Neatorama has an interesting look at the history of hacking:
Fiddling with modern technology used to mean prank calling the Pope. (Hey, Steve Jobs did it, and now he’s the CEO of Apple!) But these days, it can mean hacking your way into some serious prison time, jeopardizing national security, or worse. So when exactly did this underground art form take a turn for the nefarious? And what’s a cereal-box toy got to do with it all? mental_floss takes a brief look at the godfathers of hacking, including the geniuses who think your antivirus software’s a joke.