Metadata#
- Author(s): Ed Piskor
- Number of pages: 288
- Year published: 2012
- Year read: 2020
Review#
An interesting, troubling book about very early hacking and phreaking.
I’m always interested in the hacking mindset - the protagonist, Kevin “Boingthump” Phenicle, is constantly trying to reverse engineer and find loopholes in the phone system and the Internet. He doesn’t have a clear goal beyond seeing what can be done. Along the way, he accomplishes amazing feats. In a way, it’s like pure creativity. He does it because he can, because he must. There’s a great moment when his friend, growing increasingly uncomfortable with the semi-legal nature of their activities, begs him to stop - Kevin/Boingthump replies that that’s like asking him to stop being him. To him, life is a puzzle. Our modern world is a puzzle. A game to be cracked. An ADDICTIVE game.
The feds are portrayed in all their bumbling incompetence and cruelty, shrieking about “cybercrime” they don’t understand. I immediately thought of Aaron Swartz.
I didn’t love the art - it was grotesque, vulgar, cynical. And I spent a lot of time wondering how much was true (Phenicle is a composite of several historical h4x0rs); it made me want to read a history to learn more.