We'd have more luck just inventing and adopting a new word to replace hacker, any suggestions?
Craftsman or Artisan strike me as a good place to start.
oh yes venerated software 'craftsmen' because we don't have enough ego as programmers.
Change.org Petition: Tell media not to use 'Hacker' when they mean 'Cracker'
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Re: Change.org Petition: Tell media not to use 'Hacker' when they mean 'Cracker'
#62I'm pretty sure I read this complaint on Slashdot, circa 1997. Despite what people claim, it wasn't true then and it isn't true now. For example the movie "War Games"(1983)[1] uses the term Hacker to refer to someone who hacked into computer systems. A word can have multiple connotations without causing problems. [1] http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/WarGames
Exactly what I was thinking: "People are still on about this? It's like late-90s Slashdot!"
Re: Change.org Petition: Tell media not to use 'Hacker' when they mean 'Cracker'
#63How about just stop reading the Huffington Post if you don't like the way they write?
Re: Change.org Petition: Tell media not to use 'Hacker' when they mean 'Cracker'
#64"Dear media, please stop using a word your readers understand, instead say a racial epithet that's been used for the last 140 years." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cracker_(pejorative)
I have an idea, let's use the term 'honkey', it even almost sounds like 'hacker'…
Re: Change.org Petition: Tell media not to use 'Hacker' when they mean 'Cracker'
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
Craftsman or Artisan strike me as a good place to start.
oh yes venerated software 'craftsmen' because we don't have enough ego as programmers.
In some countries, e.g. Canada, you can get a serious Software Engineering degree that's right up there with mechanical engineering etc. In fact, you're not allowed to call yourself a software engineer without that degree.
Re: Change.org Petition: Tell media not to use 'Hacker' when they mean 'Cracker'
#66[deleted]
Re: Change.org Petition: Tell media not to use 'Hacker' when they mean 'Cracker'
#67Earliest recorded usage of the term "hacker" in a technology context: ---- 1963 The Tech (MIT student newspaper) 20 Nov. 1 Many telephone services have been curtailed because of so-called hackers, according to Prof. Carlton Tucker, administrator of the Institute phone system. … The hackers have accomplished such things as tying up all the tie-lines between Harvard and MIT, or making long-distance calls by charging th…
Yep, sorry guys - I know I'll get crap for this, but: The word is the clue as it implies 'invasive force'. Any other meaning is only going to be accepted when enough of you agree 'it is so'. The original meaning (and I've always known it as such, 30+ years) is perfectly outlined by the paragraph above. It does not refer to white-hat stuff. The original word is 'hack': cut with rough or heavy blows. hack off the dead…
You rightly should catch the said substance for this. It's a misuse of the etymology.
Hack does refer to cutting with rough or heavy blows. Centuries ago, "hackers" referred to people who made rough-shod furniture with an axe. That was a hack back then.
In WW2, "hackers" were mechanics in the US Navy who hacked off the broken parts of airplanes to weld together the working parts of broken planes. That was also a hack. The planes were referred to as "hack jobs."
History is littered with examples using exactly the meaning you cited that are quite the opposite of nefarious. The very essence of Maker culture is about the old definition of "hacker."
Re: Change.org Petition: Tell media not to use 'Hacker' when they mean 'Cracker'
#68PLEASE HACK INTO THE ENEMY FIRST
Re: Change.org Petition: Tell media not to use 'Hacker' when they mean 'Cracker'
#69Earlier quoted context omitted.
I agree. I think the generally accepted meaning has evolved over time. Hacker, to most people, now means cracker/intruder. Perhaps a more positive way to approach this is to popularise a different term for what we mean by hacker (tinkerer, maker). It's not admitting defeat by abandoning the original meaning - it's taking the path of least resistance and evolving with the language.
The thing is, a cracker/intruder is also most likely a hacker, in the more mild sense of the term. They wouldn't be able to crack/intrude without 'hacking' in order to have that ability/knowledge. The problem is that people think of A when they read B, because to them, they don't understand, or care, enough about the history of word to properly use it.
Most crackers are script kiddies, using exploits or code developed by someone else. So most crackers are not hackers in the Stallman sense.
Re: Change.org Petition: Tell media not to use 'Hacker' when they mean 'Cracker'
#70While we are at it, we can tell modern religious literalists that 'Baal' means Lord, and that El and YHVH are different Gods as well, and that all three once competed for followers.