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By Root 490 0

they could not be expected to enter the parcel's info into the system if they were not getting paid for that. Fair enough, except that they do enter the parcel's info into the system in order to send it back to the sender. Even better: this only happens when the parcel reaches the area's post office. Yes, the parcel goes to Rio, then they pass it along, knowing that the parcel will not be delivered, and it is passed along to another five post offices, every time to a smaller one, only to be returned when it reaches the final post office. And then it makes its way back through those offices and to the sender.

Seriously, they are wasting quite a bit of money just because they are too thick to send me a note asking me to pay whatever they believe would be fair. So, that's it. As far as I know, no one in Brazil has been able to receive any magazines from the U.S., nor any other parcel shipped by first class mail. That is very unfortunate for me, since I have renewed my 2600 subscription for another three years and have only been able to get the first edition.

What I've found out is that express mail still works, but it costs about three times as much. The other option is to put a stamp on the envelope, just as if it were a regular letter. This costs about one ninth of what first class does, takes just as long to reach its destination, and is actually delivered.

Ian

This story from Brazil is worthy of being in the movie of the same name.

Dear 2600:

I've been a hacker for a while. I really don't know when you go from being a kid messing around on the computer to a hacker. Anyway, I was on a trip recently to Utah and the plane that I flew on had Wi-Fi. So I went onto my laptop and joined the Wi-Fi that was available. It turned out that I had to pay for it. I noticed that the URL started with https so, just to see what would happen, I typed in https://www.google.com and it worked! I could browse without paying.

I love the magazine and if you ever find yourself on a plane with Wi-Fi, try that trick out. (The plane used gogoinflight - I don’t know if it works with every service.)

Dead Rabbit

Dear 2600:

I find that my perspective is often shifted and sometimes the world I see is stood upon its head.

Several months ago, I received an email from an old girlfriend who I haven't spoken to in five years. We broke it off oddly and a wedge of silence had been driven between us for this time. So when I received this message, I attempted to chase the link out of curiosity, but it didn't work.

So I sent a message. I said, "So I received your message, but I couldn't open it. What's up?" She sent me a message back. Apparently, she had no idea that such a message was sent. But she started to make small talk with me again, which was nice.

Then I started getting a ton of these other messages and we figured out that it was some kind of email virus. So an email virus reunited me with an old friend and lover. Nice. What an awesome concept! Thanks to whoever wrote that one. I owe ya, buddy! I don't know why I didn't think of this a long time ago!

Jimmy

And so we discover the true nature of computer worms - to reach out and bring people back together. This could be a good defense for anyone who gets prosecuted for spreading one of these in the future.

Dear 2600:

So, here is my story. I just turned 70, have taken a partial retirement, and am still looking to do some computer consulting work. My last career was with the federal government, including some of the three letter acronyms.

I guess I am a hacker at heart, as my first hack was when I was about 11 years old when a friend and I strung some wire between our houses and connected two phone handsets, powered by old railroad lantern batteries we collected along the railroad tracks (that had been thrown away when they were just about worn out). We failed. In the Marine Corps, I was introduced to Morse code, wireless, and crypto.

A later play was in the 80s and the first PCs when I wrote and stored a simple program that mimicked rain drops falling down from the