1:SSR, the phone lines can't support dat~
grade communication.40 They stoppec
using direct dia] long-distance calling ir
~g82. The KGB found it hard to monitor

such phone calls.4~

	B~t this is a h~o-way street. Americar.
hacl;ers `~-ho access a wide variety ot
computers learn to deal with many kind~
of software. They de~relop savvy that car
hardl; be transcribed any more than yo~
can learn to swim by reading a book.
They also learn a lot about computer
security. As they assume positions in
business and goverument, they transfer
this arcane knowledge to their new
responsthilities.

	Even if the USSR catches up instantly to
where we are right now, today, they will
fall behind by sunrise tomorrow. Ameri-
cans invent new tools e~ery day.

	Take Run Length lUmited. It's a way to
store 30 megahytes on a 20 megabyte
disk drive. New a year ago, it is common
today.

"With personal compu-
ters and dot matr~x prin.
ters at their disposal, the
undergraund would
really give the Soviet
State something to worry
about. This has already
happened in Poland."

	"Goal-Seeker" is an add-on that works
with several common spreadsheets. You
put in the figures you want to have for the
result and the program ~uggles the
spreadsheet to make the numbers come
out right. (lust ~hat every Soviet factory
manager needs!) This program is a
"shareware" product created b~ a
hacker; it is available for less than 510.
There are over 800 such soft~vare pack-
ages for IBM PC-type machines.
Hundreds more e~cist for Apple, Commo-
dore and most other computers.

	In about two years the 5 ~f; inch
diskette will be as old-fashioned as the ~
inch dislcette is today. The 3.5 inch
diskette is coming. There are portable
computers that will use 2.5 inch
diskettes. Two years from now, the
Soviets will still be tr~ing to get 1.2
megabytes on a 5',$ inch diskette (stand-
ard with the IBM-PC/AT). We w~ll he
putting t~ce that much on a floppy half
that size.

	Non-von is short for non-von Neumann
(after Dr. John von Neumann who, in the
late 1940s, outlined digital computer
principles). Instead of being one-
instruction-at-a-time processors, they
are parallel de~ices. These nevv compu-
ters process several instructions at the
same time. Biochips are on the horizon.
Basod on living materials, these chips can
be used for non-von computers and to
run prosthetic de`-ices.42

	When Dr. Bores investigated the Agat,
he used Locksmith 5.0, a program to
copy protected disks.43 Locksmith is now
avaitable for the IBM-PC. Locksmith also
has dozens of competitors. There are

similar programs for other computers,

such as Kracker Jack for the Commodore
64.

"Penple in East Europe
receive Western telovi
sion. The USSR now pro
doces some video tape
cameras and players.
When computers and tel
evision merge the results
can only be called 'radi
cal.

	There's a program called "PRD+~' (Pro-
ductivity Plus). It lets you def~ne keys and
sets of keys for writing text. Por instance,
you can program "asap" to give you the
phrase "as soon as possible." You can
define "mom" to mean the three lines in
your mother's name, address, city, state
and zip. Using a routine like this, you can
t:~e up to 150 words per minute.

	And yet, for all of our prowess, there
are signs that the computer revolution is
slowing down. ihe lntel 80386 chip
(used in the IBM Personal System 2) has
bugs. Over 100,000 were installed that
wouldn't do 32-hit arithmetic44 This
could be an indication of what happens
when entrepreneurs become corporate
directors. When "three men ~n a garage"
become a "publicly owned" coryoration,
something is bonnd to go wrong.

'1he computer is a tuol
for personal freedam.
Like gold money, the
computer cennot be
made to serve its
destroyers."

	About 15 years ago, two young compu-,
ter nerds in Britain developed a program-
ming language that is well suited to
defining facts and rules about compli-
cated systems. It was ignored in America
until 1985 when lapan's Ministry of
Industry annonnced that the Prolog lan-
guage from Clocksin and Mellish would
be part of their "Fifth Ceneration" effort.

'`This underscores one of

. ~ - . . . .
severa1 llellcleneles In

Soviet computer policy.

They ident~fy with our

imperialist institutions."

	FortunateIy, America is not saddled
with a centralized economy. Now we have
several versions of Prolog on the market
including one for about S100 (Borland's
'`Turbo Prolog") and a "public domain"
Prolog for S 10.

	This articie has mentioned the Intel
processor family several times. Actually,
hardcore hackers consider the Intel chips
"brain-damaged" (even when they work
right}. "Real programmers" use Motorola
68000-based machines like the Atari ST,
Commodore Amiga and Apple Macintosh.

	This underscores one of several defi-
ciencies in Soviet computer policy. They
identify with our imperialisT institutions.
'rhey want to emulate [BM. But the com-

Television
and Radio

A 1966 cartoon
by Jensen
Ä"Sunday Telegraph,"
London.

~ CuQ ME>(T PQOGQAM~,E
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ouR NE1rT PRO4RAMME:
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