Re: What is a "hack"?

[Frank Carney <frankcNOSPAM@cyberhighway.net>]

Hey I found a definition of a hack/hacker:

hacker

<person, jargon> (Originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe)
1. A
 person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how
to
 stretch
their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only
the
minimum necessary.

2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys
programming rather than just theorizing about programming.

3. A person capable of appreciating hack value.

4. A person who is good at programming quickly.

5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work
using
 it or on it; as in "a Unix hacker". (Definitions 1 through 5 are
correlated, and people
who fit them congregate.)

6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy
hacker,
for example.

7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or

circumventing limitations.

8. (Deprecated) A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive
information by poking around. Hence "password hacker", "network hacker".

The correct term
is cracker.

The term "hacker" also tends to connote membership in the global
community
defined by the net (see The Network and Internet address). It also
implies
that the
person described is seen to subscribe to some version of the hacker
ethic.

It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe
oneself
 that way. Hackers consider themselves something of an elite (a
meritocracy
 based on
ability), though one to which new members are gladly welcome. Thus while
it
 is gratifying to be called a hacker, false claimants to the title are
quickly labelled as
"bogus" or a "wannabee".

9. (University of Maryland, rare) A programmer who does not understand
proper programming techniques and principles and doesn't have a Computer

Science
degree. Someone who just bangs on the keyboard until something happens.
For
 example, "This program is nothing but spaghetti code. It must have been

written by
a hacker".

(1996-08-26)


hacker ethic

<philosophy> 1. The belief that information-sharing is a powerful
positive
good, and that it is an ethical duty of hackers to share their expertise
by
 writing free
software and facilitating access to information and to computing
resources
wherever possible.

2. The belief that system-cracking for fun and exploration is ethically
OK
as long as the cracker commits no theft, vandalism, or breach of
confidentiality.

Both of these normative ethical principles are widely, but by no means
universally, accepted among hackers. Most hackers subscribe to the
hacker
ethic in sense 1,
and many act on it by writing and giving away free software. A few go
further and assert that *all* information should be free and *any*
proprietary control of it is
bad; this is the philosophy behind the GNU project.

Sense 2 is more controversial: some people consider the act of cracking
itself to be unethical, like breaking and entering. But the belief that
"ethical" cracking
excludes destruction at least moderates the behaviour of people who see
themselves as "benign" crackers (see also samurai). On this view, it may
be
 one of the
highest forms of hackerly courtesy to (a) break into a system, and then
(b)
 explain to the sysop, preferably by e-mail from a superuser account,
exactly how it was
done and how the hole can be plugged - acting as an unpaid (and
unsolicited) tiger team.

The most reliable manifestation of either version of the hacker ethic is

that almost all hackers are actively willing to share technical tricks,
software, and (where
possible) computing resources with other hackers. Huge cooperative
networks
 such as Usenet, FidoNet and Internet (see Internet address) can
function
without
central control because of this trait; they both rely on and reinforce a

sense of community that may be hackerdom's most valuable intangible
asset.

(1995-12-18)


This how I have always viewed hackers.  However, words are only what we
make them aren't they?


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