How to Become a Hacker - A Personal Reflection

I was intrigued by this article after having a quick cursory glance over it, so I decided to read it in more detail and thought it might be a good idea to write down my thoughts on how this is relevant to me.

Started on 26-02-01

If I seem to ramble on a bit, get over it. This exercise is to help me clarify things in my own head.

My first experience with the term 'Hacker' was in the early/mid 1980's. I seem to remember a character from a Saturday morning cartoon "Centurions" with that name. I think (this is a very hazy, vague recollection) that he wore blue and was bald, possibly with an eye-patch. Around that same time I remember being referred to by friends as a 'Hacker'. No, I wasn't a 6/7 year old programming genius, just an over-enthusiastic soccer player. I gained this title after a particularly rough encounter with boys 'from the other street'. Unfortunately going home and proudly announcing to my dad that the other lads thought I was a 'Hacker' didn't meet with paternal approval, and my concerned parent took me aside and gently explained that this term was used for footballers who took more interest in kicking players' shins rather than the actual ball.

One of my first computing experiences was with my cousins' Spectrum 48k. I have memories of waiting impatiently for Spy Hunter or Hong Kong Fooey to load from the cassette tape. There was a definite thrill watching all the flashing lights on the screen and amazement at how it all worked.

3. The Hacker Attitude: "Hackers solve problems and build things..."

I took great pleasure in building space-ships,futuristic tanks, medieval castles and moon-bases with Lego. Hospitals and fire stations did nothing for me. I also loved building 'bases' with my comrades from which we defended ourselves against Alien onslaughts

Having a librarian for a mother and a music/French teacher for a father, I grew up in an environment where books and music were a part of daily life. I loved reading and have many fond memories of stealing biscuits in preparation for night time adventures under the bed covers with a torch and my friends Asterix and Obelix. I also played different musical instruments, but this wasn't a favourite activity at the time. I could go on, but I'm trying to stick to the topics highlighted in the article.

Our father used to 'borrow' computers from his school during holidays, probably on the pretense of brushing up his own IT skills. The first of these was a BBC Micro (ah - the old "*ADFS" command prompt...), with a hypnotic Bat-and-Ball game. One incident I recall with great clarity was the problem with the DracMaths game. This 'educational' game required a password that we didn't know. A phonecall to another teacher yielded the cryptic hint "It's 'Catalogue' or something". This satisfied my father, but not me as the desired phrase had to be 4 characters long, and numeric. After several fruitless random attempts, an inspired Eoghan decided to convert 'Catalogue' into numbers (not binary or hexidecimal or anything fancy, just A=1, B=2 etc) and use the first 4 digits. This worked, and provided hours of educational entertainment, up to the point where the game always crashed on a certain level for no apparent reason. Then came Chuckie Egg and Planetoid, and DracMaths was consigned to the disc container for the remainder of the holidays.

"...and they believe in freedom and voluntary mutual help."

I believe that the Northern Ireland should be free from British rule, and should be part of one United Ireland. That's all I'm going to say on the matter. That's not what is meant in the context of this article, but I thought I would say it anyway.

Before I even read this Hacker-Howto article, I participated in mailing lists on various IT related topics. I was (am) grateful for the knowledge shared and hope one day to be able to contribute at that level of expertise. In my own small way I tried to emulate this by setting up the uu_1998_cnl Yahoo!Group for my classmates to exchange ideas and experiences about their placement years. I also created a folder in work for people to share tutorials and articles they feel would benefit colleagues. I will at some stage in the near future compile a list of web resources I make use of and post it on my website.

"Becoming the kind of person who believes these things is important for you-for helping you learn and keeping you motivated"

I've lost a lost of self esteem and motivation recently - since I've been here in Enniscrone. This statement hasn't 'inspired' me to go and learn things myself, rather it has reinforced the attitude I was developing on my own.

3.1 1.The World is full of fascinating problems waiting to be solved: "Successful athletes get their motivation from ... pushing themselves past their own physical limits"

Having been moderately successful in my chosen sport of Judo, I can identify with this view of athletes. I enjoyed all the training I did - running, swimming, weight training etc. I enjoyed getting pushed to the limit during bleep tests and circuit sessions. I loved spending time trying to perfect a shoulder throw, to have it work for me during a contest. I loved the feeling of total exhaustion after a tough training session, and secretly relished the pain of matburns and bruises after a hard competition. A fight was a challenge, a problem to be solved. The skills to solve it were acquired from coaching, or from watching videos and reading books.

"..develop a kind of faith in your own learning capacity"

I suppose that's what I'm doing now. Here in Propylon I feel useless and out of my depth. I'm frustrated at being in this environment where there is no formal (or even informal) training provided, or even a job spec I can evaluate myself against. I also sense a degree of irritation from the more senior developers/managers that I can't just churn out a high volume of complex, mission-critical code. Faced with this state of affairs, I've decided to plod through this testing lark, show a bit of initiatve and teach myself. I am not stupid. I am very capable and willing to learn.

3.3 3.Boredom and drudgery are evil. "...should never be bored"

Without meaning to offend anyone involved in testing, it bores me. It is mildly exciting when something new and cool comes along, but it generally bores me to tears. I take heart from the sentiments expressed here.

3.4 4.Freedom is good

Haven't really formed an opinion on this, but I do agree with the general gist of what is said.

3.5 5.Attitude is no substitute for competence: "...respect competence of every kind...competence at anything is good"

Friends occasionally ridiculed the fact that I like watching most, if not all sports (I exclude horse, dog and Formula 1 racing from this). Some of these individuals could never understand why I like watching the Olympics or other sporting events even though I don't do those particular sports. I'm not a statistics geek. I don't get off on who-won-what-in-what-year. I like watching the skill of the athletes in action, since I can (or think I can) appreciate the dedication and effort they have put into preparing for their performances. I also enjoy watching dancers. I was fascinated at the poise and grace of the Spanish Flamenco dancers I saw on holiday in Majorca. I like watching stage dancers in nightclubs, not just because of the revealing costumes and seductive gyrations, but because there is a skill there which deserves recognition and respect. One of the most successful Judo practicioners I have had the pleasure to meet is himself a former champion Irish dancer - Ciaran Ward represented Ireland at the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympic Games. If a skillset made up of timing, discipline, and concentration can be transferred from Irish Dancing to Judo with success, then why can't a similar skillset be transferred from Judo to Software Hacking?

4.1 1.Learn how to Program: "...learn several very different languages"

I intend to. I have already acted on similar thinking when selecting the language component for my degree. I could have chosen French and had an easy time coasting through the course on the ability I already had in that language. However, in my wisdom I decided that it would be more beneficial to me to learn an Asian language, since with my experience in French and Latin I should be able to pick up any other European language with reasonable ease. Learning Japanese also had the benefit of providing an opening for me to get to Japan either on my year out, or through the JET program.

"...you need to learn how to think about programming problems in a general way, independent of any one language"

This phrase is definitely deserving of some observation...I'll come back to it

"It's best, actually, to learn all five of these (Python,Java,C/C++,Perl and LISP)"...each will educate you in valuable ways"

Currently trying to learn Python. Did 2 modules in Java at uni, but not in great depth. I'll leave learning C/C++ to later on, and I'll start dabbling in Perl once I get a handle on Python. I did a bit of Prolog which I think is similar to LISP but I'll have a go at this anyway. One addition I'm going to make is XML. I find it fascinating and like this whole text manipulation thing. I suppose that is an area of 'hacking' that appeals to me...now all I have to do s find out what problems are out there to be solved!

"...maybe most of the best hackers are self taught...What will do it is (a)reading code and (b)writing code"

This is very evident in my workplace. I have been trying to read the code involved in our flagship product and I jumped at any opportunity to write little utility scripts in Python. These were largely ignored throughout the workplace once completed, but I did get a lot of help from developers who saw I was trying to make an effort to develop programming skills.

4.2 2.Get one of those open-source Unixes and learn to use and run it.

I have Linux at home on an old 486 PC, although we have had limited success actually using it. I intend getting Red Hat 7 on my desktop PC in work and I suppose I'll volunteer to test the Linux port of our product once it is done.

4.3 3.Learn how to use the World Wide Web and write HTML:"...build a home page"

Also part of my self-improvement scheme - see my website. I actually intend writing this in XHTML at some stage. One utility I find useful when writing HTML pages is the TIDY program which I will include in my resources page.

5 Status in the Hacker Culture

Not particularly high on my priority list at the minute! I'm concentrating on gaining status in my workplace first.

5.3 3.Publish Useful information.

What I'm trying to do through my website and mailing list

6. The Hacker/Nerd Connection: "...and still have a life, that's fine"

Phew! What a relief! I have to admit that at the minute my lifestyle has a significant bias towards geekdom. I need to address this and maintain some kind of balance. Recently I've gone off Judo, drinking/nightclubbing and would rather spend my free time working through tutorials or adding to my website. Once I get more competent and content with my level of knowledge I'm sure I'll return to my normal beer-swilling, stripping-on-nightclub-podiums self.

7. Points for Style

For me, this is the Main Event. This is the part of the document that really grabbed me by the balls - I can relate to all the activities/attitudes listed here.

• Learn to write your native language well

  I make a point of using the best grammar, spelling and punctuation that I can. A pet hate of mine is badly written emails or software documentation. Writing this is probably a 'Kiss of Death', since I will undoubtedly make some kind of mistake in this article of mine. I also despise spelling mistakes on exam papers. If a crowd of teachers/lecturers can't put together a proper exam paper, then who are they to judge my intelligence? On a more positive note, I did a TEFL course that I thoroughly enjoyed and at some stage I'd like to participate on the JET scheme or something similar.

• Read science-fiction

  As mentioned elsewhere, I loved reading when I was younger. I was a fan of Terry Brooks, David Eddings and even read Tolkien when at Primary school. I was converted to Star Trek by my younger (possibly more intelligent) brother and at the minute I'm listening to the Hitch Hikers Guide to the Universe on MP3 as this seems to be referred to in various Hacking circles.

• Study Zen, and/or take up martial arts

  I might have a look at this Zen thing later, but I already have a 1st Dan black belt in Judo and some kind of belt in Ju-Jitsu.

• ...Learn to play some musical instrument well, or how to sing

  I have a Grade 4 in Piano, and am trying to learn the guitar. I think I'm a great singer after 5/6 pints of the black stuff (that would be Guinness, for the uninitiated).

• Develop your appreciation of puns and wordplay

  Spend a weekend at home in Derry with my family and it will be evident that puns and wordplay were part of my upbringing.

Summary

Although not in itself a reason to pursue Hacking, it seems to me that I do possess some of the required Hacking materials in my personality make-up, and it is now up to me to develop these further for my own advancement and the greater good of mankind... TO INFINITY AND BEYOND!!!