From /tmp/sf.4146 Tue Aug 9 01:55:29 1994 Path: liuida!sunic!pipex!howland.reston.ans.net!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!eff!news.kei.com!hookup!news2.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!dg-rtp!sheol!dont-reply-to-paths From: aaron@amisk.cs.ualberta.ca (Aaron V. Humphrey) Organization: The Anna Amabiaca Fan Club Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Subject: Prograde Reviews--John DeChancie & David Bischoff:Dr. Dimension Approved: sfr%sheol@concert.net (rec.arts.sf.reviews moderator) Message-ID: <2oalfn$s7l@scapa.cs.ualberta.ca> Date: Mon, 11 Apr 1994 12:08:18 GMT Lines: 54 John DeChancie & David Bischoff: Dr. Dimension A Prograde Review by Aaron V. Humphrey I'm still trying to remember what John DeChancie told me about this book...whether it was him who provided the ideas and Bischoff who did the actual writing, or the other way around. Or both. Whatever. Ahem. Enough name-dropping...except to mention that this, along with _The Kruton Interface_, was a book that I bought mostly because of DeChancie's inimitable net-personality(and I'm told he's not that different in real life), since I didn't care much for _Castle Perilous_ when I read it a few years ago. This one clicked a lot better than _Kruton_. Perhaps because it hadn't started out as a stage play, perhaps because of Bischoff's participation... The book is intended as a spoof on old 30's pulp serials. (If you have any doubt, the book ends TO BE CONTINUED IN OUR NEXT THRILLING INSTALLMENT!!!!!) Not having read many of these, I have to judge it mostly on its own merits. It's still pretty funny. Dr. Demopoulous is a scientist years ahead of his time, with a Groucho Marx-like wit, a 'big lug' of a lab assistant named Troy Talbot, a well-endowed assistant named Diane Derry(Warning: Much Sexist Humour Concerning Feminine Body Parts). Dr. Vivian Vernon, his rival, and Geoffrey Wussman, the department head, are out to see his funding cut...until he actually gets his time-space machine working, and send them hurtling off into the middle of a war between alien races like the Dharvans and the Asperans(not to mention the Quaaleuds)... Not exactly a laugh a minute, especially when they keep trying to advance the plot, but it will keep you reading. The Firesign Theatre would probably do a spendid job of it, although it may be a bit low-key for them... _I'm_ waiting for the NEXT THRILLING INSTALLMENT!!!!! %A DeChancie, John %A Bischoff, David %T Dr. Dimension %I Penguin/New American Library/Roc %C New York %D June 1993 %G ISBN 0-451-45252-6 %P 284 pp. %O Paperback, US$4.99, Can$5.99 -- --Alfvaen(Editor of Communique) Current Album--Roxette:Look Sharp! Current Read--Geoff Ryman:Was "pretend the needle thickens." --lstewart From rec.arts.sf.reviews Thu May 2 17:33:02 1996 Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.reviews Path: news.ifm.liu.se!news.lejonet.se!newsfeed.tip.net.!newsfeed.tip.net!news.jos.net!dos.canit.se!seunet!mn7.swip.net!mn6.swip.net!plug.news.pipex.net!pipex!weld.news.pipex.net!pipex!rail.news.pipex.net!pipex!tube.news.pipex.net!pipex!dish.news.pipex.net!pipex!tank.news.pipex.net!pipex!usenet.eel.ufl.edu!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.kei.com!uhog.mit.edu!news!news From: "Rob Slade, doting grandpa of Ryan & Trevor" Subject: Review: "Hackers" by Bischoff Message-ID: Followup-To: rec.arts.sf.written Keywords: author=Robert M. Slade Lines: 49 Sender: wex@tinbergen.media.mit.edu (Graystreak) Organization: Intelligent Agents Group X-Newsreader: (ding) Gnus v0.94 Date: Tue, 23 Apr 1996 20:04:04 GMT Approved: wex@media.mit.edu Lines: 49 Hackers David Bischoff/Rafael Moreu Review copyright 1996 Robert M. Slade In the beginning was the movie, and then they decided to make a book out of it. The plot line is the usual hacker-meets-girl, girl-turns-out-to-be- hacker, girl-gets-hacker fantasy that never happens in real life because real hackers would get distracted by an interesting challenge somewhere between events one and two. The transition from film to book has not been an easy one for this work, and you can almost see the calls from jump-cuts from the original screenplay. Characterization and development are minimal: the "bad guys" are the usual evil big government and big corporation, although the heavies seem more like victims, and the real trouble all seems to come from one thoroughly nasty techie, who still manages to get away with the loot, scot free. The target audience is fairly easy to determine. As far as technical background goes, the film/book is replete with graphical messages sent to text terminals, viruses that carry lengthy audio and video data, worms that subvert accounting systems rather than replicating, and a salami scam. (Has *anyone* got *any* evidence that a salami scam *ever* happened?) There is the usual conflation of crackers, phone phreaks and virus writers together, the assertion that an elementary school student with a weird pseudonym wrote the Internet Worm, and a "Da Vinci" virus. The intriguing fact about the book is that valid and quality background information must have been available to the authors. The book starts with a quote from "The New Hacker's Dictionary" explaining why "hacker" is the wrong title for this work. The number of sites hit by the Internet Worm is closer than that usually given in news reports and the "greater than/less than" reversal bug is referred to. Examples of data base entry errors (and the consequences) have been pulled from the archives of the RISKS-FORUM Digest. And then they go and disassemble a fragment of object code from an unknown computer ... %A David Bischoff %A (screenplay by Rafael Moreu) %C 10 East 53rd Street, New York, NY 10022-5299 %D 1995 %G 0-06-106375-4 %I HarperCollins %O U$4.99/C$5.99 212-207-7000 fax: 212-207-7433 information@harpercollins.com %P 184 %T "Hackers" DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters roberts@decus.ca slade@freenet.victoria.bc.ca Rob_Slade@mindlink.bc.ca