

A Print Magazine for Hackers - aestetix
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/print-magazine-hackers

======
HipHopHacker
I've known Eric since the 1980's, from not long after he started the magazine
(in 1984, hence his handle). One thing I always liked about respected about
him is he did things on his own terms.

2600 really is a startup in some ways. It started in 1984 around the time of
the decline of TAP, and from 1984 to 1986 was mimeographed. Finally by 1987
Eric could put together a magazine with a real cover. Then in the early-mid
1990s I began seeing it appearing at Barnes and Noble.

He did it on his terms, bootstrapped, counting pennies, along with the
contributions of collaborators and writers of course. It grew and grew to
where he didn't have to scribble down every dollar he spent in a notepad any
more.

A lot of people here have the idea to find another programmer, build a
prototype, maybe try to get exponential growth and then go find an angel with
a whole pitch to the angel. Then to VC, and then some point the investors look
how to make their investment liquid which means you either go public or get
bought by a public company. Eric made exactly the magazine he wanted, did what
he wanted, and just did it year after year as word spread and until he could
have a nice little business, doing exactly what he wanted to do. To me it's
more of a success stories than many of the B2B/SAAS golden parachutes I see.
You're going to live a few decades and die, who wants to spend it pounding out
code for Microsoft, or Oracle, or pleading with VC's to be the lead in your
SAAS series A?

------
tdicola
Nice article! If you're nostalgic for the magazine, definitely check out the
Best of 2600 anthology that came out a few years ago:
[http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-2600-Hacker-
Odyssey/dp/047029...](http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-2600-Hacker-
Odyssey/dp/0470294191) It's huge and loaded with tons of classic articles from
the magazine.

I can also heartily recommend Off The Hook--I've been listening for about 15
years now and it's been really cool to get different perspectives on
technology news filtered through the 2600 lens.

------
julespitt
_Correction: An earlier version of this post misidentified the programming
language C as the operating system Unix._

------
evo_9
I was always paranoid 'they' tracked buyers of 2600 so I always used cash.
Anyone else worry about that too?

~~~
ld00d
I paid with a credit card _and_ had the Kindle subscription. I also bought
Catcher in the Rye with a credit card. Hack the planet.

~~~
mindcrime
Hack the planet!

------
state
There's nothing better than leafing through a random 2600 from the 90s.

------
omarelamri
This almost sounds like an oxymoron.

