I think his usage of spectacle here is the "spectate" kind, not the hullabaloo kind. Spectacles are created to be consumed from the sidelines as a spectator, rather than directly participated in. Being involved, not a spectator, is the root of punk ethos. Bad music and outlandish hair was always just the window dressing.

Say what you like about geohot's public behavior and his long string of half-finished projects, but he's always been very DIY and I respect that about him.

What public stunts? He jailbroke a console, it's not like he went on a talk show.

If you were following the scene at the time, geohot was absolutely non stop trolling publicly. He was by far the best at pushing big corporations buttons. The obvious example is the Sony distrack, but that’s only the top of the iceberg. He was pretty much the definition of a rockstar in the hacker world, leaking to the mainstream. His persona and following was already well established when he started looking at the ps3. Wild times

Google his Sony Court case dis Track and you’ll see

dude was cracking iphones for the glory and lulz as much as for practical access reasons

lots of folks be working on exploits and jailbreaks who, as a rule, STFU 100% OpSec 100% of the time

"the real, scary hitmen aren't the ones bragging about it"

Unlike murder, finding an exploit isn't illegal.

tell that to sony, who definitely sued his ass

Depending on the jurisdiction it is, reverse engineering has pretty strict restrictions