Alex planks hacker conference?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm quite computer savy (a professional programmer for thirty years) and to be honest I generally hear the word "hacker" in the context of someone who gains illegal access to other people's computers, usually with the intent to steal confidential documents or cause damage to the system. The word hacker tends to be used less to indicate someone with computer technical prowess.

But it shouldn't take someone with computer skills to understand that the hackers who are gathering together for a conference in New York are probably not the same hackers that are out committing felonies on the Internet.

A hacker is someone who exploits weaknesses in software or hardware (it doesn't matter what his intentions are). It doesn't require that you're a computer expert, it's not necessarily hard, and unless it's used for malice, it's not illegal. Very rarely do you need anything more high-tech than a web browser or a decompiler/disassembler. Help from hackers is why Windows 8.x, Facebook, and Android are extremely secure systems.

In any case, hackers who do use their skills for malice can go f.ck themselves.

Please see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_%28 ... culture%29

Also these:
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html
http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html

This word has a long and well-established history, only recently corrupted by the lazy popular press.
And no, this simplistic "hacker = criminal" definition doesn't count as a valid redefinition or word evolution, etc.
It's just plain wrong.

This was pathetic and horrible. Goodbye haters.

_________________
"Standing on a well-chilled cinder, we see the fading of the suns, and try to recall the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds."
-Georges Lemaitre
"I fly through hyperspace, in my green computer interface"
-Gem Tos