Good meeting 2

Met with Geoff after lunch today to go thru’ my dissertation. I’m reading Hacker Culture by Douglas Thomas (no relation to the ex-Palace Geoff…at least I hope not) which is about modern day hackers. It’s a really interesting read. It documents the time when an ISP had customers’ credit cards lifted but the hackers only used them to gain access to people’s internet accounts. It also compares modern day hackers to the old school. Now I’ll admit I’ve always thought of the new breed to be crackers rather than hackers but the book makes the point that not only are they continuing the ethic of information should be free but in fact the systems they hack were created by the old school who, it opinions, have sold out. Something which I was aware of before reading the book is that some of the work done in the 50s and 60s was funded by the US military and you can’t get more secretive than that. And that’s when Geoff said that there’s my argument. There’s conflict between old and new hackers but who’s actually right and did the old school sell out? Are the new breed of hackers actually truer to the ideals than the old school? Now, there’s a thought!!