Re: Apple2World Site Down

[pausch@saaf.se (Paul Schlyter)]

In article <QYgI5.47181$oA2.11433315@typhoon.southeast.rr.com>,
**** **** <***@***.com> wrote:
 
> Paul Schlyter wrote in message <8srbk0$6u1$1@merope.saaf.se>...
> 
>> You won't find any hacker, for the very simple reason that hackers
>> don't engage in such destructive activities.  Crackers do though, so
>> if you find the guy (which I hope you'll do), it'll be a cracker, not
>> a hacker.
>>
>> Please be careful to distinguish crackers from hackers.
> 
> Actually, I find the hacker/cracker debate kinda dumb. If you really need a
> different name for these "crackers", just ask. I can come up with many,
> though Roy would probably prefer I do it outside this newsgroup. The polite
> ones include criminal,
 
"Criminal" is too vague -- anyone who breaks a law is a criminal.
 
> vandal,
 
Vandals do physical damage - crackers rarely do that, their aim is to
do logical damage.
 
> idiot,
 
An idiot is anyone doing something foolish, even if it's perfectly legal,
so it doesn't apply either.
 
> and amoral cretin.
 
That's a value judgement about anyone you severly dislike, and what it
actually means is VERY vague.
 
> Feel free to add various bleeps to them as adjectives.
 
None of your suggestions apply.
 
A cracker is someone who has at least some amount of hacker abilities
but who lacks the hacker ethics.  The word "cracker" is NOT
synonymous to any of your suggested replacements.  You can be a
"criminal", a "vandal", an "idiot" or an "amoral cretin" with no
hacking abilities whatsoever - but you cannot be a "cracker" without
at least some of it.
 


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