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Steal This Computer Book 3
The book is a travelog of many of the most interesting or inflammatory corners of the Internet. There are chapters on hacktivism, hate crime, con games, spam, phone phreaking and dozens of other topics. If someone's spent time flaming about it, banning it, subpoenaing it, or demonizing it, there's probably a section on it here. All of the sections come with screen shots and URLs for further digging.
I found reading the book to be an odd pleasure. There was no way to click on the sites or try any of the software without heading for a computer, but that didn't seem to matter. If anything, it was nice to skip over the links and put off heading down alternate paths until later. The more I experience books like this, the more I begin to wonder if there's much in the hyper-fragmented, postmodern view of a narrative built out of multiply forking paths. This book offers one fairly simple arc that carries us through the most talked about corners of the web and it does it fairly gracefully. That's a pleasure unto itself.
The book comes with a rebellious gloss and semiotic history. The title was stolen from Steal This Book a collection of anarchist schemes written by Abbie Hoffman in the 1960s. Despite the title, that book became a bestseller -- offering a glimpse of the longterm prospects for Hoffman's revolution. All of the prole sheep dutifully bought a book filled with bombmaking techniques that promises to show you where "exactly to place the dynamite that will destroy the walls."
Hoffman's book showed that people will buy something they value even when they're told to steal it. The prole sheep intuitively understand that books cost money to create. But maybe that was a different era, before the web existed. This website offers the text even though there are four editions for sale at Amazon. I wonder who holds the rights?
Wang's book is nowhere near as radical or as dangerous. Hoffman wrote sentences like "The purpose of part two is not to fuck the system, but destroy it." Wang generally avoids such antagonistic language and speaks generally about anti-social behavior in the third person: "When hackers use social engineering, they often masquerade as a consultant or temporary worker..."
Much of the book, in fact, is filled with techniques that are presented as tools for protecting your privacy and your personal information. The back cover asks, "Is your computer safe from computer viruses and malicious hackers?" It's only partially aimed at helping people do asocial things on the Net. Helping people protect themselves from the evil hordes is a large part of it. Given that identity theft is a booming business, this edition is practically an anti-crime book.
What does this mean for the this Internet revolution? Will the current file trading yippies overthrow the copyright system? Will file sharing actually become the norm? Or will all of the Napsterites follow the paths of Hoffman's proteges and grow up, have kids, move to the burbs, and start paying for their content? Well, they might if the content is as comfortable as this book in the hands while sitting in a La-Z-Boy recliner. No popup windows. No flash graphics. No registration required. Just pure content. Hmmm.
Peter Wayner is the author of books like Policing Online Games, Translucent Databases and Java RAMBO Manifesto. Please don't steal them. You can purchase Steal This Computer Book 3 from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
The Internet has ruined me forever. Ever since I got my ethernet connection in my dorm room, I haven't been able to read anything printed. I think it has something to do with needing higher throughput than anything printed can provide. That, and the fact that a goldfish has a longer attention span than I do.
meh...id rather download the .pdf version from kazaa
After this review, I'm more interested in the Hoffman book than the Wang book.
"Hoffman's book showed that people will buy something they value even when they're told to steal it."
That should tell you something about the true value of the wares you peddle, RIAA. Try cranking out something that contributes to culture, instead of the teen-pop whores and gangsta rappers that are contributing to it's decline.
Is it just me, or was this review almost completely devoid of any content actually relating to the book being reviewed?
Paragraph 1 - A very broad overview of what the book covers
Paragraph 2 - "Hey, reading a book is completely unlike reading a webpage"
Paragraphs 3-5 - Review of a completely different book
Paragraph 6 - Finally, some hint as to what's actually in the book. But no indication of whether the content is good or not. Are the techniques mentioned good or outdated? Easy to understand?
Paragraph 7 - Back to talking about about the Hoffman book and completely ignoring the one actually being "reviewed".
They did. It's just not there anymore. ;)
Trees everywhere, and not a forest in sight.
1. Instant on, instant off
2. It don't break when you drop it
3. You can take it to the beach
4. You can hide it inside another book to look smart
5. You can hide it inside a porno mag to look cool
6. You can paper the cover
7. You can leave it on a bus seat
8. It never runs out of batteries
9. A rack of them look impressive up against the wall
But, on the other hand:
1. You never get them back when you lend them out
2. If you do, you wish you hadn't
3. You can't search them, so you have to flip back and forwards
4. You can't run them through the Jargonizer to see what the author would have sounded like in Hillbilly
5. You can't print them and give them to someone, saying "hey, look at this cool web page"
6. You can't hyper link to them.
7. You can't cut and paste the good bits to make you look smart on slashdot (like that was difficult!)
But then again,
10. No girl ever fell for you because you were browsing a cool web page
Ceci n'est pas une signature
meh...id rather download the .pdf version from kazaa
That would be *copyright infringment* not stealing.
Sheesh, haven't you learned anything on Slashdot?
without leaving a trail of cookies.
As long as you don't check it out of a library (USA PATRIOT Act.)
Somehow it seems that taking the content of the internet out of the context of the internet allows you to see it in a new light. Just as the internet brought new meaning to content through interactivity, multi-media presentation and hyperlinkage, books have their own virtues that cannot be replicated on the net. Whereas the internet encourages and supports a short attention span, and IMO, detail-oriented thinking, the book format usually demands a longer attention span and 'big picture' sort of attitude.
Both have their place, of course, and I don't think a short attention span is necessarily a bad thing. But books try to force you to carry a thought through to a conclusion, within limited parameters, where the internet allows you to branch off and fragment your thought -- which in turn allows you to consider many ideas from many points of view -- just not very deeply.
So putting the internet into a book may just force some people to think about the implications of the new media, rather than focusing on the ever changing content.
Maybe partying will help...
It wasn't, like, any big deal to lay down a buck, maybe at that cool head shop you liked to support anyway. Made my buck back the first day using its dumpster diving tips. All in all it was a good investment.
.
Besides, you've got it inside out. The joke was on the proles in the traditional capitalist business mode. They actually bought the rights to, printed and distributed a book that admonished you to steal it, right on the cover ( and even explained that the "artist" would get his cut even if you did. That was part of the subversion. It has modern repurcussions. Download an ebook off Kazaa, go to the Federal pen for 20 years and get a quarter million dollar fine while screwing the artist. STEAL a book and it's only petty larceny. Probation at most if it's your first offense; and the artist gets payed for it! Support your favorite "content producer" and stick it to the man at the same time. Steal books and CDs. Do It! Abbie and Jerry live, man! Free Attica!)
Oh, sorry, I got sidetracked. Flashback. That brown acid was apparently some bad shit.
Anyway, I treasured Steal This Book and I'm not all ashamed that I payed for it, nor was I in any way a "prole" for having done so. I wish I still had my copy. I would, except ( are you ready for it?). .
Someone stole it. Really.
KFG