Synopses & Reviews
Dear Hacker: Letters to the Editor of 2600 will be a compilation of the single most popular feature that has appeared regularly in 2600Magazine since its inception in 1984. One thing that 2600 has become famous for is the wide variety of readers it attracts: corporate spies, adolescent rebels, computer geeks, anarchists, survivalists, worried parents, law enforcement, private eyes, criminals, and consumer advocates. On a regular basis, representatives of each of these groups writes in to the magazine and, quite often, winds up getting published. Depending on the source, the information offered can be insightful, funny, scary, or outright insane. Oftentimes, a reply from the editor is offered, which is often tinged with sarcasm or admonition. Many readers claim to buy the magazine just to read the letters. This book will be the first time a collection of letters has been bound together and sorted by theme. The compilation of feedback from the early 1980s to the present will illustrate where we're headed, along with some of the interesting topics touched upon along the way. The book will be divided into the following categories of letters:
How Do I Become a Hacker? /Questions About Technology/ Society's Rebels/ Rants/ Retail Hijinks/ Hate Mail/ Problems/
Nut Cases/ Leaked Info
Synopsis
Actual letters written to the leading hackers' magazineFor 25 years, 2600: The Hacker Quarterly has given voice to the hacker community in all its manifestations. This collection of letters to the magazine reveals the thoughts and viewpoints of hackers, both white and black hat, as well as hacker wannabes, technophiles, and people concerned about computer security. Insightful and entertaining, the exchanges illustrate 2600's vast readership, from teenage rebels, anarchists, and survivalists to law enforcement, consumer advocates, and worried parents.
Dear Hacker is must reading for technology aficionados, 2600's wide and loyal audience, and anyone seeking entertainment well laced with insight into our society.
Coverage Includes:
- Question Upon Question
- Tales from the Retail Front
- The Challenges of Life as a Hacker
- Technology
- The Magic of the Corporate World
- Our Biggest Fans
- Behind the Walls
- A Culture of Rebels
- Strange Ramblings
For more information and sample letters, check out the companion site at http://lp.wileypub.com/dearhacker/
About the Author
Emmanuel Goldstein (
[email protected]) has been publishing
2600 Magazine, The Hacker Quarterly, since 1984. He traces his hacker roots to his high school days in the late '70s, when he first played with a distant computer over highspeed, 300-baud phone lines. It didn't take long for him to get into trouble by figuring out how to access something he wasn’t supposed to access. He continued playing with various machines in his college days at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. This resulted in an FBI raid, as he once again gained access to something he really shouldn't have. It was in the midst of all this excitement that he cofounded
2600 Magazine, an outlet for hacker stories and tutorials from all over the world. The rapid growth and success of the magazine was both shocking and scary to Goldstein, who to this day has never taken a course in computers. Since 1988, he has also hosted
Off The Hook, a hacker-themed technology talk show on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York City. In addition to making the hacker documentary
Freedom Downtime, Goldstein hosts the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conferences in New York City every two years, drawing thousands of hackers from all over the world.
Table of Contents
Introduction.
1 Question Upon Question.
2 Tales from the Retail Front.
3 The Challenges of Life as a Hacker.
4 Technology.
5 The Magic of the Corporate World.
6 Our Biggest Fans.
7 Behind the Walls.
8 A Culture of Rebels.
9 Strange Ramblings.
Index.