Subj : list.com
To   : Skylar
From : AKAcastor
Date : Tue Apr 16 2024 05:36 pm

 S> I remember discovering disk/sector editors, and that I 
 S> could change strings in executables. MSDOS became JRDOS 
 S> (my initials are JR). Many DOS commands in my 
 S> command.com did not "work" because I had changed the 
 S> "name" of the command. PC Tools and Norton Utilities 
 S> were a lot of fun for me in the mid to late 80s.

Hex editing strings in executables is the foundation upon which my hacking career is based. :)

Sector editors, that really was like opening a door to a new level of magic!  (and then.. oops!  haha)

I was going to say I never used PC Tools much, but then I saw a screenshot and remembered that it was definitely something I had around.  The name Central Point Software brought back some memories.

Norton Utilities was such an incredible product.  The quality and usefulness of those utilities!!  Good enough that they could bank on the name "Norton" selling software for years, no matter how terrible they eventually made it after the sale to Symantec.

Between Norton Utilities and his book The Programmer's Guide to the IBM PC, how would we have survived using PCs in the 1980s without Peter Norton?!  Huge impact when it came to "making things work".

 S> Not as much fun for my computer teacher, though...

Some of our teachers must have been saints to put up with us without expulsion. :)


Chris/akacastor

--- Maximus 3.01
 * Origin: Another Millennium - Canada - another.tel (21:1/162)

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