Day 3 - My Version Of The Hack

As I said previously, I was the Junior member of the trio, so Keith, Tom, and I didn't really spend all of our spare time together. Nor did we spend all of our time in the Computer Center. And on many evenings, I would be the only Student Assistant in the Computer Center.

And one evening, my imagination kicked into gear.

Why stop at reading the files? Why not assign myself a file (set a password for an unassigned file)?

In terms of complexity and effort, if the original hack was a 7, this was maybe a 3.

All I did was take the original program (on punch cards), run it thru a deck duplicator, and modify the copy. It took a small bit of effort to add code reversing the original (read where we would write, write where we would read) - code developed jointly by the 3 of us. Adding to the first hack, I soon had code that would take my input, and either retrieve the current password for a specific file, or write a new password for that file. Later, I added code so I could run it from a teletype (now there was some imagination).

Anyway, this was My Hack. And I was pretty proud of it, except I couldn't share it, at least not with Keith or Tom, I was pretty sure they'd disapprove. Maybe even tell on me.

Nope, this was My Secret.

For a while.

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