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The Hacker's Manifesto (1986)

usc.edu

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Re: The Hacker's Manifesto (1986)

#111

Post by walshemj »

eggy wrote: post #94
objectiveariel wrote: post #6

To me, this manifesto has little more than historical value. It's more an expression of generic adolescent angst rather than of hacker culture. It's a poor "manifesto" too. What exactly are the aims of The Hacker? "Exploring", "Outsmarting you", and "judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like". Platitudes, really, if you set aside the emotional outbursts surrounding them. The Jargon File offer…

I will not argue the angst angle or semantics of manifesto, but given the context of who and when they wrote it, it was and can still carry some weight. But just as your comment betrays your age (I think?), so does mine. I remember going to 2600 meetings in the lower plaza of the Citigroup building once a month. At that time, someone told me Feds come and photograph to record attendees (all 5 or 8 people if a good tu…

Amen Brother/Sister Hacker is not some one who is doing cut'n paste webdev :-)

A lot of so called "hackers" are like david brent unfortunetly

And I say this as some one who was asked by a senior press officer to respond on behalf of my employer (bt) on alt.2600 - unfortunately SD (BT Security) nixed that

Re: The Hacker's Manifesto (1986)

#112

Post by walshemj »

jff wrote: post #43
objectiveariel wrote: post #6

To me, this manifesto has little more than historical value. It's more an expression of generic adolescent angst rather than of hacker culture. It's a poor "manifesto" too. What exactly are the aims of The Hacker? "Exploring", "Outsmarting you", and "judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like". Platitudes, really, if you set aside the emotional outbursts surrounding them. The Jargon File offer…

In my opinion, the Jargon File is a fun look back at historical hacker lifestyles, but it's also a microcosm of a very few schools in the 60s and 70s. Teenagers have a bad habit of reading the Jargon File and thinking that's how they MUST behave to be a hacker--I did it, to my embarrassment, and a trip to Defcon or most any freshman CS course will find others doing the same. You don't have to start saying "grok" to b…

Back then those wher the only schools /universities that mattered

Re: The Hacker's Manifesto (1986)

#113

Post by sverige »

devishard wrote: post #57
objectiveariel wrote: post #6

To me, this manifesto has little more than historical value. It's more an expression of generic adolescent angst rather than of hacker culture. It's a poor "manifesto" too. What exactly are the aims of The Hacker? "Exploring", "Outsmarting you", and "judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like". Platitudes, really, if you set aside the emotional outbursts surrounding them. The Jargon File offer…

> It's a poor "manifesto" too. What exactly are the aims of The Hacker? "Exploring", "Outsmarting you", and "judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like". Platitudes, really, if you set aside the emotional outbursts surrounding them. Platitudes, yes, but they're platitudes because everyone assumes that those are goods that everyone values. The thing is, while most people would say they value th…

I think you've put your finger on the difference between hacker culture in the early 80s and now.

Re: The Hacker's Manifesto (1986)

#114

Post by ihaveahadron »

angersock wrote: post #41
DonHopkins wrote: post #27

Excellent advice. ESR's ideology is vile, he tries to inject it into everything, and he has no shame. He regularly judges and bullies people on the color of their skin, gender, nationality and religion, and he's certainly not qualified as a "hacker". https://twitter.com/iaincollins/status/719687723590762496 ‏@iaincollins Iain Collins Retweeted $30,000 Logout CSRF TIL ESR is a racist white supremacist and his neo-paga…

You cite a bunch of people echochambering how much of a big, bad racist ESR is and call him names. The two direct quotes from him make policy points about drama from employees belonging to a group known for same and about anti-racism being used as a motivation for handwaving what he claims is a valid demographic observation. Even if you don't agree with his (nutzo!) politics you should refrain from repeating sloppy a…

Where is the threshold that makes a person an intellectual? We can't use IQ, as that has been shown to be pseudoscience. So what is it? It's nothing. Intellectual is a useless, empty word, used by morons.

Re: The Hacker's Manifesto (1986)

#115

Post by walshemj »

eggy wrote: post #94
objectiveariel wrote: post #6

To me, this manifesto has little more than historical value. It's more an expression of generic adolescent angst rather than of hacker culture. It's a poor "manifesto" too. What exactly are the aims of The Hacker? "Exploring", "Outsmarting you", and "judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like". Platitudes, really, if you set aside the emotional outbursts surrounding them. The Jargon File offer…

I will not argue the angst angle or semantics of manifesto, but given the context of who and when they wrote it, it was and can still carry some weight. But just as your comment betrays your age (I think?), so does mine. I remember going to 2600 meetings in the lower plaza of the Citigroup building once a month. At that time, someone told me Feds come and photograph to record attendees (all 5 or 8 people if a good tu…

Cybergypsies by Inndra Sinha (a booker prize shortlisted author) is a good snapshot of the UK scene.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Cybergypsies-Indra-Sinha/dp/1416525...

I even get a shout out under my handle in the dedication

Re: The Hacker's Manifesto (1986)

#116

Post by laumars »

qwertyuiop924 wrote: post #31
loydb wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pleased, because I think I'm the answer to the trivia question "What was the first email address to ever appear in a major movie credit roll". Sad, because, damn, is that a bad movie.

I feel you on that. Tron and Sneakers are both more fun, and Sneakers captures computing more accurately. On the culture side, I don't know of any major films that capture computing culture. Charles Stross's Laundry series does a better job than most (You can still read The Atrocity Archives without a backround in computing, but you'll get this nagging feeling you're missing something), seeing as Stross is up to his…

Antitrust[1] is good for getting the subtle details right while still having a dramatic plot for Hollywood. I quite liked War Games[2] as well.

[1] http://gb.imdb.com/title/tt0218817/

[2] http://gb.imdb.com/title/tt0086567/

Re: The Hacker's Manifesto (1986)

#117

Post by jlgaddis »

loydb wrote: post #110
eggy wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I will not argue the angst angle or semantics of manifesto, but given the context of who and when they wrote it, it was and can still carry some weight. But just as your comment betrays your age (I think?), so does mine. I remember going to 2600 meetings in the lower plaza of the Citigroup building once a month. At that time, someone told me Feds come and photograph to record attendees (all 5 or 8 people if a good tu…

We found out that the SS was filming through hotel mirrors in a couple of rooms during Summercon 88. Poor Knight Lightning had to watch hours and hours of nothing but drunken shenanigans (because nobody trusted the dude who showed up out of nowhere claiming his handle was the "Dictator", so basically we trashed his room. I left a blender in there, the only thing I did in that room was mix batches of Margaritas.) When…

As an early teen when I first read your words ~25 years ago, I immediately related. Even more so a few years later when I was kicked out of my high school computer classes, banned from touching the computers, and then when the FBI showed up at my home (unrelated).

All these years later, it feels odd to see this here, read your comment, and write a reply. Your words served as "inspiration" to probably thousands of youth. I hope you're doing well.

Re: The Hacker's Manifesto (1986)

#118

Post by et-al »

devishard wrote: post #57
objectiveariel wrote: post #6

To me, this manifesto has little more than historical value. It's more an expression of generic adolescent angst rather than of hacker culture. It's a poor "manifesto" too. What exactly are the aims of The Hacker? "Exploring", "Outsmarting you", and "judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like". Platitudes, really, if you set aside the emotional outbursts surrounding them. The Jargon File offer…

> It's a poor "manifesto" too. What exactly are the aims of The Hacker? "Exploring", "Outsmarting you", and "judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like". Platitudes, really, if you set aside the emotional outbursts surrounding them. Platitudes, yes, but they're platitudes because everyone assumes that those are goods that everyone values. The thing is, while most people would say they value th…

> because hackers, unlike the rest of the conversation around women in STEM, don't give a fuck about [gender]. They only care what people do, and it turns out women do about the same amount of stuff as men.

Wanted to emphasize this. Hope you don't mind the edit.

Re: The Hacker's Manifesto (1986)

#120

Post by goldenkey »

throwanem wrote: post #82
goldenkey wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately as I study higher level mathematics on my own, I hunger to be in a graduate program where the eagerness to learn and sharing of profundity and boundless energy to crack the truths of pure logic buzz around departments and campuses. It sucks to be in solace with knowledge. I wish I realized earlier that higher education was far more matched to skills needed for research. I would have majored in math inst…

> a graduate program where the eagerness to learn and sharing of profundity and boundless energy to crack the truths of pure logic buzz Do such things exist? I chose not to continue my studies beyond high school graduation, but from my experience around academics and academia, the sort of program you describe seems at the very least well away from the norm.

High school academia is nothing like undergraduate academia which is nothing like graduate academia. Graduate academia is awesome unless you get stuck under a professor who tries to use you as a grunt worker. It happens but it's not the norm.
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