On 01-09-1981, an advertisement with the name "TUWAT.TXT" appeared in the TAZ.
The content of the advertisement:
TUWAT.TXT
The
powerful all believe today that internal security is only possible through the use of computers
.
The fact that computers do not go on strike is slowly being recognized
by medium-sized companies.
The fact that the use of computers makes the telephone even better is something that the Post Office believes
it has to prove today
with its screen text system in “field tests”.
The fact that the “personal computer” is now
to be sold to the video-saturated BMW driver in Germany
is clear from the advertising campaigns that are now starting.
We believe that small computers can still be used to do useful things
that do not require large centralized organizations.
So that we as Komputerfrieks no longer scurry around uncoordinated,
we do something and meet on 12.09.81 in Berlin, Wattstraße (TAZ main building) from 11:00 am.
We'll talk about international networks - communication law - data law (who owns my data?) -
copyright - information and learning systems - databases - encryption - computer games - programming languages -
processcontrol - hardware - and whatever else.
Tom Twiddlebit, Wau Wolf unnamed ("2)
September 1, 1981
What emerged from this ad is the Chaos Computer Club, CCC for short, the "galactic community of living beings".
Yesterday (12.09.2021) the CCC celebrated its 40th anniversary (or in hexadecimal: 0x28).
HAPPY BIRTDAY CCC!
On this really impressive anniversary of what is probably the largest hacker association in the universe, I thought I'd compare the club's timelines with my own and write this little declaration of love here.
I'm not a club member myself, but a pure sympathizer.
Why? It's simple:
In the city where I currently live, there is no CCC, let alone a CCC-related hackerspace.
The only thing that exists here is a "makerspace" (which is as dusty as this city) and a co-working space that is purely commercial and serves to establish business contacts with a "canteen" that is more like a Michelin-starred restaurant.
So not what I have in mind.
The nearest club would be the wonderful
CCCS (Stuttgart). However, it's a 1-hour drive away and not really an option either.
So much for the sOn this really impressive anniversary of what is probably the biggest hacker association in the universe, I thought I'd compare the timelines of the club with my own and write this little declaration of love here.
I'm not a club member myself, but purely a sympathizer.
Why? It's simple:
In the city where I currently live, there is no CCC, let alone a CCC-related hackerspace.
The only thing that exists here is a "makerspace" (which is as outdated as this city) and a co-working space that is purely commercial and serves to establish business contacts with a "canteen" that is more like a Michelin-starred restaurant.
So not what I had in mind.
Status quo.
How did it all start.
I think I got my first computer (C64) from an uncle. However, it wasn't released until the mid-90s.
This was followed by a 386 Windows 3.11 computer and my first experiences with Basic. Zack! Angefixt.
Things really got going when the first 56k modem arrived and catapulted the new Windows 95 computer into the vastness of the Internet.
It soon became boring just playing games and staring at BASIC. So you research the Internet and come across "other usage options" for computers.
Very quickly the CCC falls at your feet.
At first I couldn't do much with it (probably due to my age) - where are the instructions for hacking? :D
But somehow the CCC always made it back into my field of vision.
The point at which the CCC became fully entrenched in my brain was a documentary that I unfortunately never found again.
I only remember Tim Pritlove talking about thinking "out of the box" (who knows which documentary that is - bring it on!)
At some point, people naturally "grow up" and when that happened to me, the CCC hacker ethic finally got the attention it deserved.
Last but not least, the NERDBUDE is also based on the principles of this very hacker ethic (
PRINCIPII NERDBUDIA).
Now the young nerd sits there and wonders how his life will continue. Hacking (in the illegal/negative sense) is not compatible with his own values.
So learn. Look at the system. Understand systems. Disassemble hardware. Reassemble hardware (if possible) in a functioning way.
The old Windows box quickly gets in the way. At a time when there was still print media, I bought a magazine (incl. CD-ROM) with Linux (kernel ver. 2.6).
So "Goodbye Windows!" and installed Linux. Three hours later I was sitting in front of a shell.
Then nothing happened for a long time. I had no idea what that was supposed to be.
Interestingly, Linux is so grounded that here again an intersection to the CCC arose and I was taught many tips and commands by CCC learners.
Since then, the spectrum of media, people and projects that intersect my timeline again and again and sometimes stay on my timeline for a long time has grown and grown.
For example, the
CHAOSRADIO, the first podcast (if that's what it was called back then) that I consciously and regularly listened to. In particular the
FOLGE 23. To this day, it's my most frequently listened to podcast episode ever
(and of course the episode is playing as I type this)
At some point, the other "chaos podcasts" also flushed into the podcatcher:
CHAOS SIEGEN,
CRE,
DATENKANAL,
HACKERFUNK,
HAECKSENWERK,
LOGBUCH:NETZPOLITIK,
PENTARADIO and many many more...
So the CCC has at least found its way into my ear almost every day.
Of course, the eyes are not spared and since I won't be coming to the famous Chaos Communication Congress any time soon, both professionally and privately,
MEDIA.CCC.DE provides the pictures.
Also in the environment of the
CLICK! CLACK! HACK! Podcast is full of very pleasant people from the club environment.
The last major intersection that truly changed my life was a visit around 2009 (I could be wrong) to the wonderful
C-BASE.
Someone here (name remains secret ;) ) suggested to me that if I'm interested in a job in IT, I should just do it (I should say that I neither studied computer science nor did I do any training).
This conversation (and also the name of the member) from back then stayed with me for a long time and scratched me from time to time. Now I'm in an IT job today where I don't feel sick when I get up in the morning.
Basically my little TUWAT.
Now I can say the CCC, this galactic community of living beings, influences my actions and thoughts every day and I learn just as often from various people in the club environment.
The CCC is (and I think it can be said) the most important authority in this country when it comes to questions about digitalization, IT security and IT competence and their communication.
Not least through the many many voluntary projects in and around the club.
So finally:
Dear Chaos Computer Club, I wish you all the best for your 40th anniversary.
You enrich and change my life and certainly the lives of many other people for the better.
Thanks to you, this world will be a much better place.
Keep it up!
Of course, a big thank you to all the synapses that the Cortex CCC has created so far
has formed and will continue to form and the incredible number of people who are involved in all of this
make volunteer activities and expertise possible!
In this sense:
"Hack the Planet!"