My Curiousity is this: What's the big news? Other gaming systems have been doing this for years. So, now that D&D gets the publicity, it's a big deal?

I certainly agree with the strategy. GM's/DM's/Storyteller's and PC's should all have a choice in the material that they play and the world they play in. That is part of the allure of Roleplaying. Plus, there are a lot of creative people out there that can really contribute that otherwise would never be able to.

Seeing Wizards of the Coast suddenly opening up to players is very refreshing. I really hope this attitude continues.

It's actually even worse than that. There's a card game called Munchkin that plays on typical D&D antics (one of the cards is "Whine at the GM - go up one level"), and one of the monsters you can fight is the dreaded Gazebo, which includes the notation: "No one can help you. You must face the Gazebo alone."

An online version of either Illuminati or INWO would be nice, but I'm thinking that someone needs to organize a game at the next LinuxWorld or something. (And yes, I realize that Alan won't be attending any US-based conferences.)

An online version of either Illuminati or INWO would be nice, but I'm thinking that someone needs to organize a game at the next LinuxWorld or something. (And yes, I realize that Alan won't be attending any US-based conferences.)

Yes, I do see him playing the UFOs (and, if he's playing Illuminati: New World Order, with a Science/Space/Computer themed deck).

Illuminati rocks! Now if someone would only make an online computer version...

Yes, I do see him playing the UFOs (and, if he's playing Illuminati: New World Order, with a Science/Space/Computer themed deck).

Illuminati rocks! Now if someone would only make an online computer version...

I believe he is referring to this game by Steve Jackson games ..

fnord

Yeah, in my case, the problem was that when we played D&D (the original =) was that I didn't have that many friends to play with, and now that each of us has moved to different towns, I suppose we won't be playing anymore - I don't even know how these people are doing these days =)

These days, I like GURPS - but I don't have locals to play with (I suppose I should see what the RPG club of the university is doing =) I have played GURPS a couple of times over E-mail and IRC, it seemed to be nice enough. Some day, I'll try GURPS Myth, with Myth II to e-roleplay the massive combat situations =)

And yes, I'm really waiting for NWN, and will try the editing tools next time I reboot to 'doze =)

Fine, don't give out your number. How does this help against telemarketers who use wardialing machines? Yes, they're illegal. So are junk faxes and the use of automatic dialers/recorded telemarketing pitches. I don't see any let up in any of those practices, despite the law. Face it, without active enforcement by the FCC/phone companies, you're pretty much at the mercy of unscrupulous spammers everywhere.

It's like the Spammer card in Illuminati - No power, making it impossible to destroy them - they're too diffuse.

Fine, don't give out your number. How does this help against telemarketers who use wardialing machines? Yes, they're illegal. So are junk faxes and the use of automatic dialers/recorded telemarketing pitches. I don't see any let up in any of those practices, despite the law. Face it, without active enforcement by the FCC/phone companies, you're pretty much at the mercy of unscrupulous spammers everywhere.

It's like the Spammer card in Illuminati - No power, making it impossible to destroy them - they're too diffuse.

BZZZT! And thank you for playing! Here's your lovely parting gift.

Yes, the more massive object will hit with more FORCE, but the accelleration (and hence the velocity upon impact) will be the same for both objects.

You probably mean Murphy's Rules, illustrated by John Kovalic.

Perhaps you're looking for Murphy's Rules, published by SJG in Pyramid magazine and later compiled into a book format.

"The judge's official decision was announced on March 12, 1993. District Judge Sam Sparks awarded more than $50,000 in damages to Steve Jackson Games, citing lost profits and violations of the PPA. In addition, the judge awarded each BBS- user plaintiff $1,000 under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act for the USSS seizure of their stored electronic mail. The judge also ruled that plaintiffs would be reimbursed for their attorneys' fees."

The success of all of these genres brings us ever so much closer to the day when we'll have real Car Wars style autoduels. I still play Car Wars regularly after 20 years, and it never grows old.

My only regret is that I can't mount even a paintball cannon to my Fnord Escort and take it out on the 210 freeway... much less a pair of 30mm Aden cannon.

What I look for in my games nowdays is the element of outside interference - items not in the control of either player (or any player, in the case of MP games). That's where the real creativity and brilliance comes in - the capability and flexibility to cope with situations which could not be reasonably forseen (though adept planning will make coping much easier).

Might I suggest Knighmare Chess by Steve Jackson Games.

What I look for in my games nowdays is the element of outside interference - items not in the control of either player (or any player, in the case of MP games). That's where the real creativity and brilliance comes in - the capability and flexibility to cope with situations which could not be reasonably forseen (though adept planning will make coping much easier).

Might I suggest Knighmare Chess by Steve Jackson Games.

After reading the link for this story, I was amused to see that things really haven't changed in a number of places. Management doesn't worry about Web site security until it hits them where it hurts, their liability insurance premium, or when the executives spend some time in the cooler.

The majority of defacements I've seen described involve little more than vandelism, electronic tagging by lower lifeforms of script kiddies, that do very little harm to the company whose site is defaced. You "wash the walls" and go on. End of story.

Except that it isn't the end of the story.

What happens when the defacer decides to use your Web site to store a couple hundred cracked credit card numbers? How about the 600 MB of MP3s of copyrighted music material that appears in its own directory of your Web server? The kiddie porn? Can you imagine what would happen if a terrorist cookbook were to be uploaded to your site, given today's paranoia caused by the November 11 terrorist attack?

IANAL, but I recall the Mogur-BBS debacle when a BBS system was used to traffic in telephone calling card numbers. Some facts are missing from the account the link points to, but it's sufficiently accurate to be useful. Here is another account of the incident. Here is a more thoughtful retrospective and analysis.

Shall I bring up the episode of Steve Jackson Games as an indication of the kind of risk that operators of public computer systems face when security is not a primary concern? Steve Jackson Games is apparently alive and well (and probably mad as hell about being mentioned in a Slashdot article) so the news isn't all bad, but the six months they were effectively out of business -- the publishing business -- must have hurt and hurt badly. Granted, the Secret Service has learned much since that 1990 fiasco, but can you imagine the long arm, and the long flatbed truck, coming and taking your computer systems because of the acts of some malicious script kiddie who does more than tagging?

Can your company afford to have its Web servers siezed and perhaps damaged because of the illegal acts of non-employees?

What you can do: tell your manager to contact your company's general legal counsel and request they research the legal liability, and the practical effects of law enforcement action, resulting from illegal acts committeed on public servers that have inadequate security controls. Emphasize that the research include short-term effects such as equipment seizure and forceable removal, damage inflicted during such action, and the expense of obtaining the timely return of the equipment.

If you run an e-commerce site, also be sure to ask about legal exposure in the event any web server containing crdit card records, customer information records, order histories, or credit search information is compromised and the information released to unauthorized people.

Steve Jackson Games was almost put out of business based on a bogus rumor. How would your company survive the legal onslaught from a script kiddie interested in more than just defacement?

Seriously, any commercial game that promoted itself as helping you develop "real-world" cracking or industrial espionage skills would first be sued from here to the 5th Ring of Hell, then promptly banned from here to the 7th Ring.

Like Ratbert42, I'm assuming that you mean you want references for the security aspects of hacking. Hacking is a wide open term, but as for hacking security, the above give an excellent overview (except the wretched Takedown, which is a very sensationalized account).

Thanks for the tips. What I'm seeing on the literary side are works of specific incidents. While helpful greatly for this talk I'm concerned that there isn't a work on just say the hacks of the 1980s. Pickup a HS history book and there are chapters for decades and centuries and there are many books on the specific incidents in the students' library. Obviously a person reading the generalized book might get insprired to read deeper into particular subjects and that's where the topical books come in handy, but for the subject of hacking I can't name a title that does the job of "over view without being silly." Certainly there will be issues of "why was this left out?" and conversely "why was that put in?" for any historical work but wouldn't a book that spans differing flavors in a general sense and gets the facts straight be beneficial to a class discussing computer security, social sciences, or even just plain history of technology?

If you want a look from the "other side", you can purcahce all 17 years of back issues of 2600 Magazine for $300. I would also seriously suggest walking down to your local 2600 meeting. It's *very* touch and go as to whether or not you'll meet anyone decent, but I've heard that the New York City meeting is generally very nice. emmanuel, the editor of 2600, is very approachable, and makes for a very literate interview, and hate him or love him, he was there for many of the key points of security hacker history.

As for 2600 meetings they are anything but within walking distance and plans are afoot to start a local one, thanks for thinking about it however. I have met Emmanuel and I have seen the spark behind the eyes that you have hinted at, "as I spoke to him I got the impression there is definately something there with that man" and he has been very helpful to me already on this and other projects. But he is just like a specific book - he knows a great deal about this or that and can put things into his own spin, he is however more approaching the general knowledge base that I think I feel the world is lacking. Unfortunitly Emmanuel doesn't come in paper back form and doesn't have an ISBN number or card catalog entry for all those in the globe to "read."

Check out Steve Jackson (of the publishing company Steve Jackson Games) for an interesting perspective of what happens when a "hacker crackdown" goes wrong. It's all detailed in the book "Hacker Crackdown", but I've always found that going to the source can elicit some interesting quotes... and the ability to say in a presentation "as I spoke to him, I got the impression".

I haven't dealt with Mr. Jackson, but I have poked at the website and I saw the feedback page - do you have a more direct email address to suggest?

Thanks again for the info...

My group just started playing some games from Steve Jackson Games.
Our favorites are Munchkin, and Chez Geek. I haven't tried it yet, but Hacker is supposed to be really cool as well.

Finally Settlers of Catan from Mayfair Games is a really neat game for 4 players.
I played this past weekend, and can't wait to play again!

For under $10, there's a few Cheapass games that are a ton of fun with the right crowd. Give Me The Brain, Deadwood, and Ben Hurt are good. We also dig Ebola Monkey Hunt from Placebo Press. Both can be had for ~$7.

Did I mention including the beverage of choice?

military tribunals for immigrants

though nearly all liberal congressmen voted to pass it.

BZZZT! And thank you for playing. Here's your lovely parting gift.

The military tribunals thing was an EXECUTIVE ORDER, not part of the USA/PATRIOT act. Therefore it belongs to Bush and only Bush.

I myself am working on software for Traveller. Called travtrack, it is in the middling stages. It's very cool, using gtk+ and glib for data structures, classes, inheritance &c. and guile for its scripting language. Ideally, I'd like it to someday be the emacs of interstellar science-fiction RPGs.

Right now it's surprisingly far along, and is doing fairly well on the SourceForge ratings. It's just me working on it, but I'm hoping that once I get release 1.0 of both travtrack (the actual galaxy-tracking software) and travlib (the library which implements Traveller objects) more developers will pitch in.

Traveller's very, very far from dead.

I myself am working on software for Traveller. Called travtrack, it is in the middling stages. It's very cool, using gtk+ and glib for data structures, classes, inheritance &c. and guile for its scripting language. Ideally, I'd like it to someday be the emacs of interstellar science-fiction RPGs.

Right now it's surprisingly far along, and is doing fairly well on the SourceForge ratings. It's just me working on it, but I'm hoping that once I get release 1.0 of both travtrack (the actual galaxy-tracking software) and travlib (the library which implements Traveller objects) more developers will pitch in.

Traveller's very, very far from dead.

They got in trouble for being a monopoly.

BZZZT! And thank you for playing! Here's your lovely parting gift.

MS did not get in trouble for being a monopoly -- that's perfectly legal. They got in trouble for abuse of said monopoly... using their monopoly in the OS space to obtain a second monopoly.

True, or not?

[1] I'm working on travtrack and travlib. Travtrack is a programme to manipulate a Traveller universe. Travlib is a library of functions and classes (using C/gtk+) which represent a Traveller universe. Traveller was a great old science-fiction game from the 70s which has been given a new lease on life with GURPS Traveller from Steve Jackson Games.

[1] I'm working on travtrack and travlib. Travtrack is a programme to manipulate a Traveller universe. Travlib is a library of functions and classes (using C/gtk+) which represent a Traveller universe. Traveller was a great old science-fiction game from the 70s which has been given a new lease on life with GURPS Traveller from Steve Jackson Games.

BZZZT! And thank you for playing! Here's your lovely parting gift.

Ashcroft was running for Gov. of Missouri, and lost to a corpse.

This happens with suspected "hackers" all the time as well. In fact, up until a few years ago, prosecuting hacking and computer crimes was a pain in law enforcement's butt. It was too dry and they couldn't get an angle on it in most cases that would engage the jury (and sometimes they succeed with only limited results). Instead it was a lot easier to confiscate all their equipment and scare the hell out of them (see Sterlings book, The Hacker Crackdown). They didn't just pull this trick on teenagers, either. They went after an odd, but respectable, game maker as well. Check here for Steve Jackson's account of the mess and here for Bruce Sterling's.

This seems like the most underhanded and rights trampling kind of things that they can do... but it is totally legal. Ugh!