A Print Magazine for Hackers

I've known Eric since the 1980's, from not long after he started the magazine (in 1984, hence his handle). One thing I always liked about respected about him is he did things on his own terms.

2600 really is a startup in some ways. It started in 1984 around the time of the decline of TAP, and from 1984 to 1986 was mimeographed. Finally by 1987 Eric could put together a magazine with a real cover. Then in the early-mid 1990s I began seeing it appearing at Barnes and Noble.

He did it on his terms, bootstrapped, counting pennies, along with the contributions of collaborators and writers of course. It grew and grew to where he didn't have to scribble down every dollar he spent in a notepad any more.

A lot of people here have the idea to find another programmer, build a prototype, maybe try to get exponential growth and then go find an angel with a whole pitch to the angel. Then to VC, and then some point the investors look how to make their investment liquid which means you either go public or get bought by a public company. Eric made exactly the magazine he wanted, did what he wanted, and just did it year after year as word spread and until he could have a nice little business, doing exactly what he wanted to do. To me it's more of a success stories than many of the B2B/SAAS golden parachutes I see. You're going to live a few decades and die, who wants to spend it pounding out code for Microsoft, or Oracle, or pleading with VC's to be the lead in your SAAS series A?

Nice article! If you're nostalgic for the magazine, definitely check out the Best of 2600 anthology that came out a few years ago: http://www.amazon.com/The-Best-2600-Hacker-Odyssey/dp/047029... It's huge and loaded with tons of classic articles from the magazine.

I can also heartily recommend Off The Hook--I've been listening for about 15 years now and it's been really cool to get different perspectives on technology news filtered through the 2600 lens.

I was always paranoid 'they' tracked buyers of 2600 so I always used cash. Anyone else worry about that too?

There's nothing better than leafing through a random 2600 from the 90s.

This almost sounds like an oxymoron.