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 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.


- Downward Spyral


I like the part about lie cheat and steal, and kill, too, for humans are vicious pest, killing for wanton joy; they overrun the earth like cockroaches, but unlike those innocent bugs, they have no purpose in the world.
Think of the good we do the world--try to conserve energy, build national parks. These are good. Yet... if humans never existed, tha good would never have to be done, because all the good we do serves to make up for the bad that we constantly commit.

I'm on a roll. I also have a theory about human worth. By living in today's society, you inherently hurt the world. Owning a house is hurt, because it took a lot of materials to build it while you could have found a cave to live in. Driving a car not only puts out emissions, but it cost a lot of metal and sometimes leather to build it. I, for one, would like to see cars with human-skin seats. So by living in our society, you cannot help but hurt the world. Therefore, for your life to be worth the keeping, you have to help as much, if not more, than you hurt it, because you can't help the hurting by living with humans. So you have to drive as little as possible. Use a fan instead of air conditioning. Learn from the Swiss, the Austrians, the Germans, the French, and use electric trains to get from city to city, instead of driving (that's not really an option there, but boy, did I feel relieved when I was in Europe!). Support groups that try to win the earth back from the people. If you don't help enough, you are a useless person. Your life is no good to me. You may be nice, you may be funny, but my great-grandchildren can look back on your photograoh and say, "This is one of those people that Grandpa was talking about--the ones that killed the earth."

Now, about teaching: It's the public school system you're ranting about. I know because I went to a private school for middle school and my brother went to a public one. While I learned everything, and everything was a welcome challenge, he struggled to learn more, and was lucky to have the couple teachers who really cared. My school is worth every penny. For I can grow up and say, "My education taught me something." Stupid as my school's rules for some things may be, they teach you what you want to know, and what you need to know for your life ahead. In my school the drop-of-water teachers switch place of quantity with the desert-sand teachers. I knew what you know now, that you can't lear well in a public school. I had seen my brother stagger through the worthless teachers, the endless loads of useless work that he already knew, and yes. I saw him struggle through "Those damn kids. They're all alike." I knew what would happen, but you were not so fortunate.

But that isn't the whole thing. If you're stuck in a situation like you had, don't turn to illegal activity to quench your thirst for learning. Form close bonds with those teachers who care, learn from them, for they're stuck in a situation, like you, where they can't teach what they want to teach, because the kids are mostly dimwits; while you can't learn what you want to learn because the teachers are mostly dimwits. And stick it out.


- Llyren


Yeah, some do take it a little too far. In the "underground" there are 2 types of hackers: White code, and Black code. These can be associated (in the nerdy sense) with the light side/dark side. White Code hackers are exactly what the manifesto is talking about. Black code hackers are the ones that you hear about. The Code Red worm was created and used by BC hackers. BC hackers do things simply to destroy them. A BC hacker would wander into this site, hack it (or try) and wreak havoc. Why? not because he hates dark forces. but because he's bored and thinks he can.
Me? I'm going through a transition from Black code to White code. "Black coding" was fun, until you see your best friends drop like flies around you. Black coders get caught eventually. And I'd rather not my prime sexual age not be spoiled by a cellmate named Bruno. SG's comment a while back also hit me hard. I'm slowly finding legal ways to get the same things done.


- Downward Spyral


AOC- Alpha-Omega Creation.
Alpha-Omega Creation is based on the theory that we can create whole worlds through computers. I currently run a 5 user network with some neighborhood friends and we rule our close-knit community. We have our own SIMS clone (Actually not a clone because we invented ours first) and we run a world. From there, we have the "people" (actually bots) use the web. One is a hacker, another a joe-schmoe, and there are 3 others, but I digress. We run whole networks of sites through them. I am a co-owner of several sites, but am not even listed as such.

I and my friends together could _probably_ close down half of the MOD community for all the games out there if we wanted. But we don't. As long as our sites are safe, we are left alone, and we don't harm anything or anybody all is stable. If, however, something goes wrong... You get the picture.


- Madine


I suppose that falls under the category of "hacker"
More like a bunch of network users and game programmers, with skills to rival a hackers. I rarely hack servers, 2 reasons:

1. If you screw up, you'll most likely get caught
2. It had better be worth my while, cause its a pain.

school servers are fun to hack into, simply because you (the measly student) have complete control....

I honestly beleive hackers (and Madines type)
created the internet. The internet roughly belongs to us. by "us", I mean the lot of ppl who use the internet for personal purposes, and not the corporate businesses that aim to squeeze every last penny from us. (not to mention bandwidth) After all, when the internet first started out, it was compiled of BBS systems and such, meant for personal and entertainment use. Now, I'm bugged by a pop-up every few minutes to apply for an online credit card.

Its funny how Madine classified his game as a "sims clone" Do you know why its a "clone"? Because its not commercially popular. Most who see your setup will think you ripped it from the Sims games.


- Downward Spyral