Home | Forums | Article Search | Subscribe & Shop | Contact Us | Log Out Rehabilitating The Hack Email This Print This View My Personal Library Loading Zone February 2004 • Vol.4 Issue 2 Page(s) 69 in print issue Add To My Personal Library Rehabilitating The Hack Open Sauce by Pete Loshin Jump to first occurrence of: [HACK] Pete Loshin, former technical editor of software reviews for Byte Magazine (print version), consults and writes about computing and the Internet. He also runs http://www .linuxcookbook.com. He owns shares of both Microsoft and Red Hat and believes that Windows isn't for everyone, but neither is Linux. If the flood of new books on the market with "hack" or "hacking" in the title means anything, hacking is back in style. Right now I'm staring at a stack on my desk that includes "Hacking the Xbox" by Andrew "bunnie" Huang, "Hacking: The Art of Exploitation" by Jon Erickson, and seven from the O'Reilly & Associates "Hacks" series. Erickson's book, a compact and no-nonsense guide for novice hackers, is filled with real code and hacking techniques and explanations of how they work. Even if you're not a programmer, the book will show you how easy it is to crack a system running vulnerable code. If you are a programmer, you'll realize how much easier it can be to fix vulnerable open-source programs. Almost anyone with plenty of time can be a hacker, but the O'Reilly "Hacks" books help level the field, giving a head start to novices and those without a surfeit of time or patience. O'Reilly (hacks.oreilly.com) defines a hack as, "A clever solution to an interesting problem." For some of the "Hacks" books on my desk, which include Google, Amazon.com, Linux server, Windows XP, Mac OS X, wireless, and TiVo, the definition of an "interesting problem" is rather loose. For example, Windows XP Hack #41, "Run Java Applets Without Crashes or Problems," describes how to update your Java VM, and Windows XP Hack #66, "Fire Outlook and Outlook Express," shows how to switch to a non-Microsoft email reader. By and large the O'Reilly team does well, offering 100 hacks for every title and more reader-submitted hacks on its Web site. Consider the TiVo with its Linux OS under the covers. TiVo hacks range from tips for bypassing default controls to adding storage and accessing TV shows from networked PCs. Many of the Mac OS X hacks depend on functions derived from its Unix heart. The Web site titles offer a hodgepodge of "duhs," as well as more serious hacks (with code) for such things as integrating Google search functions into your own Web site to selling books as an Amazon.com associate. These books are refreshing because they go beyond the traditional "how to" approach of most computer books. They offer ideas and examples of how to take systems and services to a higher level of usefulness. Open designs, whether a car, PC, or house, let you get service from whomever you choose, install third-party add-ons, change things around for better performance, or modify the whole thing to do something else entirely. Watch out when a manufacturer closes an otherwise open design to lock hackers out and lock users in, especially when it sells the hardware at a loss in the hope of locking in a subscription revenue stream. Remember CueCat? Or the vendors of Internet/email access who sold or gave away Internet PCs? Microsoft's Xbox, under the hood, is a standard PC cleverly tweaked for gaming that's locked up to prevent it from running anything but Microsoft-approved games. Microsoft reportedly loses about $200 on every one it sells in the hope of recouping the losses through game sales or through subscription gaming services. If you want one just to run Linux on, you can try, but even if you can defeat the system-security features incorporated by Microsoft's engineers, you may have to deal with Microsoft's legal team. "Hacking the Xbox" doesn't offer a set of easy instructions for turning your Xbox into a Linux PC; it's both an introduction to the world of hardware hacking (think soldering irons) and a chronicle of Huang's interaction with Microsoft as he tried to adapt the Xbox to do what *he* wanted it to. But Microsoft wants to dictate how you may (and may not) use it, and it uses a combination of technical and legal mechanisms to enforce its terms. The implications are frightening. Could Ford license cars rather then sell them? It could bind you contractually to get all service from a Ford dealer, purchase gas from Ford-certified sellers, and even drive on Ford-certified roads only. Not only would that be a nightmare for consumers but ultimately, it would fail as long as more open alternatives exist. After all, everyone likes to have options. Get saucy with Pete at pete@cpumag.com. Want more information about a topic you found of interest while reading this article? Type a word or phrase that identifies the topic and click "Search" to find relevant articles from within our editorial database. Enter A Subject (key words or a phrase): ALL Words (‘digital’ AND ‘photography’) ANY Words (‘digital’ OR ‘photography’) Exact Match ('digital photography'- all words MUST appear together) Home      Copyright & Legal Information      Privacy Policy      Site Map      Contact Us Copyright © 2010 Sandhills Publishing Company U.S.A. All rights reserved.