You've heard of Smart Mobs. They're a manifestiation of semi-self-organizing behavior. They're interesting. But then there's Smart Punks. These guys -- the people who say they've hacked the security protocols used by the Boston-area transit system, and now want to tell the world how to do it. They're Smart Punks.
Smart, because they've obviously got intelligence, enthusiasm, and energy.
And Punks, because they hide, smirking, behind a veneer of hey, we just wanted to help when they're publicizing things that really ought to be kept secret
Smart Punks use their intelligence in malign ways, to the detriment of society. Not just these punks, of course -- there are others doing equally vile things, such as the ones who discovered and publicized a way to remotely hack into the software used by pacemakers, thus giving the ability to remotely alter the functioning of the device. The worst of it is, somewhere down the line, punks like these'll be praised by corporate america when they sell out, mouthing platitudes about their misspent youth and how they've now seen the light.
I suppose that at one time I'd have liked to be them. Certainly, even now, I'd like to have their skills. But not so much, any more. I think it's called maturity -- though I imagine they have some sneering term for it.
4 comments:
Well, I would have a hard time beating Frank Abagnale Jr.'s comments about his life as a cheque kiter.
http://www.abagnale.com/comments.htm
I always prefered Ferdinand Waldo DeMara. I think it was the name....
Hee hee...I first read about DeMara years ago in "legion magazine". Never knew the whole story before now. (thanks Wikipedia!) DeMara was pretty good. A guy who can fake his own suicide had better be good! One wonders how smart he was...I mean, really, he decided to impersonate a doctor! In the military! During a shooting war! And got shipped out! How dumb is that? However, Frank Abagnale was a "young punk" of the stripe you talked about in your blog. He "worked the system", hacking into filing systems (without using computers) to fake university credentials, creating company cheques with big expensive machines, even creating ads which the airlines actually used!
A lot of his unusual careers like Doctor and writer were just a front to help him to lie low. The telling line (which is in the movie AND his biography) is that when asked how did he fake the credentials to become a lawyer in Louisiana, he answered truthfully..."I studied for a few weeks and challenged the exam". So THAT career was actually perfectly legitimate.
Either being a lawyer is a cakewalk, or Frank was smart. Really smart. I tend to lean toward "smart".
The one comment I still recall was his exploits in getting outfitted as a pilot -- was it for TWA? -- and another pilot asked 'what kind of machine do you use', meaning 'what do you fly', but he didn't know the phrase, so he tossed off something like 'a GE refrigerator' and got out of there, leaving one very puzzled pilot behind.
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