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The Happy, Benign Strivers of 2600
westfirst writes "The Washington Post has a front page story on those nice young boys in the food court from 2600. Here's one choice sentence: "Patrick thought 2600 would teach him how to hack. Instead, it taught him about job hunting, stock options and business plans." The press and the government were wrong along. 2600 isn't about learning how to launch the nuclear missiles at that fascist gym teacher-- it's about working hard and getting ahead. So, is 2600 better off with a reputation as Wally Cleaver or Eddie Haskell?" All I know is that it's good to see positive coverage of hackers/hacker culture.
Yeah, lots of people find God following bomb making recipies in that book. You see, there are some important safety steps it leaves out...
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If I was part of a group of people who came into your house and just looked around, claiming they were only testing the security of your locks and so on, what would you do?
Just the other day someone knocked on my front door to tell me I had left me car outside unlocked. I said thank you and then locked my car. He must have either looked into the car to see the physical position of the lock, or else he tried the door. Either way, he was uninvited. What would you have done?
Slightly less recently, I was given directions to a friends house on a piece of paper. I drove to the street only to discover that the number of the house I had written down was smudged. I took a guess, but it could have been wrong. I went up the pathway to the front door and knocked, (remember if I was wrong, then i was on somebodys land uninvited here) There was no answer. I tried the doorhandle and it was unlocked. I shouted hello through the door. Nobody answered. Just as I was going to leave, my friend appeared from the back garden. Did I do anything wrong? I potentially entered a property without permission. Some people I know would have walked right in to check of things were okay when they got no answer. Would that have been wrong? What if my friend was lying injured somewhere in the house? Is it still not allowed because i might accidentally be in the wrong house.
My point is this... I agree there are parallels between cars, houses etc and computers. But in all these cases there are legitimate reasons for entry other than simply invitation. If you have a car/house/computer in a public place (yes, the internet is a PUBLIC network) then expect that to be the case. Even if you get rid of all malicious hackers, you still find people entering your systems for various reasons (accidentally is probably the most common) so you MUST be prepared for it with proper security. And we all (I hope) know by now from experience that understanding how to make a system secure follows from knowing how to exploit an unsecured system. Thats the way it is - like it or not. You WILL NOT be a good security admin until you know how to crack systems yourself. Anyone who tells you otherwise is an academic.
-- MartinG To mail me: echo kewyjlcxyzvjfxbqwh | tr bcefhjklqvwxyz
I can relate! The Anarchist Cookbook changed my life though...
I thought that it was going to teach me how to make home-made napalm and exploding lightbulbs out of bubblegum but instead it helped me find God!
Of course I am writing this because after finding God the ER techs got my heart started again....
Now I have to rush out and grab my copy of Huckleberry Fin, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and Harry Potter.
--
Wooden armaments to battle your imaginary foes!
Thanks to MP3, Silicon Valley cash, www.everyfuckingthingyouwantinporno.com and media hype over anything and everything to do with the Internet, it seems like things created by geeks have really done a number on society. The evolution of 2600 into semi-responsible corporate wannabes rather than Phiber Optik wannabes was expected, by me at least. When all is said and done, the more morally-ambiguous types will tend toward the path of least resistance, which these days, appears to be the corporate grind for the remnants of the dot-cash.
Just look at Think Geek. Hey, there's a lot of cool stuff there. But who other than a corporate flunky can actually afford any of it? Geeks have to be rich now, to stay geeks. We're being driven to it.
I guess I'll just have to stay at my community college support job until my contract ends, then contemplate surrendering my unfunded geekness. It's too expensive.
Either that, or I'll just have to start coding in C and work on kernel patches. Gotta do it old school.
My own pointless vanity vintage computing page
Okay, even ignoring momentarily the media reputation of everyone lumped into the category of "hackers," from script kiddies to Alan Cox, it's nice to 2600 of all people getting some good press.
Even though 2600 (the magazine) isn't what it used to be, 2600 (the magazine, the meetings, etc.) deserve some respect they never seem to get. I was sick of seeing 2600 bashed in Wired, even in /. comments for supporting Kevin Mitnick. Okay, yeah, he broke the law and deserved to get caught, but the treatment in his case was extreme, and you didn't see anyone else constantly reminding people that four years in jail without a trial or bail hearing is wrong.
Even igoring the Mitnick saga, 2600 provides a really great entry point for kids who've seen War Games and... okay, maybe today it would be (god forbid) HAckers, but you get the point. In the pages of that mag, people find out that you don't just guess a password and launch bombs, if you want to do things (even illegal things) you have to learn... a lot. I started learning everything I know now, from system security, to TCP/IP, UNIX, C, everything, because when I was 11 I wanted to be a kr4d 31337 h4x0r d00d. Hell, I used to type on BBSs like that... but by the time I learned how to write an IRC bot, I didn't have time to transpose letters in to numbers, so I had to remap the keyboard in my terminal emulator so I c0u1d 7yp3 a11 l337 w17h0u7 5p3nd1ng 51x h0ur5 534rch1ng 4 34ch k3y. So I learned things, even for the sake of being stupid.
And I feel like I owe a lot of this to 2600. when I found an old acoustic coupler, I took it to the local 2600 meeting to figure out how to rewire it to work with my built-in modem... I learned half of what I know about hardware there... Hell, I learned what a front-side bus was from those people.
So it's nice to see 2600 getting some good press, and to see the meetings described as something other than a bunch of lurking, black-clad teenage misfits in doc martens and 2600 t-shirts.
just my deux centimes.
telekon
To understand recursion, you must first understand recursion.
Recently, a federal judge in New York ruled that the magazine was guilty of copyright infringement for posting on its Web site some computer code that allows people to copy encrypted DVD movies. The magazine's editor, Eric Corley, aka Emmanuel Goldstein, has said that the publication of the program is protected by the First Amendment and is appealing.
DeCSS doesn't allow people to copy DVDs. That's always been possible, provided you can get a blank DVD and a DVD burner which aren't crippled with access controls. DeCSS allows people to use DVDs in non-approved, or non-licsened equipment.
There is a big difference, especially with the draconian restrictions placed on "approved" equipment manufacturers. I don't see why CSS is considered anything other than what it is, a way of making artificial trade barriers.
Oh, now I remember, it's because the mega-corps say it's an copy control mechanism. They're famous for their honesty to the consumer.
Steven
-- I have marked myself unwilling to moderate-- I don't have other accounts to artificially inflate the karma of
I'm a computer professional who hangs out with 2600 (404), and I consider myself a hacker. Not in the 31337 c001 d00dz sense, which many people assume thanks to various sensationalist media PR. I play with computers and other interesting technical stuff, for both work and fun. I enjoy understanding the most obscure guts of technology.
I learn things that improve my skills in both my professional and personal life, and hang out with cool people. Yes, it's a bit like a "biker gang user group" and there are people I know are doing questionable things. There always are, at least there everyone is (mostly) out in the open about it and there is just as much talk about how to close security holes as how to exploit them. You can't have knowledge of one without the other.
After many years of picking up the occasional print copy at the bookstore, I finally live someplace I can go to meetings. You could say that I've been "in telecom" since high school when a buddy showed me this cool new toy he built, called a "Blue Box." Breaking into things just to be able to say so was never my thing, but it got me interested in how the telephone network works. Combine that with computers, and I found a lifelong interest and successful career.
And I do get a few cool points for being able to say that I make phone bills for a living. I've gotten more useful information out of 2600 than my years of ACM membership, another more respected professional organization in my industry. And it sure is a lot less boring
The geek subculture has truly lost its status as subculture, and is rapidly being assimilated into the rest of pop culture as a whole. We've all noticed it, some of us have said it, and I really wonder how many of us want it. Thanks to MP3, Silicon Valley cash, www.everyfuckingthingyouwantinporno.com and media hype over anything and everything to do with the Internet, it seems like things created by geeks have really done a number on society. The evolution of 2600 into semi-responsible corporate wannabes rather than Phiber Optik wannabes was expected, by me at least. When all is said and done, the more morally-ambiguous types will tend toward the path of least resistance, which these days, appears to be the corporate grind for the remnants of the dot-cash. Just look at Think Geek. Hey, there's a lot of cool stuff there. But who other than a corporate flunky can actually afford any of it? Geeks have to be rich now, to stay geeks. We're being driven to it.
Yours,
Bob
All the best,
--Bob
The kid's father says "Without 2600 (he would) probably be one of those pot-smoking, crack-sniffing guys who gave up on life a long time ago."
It's good to know that guy has high regard for his own parenting skills. Dammit! If my son didn't meet those hackers who would have raised him right?!
The global economy is a great thing until you feel it locally.