Indy Micro
indy_90@yahoo.gr
Introduction
Welcome to the world of hackerdom. A world full of fun, creativity, and interest. But also a world full of hard work, dedication and self-sacrifice. Hacking is a way of life. The word "hacker" means of a person who has devoted his life to his craft. Hacking means serving the commons, supporting the value of freedom and the rights of people to the free access to any software in the world. If you want to join the hacker community, you have to believe in the things mentioned before. Hackers are proud of what they do. They have a sense of team work. Everybody does what he can, in order to benefit the society. All together, we can beat the secrecy and the decency.
What is a hacker?
So, what exactly is a hacker? What he does? A hacker is a person who solves problems by writing code. A hacker writes programs that help a situation. Wherever a problem exists, a hacker creates a program in order to vanish it. Hackers make projects and they offer them to the public, in order to let everyone benefit from them, change them and improve them. So all hackers, actually help each other and consequently, the best possible result can be attained. They also test and find bugs at defensive systems of companies and they refer the bugs to the owners, so they can fix them. Hackers retain the Internet. Hackers created the Unix operating system. Without them, there would be a lots of problems in the operation of the web.
The hacker behaviour
1. The writing style.
Hackers write in English language. They have good grammar, frame syntax and always right spelling. They are being irritated by people who write them bad, misspelled mails and almost all of them, including me, ignore them. Your writing style shows your intelligence and a stupid and lazy guy, can never be accepted in the hacker community. No hacker is illiterate, and they don't like people who are. So, if you want to be a hacker, or talk to one, make sure your writing style is right.
2. The Beliefs.
All hackers believe in one thing: Open source software. What is that? Open source software means that all programs must be accompanied by their source code, so they can be edited, changed, improved. The big companies, however, write always closed source software. Hackers are squarely against the speculation. The speculation destroys the freedom and is a big evil sentinel who stands at the way of evolution and revolution. So, write open source. In this point, we have to refer that hackers didn't always support this. Once, hackers were writing closed source, but I think that was a black page in the bright history of hackerdom. Microsoft sells their product and they never even think of giving some source code away. So, the hackers created Unix, which is open source and free. All hackers today use open source operating systems. I suggest you use an open source operating system, even you are not interested to become a hacker.
3. The duties.
The things that a hacker is required to do are the following: Help the society, by writing open source programs which they can face the common problems. Hackers program for fun. But that kind of fun is also creative and useful. Hacking is a skill that many times, it can be proved profitable for everyone. The other duty is called debugging. Hackers, check other hackers' projects and they refer the bugs. The same thing, they also do for companies. They debug the programs. Here comes the difference from another group of people. Crackers. The media make always the same mistake. They use the word "hacker" when they mean "cracker". And this, irritates the real hackers. What is a cracker? We will analyse that term in the next topic.
The eternal quarrel
People confuse hackers with crackers. We said what a hacker is. Now we will talk about the other word. Cracker. Crackers are illegal people, who their fascination, lies in breaking into systems and stealing accounts. Crackers exploit bugs, where hackers help them being fixed. Each "race" (hackers and crackers) don't like each other. Their jobs are opposite: Hackers are creative. Crackers are destroying. So, if you are a journalist, or you know one, please help, so that term-confusion will stop. No program is perfect, for the simple reason that the human being itself it is not. Crackers exploit that, where hackers try to decrease it. Choose your side.
Hacking skills
1. Learn how to program.
The basic hacking skill is programming. Programming is a skill that I cannot teach you, like nobody is able to. Actually there is a person who really can. That is yourself. Books, tutorials and courses can only teach you some language vocabulary and programming habits. Only self-tutoring is adequate. You will learn what means programming, in deep, only by learning alone. You will read some code, you will write a little etc. Watch the code of master hackers and learn what you can from it. Then develop some of your own code. You will progress like this. Most of the great hackers are self-taught.
Programming languages.
I will recommend you some programming languages. You should start with something simple, like Pascal or Python. These two, are smart and friendly languages. These were my first ones. They also are powerful languages which can be used for large projects. Your next language should be Java. It is the language which is used in the web. Every hacker who respect himself should have Java into his skillset. However all hackers use C. It is the most common hacking language. Unix is written in C. There is also C++. It is a modern variation of C. Serious projects are written in C/C++. You should also learn Perl and Lisp. These are good languages for hacking. So, we have the map of languages in the order you should learn:
1. Python/Pascal
2. Java
3. C/C++
4. Perl/Lisp
2. Learn how the web works and how to write HTML.
Read books about it, hear about it from masters, see it yourself. In some way, learn the web. The language that internet is written in, is HTML. I recommend you learn HTML before learning any other language. It is not a full programming language itself, however it can teach you the basic structures of programming. Hackers talk with the Internet, they discuss with it. Both, hackers and Internet are profited by this "discussion". This "discussion" becomes real, with HTML. Hackers work in the web. You should learn a lot about it if you want to be a real master.
3. Get an open source operating system like Unix and learn to run it and modify it.
The whole hacker community uses open source operating systems, like Unix, Linux and FreeBSD. Having an open source operating system allows you to change the source code of the system itself. Hackers use it also for another reason. They work hard all together, for improving Unix (or Linux) in order to make it more strong and powerful than Microsoft Windows. In this way, people will use free software - from programs to operating systems. I encourage you, when you will got a respectable skill, to help to the improvement and promotion of free software.
To become a hacker you must follow this:
Read the code
Modify the code
Create the code
FAQ
Q: How can I get started as a hacker?
A: It should take you quite a long time, in order to learn how to program and have enough knowledge about the web and HTML. After these steps you should find a LUG (Linux Users Group) and go to their (on-line) meetings. You should ask them for giving you a Linux distribution and instructions of installing it. After this, you should go to freshmeat.net or sourceforge.net and find a project that looks interesting to you and join it.
Q: How long it will take me to become a hacker?
A: Most of people get a good coding skillset between the time of 8 to 14 months. However, it requires hard work and dedication.
Q: Will you teach me everything about hacking?
A: No. I can't do this. And I bet nobody will be able. Hacking is a craft that you learn it alone. Try things out. If you find some difficulties ask hackers through e-mail or irc. They are always willing to help new hackers, with the condition that you are kind and you show that you are trying and really interested to the art of hacking.
Q: Can you teach me how to crack?
A: Of course not. Any hacker asked this silly question will get angry and will answer with rudeness. Including me.
Q: Where can I find hackers to talk with?
A: Today, hackers can be found in LUGs and irc. I have made a list at the end of the page, where you can find places to chat with hackers and generally, coders.
Q: I have made a small and simple project. I don't think it worths to publish it in freshmeat.net or sourceforge.net. What can I do?
A: I am aware of this situation. It is really good to start your career with simple, but smart code. I understand your problem. Find experienced hackers, that they are willing to promote your project, and ask them kindly to do it. Also, you have to know, that there are smaller websites, in which you can publish small projects. You can search them in google.
(Read the FAQ very carefully before asking me questions with e-mail)
The hacker community awaits for your talent and devotion.
Begin...
Links
IRC rooms
#linux
#unix
#debian
#freshmeat