"Rushkoff, Douglas - Cyberia" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rushkoff Douglas)

malls--there were heating computers you could actually call up and look at what their
temperature settings were. There were several of these linked together. One company ran the
thermostat for a set of different subscribers, so if it was projected to be 82 degrees outside,
they'd adjust it to a certain setting. So, back when we were thirteen or so, we talked about
how it might be neat to change the settings one day, and make it too hot or too cold. But we
never did.''
But they could have, and that's what matters. They gained access. In Cyberia, this is
funhouse exploration. Neidorf sees it as like when you're eight and you know your brother
and his friends have a little treehouse or clubhouse somewhere down in the woods, and you
and your friends go and check it out even though you know your brother would basically kill
you if he found you in there.'' Most of these kids get into hacking the same way as children
of previous generations daringly wandered through the hidden corridors of their school
basements or took apart their parents' TV sets. But with computers they hit the jackpot:
There's a whole world there--a whole new reality, which they can enter and even change.
Cyberia. Each new opening leads to the discovery of an entirely new world, each connected
to countless other new worlds. You don't just get in somewhere, look around, find out it's a
dead end, and leave. Tom Sawyer and Becky Thatcher were fascinated by a few winding
caves; cyberkids have broken through to an infinitely more complex and rewarding network.
Each new screen takes them into a new company, institution, city, government, or nation.
They can pop out almost anywhere. It's an endless ride.
As well as being one of the most valuable techniques for navigating cyberspace,
hacking the vast computer net is the first and most important metaphor in Cyberia. For the
first time, there is a technical arena in which to manifest the cyberian impulses, which range
from pure sport to spiritual ecstasy and from redesigning reality to downright subversion.

Crashing the System
David Troup gained his fame in the computer underground for a program he wrote
called The Bodyguard, which helps hackers maintain their chain of connections through a
long series of systems breaches. Through another ingeniously exploited communications
system glitch, we spoke as he relaxed on his living room couch in Minnesota. From the sound
of his voice I knew he was using a speaker phone, and I heard several of his friends milling
about the room, popping open beers, and muttering in agreement with Troup, their local hero.
The fun of hacking lies in the puzzle solving. Finding out what lies around that next
corner, around the next menu or password. Finding out just how twisted you can get. Popping
out of a computer-based network into a phone-based network and back again. Mapping
networks that go worldwide. We watched a system in Milwaukee grow from just two systems
into a huge network. We went with them. By the end, we probably had a more detailed map
of their network than they did. ''
The Bodyguard has become an indispensable part of the hacker's daytrip survival kit.
It's kind of a worm [a tunneling computer virus] that hacks along with you. Say I'm cruising
through fifteen Unixes [computers that run Unix software] to get at some engineering firm.
Every time I go onto a Unix, I will upload my Bodyguard program. What it does is watch me
and watch the system. It's got the names of the system operators. If a system operator
[''sysop,'' the watchdog for illegal penetrants] or somebody else who has the ability to check
the system logs on [enters the network through his own computer], the Bodyguard will flash
an error flag [warning! danger!] and terminate you at that point. It also will send you a
number corresponding to the next place down the hierarchy of machines that you've
penetrated. You'll have your last connection previous to the one where you got canned. It will
then reconnect you to where you were, without using the system that knocked you off. It'll
recreate the network for you. It takes about four or five minutes. It's nice because when you're