Curate, connect, and discover
Internet Archive finds #001: Hacking the Xbox, An introduction to Reverse Engineering by Andrew "Bunnie" Huang. (full read)
"In the beginning, a hacker was someone who worked passionately for the sake of curiosity and exploration. There were hardware hackers who took it upon themselves to remove the covers from computers to optimize their design (early computers were built out of discrete components, so they could be modified in meaningful ways with simple tools), and there were software hackers who labored to make the most compact and elegant code, since computational resources were scarce and slow. There were hackers who explored the ins and outs of the phone system, and those who explored the roofs and tunnels of buildings of university campuses. Quite often, early hackers engaged in all of these activities. Hackers would share their findings or results (hacks) with each other freely, as their rewards were not financial, but came from satisfying their intellectual curiosity and from the enthusiasm of their peers." - Andrew "bunnie" Huang.
______________________________________________________________
Interesting thought from a friend:
Jail breaking. Reverse engineering. Without these we wouldn’t have emulation which is kinda saving a lot of peoples childhoods seeing as actual physical copies are skyrocketing in the retro gaming market. People are afraid physical media is going to completely phase out because everything’s going digital. So people are taking advantage of the market in some arguably bullshit ways. Ya know business. -Xora March 2024