I can't tell you how excited
I was when an 8 year old
boy named Sean Watnik, whom
Tara met on
Geocities' Enchanted Forest,
invited Tara, Spencer and myself
to the Young Hackers Convention
in Richmond. This is one
of the great Computer Events
of the year, and they are very
cautious as to what adults are
allowed in. (They have never let
either Bill or Hillary attend,
no matter how the President and the
First Lady begged them.)
Hackers from all over the world get together
and exchange methods for finding
out things like
just what kind of weapons Sadam
Hussein has, because Lord knows
our government doesn't seem
to be able to. But that's just one
of the feats these amazing boys
can accomplish. (I won't begin to tell
you what they've done to Bank
of America.)
Here's Sean with his grandparents, Aaron and Adele Watnik.
Most
people don't realize this, but Aaron and Adele are the two people
who decide which sites get listed on Yahoo and which don't.
Before the meeting, four young hackers argue over who will get to
use the handle
"Spiderman". (The one on the left with the shovel won.)
The actual Hacker's Convention.
I think the fact that youngsters today
know so much about computers is simply unbelieveable.
How I wish they had computers when Spence and I were growing up.
These boys are all just brilliant. They tried to teach me
how
hacking was done, so I could go into all the sex sites and (you
should
pardon the expression) screw them up. But of course it was
way
beyond poor little me. So I made them promise to go
into
all the sex sites and screw them up. And they all vowed they
would.