Hacker Culture Becoming Mainstream?

hacker culture , mainstream , subculture , tech workers

Nga Than's avatarSociological Reasoning

While writing review of two books: The Mastermind and Bad Blood, I noticed that organizations described in them consciously employed hacking as main ways to solve problems. In the case of the Mastermind, the entire enterprise where Paul le Roux built was centered around hack culture. He figured out various loopholes in the American health care system, and exploited those loopholes to sell painkillers on the Internet. In Evan Ratliff’s words, le Roux often hacks his way out of a situation:

Typical of Le Roux, the plan was kind of hack. Just as he had exploited a hole in the American healthcare system to sell painkillers, he planned to take advantage of a dysfunctional government to exploit the resources it couldn’t harvest.

Sitting in his headquarters in the Philippines, he could mobilize more than 1,000 employees across the world to work for his many companies. He hacked his way…

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Division and Commonality…

conflict, division, fake news, isms, People, relationships, summer camp, unity

Farangian's avatarWords Mean Stuff

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Many years ago some camp counselors and psychology types conducted an experiment…

The camp residents included a group of “jock” kids, rough and tumble sports types, and a group of “math camp” kids, more brains than brawn and not necessarily as vocal. The researchers put a mixture of both groups into two trucks to go to an activity away from the main camp, and had one of the two trucks “break down” for several hours on the way.

The kids from the first, non-breakdown, truck kept acting the way they always had: the “jocks” picked on the “nerds” and the “nerds” wouldn’t associate with the “jocks”

But, something very interesting happened on the second truck. The kids on the truck that “broke down” spent more time together; they had a shared experience. That experience brought the two separate groups together.

When the second truck, finally, made it back to camp…

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We British love our specialist interest groups

Papermaking, Surrey Industrial History Group

Tim Dodds's avatarLightwater

Perhaps I should join the Surrey Industrial History Group, as I seem to be attending all of their 43rd evening lecture series this year. Too lazy to complete the application form, probably.

This week’s lecture was Paper and Making it by Machine by Phil Crockett, Treasurer of the British Association of Paper Historians.

Phil’s lecture examined the progress of mechanisation in papermaking. While the principles of the process of making paper have not changed, Phil’s lecture showed how much mechanisation had changed the way paper is made.  Any of the YouTube videos show modern paper making.

While I enjoyed the lecture, what struck me was that there was an organisation purely dedicated to the history of papermaking. Is it something in our British character that prompts people to establish such organisations, and others to join them?

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Help Your Writer’s Block with Free Download – Writing Prompts

Fun, Writing

Christina M. Ward's avatarFiddleheads & Floss Writing Services

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Coffee/tea? CHECK. Motivation? CHECK, well, mostly check.
Blinking cursor? CHECK

Now what. That blinking cursor is doing its thing, so why aren’t my fingers moving? Come on brain! Fingers! Type something…anything?

WHERE ARE MY WORDS???

It has happened to the best of us. We follow our routine, settle in for a good few hours of writing
and…nothing. I won’t say those awful words. The term used to describe this condition, but you know them.

Disgruntled. Dismayed. BAFFLED. This has never happened before. What do I do? Am I a good writer or not? I am a FAKE. Or maybe you are more seasoned in dealing with these episodes and you know that all you need is a little inspiration. You turn to Google. Old friend, old pal. And go right down a wormhole of inspiration until it is 4 hours later, your left butt cheek has developed a cramp, and…

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