The Best of 2600: A Hacker Odyssey |  | Author: Emmanuel Goldstein
Publisher: Wiley
Category: Book
List Price: $95.00
Buy New: $59.85
You Save: $35.15 (37%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  8 reviews
Sales Rank: 138037
Media: Hardcover
Edition: Collector's ed
Pages: 912
ISBN: 0470458534
Dewey Decimal Number: 005
EAN: 9780470458532
ASIN: 0470458534
Publication Date: February 3, 2009 (In 64 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet published
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Product Description
Since its introduction in January of 1984, 2600 has been a unique source of information for readers with a strong sense of curiosity and an affinity for technology. The articles in 2600 have been consistently fascinating and frequently controversial. Over the past couple of decades the magazine evolved from three sheets of loose-leaf paper stuffed into an envelope (readers "subscribed" by responding to a notice on a popular BBS frequented by hackers and sending in a SASE) to a professionally produced quarterly magazine. At the same time, the creators' anticipated audience of "a few dozen people tied together in a closely knit circle of conspiracy and mischief" grew to a global audience of thousands of subscribers. Emmanuel Goldsteincollects some of the strongest, most interesting and often controversial articles, chronicling milestone events and technology changes that have occurred for the last 24 years from the hacker’s perspective. New features of this Collector’s Edition: -
Jacketed cloth with foil-stamped cloth under the jacket -
Added front matter: names of the contributors/authors of all the articles in the collection (some were named, but others formerly anonymous want to be named now) -
Praise pages for the original edition -
Bound inCD with the best of the author’s Off the Hook Radio Shows -
Single sheet first-page insert with sequential number for each book in the run (like having a “numbered” piece of art) -
High quality paper stock -
BIG BONUS: Full color trifold panel poster pullout of the covers from all issues of Hacker Quarterly
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| Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...
 no surprises for readers of 2600 November 19, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I remember finding my first issue of 2600, in a bookshop attached to an enormous, secretive government laboratory. Those were in the days after ESS but before the Internet (well, we had NNTP and SMTP and telnet, but HTML hadn't been invented). It seemed so illicit and exciting, I bought every issue I could find for years, and even wrote one article for them.
Over time, I read it less and less, both because the writing was generally bad, and because the revelations were often so weak. The Best Of book fairly reflects the content of the magazine -- it gives a good sense for the passions of a particular technological subculture, but much of what is here is dross.
So many articles were clearly written by people who did not know much, and who punt when they get to difficult work. "The encryption is done by a custom chip and, uh, you might want to decompile the EEPROM and see what's in there." Or they contain only trivial information, made to fill many pages through the inclusion of anecdotes about how the writer came to know the trivial information. (Four pages on how you discovered that ATMs run OS/2? The entire article could have been reduced to four words: "Many ATMs run OS/2.") And then there are the political articles, most of which are screeds about how the government and/or big companies are coming to take your freedom away, and their desire to be paid for your pirated movies proves it.
In some cases, it is hard to imagine how a given article was selected for inclusion in the magazine, let alone for reprinting in the book. An essay on the mathematics of lotteries is particularly weak, using high school level combinatorics to argue that nobody should ever play. The article contradicts a much more interesting essay earlier in the book in which the weaknesses in certain lotteries were revealed and methods for exploiting these weaknesses detailed.
The best material in the book is historical -- the stories of individual hacks, arrests, court battles, etc., by the people involved. Emmanuel Goldstein could have printed just those and had a better book while saving 550 pages.
A very wonderful book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! October 23, 2008
As a normal reader of 2600, this is a masterpiece. There is alot of knowledge over the years, wrapped up in one book. I would recommend this book to anyone!
Very interesting October 13, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I have followed 2600 for years, but am by far not old enough to have been there for the start of it, this ... I hate to call it a book, but it is... book fills in a lot of very interesting and important history of the estranged phreaker/haxxor communities alike through republishing many of the key articles featured in the magazine/news letter as well as some extended back history on the whole shebang that was probably know to very few before this book came out. Understanding the histories of your favorite subject is important, it keeps you from repeating mortal mistakes, and teaches you what kind of things to look for in future exploits and conquests... hopefully ones without malintent. Hacking and prheaking is about the quest for knowledge, hopefully if you are of the mindset to cause anarchy, destruction, or 'own' someone, this book will set you on the right path... plus it is much more challenging to make something than to break something, though, the latter is often part of the process for the first.
But regardless of your ideologies, this is an important book to consume if you are in any way interested in the dark underbelly of computers, networks, or phone systems.
This should be a history book for CS students. September 6, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Very good read. Still reading it but the first section alone is worth the price. I wish they would have released it in 3 sections so I can easily travel with this book.
An important part of the history of computing August 25, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
The hacker ethos is beautifully captured in this anthology. I've often skimmed 2600 at bookstores but it was only when I went through this hefty tome that I realized how deep and rich are the culture and accomplishments of the hacking community.
More than just the cartoonish representation in popular media, the hacking movement is a testament to creativity and innovation. Rightly so, this book is a celebration of cleverness and ingenious engineering instead of the more malevolent applications.
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