How to become a hacker - What is a hacker?
The word "hacker" in Jargon File gives many definitions, most definitions involve superb programming techniques, strongly solving problems and overcoming the desire of restrictions. If you want to know how to become a hacker, so good, only two aspects are important. (Attitude and technology)
For a long time, there is a shared cultural community of expert programmers and network masters. History can be traced back to a small machine shared in several decades and the earliest Arpanet experiment period. The participants of this culture have created the word "hacker". The hacker built an Internet. The hacker makes the UNIX operating system a look today. The hackers set up Usenet. The hackers make WWW running normally. If you are part of this culture, if you have made some contributions to it, and others in the circle also know who you are, you are a hacker, then you are a hacker.
The hacker is not limited to software hacker cultural circles. Some people treat other things such as electronics and music with a hacker attitude - in fact, you can find it in any higher level science and art. Software hackers identify these in other fields and also known as hackers --- Some people claim that hackers are actually independent of their work field. However, in this article, we focus on the technology and attitude of software hackers, and invented which sharing cultural tradition of the word "hacker".
There is also a group of people, they are loud, they are hackers, actually they are not. They are some people who deliberately destroy computer and telephone systems (most are adolescents). The real hacker is called these people "Cracker" and disdainful. Most real hackers think that the hackers are some irresponsible lazy guys, there is nothing big. The behavior dedicated to destroying others is not a hacker. Just as Tie Reni can open the car and can't make you a car engineer. Unfortunately, many reporters and writers often mistakenly regard "hackers" as a hacker; this practice is an irritating hacker.
The fundamental difference is: hackers are building, while hackers are destroyed.
If you want to be a hacker, continue to read. If you want to be a hacker, go to the Alt.2600 newsgroup, and find that you are not as smart like you think, take 5 to 10 prisons. I just want to say so much about hackers.
--- hacker's attitude
The hacker solves the problem, building things, belief freedom and two-way help, everyone is me, I am a man. To be considered a hacker, your behavior must show that you have this attitude. If you want to do, you have this attitude, you have to really have this attitude. But if you want to rely on the cultivation of hacker attitude, it is wrong with it. Because this kind of person who has these qualities is very important to you, help you learn and give you a constant vitality. As with all creative art, the most effective way to become master is to imitate the spirit of the master - not only impatched from ration, but also to imitate from emotions.
So, if you want to be a hacker, please repeat the following things until you believe in them:
1 The world is full of charming problems to be solved
Make a hacker has a lot of fun, but it is a lot to have a lot of money. These efforts require power. Successful athletes from the health of the body, challenge the power of self-limits. Similarly, a hacker, you must have basic enthusiasm from solving problems, hood technology, and exercise intelligence. If you are not such a person, you want to be a hacker, you have to try to become such a person. Otherwise you will find that your hacking will be enthusiastically swallowed by other temptations - such as money, sex and social virtual names.
(Similarly, you must build confidence in your own learning ability - I believe that although you know more about a problem, if you learn, try, you will eventually master and solve it.)
2. One problem should not be solved twice
Smart melon is a valuable, limited resource. When this world is still full of other interesting issues to be resolved, they should not be wasted on reinventing the wheel. As a hacker, you must believe that other hackers think time is precious - thus sharing information, solving problems and issues to other hackers almost a kind of morality, so others can solve new problems rather than repeating Give an old problem. (You don't have to think that you must publish your invention, but hackers do this is to win everyone to respect the most people. Selling some money to give yourself, buy a house to buy a car to buy a computer or even the money and hacker value is also Compatible, as long as you don't forget you or a hacker.)
3. Bored and bored work is evil
The hackers should never be plagued by stupid repetitive labor, because when this happens, it means that they are not doing only what they can do - solve new problems. Such waste is hurt everyone. Therefore, bored and bored things are not only uncomfortable, they are great crimes. To be a hacker, you must fully believe this and use the boring work as much as possible, not only for yourself, but also for others (especially other hackers).
(There is an obvious exception to this. The hacker sometimes also makes some repetitive boring work to conduct "mental rest", or to practice a certain skill, or have some experience that cannot be obtained. But this Is his own choice --- people with brains should not be forced to be bored.)
4 freedom is good
The hackers are natural anti-authoritarian. Anyone who can send you will force you to stop solving the problem that makes you fans, at the same time, in accordance with the general idea of authority, he usually gives some extremely ignorant reasons. So, whenever, any authority, as long as he oppressed you or other hackers, it will fight with him.
(This is not to say any power is not necessary. Children need to be monitored, and criminals should also be taught. If obeyed orders get something compared to other ways, hackers will agree to accept some form of authority. But this It is a limited, deliberate transaction; the personal kinder who wants the power is not your given, but unconditionally obedient.)
Power loves to review and confidentiality. They don't trust voluntary cooperation and information sharing - they only like cooperation by them. Therefore, you have to make a hacker, you have to review, confidential, and use force or deceived to oppress people's practices and hostile.
5. Attitude cannot be alternate
To be a hacker, you have to cultivate these attitudes. But only these attitudes don't make you become a hacker, just like this doesn't make you a sports and rock star. Become a hacker to spend intelligence, practice, dedication and hard work.
Therefore, you must learn to do not believe in attitude and respect a variety of capabilities. The hackers will not waste time for those who deliberately mold, but they are very respectful - especially the ability to make hackers, but any ability is always good. The ability to have few people can master is particularly good, and it is best to have the ability to involve brain, techniques, and polyperbus.
If you respect your ability, you will enjoy the fun of improving your ability - the hard work and dedication will become a high entertainment rather than It is very important to be a hacker.
--- Basic hacker technology
Hacker attitude is important, but technology is more important. The attitude cannot be replaced, and a basic technique you must master before you are called hackers. This basic technology has changed slowly with time with the emergence of new technologies and old technologies. For example, in the past, it includes using machine code programming, and knows that HTML language has been included recently. But now clearly includes the following techniques:
1 Learn how to program
This is of course the most basic hacking technology. If you don't have any computer language, I suggest you start from Python. It is clear, the document is complete, and it is very suitable for beginners. Although it is a very good primary language, it is not just a toy. It is very powerful, flexible, is also suitable for large projects. But remember that if you will only have a language, you will not meet the technical level required by the hacker, and you can't even reach a normal programmer level --- You need to learn how to think about programming in a common method, Independent in any language. To be a real hacker, you need to learn how to pass some manuals in a few days, combine you now know, quickly master a new language. This means you should learn a few different languages.
If you want to do some important programming, you will have to learn the C language, the core language of UNIX. Other languages that are more important to hackers include Perl and Lisp. Perl is very practical, it is worth learning; it is widely used in active web pages and system management, so you should read it even if you never use Perl write, you should also understand it. LISP is worth learning because when you finally master it, you will get rich experience; these experiences make you a better programmer in the days later, even if you may actually use the Lisp itself.
Of course, in fact, you are best for you. (Python, C, Perl, And Lisp). In addition to the most important language, they also represent four very different programming methods, each of which will make you benefit.
Here I can't fully teach you how to program - this is a complex live child. But I can tell you that books and courses cannot be made. Almost all the best hackers are self-learning. What truly can work is to read the code and write code.
Learn how to program the same as learning from natural language. The best practice is to read some masters' famous, try to write something, read some, write some, read some, write some .... So recovered until you have seen yourself in Fan Wen Simple and power.
It is difficult to find a good code in the past, because there are very few free source code for large programs to make novice practicing. This situation has been greatly improved; there are now many open source software, programming tools, and operating systems (all have hackers). This makes us naturally come to the second topic ...
2 Get an open source UNIX and learn to use it, run it
I assume that you already have a personal computer or have a available (today's children are happy :-)). The most basic step of novices is to get a Linux or BSD-UNIX, install on a personal computer, and run it. Of course, this world has other operating systems in addition to UNIX. But they are all sent in binary --- You can't read its source code, it is more impossible to modify it. Try learning hacker technology on DOS or Windows machines, just like being tied to iron blocks on the legs.
In addition, UNIX is also an operating system of an Internet. You can learn to use Internet without knowing Unix, but you don't understand it, you can't be an internet hacker. For this reason, today's hacker culture is largely dominated by UNIX. (This is not always true. Some of the early hackers are very unhappy, but the symbiosis between UNIX and the Internet is so strong, and even the microsoft is not helpful.
So, install a unix - I personally like Linux, but there are other options. (You can also run DOS, Windows and Linux simultaneously on the same machine). Run it. Use it to talk to the Internet. Read it code. Try to modify him. You will get a multi-programming tool that is better than Microsoft operating systems (including C, Lisp, Python, and Perl), you will have fun and learn more than what you think. For more information on learning UNIX, see The Loginataka.
To get Linux, please see: Where can I get Linux.
3 Learn how to use WWW and write HTML
Most hacker cultural buildings play a role in your visible place, helping the factory, office and universities to run, it is difficult to see its impact on the life of others. The Web is a big exception. Even if politicians agree, this huge and dazzling hacker toy is changing the whole world. Single is this reason (there are many other), you need to learn how to master the Web.
This is not just how to use browser (who will), but to learn how to write HTML, web tag language. If you don't program, write HTML will teach you some thinking habits that help to learn. Therefore, build your home page first.
But just built a home page, you can't make you a hacker. The web is full of various web pages. Most are meaningless, zero information volume rubbish.
To have valuable, your page must have content --- must be interesting or useful to other hackers. In this way, we come to the next topic ...
--- The status of hacker culture
Like the culture of most of which do not involve money, the RMB is operated by reputation. You manage to solve interesting problems, but they are more interesting, how good your solution is, you have to judge with people who have the same technology or more than yours.
Accordingly, when you are playing hacker games, you know that your score will rely on other hackers to evaluate your technology. (This is why only in other hackers say that you are hackers, you will be a hacker) This truth will be hacked to be a lonely work; it will also be contraindicated by another hacker culture Attenns (this taboo is weakened but still strong): Refused to recognize self or external assessment is a person's driving force.
In particular, the hacker kingdom is called an elite culture by anthropologists. Here you are not based on your rule of others to build status and preliminary, nor depends on something, or something you want, but dedication to you. Especially dedication to your time, your talent and your technical results.
To get the respect for other hackers, you can do the following five things:
1. Write the software that opens the source code
The first (also the most basic and traditional) is a program that is written some other hackers who think of interesting or useful, and publish the original code of the program to everyone. (In the past, we called "Free Software - FREE Software", but this made a lot of people who don't know about Free, now many people use "open source -open source".
The most respected big bulls in the kingdom of the hacker are those who have written large, widely used software, and publish them, so that everyone is using his software.
2. Help test and modify the software of the open source
The hackers also respect those who use, test open source software. In this less than perfect world, we must inevitably spend a large number of software development time in the test and grabbed stage. This is why the author of any open source will tell you a good Beta tester as precious. (He knows how to clearly describe the error symptoms, well positioned, can endure the BUG in the quick release software, willing to use some simple diagnostic tools) or even one of them can judge which test phase is extended, people Exhausted nightmares, which is just a healthy thing. If you are a newbie, try to find a new program that is being developed, make a good Beta tester. From helping to test, to help the bugs, go to the end, you will continue to improve. When you write the program in the future, there will be someone else to help you, you get the return of your act.
3. Announced information
Another good thing is to collect the useful interesting information or documents such as FAQ. Many major FAQ maintaines and other open source author are respectful.
4. Help maintain the operation of the infrastructure
Hacker culture is operated by volunteers. To make the Internet work properly, there must be a lot of boring work to complete --- Manage Mail List, NewsGroup, maintain a large number of documents, develop RFC and other technical standards, etc. People who do this kind of thing will get a lot of respect, because each person knows that these things are exhausted, and they are not as fun as coding. Do these things need perseverance.
5. Service for hacker culture itself
Finally, you can serve this culture itself (for example, like me, write a "how to become a hacker" :-)) (Hehe, Into it turned into Chinese :-)) This is not necessarily in you It has been staying here for a long time, proficient in all 4 points, and you can do it after you have a reputation.
Hacker culture has no leader. It is precisely that it does have some cultural heroes and tribe elders and historians and spokespersons. If you stay in this circle, you may become one of them. Remember: The hackers don't believe in the boast of their tribes, so it is clear that this reputation is dangerous. You have to have basic modest and elegance.
--- Contacts of hackers and geeks (Nerd)
Contrary to popular legend, doing a hacker does not have to be a monster. However, many hackers are geeks. Be a birthplace helps you concentrate more important things, such as thinking and programming. Therefore, many hackers are willing to accept this label of "geeks", and they are willing to use the word "GEEK" and self-righteousness - this is a statement that announced their non-cooperation with mainstream society.
If you can concentrate enough energy to do hackers can also have normal life, which is very good. It is easy to do this today than I am a novice in the 1970s. Today's mainstream culture is more friendly to the technology geeks. There are more people to realize that hackers usually more love, is a good thing for lover and spouses. See Girl's Guide to Geek Guys.
If you attract it because of your hacker because of your life, then there is nothing - at least you will not be god. Maybe you will find yourself in the future.
--- meaning of style
Reiterate, be a hacker, you have to enter the spirit of hackers. When you are not on the edge of your computer, you still have a lot of things. They cannot replace truly programming (there is nothing can be programmed), but many hackers do it, and feel that they have an essential association with hackers.
Reading science fiction. Participate in science fiction seminars. (A good place to find hackers) study Zen, or practiced. Learn a pair of precise ear, learn to appreciate special music. Learn to play some musical instrument or sing. Improve the appreciation of bids. Learn smoothly with native language. (When it is surprising, all the best hackers I know are very good writers), the more you do, you will make hackers. As for why it is these things, the reason is not very clear, but they all involve the comprehensive skills of left-right brains, which seems to be the key. (The hackers need clear logical thinking, sometimes it needs strong jump out of the logic)
Finally, there are some things that don't do it.
Don't use stupid, too dark idios, don't claim to be a network, don't waste time, not sending time with spelling and grammar errors, or post-wrong articles
Doing the above things will make great damage to your reputation. The hackers have a memory super group --- You will take a few years to make them forget your stupid.
--- Other resources
Peter Seebach maintains a very wonderful hacker FAQ for managers who don't know how to deal with hackers.
The Loginataka has many materials on how to properly cultivate a UNIX hacker.
I have also written a "hacker culture brief history."
I also wrote another article, "Cathedral and the Market" explained many of the Linux and open source cultures. I am also more direct discussion in its sequel "Pioneering Intelligence Domain".
--- FAQ (Frequency question question)
Q: Do you teach me how to make hackers?
Since I first release this page, I will get some requests every week, I want to "church how he is a hacker"; unfortunately, I don't have enough time and energy to do this; my own programming project has occupied me 110% time. Even if I want to teach you, it is impossible, hackers are basically an attitude and technology that requires you to practice. You will find that even if you want to help you, if you beg you to fill the duck, you will not win their respect. First learn. Show you attempt, you can learn from yourself. Then go to the hacker to ask questions.
Q: Would you help me "black" off a site? Or teach me how to black?
No. Anyone asking this question after reading FAQ, is a foolish guy, even if I have time, I will not pay attention. Any such Mail sent to me will be ignored or have been excluded.
Q: Where can I find a hacker that can communicate with it?
The best way is to participate in a UNIX or Linux user group and participate in their conference.
Q: Which language is I learned first?
HTML, if you still don't. But it is not a real programming language. When you are ready to program, I suggest you start from Python. There will be many people recommend Perl to you, it is also popular than Python, but it is difficult to learn.
C is very important, but it is the most difficult. Don't try C.
Q: Does the free software that open source code do not make programmers hungry?
This seems unlikely - to the current, open source software industry created rather than eliminating a lot of work opportunities. If you write a program than if you don't write a program, it is just a purely economical income, whether it is free, as long as it is completed, the programmer will be rewarded from it. Moreover, regardless of how software is developed, the need for updated software applications will always be.
Q: What did I learn from? Where is free UNIX?
Other places in this page point to the most common free Unix. To be a hacker, you need to be self-reliant and self-education. Go now ...
