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... e the same basic idea of letting you navigate through relatively
simple English commands.
When you connect to a MUD, choose your password as carefully as
you would one for your host system; alas, there are MUD crackers who
enjoy trying to break into other people's MUD accounts. And never, cambridgeshire website design
never use the same password as the one you use on your host system!
MUDs can prove highly addicting. cambridgeshire website design "The jury is still out on
whether MUDding is 'just a game' or 'an extension of real life with
gamelike qualities'," says Jennifer Smith, an active MUD player who
wrote an FAQ on the subject.
She adds one caution: "You shouldn't do anything that you
wouldn't do in real life, even if the world is a fantasy world.
The
important thing to remember is that it's the fantasy world of possibly
hundreds of people, and not just yours in particular. There's a
human being on the other cambridgeshire website design side of each and every wire! Always remember
that you may meet these other people some day, and they may break
your nose. People who treat others badly gradually build up bad
reputations and eventually receive the NO FUN Stamp of Disapproval."
11.6 GO, GO, GO (AND CHESS, TOO)!
Fancy a good game of go or chess? You no longer have to head for
the nearest park with a board in hand. The Internet has a couple of
machines cambridgeshire website design that let you engage people from around the world in your
favorite board games. Or, if you prefer, you can watch matches in
progress.
To play go,
telnet hellspark.wharton.upenn.edu 6969
log on as: guest
You'll find prompts to various online help files to get you started.
For a chess match,
telnet news.panix.com 5000
log on as: guest
You'll find prompts for online help files on the system, which cambridgeshire website design lets you
choose your skill level.
11.7 THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN
All is not fun and games on the Net. Like any community, the Net
has its share of obnoxious characters who seem to exist only to make
your life miserable design website (you've already met some of them in chapter 4).
There are people who seem to spend a bit more time on the Net than many
would find healthy. It also has its criminals. Clifford Stoll writes in
"The Cuckoo's Egg" how he tracked a team of German hackers who were
breaking into U.S. computers and selling the information they found to
the Soviets. Robert Morris, a Cornell University student, was convicted
of unleashing a "worm" program that effectively disabled several thousand
computers connected to the Internet.
Of more immediate concern to the average Net user are crackers
who seek to find other's passwords to break into Net systems and people cambridgeshire website design
who infect programs on ftp sites with viruses.
There is a widely available program known as "Crack" that can
decipher user passwords composed of words that might be found in a
dictionary (this is why you shouldn't use such passwords). Short of
that, there are the annoying types who take a special thrill in trying to
make you miserable. The best advice in dealing with them is to count to
10 and then ignore them -- like juveniles everywhere, most of their fun
comes in seeing how upset you can get.
Meanwhile, two Cornell University students pleaded guilty in 1992 to
uploading virus-infected Macintosh programs to ftp sites. If you plan
to try out large amounts of software from ftp sites, it might be wise to
download or buy a good anti-viral program.
But can law enforcement go too far in seeking out the criminals?
The Electronic Frontier Foundation was founded in large part in
response to a series of government raids against an alleged gang of
hackers.
The raids resulted in the near bankruptcy of one game
company never alleged to have had anything to do with the hackers,
when the government seized its computers and refused to give them
back. The case against another alleged participant collapsed in court
when his attorney showed the "proprietary" website design ellicott and supposedly hacked
information he printed in an electronic newsletter was actually
available via an 800 number for about $13 -- from the phone company
from which that data was taken.
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