im rather sure ive read it..but id have to go look through my collection to see if i have it and then refresh my memory to be sure. That said im a HUGE advocate for reading about old exploits/hacks. Sure many times that "old" hack is so out dated that it will never ever be used again as is, but a well written book or article wont just give exact details for an exploit, but the methodology behind it. methodology is imo one of the most useful things you CAN learn. The more methods at your disposal, the more "thought patterns" the more exploits you are capable of seeing.

Im going to tell a story here . It is not computer related, but it is hacking related.

So a buddy of mine i played pool with(billards) taught me a interesting game some time back. basically set up for a normal game of 8 ball, break like normal. but after that you use object balls(such as the 7 ball) as your cue ball that MUST hit the cue ball as your object ball before going in a pocket. Meaning you would hit the 7 at the cue ball that MUST strike it, THEN the 7 is allowed to be pocketed. What this does is opens your mind to all sorts of combinations and angles that you would normally not see. Now before i learned this game i was a rather decent player, capable of holding off a barroom full of people for hours on a table. Meaning i was by no means a shabby player. i know "shapes", have good cue control, can hit bank shots/cuts etc. Yet learning this alternate style game GREATLY improved how i viewed object balls on the table. In other words the "style" of play itself is the hack, greatly changing how the game is played/viewed.

Many times an exploit is discovered, someone familiar with old methodologies can see where it tied in for that hack, or in the case of someone finding a discovery many times it will be based off of the methodologies they applied. Basically those shots/hacks were already their, you simply lacked the framework or proper mind set to apply to see them. Learning old HAM radio techniques/phreaking/etc are still just as useful now as they were then, even if the original hack cant be applied, the methodology can.

That's very true my friend.

You know, learning physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics (well, perhaps excluding mathematics which is very important in computer science) will not affect your hacking skills, because for fuck's sake, someone could be an utter idiot incapable of telling the difference between the central nervous system and the sun, yet for some reason able to hack into a digital billboard and display porn (as some hackers did a while ago in Brazill, for reasons nobody will understand, except the band of brothers.) But you know, understanding the anatomy of a centipede (not the nicest creature to look at, but since I have the fear of spiders, I think it's benenficial but scary-as-fuck to perform a surgery at a sun spider.)

You know, able to think like a chemist will able to free your mind from "it's just computers." You know, the table Mendeleev created, that had 63 elements, he even predicted some elements that were not discovered. That was quite unlike Newlands, who thought only some elements existed. You know, when I think about it, Newlands, if he existed in the 21st century, wouldn't have been a mediocre hacker even if he wanted to. He thought the primitive chemistry at his time was "be all end all."

He, unlike Mendeleev, thought that there couldn't be any more compounds than those which were discovered in his lifetime. Furthermore as atomic number wasn't discovered (or perhaps, "used" be more correct) in his lifetime, his system of octaves failed after Ca. Although his failure gave rise to Mendeleev's Peridoic Table, which had its own faults (hydogen in halogen, and isotopes...), but at least he was able to predict Germanium, Scandium and a few others. He knew that there will be several more elements discovered.

From a modern hacker's point-of-view, thinking about it, you are trained to know that exploits can be discovered in every new version of any software. So even if possiblly all exploits able to be exploited in any specific enviroment are discovered, the patches themselves can introduce new exploits. Or new features, optimizations and so-on further modifications in the code.

Just think about it, mathematically, a computer may never be smart as Einstein, or a groundbreaking future physicist that's sucking a plastic nipple right now, but when its programmer knows what Einstein knew at his time combined with the mathematical capabilities of a chemist and open-mindness of a biologist, biochemist, it will sure create some respect for its programmer in the world of science, where computer science isn't much appreciated as E = MC2 formula.

I suggest Linux Mint (but to be honest the only other Linux distribution I have used is Ubuntu which was better than Windows technical-wise but I still use Windows 8.1.) But honestly, it's like asking where to go for a free medical checkup hosted at multiple clinics by the hospital staff. Some may be better than the other, but you are sure you won't get any serious casualties and it doesn't cost anything other than the time to reach the clinic.

I admit that the largest software companies like Microsoft will sell your data even if you pay for their software. But that doesn't make open-source software bad, especially every single software. For example, I don't think MyBB would sell your data to anyone, and there are some privacy policies of open-source software that simply read "We will never sell your data without your permission."

I also love how Java has "sponsered" software pre-checked. They really hope we just click "next next next" without noticing.

Self-treating OCD and a slowly fading social anxiety that almost evolved into an AvPD (avoidant personality disorder.) Man, fuck being stressed. You know, I am just fifteen yet my beard has some grey hair on it. Let alone of the scalp hair. I've been exercising very hard to reduce stress, just burst one of my blood vessels (two I think actually) last night. My arms are also full of white stretch marks. You know, all because I was mocked at school at the early grades.

Deque has pointed out that wording can make a huge difference. Password brute-force simply sounds evil to non-programmer management teams. While "recovery" can have different part of brain activated. Even so, I do not think I would include malware in any portfolio, because honestly, do you think those guys at Blizzard will hire me if they know WoW could be potentially hacked by me? Or, like the guy who was promised the cake at Valve (yes, "the cake is a lie" reference) and then instead swatted by Gab because the source code of HL2 was simply accessed by him.... you know, if this hacker had just shut his mouth and didn't get lucrated to a job in Valve, he wouldn't have faced custody. Do you think the makers of WoW, or even Elder Scrolls Online, would even be slightly pleased to have an active exploit in their game included in the job application by someone that wants to be their employee?

As theWormKill already mentioned, you need to know the language you are going to RE itself. For example, (I have, too, not yet read this book but I assume it teaches IDA and little of RE itself) if you want to reverse-engineer a file on an "x86 IBM PC", you'd need to learn http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-ia/it.

As for the skills you actually need to learn Assembly (any type), would be....

• A pretty good brain that should know some subjects like chemistry, physics, etc. but a lot of fourteen year olds can do it, so can you, without a lot of academic qualification.
• Enthusiasm in computer science. Intermediate (preferably advanced) knowledge in C programming.But you know, the C code printf function changes to
                       global start
  start                            proc near
  jmp near ptr 0x444
  (valid Assembly code but I have no idea what it does) so even an advanced C programmer may have trouble writing small Assembly programs.

There is an old joke in computer programming, "Why did the chicken cross the road," where the Assembly programmer says the chicken had to built the road before crossing it. There is also a "finding the elephant" joke over Stackoverflow where the "Assembly programmer gets on his knees, and searches the entire African continent for an elephant." In the "How to kill a dragon with a programming language," "the Assembly programmer builds his mighty sword with a tens of thousands of needles."

Imagine reversing the code of a script kiddy who wrote his keylogger in Python. In Assembly. There comes a lot of obsufication. And coffee.
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