Hacker Culture 128
| Hacker Culture | |
| author | Douglas Thomas |
| pages | 266 |
| publisher | University of Minnesota Press |
| rating | 10(ish) |
| reviewer | Are Flagan |
| ISBN | 0816633452 |
| summary | A new critical history of hacker culture |
Let me first recapitulate two brief preludes that figure prominently in Hacker Culture:
- Around 1970 John Draper discovered that a freebie whistle included with Captain Crunch cereal sounded a tone that allowed him, as a literal whistle-blower, to take control of the phone line. Sounding the frequency of 2600 Hz, the high-pitched toy quickly sprouted a cottage industry of small electronic devices called "blue boxes" (first built by Draper) that emitted the commanding tune. Shortly thereafter, in 1971, Steven Jobs and Steven Wozniak built hordes of the boxes and sold them to students in the Berkeley dorms. Jobs and Wozniak would go on to build and found Apple computers by employing the same principle: take existing knowledge and turn it to profit by, eventually, making appropriation proprietary. (Slashdot readers are no doubt familiar with the fact that Mac OS X is not much more than an "aqualicious" -- and expensive -- wrap of FreeBSD.)
- The first personal computer was arguably the Altair. It came as a raw DIY kit that required soldering for assembly and programming to make it work. An early success in coding came in the form of Altair BASIC, a programming language adopted from mainframe systems by Paul Allen and Bill Gates. Unlike other hobbyists who shared their exploits freely, Allen and Gates decided to charge for their adaptation, but were quickly thwarted in their race to the goldmine by the sharing of software at computer clubs, an action that prompted Gates to call fellow developers thieves. For these hobbyists, the notion that programs could be secret and had to be purchased violated the tradition of programming as an ongoing collaboration. The births of our two major personal computing platforms, Mac and PC, consequently both stem from significant changes in the relations between openness and secrecy, sharing and ownership.
In Hacker Culture, Douglas Thomas provides a rewarding account of what preceded and followed these developments, charting the evolution of cracking and hacking from early yet seasoned programmers, generally found at Ivy League departments or under ARPA jurisdiction, to the demonized teenage villains of the 1990s. Although the term "hacking" has become somewhat of an umbrella misnomer to cover diverse behaviors bridging half a century, Thomas does it remarkable justice through, as he puts it, "an effort to understand hacking as an activity that is conditioned as much by its history as by the technology that it engages." To this end, he seeks to engage the role of hacking from an expansive and useful perspective, covering the hacker relationship to technology and society, representation of the hacker through both mainstream media and outlets such as TAP, Phrack and 2600, as well as the juridical construction of the criminalized hacker, which is basically a fancy term for Kafkaesque travesties of justice (the cases of Kevin Mitnick and Chris Lamprecht are analyzed in depth).
Hacker Culture is thankfully not a stylized look at subculture, as an embryonic cult aspiring to become marketable culture, but rather a much broader view of the increasingly computerized networks that comprise society. It is an intelligent exploration beyond the package-design boxes of software, covering our documents, and the product-design casings of computers, housing our institutions. Seen from, or via, an autonomous, skilled perspective on the command line, Hacker Culture provides an indispensable insight into a history of computing that it has become increasingly important to understand for computer users of all levels and abilities. As such, it is perhaps best suited, and intended, for those who do not frequent sites like this, but even pundits with Slashdot bookmarked since it was listed in the root will presumably enjoy the thoughtful analysis Thomas brings to the subject.
A lingering criticism, not exactly directed at the book, is that this publication truly marks the entry of the "hacker" into the realm of academia, where this figure will be dissected ad nauseam along with other minority reports concerned with the so-called radical fringes. Earlier blockbusters on the hacker topic, like Steven Levy's eponymous Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution from 1994, had a certain "sensationalist" appeal that, akin to William Gibson's Neuromancer, drew more of their leitmotifs from classic frontier westerns than cultural criticism. Instead of reading about jacking in and cracking from these primal sources, we got a ton of obligatory theory that read between the lines and reported on the findings at twice the length. Thomas, although he writes both eloquently and lucidly in an entertaining style, is fundamentally connecting the dots of theoretical writing as a second-generation commentator, frequently quoting Levy, for example, and at times the discussion embarks on rather redundant pontifications as a result. (Recall how you can guess the subject of most connect-the-dots outlines, while it usually takes a child careful tracing to number 147 or so before a shriek of joy recognizes the rabbit.) Such misgivings, which are essentially more inspired by the predictable rhetorical mode of academia than this book, are however relatively minor compared to the welcome prospects of actually having some core ideas about free information and open-source computing distributed to a wider audience.
A question remains about what will happen to the figure of the hacker now that we have had, and discussed, both Matthew Broderick, in Hollywood's War Games, and Kevin Mitnick, in jail. In Hacker Culture, both lay claim to capture and coach the collective imagination with regards to what informed autonomy means and the paybacks it receives. Perhaps the future, following Hacker Culture, will prepare a better balance between revered stardom, obscene bankrolls, criminal records and lone isolation cells?
Reviewer Are Flagan has trouble remembering his own passwords. You can purchase Hacker Culture from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
This calls for (Score:4, Funny)
Re:This calls for (Score:3, Insightful)
These two sets of definitions were caused (as best I can tell) when the latter definition was used to describe Robert Morris Jr. to the popular media. Because Mr. Morris was responsible for the largest-scale computer intrusion yet measured in 1987 (the so-called "Internet Worm"), the media assumed that this term refered only to invasive and/or unauthorized "hacking", which was not true, but turned out to be too subtle a distinction to convey to the press.
The attempt, after the fact, to promulgate the term cracker to replace this mistaken definition of hacker met only limited success among those who already used hacker according to its traditional meaning.
What complicated the situation even more was the advent of the so-called "script kiddies", a sub-culture of disaffected youth who did not match the (comparitively altruistic) historical definition of hacker, but did meet the new, media-driven definition. This schism was forever imortalized in the movie, "Hackers", which besides being a terribly written movie also contained non-classic-hacker script kiddies, idealized to the level of pop heroes.
So, IMHO, when you say "hacker", you mean the media definition unless you are among a sub-culture which would recognize the classic meaning. Get over it.
Aaron Sherman - Hacker at large (and large hacker:)
Re:This calls for (Score:1)
I'm just still not sure what to call a hacker. A tinkerer, or tinker [dictionary.com]? It doesn't quite have the same connotations [tuxedo.org] really.
Re:This calls for (Score:1)
Hmph....looks interesting... (Score:1)
Re:Hmph....looks interesting... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Hmph....looks interesting... (Score:1)
Although, I'm sure he's speaking of the popular viewpoint of the masses, although not nescessarily the larger masses. They shed their pre-assigned persona of the shadowy-figure, lurking in the dark.
Either that, or I'm off my rocker. Either way.
N
Re:Hmph....looks interesting... (Score:1)
Another source of hacker history (Score:4, Informative)
Very cool to see the history of something that is still so alive today
Re:Another source of hacker history (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Another source of hacker history (Score:1)
Re:Another source of hacker history (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Another source of hacker history (Score:1)
Re:Another source of hacker history (Score:1)
Re:Another source of hacker history (Score:3, Interesting)
An excellent read, and it provides a much-needed historical context for understanding hackers. A useful counter to the usual sensational literature (hacker as genius, hacker as criminal, hacker as arrested adolescent, hacker as cowboy), etc.
Re:Another source of hacker history (Score:2, Interesting)
by Katie Hafner, Matthew Lyon
Very interesting book about the origin of computers that could talk to each other. Highly recomended.
Re:Another source of hacker history (Score:1)
> the time to do the reading, I'd recommend Pirates of Silicon
> Valley [imdb.com]. It aired a few months ago on TV and covers
> most of what the reviewer talks about.
Ah, yes. For the people who get their HISTORY from the inside of boxes of Captain Crunch.
ash
['Chocolate-coated Sugar Bombs - now with snoggy 'l33t warez inside!']
Hackers (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Hackers (Score:2)
Acid Burn - She is Angelina Jolie. Enough said.
Cereal Killer - Rubs his nipples, steals french fries, has dreadlocks and quotes scripture.
Joey - The only normal one.
Zero Cool - crashed 1500 (and 7!) systems when he was 12, hasn't used a computer in 6 years, and he can still sploit all the latest FBI systems.
Lord Nikon - Has a rainman-like photographic memory, but hasn't gone crazy.
Hackers was a great music video for the latest techno, but not much of a movie on real hacker culture.
Maybe the way hackers see themselves in their own mind because they have read too many gibson novels.
Is there gratuitous... (Score:3, Funny)
Really.. shall we start from the top? (Score:2, Insightful)
figure of the hacker now that we have had, and discussed, both Matthew Broderick, in Hollywood's War Games, and Kevin Mitnick, in jail.
Matthew Broderick, in WarGames, and Kevin Mitnick, in 'low security but you still get pounded up the ass' prison, were not hackers.. they were crackers.
Hackers are friendly quiche eating Pascal programmers and Mac users, whereas crackers are naughty people who do a lot of hacking.
Crackers are also quite nice with some cheese on them.
Re:Really.. shall we start from the top? (Score:1)
Matthew Broderick, in WarGames, and Kevin Mitnick, in 'low security but you still get pounded up the ass' prison, were not hackers.. they were crackers.
Hackers are friendly quiche eating Pascal programmers and Mac users, whereas crackers are naughty people who do a lot of hacking.
Didn't you just say they are crackers and not hackers? Cuz, if so, I don't think crackers would be hacking now would they? Uhm, no, they'd be cracking. If you want to play the fun with words hacking/cracking game...get your own lingo straight before you go breakin' someone else's balls.
Re:Really.. shall we start from the top? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Really.. shall we start from the top? (Score:1)
Re:Really.. shall we start from the top? (Score:1)
is this some new saying about geeks i'm not aware of? this has been showing up in the posts a lot lately.
Quiche-eating Pascal ... "Real Programmers Don't" (Score:1)
Real Programmers...
Don't eat quiche. Real programmers don't even know how to spell quiche. They like Twinkies, Coke, and palate-scorching Szechwan food.
Don't write applications programs. They program right down to the bare metal. Applications programs are for dullards who can't do systems programming.
Don't comment their code. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to understand and even harder to modify.
Don't draw flowcharts. Flowcharts are, after all, the illiterate's form of documentation. Cavemen drew flowcharts; look how much it did for them.
Don't use COBOL. COBOL is for wimpy applications programmers.
Don't use FORTRAN. FORTRAN is for wimpy engineers who wear white socks, pipe stress freaks, and crystallography weenies. They get excited over finite state analysis and nuclear reactor simulations.
Don't use LOGO. In fact programmers use LOGO after puberty.
Don't use APL unless the whole program can be written on one line.
Don't use LISP. Only effeminate programmers use more parentheses than actual code.
Don't use Pascal, BLISS, ADA, or any of those sissy-pinko computer science languages. Strong typing is a crutch for people with weak memories.
Never work 9 to 5. If any are around at 9 a.m. it's because they were up all night.
Don't play tennis or any other sport that requires a change of clothes. Mountain climbing is OK, though, and real programmers often wear climbing boots to work in case a mountain should suddenly spring up in the middle of the machine room.
Don't like the team programming concept. Unless, of course, they are the Chief Programmer.
Have no use for managers. Managers are a necessary evil. They are for dealing with personnel bozos, bean counters, senior planners, and other mental defectives.
Don't drive around in clapped out mavericks. They prefer BMW's, Lincolns, or pick-up trucks with floor shifts. Fast motorcycles are highly regarded.
Like vending machine popcorn. Coders pop it in the microwave oven. Real programmers use the heat given off by the CPU. They can tell what job is running just by listening to the rate the corn is popping.
Know every nuance of every instruction and use them all in every real program. Puppy architects won't allow execute instructions to address another execute as the target instruction. Real programmers despise such petty restrictions.
Don't bring brown bag lunches to work. If the vending machine sells it, they eat it. If the vending machine doesn't sell it, they don't eat it. Vending machines don't sell quiche.
Re:Really.. shall we start from the top? (Score:1)
Eponymous? (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Eponymous? (Score:1)
Huckleberry Finn is the eponymous hero of, well, Huckleberry Finn (The book). A book on hackers called Hackers can be called an eponymous opus.
Almost right. (Score:1)
Actually, "eponymous" refers to the giver of the title, e.g. "Romulus was the eponymous founder of Rome." So a book named "Steven Levy" would be eponymously-titled.
Re:Almost right. (Score:1)
Re:Eponymous? (Score:2)
Huh? If Steven Levy had published an eponymous book it would have been entitled "Steven Levy".
This bugged me as well. I don't consider myself a grammar-Nazi, but if you are going to use deliberately abstruse language (e.g. "leitmotifs" instead of simply "motifs") you probably ought to know what the word means.
-a
Re:Eponymous? (Score:2)
I was annoyed because I had to spend extra time figuring out what the reviewer meant. He obscured his meaning in order to sound smart.
Which 'hackers'? (Score:3, Interesting)
Most of the time the reviewer is talking about "intruder" types, like Kevin Mitnick, Phrack and 2600, but then periodically jumps over to Steven Levy and the Altair, using a much more Jargon File-ish use of "hacker".
I don't care particularly which word is used but came away from the review without a clear idea of what the book is about.
And The New Hacker's Dictionary is...??? (Score:2)
If this is the first, where does The New Hacker's Dictionary [amazon.com] come in? Not mainstream enough? It is much more than just the Jargon File.
Re:And The New Hacker's Dictionary is...??? (Score:2)
Also funny because... (Score:3, Interesting)
In fact, that person sitting next to you in class could be a hacker! Your prof could be a hacker! Your friendly school janitor could be a hacker!
(Are you now, or have you ever been a hacker?)
Heh...
Academicians have been talking about hackers for a long time. (I seem to recall writing a paper on the subject for a grad school class, and doing some reading up for it, anyway.) Maybe people just didn't notice until now.
Re:And The New Hacker's Dictionary is...??? (Score:2)
Huh? You're equating "academia" with "mainstream"? They're usually diametrically opposing styles.
The New Hacker's Dictionary is TOO mainstream; why it's enjoyable to read, I wouldn't exactly call it academically rigorous.
Takedown (Score:4, Interesting)
Another pretty good story was "The Watchman" which was about Kevin Poulson, the famous Ma Bell phone switch hacker. This guy was a real freak! The ultimate geek, at one stage he had a stolen phone switch taking up most of his living room in his appartment, along with stolen unix terminals etc. He was the guy who kept winning phone competitions by controlling the phone equipment, and sending goths along to pick up the prizes!
Re:Takedown (Score:3, Informative)
Man, I think I am going to have to pull that book off my shelf this weekend and start it again.
Re:Takedown (Score:2)
Not the greatest book factually, but far better than the movie, which has Mitnick cracking Shimomura over the head in an alley when in real life they never met each other until one day in court.
Incidently, a great movie is 'Freedom Downtime', the documentary about the 2600 club's organized nationwide protest against the movie Takedown. Sucessful in that it never got a US theatrical release, it also covers a bit of the Free Kevin movement and the harrassment and violence two other hackers have been subjected to. Really nicely done, it literally confronts the newsmen who published incorrect facts about hackers and makes you realize that they knew better - they just wanted a better story.
Good movie - I saw an early version of it at I-Con in Spring 2001, but it's available for sale at 2600.com now.
--
Evan (no references)
Re:Takedown --- @Large (Score:1)
I thought @Large was quite interesting. It does a good job of debunking the "genius geek hero," too, showing the cracker as pretty pathetic, but also showing how much damage he could achieve. Good antidote to too much William Gibson (I love the stuff, but it's no more real than Raymond Chandler's about real private eyes).
now if only people will read it... (Score:3, Interesting)
When are non-geek types going to realize that being a serious computer user, system admin or even a programmer doesn't mean you're ALSO a hacker? When will they start taking a bit of responsibility for securing their systems? Most hackers I've met here are script kiddies who couldn't hack a wet paper bag if the people in the area bothered installing security patches...
They couldn't hack a wet paper bag... (Score:2)
Most hackers I've met here are script kiddies who couldn't hack a [server] if the people in the area bothered installing security patches (i.e. Linux).
Re:now if only people will read it... (Score:1)
LS
Hacker Vs Cracker (Score:2)
Who replace my cat-in-bag with a can-of-worms? - phorm
What would Dr. Evil Do? (Score:2)
!!!!!!!!
Holy crap man! Don't you see the possiblities here? You can make them all your PERSONAL SLAVES! Get on it right away!
Re:now if only people will read it... (Score:4, Funny)
This got me to think about how I would hack a wet paper bag.
Test Subject: Plain small paper bag from a plastic bag of paper bags labeled, simply, "Paper lunch bags." Then I soaked it in water for 2 minutes, shook off the excess water, and laid it down flat.
Software used: I used Red Hat Linux (6.3) and a variety of tools on Windows 2000 (with SP1).
My first attempt was to connect the paper bag to the network. Lacking any RJ11 port, I was forced to assume it was wireless. I placed it on my cable router, in hopes that it would try and boot to DHCP. I waited a long time, but it did not attempt to gain IP access. This would be harder than I thought.
Then I thought maybe it I wrapped the bag around the head of a Cat5 cable, maybe that would work. No luck. It just sat there, inert. I tested the Cat5 cable on a known working system, and found it did not work. I tried another, but while this worked, it did not work on the wet paper bag.
I searched google for "wet paper bag" and "2600 wet paper bag" and Usenet for "wet paper bag." It did not return any useable results, although it appears that quite a lot of people assume script kiddies cannot hack one, either. I checked the TCP/IP manual that came with my Cisco training, and did not find anything that might help. I had no idea what level of the OSI layer would work on a wet paper bag, but I assumed if it was hackable, it would have to at least get to layer 2. So I attached it to an old X.25 serial cable, and tried frame routing, but all I got were device timeouts. Wet paper bags are a LOT more secure than I thought!
After a day of this, I thought I had finally gotten a login prompt, but I found I accidentally was using the IP address of my other LINUX box.
I asked around, and found a script kiddie at the local comic book store. I asked him if he could hack a wet paper bag, but instead of answering, he became angry, and asked me what cable service I used. I didn't think it would help, but I told him everything I knew. Later when I got home, my ZoneAlarm had crashed in what I am guessing was a DOS attack.
So far, I have concluded I cannot hack a wet paper bag, either. I have shown my results to my boss, and soon, "WPB Protocol" will replace OpenBSD as the security standard in all our offices. That gives me only 3 weeks to learn how to program one. I hope there a gcc for it...
Re:now if only people will read it... (Score:2)
Re:now if only people will read it... (Score:1)
Flamebait (Score:1, Flamebait)
No need for this!
Lol, you called your shot Babe! (as in Ruth) (Score:2)
Just my thoughts.....
Not light reading... (Score:5, Informative)
Not so. The book is actually very dense, and looks at hackers/hacker culture in a more sociological/anthropological context, examining norms and values of the subculture versus traditional society and so forth.
It's interesting and I moved through it fairly quickly, but it's not really light reading. It basically reads like someone's thesis paper or something. And there are enough typos that it just might drive you nuts. But on a four hour flight, I would much rather read this than the thrilling American Airlines magazine.
I am just tired (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure, Gates and Jobs should play a big part in chronicle of history around the progress in the computer industry and software industries, sure. However, what about Bill Joy, Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie?
They played a big part too. It was not in the PC world sure but it impacted Universities and Corporations on a very large scale. What about talking over the rise of Open Source in a way that did not either make it sound like a magical revolution cheering it forward as the only future or making sound like some horrible fifties commie plot? What about going over it in a detached objective fashion while still capturing the personality and excitement people have?
I am still looking for a good history of the Hacker/IT/Computer Revolution that takes in interesting truly balanced approach.
Does anyone have a good example?
_______________________________________________
Re:I am just tired (Score:3, Informative)
I enjoyed 'Nerds 2.0.1: A Brief History of the Internet' by Stephen Segaller. [amazon.com]
But YMMV
--xPhase
Re:I am just tired (Score:1)
The Cuckoo's Egg (Score:2, Informative)
Re:The Cuckoo's Egg (Score:2)
more level-headed view of "hackers" (Score:1)
BTW, it is my suspicion that years from now, when all the dust settles, folk will conclude that a lot of key development of computers actually took place in industries like trucking (traveling salesman problem anyone?) far from the spotlight, where the techies were just expected to get the job done and not pressed for details.
After all, what was the first major industry to universally computerize?
Can you guess?
That's right, retail stores. Yup. Sam Walton always said that the biggest thing that gave him his edge was his heavy usage of computers for things like logistics and anticipation of demand.
Now given that the other major contenders are accounting/insurance and personnel departments I suspect that for every Steve and Steve working at Atari was a just as influential person who did their seminal work in a polyester shirt in some big conservative company. But since that's not good televison, it ain't gettin' covered any time soon. After all it would be much harder to cast a heartthrob like Noah Wyle in such a role. The best you'ld do is Jack Black or Curtis "Booger"Armstrong.
Off to dig out my original, pre-recall, "Real Genius" poster,
Rustin
Re:more level-headed view of "hackers" (Score:2)
Re:more level-headed view of "hackers" (Score:1)
Re:more level-headed view of "hackers" (Score:2)
Re:I am just tired (Score:2)
What ever happened to Xanadu? (Score:2)
Kind of ironic that the Microsoft Press reprinted it more recently, although that copy of mine doesn't have a very good binding and is falling apart.
Just curious... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Just curious... (Score:1)
Hacker culture, eh? (Score:2)
hyacinthus (as are the pages of the book's sequel, _Hacker Philosophy_)
ESRI on Linux (Score:1, Offtopic)
Great idea, poor implementation. (Score:2, Interesting)
Jeez, getting through the introduction was a chore. I was reminded of the Bataan Death March. The introduction was the worst. It was like an endless academic spiel, just going on, and on, and on, and on (but you get the idea). BREVITY IS THE SOUL OF WIT, MAN! Sigh...
Still...
He means well. And, for an academic audience, the book might be helpful in that it might frame hackers in a more positive, more accurate light.
But, Jesus, does he ramble. I think a much better-written book on hackers is "Hackers" by Steven Levy, which follows the original MIT hackers, and traces up through the microcomputer companies and game developers that came later. I'd like to see Mr. Levy do a followup, taking us from the early nineties to the present. He's a much more animated, interesting writer (no disrespect to the academic style of "hacker culture", it's just a little dry).
review is flamebait ? (Score:5, Insightful)
fact ? eh ? If the whole of OS X is not much more than a wrap of FreeBSD then how come the good GNUstep folks are still struggling to complete a workalike after nearly a decade ?
There is a heck of a lot more to OS X than just Darwin you know , just like there is a whole lot more to GNU than just linux.
Re:review is flamebait ? (Score:1)
Yeah, just what I was going to say.
It's called NeXTSTEP! Everything about Mac OS X screams, "I'm a NeXT box painted blue!". Everything about the GUI, right down to the color selection box, is NeXT. NetInfo, defaults, the big great API that is now known as Cocoa that is in ObjC and all of the class names start with 'NS'. And they use a FreeBSD stack. Big deal. People are always talking about how OS X is a FreeBSD, or a UNIX, or whatever they want to call it, but who mentions NeXT?
By the way, let's all tell Apple to undummify the Dock. The NeXT workspace had much more functionality, including that multipal workspaces thing that apearently is WAY to complicated for Apple's customers to understand, the miniwindows that you can move around (OS X sticks them in the Dock too), the appicons that you haven't put anywhere (OS X sticks them in the Dock too), the clip icons (OS X doesn't have one), etc., etc. So in short, Apple just puts anything and everything in the One Grand Unified Dock, instead of having different places for different things.
On an unrelated note, does anyone know of a program that acts like the Dock, that I can use in KDE 3, to replace Kicker? Unfortionatly, the WindowMaker dock is fully integrated into the window manager.
Re:review is flamebait ? (Score:1)
Re:review is flamebait ? (Score:1)
Re:review is flamebait ? (Score:1)
Re:review is flamebait ? (Score:1)
In the case of OS X the FreeBSD component is used precisely because the license terms allow for a company to take this code and do what they like with it.
Now if you strip away Quartz and the OpenStep runtime you are left with an OS called "Darwin". This OS is freely redistributable and source available , under an OSI approved "open source" licence. I expect the FSF don't like this license much, but then they are not exactly mad keen on the FreeBSD license in the first place, so the point is moot. Now, to me that adds up to a rather generous form of "appropriaton", especially when you consider that Apple are under no obligation to do this at all. Indeed they could well have chosen to close off the low level OS components and hide away the FreeBSD heritage. Instead they use that fact visibly within the marketing campaign for the OS X product.
All of this I consider, makes OS X and its relationship to FreeBSD a terrible example of the case you are trying to argue. When you dress up a central point of some contention in strident language and elaborate it with falsehoods you communicate a certain attitude to a reader like myself. There is a large, and largely well written review, of what sounds like it could be an interesting publication, certainly interesting to a great section of this websites readers. By inserting a snide and untrue assertion at the foot of the opening postulates, you poison the tone of the whole piece. A seed of doubt is sown , and to the reader it is apparent that the author has an agenda alongside the evaluation of the quality of the book on review, not only an agenda but look out! Their words cannot be trusted.
On the whole I think one needs to be careful about allowing self opinion to leak into review cases. If you feel a relevant opinion needs to be presented in order to provide useful context for the reader, then you are correct that often a good idea is to provide example matter to back up your assertion. The examples need to be relevant to the case in question however !
"Repeatedly, individuals and corporations appropriate something free and open and use it to form the basis of some prortietry profit-making system! " you say (and I paraphrase)
"Really ?", says the reader , " I wouldn't put it past those swine, I bet they do., Tell me more."
"Yes!", you continue, "just look at Apple Computer - they are one of the worst for it. "
The reader frowns. "Apple ? The company that gave away full circuit schematics with their gadgets and PCs ? The company that gives away the source code to their commercial grade UNIX system for free ? That doesn't make much sense. You must be one of these slashdot Apple bashers. I thought this was a book review.", he says , and moves quickly on to another article.
Re:review is flamebait ? (Score:1)
(This final untrustworthy paragraph insertion attests that the above is simply something as misled as my own opinion and bears no relation to proper objective thought or certifiable real events. Always use with caution, and please discard or embrace at will. Agenda permanently attached.)
Small PS: Written on a Mac PowerBook.
Clarified (Score:1)
A book that covers the individual hacker (Score:2, Informative)
"Underground"
Which is available, in its entirety here:
http://www.underground-book.com/download.php3
What I really liked about this book was the indepth story telling about several hackers, their relationships with other hackers (globally I might add), their relationships with family and other "non-hackers," and their general makeup as people.
After reading this, I felt I had a much better appreciation of the importance that the hacker culture can have for some people. The hacker underground was clearly a place where these kids felt most comfortable, and in some cases provided an important level of social support that they didn't otherwise have access to.
Draper Didn't Discover the Crunch Whistle (Score:3, Interesting)
Please, don't perpetuate a falsehood. And no, you really don't want any "stretching exercises".
Hmmm (Score:3, Interesting)
Hackers: Computer Outlaws [discovery.com]
Re:summing shit up for the 50th time... (Score:1)
http://www.biker-needs-a-harley.org/
Re:man... (Score:1)
http://www.biker-needs-a-harley.org/