Hackers For Charity - www.hackersforcharity.org

As Johnny says "I'm a Christian, Hacker, Author, Pirate and Ninja".

I can express the respect and admiration I have for Johnny as a person. Without Johnny most of what HFC has done would not be possible.

Below is a small snippet from Johnny's Bio which I highly recommend you take a minute and read here at http:///www.hackersforcharity.org/johnny/about-johnny/

"As a kid, I used to stalk the neighborhood after dark (well, after dusk anyway) like some half-height cyborg ninja version of James Bond.

I would hop my fence, slip silently past my neighbor's snoozing dog and hop onto the roof of their wooden shed, armed only with a pocket full of custom (Lego) spy gear and my electrical-tape-and-dowel-rod "sword".

I would wait on that roof for hours (minutes), pressed flat and listening, tuning my ears to the sound of the night, knowing that my equally silent and skilled enemy was out there somewhere doing the same thing. I imagined we were both competing for the same prize: access to a highly secured and super-secret computer system.

Flashing forward fifteen years, very little had changed. I was lying in the dark listening to the night sounds, but I wasn't on my neighbor's shed. I was lying under an oil tanker inside an undisclosed military testing facility. The pack on my back held a dizzying array of high-tech gear, designed to slice through the toughest military computer security systems. Squinting against the rain, I could see the "enemy" patrolling in a white Jeep, but he was far from imaginary. His military training and weapons were very real and very deadly. As he passed by, a bright red dot illuminated the ground three inches in front of me. Chris and Jim, the other two members of my Strike Force team were ready.

As they emerge from the shadows, I make my move as well. The facility would fall that night. We got in, got access to the network, pilfered their data, and got out undiscovered.

The job of a professional hacker is simply amazing. I've spent the bulk of my career breaking into networks, bypassing firewalls, slipping past guards, and talking my way into places I didn't belong. It was a great job, but it wasn't enough. I wanted more. I wanted recognition. In 2003, one of the best ways to gain that was by landing a speaking slot at DEFCON, the world's largest and most infamous hacking conference".

This is the initiative that raises eyebrows. We employ volunteer hackers (no questions asked) and engage their skills in short "microprojects" designed to help charities that can not afford traditional technical resources. Our industry experts vet all the work to guarantee a high-quality product, and volunteers are rewarded with glowing references from our industry-recognized subject matter experts. With each project, our volunteers move one step closer to that dream job, and a charity is brought one step closer to its technical goals. We've designed and built web sites, set up blogs, programmed custom web applications, conducted code reviews, performed security assessments and more, all through our volunteer's efforts. In addition, thanks to one donor, we provide hosting, bandwidth and support for the final product free of charge.

Johnny posted a little chipin event on our bulletin board and people responded. "TXB" posted a matching challenge, and within two weeks, we had raised more than double the amount I needed to give Fred his netbook. After a bit of consideration, we decided to buy a monitor, keyboard and mouse as well as a power strip and regulator so that Fred would have more than enough gear to get started in his inevitable computer career.

Spending that money was so much fun. I couldn't wait to give Fred his gear, but it felt too much like charity to just call him up and give him a bunch of gifts. Strange, I know, but that's how I felt. I was beginning the staging for St. John's classroom (for the Honorable Migereko) and I needed some manpower, so I called him up and asked if he would mind coming by to help me image machines. He was thrilled and he arrived at the house minutes later after what must have been a very fast and dangerous boda (hired moped) ride.

Fred was a quick study, and before long, we were imaging machines for the classroom, and I found myself giddy over the fact that I was able to have more than one thing going on at a time. The stress over my workload has been pretty intense lately.

At the end of the day, I presented Fred with his donations on behalf of Hackers For Charity and the donors that supported the chipin event. I've captured the whole thing on video (which I'll upload when bandwidth improves) but suffice it to say that Fred was absolutely ecstatic. He jumped up and down and cheered and laughed and was genuinely blown away at the gift. He was thrilled and so was I. This was a really big event in Fred's life, and something most of us may never experience.

This system has the potential to be life-changing for Fred. It opens the door to learning and training. It marks what could be the beginning of a career that could sustain him, his family and even his children.

Johnny dropped Fred off at his house after a long day of work. It turns out Fred lives in the office of a small church.

He lives there with his Mom, his older brother and his little sister.
Fred's family

They all live in this tiny room, but by Ugandan standards, it's nice. It's clean, it's secure and it's comfortable. The problem was, Fred didn't have any power. Johnny remember him saying that "when he had power, and there was the machine" he would jam all night, not sleep, not eat, etc%u2026 But I didn't know that meant he had no power. I thought that he had spotty power, or dirty power, or anything but not no power. I mean no power is bad like a double negative.

This bugged me to no end.

It drives me nuts when I see Americans (Europeans, whatever.. westerners) tromping around in underdeveloped countries with their big boots "helping" the locals. It's not for lack of good intention that many of them fail, it's just that they don't take time to listen to the needs, to hear the story behind the words.

And now, here Johnny was, being a well-intentioned but slightly dumb Westerner. He gave a monster pile of computer gear to a guy that had no power. Because he thought that would be helpful. That would launch his career in warehousing, or heavy lifting. But not in computers. Because computers require power, bonehead.

Johnny asked Fred about the power situation, and he told me that he was planning to rent his own place and that he was saving up his money.

"But a rented place is expensive," he explained, "like 15,000UGX a month."

Seven dollars and fifty cents a month.

Johnny's first impulse was to just pay his rent. But that's not sustainable. That's charity. And it dries up when we leave. He needed training. He needed some work. And Johnny needed lots of help. After talking to Jen, the solution became clear. He would let Fred live with Him. We have a massive guesthouse, and with Dennis (his long-time friend) living back there already, he wouldn't be alone. He could have his own room (rent-free) and he could work with me, take a huge load off of me and learn something in the process. Eventually, we could even start paying him a salary (not appropriate quite yet according to local custom.. too many gifts at one time).

Johnny pitched the idea and Fred was all for it. We picked up his stuff the same day.

Johnny was nervous about the whole thing, because he is, after all, a "rich" Mzungu, swooping in and snatching up poor Fred to work in my labor camp. (Painting the worst picture for you, gentle reader). But his family blew away all the misgivings. Not only were they not worried about the situation, they were overjoyed at the prospect. In fact, they were happier than Fred was at receiving his gifts. This was a big deal for the whole family.

So like everything else here, this is an experiment. So far, it's worked out very well, and Fred works so hard that Johnny has to kick him out of the office every now and then to go chill, hang out with Dennis and focus on analog stuff.