Slashdot Mirror
0wnz0red
Robotech_Master writes "Salon Magazine is running an interesting and thought-provoking short story/novella by Cory Doctorow, co-editor of the b0ing b0ing weblog. This story, 0wnz0red, features programmer/geek terms and references, Descartes, "trustworthy computing," and what happens when programmers gain the ability to hack their own autonomic functions. A really fun read...like Stephenson's works, it feels like it's aimed squarely at the geeks' demographic."
Seriously. It would be a somewhat entertaining (but second-rate) cyberpunk short story if he hadn't been trying so hard to drop 'leet k-radspeak all over the place.
Sorry Cory, you're 14/\/\3r than Jon Katz
. A really fun read...like Stephenson's works
In what way? Is there a load of "Look at me - see how cool a geek I am" type writing, or a really bad ending? Does it have a really improbable storyline with random events happening because he can't think of a way to add drama at a certain point? If not then it's nothing like Stephenson's works.
I'd like to thank the submitter of the story for calling it a "weblog" instead of some lame-ass made-up-for-the-sake-of-making-a-name-up name like a "blog" or a "wiki". :)
:)
I'm sure I'm not alone in my praise
siri
Surely there must be better material than this on a smaller site. Its no big deal to find a short story on Salon
Actually, it is a big deal. There has never been, AFAIK, an original sci-fi story posted on Salon (of course those cynical enough will say that some news stories must be...).
Regardless of whether that statment is true, the point is that not only is this a really good story, with interesting characters, fresh situations, and nice twists, but that it also deals with Trusted Computing and the dreaded Palladium (Palladium in gibberish is Taliban, didn't ya know). How hardware in the future will be encrypted with keys and codes only unecrypted by those in control and power so they know exactly what you're doing all the time. This story takes that concept from the computer and applies to human beings. It's like 1984, only a bit more hip and filled with enough buzzwords so that geeks will get a nice, big smile every three paragraphs or so.
The arc of the story is not the technology or the use of it in regards to its manipulation on the body. The arc is the two friends and how loyalties are shared, and how loyalties are disregarded for the sake of one's well being (or selfishness, if you'd rather). The circular and sometimes disconnected view of one man's life (Murray) and his spiral into depression and boredom after the loss of his junkie friend (Liam). How, when they are rejoined, those old friendly traits, both good and bad, are showing up again, just like old times. Sometimes you can change, but deep down most people are the same. How, when it comes down to it, just like in Orwell's opus 1984, people will look out for #1 before they would ever bother to keep their loyalties true.
This is a great story that is mentioned because not only does it make a great point about the future of corporate-controlled computer content, but how in essence it deals with friendships, those fragile beasts that we all crave and have to put up with, just to have someone to attend LAN parties with.
...this stuff about using an inordinate amount of term-dropping in your text is old, and moreso, it makes for a boring read.
The use of advanc3d codewords in his writing just barely covers up the pretty thin plot,
and most importantly it doesn't build up atmosphere, which should be the primary use of this trick.
Gibson used it with success in most of his books (although, at Mona Lisa Overdrive, it did start to bore me) because he had Th3 F33l for it.
Yeah, I just don't get the Stephenson fascination. Everyone said Snow Crash was such a great book, so I read it. I will never read another Stephenson book again. Ever. That was the WORST ending to a decent setup ever. I just couldn't believe what I was reading. It's like he totally gave up on even attempting a reasonable conclusion.
--- witty signature
I found this story very cringe-worthy.
Every couple of lines it reminded me of similar self-indulgent crap I have written myself.
I can see that it is nearly good, but there are too many ideas (as is common in first works, dunno if this is...), the tech-speak sticks out a mile and the particular set of tech-speak chosen makes it look like the author just read the jargon file.
No non-pretentious person uses that much core stuff from the jargon file in everyday speech. Maybe you'd already be using some of it before you read the jargon file, and maybe you'd adopt some more you liked from it, but this stinks of wholesale adoption of a new lingo.
Sorry for being a bit incomprehensible, I am tired and just had to fill in a job application form from hell.
graspee
So to a nontechnical audience, it sounds like "modulate the shield harmonics" on Star Trek. Big deal, that's par for the course in SF.
What was important about the story, IMHO, was the way he made it very clear (to a technical or a nontechnical audience alike) what DRM, Palladium, the "Fritz chip" and "Trustworthy" computing were all about. In that vein, it's on a par with "The Right To Read".
I've recommended this story to nontechnical folks who want both a good cyber-yarn, and a good explanation of what kinds of laws Hollywood's buying from Congress.
Actually the cryptogtaphic handshake isn't a metaphor at all, since nearly all (read:recent) remote entry systems use some sort of cryptography for the handset to send messages to the alarm system. This was developed because car thieves with some tech were able to pick the messages out of the air and go to your car after you left and send the messages back; viola, open car. Now the things use randomly generated cryto keys to stop this kind of attack(not sure how often they create new keys..probably every time you use it)
The ending to snowcrash did suck, and so did the ending to Cryptonomicon.
Sthephenson's work is really more about the trip then the destination. You should really read Cryptonomicon though, don't be put off by Snow Crash (which I enjoyed reading, personaly). Cryptonomicon can't really even be called Sci-fi, and it's a very enjoyable, fun, read.
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.