fandomhigh | Jack of All Trades, Wednesday, Per 1

Today's class wasn't in the Danger Shop, sadly enough. It was in the second best classroom in the school: the computer lab. Honestly, it might have just been easier to program the sim into the Danger Shop than set up each electronic safe manually in the classroom, but Hardison never begrudged time spent with tech. If he hadn't been worried about accidentally interfering with Kitty's class, he probably would have spent the rest of the morning making sure the computers were upgraded to a degree that bordered on ridiculous.

"Hey, y'all," he said. "Today we're learnin' how to hack. Just a little bit," he added, before anyone could get their hopes up. "An', obviously, I'm trustin' you not to use this stuff against your fellow students. Or teachers." And then, obviously as an afterthought, he added, "Or do anythin' illegal with it. While you're on the island."

He couldn't in good conscience try to tell them not to do anything illegal with it ever; that would be the purest kind of hypocrisy. But putting some limits on where and who they could use this information against was the best he could do.

"These hacks are pretty much brute force hacks: they're useful an' they're efficient, but there's no subtlety or artistry to 'em. The very best hacks have both. A good hacker can get into a system an' get out, leaving no trace that anyone was ever even there. These hacks ain't that. They'll not only leave signs of what you did, but a skilled enough hacker'll be able to follow those signs back to the computer you did the hackin' on. Dependin' how good they are an' what's around you, that could be enough to lead 'em to you, directly. Once they got your IP, they'll know where the hack issued from an' gettin' access to other electronics nearby--like CCTV cameras--is pretty much childplay. So don't be stupid is what I'm sayin'."

And Hardison hoped that would be enough of a warning for his class. They were bright enough students. "So, we're learnin' two of the most basic kinda hacks today. If you're ever in a situation where you need to hack somethin', these will most likely get you through, so long as you ain't up against nothin' incredibly sophisticated. Now, of the two hacks, the one you'd use in a situation is the one that best fits what you're tryna do. The first hack ain't really for personal computers. This is the kinda hack you'd use at a terminal when you're lookin' to gain control of outside systems: electronic locks, gun turrets, security systems, automated vendin' machines, that kinda stuff. If you're lookin' to hack into someone's personal computer an' gain access to their files, you'd use the second. Everybody follow? A'ight, let's get hackin'."

[OCD up, thanks for everyone's patience.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"Hey," Hardison said quietly. "You look like you're havin' some trouble. Sup? Can I help with somethin'?"

"I'm just workin' out the letters, that's all," Edward said, a hint of stubbornness to his voice.

His handwriting was the kind of chicken scratch a five-year-old might produce.

Hey, Hardison understood all about that kind of pride. He'd seen Eliot and the internet, after all.

"That's cool," Hardison said easily. "Would you mind walkin' me through what you're doin'? I might be able to show you an easier way. I am all about shortcuts, yo."

"You click one of these words and it gives you the amount of letters that work, does it not?"

Edward tapped the top word he'd written down. "And then the next does the same, and so forth. I'm just writin' them below each other so I can see if there's a common thread."

"Yup, exactly," Hardison said. "You're doin' it perfectly right. At this point, you ain't even gotta think of them as words an' letters. Just ask yourself 'does this symbol match this one?' That's exactly the way the computer looks at it."

Edward had only gotten the symbols to stop dancing in front of him a year ago, Hardison. It wasn't as easy as it seemed. "They're strange devices, these computers," he muttered.

But he was still doing it correctly! It didn't have to be easy or fast, so long as it was right.

"Maybe so, but they're damn useful." You know, for as long as you were in the 21st century and all. "Most people don't know more'n just the basics to get their computers to do what they want. You learn even just a little more an' suddenly you got a lot more to work with. I was about your age when I used my computer to make the National Bank of Iceland pay for all my Nana's medical bills."

Which was why he was wanted in Iceland, but details.

Edward shook his head. "Iceland's quite a few days' sailing from where I come from," he said, "so I suppose knowing 'the basics' alone sets me apart back home."

It would also be utterly useless, but still.

If Hardison had his way, even pirate ships from the 17th and 18th centuries would have had wifi.

"Where's home?" he asked. "When's home?"

The questions one had to ask at this school...

"Bristol, 1710, more or less," Edward said.

He didn't quite remember what year it was exactly.

Hardison blinked a few times at that. "Well, a'ight then," he said.

Look, it wasn't every day he met someone from before the time his country had become a country.

"I can see where this ain't about to be useful in your everyday back home," Hardison said with a small laugh. "Still, might do you some good while you're here. An' hopefully future classes'll have somethin' a little more...universal."

Someone whose grandson (and son, in a way) would be instrumental in ensuring your country became a country, even, Hardison. Not that Edward had any notion of this.

"It'll be something to lord over them all back home, I reckon," Edward said, but he was joking about that.

It was much appreciated anyway, Edward. Hardison liked having a country.

"You could always go home an' invent the Analytical Engine about a hundred years early," Hardison teased. "Bet everyone'd be impressed by that."

No they wouldn't. No one was impressed with computer geeks now.

"Ah, I'm not much of an inventor, mate," Edward said wryly. "But thank you for the vote of confidence."

"Well, that's the benefit of bein' in the future," Hardison pointed out. "You could look it up on the computer to see how it was done." With a soft chuckle, he gave Edward a nod. "A'ight, though, you got the basics of what you need to do. I'mma let you keep workin' at it. Don't forget to use the bits of code to get rid of as many of the bum options as you can."

He was going to do a bit of hacking himself to make sure that Edward's next two screens had fewer potential character overlaps. He wasn't going to insult Edward by suddenly making it too easy, but using five-letter words instead of seven and having more variety in the word choice would probably help.

Jack of All Trades, Wednesday, Per 1

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