Re: Phrack is dead, long live Phrack!

[msh at datakill <msh () datakill us>]

I totally disagree. I think that Phrack.org was a bunch of watered
down old bullshit. If "Long Live" anything, Long Live pHC.

whiteh8 f0' lyfE

On Tue, Jan 25, 2005 at 08:34:01PM +0000, xyberpix wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> I really have to agree with starwars on this one, I have been reading 
> Phrack for years now, c'mon people even if a few groups are not willing 
> to try an publish Phrack for everyone to vote on, why don't a few of us 
> get together and keep Phrack going? Anyone who's interested in keeping 
> this part of all our lives in one way or another alive, mail me off the 
> list and lets make this happen.
>
> xyberpix
>
> On 23 Jan 2005, at 09:45, starwars wrote:
>
> > After several years of steady decline in the wrong hands, maybe it is 
> > too late to save Phrack. But I think we owe something back to the zine 
> > that gave us so much. Many us were drawn into computer security by 
> > Phrack, grew up along with it, and were nourished by the high quality 
> > papers of it's contributors.
> >
> > The current editors of Phrack have decided to kill off Phrack for 
> > good. This is an outrage. Phrack has always purported to be for the 
> > community by the community. They have no right to kill off nearly 
> > twenty years of tradition.
> >
> > Despite it's poor performance of late, Phrack still has
> > an unparalleled and awesome record as a technical source you can really
> > bite your teeth into. It's also had a major cultural impact over the
> > years:
> >
> > "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.
> > ...
> > 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.
> > "
> >
> > -- A hacker's manifesto, the Mentor, 1986
> >
> > The current "anonymous" batch editors have outgrown the zine. They 
> > were a bad choice to begin with, but regardless, that's happened to 
> > phrack before. On a regular basis. Every generation or so passes on 
> > phrack to the next. It's tradition.
> >
> > What's different about the current batch of editors was their intense 
> > arrogance and unusualy patronizing attitude towards the scene. Phrack 
> > hasn't been about the computer underground for years. The last ten 
> > years have turned Phrack into a prestigious journal for security 
> > research.
> >
> > The anarchistic underground roots of phrack have been whitewashed away 
> > by the latest batch of editors. Go and read the issues from 1980s, 
> > early 90s.
> >
> > The reason this happened was that when the scene moved to the Internet 
> > in the mid 90s the MIT hacker memes battled it out against "war games" 
> > hacker meme of the 80s. Hacker still has an 80s meaning for the 
> > general public, but the MIT hacker meme clearly won amongst the 
> > technically savy. The "cracker" and "script kiddy" memes were part of 
> > a process that turned Phrack's underground past into an embarrassment.
> >
> > So Phrack gradually turned against it's own roots.  It's not for the 
> > hacker community by the hacker community anymore. Far from it. The 
> > current incarnation of Phrack actually spreads hypocritical 
> > anti-hacker memes between it's covers. It's BY 
> > $150-an-hour-security-consultants FOR 
> > our-reputation-in-the-security-industry.
> >
> > Phrack has been hijacked by sellouts.
> >
> > Aside from their snobbish elitist attitude, what have the recent 
> > editors of Phrack contributed? The articles are written by others. Try 
> > reading the "loopback" section written by the Phrack editors sometime. 
> > Degrading newbies never gets old for these guys. Ha ha! you're all so 
> > stupid! We're so uber elite!
> >
> > So now what's happened is that these guys are so old school, so 
> > been-there-done-that, patronizing assholes that they've decided it's 
> > time for Phrack to die rather than evolve.
> >
> > Here's an alternative to killing off a 20 year tradition: run a 
> > competition amongst would-be editors who can publish the best next 
> > issue of phrack. Then allow the PUBLIC to vote amongst alternatives as 
> > to whom succeeds the current editors.
> >
> > The team that manages to hack together the best edition of phrack 64 
> > wins.
> >
> > Phrack is dead. Long live phrack!
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
> > Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
> For Security And Open Source News And Info Visit:
> http://www.xyberpix.com
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> Version: GnuPG v1.2.4 (Darwin)
>
> iD8DBQFB9q05cRMkOnlkwMERAoHmAJ9x62fwGEj7Q0ChRmegS1HwtdMPwQCePZkB
> qAoFkYFA8iaoHpQJ1JjHdH4=
> =adde
> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
>
> _______________________________________________
> Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
> Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html

-- 
 _________________________
|                         |
|   http://datakill.us    |   
| irc.datakill.us #dkchat |
|_________________________|
_______________________________________________
Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html