Hackers '95 Review
Review by Blue Whale
Hackers '95 by Phon-E and R.F. Burns
$34.95, $29 through website:
rockpile.com/~security/hackersvid.html
$5 shipping outside U.S. PAL/SECAM $10 extra.
Custom Video Productions
15 Lakeshore Drive
Middletown, NJ 07701
Hackers '95 is not the first independently produced video depicting
real hackers, but it may be one of the most accessible. Typically hacker videos
are rarities that debut at hacker conventions to a select audience of peers,
following which the videos promptly disappear for the five or so years needed
for the statute of limitations to absolve everyone involved of anything they
may be guilty of. Thus, one is not likely to find a video of hackers performing
their craft at the local video store. But Phon-E & R.F. Burns offer their
video direct to you - for a price.
Hackers '95 is divided into roughly six parts. Part one depicts
two casual interviews (actually more like monologues): one with former Legion
of Doom member Chris Goggans (aka, Erik Bloodaxe; the other with 2600
Editor-in-Chief Emmanuel Goldstein. Part two shows some interesting highlights
from SummerCon95 in Atlanta. Part three continues with highlights from DEFCON
III in Las Vegas. Part four puts us in the driver's seat with a bone fide
Motorola cellular phreaker. Part five is a discussion of "Area 51," a military
base in Nevada where outer space aliens are known to frequent. Finally, part
six is a press conference on "Operation Cybersnare."
If some or all of this sounds unfamiliar to you, don't be alarmed.
Watching Hackers '95 one gets the impression that there are inside
stories going on to which you may or may not be privy, depending I suppose on
who you know and how much you spend on IRC's #hack. Hackers '95 has
a definite "home video" feel to it, and one of the dangers inherent in
commercializing such a video is that the subject matter may only be of interest
to those who attended the various conventions or took part in the depicted
events.
Fortunately, Hackers '95 includes a wide range of topics that should
offer something for everyone.
The production quality of Hackers '95 falls somewhere between your
average high school orchestra recording and the public access television show
Kaleidoscope; it's not bad; it's just not good. The fairest word I can
think of to describe it is amateurish, only with endearing qualities. I don't
want to be mean, it's just that the production quality can be frustrating at
times, as when Chris Goggans repeatedly knocks his tie-clip microphone with his
manic hand gesticulations, causing the automatic sound levels to fade out for
critical seconds during his spiels. It is my sincere hope that the producers
of this $35 video will take some of their loot and invest it into, say, a
real microphone, or at least disable the automatic volume controls on
their camera equipment.
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