HIR Issue 10: The Official HiR FAQ - Version 0
- 0x00. Introduction/Thesis
- 0x01. How Did HiR Start?
- 0x02. Who are/were the HiR members?
- 0x03. What do HiR members do?
- 0x04. I Want to be an HiR member! How can I do this?
- 0x05. What all does an article go through before being published?
- 0x06. General Article Information.
- 0x07. What about distributing & copying HiR Articles?
- 0x08. What's with the "Affiliates"?
- 0x09. How popular is HiR?
- 0x0A. Where can HiR Be Found?
- 0x0B. Is there a mailing list to announce new Issues?
0x00. Introduction/Thesis
This is just a general FAQ about the HiR Crew and the events that formed what HiR has become today. This is being put together almost soley from the Editor's (Axon's) point of view. This FAQ is being created so that our readers and the general public can know exactly who we are (to an extent), and what it is that we actually do.
For a lot of our readers, this will probably clear up some misconceptions that are usually assumed on their part. We also feel that it is good for the people to know what goes into a group such as ours. This is not going to be a hacking FAQ. If you want that kind of information, read our articles, and read all sorts of other stuff. This is for those who want to know our background, and how things all got started...
0x01. How Did HiR Start?
HiR (Hackers Information Resource, as it was originally called) was started in May of 1997. It was written entirely by Axon. Most of the writing took place on a road trip. The entire issue was assembled on Axon's laptop at the time. He created HiR as almost an "apology" of sorts. For the previous 2 years, Axon had been a system cracker who had taken what he had learned and used it to benefit himself alone. He was learning, but he was not sharing much of his knowledge with the outside world. He teamed up with several other system crackers, and would often help them do things hat weren't very nice. It was a thrill, at the time. It was also very, very stupid. After several of Axon's system cracker buddies got busted, he felt the heat and danger. It was just enough to scare him into "being good". Axon felt that he owed his part to the true computer underground: The ones who strive for knowledge and understanding, not the greedy people that want power to destroy other people's things. So he wrote... and wrote... and came out with HiR Issue #1. Halfway through HiR 1 Axon decided that "Hackers Information Report" would sound better, and so it was changed to that instead, but keeping the HiR initials. Axon's main purpose for creating HiR was to share information, but he also knew that having to write articles would force him to pick up new things to write about, and thus, pick up new skills.
0x02. Who are/were the HiR Members?
After the release of HiR 1, a handle-juggling fellow who called himself tgsnoop (or kminor), decided to join up. He put together some interesting stuff here and there, but some of his writing topics were getting into the dark areas we didn't want to get into. He was also having other problems by the time HiR 4 came out. Also, right before HiR 2 was released, we accepted another writer: Dr. Freeze. Dr. Freeze wrote 3 pretty nice rough cuts that could have been turned into decent articles in a short matter of time, but his computer was destroyed. We lost him for a few months, and we had no clue what had happened. Both tgsnoop and Dr. Freeze were dormant for a few issues and they were dropped.
When HiR 3 came around, we acquired another writer, Asmodian X, who was a good friend of tgsnoop, and also was in an Information Technology class with Axon. He saw Axon writing an HiR article on his laptop before class, and approached Axon, saying he knew someone who wrote in HiR. Confused, I told him "yah, you're looking at him.", and he said "which one are you?". "Axon" I replied, and we talked. It was only a matter of time, and Asmodian X was writing some juicy bits for HiR, as well as helping Axon take care of the Distro Site.
The Man In Black is a long-time, very close friend of Axon's, and is not really into hacking in the sense of the word. He does provide a well-kept-up mirror of the site back in New Mexico, while he's at school. The mirror goes down when he comes back to the midwest with his computer.
In HiR 6, we had another writer, Frogman. Frogman was an aquaitance of Axon's for quite some time, as they frequented some of the same local BBS's in town. At a 2600 meeting one time, Frogman was there, and got to talking with Axon & Asmodian X, and told us about some cool cryptography books he was reading. His articles have carried a mostly mathematical and cryptography-based topic.
With the release of HiR 9, another writer was introduced to the world. Ixl joined HiR, and is thousands of miles away from the rest of the HiR Crowd. He's situated somewhere in Canada. Ixl went through the typical phase of playing with Windows and the like, and graduated to FreeBSD and Linux quite a while ago. Ixl's hoping to not only learn more from writing for HiR, but to help teach others what he picks up along the way.
Member Membership Span
---------- ----------------
Axon HiR #1 - Present
tgsnoop HiR #2 - HiR #6
Dr. Freeze HiR #2 - HiR #6
Asmodian X HiR #3 - Present
TMIB HiR #4 - Present
Frogman HiR #6 - Present
Ixl HiR #9 - Present
0x03. What Do HiR Members Do?
HiR Members, for the most part, function all on their own. Each one of us learns stuff our own way, and we use it in our own ways. We have our own writing styles, and that's about it. A Common misconception about the HiR Crew is that we are an active "hacking group" and that is totally wrong. We are basically just journalists. Not once have all the HiR Members gotten together to "go hack something", and we probably never will, either. I know of two times that 2 HiR members worked together on a hack, and it wasn't the same 2 both times. Axon's mother is an English instructor, so he's picked up some halfway decent writing and editing skills. All HiR articles are usually read and fixed up by Axon before hitting the shelf. Major changes that need to be done are referred back to the author. In short: HiR Members just write HiR Articles. Each one of them has their own past times and hobbies.
0x04. I want to be an HiR Member! How can I do this?
Easy. If you're knowledgeable about things in the Hack/Phreak scene, and a good writer, then send us some of your writings. We'll determine if we need that kind of material, and if we approve, then you're a member! You can't hack stuff in our name, or anything of the sort. You're just a journalist, remember? The HiR Crew is very proud of their ethical standpoint, however. We only publish articles about hacking and phreaking, and we really strive to keep the published material as ethical as possible. We explain systems, not how to break into them. Examples of article titles we would publish: "A Closer Look at NTFS"; "Crossbar Switching, up close and personal"; "The inner workings of sendmail" and "examining your system for exploits: is YOUR box secure?" Things you would NOT see in HiR: "H0w t3w h4x0r w00t 1n t3n 34zy st3pz"; "Using Teardrop to nuke a class C"; "Mercury Fulminate: The explosive of champions" or "Obtaining lots of credit card numbers". If you want to write for us, make sure the article is educational. If the reader is a real hacker, and they want to use your information for evil things, they will find it out all on their own after putting some thought into your article. You don't need to feed the 12-year-old "I wanna hack" rebel script kiddies. Note: I know some *REALLY* Good hackers that are 11-14, not all 12-year-old "hackers" are script kiddies, but a lot of 'em are...
0x05. What All does an article go through before being published?
All HiR Members have accounts on the web server that runs the main HiR Distro site. HiR Writers e-mail the other HiR members with what they plan on writing on, and usually get some sort of opinion from the group, or a few people on the group. When they write the articles, they pretty much do most of the work on their articles on their own computers, and upload them to a directory where the Editor can read them. Usually if they need to be touched up, through secure shell, they edit it on the web server machine. The Editor then checks the work, and touches up any minor typos he sees. After re-numbering the articles, The Editor creates the ToC file. Different HiR members send in things for HiR Hacker Newz and HiR Informative Resources. Axon & Asmodian X throw together the web work for the new release, including the new HiR Graphic for the new release (Axon and Asmo take turns creating these).
0x06. General Article Information
HiR Articles are supposed to be no wider than 78 columns, and is distributed in text-only format. This is to accomodate all types of file viewers. (78 column limitation is for MS-DOS EDIT). Older HiR Articles were basically written totally in MS-DOS EDIT, and are in MS-DOS's native CR+LF Text format. The more recent ones have been written mostly on some sort of UNIX platform, and are in CR Format. If you use the DOS print command on some of the newer articles, it will stair-step the text, which is annoying. If you print it from MS-DOS Edit, Microsoft Notepad, or a few other Dos/Win editors, this will be fixed. Also, running "UNIX2DOS.EXE" on the text files changes them to CR+LF format. Netscape on the UNIX/Mac/Windows platforms prints the articles just fine, and so does Internet Explorer on all available platforms. Anyone who is using UNIX (or a derivative) should be able to print via "lpr" without any problems, so long as the printer is configured properly. HiR Authors are required to put their handle on any of their work, and they are strongly urged to place "HiR" in some way, shape, or form in the article.
0x07 What about distributing and copying HiR?
HiR Articles ARE Copyrighted material, but due to our beliefs, you are free to distribute it at no cost to the recipients in whole electronic form, or as one un-modified article. If you wish to reference an article of ours, say for an essay, use the same process you would use for any magazine. We have no problem with other people using our information, just give credit to the article's author where it is due. We would rather you not place HiR content in your own E-Zine. Place links to our site, or something, and recommend reading the article. The Editor of an E-Zine published in Brazil (Brazil's main language is Portuguese) wanted to know if he could translate some of our articles and place them in his freely-available E-Zine. Because he asked, we allowed him to do so, while giving HiR and the Authors of the Articles credit. This is about the only way we will let HiR be placed in another Zine, as the content will be able to reach across a language barrier in this manner. If you have any doubts that we would approve of how you are copying HiR, contact our E-Mail account (H_i_R@Hotmail.com), and we'll talk. Basically, if you post an unmodified article, or a whole HiR Issue, you're going to be safe, as the author's name is in it, and usually so is "HiR", somewhere, as well. We would hate to see what would happen to someone that tried to pass off our hard-written words as their own.
Hard-Copy distribution:
As far as distributing hard-copies of HiR, you really must contact us. If distributing one of our articles hard-copy, we require you to distribute all articles in that issue as well, in the original order, with credit given to the HiR Crew (credit to individual writers is already at the beginning of each article). Depending on if the hard-copies will be distributed (especially for a fee), we may, at our option, deny you the right to distribute our material, or request royalties. Printing a copy out for yourself for archival purposes or to take with you to sociology class to read while the teacher drones on and on and on,.. You can do that without permission. That's fine. =]
0x08. What's with the "Affiliates"?
HiR is affiliated with a few pretty good sites. Hacker News Network and Packet Storm Security are the 2 heavy hitters. These 2 news sites are devoted completely to NEW hacking information, and hacking/network related programs. The guys at HNN constantly weed through newsfeeds and web sites, looking for news that's pertinent to hacking, and all the guys at Packet Storm sift through massive amounts of hot-off-the-press files and programs for almost all platforms. We have a mild affiliation with Hack Factor X. HiR Forms affiliations with groups or websites that uphold similar ethics and virtues as we do. With the news sites that we are affiliated with, we give back a tiny piece by giving them someting to post on their site every 2 or 3 months. =] Packet Storm Security also mirrors just the E-Zine text files that we produce.
0x09. How popular is HiR?
HiR really started to pick up a massive reader base with the affiliation of the Hacker News Network (http://www.hackernews.com), who have been more than kind to our needs. Before the affiliation, HiR was a fairly small-spread Zine, mostly found on some BBS's, and not very many people knew about us. Later, we also joined up with Packet Storm Security (http://packetstorm.securify.com), which also increased readers by quite a bit. Typically, the main HiR Distro Site alone gets around 2000 hits per week. While this isn't much, it's a lot more than we used to get. Within the first week of HiR 9's release, we got over 20,000 web hits. With each release we seem to get a few more hits per week average, and the first week or 2 after a new Issue is just phenomenal. We really wouldn't be where we are today if places like Hacker News Network and Packet Storm Security weren't around.
0x0A. Where can HiR be Found?
HiR's current main distro site is currently at:
--> http://hir.chewies.net <--
This URL has changed many times, and it's subject to change again. This distro site contains all sorts of stuff other than the 'Zine, as well. We have a library of cool Windows 95/98/NT and UNIX/Linux programs. These programs are usually kept up to date, but not always. If you cannot find our new URL (for instance if we had to abandon that server for some reason or another), then check out our "HNN Affiliate link" at hackernews.com.
Other places you can find HiR:
Official Southwestern U.S. Distro Site Mirror:
--> http://azure.rcn.nmt.edu:2007/hir/ <--
This site is up only when The Man in Black is away at school. Usually it's down in the summer. This site tries to be an exact replica of the HiR Distro Site.
Packet Storm Security
--> http://packetstorm.securify.com <--
You'll need to search for "HiR" or E-Zine to find us, because they don't let you type in the whole URL, you have to link direct from their site. This is to prevent bandwidth theft, so you can't just link directly to images or files on their box.
0x0B. Is there a mailing list to announce new Issues?
Although it's crossed our minds a few times, none of us can justify maintaining a mailing list. We're just not popular enough to need one. We believe that our readers probably keep up on the news sites, and Packet Storm + Hacker News Network publish release announcements for us. Visit the HiR Distro Site often. If you don't find a new Issue of HiR, you'll probably find several new files every week or 2.
