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"Hackers" Really are Anti-Social Geeks
deflect
sent us a National Post Story
that has a psychological profile of "Hackers". Lots of
terms flipped around and lots of blatant stereotypes- although
most of them are fair (umm, of course we spend most of
our time behind computers- very few people get to be hackers
by hanging out in a dojo).
I spent 5 years in a dojo, and I hack code. :P
Joseph Chandler -- chandlerjw@linuxmail.org
It took them a psychological profile to tell them that???
-Cwrutons
I do not recognize this term.
(Well, I suppose if you practiced weapons kata...)
It's a Japanese term for a place you study martial arts.
i *like* being anti-social, what's wrong with that?
For those who have not read the article, dont
bother! It is only a few lines and is a complete
waste of your time. I didn't know that hackers
"may have been subjected to physical or sexual
abuse" and that we "tend to come from broken
families". Great, so do must serial killers, so
I guess the logical conclusion would be that
hackers = serial killers. I'm sick of media geek hype,
I hope it dies down soon so that no one has to
read such stupid nonsense.
No more links to such articles, please! There are
lots more interesting things on the WWW that I'd
like to read about.
"Mr. Rogers, after spending 12 years on the
Winnipeg police force, including a stint as lead
detective on the computer crime squad, has now turned his attention to finding a cushy job in the computer security consulting industry..."
I'm a martial arts lover and I like to play with ...
Linux. Does this make me dangerous because of my
"lack of social skills". What do my social skills
have to do with my computer? Someone please
explain
- Rowan
I used to live in Winnipeg, and know some of the people he is referring to as hackers (possibly myself too).
Mark Rogers really doesn't know what he's talking about. Most of the Winnipeg Hacker culture is HARMLESS. Just out to use an exploit on poorly set up ISP's like Escape.
very few people get to be hackers by hanging out in a dojo
Unless you Keanu Reeves...
"Do you think that's air you're breathing now?"
"Again!"
"As a side note, to demonstrate that, I was recently thinking about the fact that since Lightsabers have blades of pure energy, they should have no mass. And yet, they film the movies with the actors using metal rods,which means the lightsabers move as if they had mass. Odd, eh?"
The blade has no mass, but the part that the blades coming out of has mass.
"I like having low self-esteem. It makes me feel special." - Jane, Daria
Exactly. I can remember when I was about 10 my friends getting pissed at me because I wanted to sit at home and mess with my 'puter. Tis a choice.
is a person who would prefer to discuss the relative strengths and weaknesses of perl and Python
is a person who looks over your shoulder and tells you that your pathetic access database is not 3rd normal form because it contains transitive relationships
etc, etc.
The point is, most people here at /. including myself fit this description, or a similar one. Normal people would consider us antisocial. We aren't of course. We just prefer not to socialize with them. That's all.
My "normal people" friends can't understand how I can spend 12 hours of a Saturday behind a computer. So to them, I'm antisocial.
On a side note, it is a common tactic of modern psychology to associate, or at least attempt to associate past abuse with criminal behavior.
Actually there are several hackers in my dojo. :-)
I expect to see a post from wansu here shortly
Rob:
Why do you waste our time with this BS.
I am anti-social, SO WHAT !
Does this idiot think that becuse I live in Silicon Valley and use computers,that make me
anti-social.NO
I am anti-social becuse most people especially Mr
Rogers are idiots .
HAVE A SHITTY DAY
He did it through the entire article! Bah! Since when did "hackers" == "crackers" anyway?
You'd think that an on-line news source would at least show some responsibility by not posting complete rubbish on the 'Net like this. The psychologist obviously understands nothing of hacker, or cracker for that matter, culture. Hell, neither do I. But at least I don't write moderately offensive papers, or publish them.
The least they could have done was include his e-mail address. I'm feeling rather outgoing today, and would love to e-mail him and make a new friend.
Broken Home? Could also be current presidents of the United States.
Perhaps the author's brain was d-y-sfunctional.
The Matrix movie started with the basic
hacker, but finally did show the hackers to be
the saviors of humanity..
They even had to choose their own names to
break free of the machine.
We just need to build an AI menace and defeat
it for public acceptance. Luckily we're on the
right track.
Well, ok I meant to say the quality of someones life but there wasn't enough room and it is just as important anyway. I need help hacking for moral reasponsability. A good friend of mine is in academic hard times. The cause - Ultima Online amoungst other such distractions. If he is not helped soon he will be deported (NJK). I need to know if there is a way I can do a dos attack on only select types of packets or come to think of it I could do it on a single port couldn't I. Please help! Honest!
Taco should do a story about this.
I don't equate CS major with hacker. I know several CS majors who I wouldn't count as hackers, and several I would. I am not a CS major, but still consider myself a hacker. CS major is a preperation for a career. Hacker is a state of mind.
since hacker is obviously irrevocably stolen by the media, why the heck don't people simply
;o
use "geek" to mean what hacker did so long ago?
stuff like...
"i'm a geek", or "i geeked that code together", or
"man i really want to geek into that terminal"
(non maliciously of course), or "that rob malda just pretends to be a geek, but he's really just a dirty old hacker
it would easily convey the point, without having to use the word hacker.
I have been working as a Computer Tech for about a year. I went to college to learn Networking. I dont know much about Hacking, but I do respect the Hackers and Crackers out there. To me a Hacker is someone who is totally bad ass with computers.Someone who lives and breaths computers. It takes alot of will to be able to learn all of the tricks of the trade. I have learned Java, C++, Perl, and CGI in the last year, and have just know realized that I have only begun my journey. The media wants to put this giant label of evil on them like they are trying to ethnic cleanse Microsoft users. (which would be nice) I think that government officials dumb enough to leave top secret documents that are vital to national security on a computer connected to a modem are the ones who should be punished. thanks for listening (LINUX RULES)
hey, I know just what you mean. This is the coolest site on the net. The media is so screwed up its pathetic. I read CNN every day and i have to admit, that is a very well built site. I like the off the wall news, but I dont like having one sided news jammed down my throat. Just like Hillary doesnt want Bill meat jammed down Monica's throat. HEHEHEHEHEH
Sorry, now I have to worst looking post,
No, and for a simple reason. I love the term hacker.
;-).
There is another reason. Everybody is confused between hackers and crackers because crackers have had press coverage since a long time (it can increase your sells to talk about somebody who cracked the pentagon's computer but it is harder to increase your sells by talking about nice people doing nice things for free) and because they are covered since a long time everybody took their definition but now that we are covered we must take this definition back to it's first meaning.
There is a citation that I've seen many time here and that explain what I think.
"Everything that went up must go down, ask a system administrator" or something like that.
The term hacker(=cracker) came up and now he must come down and our term must come up (and window$ came up too
Don't be stupid. Everyone knows what a dojo is.
A dojo is a geek project, which you know works but no one else can see that. As the old song goes: "I got my dojo working but it just don't work on you".
I think we need to ask the question:
How the hell did this guy come up this this tripe?
Not being a psych grad, we can only guess, but we can give it a shot.
First this guy thought of a thesis.
Collected information.
Aahh!! But where!!!! I'm guessing that as a former law enforcement person he trolled any arrest reports of so called 'hackers', and maybe did some 'surfing' to find information. Also, he might have been *heh* intuitive enough to do some population surveys. Not a prob' Bob right?
Well, I'm going to rashly conclude (just like he did) that his data was flawed from insufficent data collection. Therefore, his thesis has no true data to support it.
Now I'm going to return to reality.
I have NO idea how he collected his data. His conclusions maybe wrong, false and crazy, but it is a possible example of GIGO. A person can only make conclusions based on the information they have at hand from whatever sources they choose to have to access or exploit. Before I look like I'm defending this joker, I'd like to mention that the newpaper article based on his paper even poured more bias into the mix. Also, this guy needs to stop watching techo-pop movies for his research.
I think the cool, hardcore geek way to blast this tripe out of the water would be to do an scientifically controlled survey that would get the correct data and a better demographic.(Rob?) Then publish a counter theory and let the media chew on it. It's probably been done before, but why not again? Let the media jackals work for the geeks for a change. Anti-social my tuckus!
When society starts to blame hackers for things like making video games ala the unintersting Paducah,KY litigation then it looks like we need to pop our heads out of dwelling for a sec to educate the masses. Not all of us though, the real folks need to keep coding.
By your own account, you're somewhat unusual.
If he's trying to write about the average and the mean, the unusual and the anecdotal are fairly irrelevant.
If 99 sleefs are grue, and 1 sleef is not grue, I think I can very fairly write "sleefs are pretty fucking grue."
hehehe
I dont agree to conforming to stupidity, we know what the
word means. I think any chance we get to express ourselves
we should use the word 'cracker' to enforce its definition
and use the word 'hacker' to enforce its definition.
If we allow society to mix our culture, then essentially
they control how we are viewed. They control what is said about
us, and we are therefore treated less, simply by not using
a word to its definition. Instead of allowing general society to
hand out stigmas, why dont we make them realize the artistic talent in the word hacker, and not the general idea of malice upon the part of computer geeks. email me!
about that dungeons and dragons stuff. It's not just for anti-social geeks. It's for us social geeks too. Seriously though, some of the coolest, most social people I know play d&d, for several reasons: the foremost of which is that it's fun.
I study tae kwon do, and bujinkan ninpo taijutsu, and STILL have time to hack. Martial arts has helped me tremendously with my coding, it taught me to unclutter my mind, and maintain the mental discipline necessary to work on such tasks
It may be a stereotype to describe reporters as money-hungry journalists, but it is an accurate one.
The average "reporter" is a middle class white man between the ages of 25 to 43. They do not have any respect for classes of people, places, or things. Its been proven that reporters only think of themselves. Reporters have a hard time researching facts. Reporters make money by telling half-truths and lies.
"They have no respect. No respect at all.", my mom says. "They couldn't report the truth if they had too", a government employee states.
Tony Jamada, a researcher from Stanford says "Reporters some times make up news and present it as fact". Mr. Jamada has created a profile of journalists who's hobby was to deliberately report false statements as fact. But he stresses they are just one type of reporter.
Others include:
- "Cameramen," who disseminate reporting methods but don't necessarily do it themselves.
- "Weathermen," who's job it is to put people in danger. They report falsehoods about whether it is raining, sunny, or if its 95 degrees when they report 72.
- "Cyber-reporters," those that try to reach a mass audience. They do this for political aims.
I feel sad for Winnipeg now. We're gonna be hated for giving rise to such a mean SOB.
:)
:)
Here's some info based on my relations with this guy. According to my degree-les psychological analysis, he's an attention-seeking self-promoting money-hungry paranoia-inducing righteous dude who lacks any sort of serious computer knowledge. He's been reported to say that named does the same thing as gated. If you ever had to deal with him as a cop here (and I'm sorry if you did) you'll know that he's a lot more into scaring the shit out of everyone involved than finding facts. This just goes along with the whole self-promotion paranoia-spreading thing. Also, when they say he was once the "head of the computer crime unit" here in Winnipeg, they REALLY mean to say "he WAS the computer crime unit, cuz all the other cops were too clued out." I've got plenty more stories, but that'd be getting off topic
As for his profile, let's analyze the situation a little bit. You're not gonna find football jocks hangin out with bookworms. Likewise, you're not gonna find bookworms hanging out with drug dealers. All people tend to stay within their chosen social groups, more or less. This applies to "hackers" (whatever he means by that). If our (their?) main interests lie in the land of computers and related issues, why should we (they?) step outside their chosen lifestyle, become someone else, just to be considered "normal?" If you ask me, doing THAT is fucked. Mr.Rogers should stop judging one group of people from merely his own perspective (his own social circle). Earlier in this post, I mentioned he lacks technical knowledge. The simple reason for this is that he's pretty much a jock. He doesn't mix and mingle with the "hackers." It's time to grow a little bit, Mr.Rogers. I and my friends have very active social lives. We have girlfriends, host parties, take camping trips, and do all sorts of "normal" things. All it took was finding peeople who like to share your lifestyle. I repeat, isn't this the case for ANY social group? Hackers merely have a harder time since there's so few of them. Instead of putting them down for their lack of social lives, you should be praising them for their strong will in pursuing what they love. They do not yield to the common social forces. They don't give up on who they are. In the end, I like to think that they do end up finding each other and creating some life-long friendships. As this whole internet thing becomes more popular (smile) the cases of antisocial hackers should steadily decline.
So, Mr.Rogers, please stop picking on hundreds of thousands of people just cuz they don't match your lifestyle or any lifestyle which has existed for a long time and is well-documented. Don't hate the new. I realize it makes you lots of money, but I just thought it was important to let you know that you are wrong.
Now, for those fans of Mr.Rogers who would like to communicate with him, here's some ways you can do that! mkr@escape.ca. http://www.escape.ca/~mkr/ . umroger6@cc.umanitoba.ca . Have a nice day, and thanks for reading my ramblings
--
After reading your recent article "Computer hackers really are anti-social geeks: psychologist," I conducted a study of my own. The results...
It may be a stereotype to describe psychologists as useless bafoons, but it is an accurate one -- at least for the best-known type of psychologist, says a University of Helsinki psychologist.
The average "psychologist" is a white, middle-class male, aged 36 to 52, who lacks usefull skills and comes from a dysfunctional family, says Pascual Pilato, who is studying psychologists for his graduate thesis.
"They usually have a weak grasp of reality. They tend to be the delusional," the former Seattle beverage distributor says. "They feel a lot more comfortable writing useless papers about topics they don't understand than in face-to-face interaction.
I despise reading articles like that.
I always have that small inkling that maybe someday, somebody will get a clue.
guess ill have to keep hoping.
Fine, go right on ahead calling yourself "gay" and expect everybody else to know that you mean happy.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Give me a break.
Anyone who claims to have "figured people out long ago" (and given the average age of hackers, when would that be, at age five?) and rejects 95% of the people around him/her as uninteresting and not worthy of their attention is:
1) Arrogant (and hopefully will grow out of it),
2) Deluded,
and
3) *By definition*, socially inept.
Posted by Pope Majesty:
But did this alleged training teach you to have the cojones to get a real life? Or do you still spend all day locked in your bedroom playing on the computer, playing dungeons and dragons on a friday night, and downloading megs of porno?
First things first, someone arrange that a horses head wakes up next to this man. ;)
Second, This man is quite obviously failing his courses if hes done this little research anyway.
Also, The man is an ex-cop, and we all know that cops do very well with avoiding stereotypes, don't we?
In addition, If all hackers come from broken homes, why can't we classify all criminals, or athletes before they become so? This stereotype is older than the World, anyone with a grain of intellect can see thru it like Glass.
-Shanoyu
Anti-social my ass! You typically ignorant, lame-assed social disease blah blah blah... Oh wait, that's anti-social, isn't it? :)
- he's talking about "crackers", not "code hackers". [deal with it, the h/cr debate is never going to die, sort of like "GIFF" vs. "JIFF". :) ]
- he's a nut. Do any of you remember the controversy over the paper he originally wrote? I remember a slashdot article linking to it - it was ridiculous. It said that crackers were sexually abused people from broken homes... huh? When I was younger (around 12/13 years old) I dabbled in that stuff, but it was because it was interesting, not because I was abused...
- He's doing a grad student, and was a former cop. A little biased.
-Stu
his definition of "coder" is the funniest thing I've read... Nice to know that all the "coders" working for Microsoft are "devising evil hacking methods.."
-Stu
Probably not in and of itself but I'm sure it helped.
Martial arts teaches alot of discipline which is also fundamental to hacking.
Ever notice how a disproportionate segment of the computing population can neutralize an armed asailant with their bare hands?
I agree. I have enjoyed Kendo immensely, and it has probably helped extend the warranty on this body by quite a few years.
Iaido next!
-- perl -e'print pack"H*","6e656d6f406d38792e6f7267"'
i *like* being anti-social, what's wrong with that?
Yea I guess I'll try to walk around all day trying to be HIP and BEAUTIFUL. Maybe I'll try to screw an intern or make fun of someone because their different.
Maybe I'll cheat on my wife, and on my taxes and drive a LEXUS. I'll buy some MSFT and care more about the DOW then ZOSOVO. Then I'll be normal!
The day I realized I wasn't like everyone else was the day I started being me! I can do UGLY and WEIRD better than anyone, so why not go for it?
Linux is only free if your time has no value. Windows is only free if you threaten to use Linux.
If we didn't generalize, think how difficult it would be to get to know people.
"Hi, my name's Tim. And do you have a name?"
"Yes, I am Steve. I go to school."
"Oh, so what do you do at school? Do you learn?"
"Indeed. I learn lots of things. In course 1, I learn this. In course 2, I learn this..."yadda yadda yadda.
So as you can see, some conversations can get quite lengthy (and boring) by not generalizing.
What is the solution then? I've just accepted the fact that I'm a geek. If people draw certain conclusions about that, then fine. But I'll prove them wrong. I'll play sports. I'll compose music. I'll tell jokes. I won't screw up my vision. I'll wear clean clothes, and comb my hair. So then if they think of me as a geek, they won't conclude "messy, antisocial, and nerdy (which is different from geeky)." And don't get offended when people *do* make these assumptions about you. Because you are what you are.
Tim.
A dojo is a martial arts training hall. Technically this only applies to Japanese martial arte (in Korean it's dojang, in Chinese I believe it's kwoon, and so on) but it has become a generic term.
By the way, I am a hacker, and I do hang out in a dojo (have since long before I became a hacker).
Not all hackers are anti-social. Many use a tactic called "social engineering" to get information out of people by either phone or in person. Some hackers are actually very social, working at jobs that require social interaction and dealing with people. Although the term "hacker" is used in the cracking sense here, real hackers, programmers, are for the most part social. I liked the "Mr. Roger's" part of the article.
--
Scott Miga
This seems to be the definition as given by the press. Note that it cites the age range for the "average cyberpunk" without a precise defintion or references how the age group is defined. The whole article was a series of quotes including hot topics such as Iraq.
While the article contains plenty of buzzwords to entertain the typical reader, me thinks this is pure sensationalism.
what about the crackers? are they 'test tube babies'?
:o)
or 'teletubbies' ?
--
"Science will win because it works." - Stephen Hawking
"Newbies," or "script kiddies," his tags for young novices.
What is this "his tag" shit?
Just another head-up-the-ass psycohobabblelist trying to pretend he knows something, when in fact all he shows is that he is so full of shit that he needs an enema the size of the Hoover Dam.
Don't take life too seriously. It is only a temporary situation. Usual disclaimers apply.
It's complete and utter BULL****.
At that point, nothing more can be said about it.
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
Chas - The one, the only.
THANK GOD!!!
I also must question your assertion that a person who feels this way is "by definition" socially inept. What, exactly, is the definition that you're using? I define "socially inept" as "incompetant at interacting with other people in common situations." My point is that one can be quite competant at social interaction but simply have no desire to engage in such interaction as often as most people do. This may qualify as antisocial (in a certain sense of the word), but not socially inept. And it is certainly not an adequate or even accurate definition of either term.
Of course, the article really seems to be focusing on crackers rather than hackers, and I can believe that most or at least many malicious computer attacks are committed by somebody who feels like a social outcast and who wants revenge on some segment of the society whom he feels has wronged him. And given that this guy seems to have only interviewed people convicted of committing computer crimes, perhaps that's the only sort of "cyberpunk" he's encountered in his study.
We're not anti-social to any large degree that I can see. I can only speak from my own experiences, and that is that the vast majority of the hackers I work with, live with, etc are more Selectively Social than your average human. We're pickier. We may choose to socialize in different ways, or to resent stupidity when it's put in front of us, or we might prefer electronic communication to human contact. It's refreshing to be able to filter based on need - keeping people you don't need to deal with out. Be it IRC, email, etc etc. However when that same person phones to ask a question they spend 10 minutes talking about the weather, wasting your time to ask a simple question. So when they get hung up on the next time they tend to take it personally. Not very political, perhaps, but not necessarily anti-social.
--- http://foo.ca
Like, no way eh. Like, I used to live in Winnipeg, eh. And I'm sure all the experience this guy has is shutting down a couple of porn BBSes. The vice cops in Winnipeg can go get bent, eh. Their "computer crime force" is probably a desk jockey and a 386/SX.
Anyway if you use an obscure Winnipeg ex-cop as a source you probably really don't have a story eh. So like, don't pay attention to the article or you'll get hosed.
Beauty eh.
- "Coders," who disseminate hacking methods but don't necessarily do it themselves.
huh. way to redefine an existing word there, guy.So what then? When "hacker" refers to a cracker, how does one refer to a hacker? It causes annoying confusion. Sure, you can not expect everyone to know it, but if there is confusion you can explain the difference between a hacker and a cracker. Simply accepting the media's choice of calling crackers "hackers" leaves you no way to communicate on that subject with anyone who is polluted by the media definition.
And probably it will be successful some day. I already notice in the German magazine c't that they slowly get the terms right (not everytime, but it increases).
not hackers. That is all.
----------------------
There is no K5 cabal.
I am not the real rusty.
Michel
Slashdot.org
It may be a stereotype to describe drivers as anti-social freaks, but it is an accurate one -- at least for the best-known type of driver, says a University of Manitoba psychologist.
The average "road warrior" is a white, middle-class male, aged 18 to 28, who lacks social skills and comes from a dysfunctional family, says Marc Rogers, who is studying drivers for his graduate thesis.
"They usually have not the best social skills. They tend to be the loners," the former Winnipeg police officer says. "They feel a lot more comfortable behind a steering wheel than in face-to-face interaction."
At a car show in California's Silicon Valley earlier this year, Mr. Rogers stirred controversy with his presentation, "Psychology of a driver," in which he argued drivers tend to come from broken families. He said they may also have been subjected to physical or sexual abuse.
Drivers have killed thousands of people worldwide, driven at speeds of hundreds of miles/hour, and tried to wreak havoc on the roads of the world. But just who are they?
Mr. Rogers, after spending 12 years on the Winnipeg police force, including a stint as lead detective on the traffic department, has now turned his attention to finding out, in the hopes it will help safeguard against their intrusions.
As part of his graduate thesis, Mr. Rogers developed a profile of road warriors -- drivers whose hobby has put them before the criminal courts. But he stresses they are just one type of driver.
Others include:
"The marijuana cigarette is called a roach because it resembles a cockroach." This guy is out-there. It's like watching "refer madness" or anti-drug films from the sixties, or for that matter, Microsoft testimony from the nineties. Sounds to me like the subjects have been screwing with the research(er). Oh well, professionalism from a cop is too much to ask.
Go figure.
Have you seen IBM's advertisements?
I'm sure IBM knows what a 'hacker' is and what a 'cracker' is... they also know what 99% of the population thinks of when they hear 'hacker.'
I like what they did to correct this.
They call real "hackers" "ethical hackers" and "crackers" are "hackers".
I actually like this, because most people (that 99% I talked about earlier) associate "hacker" with this insane super-genius who can break into any computer in less time than it takes to turn on a light switch. By adding "ethical" to the front of this, it conveys the same thing... only you picture someone who is mature and knows how to use that power.
I usually use the definition "ethical hacker" to explain stuff to stupid people... like the one who wrote this psychology of hackers.
~enucite~
I wanted to write regarding the "Computer hackers really are anti-social geeks" article by Mr. Stewart Bell. This article fails to cite any evidence collected by Mr. Marc Rogers to prove any of the points that he asserts. Now I understand that this is a newspaper, and not a scientific paper - but I found this article to be offensive in the extreme.
This gentleman asserts that "hackers" frequently come from broken families, and may have been abused. It is not explained why he might think that, or what scientific method he might have used to ascertain this knowledge. Nor is it anywhere compared to what percentage of the non-hacker population come from broken families or are abused. I would think that by using some basic statistics, it is far more likely that a non-hacker would have been abused than a hacker.
If such an article had been written about a racial or religious group, this article would have never made it into your paper - it would have been judged to be trash science, only an attempt to justify ridiculous stereotypes. The assumptions made in it are ludicrous in the extreme, and I am outraged that such an item would appear in an otherwise prestigious newspaper. I hope that in future, journalistic integrity and facts will win out over sensationalism and assumptions.
Sincerely,
Leilah Thiel
~ Leilah
*grin* Now that's a well-written article. Thanks, I needed that.
Leilah
~ Leilah
Here's a thought: have somebody give themselves credentials and make a claim that fill in the blank with your least favorite ethnic group is inferior. Publish the story. Don't worry about getting any opposing comments. Don't worry about checking whether the claim being made has any basis in fact. Just publish it.
This is not what I call responsible journalism.
Do you think that they would print an article saying that somebody has described all psychologists or journalists as delusional, arrogant, self-righteous, pompous windbags? Of course not!
I really resent the entire point of the article. As Rob points out, there are a few incorrect assumptions about definitions here. To my way of thinking, a person that breaks into systems is not a hacker. Such a person should be better described as a "criminal."
But, of course, we hackers are anti-social, so it's easy to dismiss us away. We have no spokespeople (sorry, ESR, RMS, et al!), so there are no comments to the contrary.
Interesting journalistic angle, though. Take a common misconception and prejudicial idea and give it credence by having it espoused by a so-called expert and report it as news.
The easiest way to deal with this (for me, at least) is to treat this as the garbage that it is and put http://www.nationalpost.com into my Junkbuster block file. It doesn't make the bad stuff go away, but I don't have to waste my bandwidth reading such trash.
--
"May I have ten thousand marbles, please?"
what about the crackers? are they 'test tube babies'?
excluding California; 50% of all married hackers are female. =oP~
I don't have a problem with the "stereotypes", or the conclusions represented--except for the fact that there are a _lot_ of hackers in the world that came from families that were fine, and so on so forth. (of course, there's a hacker vs. cracker vocab issue here too--but i know a bunch of crackers as well that had wonderful families.)
It's like back in the 80's when everyone thought D&D caused all these people to sacrifice animals, and explore sewer systems, and so on so forth--but they neglected the fact that many of them had a serious history of drug abuse and such.
So I think it's kind of a cheesy superficial conclusion that is hampered by the very small group of hackers that the author has come in contact with.
Actually, saying that they're "pure energy" makes them sound insubstantial. If they can chop through things, they have to interact via the electromagnetic force. This means that they will also interact with the air, so they (at a minimum) have some air resistance.
also, rather than just being "pure energy", they could be a some kind of plasma (ionized gas). I obviously have no idea how they would implement the containment of such a thing, but if this were the case, the blade would have a mass too.
Then there's the fact that they would probably want to artificially weight them so that they balance properly. I've been in the fencing club at university, and i think it would be quite a nuisance (sp?) to have a sword that had all of its weight behind your hands instead of in front. You'd have to use a different set of muscles i think (although i'm not a kinesiologist).
that's my two bits for the day.
-Doviende
"The value of a man resides in what he gives,
and not in what he is capable of receiving."
--Albert Einstein
Your comment about the white collar crime reminded me of a guy (can't remember his name) that worked for a bank, calculating interest rates on customers CD's or interest earning accounts or something of that ilk. Anyway, the jist of it is that while customers were being paid, let's say , 8.3%, he was calculating it at, like, 8.305%. Pocketing the .005% difference. Got away with t millions and wrote a book about it from the Bahamas or someplace. I saw it on the news once, so it has to be true.. ;^)
-- 100% MS-Free as of 4-4-1999, 11:47:38 PST. "The lapdance is always better when the stripper is cryin'" Free Kevin,
I think a manifesto has been written - The Hacker Ethic as contained in Steve Levy's "Hackers". I good book, IMHO.
I swear by MacOS X. Although I use to swear *at* MacOS 9...
what is the deal with the whole 'cyberpunk' thing?
in my mind 'cyberpunk' is just a term made up by hollywood, because they know as well as you do, nerds do not fit societies description of 'cool'.
ie. they don't sell movie tickets.
but... If we take away your nerds tramping boots, plain blue jeans, and rs/6000 t-shirt and slap him in black PVC and leather, dump a trench coat on him and maybe throw some sunglasses and a few body piercings into the mix, then you've got yerself a 'cyberpunk'. The 'cool' world wants cyberpunks, but it doesn't want geeks.
I mean how many people would have gone to see the Matrix if it starred a skinny ass white boy who couldn't act. oh... wait a minute.
And another thing... 12-28??
how many 12 year olds do you know who are proficient in assembler? When i was 12 i had just gotten a C64 and was starting out on BASIC. (seems strange to me now how you could just type BASIC into the command prompt and it would work)
ANyway...
thats all i have to say...
The media has never understood what a hacker really is and they probably never will. Is this a problem? Nope. Why? Because we are _not_ all the same. It's simply not possible to define what a hacker is, because it involves a lot more than just programming and a interest in computers. Is Linus a hacker? Was Kevin Mitnick a hacker or a cracker? Well, it all depends on the definition and since it's probably impossible to tell crackers from hackers, just as it's impossible to tell nerds from geeks.
There are some people using the term hackers for people who break into systems while not causing damage, and crackers for the people who does. But I don't know... it's just not that simple.
Nope - 50% of all married hackers from marriages where BOTH PARTIES are hackers, are female ;-)
The gift of death metal does not smile on the good looking.
More articles from people who try to put any group in out society into one set of rules so they we can be generalized. Take for instance, the statement, "You know, all of those _____'s are ______'s anyways." That's a poor generalization and in some circumstances is the base for bigotry and racism- not a good place to start for describing any group of people. I for one, don't like the concept they argue for here that you can't work well with people and be good with a computer(or programming, or scripting, or graphics, etc.) People deal with people the way they feel comfortable, and occasionally it ties it with some feeling more comfortable at a computer... my point? Look at tech support- the good ones can talk to people and machines.
null_packet
From his web page,
"I practice Moo Do, an eclectic martial art based on Tae Kwon Do. In November 1997 I attained the rank of Black Belt (1st Dan)."
-- Word of the day: Percussive maintenance is the fine art of whacking the crap out of an electronic device to get it wo
I love the line: they may have been subject to physical abuse. They may also be Microsoft employees, or NSA plants. This is the sort of stuff I expect governments to fund. "They may be male, although others may be female."
but I ain't no cracker.
;-) ;-)
White -- check.
Middle-class -- check.
Male -- check.
Lacks social skills -- that's what my parents tell me
Dysfunctional family -- Mom and dad have their differences but are still married.
Feels more comfortable behind a computer system than in face-to-face interaction -- check.
Subjected to physical abuse -- does paddling count?
Ooh... you better watch out for me... especailly since I've been known to read Bugtraq!!!!
Actually, I probably am not even at the level of "scrpit kiddie", and I read Bugtraq to see what security issues I need to fix on my own computer, and to laugh at how many times Microsoft appears on there.
I personally wouldn't try to crack for two reasons:
1. The most sophisticated attack I know is "ping -f" which isn't even a feature on Solaris ping and any halfway decent server should be able to handle it without a problem.
2. Cracking is just plain Bad & Wrong, Internet access is a priviledge, you'll probably go to jail and earn the disrespect of real hackers everywhere, etc. etc.
Finally, just remember that it's ok to say "If a person is a hexor (can we use that instead of cracker because it's considered derogatory in the South?) then he probably has X personality traits", but it's NOT ok to say "if a person has X personality traits then he's probably a hexor."
Glückwünsche, haben Sie Slashdot ermordet, indem Sie zum korporativen Druck beugten und Subskriptionen einlei
Carefull with Cracker. It's well used in a negative light down here in the South US, to refer to white males ~18-27. Referring specifically to the Georgia Crackers, men who unloaded the slaving ships in Savanaha with whips.
I think I've mentioned this before, but "cracker" is not necessarily derogatory, and your etymology is wrong. "Cracker" was the name for cattle drivers (who did use whips, but only on cows) in south Georgia and Florida. It can be derogatory, but many call themselves "crackers" as a point of pride, especally among Florida natives, who make up only 1/3 of our population. Also, it is not restricted to age.
Mike
--
Mike
--
"Wi nøt trei a høliday in Sweden this yër?"
A dojo is the term used for a school that teaches Japanese Martial Arts such as Karate or Judo. Kwoon is used for schools that teach Chinese Martial Arts such as Shuai Chiao or Bachi.
His descriptions don't sound like hackers to me. Average age of 12 to 28? Cyberpunks? Methinks he refers to another culture.
And speaking of anti-social, how come there wasn't a forum to talk back at?
A Government Is a Body of People, Usually Notably Ungoverned
I'll tell you why he didn't have a forum to talk back at, he's in the business of selling papers (or net hits), not open discussion. Taco is in the business of open discussion, which is why we're here and not filling his mailbox.
There's a big difference in trying to change the world and trying to make a buck.
FYI, the National Post is a new newspaper up here in Canada which is trying to be something like the New York Times/ Globe and Mail (Toronto) and USA Today/ Toronto Sun combined - High brow conservative and populist clap trap in the same rag. Nobody in the Great White North reads them or cares what they think...niether should you.
They're nortorious for missing major stories and getting their facts wrong. Most of us wouldn't let our dogs take a dump on this paper...
Never by hatred has hatred been appeased, only by kindness - the Buddha
Conrad Black? I would expect no less! /., this guy is a text book example of the worst qualities of "capitalism". When you see how he treats people and conducts business, its easy to see why a lot of Canadians vote for the NDP! (That's the New Democratic Party for our American friends, and don't bother to ask - they are a semi-socialist left wing party up here in Canada. They have had many provincial governments but no federal government yet. Many of their party platforms have become Unemployment Insurance and our socialized health care system after they were "borrowed" by the other governing parties up here. There is no equivelant party in the US - even Democrats are only Liberals up here. Think Jerry Brown with a little more sense).
For all the conservatives and Ayn Rand Freaks on
This guy has done more to convert people to socialism than Lenin could have dreamed of (although I'm sure Conrad didn't want to!).
God, where's Ed Broadbent when you need him?
Never by hatred has hatred been appeased, only by kindness - the Buddha
There is a hacker manifesto. Although I am not directly farmiliar with the sorce you quoted, I do know there have been several manifestos, with only two ones I'd (IMHO) consider genuine. There is the hacker statement as dictated by the origional MIT hackers in the circa 1960's, and there is the "The Conscience of a Hacker: the Hacker's Manifesto" Written by the Mentor(aka the Neuromancer) in 1986, which was written following his arrest. It was published in Phrack Magizine, issue #7. Both are worth the effort to find and read.
------------------------------
Janus Dissonation is watching.
------------------------------
This is the first article on "hackers" that I have read and actually been insulted by. These people he is suposedly profiling sound more like our common prison crazy than any body involved in hacking.
I find the article personally insulting, abusive families, sexual abuse, loner? My family has always treated me great, and I have a good social life...
I especially like how he's geting credit for some of the terms put there...last I checked newbie and script-kiddie wern't invented by him...
- AMW
I completely agree! I think most "hackers" are loner's by choice. I know plenty that can handle any social situation, but I think most choose not to because they don't feel like wasting the time that can be better spent on something else. Personally I've found plenty of times where I'd rather be learning something than getting wasted somewhere and not getting anything accomplished. It also seems to me that most "hackers" are extremely social in there own groups. I know I enjoy talking to someone who understands me much more than talking to someone that has no clue or interest in what I'm talking about.
It seems to me that society needs to have the stereo type so that they can feel more comfortable with there lack of knowledge.
antisocial? i'm not sure i buy that. being a loner does not mean being antisocial. further, someone needs to direct this guy's research towards the jargon file. it contains not only the definitions of all of the terms he's misusing, but also an appendix entitled 'a portrait of j. random hacker.'
anyways,
hollis
I know that most /. readers consider there to be a difference between Hackers and Crackers, but many journalists, and everyone else doesn't.
My point is does it make sense to try to chage the publics conception of what a "Hacker" is? Between the movies and the recent news coverage, the term "Hacker" has become synonymous with a person who uses his computer knowledge for evil. Is it posible to redifine this word in the publics eye. Even if it is wouldn't it just be easier to adopt the deffinitions that everyone else is using?
I agree this seems like a good way to continue to use the terminology we want, with out it being corrupted by outsiders misinterpretations.
ya know...me thinks some of you doth protest too much... It seems like some "geeks" go out of their way to prove that they are not geeks. Read the book Takedown if you want to see what I mean :)
:)
This article doesn't really define what they consider a hacker, so I'm not sure why anyone would take this personal. I don't think that soemone is a hacker just becaue they major in computer science.
I'm a geek / hacker wannabe... so I'm not sure where I fit in, but I can tell you that I'm anti-social and I dont' see anything wrong with it!
So you can all just F*** right off
I don't use the actual word 'lame' but i believe this is a load of bullshit crap dug with soem dude who probably had gloves on when he sorted through it. When people tell other people about someone they know nothing about then someone should really swap them , if i only had a home address ? anyone ?
i think im going to right a report on hungry kids on the moon yeah that;'s it and maybe then can put it on cnn and i can look like a dork , the media is seriously fucked up we need more slashdots and less msnbc's i mean
WE DON'T WANT TO SEE MONICA AND THE PRESIDENT HUGGY SO FUCK OFF ALREADY.
boy does this post make me look bad, ah well.
> As for breaking into the highly classified
> pentagon systems, I still have a hard time
> believing that. Secure systems like that would
> be next to impossible to breach, even by
> dedicated, sophisticated crackers who know what
> they're doing and have the equipment and
> training necessary.
I wouldn't worry about that too much. I'm a software engineer for a government contractor, and there are all sorts of rules about classified computers. First, they can't ever be connected to the internet or any other unclassed network, not even through a firewall. In fact, they can't be within three feet of any computer that is.
Pentagon computer cracked? Sure. Classified systems? Impossible unless the Pentagon isn't following their own security rules (which the rest of the Military is following) or the crackers manage physical access.
Hehe, nice one.
Don't forget:
Maybe what us Hackers need to do, is write up a manifesto of some kind, so that people will know what /we/ think we are. I'm getting tired of reading articles where they equate hacker with those bozos who sit around and try and kill computer systems. Being a Hacker is a way of thinking about things, not a lifestyle that involves cracking systems.
/why/ it works.
To truly be a hacker, you need to be the type of person who learns for learning's sake, and enjoys it more than anything else. The kind of person who questions everything, who doesn't want to know that something works, they want to know
As a side note, to demonstrate that, I was recently thinking about the fact that since Lightsabers have blades of pure energy, they should have no mass. And yet, they film the movies with the actors using metal rods, which means the lightsabers move as if they had mass. Odd, eh?
--
Matthew Walker
My DNA is Y2K compliant
Matthew Walker
http://www.tweeterdiet.com/ - My Diet Tracking Tool
fucking big television. Choose washing machines, cars, compact disc
players and electrical tin openers... choose DIY and wondering who the
fuck you are on a Sunday morning. Choose sitting on that couch watching
mindnumbing, spirit-crushing game shows, stuffing junk food into your
mouth. Choose rotting away at the end of it all, pishing your last in a
miserable home, nothing more than an embarrassment to the selfish,
fucked-up brats you spawned to replace yourself. Choose your future.
Choose Life
- nr
- nr
wait, i've got a hot date tomorrow night, my first date with the lady at that, so i probably won't require the oral services of the National Post after all
-- ken williams
Actually.. I am in Nashville myself, and the same street jargon applies.
:) Kind of fits actually.
Of course, Cracker is not a positive term in hacking culture either.. So be it..
...
. "The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and
...
. "The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and
. intelligent. The machine easily m
Still, after all the years I have been geeking, I have just not gotten the "anti-social hacker" stereotype.
:)
I think the root of the problem is this: The "hackers" who get the most attention in the media are the ones who crack into systems. Aka: "Crackers" (Once we get around to getting hacker and cracker defined in the AP Style Journal, hopefully that will change.. But thats another story). The average cracker is a waste of brain cells who sits home scanning addr blocks for common holes looking for sites to crack. Yes, these people have no lives. No creativity either. I can remember very few "cracked sites" where I though some creativity was put into the page they put up.. (Not that I condone cracking pages..)
The main reason I am offended by the hacker vs. cracker vocabulary problems in the media is because I find myself compared to anti-social script kiddie idiots.
The average white hat is actually a pretty social person. Ususaly someone who like to share what they know with others in public forums. (At least from my experence..)
Bah.. I'm babbling again..
...
. "The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and
...
. "The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and
. intelligent. The machine easily m
come on...that profile isnt that off the mark...
-- your knees hurt, don't they?
I agree totally. I must be fairly unusual. I'm studying computer science, but I take a creative writing-poetry class twice a week. I've done some drama as well. Why do people take the worst example of a group and dub it "average"?
>- Doviende said:
Actually, saying that they're "pure energy" makes them sound insubstantial. If they can chop through things, they have to interact via the electromagnetic force. This means that they will also interact with the air, so they (at a minimum) have some air resistance.
But the air resistance would minimal compared to the resistance given by gravity. The shear weight would be the biggest factor, and with it dropped substantially, that would likewise decrease the resistance, and thus increase the speed with which it can be wielded.
>- Doviende:
also, rather than just being "pure energy", they could be a some kind of plasma (ionized gas).I obviously have no idea how they would implement the containment of such a thing, but if this were the case, the blade would have a mass too.
Well... I think a plasma of some kind would be more plausible than pure energy. It has some mass, which means it can be physically confined. Have a limited magnetic field emit from the base as a containment field (remember, plasma is a *charged* gas, alloing for such containment), and the gas could be held. Then, turning it on and off would merely be expanding the magnetic field and thus the range the plasma can move about. Of course, practical considerations abound (I'll get to them below).
>- Doviende:
Then there's the fact that they would probably want to artificially weight them so that they balance properly. I've been in the fencing club at university, and i think it would be quite a nuisance to have a sword that had all of its weight behind your hands instead of in front. You'd have to use a different set of muscles i think (although i'm not a kinesiologist).
I don't know if that would advantageous. As a fencer, I prefer to have as much weight as possible behind the bell garde and in my hand. This gives me more control (particularly in the two thrusting weapons) and less fatigue. As for using the different muscle set, well, that all comes down to training. If you train with it, you will develop the control and muscles necessary to use it properly.
The biggest things I see as a problem are the following:
1): What happens when two lightsabers collide? Would the magnetic field hold, or, if they can be compressed enough, would it force the plasma out (and since they are charged the same, force them out in a violent manner)? This may not be a problem with strong enough fields, as the two fields would bounce off each other (maybe...).
2): Strong magnetic field in a metal ship or building... 'nuff said.
3): The weapon would become, in Newtonian mechanics, as close to a point-mass as we can achieve in reality. With it come control problems; no inertia = inability to gauge the position of the blade and its tip (with potentially fatal consequences for the wielder).
Well... that's my bit on the matter...
-G.
Sure I'm white, from a middle class family, but my family is far from disfunctional (and no, that's not just denial) and my social skills are just fine, thank you. The part about being more comfortable in front of a computer is semi-accurate, as I tend to talk to people I don't like, which is of course far worse than being in front of my computer (bless its little heart), but a nice person is by far the most preferable companion.
Also, what's with the lack of description of the more benelolent hackers? I didn't realize that all hackers were malicious. Oh well, I suppose that society will never be enlightened.
Well as I only fit the profile in one area, I guess that I can safely come over there and rape the databanks of the pentagon without being caught
Don't ya just love cops who THINK that they can spend a few years chasing after people and "get to know how they think, how they act" - you just gotta laugh.
Most computer crime is perpetrated by white collar types - usueally in the Redmond area
Here's a cyberdojo. http://www.cyberdojo.com
If I ever get busted for any electronic crime, at least thanks to articles like this I can say that I must have been sexually abused by my family and get off on one sort of insanity claim or another.
Jat "Not responsible for his own actions" TDB
"That's Tron. He fights for the Users."
you're looking at it ... why create a playing field for your sport when the one down the street will work just fine ... i thought we were a forum to talk back at it ... am i just delusional here? ... well ok granted i am ... but still!
if knowledge is power, the internet is god - me again
Sorry, but I think real science is not terribly concerned with justifying stereotypes.
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
I'm really starting to wonder what the defintion of a dysfunctional family is. It seems that wherever you look nowadays, you find dysfuctional families. Everyone in school is from a dysfunctional family. Every criminal is from a dysfunctional family.
So what does it mean to be dysfunctional? Is it a requirement that you've been institutionalized, hostipalized, and robbed blind at the hands of family members, or is it something as simple as "my mommy spanked me when I was 5 because I threw the dog off the roof and I've never been the same since"
Script kiddies, which I consider to be more of a nuisense than those who actually know something about what they're doing, are likely not from dysfunctional families at all. They're just morons in need of a severe beating at the hands of someone they hacked to discourage further agressive behaviour at the keyboard.
As for breaking into the highly classified pentagon systems, I still have a hard time believing that. Secure systems like that would be next to impossible to breach, even by dedicated, sophisticated crackers who know what they're doing and have the equipment and training necessary. Even attempting to break into those systems is a federal crime, and I believe that might be what they're referring to.
-Restil
restil@alignment.net
Play with my webcams and lights here
The psychological profiles of cops certainly are worthy of a lot more scrutiny than the "lone-wolf hacker". After all, how many hackers (well, besides Eric Raymond) carry guns and take jobs where the perks are the possibility of shooting and beating people? Or, prying into people's lifes with a microscope to see what kind of deviance they're engaged in. And to go from being a cop to a psychologist? Whoa, red flag! I recommend that the author should spend some serious time on the shrink's couch himself.
And here is the CyberDojo :-)
Bravo!
I honestly couldn't agree more. I'd say more on this but I think you've hit the nail on the head there. I can't get enough of diving into systems and learning about them, and it does make me seem like a selfish pr1ck sometimes to those I love and care about.
The key I think is trying to strike a balance, rather than oscillating between two polar behaviors...
Bruce M. Simpson Unix/Network Bod & Win32 Developer
very few people get to be hackers by hanging out in a dojo
... in my part of the country, they are BOOMING! *grin*
I guess there aren't many cyber-dojos where you live
"As for breaking into the highly classified pentagon systems, I still have a hard time believing that." You must remember that this is a government operation.
Bleh, we know better, so why argue about it?
Please, I need the bandwitches today, so don't argue this crap, it has been written over and over again. who cares. skrew them. my grandma is a hacker, she is 82, black, social, from a functional family. Oh!, they were talking about the average... okay , okay. blah.
------ Curiosity killed the cat. {satisfaction brought it back | it didn't die ignorant | lack of it is killing mankind
I think it's getting to the point where the child with the most dysfunctional family has two parents who love them, no abuse, no alcoholism, no drug problems, etc.
It's sad, but I think everything else is becoming normal.
Feel the fear and do it anyway.
Carlos' Adivse: Stick with your guns, and smile on the fact that YOU understand more about this subject then THOSE people.
And don't let THOSE people define you, especially when they don't understand the words they are using. Let them play in their ignorance, it's not going to hurt anyone.
*Carlos still remains a lowly hacker on the Programming Food Chain*
Thank-you, I'll be here all week.
*Carlos: Exit Stage Right*
"Geeks, Where would you be without them?"
"Got Linux?"
Hmm, ok maybe most Hackers are anti-social, but that's dosn't mean they don't have social skills. Some of the best hacks in history have been achomplished through Social Engineering.
And what's up with this guys Profile. " hackers tend to come from broken families. He said they may also have been subjected to physical or sexual abuse." This fits a whole lot of groups other than hackers. (ie. Strippers/porn stars, Drug Dealers, ect...)
-Praxxis
Yeap, chalk full of catchphrases and almost enough real information to start a Fidonet. The National Post sucks as a paper anyways, most of the other articles are the same way. All the news of a wet paper bag, and small kitten trying to break loose from it's constraints... how cute.
;>
Besides, it was only the silly "hackers, cyberpunks" who got caught and had to part take in this little survey. How many criminals have the same "broken home" nausa to fall back on? We all know that hackers have NO self-esteem issues, none... nada. It's really for the fun of breaking into a system. Yea... they don't need the attention.
This is a bit tongue and cheek I know, but I'm tired of the media just missing the point. 2600 meetings are actually sprouting up... again. Maybe the world IS ending...
"The Universe is not only Queerer then we think, but Queerer than we CAN think."
Hurm. Big differences here, though rob merkle in
"ultimate internet terrorist" (paladin, 1998), continually uses these terms synonomously.
Personally, I don't want my girlfriend's parents' eyes to glaze over in terror when she tells them that I am geek. When in fact what I really do is perform sick circus tricks.
Carefull with Cracker. It's well used in a negative light down here in the South US, to refer to white males ~18-27. Referring specifically to the Georgia Crackers, men who unloaded the slaving ships in Savanaha with whips.
Now it may ust be me but online culture is not going to change what the lower class blacks call you in the street.
Sorry this was a tangent, but worthwhile comment
GO DAWGS, SIC 'EM! ! !
Bleh.
More National Joke info:
The Post was created after (fellow Canucks, correct me if I'm wrong) Conrad Black, a newspaper mogul up here, shut down a paper called the Financial Post. He folded it into his new National Post, but not before firing all the employees. He hired back the non-reporting staff. Things get weird here. He fired the journalists, but kept them under contract. Their contracts lasted, at the time, another three years. Black not only dumped them, he kept them unable to work for competitors, and thus unemployed, for three years.
Whether this is legal is questionable; it just might be, but Black has powerful friends on Parliament Hill (our equivalent of the Beltway). This stuff never hit the news (he'd sue the pants off any paper that dared mention it), but I have good connections.
Sleazy, eh?
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
Does he say anything the children of women whom a cop raped or attempted to rape? Hmmm?
I have been impressed with the objectivity of excops in the past, and I see nothing to chnage it here. I thought there was a glimmer of hope when he "stres[sed] they are just one type of hacker"... pffah. I should have seen it coming.
He started with a prejudice, and studied for years to rationalise it; collecting the anecdotes with which fit his view of the world, and discarded the rest. Seen it and seen it. It'd be laughable if it weren't in such influential hands.
PS: Maybe we can make him implode from his own paranoia; given the trends in numbers of broken and dysfunctional families, hackers are likely to outnumber "good folks" before long...
I am completing my psychology Ph.D from ITT Technical Institute, and have written my thesis on the parralelisms in psychological profiles of bolth cops and acedemics. It seems that they have a deep seeded underlying need to appear technologicaly knowlegeable in the face of other pointy-heads and enforcment officers. When one can project the illusion of competence in one field, it releives them of an innate inferiority complex, derived from the fact that bolth psycologists and cops realy don't do much that requires deep thinking, analasys, or reason in their chosen profession.
Anecdotal evidence exists suggesting these traits in journalists.
-137
Hehe,
;-)
I have always been into 'puters but I only really
emereged into hackerdom once I joined karate about 6.5 years ago now.. it's pretty funny, my instructor turned into my best friend and happened to be a true guru..
Caesium
Have you hugged your consitiutionally guaranteed right to freedom of expression today?
Dear Mr. Stewart Bell, While I speak on behalf of myself, and maybe a few others I know I've decided to clarify a few things about your half baked story. Read on Tuesday, April 13, 1999 Computer hackers really are anti-social geeks: psychologist Stewart Bell National Post It may be a stereotype to describe computer hackers as anti-social geeks, but it is an accurate one -- at least for the best-known type of hacker, says a University of Manitoba psychologist. Now does this psychologist actually hack or know any hackers personally or is he just following JP'ish stupdity along with the rest of media whoreness by calling hackers anti-social? The average "cyberpunk'' is a white, middle-class male, aged 12 to 28, who lacks social skills and comes from a dysfunctional family, says Marc Rogers, who is studying hackers for his graduate thesis. Yet you refer to Hispahack which are Hispanick hackers, which also brings me to this point, how did he come to this conclusion? Were the subjects of his study hooked up to a webcam for him to see their colors? I', just curious being hispanic and knowing of a wide base of ethnic hackers worldwide. "They usually have not the best social skills. They tend to be the loners,'' the former Winnipeg police officer says. "They feel a lot more comfortable behind a computer system than in face-to-face interaction.'' Actually some hackers have extremely talented social skills. Enough sometimes to actually gain access to some systems by speaking via e-mail or phone calls to certain sites, based on human errors, not of their (hackers) own but that of the systems administrators some may tend to toy with. At a computer conference in California's Silicon Valley earlier this year, Mr. Rogers stirred controversy with his presentation, "Psychology of a hacker," in which he argued hackers tend to come from broken families. He said they may also have been subjected to physical or sexual abuse. Strange how every psychologist seems to throw these scenarios in, sexual molestation, family abuse. Actually personally I feel most people begin out of curiousity, out of a sense of learning, achievement, etc. Never have I been sexually molested although I dream of sexually explicit fantasies of Mariah Carey and Neve Campbell. Broken families? Again where do these people get these stats from? Hackers have broken into the Pentagon's highly classified computer system, shut down a Chinese government satellite, and tried to wreak havoc on the computers of Iraq. But just who are they? Crackers have intruded poorly configured military servers, which supposedly had no classified info, but due to certain branches of goverment needing funds, they saw it a way to get more money. Classified information that teenagers have gotten a hold of, which shows the lack of common sense on behalf of a so called Superpower. Chinese government satellite? First they said it was British...Go figure Mr. Rogers, after spending 12 years on the Winnipeg police force, including a stint as lead detective on the computer crime squad, has now turned his attention to finding out, in the hopes it will help safeguard against their intrusions. Here's a thought...hire Dr. Hamstuh P.H.D As part of his graduate thesis, Mr. Rogers developed a profile of cyberpunks -- hackers whose hobby has put them before the criminal courts. But he stresses they are just one type of hacker. Others include: What a rip off profile for a thesis. These terms are available on every single hacking page I've been too, I suggest his Professors thoroughly check his papers for plagurism. - "Newbies," or "script kiddies," his tags for young novices. - "Insiders," current or former disgruntled employees who use their knowledge to attack systems. - "Coders," who disseminate hacking methods but don't necessarily do it themselves. - "Professionals," the mercenaries of the computer-hacking world, who may work for criminal organizations. - "Cyber-terrorists," Mr. Rogers is also considering a new category he calls "hactivists," people who hack into systems to political aims. Do you guys just spit out whatever it is on your mind without actually knowing half of what's what? Or is it a rush to get some story out? Just what kind of news agency are you anyway? Now my site is dedicated to the humor of hacking where I purposely write garbage like this article. Being that I loved it so much would you like to write for me? j00rs truly xp0rnstar http://www.antioffline.com sil@antioffline.com sil@macroshaft.org
Thanks for the memories