Most of the acts that any hacker of the past performed are obsolete today, that doesnt mean they weren't impressive in thier time.

Also the Japanese guy (Tsuhumara, sp?) that wrote the book with Markoff, I dont know if you have ever read it but it is severly biased, making Mitnick out to be an absolute horror of an individual. They make him out to be some punk kid, when in reality he is a genius in his own right.