Table of Contents
Comments
Commenters1
2
No writer creates from scratch — we all engage in what Isaac Newton called “standing on the shoulders of giants.” We borrow, plunder and remix the art and culture created by those around us and by our literary forebears.
2
No writer creates from scratch — we all engage in what Isaac Newton called “standing on the shoulders of giants.” We borrow, plunder and remix the art and culture created by those around us and by our literary forebears.2
If you liked this book and want to learn more, there are plenty of sources to turn to, online and at your local library or bookstore.
If you liked this book and want to learn more, there are plenty of sources to turn to, online and at your local library or bookstore.3
Hacking is a great subject. All science relies on telling other people what you’ve done so that they can verify it, learn from it, and improve on it, and hacking is all about that process, so there’s plenty published on the subject.
Hacking is a great subject. All science relies on telling other people what you’ve done so that they can verify it, learn from it, and improve on it, and hacking is all about that process, so there’s plenty published on the subject.4
Start with Andrew “Bunnie” Huang’s “Hacking the Xbox,” (No Starch Press, 2003) a wonderful book that tells the story of how Bunnie, then a student at MIT, reverse-engineered the Xbox’s anti-tampering mechanisms and opened the way for all the subsequent cool hacks for the platform. In telling the story, Bunnie has also created a kind of Bible for reverse engineering and hardware hacking.
Start with Andrew “Bunnie” Huang’s “Hacking the Xbox,” (No Starch Press, 2003) a wonderful book that tells the story of how Bunnie, then a student at MIT, reverse-engineered the Xbox’s anti-tampering mechanisms and opened the way for all the subsequent cool hacks for the platform. In telling the story, Bunnie has also created a kind of Bible for reverse engineering and hardware hacking.5
Bruce Schneier’s “Secrets and Lies” (Wiley, 2000) and “Beyond Fear” (Copernicus, 2003) are the definitive lay-person’s texts on understanding security and thinking critically about it, while his “Applied Cryptography” (Wiley, 1995) remains the authoritative source for understanding crypto. Bruce maintains an excellent blog and mailing list at schneier.com/blog. Crypto and security are the realm of the talented amateur, and the “cypherpunk” movement is full of kids, home-makers, parents, lawyers, and every other stripe of person, hammering away on security protocols and ciphers.
Bruce Schneier’s “Secrets and Lies” (Wiley, 2000) and “Beyond Fear” (Copernicus, 2003) are the definitive lay-person’s texts on understanding security and thinking critically about it, while his “Applied Cryptography” (Wiley, 1995) remains the authoritative source for understanding crypto. Bruce maintains an excellent blog and mailing list at schneier.com/blog. Crypto and security are the realm of the talented amateur, and the “cypherpunk” movement is full of kids, home-makers, parents, lawyers, and every other stripe of person, hammering away on security protocols and ciphers.6
There are several great magazines devoted to this subject, but the two best ones are 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, which is full of pseudonymous, boasting accounts of hacks accomplished, and O’Reilly’s MAKE magazine, which features solid HOWTOs for making your own hardware projects at home.
There are several great magazines devoted to this subject, but the two best ones are 2600: The Hacker Quarterly, which is full of pseudonymous, boasting accounts of hacks accomplished, and O’Reilly’s MAKE magazine, which features solid HOWTOs for making your own hardware projects at home.7
The online world overflows with material on this subject, of course. Ed Felten and Alex J Halderman’s Freedom to Tinker (www.freedom-to-tinker.com) is a blog maintained by two fantastic Princeton engineering profs who write lucidly about security, wiretapping, anti-copying technology and crypto.
The online world overflows with material on this subject, of course. Ed Felten and Alex J Halderman’s Freedom to Tinker (www.freedom-to-tinker.com) is a blog maintained by two fantastic Princeton engineering profs who write lucidly about security, wiretapping, anti-copying technology and crypto.8
Don’t miss Natalie Jeremijenko’s “Feral Robotics” at UC San Diego (xdesign.ucsd.edu/feralrobots/). Natalie and her students rewire toy robot dogs from Toys R Us and turn them into bad-ass toxic-waste detectors. They unleash them on public parks where big corporations have dumped their waste and demonstrate in media-friendly fashion how toxic the ground is.
Don’t miss Natalie Jeremijenko’s “Feral Robotics” at UC San Diego (xdesign.ucsd.edu/feralrobots/). Natalie and her students rewire toy robot dogs from Toys R Us and turn them into bad-ass toxic-waste detectors. They unleash them on public parks where big corporations have dumped their waste and demonstrate in media-friendly fashion how toxic the ground is.9
Like many of the hacks in this book, the tunneling-over-DNS stuff is real. Dan Kaminsky, a tunneling expert of the first water, published details in 2004 ( www.doxpara.com/bo2004.ppt).
Like many of the hacks in this book, the tunneling-over-DNS stuff is real. Dan Kaminsky, a tunneling expert of the first water, published details in 2004 ( www.doxpara.com/bo2004.ppt).10
The guru of “citizen journalism” is Dan Gillmor, who is presently running Center for Citizen Media at Harvard and UC Berkeley — he also wrote a hell of a book on the subject, “We, the Media” (O’Reilly, 2004).
The guru of “citizen journalism” is Dan Gillmor, who is presently running Center for Citizen Media at Harvard and UC Berkeley — he also wrote a hell of a book on the subject, “We, the Media” (O’Reilly, 2004).11
If you want to learn more about hacking arphids, start with Annalee Newitz’s Wired Magazine article “The RFID Hacking Underground” (www.wirednews.com/wired/archive/14.05/rfid.html). Adam Greenfield’s “Everyware” (New Riders Press, 2006) is a chilling look at the dangers of a world of arphids.
If you want to learn more about hacking arphids, start with Annalee Newitz’s Wired Magazine article “The RFID Hacking Underground” (www.wirednews.com/wired/archive/14.05/rfid.html). Adam Greenfield’s “Everyware” (New Riders Press, 2006) is a chilling look at the dangers of a world of arphids.12
Neal Gershenfeld’s Fab Lab at MIT (fab.cba.mit.edu) is hacking out the world’s first real, cheap “3D printers” that can pump out any object you can dream of. This is documented in Gershenfeld’s excellent book on the subject, “Fab” (Basic Books, 2005).
Neal Gershenfeld’s Fab Lab at MIT (fab.cba.mit.edu) is hacking out the world’s first real, cheap “3D printers” that can pump out any object you can dream of. This is documented in Gershenfeld’s excellent book on the subject, “Fab” (Basic Books, 2005).13
Bruce Sterling’s “Shaping Things” (MIT Press, 2005) shows how arphids and fabs could be used to force companies to build products that don’t poison the world.
Bruce Sterling’s “Shaping Things” (MIT Press, 2005) shows how arphids and fabs could be used to force companies to build products that don’t poison the world.14
Speaking of Bruce Sterling, he wrote the first great book on hackers and the law, “The Hacker Crackdown” (Bantam, 1993), which is also the first book published by a major publisher that was released on the Internet at the same time (copies abound; see stuff.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html for one). It was reading this book that turned me on to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where I was privileged to work for four years.
Speaking of Bruce Sterling, he wrote the first great book on hackers and the law, “The Hacker Crackdown” (Bantam, 1993), which is also the first book published by a major publisher that was released on the Internet at the same time (copies abound; see stuff.mit.edu/hacker/hacker.html for one). It was reading this book that turned me on to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, where I was privileged to work for four years.15
1
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) is a charitable membership organization with a student rate. They spend the money that private individuals give them to keep the Internet safe for personal liberty, free speech, due process, and the rest of the Bill of Rights. They’re the Internet’s most effective freedom fighters, and you can join the struggle just by signing up for their mailing list and writing to your elected officials when they’re considering selling you out in the name of fighting terrorism, piracy, the mafia, or whatever bogeyman has caught their attention today. EFF also helps maintain TOR, The Onion Router, which is a real technology you can use right now to get out of your government, school or library’s censoring firewall ( tor.eff.org).
1
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (www.eff.org) is a charitable membership organization with a student rate. They spend the money that private individuals give them to keep the Internet safe for personal liberty, free speech, due process, and the rest of the Bill of Rights. They’re the Internet’s most effective freedom fighters, and you can join the struggle just by signing up for their mailing list and writing to your elected officials when they’re considering selling you out in the name of fighting terrorism, piracy, the mafia, or whatever bogeyman has caught their attention today. EFF also helps maintain TOR, The Onion Router, which is a real technology you can use right now to get out of your government, school or library’s censoring firewall ( tor.eff.org).16
EFF has a huge, deep website with amazing information aimed at a general audience, as do the American Civil Liberties Union (aclu.org), Public Knowledge (publicknowledge.org), FreeCulture (freeculture.org), Creative Commons (creativecommons.org) — all of which also are worthy of your support. FreeCulture is an international student movement that actively recruits kids to found their own local chapters at their high schools and universities. It’s a great way to get involved and make a difference.
EFF has a huge, deep website with amazing information aimed at a general audience, as do the American Civil Liberties Union (aclu.org), Public Knowledge (publicknowledge.org), FreeCulture (freeculture.org), Creative Commons (creativecommons.org) — all of which also are worthy of your support. FreeCulture is an international student movement that actively recruits kids to found their own local chapters at their high schools and universities. It’s a great way to get involved and make a difference.17
A lot of websites chronicle the fight for cyberliberties, but few go at it with the verve of Slashdot, “News for Nerds, Stuff That Matters” (slashdot.org).
A lot of websites chronicle the fight for cyberliberties, but few go at it with the verve of Slashdot, “News for Nerds, Stuff That Matters” (slashdot.org).18
And of course, you have to visit Wikipedia, the collaborative, net-authored encyclopedia that anyone can edit, with more than 1,000,000 entries in English alone. Wikipedia covers hacking and counterculture in astonishing depth and with amazing, up-to-the-nanosecond currency. One caution: you can’t just look at the entries in Wikipedia. It’s really important to look at the “History” and “Discussion” links at the top of every Wikipedia page to see how the current version of the truth was arrived at, get an appreciation for the competing points-of-view there, and decide for yourself whom you trust.
And of course, you have to visit Wikipedia, the collaborative, net-authored encyclopedia that anyone can edit, with more than 1,000,000 entries in English alone. Wikipedia covers hacking and counterculture in astonishing depth and with amazing, up-to-the-nanosecond currency. One caution: you can’t just look at the entries in Wikipedia. It’s really important to look at the “History” and “Discussion” links at the top of every Wikipedia page to see how the current version of the truth was arrived at, get an appreciation for the competing points-of-view there, and decide for yourself whom you trust.19
If you want to get at some real forbidden knowledge, have a skim around Cryptome (cryptome.org), the world’s most amazing archive of secret, suppressed and liberated information. Cryptome’s brave publishers collect material that’s been pried out of the state by Freedom of Information Act requests or leaked by whistle-blowers and publishes it.
If you want to get at some real forbidden knowledge, have a skim around Cryptome (cryptome.org), the world’s most amazing archive of secret, suppressed and liberated information. Cryptome’s brave publishers collect material that’s been pried out of the state by Freedom of Information Act requests or leaked by whistle-blowers and publishes it.20
The best fictional account of the history of crypto is, hands-down, Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon (Avon, 2002). Stephenson tells the story of Alan Turing and the Nazi Enigma Machine, turning it into a gripping war-novel that you won’t be able to put down.
The best fictional account of the history of crypto is, hands-down, Neal Stephenson’s Cryptonomicon (Avon, 2002). Stephenson tells the story of Alan Turing and the Nazi Enigma Machine, turning it into a gripping war-novel that you won’t be able to put down.21
The Pirate Party mentioned in Little Brother is real and thriving in Sweden ( www.piratpartiet.se), Denmark, the USA and France at the time of this writing (July, 2006). They’re a little out-there, but a movement takes all kinds.
The Pirate Party mentioned in Little Brother is real and thriving in Sweden ( www.piratpartiet.se), Denmark, the USA and France at the time of this writing (July, 2006). They’re a little out-there, but a movement takes all kinds.22
Speaking of out-there, Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies did indeed try to levitate the Pentagon, throw money into the stock exchange, and work with a group called the Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers. Abbie Hoffman’s classic book on ripping off the system, “Steal This Book,” is back in print (Four Walls Eight Windows, 2002) and it’s also online as a collaborative wiki for people who want to try to update it ( stealthiswiki.nine9pages.com).
Speaking of out-there, Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies did indeed try to levitate the Pentagon, throw money into the stock exchange, and work with a group called the Up Against the Wall Motherfuckers. Abbie Hoffman’s classic book on ripping off the system, “Steal This Book,” is back in print (Four Walls Eight Windows, 2002) and it’s also online as a collaborative wiki for people who want to try to update it ( stealthiswiki.nine9pages.com).23
Hoffman’s autobiography, “Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture” (also in print from Four Walls Eight Windows) is one of my favorite memoirs ever, even if it is highly fictionalized. Hoffman was an incredible storyteller and had great activist instincts. If you want to know how he really lived his life, though, try Larry Sloman’s “Steal This Dream” (Doubleday, 1998).
Hoffman’s autobiography, “Soon to Be a Major Motion Picture” (also in print from Four Walls Eight Windows) is one of my favorite memoirs ever, even if it is highly fictionalized. Hoffman was an incredible storyteller and had great activist instincts. If you want to know how he really lived his life, though, try Larry Sloman’s “Steal This Dream” (Doubleday, 1998).24
More counterculture fun: Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” can be had in practically any used bookstore for a buck or two. Allan Ginsberg’s “HOWL” is online in many places, and you can hear him read it if you search for the MP3 at archive.org. For bonus points, track down the album “Tenderness Junction” by the Fugs, which includes the audio of Allan Ginsberg and Abbie Hoffman’s levitation ceremony at the Pentagon.
More counterculture fun: Jack Kerouac’s “On the Road” can be had in practically any used bookstore for a buck or two. Allan Ginsberg’s “HOWL” is online in many places, and you can hear him read it if you search for the MP3 at archive.org. For bonus points, track down the album “Tenderness Junction” by the Fugs, which includes the audio of Allan Ginsberg and Abbie Hoffman’s levitation ceremony at the Pentagon.25
1
This book couldn’t have been written if not for George Orwell’s magnificent, world-changing “1984,” the best novel ever published on how societies go wrong. I read this book when I was 12 and have read it 30 or 40 times since, and every time, I get something new out of it. Orwell was a master of storytelling and was clearly sick over the totalitarian state that emerged in the Soviet Union. 1984 holds up today as a genuinely frightening work of science fiction, and it is one of the novels that literally changed the world. Today, “Orwellian” is synonymous with a state of ubiquitous surveillance, doublethink, and torture.
1
This book couldn’t have been written if not for George Orwell’s magnificent, world-changing “1984,” the best novel ever published on how societies go wrong. I read this book when I was 12 and have read it 30 or 40 times since, and every time, I get something new out of it. Orwell was a master of storytelling and was clearly sick over the totalitarian state that emerged in the Soviet Union. 1984 holds up today as a genuinely frightening work of science fiction, and it is one of the novels that literally changed the world. Today, “Orwellian” is synonymous with a state of ubiquitous surveillance, doublethink, and torture.26
Many novelists have tackled parts of the story in Little Brother. Daniel Pinkwater’s towering comic masterpiece, “Alan Mendelsohn: The Boy From Mars” (presently in print as part of the omnibus “5 Novels,” Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997) is a book that every geek needs to read. If you’ve ever felt like an outcast for being too smart or weird, READ THIS BOOK. It changed my life.
Many novelists have tackled parts of the story in Little Brother. Daniel Pinkwater’s towering comic masterpiece, “Alan Mendelsohn: The Boy From Mars” (presently in print as part of the omnibus “5 Novels,” Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997) is a book that every geek needs to read. If you’ve ever felt like an outcast for being too smart or weird, READ THIS BOOK. It changed my life.27
On a more contemporary front, there’s Scott Westerfeld’s “So Yesterday” (Razorbill, 2004), which follows the adventures of cool hunters and counterculture jammers. Scott and his wife Justine Larbalestier were my partial inspiration to write a book for young adults — as was Kathe Koja. Thanks, guys.
On a more contemporary front, there’s Scott Westerfeld’s “So Yesterday” (Razorbill, 2004), which follows the adventures of cool hunters and counterculture jammers. Scott and his wife Justine Larbalestier were my partial inspiration to write a book for young adults — as was Kathe Koja. Thanks, guys.
It might be worth noting that Newton did not coin (pun unintended) this phrase, with it being used as early as the twelth century.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standing_on_the_shoulders_of_giants
Pour distinguer l’extérieur de l’aquarium, mieux vaut n’être pas poisson.
–Malraux, 1947, Le Musée Imaginaire
Some say 1984’s more about the BBC (where Orwell worked) than the USSR, but the novel is open to so many interpretations, n’est-ce pas?
Animal Farm is deeper really, and now we’re farming minds in cyberspace, we should give it a shout too.
Me, my favourite line in all of Orwell comes in Down and Out in Paris and London, when a fellow tramp, invited by Orwell to rest in a public library declines with the line, ‘No, de sight of all dat bloody print makes me sick.’
Also of note, physicist Stephen Hawkings entitled a book of his “On the Shoulders of Giants.” Seems to be a popular theme with the sciency types.
As Doctrow states in his bibliography, TOR does exist and is ready for your use. According to the website, “Tor is free software and an open network that helps you defend against a form of network surveillance that threatens personal freedom and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security known as traffic analysis.” Beware, however, as the site will explain, you should not just download the installation and continue web surfing. To learn more about The Onion Router, visit this link.