Part 97 (2/2)
”Say that too loud,” cautioned the bearded Dutch isn't very high on the pay scale”
”Be easy on otta justify lunch for an army to my boss, or worse yet, the beancounters” Dutchman didn't catch the idioiured out how it landed on his shoulders, but Scott ended up with the responsibility of picking a restaurant and successfully guiding the group there And Dutch anyone daht Scott He assuh it was, and led theroup blindly and happi- ly followed They even let him order the food, so he did his very best to i at the menu He succeeded, with his savant phonetic ht prior, but this tireater portions
As they were sating their pallets, and co on what a wonderful choice this restaurant was, Scott popped the same question to which he had previously been unable to receive a concise answer Now that he had ht respond and actually be co the sa business,” Scott said savoring goat parts and sounding quite nonchalant ”And I've never gotten a straight answer Why do you hack?” He asked ”Other than the philosophical credo of Network is Life, why do you hack?” Scott looked into their eyes
”Or are you just plain nosy?”
”I bloody well am!” said the one called Pinball who spoke with a thick Liverpudlian accent His jeans were in tatters, in no better shape than his sneakers The short pudgy man was mid- twenty-ish and his tall creas in i
”Nosy? That's why you hack?” Asked Scott in disbelief
”Yeah, that's it, ame the size of life” Pinball looked at Scott as if to say, that's it No hidden , it's just fun He sed more of the exqui- site food
”Sounds like whoever dies with the ot it,
Scott scanned his luncheon corunts, no objection What an odd assort Dutchroup for Scott's benefit
”We each have our reasons to hack,” said the one who called himself Che2 By all appearance Che2 seemed more suited to a BMW than a revolutionary cabal He was a well bred Aree with each other, or anyone, but we have an underlying understanding that permits us to cooperate”
”I can tell you why I hack,” said the sole Gerlish with a thick accent ”I aov- ernments forency situations The right or wrong of weapons of et that row and strive toand ethics, in the same breath?” Scott asked
”I certainly do,” said the roup that promotes the Hacker Ethic It is really quite sied him to continue ”We have before us, as a world, a marvelous opportunity, to create a set of rules, behavior and attitudes towards this y that blossoms before our eyes That law is the Ethic, some call it the Code” Kirk had called it the Code, too
”The Code is quite a crock,” interrupted a tall slender man with disheveled white hair who spoke with an upper crust, ever so proper British accent ”Unless everybody follows it, from A to Zed, it simply won't work There can be no exceptions Other- wise ical Lord of the Flies”
”Ah, but that is already happening,” said a gentleman in his mid- fifties, who also sported a full beard, bushywell kept salt and pepper hair to his shoulders ”We are already well on the road to a date with Silicon Areddon We didn't do it with the Boonna do it with technology for theonly by 'Dave', he was a Philosophy Professor at Stanford
Intech- nology instead of drugs as a roup
”He's right It is happening, right now Long Live the Revolu- tion,” shouted Che2 ”Hacking keeps our personal freedo overnment and TRW and the FBI and the CIA control it and use only pieces of it for their greed-sucking reasons No way I want everyone to have the tools to get into the Govern- es they see fit”
Scott listened as his one comment spawned a heated and animated discussion He wouldn't break in unless they went too far afield, wherever that was, or he simply wanted to join in on the conversation
”How can you support freedonoring the Code” Solon made his comment with Teutonic matter of factness in betweenwe can do,” retorted Che2 ”It is our moral duty, our responsibility to the world to protect our privacy, our rights, before they are stripped away as they have been since the Republicans bounced in, but not out, over a decade ago” He turned in his chair and glared at Scott Maybe thirty years old, Che2 was reat bushes of curly dark brown hair encircling his head The lack of hair ee forehead which stood over his deeply inset eyes Che2 called the Boston area his horound
The proper British man known as Doctor Doctor, DRDR on the BBS's, was over six foot five with an unruly frock of thick white hair which fra your pardon, but this so violates the tenets of civilized behavior What this gentleman proposes is the philosophical antithesis of coest we consider the position that each of us in actual fact is working for the establishment, if I may use such a politically pass descriptor” DRDR's comment hushed the table He continued ”Is it not true that security is being installed as a result of many of our activities?”