Re: Value added installer
”So, they wrote a little program which just made the tape drives go back and forth, back and forth. Suddenly it looked like a real computer room, just like in a film. Which was a lot more impressive when the mayor arrived.”
Too many moons ago we felt like joking and wrote a piece of software for Amiga that pretended to crack into a bank’s system. Green on black terminal and stuff. When the software would find the right password, it gave you a prompt to wire money to another account.
Then we ripped a video signal modulator of its case and taped it to Amiga. It kind of looked quite credible and utterly stupid at the same time. A self-made modem, you see!
Then we needed a victim and invited one of the kids we used to play with to see something, or whatever. The software was left running on the screen, like casually. Naturally, passwords whirring on the screen got the target’s attention and we needed to explain: ”Um, yeah, we are experimenting something. Oh, that? It’s just a modem, you can use it to connect remotely to other computers.”
Certainly, the software ’found’ the login password right then and we were in. And of course, we had to wire some (lots of!) funds to our bank accounts right away, otherwise the system would time out, kick us out and it would not have been guaranteed that we would get in ever again.
Look on the face of the unsuspecting fool was... priceless.
The joke that was supposed to be funny, turned sour. First, he couldn’t believe his eyes. Then he started to believe that there could be something in it. After a moment of silence, he stated that he wanted his share, or he would turn us in. It took a while for us to explain him that it’s not real but a joke. He was so disappointed. So were we.
It was an impressive show, too, but unlike with the mayor’s visit, result was not everybody happy.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
