That hacker ''poem'' is also known as the "Hacker Manifistation" found in a Security book, forgot the name. However, your points are very valid non the less.
Krez, I admire your posts and your knowledge/views, but give credit to whom it belongs ...
I have to agree with Oluseyi on this one. I do have to say that there is a difference between hackers and crackers. BUT, I believe that 95% (if not more) of people out there are crackers and/or script kiddies. Hacker was never meant to be a bad word originally; however, after the media got a hold of all this the word hacker started coming along with a criminal meaning.
A REAL hacker finds ways to satisfy his curiosity legally. For example, if you are REALLY curious about how Windows computers act and look from the outside world, go out and buy a piece of crap computer, put windows on it, and THEN break into it. This way, the computer is yours so you are doing everything perfectly legal (instead of breaking into other peoples'' computers to see how they work).
I also want to say that this post is not meant to "flame" anyone. This is just my opinion and you can take it or leave it .
I agree entirely with you Oluseyi, but I''ll have to give credit to whoever wrote that Hacker Manifesto; it''s great rhetoric. There are a few grammatical errors which can interrup the flow from time to time, but it''s still very impressive. I really liked the repetition, "Damn ________... they''re all the same."
I wouldn''t call it a poem; it''s prose, but it''s a great example of why poetry is useful - to make prose even more powerful. What you do in school - "analyzing" poems with pseudo-psychology and finding their "true" meaning - is garbage. It''s useless. You''re wasting your time. Poetry in and of itself is often self-righteous and superrficial - because it tries to be so deep. This is not poetry; it''s poetic prose. I like it because it''s powerful rhetoric. But I hate it''s message.
"Hacker" used to mean anyone who pushed technology and tried new things. Those are the people I respect. "Hacker," now, however, has come to mean a "cyber-criminal." Most modern hackers are nothing more than vandals. They take a can of spraypaint or a book of matches they found - whether it be Sub7, BackOrifice, or one of countless other "Appz" - and use it to deface, detstroy, or disrupt computers, their content, and their users. I have no respect for these people.
The old breed of "hacker" is no longer called by its previous name. It has taken on others. Among these is "scener." Sceners program to create, not to destroy. They paint synthetic realities in code, pushing the limits not of the law but of the machine. Look at realtime raytracing intros and demos; see per-pixel lighting, reflections, and shadows and perfect parametric surfaces rendered at thirty frames per second. Be amazed. Then try to perform the same feat.
If you''re tired of being "spoon-fed baby food at school," you have a thousand options open to you other than hacking - just within the digital realm! If you choose to hack, it''s not really because you "want steak." It''s because you want to spraypaint the walls and fuck people over for fun but just were never able to in the real world; you''re too weak. The only reason you hack is because you feel a surge of power whenever you make some poor "mortal" who has money and friends and happiness feel your puny synthetic rage. If you could be a normal person, you would be. But you''re not good enough. You hack to feel strong, to escape your own inferiority.
Thanks to all for affirming my thoughts. I expected that, though, because GameDev is one of the places people come to when they are curious and are not satisfied by what they are being taught in school; we have many here who have by far outstripped their high school computing classes. These are lucky to have avenues such as this; when I was growing up (I''m not that old, though!) I had a PC XT with a 20MB hard disk and a 4.33MHz processor. Internet? Network? Get serious!
Or how about my dad... he''s a professor of animal science (specialization in nutrition). When he was a grad student at Cornell, he used batch processing mainframes through terminals that accepted punch cards. He was inquisitive enough to buy his first computer when I was eight (at which time few people even in the US had one), and thus lay the foundations for who I am now. To me, he''s a true hacker - finding solutions to problems even outside his domain (I can''t count how many times he''s solved my programming problems by being supportive and analytical).
So, let us all be true hackers or sceners and honor those who made what we do now possible. This one''s for Poppa.
quote:
Original post by Anonymous Poster Krez, I admire your posts and your knowledge/views, but give credit to whom it belongs ... -David
um, i didn''t post anything in this forum (until just now). i am assuming that you think i put up that hackers mainfesto... i didn''t. i''m apparently not the only one who doesn''t use caps and likes the little skull-n-crossbones icon
anyways, "hackers" are the guys who are truly innovative with computers, and "crackers" are the sh*t for brains kids who want to decompile everything and rip off the phone company and get everyone''s password. hackers don''t like crackers because they give real hackers a bad name, and crackers THINK they are hackers because they can operate someone else''s cracking program. i know just enough about the whole thing to know this difference, and also that most movies about "hackers" are garbage.
david, i am neither of these though. i''m just some guy who wants to program video games, because no matter how kick-ass the ones i buy are, they aren''t as good as what i am picturing in my head
You mean when you hack into a Gibson Super Computer you don't wear glasses that make you fly around the inside of the computer looking at glowing towers that have all the names of files on each side of the tower?!?!?! Dang, that's the whole reason I got into computer programming. hehe.
Edited by - CruxMihiAncora on November 8, 2001 8:11:36 PM
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