Cheshire@2600.Com

A shoulder surfer is someone
who watches over your shoulder
as you "surf" the ARPAnet Internet.

"I am not a leader.
I am a loner with people who follow me."
- The Cheshire Catalyst answering a question about his
leadership position in the computer hacking communitty.

Then a buddy of mine sent me the following:
“If your actions inspire others to dream more,
learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
          -John Quincy Adam"

"The Last HOPE" is a conference of computer hackers and phone phreaks sponsored by 2600 Magazine, "The Hackers Quarterly".
Melbourne FL 2600 Gathering 1st Friday of each month The House of Joe Coffee House free Wi-Fi & Internet terminal 1220 New Haven Ave Melbourne   FL
Click Here for Cheshire's Anti-Flash Talk at HOPE Number Six Help Cheshire Pay for his Trip To THE LAST HOPE - Buy his HyperBook online! Cheshire's book, "Of Course They're Secrets - They're In The Manual", is now available. It's written in HTML, the HyperText Markup Language, so it can be read on any machine, with any web browser. It also has a Palm e-book edition on the disk.
Below are paid advertisements or Associate Links that pay me a percentage of your purchase. These links help me get to The Last HOPE.
Get a toll free phone number that you can use for international call forwarding. Using a toll free number can improve your business relations.
Travelling to The Last HOPE Conference from out of town?

Check out Chesire's Palm Page
ACLU Bust Card Do's and Don'ts when they come in through the bedroom window.
http://www.ftc.gov/infosecurity
Arachne Web Browser, a Czech web browser for DOS!
Hey Kids! Let's build our own Rotary Dial Cell Phone!
You've heard about it. Now download it!

The color of the muppet above represents the current Terror Alert Level

Welcome to my Home Page

The Cheshire Catalyst is Richard Cheshire, former editor of the TAP Newsletter. Folks either call him Chesh or Cheshire. People who don't know him, read his name tag and call him Richard. Only salesmen ever try to call him Dick. There are those who have known him for years who still call him Ozzie, however.

A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have... any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the Galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through and still know where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, by Douglas Adams

Did you enjoy my latest article in
2600 Magazine?
Hacker Perspective

My previous articles in 2600 include:

• The Global Date Format
  
• The Idiocy of the Telcos
  
• Your Internet Birthday.

OK, Kevin's Free. I'm happy for the fellow. But 2600 is now under fire from the Motion Picture Association of America, the MPAA. Yess, the people who "rate" motion pictures for the public. They are also "Keepers of the Intellectual Property" for DVD's. 2600 meerly pointed Hyperlinks at DVD Decoding Software, and got their ass sued. Fortunately, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has come to their financial aid in the matter, but 2600 needs our support.

Buy Their Shirt
And Wear It To The Movies!

Even The New York Times has taken notice!

Join us to Take back the Net!

Cheshire's Adventures

Japanese translation of my Telex Article is now available on the Web. The Telex Primer in Japanese is also available.

Of course, if you'd just rather read something about him, there's the 1982 article from "Technology Illustrated" magazine. Don't be surprised if this clueless journalist gets the technical details wrong. He did the best he could do. (Oh, and I should warn you that there is just a little hyperbole in use - Hell, I didn't reccognize myself in there!)

Now It Can Be told!
How I Got My Own Area Code!

If you're interested, you can read

Cheshire's Views on Electronic Commerce.

Don't Miss The Capitol Steps

Surgeon General's Warning: The Capitol Steps will cause your sides to split. -C. Everett Koop, 1/6/89

Swordfish? HORSE FEATHERS! In the John Travolta movie "Swordfish", his character talked about alot of movies, but he never explained the title of the film itself. The reason that "Swordfish" is the ultimate password is based on the Marx Brothers movie "Horse Feathers" (1932) in which Chico says, Hey, what'sa matter? You no understand English? You can't come in here unless you say "swordfish". Now, I give you one more guess. A resolution passed by the Cartoonists Association of America states that any time a password is given in a comic in the newspaper, it shall be the word "Swordfish". Now you know why.

The Swordfish Routine - Text. The Swordfish Wave File

Beyond HOPE

New York City
1997 August 8, 9, & 10

A conference of hackers, phreakers & netizens that was held in New York City the weekend of August 8, 9, & 10. The hyper-links I've had on this page have been moved.

Click Here For

The Cheshire Catalyst's
Beyond HOPE Hyperlinks

Also Check Out
The Cheshire Catalyst's
H2K2 Hyperlinks

Read what
Christopher had to say
about Cheshire at H2K2.

And then there is
The Cheshire Catalyst's
The Fifth HOPE Hyperlinks

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"He's not only cute, but
he's fun in bed, too!",
     - Ms. L.F. of Astoria, NY

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The Cheshire Catalysts Secrets of Windows for Newbies.

My own little FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) Page for the Manual Impaired. These aren't really secrets, but since they're in the manual that no one reads, they might as well be. My motto, you know, is "Share The Knowledge".

The Cheshire Catalyst's Internet Secrets.

Sure, some internet users are clueless. So here's a few clues.

The Cheshire Catalyst's Tutorial for Writing Web Pages.

Something I'm still throwing together for friends who want to have their own web pages. It's still in-work, so let me know if there's something you still need explained. (There is also a web site full of Various Windows stuff tutorials)

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Cheshire's Law:

You can't break the rules, but
once you know what they are,
you can abuse the hell out of them!

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You can read an article I think is amazing!! ==>

Wired Magazine has this incredible article on undersea telecommunications cables!
I expect that only Phone Phreaks and Telecomm Geeks will really get into it, though. A particularly geeky site visited by The Techno tourist was the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum in Cornwall, England. This is where overseas cables come ashore for Great Britain.

If you're going to read the article, don't do it while on-line (it's much too long). Download it first, and save it to your disk. Then read it at your leisure.
1. Click on the magazine cover to bring up the article.
2. Click on "File" in the menu bar (or hit ALT-F)
3. Within the File menu, click on "Save As". (or hit the A key - the underlined letters are Clues)
4. Use the features in the "Save As" window to change directories (folders) and to rename the file what you'd like.

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Things That Amuse Me

• 2600 Magazine. This is a fitting "follow-on" to the TAP Newsletter. A brief history of the term "Phone Phreak".
  • The Fifth HOPE (sponsored by 2600 Magazine)
  • The magazine was founded in 1984. When was the last time you read 1984 by George Orwell?
• Secrets of the Little Blue Box, the Esquire Magazine article from 1971 that Started It All for many of us. (Here's a Follow Up.
  • The Playground Bullies Are Learning How To Type, the Forbes Magazine article that used my quote as the title. I was asked, "What kind of person writes viruses?".
• The Telecommunications Act of 1996 at the FCC Web Site.
• Universal Service was a concept that Theodore Vail brought to AT&T in the early 1900's. This page takes it into the next century.
• The Center For Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest organization based in Washington, DC. CDT works for public policies that advance civil liberties and democratic values in new computer and communications technologies.
• The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 is something else you should know where to find. It's at the Electronic Frontiers Foundation, which has a Florida branch, the Electronic Frontiers Florida. Oh yes, and don't forget the Electronic Privacy Information Center. The privacy you protect may be your own!
• Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
• Cybersquatting Discussion
• The ICAAN Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy
• The ICAAN Rules for Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy
  • Information and list of documents

  Put Touch Tone® on your Palm Buy TeleTone

• NARUC's Home Page, the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Look here to find the Public Service Commission for your state. Have you ever considered playing with the politics of telecommunications? You can create lots more trouble this way than anything you think you could possibly do to The Network.
• Network World magazine sent me a form for a free subscription, but I never have time to read it. Their web site is interesting, though.
• Telephony Magazine has a web site. And of course, I weep for the loss of Teleconnect Magazine has a web site. (There's a Rumour that Harry Newton may try to ressurrect the magazine. e-mail me if you have other suggestions.
• OpenH323.Org is an open standards group for people interested in IP (Internet Protocol) Telephony.

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• Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Home page. Boy, are these guys troublemakers! (of course, they';re my kind of troublemakers) See them for backgrounds on major technology related issues.
• The EFF Endangered Gizmo List, The Electronic Frontier Foundation is listing as "endangered, saved, or extinct", those gizmos and devices that have had the innovation knocked out of them by repressive laws and lawsuits.
• YAHOO's Phone Phreak Hyper-Links. Well, you'd expect me to have links like this, wouldn't you? But, why should I waste my 3 megabytes of disk space, when these guys get paid to keep this stuff up to date? Sorry, re-inventing wheels is not in my job description.
  This looks like a good place to drop in some links for some Phreaks & Hackers of my acquaintence.
  • Captain Crunch's Hyper Links. Can you find your way from here to his Home Page?
  • My buddy Cap'n Zap sometimes sends me web pages in the e-mail. I have to save them in my web space in order to read them. Sometimes I leave one or two lying around.
  • LØpht Heavy Industries, who make the theoretical possible (well, Microsoft said their stuff was thoretical, and lØpht made it possible!).
  • NIGHTSTALKER took his name from a TV series of that name, and is now a member of the Cult of the Dead Cow. He's also a very old friend of mine.
  • Hacking Truths, something I haven't checked out yet.
  • Antics you Don't Want To Try. You have been warned.
• Some Security Stuff
  • Computer Security Resource Center
  • InfoWar.Com, Tell Winn that Cheshire says "Hi".
  • Computer Emergency Readiness Team, a service of the Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie Mellon University. Certified Ethical Hacker Certificate - Yeah, I didn't believe it at first either. Trend Micro Housecall, a free virus and spyware scan via the Internet.
  • FTC Infosecurity, Some pretty lame information from the Federal Trade Commission for consumers. It's the home of our old freind "Dewey, the Cyber Aware Turtle". At least it leads you to:
    • US Govt Computer Emergency Readiness Team
    • Spyware Alert
    • CyberSmart Curriculum for grades K-8
    • A Video on Consumer Information Security
    • How To Stay Safe Online if You Use High-Speed Internet Access, good tips for anyone
    Other "Friends Of Dewey"
    • CyberSmart!, CyberSmart! is a partner in a national alliance with government and industry to help keep computers and cyberspace safe.
    • StaySafeOnline.Info
    • The SANS Institute
    • CERT/CC, CERT® Coordination Center
    • CyberCrime.GovComputer Crime & Intellectual Property Section, Dept of Justice.
• Hacks I liked.
  • GNU Radio
    Software Controlled Radio
  • VAXbar
  • The Silicon Graphics Refrigerator Project
  • Computer Stupidities. Stupid User Tricks.
  • Old-Computers.Com, old, crufty computers - of my dim and distant youth.
  • The Online Software Museum, and the software that ran on them.
  • Hack A Day, a great source of amusement!
  • How To Become A Consultant
  • Anatomy of the Linux boot process
  • Rotary Cell Phone
  • How to make a USB Battery
  • Stripe Snoop, Read your own Mag Strip cards.
  • Portable USB Apps
    • SIW, Service Information - Windows
    • PC Wizard>

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  Telephone Stuff

• North American Numbering Plan Association is the new custodian of America's Area Codes. The True Source of info on Area Code splits! Stuff you Need To Know. Of course these geeks can't call it an Area Code, it's a Numbering Plan Area! Download fresh Area Code Maps (you'll need to download a free copy of Adobe Acrobat reader to view the PDF (Portable Document Files) that contain the maps).
  • The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions information.
  • Federal Glossary of Telecommunications Terms. (I hope you can handle frames)
  • Area Code Splits Quick Reference and effective dates. Click on the Area code of interest, for a list of the affected exchanges! Wonderful resource!
    • LincMad Area Code Split information.
    • Split Wizard Area Code Split Software.
  • Vertical Service Codes. (No, I don't know why they're called that) Codes (like *69) that let the telephone user do things.
• List of Tenex (10-10-xxx) Long Distance Carriers. Who ARE all those pesky new IXC's? (Inter eXchange Carriers)
• 10-10PhoneRates.com, showing long distance rates between the major 10-10 players.
• US Full Area Code/Single Exchange Query from TelcoData.US
• PhoneSpell.Org, what does your phone number spell?
• Area Code Change Details, provided by C E Service
• International Telecommunications Union (ITU) Recommendations the ITU cannot tell sovereign governments what to do; it can only make Recommendations (which tend to have the force of Treaties).
• Telephone EXchange Name Project, as in PEnnsylvania 6-5000
• Local Calling GuideThis site contains local calling, area code, and prefix information for Canada, the United States of America, and other countries which are part of the North American Numbering Plan.
• World Telephone Numbering Guide, an International Resource!
• CellSpotting.Com, A game for Nokia System 60 cell phone users.
  
• 2 Letter State Codes, including postal abbreviations for common addressing terms.
  • Canadian Postal Code Info, including Provincial Two-Letter codes.
• 3 Letter International Country Codes.
• International Paper Sizes

  Bluetooth Stuff

• BluejackQ, Instructions (and Code Of Ethics) on Bluejacking - the art of sending messages between Bluetoth devices.
• Nokia Bluetooth Page
• List of Bluetooth Enabled Phones, not considered complete, but somplace to start.

  Time Stuff

• Network Time Protocol
• A Summary of the International Standard Date and Time Notation, by Markus Kuhn
• Time Zones in XML, a draft paper.

  Other Codes

• American Standard Code for Information Interchange, ASCII
• US Gazeteer
• Geographic Name Information Service

  Stuff Not Otherwise Specified

• The DCMA, the hated Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998
• RSS to JavaScript, Get some code to put that Really Simple Syndication news on your web page. Special thanx to MySpaceCoast.Com.
• The Kim Komando Radio Program
• NewEgg.Com, cheap computer stuff
• SiliconAlleyComputers.Com
• AudioBooksForFree.com
• HotBits, Random Numbers
• Find Towers

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• Technorealism - realizing that technological solutions are not always the best solutions.
• PGP, Pretty Good Privacy. A good method for maintaining privacy, and authentication of messages. There's also a good site with lots of pointers to crypto stuff (if you don't mind getting info from the Defense Information Systems Agency).
• Scanner radio reference page.
• The Chaos Computer Club of Germany. These are old buddies of mine (Hey Wau, you're missed, pal).
• You can be an International Arms Trafficker. It's easy, and fun!
• The Jargon File, the file which is the basis of The Hacker's Dictionary. There is History here. Should you have occasion to e-mail the Keeper Of The File, tell Eric that Cheshire said "HI". Thanx!

Technical Surveilance & Counter Measures, a site with information on bug frequencies, and other surveilance information.

The Emergence of a Global Infrastructure for Mass Registration and Surveillance

Why E-Mail Is Like A Penis, a humorous bit of e-mail I received. Shortly after that, I received a "chain letter" from TaRtHeAd on Why Chocolate is Better Than Sex. (Hey TaRtHeAd! Where'd ya go?)

The Church of the Subgenius is ready for you, if you are ready for Bob! Please take your sense of humor with you when you click on this.

The Cartoon Bank is an archive of cartoons from The New Yorker magazine. (Thanx, Tephyr)

I got interviewed by Iron Feather Magazine at Defcon 9. You can Listen to the interview if you download Real Audio (or have it on your computer already).

An old song I wrote has shown up on the Web. I sang it on Swiss Television once, which probebly explains why it's in English, as well as translated into German!

Find your name on the Internet, pikpuk.com/

Named Links

When the Beyond HOPE hackers conference was still on this home page, Named Links would take you directly to the part of the page without wasting your time to find them. If you've followed a named link from somewhere, and gotten here, please click on the Key Word below to get you where you now need to go to. Please e-mail me at Cheshire@2600.Com if you think this was a good or a bad idea. I really need the feedback. Thanx!

If the named link that got you here isn't listed below, it has "timed-out". My apologies, but what took you so long? :-)>
The "Blue Balls" (above - asterisks on non-graphic browsers) have the named links connected to them. That's what got you here. Feel free to copy the technique.

The Beyond Hope Press Clippings, news reports generated on The Web about the conference.
Wired Magazine called me a Patron Saint! Here's the link to their report.
A Collegiate Study of Hackers, which I seem to have dropped out of, for some reason.

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My Political Agenda

Soccer Has Reached America!

But let's play the world's game by the world's rules.

In my identity as a mild-mannered gas cylinder tester for a small obscure Space Shuttle subcontractor (I don't work there any more - I'm back in Telecom stuff), I was a Volunteer at the Orlando venue of World Cup 94, the world's most prestegious soccer match. I'm a computer geek, not a sports jock, but I support socccer as a game the rest of the world loves, that America is just getting into. It is also a game that we Americans are not trying to shove down the world's throat! I like that. ;-)>

• The latest e-mailed report from Sam's Army, the supporters group for the US National Soccer Team.
• Major League Soccer itself has a Home Page also.
• World Cup 2006 will be in Germany. I was a volunteer radio operator for World Cup 94 at the Orlando Venue.

What? You haven't figured out why I consider International Sports to be political in nature? e-mail me at Cheshire@2600.Com, and I'll be happy to discuss it.

Hey, Geeks & Nerds Check out Dating Tips Things guys just don't think about, but the women they date, do!

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This web page has been lovingly hand crafted using only the finest pure ASCII characters (no "web page creation" software has been used). While this page has been wordsmithed to provide you with unfettered access to legible and cogent information, your browser may vary. Standard Disclaimer applies.

This page is Lynx Enhanced and proud of it.

While this page will be perfectly viewable on Notscape, and Microsoft Internet Expletive, it will also be readable on Lynx, the non-graphic web browser for people using text-only terminals in Public Libraries, terminals with speech synthesizers for the blind, and users accessing the web via Telnet.

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The author, Richard Cheshire  is a member of

Please read the HWG Position on Voice Browsers. Thank you.

The HWG has declared April as "Accessibiliy Month". Not everyone has graphic web browsers, you know. http://www.hwg.org/opcenter/events/accessapril.html

Also see my own paper on the subject, http://CheshireCatalyst.Com/access.html

The Web Access Symbol means this page is enhanced for people with disabilities.

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hits since 2001-02-15 when the counter was reset

thisdoc: http://CheshireCatalyst.Com/
Last updated: 2005-11-13 13:42:23 UTC

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