Annalee Newitz offers an interesting observation on the grayness of the hacker scene. SFOBug is one of the most elite open meetings of computer geeks that I'm aware of.

Fyodor of nmap fame came to speak at SFOBUG last month. I believe we had more people than ever before. 20!!!

We need more speakers, so if anyone has ideas, let me know!

Interesting article in the wake of a recent SFOBUG meeting..

] Talking to Fyodor in another context, with Althusser
] still on my mind, I asked him, "Do you want to tell me
] your real name?"
]
] Fyodor is the hacker handle he picked out for himself as
] a teenager. It isn't as if the name his parents gave him
] is a huge secret, although I don't know it. I was simply
] curious about whether he wanted to tell me, which isn't
] the same thing as finding it out.
]
] "No," he said with a smile.

I've been thinking about the use of nyms lately, so this is interesting..

The rest of this article focuses on the dual-use qualities of nmap, and trying to put them (and Fydor) in the light of French Marxist philosopher Louis Althusser. I'm not sure what to make of that..