What if I want to join the modern-day equivalent of this group's beginnings?
I like the thinking here: https://globality.be/blog/diversification-personalization--r...
Inside the Billion-Dollar Hacker Club
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Re: Inside the Billion-Dollar Hacker Club
#12Re: Inside the Billion-Dollar Hacker Club
#13As an aside, do anyone here still use IRC regularly? It seems some open source projects have permanent channels, but I don't know how active these are. Haven't really used IRC since the mid-90s, but perhaps it's a good way to connect to other developers? Is there a representative YC channel?
Re: Inside the Billion-Dollar Hacker Club
#14As an aside, do anyone here still use IRC regularly? It seems some open source projects have permanent channels, but I don't know how active these are. Haven't really used IRC since the mid-90s, but perhaps it's a good way to connect to other developers? Is there a representative YC channel?
I have a client, spend some hours per week on IRC. Yes, there's great support, extremely skilled developers in various areas can be reached online.
I use weechat (text-based) or Textual (OSX GUI).
Re: Inside the Billion-Dollar Hacker Club
#15As an aside, do anyone here still use IRC regularly? It seems some open source projects have permanent channels, but I don't know how active these are. Haven't really used IRC since the mid-90s, but perhaps it's a good way to connect to other developers? Is there a representative YC channel?
Re: Inside the Billion-Dollar Hacker Club
#16As an aside, do anyone here still use IRC regularly? It seems some open source projects have permanent channels, but I don't know how active these are. Haven't really used IRC since the mid-90s, but perhaps it's a good way to connect to other developers? Is there a representative YC channel?
Most, if not all, of the big open source projects have channels on Freenode. They are excellent places to connect with other developers (people). Not only are they just great places to get involved with other developers, they're also great places to talk to professionals using the technologies every day. You can learn best practices and industry standards by idling in the channels and watching questions get answered.
In terms of a "representative YC channel," there's not an official Hacker News or YC channel I'm aware of. However, there is #startups on Freenode that some have considered a sort of unofficial Hacker News IRC channel. We're a pretty active and lively bunch and the topics range from startups, funding, and entrepreneurship to programming, good beer, and current events. Just like all decent IRC channels, and you're welcome to come hang out any time.
Re: Inside the Billion-Dollar Hacker Club
#17As an aside, do anyone here still use IRC regularly? It seems some open source projects have permanent channels, but I don't know how active these are. Haven't really used IRC since the mid-90s, but perhaps it's a good way to connect to other developers? Is there a representative YC channel?
Re: Inside the Billion-Dollar Hacker Club
#18What if I want to join the modern-day equivalent of this group's beginnings?
I was in two 'crews' as they used to call them in the early 00s. I'm not sure if you would really want join them. I think I prefer my current networking (twitter, github, blogposting, hacker news, stack overflow, etc.)
Back at the time, there was no StartUp culture (where I lived, not talking about Silicon Valley), everything was closed and there was a huge debate over full disclosure (I'm not even sure how it ended... I remember tf8, antisecurity.is and the rest...).
There were a few skilled people around and almost everybody knew them. WEB 2.0 didn't exist (twitter, facebook, etc.) the web was a totally different place...
I'm not sure it was better though, it seemed way more exotic IIRC. But the general behaviors of the communities (linux communities, hacker communities, etc.) was awful: You were getting your fair share of curses every day. Some IRC networks were wild, with DOSSes (flood, nuke and other shit which could disconnect a 56k easily) flying around. Exploits were flying around, some private some not-so-private.
Security was not an industry and the required skillset was not so extreme as it is today. I mean, you could do quite some damage without being very technical. Things changed after 2002-3 (you can see this in the Phrack articles, turning suddenly extremely technical).
Then the web-based internet came out, everything start requiring PHP+SQL and XSS was born. Then Java and after that JavaScript... Which created a new, less sophisticated attack vectors.
Then the era were officially sponsored cyberwars came into play arise. Stuxnet was the most prominent example of this era, with the NSA revelations and China's cyber-army giving a clear view of how the security industry is shaped nowadays.
Today there are no crews like Team TESO (I'd like to read about the story of their members...), ADM, etc. I still remember 's0ftproject[1]' back in the days in Italy. Some members can still be found involved in the Tor project.
Anyway, things have changed for the better or worst. Better keep up with the times...
ps. Today's world should be considered a kinder-garden for a security professional. Way more attacking vectors (so more protection needed) and a huge amount of companies which understand the importance of computer security. Back in the 2001 telnet was still widely used...