Model Railroad... Hackers??

[Puddlejumper]

Found this interesting... Model Railroaders were the first hackers?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tech_Model_Railroad_Club

Dave

[MountainMan]

Typical Wikipedia inaccuracies. "Hacking" is actually an ancient term originally used by swordsmen to denote forceful removal of body parts using an edged weapon.

If we take a simple look at the state of computers in the early 60's, we immediately realize that "hacking" as it has come to be defined vis''a'vis illegally accessing computer systems could not have existed.

[Sumpter250]

"Hacking", as defined by Naval service, is "dealing with the situation".....those who couldn't handle the situation were called "non-hackers".....it had nothing to do with "computers". :mrgreen:

[eightyeightfan1]

I'm not a hacker model railroader...I do " precision slices"...with ragged cuts.

[Ralph]

I don't know about the hacker information but all of the photos I've seen of that layout have always impressed me!

Ralph

[nachoman]

Closer to the source:

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[Bigsteel]

hacking in the 60's ? interesting.... .great layout though --josh

[Sumpter250]

" precision slices"...with ragged cuts.

I have to admit, that's far more elegant than "slicing the pie with a chain saw". a term I have used for several of my kitbashes. :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

[MountainMan]

Apparently, these guys are confused about their identities. They chose to announce themselves as "the first hackers" to a world in which that term has been defined as "computer criminal".

What they most likely meant was that they were among the early model railroad "bashers", as in "kit bashing", although they can lay no claim to being first in that arena, either. Kit bashing has existed since the first kits came out.

[ngauger]

Unreal!!!! - I've "texted' to one of them - back in 80 - 82 when I had a TRS-80 - running Fido-net.. a very-very basic chat room.. I only know that he was working on the layout and computer controlling it somehow..

I think he was on the Signals and Power subcommittee, because a bunch of Radio Shack employees were providing problem solving ideas and all my friends at that time were from either Heathkit or R-S so I was on at the same time...

Interesting that the main "Hacking" they did was to just gain access to use the computer when they weren't supposed to, not to "strategically remove " information..

I have never seen pics of the original layout, just heard about it and the "very technical" ideas they had that were mostly over my head beck then LOL

One story I have about Fido-net is that

we were always online late at night - sometimes till 3 am eastern time. My mother got the phone bill one month and went nuts... I mentioned it online to the other guys and one of the "crowd" asked us to all post our phone numbers...

Remember - this was 1981..... so - the next month the phone bill comes in and it's back to normal, even though we were online just as much

The other users reported the same results.... this lasted for about 18 months, until we all went our separate ways and stopped chatting so much

[Running Bear]

Unreal!!!! - I've "texted' to one of them - back in 80 - 82 when I had a TRS-80 -

Hey, I had one of those trash-80's too. They were pretty common back then. I ditched mine and picked up a Tandy 1000 SX with a 30 mb hard drive and 640k RAM. Not a bad system for the time.

[ngauger]

Hey, I had one of those trash-80's too. They were pretty common back then. I ditched mine and picked up a Tandy 1000 SX with a 30 mb hard drive and 640k RAM. Not a bad system for the time.

And I was thrilled when i got the Commodore 64 - as in 64 K of memory.. Fastest thing on the planet for consumer use.

[Boomer]

I still have a TRS-80 in my parents' basement. I am preserving it for some reason?

As far as 'hackers'- they've been around longer than the term.

[eightyeightfan1]

Here some Pre-Internet terms for "hackers".

A heavy smoker
A bad car mechanic
Lumberjack
Meat cutter or butcher(another word for hacker?)

[sgtcarl1]

Once upon a time, a "friend" gave me a numerical sequence to use before dialing a long distance call. It was supposed to enable you to call long distance, without any charges. It even worked on payphones. Well, I used it until it no longer worked. Probably about two or three months. I guess that makes me a "hacker." (I was told that the number was actually a "security number" that was used by the CIA.)