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.
I think we already have words for these people. Criminal and suspect cover the general case. To get more specific we have vandal, thief, industrial spy, stalker, fraudster, and so on. I guess there are some newish crimes - virus wrangler and DDoS participant? They're so different it's hard to make an umbrella term for them.
A minority community can take ownership of a pejorative. A pejorative is often a word appropriated by a majority. Both of the previous sentences apply here.
Thanks for outright saying I'm was incorrect, really inspires confidence in one's self.
Thanks for shining some clarity on this for me. I was merely asking a question followed by a thought, I didn't claim to be correct. I was simply asking.
I don't argue that there are two meanings on the word, but the true definition as per Oxford dictionaries is clear that a hacker is a cracker, but there is another informal definition.
All I'm saying is that surely it's not only the media that need to change, but also all definitions in general?
I think there's a bit of an attempt to retroactively broaden the historical scope of this specific usage of "hacker", though, which is part of the confusion. Until at least the mid/late-1980s, "hacker" in this sense was more or less local MIT slang, used at MIT itself and at some MIT-linked organizations (the FSF, Symbolics, Lucid, etc.). I don't believe it was in use by people doing similar things in other locations, without MIT ties. For example, nowadays people cite Woz and the Homebrew Computer Club as archetypical examples of the hacker ethos, but as far as I know, they didn't use the term themselves in that period to describe what the HCC was doing.
Finding a word other than "cracker" to designate people using computers for illegal purposes would be a useful exercise. Otherwise a lot of entirely legitimate activity gets tarnished and if you describe yourself as "hacking" then ordinary folks get the wrong impression.
I'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.
I hope people get this already. Hacking is a skill set, and a general approach to doing things. As with everything, you can use it to do all sort of things, some of them less nice.
By the late 90s this is exactly how I understood the terms.
Even now I don't hear many people in the local tech community (Scotland) refer to hackers as we mean here (unless it's prefixed with something, for example "Python hacker").
In my experience, even those who use the term not in the 'Cracker' sense disagree on its meaning. Definitions range from 'elite programmer' to 'programmer who operates in a disorganised, haphazard manner'.
'Cracker' also has racial connotations in the US, doesn't it? Language is complicated.
This is probably as futile and misguided as Stallman's effort to get everyone to say "GNU/Linux". Once a word serves its functional purpose within a community it's going to be used to communicate whatever idea it communicates. Words are often used contrary to what their etymology and history would seem to imply. I don't use "hacker" to mean "intruder," but I'm not going to waste any effort "correcting" people who do.
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.
When I was first learning about computing and networks (late 90's), I always knew "hackers" as part of the H/P/V/C/A scene (Hacking/Phreaking/Virus Writing/Cracking/Anarchy) as used in many of the zines, forums and IRC chans of the period.
However, over the years I've seen articles supporting multiple etymologies.
I think we're at a point where we're probably all at least a little right, not that it matters. It would just be useful when relating to the mainstream media and public if we could form some sort of consensus on the terminology.
I was at a start-up in the late 90s that refused to use the term everyone else used in their press releases, and they used "cracker" instead, and then the business withered up and turned into a zombie.
Sometimes you need to accept your losses and move on.
I have seen the term "hacking" been used to describe using a device via its interface, as intended..
Starting my car with a key is not hacking, starting my neighbors car with his key is neither. Obtaining the key without consent, might be. But that again could in fact be social engineering.
In comparison, using another (master)key that happens to fit would be akin to "cracking". If one engineered the key himself, thàt (along with the required investigative research work) might be hacking.
Either resign to the fact, or simply come up with a better term to describe what a hacker is.
In fact, what is a hacker anyway, just a talented coder? What about hardware hackers? A maker? Someone technical, but concerned with beauty? What about jailbreakers, are they crackers?
At first I thought this is the most pointless petition ever. But then I realised the whole point of it is to promote their website. It's kind of sad to see petitions being used in this way.
Earliest recorded usage of the term "hacker" in a technology context:
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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 them to a local radar installation. One method involved connecting the PDP-1 computer to the phone system to search the lines until a dial tone, indicating an outside line, was found. … Because of the “hacking,” the majority of the MIT phones are “trapped.”
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 branches
a rough cut, blow, or stroke.he was sure one of us was going to take a hack at him"
(in sports) a kick or hit inflicted on another player.a cut or gash.a tool for rough striking or cutting, e.g., a mattock or a miner's pick.
I'm going to catch shit for this. Can't we all just get along? :)
EDIT: Fine down-vote me you evil b'stards - b'stard is a person without married parents :)
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."
Rather make a petition to stop people with no real technological skillsets glorifying themselves as "hacker" every chance they get. Be it on HN, their own blogs or facebook.
Making wordpress themes isn't hacking, no matter how hard you want to ride the web 2.0 train.
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[ 5.2 ms ] story [ 103 ms ] threadThis community is using the wrong term not the media.
I don't think a community (not HN, just in general) can just coin a term and expect to change the definition for all.
And no, you are incorrect.
Thanks for shining some clarity on this for me. I was merely asking a question followed by a thought, I didn't claim to be correct. I was simply asking.
This has been going on for tens of years. Hackers feel like the media has wrongly appropriated the word, but nothing has changed in the meantime.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_%28programmer_subculture...
All I'm saying is that surely it's not only the media that need to change, but also all definitions in general?
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/hacker
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
Hacker - A person who circumvents a walled network.
Cracker - A person who circumvents a walled software.
Even now I don't hear many people in the local tech community (Scotland) refer to hackers as we mean here (unless it's prefixed with something, for example "Python hacker").
'Cracker' also has racial connotations in the US, doesn't it? Language is complicated.
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 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.
However, over the years I've seen articles supporting multiple etymologies.
I think we're at a point where we're probably all at least a little right, not that it matters. It would just be useful when relating to the mainstream media and public if we could form some sort of consensus on the terminology.
Sometimes you need to accept your losses and move on.
Starting my car with a key is not hacking, starting my neighbors car with his key is neither. Obtaining the key without consent, might be. But that again could in fact be social engineering.
In comparison, using another (master)key that happens to fit would be akin to "cracking". If one engineered the key himself, thàt (along with the required investigative research work) might be hacking.
Either resign to the fact, or simply come up with a better term to describe what a hacker is.
In fact, what is a hacker anyway, just a talented coder? What about hardware hackers? A maker? Someone technical, but concerned with beauty? What about jailbreakers, are they crackers?
----
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 them to a local radar installation. One method involved connecting the PDP-1 computer to the phone system to search the lines until a dial tone, indicating an outside line, was found. … Because of the “hacking,” the majority of the MIT phones are “trapped.”
---
(I wrote an article on this many years ago http://imranontech.com/2008/04/01/the-origin-of-hacker/)
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 branches
a rough cut, blow, or stroke. he was sure one of us was going to take a hack at him" (in sports) a kick or hit inflicted on another player. a cut or gash. a tool for rough striking or cutting, e.g., a mattock or a miner's pick.
I'm going to catch shit for this. Can't we all just get along? :)
EDIT: Fine down-vote me you evil b'stards - b'stard is a person without married parents :)
(But I agree that "hacker" has meant invading systems as long as it has meant anything else)
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."
Making wordpress themes isn't hacking, no matter how hard you want to ride the web 2.0 train.