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Everything you've written would have been just as true in the 1980s, with a few of the names changed. Then too there were authentic hackers, glib fakers, and c
by pg 17y ago
Everything you've written would have been just as true in the 1980s, with a few of the names changed. Then too there were authentic hackers, glib fakers, and corporate drones.
The great majority of the computer world in the 1980s was profoundly unsubversive. The smart, subversive people were a tiny minority. They seem a larger proportion when you look back from 30 years later, because the fakers and PHBs had no lasting effects.
- radu_floricica 17y agoFor the young programmer 12 years ago it was still easier to get absorbed in a "hacking" culture - or so it was for me. At that time I thought linux, assembly and writing a virus in Pascal were very cool things, and I didn't have a problem getting my friends to agree. It seemed very natural then. I admit I don't know many high-schoolers now, but my feeling is they really are less hacking-inclined, at least around here (Eastern Europe). I'd guess the main difference is access to information. Then it was very rationed - I remember learning assembly from a reference manual. Now Internet offers a lot less obstacles, so I don't really see a point for "subversiveness", at least in mainstream programming.
- asciilifeform 17y ago> the fakers and PHBs had no lasting effects How I wish you were right! Their lasting effects are evident in the brokenness of all current computing systems.