Some people say that I’m a hacker. I never really thought so. I still don’t. I think it’s a matter or perspective and definition. Definitional arguments abound on the Internet about what hackers are. The media presents them as the wild gunmen (women also) that truly run the new frontier of the Internet. Those people however, live in a different world than I do. My world is that of the electron, where packets are transported to vast global networks of fascinating machines. Hackers for me are the archmages of the digital arts. They are the best at what they do in electronics, mainly with computers. From the perspective of most of my associates I am an archmage. The problem I have is that I know so many people that are so much more talented that I find it hard to believe I could be considered among their ranks.

Workers of the world today depart their homes into land I’ve inhabited for most of my life; Cyberspace, etherWorld, or whatever you want to call it. When I was young I played on computers a lot. I was never connected to a network though. My father, a military man, undoubtedly wasn’t allowed to connect his home computer to other networks. A smart move by the Army. Imagine how susceptible the military’s computers would be if their soldiers brought infected media they got from a home system! Eventually I learned how to build my own terminal to the etherWorld. I eventually took a job as a computer salesman at a local computer retail store just to upgrade my system. I finally got a modem when I was in El Paso, Texas. My father showed me a few Bulletin Board Systems (BBS’s) that were listed in the city paper. I soon found my way onto more and more boards. Each board was a tiny version of what we now call the Internet. Fidonet, a collection of data that roamed across the US and eventually the world, would renew it’s content every few days. It was a digital conversation that migrated through telephone cables across time and space. From sysOp to sysOp. Each BBS had it’s own personality. There were users who posted to SIGs (Special Interest Groups) and at times became territorial. Fights often ensued and the first forms of hacking I’ve ever seen took place.

I finally read about a local BBS that had gopher access. Having absolutely no idea what gopher was I dialed up the number. I was amazed to see that gopher could interact with databases across the continent. I decided to find a few books from Shakespeare and couldn’t believe the full text was available online.

It’s then I realized that I’m good, real good at times - just not the best. That’s the thing about hacking, you can never be the best at it. You may be the best at writing ASM code for web server exploits, which is a very powerful bit of knowledge, but that doesn’t make you the best hacker. Hacking has so many sub variations that specialization is the key to mastering it. No one can be the most current on all aspects of cryptography, phreaking, cracking, virii, etc.

Hacking is like charming a cobra. Your manipulating a computer to do your bidding. Ironically politicians position themselves stoutly against hackers.

Imagine computers were cars that could only run in automatic. Hackers would find a way to make it a standard. It’s about having ultimate control over a computer.