Slashdot Mirror
B&N Pulls Linux Format Magazine Over Feature On 'Hacking'
New accepted submitter super_rancid writes that issue 154 of the "UK-based Linux Format magazine was pulled from Barnes and Noble bookstores in the U.S. after featuring an article called 'Learn to Hack'. They used 'hack' in the populist security sense, rather than the traditional sense, and the feature — which they put online — was used to illustrate how poor your server's security is likely to be by breaking into it."
That's because Linux is an OS used predominately by criminals to hack machines. I appluad Barnes and Noble for this responsible reaction.
Odds are that Linux Format magazine is about to see an increase in circulation.
Say what?
I used to pick up my copies of 2600 at a local B&N years ago...
Sad.
"You worthless post!"
-Shakespeare, 2 Gentlemen of Verona, 1. 1. 147
With a title like "Learn to Hack" you're expecting instructions about chopping up things like bodies, not about poor server security.
They'll happily stock martial arts magazines, full of special features about new and exciting ways to hurt people.
Could it be that the buyout of B&N by Microsoft has produced the first victim?
Or just a "unfortunate coincidence" that the magazine censured over a word is a Linux magazine?
Remember what happened last time, Redcoat.
No it's not. If a government agency had tried to force them to take it down, that would have been a case of infringement. But as a private entity, B&N can decide what to carry in their product line.
In an age where brick and mortar bookstores are no longer the most economic method to deliver printed matter, and where the needs and desires of consumers can be far more fully met online, needlessly exposing yourself to ridicule and consumer anger is not a good business strategy.
Slashdot: Playing Favorites Since 1997
So how many different definitions of the word 'hacker' is there now, 1337? Seriously though, I'm sick and tired of all the mystery and ignorance surrounding the subject.
less dangerous reading material that has hurt no one.
Stop being stupid.
I cut my teeth on articles about "hacking". I've used "hacking" tools going back to the one that got Dan Farmer fired, and before. My interest in security was sparked by downloading an exploit for the Solaris eject command. Download, compile, omg! Root prompt!
The catch? I did all those things on boxes I was paid to secure. I've never broken into anyone's systems but my own, and I have legitimate rights to do that. Information is information. It's not "good" or "bad". I have a bookshelf full of books, mostly bought in your stores, that could teach you how to "hack" or how to secure systems and networks. Guess what I've been paid to do for going on 20 years?
They used 'hack' in the populist security sense
WTF is that?
To 99% of the world, a hacker is someone who steals your password, your money, puts kiddie porn on your computer and publishes all your email.
Like it or not, folks doing legitimate security assessments or building custom gadgets, etc. would do well to come up with term other than "Hacker".
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
If, in the 70's they pulled Esquire Magazine for carrying the article "Secrets of the Little Blue Box", an article that described phone phreaking.
This inspired Steve Jobs to convince friend Woz to design and build Blue boxes, which eventually lead to the founding of Apple... now the biggest company in the world...
Apple started from hacker/phreaker roots, and inspired by an article published in a magazine. Just imagine the damage they've done to the future by pulling this Magazine.
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
You can't buy Linux Format because of an article about hacking (which is legal), but you can buy your copy of High Times (full of articles about something illegal under federal law)...
if (it != oneThing) it = another;
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/d2600-magazine-2600-magazine/1108150347?ean=2940013699236
Best Slashdot Co
I do. They accept a level of abuse which would kill every electronic device.
That's okay, I'll just head down the street to buy a copy from .... Oh, wait .... I know! I'll just go online and order it off .... Oh, shoot. Hmm, where did all the competition go? Oh well, I guess I'll just read whatever B&N or Amazon recommend for me..... Aaah, Excel For Dummies. Excellent.
----
Not to be confused with Col.
Scarne on Cards
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/scarne-on-cards-john-scarn/1104279175?ean=9780451167651
Teaches you how to cheat at card games.
Originally produced for the US Army during WW2, it was designed to reveal methods of cheating so a soldier could tell when he was being cheated, just like the Linux Format article.
Understanding bad people is not the same as being a bad person; ignorance is neither power nor protection.
"I believe in Karma. That means I can do bad things to people all day long and I assume they deserve it." : Dogbert
Which US Law that is violating our first Amendment rights that would require B & N to take it down... Perhaps B & N is worried about something.
Though your grammar and sentence structure make it difficult be certain, it appears that you seem to think that the First Ammendment applies here. If so, you are very much mistaken. Stupid even. B&N can choose to sell, or not sell, anything they want
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/d2600-magazine-2600-magazine/1108150347?ean=2940013699236
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/hacking?store=ALLPRODUCTS&keyword=hacking
Man, I don't get it, there must be more to it than just "omg, they are legionz PULL ALL THE THINGS!!!!!"
Where does everybody get the sense that back in the day we didn't use the word for both of those things?
In 1988, a hack was used to describe a clever tweak of something to do something new, social engineering, and security intrusions. And, as far as I know, had been used in those ways for some time.
I've simply never gotten this whole "it's crack not hack" stuff, because it feels like we're changing after the fact how the word was actually used in practice. But when I was in highschool in the mid 80s, hacker was the only word we used -- 'cracker' came later.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
No, the major US creditor is internal US debt. China owns 7% of the total US debt, which is 30% of the foreign debt.
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
If so, does that mean they are responsible for the content of the other 499 magazines + 20000 books in their store?
By the way, did any store ban The New Republic when they published a possibly pedophilic article 17 years ago? Or the National Review when they continued to publish what may be seen as racist articles into this decade? I don't know if they did, just wondering.
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
Quiet! B&N might catch on and stop selling 2600 as well!
Lizzie Borden to her Pa: "Papa, can I play outside?" Pa: "Go axe your mother."
They don't care if you hurt people, or even if you do it publicly.... But hacking into my server could cause me to LOSE MONEY, and B&N just won't stand for that.
Alternatively, the solution is simple: Let's all go visit Barnes and noble today and ask them for that particular issue. When they see how much MONEY they could be making by selling it, they may change their tune.
Of course the have the right. It's their shop.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Is your son obsessed with "Lunix"? BSD, Lunix, Debian and Mandrake are all versions of an illegal hacker operation system, invented by a Soviet computer hacker named Linyos Torovoltos, before the Russians lost the Cold War. It is based on a program called "xenix", which was written by Microsoft for the US government. These programs are used by hackers to break into other people's computer systems to steal credit card numbers. They may also be used to break into people's stereos to steal their music, using the "mp3" program. Torovoltos is a notorious hacker, responsible for writing many hacker programs, such as "telnet", which is used by hackers to connect to machines on the internet without using a telephone. Your son may try to install "lunix" on your hard drive. If he is careful, you may not notice its presence, however, lunix is a capricious beast, and if handled incorrectly, your son may damage your computer, and even break it completely by deleting Windows, at which point you will have to have your computer repaired by a professional. If you see the word "LILO" during your windows startup (just after you turn the machine on), your son has installed lunix. In order to get rid of it, you will have to send your computer back to the manufacturer, and have them fit a new hard drive. Lunix is extremely dangerous software, and cannot be removed without destroying part of your hard disk surface.
Echo: Bravo - Sierra
Publicity / maybe a local story "with legs"
BN sells books on Metaspolit, wardriving, and even "Steal magazines.
Idea: maybe if one or two complaints causes this kind of reaction, imagine if their phones were to experience the /. phenomenon and just 0.05% of us complained, say about the sadism and child abuse in "The Hunger Games", or the mediocrity of the last Moby album?
Can we use the power of /. for the good of society? !
Nah.. nevermind.. no profit involved. Bask to work.
Yeah, they really jewed us hackers out of that term :(
Great minds think alike; fools seldom differ.
From what I've read (not old enough to have lived through it), the innocent form of the work hacker goes back at least as far as the 60s. The MIT model railroad club dictionary is the most commonly cited documentation of it's usage, but it was more widespread than than). Through the 70's it was used in a neutral sense for someone who makes clever technical hacks, and didn't have any security or legal connotations. So phreakers were hackers, not because they broke into phone system, but because they made clever boxes that could do so. In the late 70's the media started using the term hacker to denote someone who a broke into computer systems. This prompted a Usenet backlash in the mid-eighties, which attempted to popularize the term cracker and ret-con the term hacker to only apply to the "good guys". They never won and never gave up, so hacker now has two definitions; the negative one used in the popular media, and the positive one that can only be used in subcultures. Note that this is a very different state than when it had a single neutral definition that happened to apply to both groups.
What's a bookstore?
Merriam-Webster:
First known use of PREDOMINATELY: 1594
Even if its used predominantly in America, it's a good bet predominately didn't originate here.
"To predominate" is a verb, "predominant" is an adjective. At some point in time, someone built an adjective off of the verb.
My favorite bit of vestigial English preserved in the colonies -- especially in the midwest -- is "gotten."
And it's not a colloquialism; it's used in formal American English.
"What have you gotten?" (obtained) vs. "What have you got?" (possession)
(There's actually another Americanism in a sentence above. We typically say "off of" while the British say simply "off.")
A preposition is a terrible thing to end a sentence with.
Just because one or two people may use hammer to hurt others, doesn't mean all shops should be banned from selling them.
I just used that same thing at the dinner table last night defending computers in general. You can use a hammer to build a house or to bash in someone's head. It's just a tool. If they couldn't find a hammer, there's lots of other tools they could find that would suffice. Al Capone liked baseball bats, according to the movie.
P. S. I like baseball bats too. That doesn't mean I want to bash anyone's head in.
"Tongue tied and twisted, just an Earth bound misfit