January 9, 2002

10:53 PM

Hackers: Computer OutlawsA TLC show(that I'm 3/4 through) that seems to actually use reliable sources to discuss not just cracker behavior, but also the creative side of hackers, pointing out the developments attributed to some hackers. Now Markoff and Mitnick. Not a bad little show....
posted by dglynn (7 comments total)

Did they mention rtm(missed part of the show)? They have him listed here, in the Hackers Hall of Fame.
posted by dglynn at 11:01 PM on January 9, 2002

I'd seen this when it originally aired, whenever that was. To see Captain Crunch, the Woz and Mitnick round tabling it at the end is groovy, to say the least.
posted by dong_resin at 11:38 PM on January 9, 2002

i've seen the special. it's actually pretty decent and kept the "eye roll" [aka "oh brother"] quotient down to a minimum.

as for the participants in the round table at the end, i've dealt with all three and yeah i'll agree with dong_resin and say it was groovy.

woz is a really nice guy. i've had the pleasure of cold calling him at 3am whilst drunk and talking to him for ten minutes about my lc iii and how i was working on installing linux on it.

kevin... well, let's just say that i've defended kevin in previous threads with a sort of zealotry because i've met him and he's a really nice guy. when i first met him he was at a friend's fourth of july party and showed up "friend of a friend" style - but the suprise was semi-ruined because the host of the party had to go around asking "is anyone here a convict?" and of course he had to explain why he was asking.

crunch... well, i won't get into the details with draper. my mom always said "if you have nothing nice to say..."
posted by boogah at 1:20 AM on January 10, 2002

On the "What's on" window of the TLC link, it's eerie the way one of skallas's riverbed denizens keeps floating up, as if beckoning you to go comment on his thread OR ELSE...
posted by MiguelCardoso at 4:18 AM on January 10, 2002

FYI: Scheduled to be shown again on Sunday, January 13, at 6:00 p.m. EST.
posted by Carol Anne at 5:22 AM on January 10, 2002

Yeah, I just finished watching Junkyard Wars and the "coming up next" blurb came on for this show... my girlfriend did the eye-roll and said "do we have to watch that?" - I simply told her I'd know after watching the first 5 minutes.

We watched the first 5 minutes and she actually stayed and watched the rest. I felt the show was well put together, didn't reach all that much, and put the right cards on the table. I thought that having Captain Crunch was a nice touch... and the blind guy with perfect pitch whistling his way thru the trunks. Phone phreaking was where I first got exposed to the world of hacking... only to realize that I was born 20 years too late to really do anything with it.

Interesting to note that one of the first people to get pissed off that someone pirated their for-profit software was none other than the president of "Micro-soft", Bill Gates - after some of the Homebrew Computer Club members were using his software on their home built machines.
posted by Fat Elvis at 6:37 AM on January 10, 2002

The Homebrew Computer Club sounds a lot like the open source community today... i.e. that Bill Gates is their sworn enemy. How ironic. Nothing has changed in the last 25 years. It was a good show, but they could have talked about Mitnick and modern hacking.

I kept hearing the phrases "hacking has changed forever" or "a new definition for hacking has emerged" blah blah blah, but they didn't really talk about it very much, they just made generalities about the whole thing without supporting them, kind of to kill time, methinks.
posted by insomnyuk at 7:04 AM on January 10, 2002