Anyone know if the actual magazine has declined as badly as "Off the Hook" over the years? I had an interest around the time of Corley's trial. Reading the transcript of the deposition of Jack Valenti -- may everyone dance on his grave -- was hilarious, and a depressing peek into litigation. The radio show was pretty good, but each time I revisit it (once a year or so), it seems to have devolved further into pointless wanking.
I have a subscription. In terms of hard technical information, Phrack has them beat. Still, I find most of the articles in 2600 interesting. The tone of the magazine is rather neutral, compared to Phrack which sometimes reads like it was written by an angry 15-year-old.
When I read this, I was kind of hoping that there might be... urm... 'easter eggs' in the digital edition. Would be very cool if it included an interesting (but non-threatening) exploit in the digital version to make it do something it shouldn't quite be able to do or that you were not expecting. (e.g. hidden in an article on exploiting Kindle or PDF security) The medium _is_ the message :-)
I can't imagine the zine is taken that seriously. The content has been elementary for most of it's existence. This sounds more like the paranoid types drawn to hacker scenes and less like the kinda folks that write exploits.
Try Phrack if this is your thing. Their articles are still amazing quality and contains much more information on the topics 2600 readers are interested in.
It's not one issue. It says "from 2009 to 2010", and while it's not clear whether that represents one or two years, it's still quite a savings over buying back issues on paper, or even a subscription.
On a random tangent, having spent most of yesterday grokking the transition from a date to datetime on a subscription billing system, and the resulting implications to inclusiveness (ie. 1 day vs 1 second), I can say with no hint of irony that I truly appreciate the ambiguity of the phrase 2009-2010.
You can read the first chapter of the Autumn 2010 edition free, from here https://kindle.amazon.com/work/2600-magazine-quarterly-digit... The maturity and tact of Goldstein's essay was so encouraging to me that I gladly paid $4 for that issue. $10 for a volume (four quarterly issues) seems totally reasonable to me.
I pick up and leaf through 2600 whenever I end up in a Barnes & Noble or Borders, just to see if it's still there, really.
I'm generally not that excited by the articles about computer security, but I still love reading articles written about the hardware that runs the PSTN.
Kindle purchase is definitely worth it to me. The foreward is an interesting discussion, and brings up my own feelings about how I enjoyed 2600 being out of the mainstream, but it does seem like a time in which it can now be more socially acceptable and open.
I remember I used to buy 2600 when I was a kid. One of the biggest technical bookstores in Athens (Greece) only brought two copies of each new issue and it was basically a race to get it. That being said, it was severely overpriced but I enjoyed reading it.
