4. Basic Hacking Skills
The hacker attitude is vital, but skills are even more vital.
Attitude is no substitute for competence, and there's a certain basic
toolkit of skills which you have to have before any hacker will dream
of calling you one.
This toolkit changes slowly over time as technology creates new skills
and makes old ones obsolete. For example, it used to include programming
in machine language, and didn't until recently involve HTML. But
right now it pretty clearly includes the following:
1. Learn how to program.
This, of course, is the fundamental hacking skill. If you don't
know any computer languages, I recommend starting with
Python. It is cleanly designed,
well documented, and relatively kind to beginners. Despite being
a good first language, it is not just a toy; it is very powerful
and flexible and well suited for large projects.
But be aware that you won't reach the skill level of a hacker or even
merely a programmer if you only know one language -- you need to learn
how to think about programming problems in a general way, independent
of any one language. To be a real hacker, you need to have gotten to
the point where you can learn a new language in days by relating
what's in the manual to what you already know. This means you should
learn several very different languages.
If you get into serious programming, you will have to learn C, the
core language of Unix (though it's not the one to try learning first
thing). Other languages of particular importance to hackers include
Perl and
LISP. Perl is worth
learning for practical reasons; it's very widely used for active web
pages and system administration, so that even if you never write Perl
you should learn to read it. LISP is worth learning for the profound
enlightenment experience you will have when you finally get it; that
experience will make you a better programmer for the rest of your
days, even if you never actually use LISP itself a lot.
It's best, actually, to learn all four of these (Python, C, Perl, and
LISP). Besides being the most important hacking languages, they
represent very different approaches to programming, and each will
educate you in valuable ways.
I can't give complete instructions on how to learn to program here --
it's a complex skill. But I can tell you that books and courses won't
do it (many, maybe most of the best hackers are self-taught).
What will do it is (a) reading code and (b) writing
code.
Learning to program is like learning to write good natural language.
The best way to do it is to read some stuff written by masters of the
form, write some things yourself, read a lot more, write a little
more, read a lot more, write some more ... and repeat until your
writing begins to develop the kind of strength and economy you see in
your models.
Finding good code to read used to be hard, because there were few
large programs available in source for fledgeling hackers to read and
tinker with. This has changed dramatically; open-source software,
programming tools, and operating systems (all built by hackers) are
now widely available. Which brings me neatly to our next topic...
2. Get one of the open-source Unixes and learn to use and run it.
I'm assuming you have a personal computer or can get access to
one (these kids today have it so easy :-)). The single most
important step any newbie can take towards acquiring hacker skills
is to get a copy of Linux or one of the BSD-Unixes, install
it on a personal machine, and run it.
Yes, there are other operating systems in the world besides Unix. But
they're distributed in binary -- you can't read the code, and you
can't modify it. Trying to learn to hack on a DOS or Windows machine or
under MacOS is like trying to learn to dance while wearing a body
cast.
Besides, Unix is the operating system of the Internet. While you can
learn to use the Internet without knowing Unix, you can't be an
Internet hacker without understanding Unix. For this reason, the hacker
culture today is pretty strongly Unix-centered. (This wasn't always
true, and some old-time hackers still aren't happy about it, but the
symbiosis between Unix and the Internet has become strong enough that
even Microsoft's muscle doesn't seem able to seriously dent it.)
So, bring up a Unix -- I like Linux myself but there are other ways
(and yes, you can run both Linux and DOS/Windows on the same
machine). Learn it. Run it. Tinker with it. Talk to the Internet
with it. Read the code. Modify the code. You'll get better
programming tools (including C, Lisp, Python, and Perl) than any Microsoft
operating system can dream of, you'll have fun, and you'll soak up
more knowledge than you realize you're learning until you look back on
it as a master hacker.
You can find BSD Unix help and resources at
www.bsd.org.
(Note: I don't really recommend installing either Linux or BSD as a
solo project if you're a newbie. For Linux, find a local Linux user's
group and ask for help; or contact the
Linux Internet Support
Co-Operative. LISC maintains
IRC channels where
you can get help.)
3. Learn how to use the World Wide Web and write HTML.
Most of the things the hacker culture has built do their work out of
sight, helping run factories and offices and universities without any
obvious impact on how non-hackers live. The Web is the one big
exception, the huge shiny hacker toy that even politicians
admit is changing the world. For this reason alone (and a lot of
other good ones as well) you need to learn how to work the Web.
This doesn't just mean learning how to drive a browser (anyone can do
that), but learning how to write HTML, the Web's markup language. If
you don't know how to program, writing HTML will teach you some
mental habits that will help you learn. So build a home page.
But just having a home page isn't anywhere near good enough to make
you a hacker. The Web is full of home pages. Most of them are
pointless, zero-content sludge -- very snazzy-looking sludge, mind
you, but sludge all the same (for more on this see
The HTML Hell
Page).
To be worthwhile, your page must have content -- it must be
interesting and/or useful to other hackers. And that brings us to the
next topic...