Message-ID: <20050125220447.GA7310@datakill.us>
From: msh at datakill.us (msh at datakill)
Subject: Phrack is dead, long live Phrack!

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:
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> 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
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> _______________________________________________
> Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
> Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
> 
> 

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