I'm new...

[Technologique]

I just picked up a copy of Wired (having finally found somewhere in the UK that sells the damn thing), and a little interesting piece mentioned Ruby on the Rocks. It's pretty much a program using Ruby that allows coders to work on websites easily, and was designed with Apache on the mind.

Since the Hak.5 site is in need of a re-design, this might be something to think about...?

[VaKo]

HAK5 rebooted? Could be an interesting off season compition

[Employee]

So I've been reading, I was wondeing what C++ tools would you guys suggjest?

[Employee]

Woot Woot I found my way on to Hak5's IRC so yea if you guys look for me there my name is as mine here Employee

[manuel]

Honestly, if you want to see if you can break into a school system, go up to the admin and ask if you could test his work by pen testing it with him watching over you. If you throughly explain to him what you're are doing, it can be a learning experience for both of you. You will learn that you're are capable of gaining access to a network and admin controls (and if not, then you can try other ways to get around blocks - testing your knowledge). And the admin can learn how to better secure his network from then on so that skript kiddies down the line can't take the easy way in to screw with the system.

Off topic? Yes I know.

As a sys admin of a school district, I couldn't agree with this more. Well said armadaender!

If students simply ask we will provide an opportunity for them to try whatever they want, given that we can watch and monitor everything they do. In the 6 years I have worked here, only one student actually asked, but he never showed up for the scheduled meetings. The kid was probably shocked that we said yes and wasn't prepared to follow through.

-manuel

[tabath]

Try hackthissite.org as well

[nate]

Hi guys, I am also new. I have been lurking around this forum for a while and until this post I wasn't even going to register. But I must say that you guys have helped alot! I am going to all the sites you all suggested right now and I have come up with some serious noob questions. Please excuse the noob-ness of these questions. Thanks.

1. I know HTML, CSS, Visual Basic, and very little C++ (which I am working on) and I was wondering is there any web sites that I can go to to further my knowledge of C++ and other languages like php. I say web sites because money is short so buying a book is kinda out of the question (its buying a book or buying lunch)

2. What is php? I know it sounds stupid, but I don't know what this language is used for.

3. What languages would you guys suggest that woud be good for me to learn as an aspireing haker, modder, and video game programmer?

4. (Someones gonna kill me for this one) What is a "script kiddie"? (be gentile please :? )

5. Is there a equivalent program to Photoshop that doesn't cost 3 arms and a leg?

6. This question got me kicked by some gamers. Is there such thing as a "gaming laptop"? I need a laptop and if I was able to spend an absorbant amount of money on a gaming laptop what would it be? I've looked at Alienware, Voodoo and a few others.

7. I know what encryption is, but is it hackable? And if so would it take a super computer to hack it?

8. Is "hackable" a word? :D

9. How do you guys feel about phrases like "LOL", "OMG", "LMAO" and others? And if I type one of those (being a gamer, we tend to type these alot) would I get flamed?

10. This isn't really a question as much as a plea. Please don't yell noob, noobsaur etc. at me as I have seen in some other posts. And I find people that yell things like that at people tend to have some kind of confidence problems.

Alright, thanks for your time reading my somewhat winded post. Any and all answers are welcomed thankfully.

[Shaun]

Hi guys' date=' I am also new. I have been lurking around this forum for a while and until this post I wasn't even going to register. But I must say that you guys have helped alot! I am going to all the sites you all suggested right now and I have come up with some serious noob questions. Please excuse the noob-ness of these questions. Thanks.

1. I know HTML, CSS, Visual Basic, and very little C++ (which I am working on) and I was wondering is there any web sites that I can go to to further my knowledge of C++ and other languages like php. I say web sites because money is short so buying a book is kinda out of the question (its buying a book or buying lunch)

[/quote']

If you search for C++ tutorial on Google the first thing you get is

http://www.cplusplus.com/doc/tutorial/

Which looks like a reasonable introduction

2. What is php? I know it sounds stupid' date=' but I don't know what this language is used for.

[/quote']

It's primarily used on websites for server side scripting, but it can be used for other things as well such as desktop applications with a GUI,

3. What languages would you guys suggest that woud be good for me to learn as an aspireing haker' date=' modder, and video game programmer?

[/quote']

C++ is probably your best bet for being a video games programmer. To be a hacker it depends what you want to do. Just try a few different languages such as C, java, python and see how much you like them.

4. (Someones gonna kill me for this one) What is a "script kiddie"? (be gentile please :? )

A script kiddie is a derogatory term for someone who doesn't really have any technical knowledge but just uses programs or scripts downloaded from the net to take advantage of exploits.

5. Is there a equivalent program to Photoshop that doesn't cost 3 arms and a leg?

GIMP is alright' date=' but I would say a bit harder to use and doesn't really match up to Photoshop in features yet. Unfortately there isn't really much as far as I know that is particularly cheap.

6. This question got me kicked by some gamers. Is there such thing as a "gaming laptop"? I need a laptop and if I was able to spend an absorbant amount of money on a gaming laptop what would it be? I've looked at Alienware, Voodoo and a few others.

There are some laptops designed with gaming in mind, but they won't get the performance of a proper PC built for the task. Issues like heat are a serious limiting factor in laptop deisgn which means you can't use the same level of graphics cards, etc. I don't really know much about specific brands and models of gaming laptops so I'll leave that to someone else.

7. I know what encryption is' date=' but is it hackable? And if so would it take a super computer to hack it?

[/quote']

Encryption is such a wide ranging thing that question can't really be answered so simply. There are plenty of ciphers currently around that are considered uncrackable (which means it would take so long to crack them it would be unfeasable, because the only known attack is brute forcing), but there are also plenty of weak ciphers. Often a cipher will be considered weak just because of something like a short key length, which means it will take less time to brute force. Supercomputers can make cracking faster, but really it depends on the cipher whether it makes a significant difference or not.

8. Is "hackable" a word? :D

Yes

9. How do you guys feel about phrases like "LOL"' date=' "OMG", "LMAO" and others? And if I type one of those (being a gamer, we tend to type these alot) would I get flamed?

[/quote']

I don't really use them but I don't care if someone else does.

10. This isn't really a question as much as a plea. Please don't yell noob' date=' noobsaur etc. at me as I have seen in some other posts. And I find people that yell things like that at people tend to have some kind of confidence problems.

[/quote']

Noobsaur! :P

Alright' date=' thanks for your time reading my somewhat winded post. Any and all answers are welcomed thankfully.[/quote']

NP

[melodic]

wow thats a long post. and is that nate from digital hi 5?

[cooper]

2. What is php? I know it sounds stupid, but I don't know what this language is used for.

It's primarily used on websites for server side scripting, but it can be used for other things as well such as desktop applications with a GUI,

I'm gonna expand on that just a bit if you don't mind.

PHP can be used as a general purpose scripting language, but is typically used to provide dynamic content on web servers, much like JSP and ASP.

Their website is http://www.php.net

Check out the left column on where to start, and go from there.

Also note that their function documentation is excellent.

3. What languages would you guys suggest that woud be good for me to learn as an aspireing haker, modder, and video game programmer?

C++ is probably your best bet for being a video games programmer. To be a hacker it depends what you want to do. Just try a few different languages such as C, java, python and see how much you like them.

I would've suggested C/C++ and ASM for gaming.

For hacking it helps to know the language a program is written in, and to be familiar with its peculiarities. What's smart to learn depends on what you plan on targetting. C and SQL seem reasonable. Maybe Java.

Modder is again dependant on what you plan to mod, as your mod probably needs to be the same language as the source program. In case of Quake I think it should be C.

For video game programming I once again say C and ASM, but you can probably drop the ASM. You can choose to familiarise yourself with OpenGL, SML or both. SML is an abstraction layer that will do DirectX on Windows and I think OpenGL on Linux, but just look for it and read about it. There are a TON of simple open source games written in it. It stands for Simple Media Library.

10. This isn't really a question as much as a plea. Please don't yell noob, noobsaur etc. at me as I have seen in some other posts. And I find people that yell things like that at people tend to have some kind of confidence problems.

Noobsaur! :P

Shyeah. N00b! :P

[Shaun]

Yeah, I'd just like ot point out when you say "what's the best language to learn to be a hacker?" it's kind of hard to answer. To start with hacking is such a general term with several different meanings, and really each of those meanings still have no definite answer.

[Employee]

A random question, Could anyone suggjest a way to get cheap computers? By cheap I litteraly mean 20-30$ or free. I know it sounds crazy but I have heard of it and I'm trying to get ahold of as many as possible. So even you can suggjest a place in VA that would be awesome.

[Sparda]

Ask people if they have computers they don't want or better yet, are broken...

[Duelus]

dumpster diving...

[nate]

I have found that if you find friends (obviously older than you) that work in an office building or in some kind of tech job, then they can give you old computers that the office has replaced.

Another question: How do I set up a server? Or better yet, where can I go on the net that can show me about networking?

[Darren Kitchen]

http://www.practicallynetworked.com/

http://www.tomsnetworking.com/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_networking (You can spend hours or days jumping from article to article. Good for fundamentals)

[nate]

wow thats a long post. and is that nate from digital hi 5?

nope...but i bet that nate from digital hi 5 is a sexy beast...like myself :D

[Employee]

dumpster diving...

I was thinking of that but the only problem I run into is, what dumpsters should I look in?

[Sparda]

Dumpsters out side phone exchanges?

[metatron]

Try Dumpsters:

Telephone exchanges

Computer Shops

Office buildings

Industrial estates

Hospitals

[Sparda]

There is a phone exchance in my villege (It's here), but as you can see there is no dumpster or even bins out side it :(

[jalada]

When it comes to programming languages, I started with Perl. I guess the only reason I did that was because I listened to an episode of Binary Revolution Radio about it. I shied away from C as much as possible because it just looks scary ;-), although at some point I'll have a look at it. I've also dabbled in Python, and at the moment I'm interested in Ruby on Rails, which is an extremely interesting high-level metacode language for coding Web Applications.

As far as other things...Well Wikipedia is your friend, but also take a look in a local bookstore in the IT section. Usually I find the ones that talk about hackers aren't so great for in-depth learning, its the ones that talk about network security, I swear they are more black hat than the hacker books ;-).

Watch some IPTV shows, they often help you find things you wouldn't normally have discovered (like phone phreaking on BSODtv.org), and also tech-based podcasts, which again give you information about things you wouldn't normally discover. I've said it once but Binary Revolution Radio, particularly the older episodes with their original host StankDawg, are a wealth of information, usually an hour long, about a particular subject. I used to listen to it regularly and it got me interested in a lot of things.

Reading is good.

[metatron]

There is a phone exchance in my villege (It's here), but as you can see there is no dumpster or even bins out side it :(

That sucks, it’s well worth travelling to other exchanges as you can get some very cool things, when I worked for BT I saw some of the stuff they just chuck away and it’s a shame and since then when the summer comes up I start visiting different exchanges and pick up things from lineman’s handsets to laptops all of which can be useful, even if you can pick up a BT reflective vest it can be very useful when you are out phreaking.

[cooper]

I was thinking of that but the only problem I run into is, what dumpsters should I look in?

I don't know the english word, but the place where you have to discard big stuff such as furniture (stuff that doesn't fit inside a garbage truck) and dangerous chemicals such as paint and stuff. Dutch word: Grof vuil.

When you go to these places, it's usually a big open space divided in sections for each type of item you want to get rid of. Chemicals, wood, metal, plastic, etc. One such section should be Electronics (as they tend to contain lead and possibly some other heavy and/or poisonous metals).

Normally the people who run these things don't very much approve when people take stuff away from there, but it's worth a shot.

I got some old memory for a 386 (4MB simms) out of a machine there about a year ago.

[W4RP3D]

Errrm the dump? Car boot sales and skips are your best bet, car boots you can get old machines for literally a few quid and look in industrial/business estates i live a few miles from one i bike past it on the way to school. There is pritty much always a few desent bit in them.