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MTV Profiles "Hackers"
Christopher Sypal writes "I just found out that MTV is going to have a special this Wednesday (10pm eastern) called 'True Life: I'm a Hacker'. Looks exactly like what you would expect from an MTV show with 'hacker' in the title." If MTV wants to put *real* (and funny) hackers on the air, they ought to send a camera crew to the (highly photogenic) Geek Compound and do a show on Cmdr Taco and Hemos. Perhaps we should all write to mtvdart@aol.com and tell them so, eh?
Yes, this sounds very familiar. I'm 16 and have been dealing with these types of people... well, ever since elementary school, I think :) They don't understand what I'm doing and write it off as boring and a waste of time. I discovered an interesting facet of this, though. While they could all care less about my kludges over the years, when I burnt a CD of some music I had been tracking, everyone seemed to go into shock :P Ohhh... so /that's/ what you were doing... No, that's just a part of it... Moral of the story: blind them with a shiny CD. I also took it upon myself to deal with the script kiddie overpopulation problem... no, I didn't pull a BOFH, I just worked for about a year to convert one to UNIX hackerdom... well, something like that. He runs linux and is learning C and various graphics libraries now. Originally, he wanted to learn vishul basik to do some horrid AOL thingie. Well, I put a stop to that with some good ol' trickery. So, you can learn to coexist with them, you just need to convert the unwashed masses when you see potential, and maybe expand your digital work to something they can identify with (music, gimp-art, etc.). Of course, I don't mean all of them. The ones who don't see what at all this has to do with football have no hope at all, ignore them. :)
F0 07 C7 C8
You guys really dont have a clue who the hacker is in this MTV special, so you really shouldnt judge until you have seen it. Actually, the hacker is a friend of mine named Mantis, from the famed Parse hack/phreak tv show broadcast over the Pseudo Network. He is very skilled, and lectured at SpookTech and demonstrated techniques to government officials. So you can knock on mtv all they want, on the quality of the show, but the hacker knows his shit. He isnt someone who just learned about BO2K or something and installed it. They found him through New York Times article on him and Shamrock's lecture at SpookTech. MTV reads the news also.
To tell the truth though, dont exspect anything extravagent. Mantis felt kinda nervous with a MTV camera man following him around all day, so he didnt do anything besides typing 'ls' and 'cd' on his unix machine all day. The show is actually already online in realvideo, I will post a url later if someone doesnt beat me to it.
Jeff Knox
Let me guess, they're interviewing some kid that has probably just recently figured out his johnson can be used for more than utilitarian purposes? Comeon people... first, it's "cracker", not "hacker", and secondly crackers by their very nature are going to be difficult to find. Do 'ya really think some 13 year old kid appearing on MTV is a national threat blah blah blah invasion of privacy blah blah credit card blah blah info-criminal blah blah. Give me a break. Throwing stuff like this up on slashdot is a slap in the face - it offends our understanding of how this culture works. The fact that today's media is willing to believe anything a "hacker" says to be true without doing alittle fact-checking is disheartening to say the least. If I called up Channel 4 right now and said I just launched a tactical nuke at washington DC, what would the response be? Probably laughter. Now, if I say I *could* do that, all of the sudden they take me seriously. Go figure.
Solution: *click* *click* *delete*
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I'm not sure MTV wants to show Rob and Jeff not wearing pants all day, unless it's "Hackers: Living in an Underwear Commercial".
Sorry guys.
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QDMerge 0.4 just released!
how to invest, a novice's guide
When coding, I wear:
Jay (=
The Media just doesn't know it, because, well, watching a bunch of geeks slurping Mountain Dew and poring over man pages is *boring*. ;]
Nah, you just have to learn how to market yourselves.
Q: What operating system do you use?
A: One a bunch of us wrote from scratch.
Q: Where do you get your gear?
A: Well, mostly stuff that other people throw away. Some of the more creative ones acutally build their machines from scratch.
Q: Have you like, broken into the FBI's computers yet?
A: Not worth it. We already know everything they do. Some of us are employed to keep the low lifes out of machines anyway.
Q: When do you hack?
A: Anytime, we spread all over the world, so it always daytime for someone. Besides, computers don't sleep.
Q: Have you ever caused other people harm?
A: Every day, baby. Especially guys named Bill G.
Q: What is your goal in life?
A: World Domination, of course.
Carbonated water, sugar, caffeine, artificial yellow-green coloring. Best of its class, because except for the coloring, it doesn't make any pretenses about what it's for.
Well, I must be showing my age here ,because I can't do 70 hour marathons anymore. :(
As for beer, you can get real beer in USA, it's just that it is less common and costs more. The beer market is in a feedback situation similar to the PC hardware market: The tasteless stuff costs so much less than the good stuff, that people buy it regardless of its quality, thereby creating a big economy-of-scale, which in turn gets more people to buy it, leading to Budweiser and IDE hard disks having domination.
(Aside: I didn't start drinking beer until I was about 27 years old! I hated beer, because all I had been exposed to was the popular pissy stuff, and it just didn't appeal to me. I thought that's all there was. So I drank caffeinated carbonated sugar water beverages when the weather was warm, and coffee when the weather was cold. It wasn't until a few years ago that (at an office party, of all things) someone handed me a Sam Adams and I found out that beer could actually be tasty.)
Anyway, as for hacking while under the influence, many years ago, I discovered two things:
- It can be done! I can hack while buzzed. The code even makes sense later, when sober.
- When buzzed, I don't want to hack. It kills my motivation.
I guess it must not be the same for everyone; I'm surprised you start your marathons with the stuff. Maybe if I'de been exposed to good beer in my younger formative years, things would be different. So, my fellow Americans, I say this: do the younger generation a favor, and sneak 'em a good beer now and then, so that they don't get used to the pissy stuff or give up on beer altogether. They'll thank you for it when they're older.Oh, and while you're at it, expose 'em to real Heavy Metal so they don't grow up thinking that MTV industrial rapcore shit (e.g. Korn) is real thing. DTFM!
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As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
I've been a major dew-aholic for years. It's so smooth and chuggable. I can't drink Coke or Pepsi. They are so heavily carbonated that you end up drinking a mouthfull of froth. yew..
cpeterso
*takes off red hat for a few minutes and puts on asbestos helmet..*
;]
..As a representative of the teens-early-20's generation (What is that called now? I'm too young to be Generation X...) this IS the kind of thing everyone believes. Say I bring a Linux manual or some Perl pages to school to read in my spare time--which I've done a few times this year.
"What are you reading that's so interesting?" Joe Average Student asks.
I tell them.
"That's boring," they scoff.
Then let's say I bring some printouts of 'Guide to (Mostly) Harmless Hacking' or some phrack exploits, stuff like that...(Last year I did this...I admit it. But it IS what brought me to Slashdot..;] ) Instantly I'm the center of negative attention by students AND teachers alike..."That's illegal!" "Hacking is against the law." "You're not going to DO that, are you?" "I can't believe you. Throw those away."
Thing is, we all know that the most the 3l337-haxor AOL kiddies will do is get telnet accounts, ping each other, WinNuke each other, download canned cracks, etc, etc. But they're mostly harmless. Just bandwidth hogs and arrogant adolescents.
I believe that a person with actual knowledge of *nix and how programming works is more dangerous than 100 AOL kiddies. The Media just doesn't know it, because, well, watching a bunch of geeks slurping Mountain Dew and poring over man pages is *boring*.
So MTV slaps the "hacker" label on a bunch of stoned-drunk-whatever 20-somethings who want to break into school/bank computers. And they call it entertainment.
This is how the public thinks, I guess. So instead of bemoaning the AOL hax0r 31337's who like to make real geeks look bad, perhaps we should just go on with lives...and make more money than they do...
Just my $.02. Flame away.
Can't sleep, the clowns will eat me...
Some choice quotes from the RealAudio streams that require no external comments to make you realize what a quality piece of journalism that this isn't:
"All I did was sell weed and listen to loud music and stay out all night. I was one of those kinds thinking 'Wow, I can change my grades or I can hack into a bank and do wire transfers'. It's the glamour of that that drew me in."
"There's no people telling you what you can and can't do. At 16, Chameleon left high school and became a superstar at the hacking underground. Working from a computer in his mother's garage, he penetrated some of the government's most secure military computers."
"Gotta breath. Your heart's beating. You don't know what you're getting into but then yet again you wanna do it. Typing the final commands and then you're wondering whether the other guy at the other end is waiting for you to come and bust you. You break into somebody's system, that's not allowed. Just by having the password for the other account, that's not allowed; it's all illegal."
Well, at least MTV didn't just find a buncha wannabes who thought they were radical dudes. Er.. doh!
...Generation Why.
Human Genome, nano-tech, quantum computing, creating life, Hubble telescope, the Internet, etc. All this stuff has been or will most likely be realized within our lifetimes. Interesting times, indeed.
+&x
That would be a company with lots and lots of radio stations, and a company with MTV,VH1 (plus lots of other stuff, like a TV network). What's that mean? The same songs, over and over, until SOMEBODY buys 'em. Long live MP3.
+&x
...per second of air time for the videos to be produced. Very expensive if what you say is true. Pay to make, pay to air. While MTV gets the advertising dollars. It will get worse, quality wise, check my other post on CBS-Viacom.
+&x
Anyone else here not watched it for years?
/. goes for.
Anyone here over the age of 24? If you are you shouldn't be watching MTV, at least from thier eyes. They target an audience from 13-24, that's it. Did you watch it then? Did you like it then? Does it suck now, to you?
They also target by psychographics, i.e. intelligence. Guess which end of the spectrum they go for there. Guess which one
I liked it when they played videos, but do you know how much videos cost to produce? A 3-minute video costs much more than a 30-minute edit job (Real Rules & Road World). When you have to fill up 24/7 creative programming is important, cheap programming is very important, and quality programming is what HBO does.
+&x
Um....first off, why the heck would you be announcing that you hacked military computers on MTV? And secong, why isn't he being arrested? This proves that this is a fake (not that there was any _real_ doubt...).
Second, why is MTV doing more and more about crap and socity (which I am proud to _NOT_ be a part of) and less and less music? What does `M'TV stand for?
Third, they say hackers, they mean crackers, I know it's redundant, but worthy of mention.
Fourth, they portray these as the regulr geek/nerd type of person. Just a question, how many of you would _ever_ appear on MTV?
Fifth, s0m3 1337 h4x0rs appearing 0n M7V pr0v1ng 7h47 7h3y c4n t41k f0r h0urs w/0 b31ng c0h3r3n7 w01n'7 d0 much f0r publ1c 0p1n10n 0f g33ks 4nd n3rds 3v3rywh3r3. Get my point?
Sixth, why does everybody get so scared when you say your a hacker (or even a cracker), I mean, except very few, they can't do any real damage at all. I hate the sterotype that we are all evil and out to destroy the world.
Seventh, why does everybody think of these people as the `computer elite'? They download a script, run it, and call it `hacking'. My hamster can do that. Try writing that script, in 4 diffrent languages, for 3 platforms, then you've got a hacker.
Eighth, I wonder if they have ever even been to Slashdot? It would be cool to get some publicity (It has appeared in the Paper (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) once or twice). But, then again, most people would find quantium mechanics, Echolen and geek culture in general boring.
In conclution, well, you figure out for yoursef.
That's my $(2^4*3+1/7%3*2/100)
--Justin Mitchell
"2nd Place is a fancy word for losing" --Bender (Futurama)
Anyone out there remember when MTV actually showed videos? Videos on Music Television, who would have thought.
I wear pants.
Ok, regardless of our opinions of the MTV hype of the "hacker," I must say that I really enjoyed the colorful naked pictures flashign to the right of the article...
Unfortunately, the ramifications of this (and other) shows aired on MTV won't be realized for another 10 years or so.
Nobody reading this would for a second be fooled by the obvious folding, spindling, and multilation of reality that will inevitably be this program (key word here, more on that later). However, Johny 8-12 year old will accept it as the gospel truth. (MTV told me that Sprite tastes good... It does; MTV told me that Super Marios Brothers 20 comes out in a week... It did; MTV told me that evil hackers want to kill me and my family... They do). Ten years from now, little Johnny will be old enough to vote, and MTV will remind them to do so. Of course, the issues are complicated, however, Johnny knows who's good and who's bad, thanks to MTV.
Another case in point, on a recent "Your Rights" bit that they aired, they applauded turning public schools into high security virtual prison camps. They paraded some kids in front of the camera, and had them say (with blank stares of course) that they were glad that they were in uniforms, and that police were walking around in the halls with guns, and things are so much better now that there's a barbed wire fence around the campus.... Fortunately for Sony corp (I think they still own MTV, of course, didn't someone else buy them recently?), the current generation of kids don't know enough that anytime they hear a group of people with zero disagreeing opinions, that they are probably hearing nothing more than propaganda. Too bad there isn't a way to keep them in check... Or at least something close to honest...
I weep for the future. Do your kid a favor, kill their television.
HaXXXor.com - Naked Chicks Teach You How To Ha
And of course, this is a special on crackers, and I'm sure they'll feature a bunch of script kiddies using BO2K and other such things. I suppose that the term hacker, to everyone else but a real hacker, is synonimous with cracker or script kiddie, or even people who run "Warez" sites and stuff like that. The press is a very powerful force, and the "true" term of hacker is probably lost forever except among slashdotters and other geeks.
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
When I was in high school, I beat up the geeks and stole their lunch money. Then I found out about the internet and "hacking." I mean, I was like wow, I can run this little script and do stuff to other people. I don't even know what I'm doing half the time, but you should all fear me because my friends and me, we started this new hacker group called Legndary Attackers, Maliciously Evil Reconnaisance Specialists.
just my $0.02
Everyone wants to know why MTV is going to do a show on 'hackers'? Cause it's cheap. I don't know if anyone has noticed, but MTV's shows are becoming, by practice, cheap shows. Think about it. Doesn't REALLY cost a whole lot to produce Beavis n Butthead. Marketing and air-time aside, not a whole lot just to produce. B&B were out the door when they got too expensive. Replacement? Sifl n Ollie... c'mon, ya can't get much cheaper than that. (not to say it's not funny tho. cracks me up.) Big shows? Lessee, Real World is a pretty big show right? They take seven people (who they're NOT paying), and stick em in an apartment. What's that cost em? Rent. Road Rules. Kay, I'll grant that a Winnebago probably costs a lot of money, but still, I don't even think that they put gas in it. (or maybe they do, I dunno.) Anyway, that's my take.
Dustpuppy inside...
8 Hackers,Desert Island,1 Can of Mountain Dew...you do the math
People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them
everyone here is very pessimistc, and i must admit i took their whole idea with a grain of salt. But if Mtv does a good job and really does a good job it might be able to inform a lot more people about what a hacker truly is