I've been reading a lot more than usual (which is saying something, because I really like to read) since I got home from Eureka. It wasn't until yesterday afternoon that I realized why I've wanted to do little more than work my way through the gigantic pile of Books I Want To Read* for the last couple of weeks: I've had my brain set to CREATE OUTPUT for so long, I think I've emptied the tank again. I feel like this from time to time, usually when I finish a big project or wrap a particularly satisfying acting job, but never for this long or this intensely.
It's a great problem to have, since solving it is as simple as consuming all kinds of stimulating and inspiring content, but I have a Memories of the Future Volume 2 that needs finishing, as well as a journal filled with story ideas that need telling, and reading
My business sense tells me that it's stupid to post so infrequently in my blog, because there have been tens of thousands of new readers since my most recent Big Bang Theory, but my brain gives me the old ACCESS DENIED whenever I try to browse /usr/wil/creative (yes, even when I run as the superuser; it's an undocumented WheatonIX feature, so I've stopped filing bug reports about it.)
In order to prevent this from becoming a post about not posting, here are a couple brief reviews of books I've recently enjoyed:
I understand that it's fairly polarizing among Gibson's fans, but I loved this book from page one. It isn't anything like his Sprawl series, so if you tried Neuromancer because your geek friends wouldn't stop talking about it and didn't like it, this may be a good place to try Gibson again.
Masters of Deception: The Gang That Ruled Cyberspace
This book was written and released shortly after Bruce Sterling's The Hacker Crackdown took the world by storm. It chronicles the exploits the infamous hacker group Masters of Deception, and gives an interesting perspective on their feud with the Legion of Doom. Like all of the stories written about the LOD/MOD feud, the subjects contest most of the facts as presented in the book, and like all of the stories written about hackers in the 80s and early 90s, it's difficult to tell what's fact and what's myth.
I think that's a big part of the fun, though: when I interacted with a lot of these guys in the early 90s, they all seemed larger than life and mythical. Nobody really knew the truth except the guys who dialed into Tymnet, and then as now it was in their personal interest to make themselves seem a little bigger, their conquests a little more epic, their accusers a little more dastardly than they may have been.
It's not as comprehensive as The Hacker Crackdown or as technical as The Art of Deception, and I found the author's efforts to strike a stylized, defiant, teenage tone distracting at times. Ultimately, though, it's a very quick and easy read, and the story they told was compelling enough to keep me engaged all the way through. In fact, it inspired me to go back to Textfiles.com and Phrack.com to reread a lot of those old philes that fascinated and intrigued me when the internet was 80 columns wide, built entirely out of text, connected by telnet, and delivered to your VT100 terminal emulator at 14.4K.
Every issue of WIRED since November of last year has been fantastic, and I've read them all cover to cover.
The current issue of 2600 has an important editorial about trust, privacy, and cloud computing. It's a good companion piece to this article at Ars about the Cloud and the Fourth Amendment.
Yeah, there's clearly a theme here: I've had technology on my mind, both its (underground) history and its (uncertain) future. I'm not sure if I'll be able to convert any of this input into useful output, but I'm enjoying it so much, I don't really care.
*also known as The Tower That May Kill You Or At Least Hurt You A Lot If It Falls On You.
Speaking of ’90s books about hacking, have you read “The Cuckoo’s Egg” by Clifford Stoll? It’s a truly excellent story about international hackers on the early internet:
http://www.amazon.com/Cuckoos-Egg-Tracking-Computer-Espionage/dp/1416507787/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272552904&sr=1-1
Masters of Deception was a great read. There is another “Masters” book that you might enjoy: Masters of Doom. The story of John Carmack and John Romero and how they started the FPS revolution. It reads fast like a thriller. If nerdy stuff thrills you. 🙂
wow, we’re learning about cloud computing in class this week. What a coincidence. I think my taste in books runs more to the Fantasy than yours does. Do you like any fantasy type books?
Did you notice that the seller lives in Romulus, CA?
Wow.. talk about memories. Haven’t thought about MoD in decades.
Wasn’t talented enough to be a hacker for them, but had virtual friends in MoD and had, shall we say, shared some of the booty. Cracked a couple games, but nothing tough. Of course I was implicated in a couple things in a guilt-by-association.. or so I was told. Had to “die” when they got busted once.
Oh the days when the Commodore 64 and Apple IIe ruled the day… where the internet was a BBS that was awesome when you could have four whole people on at the same time.
We were savages.
Wil – you are accessing it wrong. Its not /usr/wil/creative, but /dev/wil/creative. Try piping some /dev/random into it and see what comes out.
I forgot all about the LOD/MOD thing, wow, what a flashback.
You are sounding all ‘the IT guru guy’. Very cool. If you ever get sick of writing, self publishing and acting, and going to cons, and doing wootstock, and uh… well… perhaps you will never grow tired of those things…
Dear Will,
Please continue to do what ever it is that you need to do to finish “Memories of the Future Volume 2” as I can only read the first volume so many times, and I think I’m nearing my limit. Most people have a little switch near their neocortex that goes from input to output, yours may be stuck, try toggling it a few times. Also please continue to be awesome.
Thanks!
Your opinion on “Spook Country” is really helpful! I saw the book a while ago and thought about picking it up for my man, who likes a number of Gibson’s books. However, from reading the blurb, it seems like a very different title from the others. I’ve been needing a positive perspective on the book to consider buying it for him.
On an unrelated note, as someone who has a love/hate relationship with WoW and its players, I just started watching “The Guild” this week while sitting around at home with H1N1. I started with Season 3. So good! If there was an Axis of Anarchy I could join, I’d be there. ;p Nice sporran!