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Writing 03: Hackers on the Internet

Reflection

After a series of related readings and videos from the lectures, you will be given the opportunity to reflect on the readings and discussions for each week by writing a few short responses to given prompts. In this course, the reading responses are typically due by 5pm on Tuesdays of the following week they are assigned, after we have discussed the issues and explored the topics in class. This reflection is due on 3/5 at 5pm.

Note that the course staff are looking for your own thoughts on these topics. Writing in the first person, taking divergent viewpoints, and bringing in ideas from outside of class are encouraged. Write as if you are targeting a public audience. Particularly insightful or convincingly contrarian statements might be shared with the entire class in lecture or in the course slack.

For this week, you are to consider the following questions related to the lecture Living in SYN and the film Hackers:

  1. Back in the 1990s, technical information about computer science was not as accessible as it is today. There were very few digital resources on programming and networking, and virtually nothing outside of the hacker underground on computer security. Nothing like YouTube or Stack Overflow existed. Imagine that you were a hacker in that era. Where would you go to find technical information?

  2. Let's do something similar to what we did for the film Wargames. Identify some of the hacks that Dade Murphy / Zero Cool / Crash Override deploys in the film Hackers. Given that Hollywood has a reputation for embellishing the activities of computer hackers, how realistic are these hacks? 

Grading

Each reflection should be between 500 - 1000 words. It will be graded in terms of:
 

  • Does the reflection adequately address the prompt?

  • Does the reflection reference the readings and class discussions to support the writing?

  • Does the reflection exhibit thoughtfulness and creative expression?

  • Does the reflection utilize proper grammar and style?

  • Is the reflection an appropriate length?

Submission Instructions

  1. (For this first submission) Share a Google drive folder for this class with our TA Ellen (ejoyce3@nd.edu) and give her editor privileges. 

  2. Prepare a doc in that folder named using this convention: lastname_firstname_duedate. Example: Joyce_Ellen_030524

  3. The TA will collect each assignment directly from your drive after it is due