geek wrote:
I'm not sure how hacking and escape artist go together, but I'd have to say yes to hacker. I've (legally, on the job) compromised over a hundred Internet servers.
In the general sense hacker means using what is available to you for you own ends. Botching means using things that are available to them poorly with no plan or understanding because they just want to pick the quickest/easiest way for them and it provides and inadequate solution. The first people to use the term hacker as a group were not coding but breaking telecoms or 'Phreaking' by simulating signals such as making free conference/international calls.
I good example of hacking: I was outside in the garden when the spindle broke on the back door and I was locked out. The door bell was ringing and my sister was coming. I looked around and found a thin piece of wire. Broke in rushed through and answered the door.