Goldstein - Dear hacker: letters to the editor of 2600

Dear Hacker: Letters to the Editor of 2600

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This book is dedicated to those people who always feel the need to speak out about whatever is on their mind. For my entire life, letter writers have been an inspiration to me. These are the people who actually make changes because so few of us take the time to compose our thoughts into a written form. Even today, when online forums are everywhere, its those people who think it through and present their thoughts in a cohesive style who really wind up getting through to the rest of us. With all of this, its no wonder that the individuals who have written letters to 2600 over the years to express their opinions, ideas, or outrage have comprised the most popular part of our magazine. Its this explosion of ideas that has made the whole thing so worthwhile.

About the Author

Emmanuel Goldstein () has been publishing 2600 Magazine, The Hacker Quarterly , since 1984. He traces his hacker roots to his high school days in the late 70s, when he first played with a distant computer over high-speed, 300-baud phone lines. It didnt take long for him to get into trouble by figuring out how to access something he wasnt supposed to access. He continued playing with various machines in his college days at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. This resulted in an FBI raid, as he once again gained access to something he really shouldnt have. It was in the midst of all this excitement that he cofounded 2600 Magazine , an outlet for hacker stories and tutorials from all over the world. The rapid growth and success of the magazine was both shocking and scary to Goldstein, who to this day has never taken a course in computers. Since 1988, he has also hosted Off The Hook , a hacker-themed technology talk show on WBAI 99.5 FM in New York City. In addition to making the hacker documentary Freedom Downtime , Goldstein hosts the Hackers On Planet Earth (HOPE) conferences in New York City every two years, drawing thousands of hackers from all over the world.

You can contact 2600 online at www.2600.com or by writing to 2600 Magazine , P.O. Box 752, Middle Island, NY, 11953.

Credits

Executive Editor

Carol Long

Project Editor

Maureen Spears

Production Editor

Eric Charbonneau

Copy Editor

Maryann Steinhart

Editorial Director

Robyn B. Siesky

Editorial Manager

Mary Beth Wakefield

Marketing Manager

Ashley Zurcher

Production Manager

Tim Tate

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Associate Publisher

Jim Minatel

Project Coordinator, Cover

Lynsey Stanford

Compositor

Chris Gillespie, Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Proofreader

Jen Larsen, Word One

Indexer

Johnna VanHoose Dinse

Cover Image

Jake Tilson/Getty Images

Cover Designer

Ryan Sneed

Acknowledgments

This book started off looking relatively simple but grew more and more complex as the sheer size of the project became apparent; we print so many letters in every issue of 2600 and weve been publishing the magazine since 1984, which means we had a huge amount of source material to draw from. On top of that, it was no small task to figure out the best way to sort them all into various categories and decide which of those would be the most interesting. Because of the size of this collection and the incredible number of pieces that it includes, many letters didnt make the cut despite each letter being precious in its own unique way.

In our last book, I thanked a whole ton of people who helped the magazine get off the ground, stay afloat through difficult times, and remain relevant to this very day. Without repeating those words precisely, Id like to reiterate the tremendous contributions of 2600 cofounder Dave Ruderman back in our early years, cover designer and photographer Dave Buchwald who continues to add magic and creativity to every project he undertakes, our layout artist Mark Silverberg who makes the current issues of 2600 look sharp and attractive, and our office manager Mary Nixdorf who manages to keep the entire operation running smoothly, despite the odds.

We never would have succeeded without all of the writers, office managers, system administrators, HOPE Conference organizers, radio show participants, and artists that have worked with us over the years and helped to make this thing we do unique and unparalleled. Special thanks also go to Robert Barat, who helped sort through the many pages of letters in piles of issues to find the best ones. Finally, I must acknowledge the inspiration and encouragement of Kyle Drosdick, whose appreciation and skill in the fields of technology, history, and unbridled fun is a perfect summation of what the true hacker spirit is.