Steal This Computer Book 3 198
| Steal This Computer Book 3 | |
| author | Wallace Wang |
| pages | 358 |
| publisher | No Starch Press |
| rating | 9 |
| reviewer | Peter Wayner |
| ISBN | 1593270003 |
| summary | An irreverant |
The book is a travelog of many of the most interesting or inflammatory corners of the Internet. There are chapters on hacktivism, hate crime, con games, spam, phone phreaking and dozens of other topics. If someone's spent time flaming about it, banning it, subpoenaing it, or demonizing it, there's probably a section on it here. All of the sections come with screen shots and URLs for further digging.
I found reading the book to be an odd pleasure. There was no way to click on the sites or try any of the software without heading for a computer, but that didn't seem to matter. If anything, it was nice to skip over the links and put off heading down alternate paths until later. The more I experience books like this, the more I begin to wonder if there's much in the hyper-fragmented, postmodern view of a narrative built out of multiply forking paths. This book offers one fairly simple arc that carries us through the most talked about corners of the web and it does it fairly gracefully. That's a pleasure unto itself.
The book comes with a rebellious gloss and semiotic history. The title was stolen from Steal This Book a collection of anarchist schemes written by Abbie Hoffman in the 1960s. Despite the title, that book became a bestseller -- offering a glimpse of the longterm prospects for Hoffman's revolution. All of the prole sheep dutifully bought a book filled with bombmaking techniques that promises to show you where "exactly to place the dynamite that will destroy the walls."
Hoffman's book showed that people will buy something they value even when they're told to steal it. The prole sheep intuitively understand that books cost money to create. But maybe that was a different era, before the web existed. This website offers the text even though there are four editions for sale at Amazon. I wonder who holds the rights?
Wang's book is nowhere near as radical or as dangerous. Hoffman wrote sentences like "The purpose of part two is not to fuck the system, but destroy it." Wang generally avoids such antagonistic language and speaks generally about anti-social behavior in the third person: "When hackers use social engineering, they often masquerade as a consultant or temporary worker..."
Much of the book, in fact, is filled with techniques that are presented as tools for protecting your privacy and your personal information. The back cover asks, "Is your computer safe from computer viruses and malicious hackers?" It's only partially aimed at helping people do asocial things on the Net. Helping people protect themselves from the evil hordes is a large part of it. Given that identity theft is a booming business, this edition is practically an anti-crime book.
What does this mean for the this Internet revolution? Will the current file trading yippies overthrow the copyright system? Will file sharing actually become the norm? Or will all of the Napsterites follow the paths of Hoffman's proteges and grow up, have kids, move to the burbs, and start paying for their content? Well, they might if the content is as comfortable as this book in the hands while sitting in a La-Z-Boy recliner. No popup windows. No flash graphics. No registration required. Just pure content. Hmmm.
Peter Wayner is the author of books like Policing Online Games, Translucent Databases and Java RAMBO Manifesto. Please don't steal them. You can purchase Steal This Computer Book 3 from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
A true statement (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:A true statement (Score:2)
Re:A true statement (Score:4, Funny)
Re:A true statement (Score:2)
Or pictures of Heidi and Jenna from Survivor [google.com]
Go fig....
Re:A true statement (Score:3, Informative)
MOAB Article with picture [google.com]
Link to Heidi and Jenna, but you will have to $$$ [google.com]
Re:A true statement (OT) (Score:2)
You have a choice. An image search with a ton of links that actually have no images or an image search that misses some images. Google went with the latter.
Re:A true statement (Score:4, Informative)
I looked at it during one of my monthly bookstore visits and was repulsed by it.
It's like "The Idiots Guide to Being a Skript Kiddie".
It rants about going to "hackerish" websites for information etc.
The whole book reeks of beign targeted at naive teenages who watched Hackers one time too many and want to go haxxoring cause it's cool or something.
Re:A true statement (Score:1)
Re:A true statement (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A true statement (Score:2)
Re:A true statement (Score:2)
Re:A true statement (Score:2)
Re:A true statement (Score:2)
Just kidding, of course
Re:A true statement (Score:2, Informative)
Its as simple as a batch file. Open up notepad and create hello_world.cmd:
Or if you want to get all fancy with a GUI:
DISCLAIMER: I am not responsible for any damages this code does to your system. If you have important data in a file called "hel
Re:A true statement (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A true statement (Score:1, Insightful)
As a professional researcher, I can tell you that Google points to maybe 4 percent of the useful data on the Internet, and that 90 percent of the truly useful data in world is not accessible on the Internet. Only the truly ignorant thinks that a) all useful data resides somewhere on the Internet and b) Google knows wherre it is. Google is a great tool for the amateurs, but the pros don't really have a use for it.
Hmm (Score:2)
Re:A true statement (Score:4, Insightful)
You think if you can't find it with Google it isn't on the internet; and if it isn't on the internet it isn't real.
Well Sparky, those of us who are more than 10 years old remember things that happened and things we read about them in books and magazines that Google has no clue about. If such books and magazines are in a computer archive somewhere they're diked off from the internet ( a growing phenomenom as more and more people realize that not only is their information valuable, their information is the only thing of value they have to exchange)
Case in point. If you use Google to find information about the sucessful flying of a kite across that Atlantic ocean all you will find is my own Slashdot post avering that it has been done. . . and a denial by someone else because they couldn't find it in a Google search.
Yet all you have to do to find an in depth article of the feat is to go down to your local library and start browsing (yes, we browsed magazines in "the old days") copies of New Yorker magazine from the late 60's.
The universe of knowledge has not been transfered to the internet.
KFG
Re:A true statement (Score:2)
Of course it hasn't, not yet. It won't be for another 1000 years until the evil brains build their uberdatabase of everything.
Re:A true statement (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, the trick is knowing to browse copies of The New Yorker from the late 60's...
Re:A true statement (Score:2)
The same goes for your local librarian.
The machines don't have us beat . . . yet.
KFG
Re:A true statement (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:A true statement (Score:2)
But somehow, the stupidityis all there...
Re:A true statement (Score:3, Insightful)
Food is too valuable to the individual and will always win out, in the extreme, to the value to mankind as a whole.
The question becomes, in an exchange society, with an abstracted medium of exchange which can only be obtained from other people ( self-sufficiency being virtually illegal), how does one obtain rice in the bowl tonight, as opposed to pie in the sky tomorrow?
It's a legitimate quandry that's going to become more and more p
Re:A true statement (Score:2)
I answered [slashdot.org] that same question last night.
Basically: artificial scarcity will be a useful crutch (for some) for as long as there's a lot of real scarcity to be traded for. But when "putting rice in your bowl" doesn't require you to exchange anything (the "pie in the sky" part you refered to), and it's possible to live in
Re:A true statement (Score:3, Funny)
Someone around
This series of books (Score:5, Insightful)
Paper vs. Internet (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Paper vs. Internet (Score:2)
Re:Paper vs. Internet (Score:3, Funny)
[*] Actually, that's saying a lot, since the Vatican library actually has a pornography section!!
Yeah, but it takes him six months to walk to it and six more months to reach his arm out to grab his copy of Juggs.
steal this book? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:steal this book? (Score:1)
Re:steal this book? (Score:1)
Re:steal this book? (Score:1)
Infringe this book (Score:5, Funny)
That would be *copyright infringment* not stealing.
Sheesh, haven't you learned anything on Slashdot?
Hoffman (Score:5, Insightful)
After this review, I'm more interested in the Hoffman book than the Wang book.
Re:Hoffman (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Hoffman (Score:1)
Re:Hoffman (Score:3, Funny)
Don't you mean 'walla'? Perhaps you forgot how to spell that word properly. On
Re:Hoffman (Score:2)
(I swear I've seen 'buku' before, it took me a while to figure out WTF it meant)
"Steal This Computer Book" (Score:4, Funny)
Re:"Steal This Computer Book" (Score:5, Funny)
They did. It's just not there anymore. ;)
Re:"Steal This Computer Book" (Score:2)
Re:"Steal This Computer Book" (Score:2)
Most inventory systems definitely have never heard of "shortage" and expect physical inventories to be done like once a qua
Memo to the RIAA (Score:5, Insightful)
That should tell you something about the true value of the wares you peddle, RIAA. Try cranking out something that contributes to culture, instead of the teen-pop whores and gangsta rappers that are contributing to it's decline.
Re:Memo to the RIAA (Score:2, Troll)
Re:Memo to the RIAA (Score:4, Interesting)
Sure Sony has sold 10,000,000 copies of Britney's latest album at $20/CD (for easy math), but there are 5,00,000 more copies that have been burned for friends, downloaded from Kazaa and shoplifted from CD stores. $200,000,000 in revenue divded by 15,000,000 copies. The "fair price" would be $13 and change. Perhaps this theory is completely baseless and wrong, but I like it.
Re:Memo to the RIAA (Score:2)
People need to start taking responsibility for once instead of fucking pointing fingers at everyone else.
Taking responsibility... (Score:2)
Have you ever seen a character in a popular movie take responsibility for their actions? I mean, anything that was produced after the John Wayne era?
And no, it isn't like saying that GTA is responsible for those kids. It's more like saying that what someone sees in movies influences their attitudes - while most people would not go out and commit physical theft after seeing a movie like the The Italian Job, they might have a more apologetic view of stealing if no one gets hurt. It's a small logical st
Re:Taking responsibility... (Score:2)
I think if we were to apply that to most of our laws, the prisons would quickly clear out.
Responsibility is one thing; religion-inspired crimes are something completely different. Here in MA you can't buy beer on Sunday; prostitution and drug use is illegal; and you can't place bets (unless those bets are through government agents, i.e. the lottery). In none of these cases is anyone being physically hurt or made to do something against thei
Re:Taking responsibility... (Score:2)
Re:Taking responsibility... (Score:2)
Re:Memo to the RIAA (Score:2)
Re:Memo to the RIAA (Score:1)
A better one would be (trying to avoid spoilers) a con-man so troubled by the immorality of his chosen lifestyle that he has developed severe psychological problems reunites with his daughter and through his relationship with her comes to a deeper understanding of his own life choices.
You probably wouldn't pick up on that from the trailer though, and so, despite disliking people who use the "RTFA" acronym, I must implore you to WTFM
Re:Memo to the RIAA (Score:2)
Re:Memo to the RIAA (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Memo to the RIAA (Score:2, Funny)
Before the internet..? (Score:1)
I seriously can't remember what i used to do on computers before the internet :P
It scares me :(
I dunno.. reading the internet out of a book seems a bit strange.. PLEASE DON'T MAKE ME UNPLUG.... ARGHHHHHHH
Simon
Re:Before the internet..? (Score:1, Informative)
or gopher...
No!!! (Score:4, Funny)
We really don't need a dead-tree edition of the goatse guy, now, do we?
Content (Score:5, Insightful)
Paragraph 1 - A very broad overview of what the book covers
Paragraph 2 - "Hey, reading a book is completely unlike reading a webpage"
Paragraphs 3-5 - Review of a completely different book
Paragraph 6 - Finally, some hint as to what's actually in the book. But no indication of whether the content is good or not. Are the techniques mentioned good or outdated? Easy to understand?
Paragraph 7 - Back to talking about about the Hoffman book and completely ignoring the one actually being "reviewed".
Interestingly. (Score:3, Funny)
Wait.. did I just say that? On Slashdot?
Oh dear..
Re:Interestingly. (Score:1, Funny)
+2 redundant
Re:Interestingly. (Score:2)
Now THAT is funny.
Re:Interestingly. (Score:2)
Making a pitch for printed materials (Score:4, Insightful)
He says, "because you can do this." and proceeds to flip through all the pages like a big stack of crisp, 20-dollar bills. The instant information access, unless the book is in a fire or something, is what always makes books cool. That, plus they're easier on the eyes than a CRT (for me).
Re:Making a pitch for printed materials (Score:2, Insightful)
Don't underestimate the value of being able to search and cut-and-paste electronic media.
I can picture your Dad referring you to something neat in that precious stack of pages -- "You have to read this (flip, flip), I think it was on page ninety-something (flip, flip, scan, scan), no, wait, it must be here somewhere (flip, scan), ..."
Not to mention the annoyance of the not-so-instant access when
Re:Making a pitch for printed materials (Score:1)
Re:Making a pitch for printed materials (Score:2)
Re:Making a pitch for printed materials (Score:2, Insightful)
However, the counter to your dad's argument comes on moving day.
Several hundred ebooks fit on one CD. Thousands snuggle neatly in a hidden corner of your HD.
I love my books. They make me dread moving.
(Hot tip. Black background, off white text. BIG font. Very easy on the eyes)
KFG
Re:Making a pitch for printed materials (Score:2)
Try looking in the back.. there's this thing called an 'index'. In the front, there's usually this thing called a 'table of contents' which can also be somewhat helpful.
Granted, it's not quite as handy as a google search but it certainly helps.
Spider my mind. (Score:1, Redundant)
I think this covers all public data known to mankind. As soon as google figures out how to crawl and index grey matter, it will include all knowledge.
Public Domain (Score:3, Insightful)
Any author can chose to release any writing with copyright into the public domain prior to the natural expiration of copyright. Once that occurs, nobody owns the rights.
Given the author, and the book, my guess would be that it's in the public domain.
Re:Public Domain -- Correction for understanding (Score:1)
Re:Public Domain (Score:1)
Apparently there's an ongoing debate as to whether the book is actually in the public domain or not (based on my quick research). Perhaps that's a lesson in how legalities can help make your intentions clear, even while you're campaigning against those legalities themselves.
Why a book is still better than a web page (Score:5, Funny)
2. It don't break when you drop it
3. You can take it to the beach
4. You can hide it inside another book to look smart
5. You can hide it inside a porno mag to look cool
6. You can paper the cover
7. You can leave it on a bus seat
8. It never runs out of batteries
9. A rack of them look impressive up against the wall
But, on the other hand:
1. You never get them back when you lend them out
2. If you do, you wish you hadn't
3. You can't search them, so you have to flip back and forwards
4. You can't run them through the Jargonizer to see what the author would have sounded like in Hillbilly
5. You can't print them and give them to someone, saying "hey, look at this cool web page"
6. You can't hyper link to them.
7. You can't cut and paste the good bits to make you look smart on slashdot (like that was difficult!)
But then again,
10. No girl ever fell for you because you were browsing a cool web page
Re:Why a book is still better than a web page (Score:4, Funny)
I have a sneaking suspicion that CmdrTaco might have a different opinion.
Re:Why a book is still better than a web page (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Why a book is still better than a web page (Score:5, Funny)
> 1. Instant on, instant off
It takes time to switch computer on, so you have a good excuse to not turn it off.
> 2. It don't break when you drop it
If you drop your computer and it breaks, you have a good excuse to buy a new, faster one.
> 3. You can take it to the beach
Beach is a good excuse to buy the latest laptop.
> 4. You can hide it inside another book to look smart
You can hide the
> 5. You can hide it inside a porno mag to look cool
You can hide
> 6. You can paper the cover
You can put a cool blue light inside your computer
> 7. You can leave it on a bus seat
So you can also leave your computer, and you'll make someone even more happier than leaving a book (and you again get the excuse to buy better computer)
> 8. It never runs out of batteries
But it still doesn't have the cool blue light.
> 9. A rack of them look impressive up against the wall
But imagine a beowulf cluster...
Re:Why a book is still better than a web page (Score:2, Funny)
then again, no girl has ever fallen for me for reading a book either.
i guess the AD&D across the top didn't help.
No cookies? (Score:5, Insightful)
As long as you don't check it out of a library (USA PATRIOT Act.)
Re:No cookies? (Score:2)
Re:No cookies? (Score:2)
I don't use the computer anymore (Score:5, Funny)
I sold off my computer last year because I couldn't keep up with all the clicking and damned hyperlinks all over the web. Annoying things they are. Baah.
Instead, I've taken to calling people I know, when I need anything off the interweb. The printouts usually arrive in the mail in a day or two. True, the timelag is high, but my friends're getting better at it everyday.
For a beer or two, these guys usually refresh
Good idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
Both have their place, of course, and I don't think a short attention span is necessarily a bad thing. But books try to force you to carry a thought through to a conclusion, within limited parameters, where the internet allows you to branch off and fragment your thought -- which in turn allows you to consider many ideas from many points of view -- just not very deeply.
So putting the internet into a book may just force some people to think about the implications of the new media, rather than focusing on the ever changing content.
Based on previous editions, skip it (Score:5, Insightful)
Get a decent book about computer abuse/misuse:
Hacking Exposed [hackingexposed.com], 4th edition
Hackers Beware, by Eric Cole
Counterhack [counterhack.net], by Ed Skoudis
These books are written by computer security professionals who may their living both doing computer security and teaching computer security (SANS [sans.org] and Foundstone).
Steal This Computer Book seems to be aimed at too young to know they are getting ripped off kids and computer novices. So don't buy this book if you are over 10.
Apples and Oranges (Score:2, Informative)
I can guarantee you that my mom would be much less enthralled with any of the books you listed.
-John Mark
Acquisitions Editor
No Starch Press
Re:Apples and Oranges (Score:2)
She might also enjoy the earlier writings of Robert Glass [www.isbn.nu], I think Universal Elixir and Other Computing Projects Which Failed [isbn.nu] and Computing Catastrophes [isbn.nu] are classic general audience books that anyone could enjoy.
The Hoffman book only cost a buck, ok? (Score:5, Interesting)
Besides, you've got it inside out. The joke was on the proles in the traditional capitalist business mode. They actually bought the rights to, printed and distributed a book that admonished you to steal it, right on the cover ( and even explained that the "artist" would get his cut even if you did. That was part of the subversion. It has modern repurcussions. Download an ebook off Kazaa, go to the Federal pen for 20 years and get a quarter million dollar fine while screwing the artist. STEAL a book and it's only petty larceny. Probation at most if it's your first offense; and the artist gets payed for it! Support your favorite "content producer" and stick it to the man at the same time. Steal books and CDs. Do It! Abbie and Jerry live, man! Free Attica!)
Oh, sorry, I got sidetracked. Flashback. That brown acid was apparently some bad shit.
Anyway, I treasured Steal This Book and I'm not all ashamed that I payed for it, nor was I in any way a "prole" for having done so. I wish I still had my copy. I would, except ( are you ready for it?). .
Someone stole it. Really.
KFG
Re:The Hoffman book only cost a buck, ok? (Score:2)
Sigh, and I just burned my last mod point a few stories ago.
At least I can still befriend you.
--
Umm, no (Score:4, Insightful)
No, it didnt. Noone ever took the title literally, as a command to steal it. They took it as what it was, a sort of ironic tongue-in-cheek wisecrack. The book didnt empower people to "fight the man", it poked fun at the new mooching generation of hippies, showing how wrong their ideals were.
This is like saying you were shocked when the end credits rolled after watching The Neverending Story.
Re:Umm, no (Score:2, Funny)
Must... resist.. Simpsons... reference...oh to heck with it.
Hutz: Mr. Simpson, this is the most blatant case of fraudulent advertising since my suit against the film, "The Never-Ending Story".
Misleading title (Score:2, Funny)
DAMN!!! (Score:2)
"the most... inflammatory corners of the Internet... hacktivism, hate crime, con games, spam, phone phreaking ... flaming ..."
I'm sure I'm in there at least 50 times.
Of course, if it's about the most bitter, angry, pissed-off, hate-inciting trolls of the Internet, (ie flaming), there's obviously a Slashdot chapter....
Probably so much Slashdot in there that the Foreward is written by Cowboy Neal.
Steal this computer, Book 3 (Score:2)
But that's just me.
For those of us not born in the Age of Aquarius... (Score:3, Informative)
Another 9 rating for a book review (Score:3, Informative)
Maybe the new version is better, but I doubt it.
Steal This....... (Score:2, Interesting)
I couldn't even give that chunk of dung away to the used book store for free.
The book was full of information like this..and this is almost a direct quote:
"If you want to hack a box, get an admin password with root access" And that was it on that subject.
The book also advocated the use of mail
Re:Wally Wang (Score:1)
It's not made up.
Sincerely,
Hu Phlung Pu
Re:Wallace Wang (Score:2, Funny)