Levy_S-Hackers-Heroes-Computer-Revolution

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PrefaceI was first drawn to writing about hackers those computer programmers anddesigners who regard computing as the most important thing in the world becausethey were such fascinating people. Though some in the field used the term"hacker" as a form of derision, implying that hackers were either nerdy socialoutcasts or "unprofessional" programmers who wrote dirty, "nonstandard"computer code, I found them quite different. Beneath their often unimposingexteriors, they were adventurers, visionaries, risk-takers, artists ... and the oneswho most clearly saw why the computer was a truly revolutionary tool. Amongthemselves, they knew how far one could go by immersion into the deepconcentration of the hacking mind-set: one could go infinitely far. I came tounderstand why true hackers consider the term an appellation of honor rather thana pejorative.As I talked to these digital explorers, ranging from those who tamed multimilliondollarmachines in the 1950s to contemporary young wizards who masteredcomputers in their suburban bedrooms, I found a common element, a commonphilosophy which seemed tied to the elegantly flowing logic of the computer itself.It was a philosophy of sharing, openness, decentralization, and getting your handson machines at any cost to improve the machines, and to improve the world. ThisHacker Ethic is their gift to us: something with value even to those of us with nointerest at all in computers.It is an ethic seldom codified, but embodied instead in the behavior of hackersthemselves. I would like to introduce you to these people who not only saw butlived the magic in the computer, and worked to liberate the magic so it couldbenefit us all. The people include the true hackers of the MIT artificial intelligencelab in the fifties and sixties; the populist, less sequestered hardware hackers inCalifornia in the seventies; and the young game hackers who made their mark inthe personal computer age of the eighties.This is in no way a formal history of the computer era, or of the particular arenas Ifocus upon. Indeed, many of the people you will meet here are not the mostfamous names (certainly not the most wealthy) in the annals of computing.Instead, these are the backroom geniuses who understood the machine at its mostprofound levels, and presented us with a new kind of life-style and a new kind of
hero.<strong>Hackers</strong> like Richard Greenblatt, Bill Gosper, Lee Felsenstein, and John Harris arethe spirit and soul of computing itself. I believe their story their vision, theirintimacy with the machine itself, their experiences inside their peculiar world, andtheir sometimes dramatic, sometimes absurd "interfaces" with the outside world isthe real story of the computer revolution.
Page 1 and 2: HACKERSHeroes of the Computer Revol
Page 3: Contents●●●●●●●●●
Page 7 and 8: Steve DompierHomebrew member who fi
Page 9 and 10: "Uncle" John McCarthyAbsent-minded
Page 11 and 12: Dan SokolLong-haired prankster who
Page 13 and 14: Part OneTrue HackersCambridge:The F
Page 15 and 16: these machines to punch holes in th
Page 17 and 18: The clubroom was dominated by the h
Page 20 and 21: That spring of 1959, a new course w
Page 22 and 23: of course, was what those Signals a
Page 24 and 25: officious priests. The technician i
Page 26 and 27: Deutsch's comments would turn out t
Page 28 and 29: At that time, only a few people in
Page 30 and 31: Carroll's poem with the line "The t
Page 32 and 33: 2The Hacker EthicSOMETHING new was
Page 34 and 35: that easy flow of information.Mistr
Page 36 and 37: instruction which contained the num
Page 38 and 39: focus, made their lives adventurous
Page 40 and 41: occupying valuable space within the
Page 42 and 43: 3SpacewarIN the summer of 1961, Ala
Page 44 and 45: was a brand-new firm called Digital
Page 46 and 47: Dennis had written the original of
Page 48 and 49: The TMRC hackers were not the only
Page 50 and 51: exerted on others were totally outl
Page 52 and 53: All of this was actually a signific
Page 54 and 55:
that often formed in the aftermath
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heavy star would be in the center,
Page 58 and 59:
F. J. Corbate, who would seek some
Page 60 and 61:
changed irrevocably the day in 1954
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doing. Then you can see your offspr
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709, or working routines with a new
Page 66 and 67:
hacking them, he would. He would si
Page 68 and 69:
They went back loaded with Chinese
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Though some hackers led somewhat ac
Page 72 and 73:
Despite these odd personal traits,
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impossible was a useful LISP on a P
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opponent could get out of this was
Page 78 and 79:
Dance, phone lines, dance!And the s
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oxes" hardware devices to make ille
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showed up on the ninth floor to wor
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Gosper's forte, and he did some ear
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the companionship of fellow hackers
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master key was a magic sword to wav
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sanctified objects, things you nurt
Page 92 and 93:
6Winners and LosersBY 1966, when Da
Page 94 and 95:
instead of sailing past the end of
Page 96 and 97:
like a pair of antlers. It looked,
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made the same stupid mistake. Only
Page 100 and 101:
"Well, it has them, it's just that
Page 102 and 103:
their PDP-6, and you had one loser
Page 104 and 105:
on a data disk accessible by the co
Page 106 and 107:
system, Greenblatt and the rest exe
Page 108 and 109:
create useful concepts and tools to
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7LIFETHEY would later call it a Gol
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seriously. These were the days of t
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Sometimes the hacker failure to be
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later: "It was sort of necessary fo
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explored in the Adventure world wer
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and weird patterns established in t
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etter program. Greenblatt howled in
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The world.As much as the hackers tr
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mainframe machine in the basement o
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He loved the idea of electronics. H
Page 130 and 131:
But the war was just beginning. For
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month he rented a room. It was belo
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expose people, especially kids, to
Page 136 and 137:
Harbor, about thirty miles south of
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liberal arts colleges. Nelson was a
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I like to think(it has to be!)of a
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9Every Man a GodJ.N June 1974, Lee
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microprocessor.Lee Felsenstein, in
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if he wanted to get involved in bui
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elieve it an acronym for "Man In Th
Page 150 and 151:
kinds of gratification that a human
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would come out of these systems was
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company to help out in the crunch,
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dreaming of things to put in it to
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things done.Bob Albrecht did not li
Page 160 and 161:
Fred Moore had set up a table in th
Page 162 and 163:
charted the musical scale and writt
Page 164 and 165:
Bob Marsh understood that this was
Page 166 and 167:
Homebrew reviewers would examine ca
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could run some real programs on the
Page 170 and 171:
Moore explicitly identified the pur
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SLAC, he talked of video displays,
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of the concept at work. One person'
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themselves to the hacker pursuit of
Page 178 and 179:
after the meeting, Solomon was tell
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eaders), you would have a way to wr
Page 182 and 183:
held at Albuquerque a year after th
Page 184 and 185:
you steal your software. Hardware m
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fun," he later explained. Knowing s
Page 188 and 189:
But by then the possibility of maki
Page 190 and 191:
The computer is more interesting th
Page 192 and 193:
The convivial approach I suggest wo
Page 194 and 195:
amok. Marsh would often interrupt L
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profile, its typewriter-style built
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to get on various time-sharing comp
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oards); a 30-chip TV display. Skill
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He turned to computer programming,
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that use one less chip than the las
Page 206 and 207:
Years later, the people attending t
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favorable to the prices HP was payi
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computers. Now that hackers like Wo
Page 212 and 213:
"Silicon Gulch," as he called it. O
Page 214 and 215:
So the Apple people were prepared t
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proper stream and go with it until
Page 218 and 219:
13SecretsTED Nelson's speech was no
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The former "Captain Crunch" was in
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consuming passion was the resurrect
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energies were divided between that,
Page 226 and 227:
Osbome while he and the others were
Page 228 and 229:
Part ThreeGame HackersThe Sierras:T
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faded blue T-shirt. He had driven u
Page 232 and 233:
A more important relationship to Ke
Page 234 and 235:
Ken had gotten a taste of this more
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nonetheless ... and then extemporan
Page 238 and 239:
For most of her life Roberta Willia
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was hard to control the writing mec
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Ken and Roberta bought the first co
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porno books.An excursion to the loc
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player's little tank. Jewell sugges
Page 248 and 249:
Margot and Al, in her words, "becam
Page 250 and 251:
of its founders. You almost had to
Page 252 and 253:
16The Third GenerationTHERE were st
Page 254 and 255:
where you try to get a guy to the t
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screen; "user definable characters"
Page 258 and 259:
dozens of new software companies th
Page 260 and 261:
Ken had. already been marketing a P
Page 262 and 263:
home and reprogrammed the graphics.
Page 264 and 265:
If Ken Williams released a game tha
Page 266 and 267:
law was in a case in which some pri
Page 268 and 269:
virtual copy of Pac-Man!But the jud
Page 270 and 271:
employees. People played a continuo
Page 272 and 273:
peppermint schnapps which was On-Li
Page 274 and 275:
a sort of rehabilitation project on
Page 276 and 277:
At that time Warren was working at
Page 278 and 279:
opportunity and he should take it.
Page 280 and 281:
Ken Williams took the concerns of h
Page 282 and 283:
was really easy to talk to. We talk
Page 284 and 285:
Line community.Ken was hugely proud
Page 286 and 287:
easily as John Harris had lent his
Page 288 and 289:
The instant that John Harris ended
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and patterned after Billboard's rec
Page 292 and 293:
This was quite a step from the earl
Page 294 and 295:
tweaking a marketing plan here, deb
Page 296 and 297:
A week before Dick arrived, Ken was
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whole company to come to the site o
Page 300 and 301:
Line hackers gathered at places lik
Page 302 and 303:
Guinness Book of World Records cham
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magazine show. NBC shot the requisi
Page 306 and 307:
subsidized by some institution. The
Page 308 and 309:
While still in high school, he land
Page 310 and 311:
Ken basically wanted a fairly relia
Page 312 and 313:
Apple bestseller. But when Lord Bri
Page 314 and 315:
estseller. After flying the young a
Page 316 and 317:
important Applefests. For one thing
Page 318 and 319:
This message managed to find its wa
Page 320 and 321:
They noticed right away because Fro
Page 322 and 323:
that the action was switching to tr
Page 324 and 325:
20Wizard vs. WizardsIN December of
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things look good on television. Tat
Page 328 and 329:
now I just spend my time skiing the
Page 330 and 331:
The author of the twelfth bestselli
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even the furniture, upside down wer
Page 334 and 335:
things to Ken about On-Line that he
Page 336 and 337:
The company's energy became focused
Page 338 and 339:
The techniques, algorithms, and cro
Page 340 and 341:
e more precarious than it had first
Page 342 and 343:
hacker paradise, the Tech Square mo
Page 344 and 345:
around the country all because the
Page 346 and 347:
could easily handle the considerabl
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minimum.Noftsker considered this un
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in with the bad guys here. But I'm
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with concern when he spoke of Stall
Page 354 and 355:
Generation hacker. With many more g
Page 356 and 357:
Afterword: Ten Years After"I think
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to avoid attending future Hacker Co
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(though not gender specific) called
Page 362 and 363:
Joseph We-izenbaum, Randy Wigginton
Page 364 and 365:
* Gosper's memo is part of "Hakmem,
Page 366 and 367:
Delta, 1979).* "The winning isn't a
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