There is some academic writing on the subject I can't find at the moment. Basically the idea that Hackers are the modern day tricksters of mythology. Sneaky, morally ambiguous, possessing mysterious powers over our surroundings. It's important to be over the top and silly with your hacks.

Might be Hacker Hoaxer Whistleblower Spy, which I wrote http://www.amazon.com/Hacker-Hoaxer-Whistleblower-Spy-Anonym...

I do raise the trickster there. You can find a pdf of it out there too if you google for it.

The ~'90s computer underground hacker, which some people like to call cracker, was a more traditional youth subculture than the coder hacker. With groups, zines, handles etc. similar to say music, graffiti or action sports.

That sounds like Snowcrash :)

I'd be interested in reading whatever academic writing that was, if you find it.

I think they are more like modern days terrorists. The kind that will burn a farm just because they can.

cDc == cult of the dead cow? I haven't seen them referenced in ages. Probably since my own arrest actually.

You don't leave that one hanging. What's the story? Care to share?

It's really not that interesting. I was 15 and played around with some computers that belongs to the US Navy. Then one day at 6 am I heard a loud knock on the front door.

indeed, a common story. i get the feeling the fbi did a lot of before-school visits to teenagers dicking around on irc in the mid 90s.

they showed up to my place once. the guy said to contact him after i graduated if i was looking for work, lol.

for what it's worth, they had binders and binders full of efnet logs.

I keep hearing this and it makes me realize I wasn't as cool as I thought I was in the 90s :P

The FBI visited once, my dad freaked out and told me before he answered the door.

Turns out someone was exposing themselves to kids on Halloween.

You don't still do that do you?

I wasn't the one exposing myself if that's what you mean.

(I believe that was the joke)

I got dinged as well. Similar story on efnet logs. No charges but they announced their presence with authority. Left me a business card too.

Yep, myself and a friend and they had logs from one of our Undernet channels. Interesting to hear that it was somewhat commonplace. I hadn't heard any similar stories until the mid 00s and ours happened around 97 or 98.

Yeah mine while I was in high school and it was 1998. I think there was a lot of FBI trolling the usual channels in the late 90's when the 2600-related movements were really getting underway.

Strange how different - and how similar! - the scene is today. Good memories, except that law enforcement back then was a lot less scary...

Would .. you .. like .. to .. play .. a .. game?

Hah! Sounds like my story, except mine involved the main newspaper in the next big city over from my hometown. Totally uninteresting.

NandO?

Several states away, if you mean the N&O that Google offers up.

Ah, yep. N&O was called nando.net back then – local newspaper and also large local ISP.

Most of the people I know who got busted back then were into telco systems so they ended up with a fine, usually around 1-2k.

I'm guessing the navy wasn't so kind :/

I used to work at British telecom with a guy who had been a phreak and got caught hacking Prestel - one day one of BT's security (SD Directorate) guys who had busted him bumped into him at work and was not pleased.

I also worked for the Systems administrator who was in charge of the machine in the Prince Philip hack.

They were real dicks for sure. Fortunately I was 15 and it was pre-9/11 (by about 7 months). I'm not so sure things would have gone as well for me today.

Heh, 18 years ago today I had a loud knock on my door. (The story isn't that interesting but the timing is -- to me.)

Uh...story time?

I dunno, man - without Fisher Stevens riding a skateboard through a giant server room, can anything really be as campy as Hackers?

"Never fear, I is here." I still catch myself saying this at times.

Yes, people forget that Emmanuel Goldstein of 2600 fame was a consultant on Hackers. If you thought that was unrealistic (and OK, it was), revisit the other '95 hacker movie: The Net.

For all the shit Hackers gets as a movie, I feel it does capture the zeitgeist of the hacker culture of the time better than just about any other movie out there.

The good old times. :)