Is there a good book where the main char is a programmer / hacker but it's not really a mystification or some sort of...

I think novel wise you're stuck with either non fiction, techno thrillers (which are practically trash sci fi tbqh) or less techno spy novels.

I know one of the earliest what you could call a hacker movie is probably similar to what you're looking for (3 days of the Condor) and that was based on a book (6 days of the Condor), but afaik the hacking and phreaking elements were added to the film and weren't in the book.

I think the problem is a lot of stuff is just plain unbelievable for most people, either because it sounds overly conspiratorial and paranoid (usually the tech aspect) or it sounds too easy and worrying (softer approaches).

Cryptonomicon.

I remembered Spook Country but Gibson is a horrible writer.

I didn't even like Snow Crash, I doubt I'd like that. What drew you towards it?

May as well put in the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo if you're going down that road.

I guess ones that have a similar form thay would fit in or suit a proper hacker type story would be If On A Winter's Night A Traveller and Dictionary of the Khazars

Heck no, Dragon Tattoo guy is bottom of the barrel tier writer.

>Khazars

Every interview I've heard and every Pavic's passage I've read was relentlessly boring. What's funny is that few years ago Azarbaijan's current dictator paid Belgrade authorities one million dollars to 'renovate' a park in the city centre, putting statues of his father (the previous dictator) and Pavic side by side.

There's also a fountain that plays music and changes colors.

Subject matter is interesting, cryptology, computers and some math. Alan Turing is a character in it.

Well ok

The endgame of the characters is also great.

That girl is a literal angel. Claire Boucher of Grimes if anyone is interested.

yeah no i can see the whore tattoos from here

Her hands are exposed showing her tattoos you cuck, I'm sure you'd let her peg you any day.

nah

speed addict eyes are also a red flag

What do you mean friendo? Her eyes look really friendly to me, which is what I look for in a girl because I'm cripplingly depressed and have to generate happiness from others.

i mean that manic pixies are always damaged goods

worst trait in a woman

You're right honestly; I just think she's definitely a qt3.14 who I would want to wife up and talk Veeky Forums with.

from what i've seen she's an utter retard that took everything taught in sociology class ad verbatim.

Ah man that's tough- maybe I can change that. Her lisp is cute to me honestly.

do novelizations count?

I don't think I've ever seen any real media do programmers right. The closest thing has always been the cult classic films who got incorporated into subculture.

This series. It's a collection of short stories that together add up to a bigger story. The gimmick is that the authors are actual hackers and describe in deep technical detail how to do everything. I'm serious: half the book is raw source code and copy pasta of command line terminals. It's a pity the actual writing is terrible but it's still a cool series of books. I wish there were more like it.

Thanks

Have you read Mitnick's autobiography? It's really entertaining and mostly about social engineering.

If the prose is good

No, but I did have The Art of Intrusion and The Art of Deception on my shelf as a lad. Never finished reading either all the way through though.

Cryptonomicon is about a lot of things but the parts set in the present day are pretty spot on for the technical details. An appendix includes the actual Perl script used by the protagonist to escape a sticky situation along with a white paper on an encryption algorithm that uses a carefully arranged deck of cards as the medium.

tell you this, if they don't mystify the figure of a typical hackers, then it will look like shit because hacker is a fucking pathetic, boring, shitty job that only lazy asses who are too lazy to write decent programs do.

lol look at that stupid bitches hat. how embarrassing. I wouldn't let me friend wear that.

The heck is this ? Live action Lain ?

Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker

Holy shit, they did that in Belgrade too? Here in Bucharest there's a park near me that was entirely cleaned up and revamped (this is good), but now sports tiles with Islamic motifs on the walls and gates plus a fountain in the shape of an octagon (which is ok, I guess) and, more notably, a polished bronze bust of the late despot of Azerbaijan flanked by Romanian and Azerbaijani flags, right in the middle of the park (which is completely ridiculous). I've been wondering for years why would the current glorious ruler of the Azerbaijani people feel the need to sponsor a statue of his papa, only for it to be shat upon by the filthy, scabby, gluttonous pigeons of a marginal neighbourhood of the capital city of a backward country where nobody gives a shit about his even more backward country.

Oh, and our fountain doesn't play music or change colours. This is triggering my national pride pretty hard right now. You see, here in the Balkans we all know deep down we're shit, so the trick is to find a nearby country that seems marginally shittier to compare against and feel superior. Until today I was hoping Serbia could be that country, but you are breaking my heart, serbbro.

Halting State, by Charles Stross.

The hero becomes part of a police investigation into a robbery of a MMO bank.

I love Grimes ^.^

don't talk about lain ever again.

Neuromancer.

That's interesting, it sounds like a near carbon copy of what they did here. I'd say Serbia and Belgrade in particular is astoundingly shittier in public art department considering it was never behind Iron Curtain.

Oh and the fountain has something like 8 angles, six pointed stars or something.

While googling this picture I also found out they put him in Mexico City as well.

why lain is really good
nice get