From: datadrain@.hack.com   
      
   I remember reading the hackers manifesto when I first became interested   
   in computers back in the late 90s.   
      
   For anyone that is interested in reading the hackers manifesto, I have   
   posted it below.   
      
   \/\The Conscience of a Hacker/\/   
   by   
   +++The Mentor+++   
      
   Written on January 8, 1986   
   =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=   
      
   Another one got caught today, it's all over the papers. "Teenager   
   Arrested in Computer Crime Scandal", "Hacker Arrested after Bank   
   Tampering"...   
      
   Damn kids. They're all alike.   
      
   But did you, in your three-piece psychology and 1950's technobrain, ever   
   take a look behind the eyes of the hacker? Did you ever wonder what made   
   him tick, what forces shaped him, what may have molded him?   
      
   I am a hacker, enter my world...   
      
   Mine is a world that begins with school... I'm smarter than most of the   
   other kids, this crap they teach us bores me...   
      
   Damn underachiever. They're all alike.   
      
   I'm in junior high or high school. I've listened to teachers explain for   
   the fifteenth time how to reduce a fraction. I understand it. "No, Ms.   
   Smith, I didn't show my work. I did it in my head..."   
      
   Damn kid. Probably copied it. They're all alike.   
      
   I made a discovery today. I found a computer. Wait a second, this is   
   cool. It does what I want it to. If it makes a mistake, it's because I   
   screwed it up. Not because it doesn't like me...   
   Or feels threatened by me...   
   Or thinks I'm a smart ass...   
   Or doesn't like teaching and shouldn't be here...   
      
   Damn kid. All he does is play games. They're all alike.   
      
   And then it happened... a door opened to a world... rushing through the   
   phone line like heroin through an addict's veins, an electronic pulse is   
   sent out, a refuge from the day-to-day incompetencies is sought... a   
   board is found. "This is it... this is where I belong..."   
      
   I know everyone here... even if I've never met them, never talked to   
   them, may never hear from them again... I know you all...   
      
   Damn kid. Tying up the phone line again. They're all alike...   
      
   You bet your ass we're all alike... we've been spoon-fed baby food at   
   school when we hungered for steak... the bits of meat that you did let   
   slip through were pre-chewed and tasteless. We've been dominated by   
   sadists, or ignored by the apathetic. The few that had something to   
   teach found us willing pupils, but those few are like drops of water in   
   the desert.   
      
   This is our world now... the world of the electron and the switch, the   
   beauty of the baud. We make use of a service already existing without   
   paying for what could be dirt-cheap if it wasn't run by profiteering   
   gluttons, and you call us criminals.   
   We explore... and you call us criminals.   
   We seek after knowledge... and you call us criminals.   
   We exist without skin color, without nationality, without   
   religious bias... and you call us criminals.   
   You build atomic bombs, you wage wars, you murder, cheat, and lie to us   
   and try to make us believe it's for our own good, yet we're the criminals.   
      
   Yes, I am a criminal. My crime is that of curiosity. My crime is that of   
   judging people by what they say and think, not what they look like. My   
   crime is that of outsmarting you, something that you will never forgive   
   me for.   
      
   I am a hacker, and this is my manifesto. You may stop this individual,   
   but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike.   
      
   +++The Mentor+++   
      
      
   Technomage Hawke wrote:   
   > Emmanual Goldstein wrote:   
   >   
   >   
   >>The flow of information must be protected.   
   >>The truth must be recovered and   
   >   
   >   
   >   
   > two points.   
   >   
   > 1. the name you post under is the "supposed enemy of the state" in George   
   > Orwell's 1984.   
   >   
   > 2. "THE mentor" posted the original hackers manifesto a very long time (25+   
   > years) ago. Since then, anyone thinking they are l33t has been trying to   
   > top his effort. all without any success.   
   >   
   > you are still but a young pup. you haven't done much of anything except   
   > proclaim something everyone else already knew.   
   >   
   > so, instead of spouting this mindless chatter and drivel, why don't you sit   
   > down and *INVENT* (not copy, not improve) something new and really wow us.   
   >   
   > otherwise, you are just one of the many wannabe's that come and go.   
   >   
   > *we* are not impressed.   
   >   
   > Magi De Technica Hawke   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)