
Where Have All the Hackers Gone? - ciscoriordan
http://strydehax.blogspot.com/2010/03/where-have-all-hackers-gone.html
======
hammerdr
His example is a poor one. The phone system was far from open and the hacking
that Woz was doing against it was very much illegal.

Instead, the availability of these types of devices (iPhone, Smartphones) has
increased the level of technical knowledge in every day society. For example,
there are more people that know how to jailbreak an iPhone than there are
hackers. For some non-technical people, this very technical process has become
something commonplace.

The reports from DARPA and the US Air Force are suspect in their relevance to
this discussion. There are several factors that could weigh upon their low
projections: military recruitment rate is down in the US and there is general
displeasure with the government.

Also, computer science has become ubiquitous in several fields. For example,
all of the majors at my engineering university are required to take some form
of computer science. Creating tools and solving problems with software has
become an everyday part of any engineers' tool belt. Perhaps the hackers are
migrating to domain specific areas?

And, finally, that doesn't mean we should be complacent. It is still (and
always will be) our charge to engage younger generations in the fulfillment
and excitement that comes from solving tough problems.

~~~
heresy
A fair number of programmers I respect have broken the law.

Sometimes the law is an ass, and needs to be broken.

And sometimes you're just so damn curious you have to figure out how it works,
and you break it for the rush of both solving the problem and sticking it to
the man.

Most people outgrow the latter, but I would think twice about the credentials
of any programmer that did not do things of questionable legality growing up.

Curiosity is to be encouraged.

~~~
dantheman
A lot of the early hacking was before there were laws against it.

------
mnemonicfx
They're still there, and they're always there. Consumer devices are always
available since the age of tinkering is easier.

Tinkering people don't represent the majority of device users. If they want to
learn and tinker, there are ways (e.g. Linux).

~~~
rimantas
Exactly. I assume telephone was in the nearly every house in US in seventies,
but not everyone became Woz and Jobs. Now computers are in the every home, and
phones are in everyone's pocket. Should we expect everyone to become a hacker
all of the sudden? I'd argue that now we have a lot lot more hackers than 40
years ago—and just the number of them makes them "invisible".

------
daeken
I'm fairly sure I've mentioned it with respect to the high school webcam
controversy before, but I think it bears repeating: read Little Brother by
Cory Doctorow. I can't say much about it that wikipedia doesn't without giving
things away, but I assure you that you won't be disappointed; way too
relevant...

~~~
jjs
Read it online:

[http://craphound.com/littlebrother/Cory_Doctorow_-
_Little_Br...](http://craphound.com/littlebrother/Cory_Doctorow_-
_Little_Brother.htm)

------
rimantas
Again… Was US phone system open when Jobs and Woz were hacking it? If not, why
is this example there.

    
    
      And most importantly, your attempts to delve into the
      mysteries of how the device functions will be punished.
    

Grab the SDK and delve into the mysteries.

~~~
cosmicray
Once upon a time, the POTS system used something called 'in-band signaling'.
An example of that was really old coin telephones, where the devices would
send certain tones to tell the operator which coins you had deposited. John
Draper (aka Capt Crunch) exploited this in-band signaling to access the toll
network, and make long distance calls as tho he had trunk signaling and
origination. I assume that anything Woz was doing was similar to this. Bell
Labs responded by moving the toll signaling out-of-band. Out of all this, and
for other more important reasons, was born SS7.

edit: from the wiki article on SS7 ...

 _SS5 and earlier systems used in-band signaling, in which the call-setup
information was sent by playing special multi-frequency tones into the
telephone lines, known as bearer channels in the parlance of the telecom
industry. This led to security problems with blue boxes. Modern designs of
telephone equipment that implement out-of-band signaling protocols explicitly
keep the end-user's audio path—the so-called speech path—separate from the
signaling phase to eliminate the possibility that end users may introduce
tones that would be mistaken for those used for signaling._

------
zandorg
The Kindle runs on Linux, so the issue is more: Why did they screw up the GPL
(< version 3) to allow an open-source operating system to run on a jailed
device?

~~~
gwern
In 1989, why would jailed devices be a concern for Stallman? Copyleft was
still a novel and uncertain idea, used only on a few GNU projects; if the
GPL's smashing popularity since '89 is a screw up, may God grant us a success!

------
scott_s
If you're going to convince me that the sky is falling, you need to show me
bits of falling sky. Arguing why it makes sense that the sky is falling is not
the same thing and also not convincing.

------
neonfunk
I mean, I totally hear the point about the importance of a "computer defense
department", especially in the context of the recent shots fired between
google and china... But to conflate explicitly-installed software that allows
admins to watch peoples' screens and monitor their activity with the existence
and everyday use of devices like the iphone and kindle seems like a stretch. I
think if anything, the case with this school will bring more attention to the
issue -- and with any luck -- greater understanding.

------
jazzdev
_Devices like the Amazon Kindle and Apple iPhone are jailed against any
unauthorized consumer use, guarded by strict but unproven new federal laws
against jailbreaking them._

What laws is he referring to? DCMA?

------
RyanMcGreal
>the inherent advantage that this generation of tinkers gave America

I think he meant to write: "the inherent advantage that this generation of
tinker _er_ s gave America"

~~~
jjs
On the contrary:

[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22a%20person%20who...](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22a%20person%20who%20enjoys%20fixing%20and%20experimenting%20with%20machines%20and%20their%20parts%22)

------
jsz0
All the hackers are busy trying to use iPhone jailbreak tools to gain root
access on a MacBook. They are _very_ confused and so am I.

------
Raphael
doo doo doo. doo doo doo.

