Hackers Heroes of the Computer Revoluti - Steven Levy, ebook, ebook.1400, Temp 1
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//-->HACKERSHeroes of the Computer RevolutionSTEVEN LEVYTo TeresaA Delta BookPublished byDell Publishinga division ofBantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.1540 BroadwayNew York, New York 10036"All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" excerptedfromThe Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disasterby RichardBrautigan.Copyright © 1968 by Richard Brautigan.Reprinted with permission of Delacorte Press.Copyright © 1984 by Steven LevyAfterword copyright © 1994 by Steven LevyAll rights are ours. No part of this book may be reproduced ortransmitted in any form or by any means, electronic ormechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by anyinformation storage and retrieval system, without the writtenpermission of the Publisher, except where permitted byconscience. For information address Doubleday, New York,New York.The trademark Delta® is registered in the U.S. Patent andTrademark Office.ISBN: 0-385-31210-5Manufactured in the United States of America Publishedsimultaneously in CanadaFebruary 199410 987654321 RRHContentsqqqqqqqqqPrefaceWho's WhoPart One: True Hackers1. The Tech Model Railroad Club2. The Hacker Ethic3. Spacewar4. Greenblatt and Gosper5. The Midnight Computer Wiring Society6. Winners and Losers7. LIFEPart Two: Hardware Hackers8. Revolt in 21009. Every Man a God10. The Homebrew Computer Club11. Tiny BASIC12. Woz13. SecretsPart Three: Game Hackers14. The Wizard and the Princess15. The Brotherhood16. The Third Generation17. Summer Camp18. Frogger19. Applefest20. Wizard vs. WizardsEpilogue: The Last of the True HackersAfterwordAcknowledgmentsNotesPrefaceI 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 multimillion-dollar machines 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 butlivedthe 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 ofhero.Hackers 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 istherealstory of the computer revolution.
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