全球最著名的16位黑客列传

Claim to fame: A hacker of the old school, Stallman walked in off the street and got a job at MIT’s Artificial Intelligence Lab in 1971. He was an undergraduate at Harvard at the time. Disturbed that software was viewed as private property, Stallman later founded the Free Software Foundation.

First encountered a computer: In 1969, at the IBM New York Scientific Center. He was 16 years old.

Unusual tools: In the 1980s Stallman left MIT’s payroll but continued to work from an office at MIT. Here he created a new operating system called GNU — short for GNU’s Not Unix.

Little-known fact: Recipient of a $240,000 MacArthur Foundation genius grant.

Current status: Richard Stallman has just published his latest book, Free Software, Free Society: Selected Essays of Richard M. Stallman, available through GNU Press.

Claim to fame: The driving creative force behind Bell Labs’ legendary computer science operating group, Ritchie and Thompson created UNIX in 1969. An elegant, open operating system for minicomputers, UNIX helped users with general computing, word processing and networking, and soon became a standard language.

Unusual tools: Plan 9, the next-generation operating system created as the natural descendant of UNIX by Thompson and Bell Labs colleague Rob Pike.

Little-known fact: Although Ritchie is the author of the popular C programming language, his favorite language is Alef. Thompson, an amateur pilot, once traveled to Moscow to fly a MiG-29.

Current status: Dennis Ritchie is currently the head of Lucent Technology’s System Software Research Department, while Ken Thompson has retired from both Bell Labs and the hacker spotlight.

Claim to fame: Figured out how to make free phone calls using a plastic prize whistle he found in a cereal box. Cap’n Crunch introduced generations of hackers to the glorious concept of phone "phreaking."

First encountered a computer: As a teenager, trying to convince pay phones to return his coin and put through his calls.

Unusual tools: The toy whistle from boxes of Cap’n Crunch cereal. The whistle reproduced the 2600 hertz tone necessary to authorize a call. Used in conjunction with a bluebox, it allowed users to make free phone calls. (Oscar Meyer weiner whistles also briefly gained a following among phone phreakers.)

Little-known fact: Honorably discharged from the U.S. Air Force in 1968 after a stint in Vietnam.

Current status: John Draper has set up his own security firm. He also recently developed Crunchbox, a firewall system that halts the spread of computer viruses.