Hack-Tic

"Hack-Tic" was a Dutch hacker magazine published between 1989 and 1993. Throughout its existence, Hack-Tic obtained a cult following and upset the authorities beyond the Dutch borders.

History

In 1988, a small delegation from the Chaos Computer Club in Hamburg visited Amsterdam after being invited by Caroline Nevejan, who organized political events at Paradiso in Amsterdam. Rop Gonggrijp, the magazine's later editor and publisher was at that point already somewhat well-known as a hacker that sometimes made the newspapers. Being inspired by "Datenschleuder" (the CCC magazine) and "2600 The Hacker Quarterly", Rop decided to start his own magazine. In January 1989, the first issue was published. In the summer of that same year, Rop Gonggrijp, Patrice Riemens and Caroline Nevejan organized the Galactic Hacker Party in Paradiso.

During the years that followed, the magazine grew from its original circulation of 50 photocopies to several thousand printed issues. In the magazine a group of authors published articles ranging from "How to copy the data on the magnetic stripe of your bank card?", "How to build your own pay-TV descrambler" to at least twenty different variations of "How does one make free phone calls?" (much to the dismay of Dutch telecommunication monopolist KPN, then still called PTT Telecommunicatie).

But Hack-Tic wasn't merely about hi-tech mischief: its makers sensed the upcoming importance of communications and technology and were actively involved in making sure new technology was accessible to everyone. In 1991 the first foundations were laid for Hacktic Netwerk, the organization which later became the ISP XS4ALL. Also in 1993, "Hack-Tic" organized HEU, or Hacking at the End of the Universe, the first outdoor hacker festival event.

In 1993 the last issue of "Hack-Tic" appeared. The issues are now online at XS4ALL, the ISP that grew out of Hacktic Network and is going strong.

Hack-Tic hacker events

Even though the magazine hasn't been printed since 1993, a group of people that originally formed around the magazine has continued to organize large hacker-culture events every four years. These events continue to be important moments in hacker culture, with visitors from a large number of countries. The last editions have been complete outdoor cities with thousands of visitors staying in tents. Visitor participation at these events has been high, leading to events which some describe as "all crew, no visitors". Recent events have featured many visitor-organized "villages" as well as a professionally organized conference program.

* GHP, Galactic Hacker Party (1989)
* HEU, Hacking at the End of the Universe (1993)
* HIP, Hacking In Progress (1997)
* HAL, Hackers At Large (2001)
* WTH, What The Hack (2005)

These events have been a major source of inspiration for the H.O.P.E (Hackers On Planet Earth) conferences organized by 2600 The Hacker Quarterly in New York as well as for the CCC Camps held near Berlin.

External links

* [http://www.hacktic.nl All issues of Hack-Tic] . Mirror sites [http://hacktic.poboxes.info/ in Norway] & [http://hacktic.meulie.net in the USA] .