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2600 Profiled: "A Print Magazine For Hackers"

HughPickens.com writes: Nicolas Niarchos has a profile of 2600 in The New Yorker that is well worth reading. Some excerpts: "2600 — named for the frequency that allowed early hackers and "phreakers" to gain control of land-line phones — is the photocopier to Snowden's microprocessor. Its articles aren't pasted up on a flashy Web site but, rather, come out in print. The magazine—which started as a three-page leaflet sent out in the mail, and became a digest-sized publication in the late nineteen-eighties — just celebrated its thirtieth anniversary. It still arrives with the turning of the seasons, in brown envelopes just a bit smaller than a 401k mailer."

"There's been now, by any stretch of the imagination, three generations of hackers who have read 2600 magazine," Jason Scott, a historian and Web archivist who recently reorganized a set of 2600's legal files, said. Referring to Goldstein, whose real name is Eric Corley, he continued: "Eric really believes in the power of print, words on paper. It's obvious for him that his heart is in the paper."

"2600 provides an important forum for hackers to discuss the most pressing issues of the day — whether it be surveillance, Internet freedom, or the security of the nation's nuclear weapons—while sharing new code in languages like Python and C.* For example, the most recent issue of the magazine addresses how the hacking community can approach Snowden's disclosures. After lampooning one of the leaked N.S.A. PowerPoint slides ("whoever wrote this clearly didn't know that there are no zombies in '1984' ") and discussing how U.S. government is eroding civil rights, the piece points out the contradictions that everyone in the hacking community currently faces. "Hackers are the ones who reveal the inconvenient truths, point out security holes, and offer solutions," it concludes. "And this is why hackers are the enemy in a world where surveillance and the status quo are the keys to power."

6 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Re:hackers choose USPS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At least USPS requires a warrant before they let anyone open your communications. The rest of the world might learn something from that fabled old institution.

  2. Re:sounds delusional and self-gratifying by Livius · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A lot of people are deeply invested in the US national mythology and would not accept that their government was what the rest of the world told them it really was. Constructive dialogue with (most of) those people is now possible.

    Progress is, however, very slow.

  3. Re:I don't read it by Jawnn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But when I did read it, it was only on occasion, once every couple years. I found the left-wing politics distasteful.

    It's just plain amazing, what qualifies as "left wing" these days.

  4. As the old saying goes by MrKaos · · Score: 3, Insightful

    You don't learn to hack, you hack to learn.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  5. Re:the last line of the summary by davydagger · · Score: 5, Insightful

    and?

    facing long jail sentances for doing what?

    We can't even arrest spyware makers, spammers, and companies spying on you, but you can arrest some fucking kids for mucking around an exploring. Arrest is one thing. But given jail sentances on par with murder, for actions that are really no worse than distubing the peace, or disorderly conduct?

    How about political activists doing the digital equivilant of an online sit in, facing charges be-fit a drug kingpin.

    Lets also compare this to someone like Ray Rice who beat his fucking girlfriend. How much time did he get?

    No, a long standing penchant for sticking up for a community being bullied is a good thing.

  6. Re:A good mag. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    The box that told the network which coin the payphone received was a red box.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...