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MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

hacker-tools.github.io

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Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#14
This is a great series. I'm going to share with my team, just to make sure they can fill in any items they're missing, like using bash functions for shortcuts or aliasing.

BTW, Stanford did an online training course 5 years ago or something called CS 184 Startup Engineering. They had some excellent tutorials on the CLI and Emacs [1]. -I wish I could find the materials, if anyone else can find them.-

Actually, I found them online: [1] http://docshare.tips/cli-git-emacs-dotfiles_57592eb2b6d87f37...

[2] Link to their dotfiles for beginner config: https://github.com/startup-class

Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#15
post #12

> https://hacker-tools.github.io/lectures/ Literally none of these have anything to do with proper information security/hacking/penetration testing. Will you please consider to stop abusing the term "hacker"?

So, the term "hacker" and "hacking" has traditionally meant someone who is exploring the limits of systems (whether computer-based on otherwise) in a playful manner, often finding "clever" ways to make the system behave in unintended ways. The term is arguably even broader than that — see the Wikipedia entry on Hacker Culture[1] for more. The use of "hacker" to mean the exploitation of computer systems is more recent, and was traditionally referred to as "cracking". The two terms do have a decent amount of overlap, but the latter is much more commonly associated with malicious intent, whereas hacking really just means that a desire to push systems to their limits and see what kind of cleverness you can pull off!

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_culture

Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#16
post #12

> https://hacker-tools.github.io/lectures/ Literally none of these have anything to do with proper information security/hacking/penetration testing. Will you please consider to stop abusing the term "hacker"?

"Hacker" and "hacking" at MIT have a couple of meanings, neither of which specifically means trying to "hack" into a system. "Hacking" either means 1) Working hard on a problem set or other project or 2) Pulling off a prank on the MIT campus without permission of the administration, e.g. turning the Great Dome into R2D2's head.

So in the context of some people from MIT putting out a list of resources, originally for others at MIT doing #1 above, "hacker" is the right word to use.

Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#17
post #12

> https://hacker-tools.github.io/lectures/ Literally none of these have anything to do with proper information security/hacking/penetration testing. Will you please consider to stop abusing the term "hacker"?

They specifically say in the course overview that they are using the term "hacker" in this sense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_culture

Not "hacker" in this sense: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_hacker

Re: MIT Hacker Tools: a lecture series on programmer tools

#20
post #12

> https://hacker-tools.github.io/lectures/ Literally none of these have anything to do with proper information security/hacking/penetration testing. Will you please consider to stop abusing the term "hacker"?

Hacking is not limited to security. People use it also to name tinkering and customization-topics.
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