This story was written by William Ford Gibson and was first published in Omni in 1982. It tells the story of two hackers who hack systems for profit. The two main characters are Bobby Quine who specializes in software and Automatic Jack who is more into hardware. Automatic Jack comes across a piece of Russian hacking software that is very sophisticated and hard to trace. A third character in the story is Rikki, a girl who Bobby becomes infatuated with and for whom he wants to hit it big. The rest of the story unfolds with Bobby deciding to break into the system of a notorious hacker called Chrome, who handles money transfers for organized crime, and Automatic Jack reluctantly agreeing to help him. One line from this story — "...the street finds its own uses for things" — has become a widely-quoted aphorism for describing the sometimes unexpected uses to which users can put technologies (for example, hip-hop DJs' reinvention of the turntable, which changed it from a medium of reproduction into one of production).

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The Communication Skill Series

Jargon, gobbledegook, bureaucratese, vagueness, obscurity, passivity, verbosity, ambiguity, disorganisation - all of these are faults that prevent us from expressing our thoughts in plain English.
Solution? This is a thorough, and sometimes amusing approach to the mechanics and style of clear expression.

 

This exciting new series is designed to develop all four language skills at primary level. The syllabus reflects the language covered in primary courses and material taught around the world. The tasks and activities provide excellent practice in listening, speaking, reading and writing. The series is an ideal supplement to any course at primary level. The books can also be used by pupils who are preparing for the Young Learners Examinations (YLE) as well as other examinations at the same level.