I think it captures the original motivation and thrill of exploration beautifully. Who doesn’t remember as a kid seeing a blinking cursor and the feeling there was an entire universe to be discovered?
I’m 100% on board with the message of getting back to exploration for its own sake, and that conformity gets in the way of that.
This resonates. I have just got back to hacking an old flip-dot display after sitting on the shelf for years.
So far all the comments are complaining about the AI-ness of the prose. Here's one about the content:
LLMs are here to stay. The "hacker spirit" doesn't require being a Luddite and rejecting LLMs merely because they're new and corporate. In fact, regarding TFA's title I think we're about to experience a Renaissance in hacking, of sorts.
LLMs are really, really good at reverse engineering, among other hacking-adjacent things. Want to figure out where the JTAG debug port on your proprietary device? Want to run a BBS entirely over HELOL-style covert channels? You can do that (I have!), and the correct model will help.
I run an "abliterated"/uncensored local model on a spare PC downstairs. For those interested in rekindling or relocating that hacker spirit, I suggest the same.
> doesn't require being a Luddite and rejecting LLMs merely because they're new and corporate.
I'd say the opposite is true. Taking that new and corporate thing and making it into something that works for you as a tool for hacking is exactly what the hacker spirit is about.
> I run an "abliterated"/uncensored local model on a spare PC downstairs.
Exactly like that.
> The "hacker spirit" doesn't require being a Luddite
Just to be pedantic, the Luddites weren't anti-technology, they were fighting against a means of production that they could never hope to own and that was ruing their livelihoods.
Would love some abliterated model suggestions.
Plus 1
this doesnt really reflect the vibe old school hackers give. "solder a wifi module to a calculator" sounds like a cartoon-inspired project.
Why not reference call spoofing (i forgot the name) where they were able to call for no charge because they were able to spoof a real call. that's the kind of hacker vibe i want continued.
The word "hacker" comes from MIT students who would cut up circuit boards with a hacksaw and connect the pieces together in different ways. Soldering a WiFi module to a calculator is very oldschool hacker.
The word you're looking for is phreaking. I must admit, since the title of TFA's website is only two letters away, it's funny you forgot it.
This sounds like ChatGPT.
>this is not a eulogy, it's a reckoning
100%
Uh, should have used Claude. Gpt is embarassing.
You won’t get my point so I have to lay it bare: That doesn’t matter. Content counts and not the methods to create it.
You’re right. The content sucks, because it was created with an LLM.
[dead]
Here is an exercise, find one character usage that the original didn't have and that this new one is littered with...
The original phrack was (i'm assuming) 7-bit ascii, so obviously it wouldn't have used characters that aren't ascii...
Emmm...dash?
Some of us use em-dashes habitually, and did so before LLMs. Call it le ponctuation juste.