Real hackers

From: Hotze <photze_at_batelco.com.bh>
Date: Fri Feb 6 12:26:45 1998

>First, my apologies. I didn't mean for my original message to be sent
>public.
Sam, this is a big step for you.... ;-)
>On Fri, 6 Feb 1998, Daniel A. Seagraves wrote:
>
>> The name hacker has been dragged through the mud for far too long.
>> There's almost no real record of the 1st and 2nd generation hacks. (1st
>> were the hacks at MIT. 2nd were those at Berkeley and elsewhere, who
>> adjusted the Hacker Ethic to allow for making money. 3rd are the
>> present-day warez loosers. [They're here for refrence. Technically,
>
>Not true. Read _Hackers_ by Steven Levy. It embodies the tale of the
>first two generations you mentioned and then also goes into the game
>hackers of the early 80s on microcomputers. An excellent book. I've read
>it twice (first in 1988) and may bring it on my next trip to read again.
Can you please get the ISBN for that?
>As far as the warez-loozers, well, they are just that, warez-loozers, and
>will be a footnote in some future book.
But nothing more. I dispise them. I've got a friend, who's brother claims
to know "hackers" who own looser warez sites. I asked them to get into my
system. They tried for 2 hours, and they eventually were convinced that I
WAS running Windows 2.0. ;-) Now, he knows how to "semi-hack" but hadn't
HEARD of C/C++, and thought that Unix was dead. He didn't even know about
the "clear" Linux command!!! Hacking into a NT system is... not un-hard.
>> they don't count]) All that survives to the actual public is the image
>> of some cybernerd on drugs with wild hair maliciously attacking big
>> companies just to be a punk. My brother hates computers, and he's
>> closer to THAT description than I am.
>
>Heheh. So true, unfortunately. The other extreme is the
>fat-pud-who-eats-while-he's-hacking stereotype and then the
>thick-glasses-total-dweeb-high-pitched-voice-hacker stereotype.
And then there's the nerdy NASA mission-control type revenge guy.
>> Of course, I'm still not as good as the 1st-gen guys. I can't solder
>> any good, I have nearly no idea how to wire-wrap or use a slide rule,
>> and I can't do number conversion in my head yet. I'm not very good at
>> math. (I can do it with a calculator, but I tend to drop numbers left
>> and right with big variables) I still have some to go... -------
>
>That's all myth, Daniel (except for the number-conversion-in-the-head,
>starting working at it :). The fact is, you don't NEED to know how to
>wire-wrap or use a slide-rule. They would be impressive skills and might
>get you a date some day, but if we still NEEDED to use those tools to this
>day then we wouldn't have progressed much in the realm of technology and
>that would be very sucky.
What are the requirements for being a hacker? ;-)
Tim D. Hotze
Received on Fri Feb 06 1998 - 12:26:45 GMT