>In a message dated 3/4/98 4:13:02 PM, Robert Covington wrote:
>
><<Also, if possible, keep track of the content of Hacker's Helper, Informant,
>Registry and other serial number compilations for the inclusion of your
>program. Then program those numbers out. A lot of authors are doing that
>now with their program updates.
>>>
>
>I have no idea what Hacker's Helper, Informant and Registry are. Can you
>explain this a little more
>
>-Joe Lertola


Joe, the items I mentioned above are compilations of serial numbers for all
kinds of Mac and PC applications. They are usually distributed under the
guise of helping those who have lost their legit serial numbers, or those
who can't find them at the moment.

>Can you tell me where I can get these things on a routine basis?  I used
>to be able to get them from AOL, but no longer have an account there.  Or
>maybe could you send me the latest on them?

The best thing is to stick in "Hacker" in Yahoo and then look for a
Macintosh page. The sites that carry these seem to come and go, but you can
usually find a current site on the newsgroup "alt.hackintosh". This
newsgroup does carry some "hacker" messages, but a lot of it is about old
fashioned programming hacks amd helpful tips for normal day to day stuff.

While these things are of obvious legal and dubious value, they are helpful
when Marathon Infinity wipes out the Marathon 1.+ prefs file with your
legit number, and you don't want to go to the closet to get the card. I
don't know why Marathon does that, but it sure is a pain. Any higher
version will unregister a lower version once you run it, it would seem,
perhaps via corrupting the prefs files. And I own all three versions.
Wonder if an FB Marathon would get above 15 frames a second. ;) (Side note,
on a recent MacAddict CD, they have a whole new scenario for Infinity.)

If I was a developer of any seriously useful and commonly sought after
program, I would monitor these lists and program out the serial numbers of
any inclusions of your products should they occur in a later edition. Some
of the numbers are reverse hacked, some are bought legit by a "pool" of
hackers for the number alone, and some are just plain stolen I guess.

Robert Covington