School Violence Essay, Research Paper

I went up to a college this summer to look around, see if it was where I

wanted to go and whatnot. The guide asked me about my interests, and when I

said computers, he started asking me about what systems I had, etc. And when

all that was done, the first thing he asked me was “Are you a hacker?”

Well, that question has been bugging me ever since. Just what exactly

is a hacker? A REAL hacker?

For those who don’t know better, the news media (and even comic strips)

have blown it way out of proportion… A hacker, by wrong-definition, can be

anything from a computer-user to someone who destroys everything they can get

their evil terminals into.

And the idiotic schmucks of the world who get a Commodore Vic-20 and a

300 baud modem (heh, and a tape drive!) for Christmas haven’t helped hackers’

reputations a damn bit. They somehow get access to a really cool system and

find some files on hacking… Or maybe a friendly but not-too-cautious

hacker helps the loser out, gives him a few numbers, etc. The schmuck gets

onto a system somewhere, lucks up and gets in to some really cool information

or programs, and deletes them. Or some of the more greedy ones capture it,

delete it, and try to sell it to Libya or something. Who gets the blame?

The true hackers…that’s who. So what is a true hacker?

Firstly, some people may not think I am entirely qualified to say,

mainly because I don’t consider myself a hacker yet. I’m still learning the

ropes about it, but I think I have a pretty damn good idea of what a true

hacker is. If I’m wrong, let one correct me…

True hackers are intelligent, they have to be. Either they do really

great in school because they have nothing better to do, or they don’t do so

good because school is terribly boring. And the ones who are bored aren’t that

way because they don’t give a *censored* about learning anything. A true hacker wants

to know everything. They’re bored because schools teach the same dulll things

over and over and over, nothing new, nothing challenging.

True hackers are curious and patient. If you aren’t, how can you work

so very hard hacking away at a single system for even one small PEEK at what

may be on it?

A true hacker DOESN’T get into the system to kill everything or to sell

what he gets to someone else. True hackers want to learn, or want to satisfy

their curiosity, that’s why they get into the system. To search around inside

of a place they’ve never been, to explore all the little nooks and crannies

of a world so unlike the boring cess-pool we live in. Why destroy something

and take away the pleasure you had from someone else? Why bring down the

whole world on the few true hackers who aren’t cruising the phone lines with

malicious intent?

True hackers are disgusted at the way things are in this world. All the

wonderful technology of the world costs three arms and four legs to get these

days. It costs a fortune to call up a board in an adjoining state! So why

pay for it? To borrow something from a file I will name later, why pay for

what could be “dirt cheap if it wasn’t run by profiteering gluttons”?

Why be forced, due to lack of the hellacious cash flow it would require to

call all the great places, to stay around a bunch of schmuck losers in your

home town? Calling out and entering a system you’ve never seen before are

two of the most exhilirating experiences known to man, but it is a pleasure

that could not be enjoyed were it not for the ability to phreak…

True hackers are quiet. I don’t mean they talk at about .5 dB, I mean

they keep their mouths shut and don’t brag. The number one killer of those

the media would have us call hackers is bragging. You tell a friend,”or you

run your mouth on a board, and sooner or later people in power will find out

what you did, who you are, and you’re gone…

I honestly don’t know what purpose this file will serve, maybe someone

somewhere will read it, and know the truth about hackers. Not the lies that

the ignorant spread. To the true hackers out there, I hope I am portraying

what you are in this file… If I am not, then I at least am saying what I

think a true hacker should be. And to those wanna-be’s out there who like

the label of “HACKER” being tacked onto them, grow up, would ya?

Oh yeah, the file I quoted from… It has been done (at least) two

times. “The Hacker’s Manifesto” or “Conscience of a Hacker” are the two

names I’ve seen it given. (A file by itself, and part of an issue of Phrack)

Either way, it was written by The Mentor, and it is absolutely the best thing

ever written on the subject of hackers. Read it, it could change your life.

Spread it around, but don’t change anything please. . .