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Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution
A mere fifteen years ago, computer nerds were seen as marginal weirdos, outsiders whose world would never resonate with the mainstream. That was before one pioneering work documented the underground computer revolution that was about to change our world forever. With groundbreaking profiles of Bill Gates, Steve Wozniak, MIT's Tech Model Railroad Club, and more, Steven Levy's Hackers brilliantly captured a seminal moment when the risk-takers and explorers were poised to conquer twentieth-century America's last great frontier. And in the Internet age, the hacker ethic-first espoused here-is alive and well.
464 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
About the author
Steven Levy
46 books656 followersSteven Levy is editor at large at Wired, and author of eight books, including the new Facebook: the Inside Story, the definitive history of that controversial company. His previous works include the legendary computer history Hackers, Artificial Life, the Unicorn 's Secret, In the Plex (the story of Google, chose as Amazon and Audible's best business book of 2011), and Crypto, which won the Frankfurt E-book Award for the best non-fiction book of 2001. He was previously the chief technology correspondent for Newsweek. He lives in New York City.
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Relationship are complicated. They are built on one key parameter which is trust but sometimes people tend to take advantage of the ones they were suppose to love and nothing else. There is no room for cheating in a relationship that's being said YES. Its quite subjective. Nevertheless, hurting your significant other feelings can be a heartbreaking thing for any person.
Spying on someone without the knowledge is unethical unless you are sure the person is up to something which might hurt you physically or emotionally. In this modern age were everything is either smart or going to be, the means of communication is always very smart which means that you can keep a track of someone's conversation.
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September 21, 2010
I'm still sort of processing this book a week later. All the status updates I posted are notes I wrote on paper while I was reading, alas I ran out of scraps while sick in bed, somewhere around pg 350. (the goodreads entry says this has more pages than the copy I have, btw.)
Note: this is a really long and somewhat rambling review.
A few themes stick out, notably West coast vs East coast. No, seriously. The first section is all MIT hackers, the other two are west coast focused (hippie hackers and the gaming biz). Shockingly, the hippie hacker community actually manage to get more shit done.
My pet theory is that it relates to engagement with the rest of the world. Those MIT guys really got to lock themselves away from everything, and they really liked it that way. (There's some interesting moments of cognitive dissonance of the radical openness within the lab vs the military funding for the lab.) Which meant they were doing fascinating crazy stuff, but it didn't necessarily have any effect on the masses. Whereas the hippies -- or at least some of the influential folks in that scene -- actually cared about the rest of the world. And of course the gamers were out to make money. So they were the ones who got computing and the hacker ethos out into the world.
Another thing that I kept running into: I'd be excited about the hackers' excitement, totally understanding that sense of flow...and then: ugh, thoroughly unpleasant people. Not just unpleasant individuals, but a repellent culture. I found that most true of the MIT hackers and the gamers, FWIW.
Possibly related: the overwhelming maleness of the hacker culture throughout the entire book. A lack of balance?
Also possibly related: a quote about Stallman (p 438) - "He recognized that his personality was unyielding to the give-and-take of common human interaction." (That line? Made me bust up laughing.)
Another somewhat random observation: baby boomers. Didn't occur to me until reading the last afterword, and the conversation between Levy & Gates, that all these hackers were boomers. I'd never really thought about the hacker ethos/community as also being a creation of that generation. Huh.
What does all this mean to the things I've ranted about on my blog? (I had that in the back of my head while I was reading, based on an email conversation with the person who sent me the book.) I'm still not sure. It does make the underlying ethos of Facebook make more sense, although not any less repellent. In fact, maybe it's more so, because there's a historical thread connecting it to guys crawling through the ceiling to steal keys out of desks. (WTF? That still blows my mind.) And thus, a lack of learning how the rest of the world perceives reality.
And for the gender thing? I see it even more, and I keep wondering how much of our current situation is "inevitable" given the history, what would have happened if the history had been different, etc. It also contexualizes the history of sexism in computing against the history of sexism in general (wait, did that sentence make any sense?) - the whole damn world was sexist then. My mother was one of three women in her high school trig class, and IIRC she was the only one who finished. Whereas when I took higher math in high school, I'd say the class was split more like 50/50. So the idea of the MIT hackers that there's some biological difference that kept women out of their world is nuts. Their world -- despite its lack of football -- was hyper-masculine, disconnected from anything that wasn't the guys and the machines. The story of the woman whose program got screwed up because of an unauthorized upgrade by hackers -- and she was doing something "real" -- made a impression on me as far as that's concerned. But that impression of hackerdom being a male province only fed on itself, so that women who were interested in computers were an oddity. (For example, what happened to the "housewives" who disappeared into the community center computer? Why weren't they able to become part of the hacker community?)
As I said, I'm still processing.
And that said, it was a well-written book; fantastic story-telling. The follow-ups were interesting as well, given that the book ends basically with a reference to the movie Wargames. Good stuff, overall, and definitely recommended.
Note: this is a really long and somewhat rambling review.
A few themes stick out, notably West coast vs East coast. No, seriously. The first section is all MIT hackers, the other two are west coast focused (hippie hackers and the gaming biz). Shockingly, the hippie hacker community actually manage to get more shit done.
My pet theory is that it relates to engagement with the rest of the world. Those MIT guys really got to lock themselves away from everything, and they really liked it that way. (There's some interesting moments of cognitive dissonance of the radical openness within the lab vs the military funding for the lab.) Which meant they were doing fascinating crazy stuff, but it didn't necessarily have any effect on the masses. Whereas the hippies -- or at least some of the influential folks in that scene -- actually cared about the rest of the world. And of course the gamers were out to make money. So they were the ones who got computing and the hacker ethos out into the world.
Another thing that I kept running into: I'd be excited about the hackers' excitement, totally understanding that sense of flow...and then: ugh, thoroughly unpleasant people. Not just unpleasant individuals, but a repellent culture. I found that most true of the MIT hackers and the gamers, FWIW.
Possibly related: the overwhelming maleness of the hacker culture throughout the entire book. A lack of balance?
Also possibly related: a quote about Stallman (p 438) - "He recognized that his personality was unyielding to the give-and-take of common human interaction." (That line? Made me bust up laughing.)
Another somewhat random observation: baby boomers. Didn't occur to me until reading the last afterword, and the conversation between Levy & Gates, that all these hackers were boomers. I'd never really thought about the hacker ethos/community as also being a creation of that generation. Huh.
What does all this mean to the things I've ranted about on my blog? (I had that in the back of my head while I was reading, based on an email conversation with the person who sent me the book.) I'm still not sure. It does make the underlying ethos of Facebook make more sense, although not any less repellent. In fact, maybe it's more so, because there's a historical thread connecting it to guys crawling through the ceiling to steal keys out of desks. (WTF? That still blows my mind.) And thus, a lack of learning how the rest of the world perceives reality.
And for the gender thing? I see it even more, and I keep wondering how much of our current situation is "inevitable" given the history, what would have happened if the history had been different, etc. It also contexualizes the history of sexism in computing against the history of sexism in general (wait, did that sentence make any sense?) - the whole damn world was sexist then. My mother was one of three women in her high school trig class, and IIRC she was the only one who finished. Whereas when I took higher math in high school, I'd say the class was split more like 50/50. So the idea of the MIT hackers that there's some biological difference that kept women out of their world is nuts. Their world -- despite its lack of football -- was hyper-masculine, disconnected from anything that wasn't the guys and the machines. The story of the woman whose program got screwed up because of an unauthorized upgrade by hackers -- and she was doing something "real" -- made a impression on me as far as that's concerned. But that impression of hackerdom being a male province only fed on itself, so that women who were interested in computers were an oddity. (For example, what happened to the "housewives" who disappeared into the community center computer? Why weren't they able to become part of the hacker community?)
As I said, I'm still processing.
And that said, it was a well-written book; fantastic story-telling. The follow-ups were interesting as well, given that the book ends basically with a reference to the movie Wargames. Good stuff, overall, and definitely recommended.
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March 25, 2012
This book, the original version, changed my life when I read it in high school. It, along with "The Cuckoo's Egg", put me on the road to computer science in college.
August 6, 2014
Why didn't O'Reilly bother to edit out the unneeded phrases like "known to man" ("the best computer in the world known to man")? A decent editor could have cut 20% out of this book, and made it much better in the process.
Additionally, there are enough cases of deep confusion about technical terms and famous events that I had to research any stories I was not already familiar with to see if the details were correct.
The writing is terrible, punctuated with ridiculous narrative commentary. For instance, while discussing a chess program that avoided a loss via an illegal move, Levy asks if the program was finding a new solution to chess. No; it had a bug that caused it to consider illegal moves, and it took one. It's hard to imagine confusing one (bug that causes program to take illegal moves) with the other (sentient program that changes the rules of chess for increased enjoyment). It's also hard to imagine a good editor failing to flag such an ignorant statement.
I have the 25th-anniversary edition and, to be fair, the portions of the book added later (when Levy was older and more experienced) are better written. But that only shows how poor a job the original editor did!
I can understand Dennis Ritchie's anti-foreword to the UNIX Hater's Handbook ( http://simson.net/ref/ugh.pdf ): "Like excrement, it contains enough undigested nuggets of nutrition to sustain life for some. But it is not a tasty pie. ... Bon appetit!"
Additionally, there are enough cases of deep confusion about technical terms and famous events that I had to research any stories I was not already familiar with to see if the details were correct.
The writing is terrible, punctuated with ridiculous narrative commentary. For instance, while discussing a chess program that avoided a loss via an illegal move, Levy asks if the program was finding a new solution to chess. No; it had a bug that caused it to consider illegal moves, and it took one. It's hard to imagine confusing one (bug that causes program to take illegal moves) with the other (sentient program that changes the rules of chess for increased enjoyment). It's also hard to imagine a good editor failing to flag such an ignorant statement.
I have the 25th-anniversary edition and, to be fair, the portions of the book added later (when Levy was older and more experienced) are better written. But that only shows how poor a job the original editor did!
I can understand Dennis Ritchie's anti-foreword to the UNIX Hater's Handbook ( http://simson.net/ref/ugh.pdf ): "Like excrement, it contains enough undigested nuggets of nutrition to sustain life for some. But it is not a tasty pie. ... Bon appetit!"
August 3, 2014
I don't usually review before finishing but I'm not sure I'll get through this one so might as well.
It's a bloated and repetitive book that focuses on a very specific area and drags it out as far as you can conceivably take it.
The author seems to think the people in the book are extraordinarily interesting, with their petty neuroses and self-centred immaturity, but unfortunately, they are ...not.
Do yourself a favour and watch the excellent films Pirates of Silicon Valley and Micromen instead, if you want to know about this particular era of computing.
There are lots of very interesting parts of Computer Science History, but this book isn't one of them. I'm more intrigued by Hero of Alexandria's first forays into Robotics; Ada Lovelace and the start of programming; the incredibly fascinating Bletchley Park and enigma code breakers... when you are used to genuinely absorbing computer science history, this book just doesn't cut the mustard.
It also only cares about a particular era of young, obnoxious male Americans and acts casually as though their contribution to computer science is the only one that counts for anything. It doesn't even include young Female Americans who contributed, like Grace Hopper, Klara dan Von Neumann, Margaret Fox, Katherine Johnson etc. ... preferring to buy into the idea that "women just don't do computer science...strange isn't it?"
No, the strange thing is how this ignorance still gets perpetuated as a "fact" in an information book about computer science, in this century. Give me a break.
My main complaint though is that...it's just boring. It doesn't have to be, but it is. As another commenter mentioned - you could cut out a heck of a lot of this book with some decent editing.
It's a bloated and repetitive book that focuses on a very specific area and drags it out as far as you can conceivably take it.
The author seems to think the people in the book are extraordinarily interesting, with their petty neuroses and self-centred immaturity, but unfortunately, they are ...not.
Do yourself a favour and watch the excellent films Pirates of Silicon Valley and Micromen instead, if you want to know about this particular era of computing.
There are lots of very interesting parts of Computer Science History, but this book isn't one of them. I'm more intrigued by Hero of Alexandria's first forays into Robotics; Ada Lovelace and the start of programming; the incredibly fascinating Bletchley Park and enigma code breakers... when you are used to genuinely absorbing computer science history, this book just doesn't cut the mustard.
It also only cares about a particular era of young, obnoxious male Americans and acts casually as though their contribution to computer science is the only one that counts for anything. It doesn't even include young Female Americans who contributed, like Grace Hopper, Klara dan Von Neumann, Margaret Fox, Katherine Johnson etc. ... preferring to buy into the idea that "women just don't do computer science...strange isn't it?"
No, the strange thing is how this ignorance still gets perpetuated as a "fact" in an information book about computer science, in this century. Give me a break.
My main complaint though is that...it's just boring. It doesn't have to be, but it is. As another commenter mentioned - you could cut out a heck of a lot of this book with some decent editing.
March 17, 2013
This book is divided into three basic sections. The first, about MIT hackers in the 1950's and 1960's, is outstanding. The second, about homebrew hardware culture in the Bay Area in the 1960's and 1970's, is decent but bloated. The third, about game hackers and Sierra On-Line, is mostly worthless. I'd recommend reading the MIT section and then readily giving up on the book after that.
April 21, 2021
I'm migrating all my reviews to my blog. I'm keeping the old version here (because it makes sense to do it) but you can read the latest one on my blog: https://pothix.com/hackerscomputerrev...
Great book. John Carmack said it was the most inspiring book for him and I can understand why.
The word Hackers is not the same these days, but the Hacker Ethics still lives in some of the programmers out there. Those guys that keep hacking (and/or programming) for hours and hours just for the joy of create and modify things still exists.
It made me think about the old times when I used to use part of my “sleep time” to work on some C++/SDL code just to understand how could I bring 2D game to life with these tools.
This book (and these old hackers) motivated me to bring my hacker lifestyle again. It’s time to get back. :)
Great book. John Carmack said it was the most inspiring book for him and I can understand why.
The word Hackers is not the same these days, but the Hacker Ethics still lives in some of the programmers out there. Those guys that keep hacking (and/or programming) for hours and hours just for the joy of create and modify things still exists.
It made me think about the old times when I used to use part of my “sleep time” to work on some C++/SDL code just to understand how could I bring 2D game to life with these tools.
This book (and these old hackers) motivated me to bring my hacker lifestyle again. It’s time to get back. :)
Read
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This hacker has been around for a while , but I know you’ve been looking for an actual response to this query. As someone who as experienced similar to what you are going through, I will suggest that you seek for help from a fast and reliable hacker with the details below,he can help you spy into your husband or wife’s phone remotely without any traces. I got all the information i needed from my partner phone in 5-6 hours max i guess
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Thanks me later.
August 2, 2017
I can overlook some sexism. Especially if a narrative just "forgets" to mention people who aren't men. This book goes a step further to imply that women aren't as good at hacking/math/computers as men which is bullshit. As if the first programmer wasn't a woman (Ada Lovelace). As if the first compiler wasn't written by a woman (Grace Hopper). As if there aren't a million kickass women and non binary folks who are hackers today. I'm frankly astonished that the author thought to almost exclusively interview and feature men in the first edition, make incredibly sexist remarks about it, and then never return to apologize or correct himself in the following editions.
I would give this 1 star except for the fact that I truly enjoy learning about the history of computers, which is the only thing that kept me reading.
I would give this 1 star except for the fact that I truly enjoy learning about the history of computers, which is the only thing that kept me reading.
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MY wife is a very smart woman but i showed her that in every thing a man is always a man well i suspected she was hiding a lot from me, she has a mac-book pro she uses and also a Samsung phone i noticed she was cheating on me so i had to hack her phone but i found out that nothing was on her phone so i also hacked into her mac-book. i could not believe all that i saw on her laptop she has all her major text messages on her mac-book, she uses WhatsApp on her laptop also i found out that she was in a relationship with my friend who i call my brother i had full access to her mac-book and also read all there messages and so many they always hang out at a hotel on Sundays.. All I saw was too much for me to keep to myself. and also a very big thank you to the hacker that made it possible to be an ethical hacker. Contact him through Gmail or Text.
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November 25, 2021
This book got me excited quite a few times. It's less about the history of hackers, or the culture of hacker ethic. It's more about a sort of emergence - when technology and people crossed their paths, and boom!! a new way of thinking emerges.
Humans, after all, are thinking machines. It's more than exciting to find a new way to think. That'd lead to new ways of living. It's what humans created together that's changing the world we live in.
But then, what do I know? When I was luckily selected to be the few who could access Apple II computers with BASIC language in the 1986 of China, I had little appreciation of this privilege. After college, I met a friend who's a computer programming enthusiastic. He taught himself a good amount of English just in order to join those online forums. He told me he taught himself how to turn music into notes. Thinking back, that friend might have been the first hacker I've ever met in life.
Thinking back, if I was able to see the amount of creativity in programming, I could have been hooked. Which never happened. Therefore, I'm a hacker that's never going to become one.
Humans, after all, are thinking machines. It's more than exciting to find a new way to think. That'd lead to new ways of living. It's what humans created together that's changing the world we live in.
But then, what do I know? When I was luckily selected to be the few who could access Apple II computers with BASIC language in the 1986 of China, I had little appreciation of this privilege. After college, I met a friend who's a computer programming enthusiastic. He taught himself a good amount of English just in order to join those online forums. He told me he taught himself how to turn music into notes. Thinking back, that friend might have been the first hacker I've ever met in life.
Thinking back, if I was able to see the amount of creativity in programming, I could have been hooked. Which never happened. Therefore, I'm a hacker that's never going to become one.
November 22, 2008
I loved this book. It is a documentary about various aspects of computing. The first part is utterly excellent. It is about the birth of the "hacker ethic" around the DEC PDP machine in the MIT AI Lab. It is very funny and very inspiring. Some of the people in that section of the book have disappeared into obscurity, so the book is amazing for capturing this lost part of tech history. The second part is about the personal computer revolution. It covers the Altair machine, the Apple I / II and other microcomputers of its class. This part made me realise for the first time how much of a key player Apple were at the beginning. They pretty much created the home computer. The third part is about games, and the programmers and companies that created them for the early computers. It focuses on a few key developers and companies, mostly Sierra. This was quite interesting since I played a lot of Sierra games back in the day and didn't know any of these background stories until now. Anyone really into programming should get a kick out of the first section, it is worth buying just for this.
May 10, 2020
I really, really enjoyed this book. Levy tells the story in a way that flows from one brief era of the early computer age to the next. There is still so much of those early days which defines how we build and use computers in the 21st century. This book should be required reading for any programmer but I honestly think anyone would enjoy it.
Philosophically, there is so much bound up in the Hacker Ethic that I have never heard a hacker (of any sort) express it coherently. When RMS presents it, it's some sort of Ultra-Liberal flavour of Americana-Soaked Super Freedom. ESR is probably worse. Modern hackers miss the gossamer nature of the ideal and stomp straight into implementations. Old hackers conflate a Hands-On Imperative with DIY. Somehow, Levy captures everything I have ever wanted to express about the Hacker Ethic the way that Harari expresses the concept of Collective Imagination/Hallucination. These ideas do not subscribe the ephemeral political spectra and they don't fit cleanly into the ideas the reader holds before reading the first page. Neither author is arguing for or against these ideas -- they're just presenting them. The execution is so brilliant I can't believe friends and colleagues haven't been shoving this book down my throat for decades.
Philosophically, there is so much bound up in the Hacker Ethic that I have never heard a hacker (of any sort) express it coherently. When RMS presents it, it's some sort of Ultra-Liberal flavour of Americana-Soaked Super Freedom. ESR is probably worse. Modern hackers miss the gossamer nature of the ideal and stomp straight into implementations. Old hackers conflate a Hands-On Imperative with DIY. Somehow, Levy captures everything I have ever wanted to express about the Hacker Ethic the way that Harari expresses the concept of Collective Imagination/Hallucination. These ideas do not subscribe the ephemeral political spectra and they don't fit cleanly into the ideas the reader holds before reading the first page. Neither author is arguing for or against these ideas -- they're just presenting them. The execution is so brilliant I can't believe friends and colleagues haven't been shoving this book down my throat for decades.
May 21, 2010
This was a really interesting look at the history of computers as a DIY technology, stretching from the 1950s to the 1980s, when the first edition of it was published.
I find a lot of computer users look at the things like they're magic boxes, likely run by black magic and/or hamsters running in wheels; I confess to having moments where I've felt that way myself, but I'm trying to educate myself a bit more on how computers actually think and operate, and this book helped cement that understanding a bit more.
Additionally, this book reinforced two of the truisms I've repeatedly encountered when studying subcultures.
The market will replace your values with its own. It seems to me that subcultural movements tend to have certain values to them that make them popular with certain segments of the public. As they gain more popularity, the mainstream starts to notice them, and tries to find ways to monetize them, even if the movement was one that was based originally around non-commercial values. This is how we end up with Iggy Pop songs being used to sell Disney Cruise tours, and fashion that exploits women and their sexuality being marketed as "girl power" feminism. It's also how we end up with a generation of computer hackers who can't understand why anyone would want to buy a pre-assembled computer with the software already loaded on it.
History never ends. One of the main recurring conflicts in Hackers relates to who has access to computer information - we see this with the MIT gurus in the 50s trying to limit access to their computers, and again with the tales of early software users wanting to freely share programs vs. the companies wanting to use copy-prevention to increase their profits. And we see the same conflict now with the open source movement vs. proprietary software, and DRM media files vs. the Creative Commons. It's one that will probably continue as long as people are recording information by the bit, which should ensure that Hackers remains somewhat relevant for generations to come.
I find a lot of computer users look at the things like they're magic boxes, likely run by black magic and/or hamsters running in wheels; I confess to having moments where I've felt that way myself, but I'm trying to educate myself a bit more on how computers actually think and operate, and this book helped cement that understanding a bit more.
Additionally, this book reinforced two of the truisms I've repeatedly encountered when studying subcultures.
The market will replace your values with its own. It seems to me that subcultural movements tend to have certain values to them that make them popular with certain segments of the public. As they gain more popularity, the mainstream starts to notice them, and tries to find ways to monetize them, even if the movement was one that was based originally around non-commercial values. This is how we end up with Iggy Pop songs being used to sell Disney Cruise tours, and fashion that exploits women and their sexuality being marketed as "girl power" feminism. It's also how we end up with a generation of computer hackers who can't understand why anyone would want to buy a pre-assembled computer with the software already loaded on it.
History never ends. One of the main recurring conflicts in Hackers relates to who has access to computer information - we see this with the MIT gurus in the 50s trying to limit access to their computers, and again with the tales of early software users wanting to freely share programs vs. the companies wanting to use copy-prevention to increase their profits. And we see the same conflict now with the open source movement vs. proprietary software, and DRM media files vs. the Creative Commons. It's one that will probably continue as long as people are recording information by the bit, which should ensure that Hackers remains somewhat relevant for generations to come.
September 8, 2016
Let's get this out of the way up front—the term "hackers" here refers to the original ideology of the word from the earlier days of computing, when hackers blazed the trail of our modern hardware and software systems. These are not the modern day denizen hackers of destructive, malicious infamy. Based on this understanding, this book should be required reading for anyone connected with the computing profession. It serves as a rich history of the genesis of modern day computing, from the earliest days at MIT, the birth of languages such as Lisp and BASIC, the origins of modern video games from Space War and Colossal Cave, to the natural evolution of microcomputing. Steven Levy shows us how a historical book about an industry should be written. It contains an unfolding, interrelated emotional story of people and technology. There are moments of wonder, awe, tenacity, pain, suffering, hope, idealism, and eventually, money, capitalism, and greed. Even at 450+ pages, this is one book you'll read through quickly. After reading this, you'll want to fire up Emacs, dust off Space War, and find out just how powerful this Lisp language from 1959 still really is ;-)
March 4, 2014
This is a book about the early age of hacking before computers controlled so much of our world that "hacking" became a science of exploitation. This is the original meaning of hacking, which is to squeeze extra performance out of equipment by bending the "proper" rules, which often have to do more with administrative control than technological limitations. I find this encouraging as an outlook as it is what all of us should always do to whatever limitations we find in life: work around the unreasonable ones by understanding the raw reality
(science/logic/common sense) of a situation more than its human-imposed administrative, social and political -- these words seem to mean the same thing in this context -- controls. Levy takes us through the early days of East Coast university hacking, then looks at the hippie days and the garage shops of the West Coast, before giving us a brief glimpse into the world to come as computers became more powerful, were networked, and moved out of the corporate/government/academic world and into daily life.
(science/logic/common sense) of a situation more than its human-imposed administrative, social and political -- these words seem to mean the same thing in this context -- controls. Levy takes us through the early days of East Coast university hacking, then looks at the hippie days and the garage shops of the West Coast, before giving us a brief glimpse into the world to come as computers became more powerful, were networked, and moved out of the corporate/government/academic world and into daily life.
November 19, 2011
This was somewhat mediocre. The book started ok, with the AI lab in MIT and the hackers there, but then got into some stuff which has nothing to do with hacking in any form, and the focus on Sierra On-line is unjustified.
All things considered, not a useful book beyond the first 100-150 pages.
All things considered, not a useful book beyond the first 100-150 pages.
March 23, 2008
F'n awesome, obviously. Everyone should have read this by now, or by several years ago rather.
August 14, 2013
OK. It's too long, and, in places, too long-winded, even semi-religious in its fervour.
May 8, 2024
CYBER WEB PRO1@GMAIL.COM
Relationship are complicated. They are built on one key parameter which is trust but sometimes people tend to take advantage of the ones they were suppose to love and nothing else. There is no room for cheating in a relationship that's being said YES. Its quite subjective. Nevertheless, hurting your significant other feelings can be a heartbreaking thing for any person.
Spying on someone without the knowledge is unethical unless you are sure the person is up to something which might hurt you physically or emotionally. In this modern age were everything is either smart or going to be, the means of communication is always very smart which means that you can keep a track of someone's conversation.
If you are in a relationship and you want to keep track on your spouse messages, they are lots of way to do that with the help of Ghostpeep and you get to peep all you want on your partner’s phone activities
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Relationship are complicated. They are built on one key parameter which is trust but sometimes people tend to take advantage of the ones they were suppose to love and nothing else. There is no room for cheating in a relationship that's being said YES. Its quite subjective. Nevertheless, hurting your significant other feelings can be a heartbreaking thing for any person.
Spying on someone without the knowledge is unethical unless you are sure the person is up to something which might hurt you physically or emotionally. In this modern age were everything is either smart or going to be, the means of communication is always very smart which means that you can keep a track of someone's conversation.
If you are in a relationship and you want to keep track on your spouse messages, they are lots of way to do that with the help of Ghostpeep and you get to peep all you want on your partner’s phone activities
Contact him on Gmail.
Read
May 8, 2024You must carry out a smart action to links and divert calls and messages together to get others calls and text messages. You will need to engaged the service of a professional intelligence hacker to gain access to your spouses phones and social media account without account without their awareness , and the service of the below expert ethical hacker will ensure that’s it’s done flawlessly.
Email: Cyber-Web-Pro1@Gmail.Com / +1 (503) 877-4273
This hacker has been around for a while , but I know you’ve been looking for an actual response to this query. As someone who as experienced similar to what you are going through, I will suggest that you seek for help from a fast and reliable hacker with the details below,he can help you spy into your husband or wife’s phone remotely without any traces. I got all the information i needed from my partner phone in 5-6 hours max i guess
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Email: Cyber-Web-Pro1@Gmail.Com / +1 (503) 877-4273
This hacker has been around for a while , but I know you’ve been looking for an actual response to this query. As someone who as experienced similar to what you are going through, I will suggest that you seek for help from a fast and reliable hacker with the details below,he can help you spy into your husband or wife’s phone remotely without any traces. I got all the information i needed from my partner phone in 5-6 hours max i guess
Gmail: Cyber Web Pro1@GMAIL.COM / +1 (503) 877-4273 (Text/Whatsapp)
Thanks me later.
October 28, 2017
Great insight on the birth and evolution of the hacker mentality and its effects on the computer revolution.
Following the achievements and contributions in the field made by people such as Marvin Minsky (the father of AI), Peter Samson (developer of the Harmony Compiler and "Spacewar!"), Richard Greenblatt and Bill Gosper (considered to be the founders of the first hacker community), Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple), Ken and Roberta Williams (founders of Sierra On-line, one of the first computer gaming companies), and John Draper (legendary figure in the programing, hacking and security communities) among many others.
My only gripe while reading this book was that I haven't stumbled upon it a few years earlier.
Following the achievements and contributions in the field made by people such as Marvin Minsky (the father of AI), Peter Samson (developer of the Harmony Compiler and "Spacewar!"), Richard Greenblatt and Bill Gosper (considered to be the founders of the first hacker community), Steve Wozniak (co-founder of Apple), Ken and Roberta Williams (founders of Sierra On-line, one of the first computer gaming companies), and John Draper (legendary figure in the programing, hacking and security communities) among many others.
My only gripe while reading this book was that I haven't stumbled upon it a few years earlier.
February 2, 2021
I loved this book. I loved this book back in 1985 when I first read it. But I really loved reading it again in 2021. This 25th-anniversary edition has an appendix where Levy tells us what his hackers are doing today, something I wondered all the while rereading the original story. Get that edition.
Most people today can't remember a time before computers dominated the world. I can. This book is about a handful of people who envisioned the potential of computers back in the late 1950s through the early 1980s. Their tiny subculture took over the world.
Most people today can't remember a time before computers dominated the world. I can. This book is about a handful of people who envisioned the potential of computers back in the late 1950s through the early 1980s. Their tiny subculture took over the world.
October 14, 2018
The first of the three parts is a very enjoyable account of the eldest generation of hackers - their breathless enthusiasm and absolute dedication shines through to the reader as if one was there.
I liked the second part the least, the third one was good again.
It's also very interesting to read a book that maps the relatively obscure hacker culture (back in 1983, when it was first published). The book got popular in the following years, made its own impact on the very culture it described. And then it got updates. There was an afterword with an update from 1993 (that is, ten years later) and then another one from 2010, so the author had an opportunity to update the book with some comments on its own role within the community.
I'd wanted to read this book for a long time; even more so after I'd read in Masters of Doom that it was instrumental to John Carmack in the formation of some of his views. And finding that Carmack got a mention in the 2010 update was quite satisfying.
I liked the second part the least, the third one was good again.
It's also very interesting to read a book that maps the relatively obscure hacker culture (back in 1983, when it was first published). The book got popular in the following years, made its own impact on the very culture it described. And then it got updates. There was an afterword with an update from 1993 (that is, ten years later) and then another one from 2010, so the author had an opportunity to update the book with some comments on its own role within the community.
I'd wanted to read this book for a long time; even more so after I'd read in Masters of Doom that it was instrumental to John Carmack in the formation of some of his views. And finding that Carmack got a mention in the 2010 update was quite satisfying.
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