Lifecycle of a hacker, in poetry

Felix Dennis, the owner of Dennis Publishing (the company I work for), has written a poem about hacking and computer viruses. In his book Nursery Rhymes for Modern Times the poem entitled 'Hacker-boy, hacker-boy' tells the tale of a young lad who writes a computer virus to prove that he is better than others assume. As his virus successfully probes and vandalises systems across the globe the programmer smiles with glee but is swiftly jailed once the US government becomes involved.

You can hear Felix himself read the poem* on his website.

These days, of course, the hacker-boy would likely be selling information stolen by his virus on the black market, rather than breaking the law for kicks.

* 14/10/2011 Updated link