2600 Magazine_ The Hacker Quarterly - Digital Edition - Summer 2011 - 2600 Magazine [38]
Would the world be a better place if everyone could think outside of the box? Why is it that "hackers" are mostly associated with electronics? There was a social hack by someone in the issue that I read and it made me start thinking. I'm in an honor society and I have heard lectures by famous people who were successful basically because of social "hacks." They didn't accept the normal answers and they wanted more. They kept on trying from several different approaches until they had the result they wanted (in some cases bending rules/laws)! Is this not a hack? They are some of the most successful people because of how they thought outside of the box. Your magazine has changed my perspective and opened my eyes to even more possibilities. Awesome work!
Thinkican
Welcome aboard. Thinking outside the box is indeed more or less the theme of the hacker world, and, as you note, in the lives of many people who become successful at what they do.
Dear 2600:
I just set up a monthly subscription for the Kindle edition of 2600. I wanted to write to you guys to let you know how excited I am to finally have your zine in electronic form. I ride my motorcycle to work every day and the real estate in my backpack is pretty small, so being able to store all of the issues on my one small device is awesome. Although I did have a one year, or two year (can’t remember), subscription a while back, once that ran out, I'd forget to go buy the newest one at Barnes and Noble or Borders or wherever, so I'd end up getting one maybe once a year. Now I don't have to worry about it - it just comes automatically. I really hope this new way of publishing your magazine works out and you are able to continue to create and publish this awesome zine.
Brett
We’ve had a few bumps in the road but we’re getting to where we want to be. We only hope more publishers give the new technology a chance, as right now there are relatively few who are approaching this openly. What we’ve found is that there is tremendous support for electronic publishing. One of the things holding it back is the misguided notion that readers of ebooks and ezines won’t pay a reasonable amount for their favorite publications. Not only will they, but, as we hear every day, there are people all around the world being reached in this method who are much harder to find in the traditional paper approach. We will always be a paper magazine because that is something truly special. But there’s no reason we can’t keep trying to be more. How else does the future happen?
Dear 2600:
I was wondering if you guys had plans to release the Winter 2010-11 issue on a format other than for the Kindle. I only have the Kindle app for iOS and it is not listed as a supported device on Amazon's website.
Jeremy
By the time you read this, Volume 27 (all of the 2010 issues recompiled as an ebook) will be available DRM-free in a bunch of formats. If this does as well as the previous volume (which we released at the end of 2010), we will try and get our previous issues compiled in a similar fashion. You should also have no trouble grabbing the current issue individually.
Dear 2600:
I just wanted to let you know that I read your article about the changing landscapes of information and content, and shortly thereafter purchased a digital subscription via my Amazon Kindle. While I have friends at work who purchase the mag in paper format (and I’ll occasionally purchase a hard copy when I see it), I respect your hacker spirit to choose to publish in open digital formats. I believe in what you are doing and I hope it will be a success. I also want to let you know that I love the format that you have configured for the Kindle edition. It is really easy to navigate and laid out really well.
Thank you for all of your efforts