[plug] what's a hacker? [OT]

[Andrew Pamment]

Peter Wilsmore wrote:

> On Mon, Feb 11, 2002 at 03:18:11PM +0800, Andrew Pamment wrote:



> Of course a crap American dictionary is the only authoritive source
> for such things. 


Actually the Maquarie dictionary is an Australian dictionary, but what 
would Australians know, the actual authorative source for the english 
language I would believe would be um, an english dictionary.

hang on. i think i missunderstood you sorry.

> 
> most of the definitions site the root as hack: a practical joke or 
> clever scheme.


Exactly.


I wasn't trying to be stupid. I just get sick of people going around 
saying that a cracker is this and a hacker is that. It should be we say 
a hacker is this and a cracker is that. The people who write the Jargon 
file don't have authoritive control over the english language. The 
Jargon file is meant as a reference so you know what people whom speak 
in this particular Jargon mean.

To the general population who were busy smoking cones and making free 
love while real hackers were soldering together their first super 
computer with old alarm clock parts, they would prossibly get their 
definition from a crap american dictionary, or perhaps a crap australian 
dictionary or even perhaps (god forbid) a crap english dictionary. 
However, much more likely is they get their definition from Hackers, or 
one of the other movies that uses such words.

Unfortunatly the amount of people who curse when someone calls a cracker 
a hacker pale in numbers when compared to the amount of people who 
wouldn't have a clue and don't really care, it kind of reminds me om my 
grandma telling my friends and I that we're looking quite gay today. 
Society changed that word and we had to deal with it.

If you want to be known as a hacker amoungst your group of 1337 friends 
then, call yourself that, but your 1337 friends would proberly ostrasize 
you because a true hacker is only a hacker because other people see him 
as one.

If you just want something that sounds more interesting than "Computer 
Programmer" when the girl you're taking on your first date asks what you 
do, I would suggest you tell her you're a chef. Most girls don't think 
the possibility of the Federal Police bashing your door down at any 
moment is an attractive quality in a guy. Unless of course she is 1337 
herself.

Am I making sense?
Andrew

-- 

- Lord of the Rings is boring. There is a distinct lack of giant robots 
in it. Good movies have giant robots, bad movies don't. -james