Journalists need to learn what a 'hacker' really is

http://www.geek-juice.net/2010/12/journalists-need-to-learn-what-hacker.html

by kolemcrae • 16 years ago

22 21 16 years ago

Hackers need to understand that nobody cares about their attachment to this word. The English language has moved on.

Locke1689• 16 years ago

Maybe, but the fact that someone can be prosecuted for "hacking" by guessing someone's password means that the misconception has real negative consequences.

jamesaguilar2• 16 years ago

Unauthorized access to computer systems is illegal on it's own and not because of any conflation with the word "hacker".

Xuzz• 16 years ago

I feel that actual "hackers" need to realize that a new name is necessary if they want to disassociate themselves from this depiction. It's like the "begs the question" people (http://begthequestion.info/) -- it's simply unfeasible to change such a commonly (if unintentionally) misused interpretation.

Edit: Feel free to downvote me, but please let me know why: I'm still new here, and I was trying to be constructive.

dhbanes• 16 years ago

I agree and I'd also like to hear some of you downvoters speaking up.

kolemcrae2• 16 years ago

It looks like someone just downvoted everybody... Some people are jerks.

getsat• 16 years ago

http://www.phrack.org/issues.html?issue=65&id=2

Ctrl-F: "Hacking boxes"

kolemcrae2• 16 years ago

That was an interesting read...

redthrowaway• 16 years ago

FW:FW:FW:FW:RE:RE

In all seriousness, however, this is something the geek/hacker community has been harping on for decades, and something that nobody else gives a rat's ass about. The MSM will continue to call people who use LOIC or exploit password reset features "hackers", because 99.9% of their audience won't know the difference.

If they ask you directly, correct them. Otherwise, just let them do their thing. There's absolutely nothing to gain by insisting that ignorant people use the correct terminology.

fleitz• 16 years ago

Agreed. A solution requires one of two things to happen: every hacker to start using a new term, or every hacker to 'reclaim' the term.

Reclamation is out for two reasons, one, we have a really poor narrative, and two, try organizing hackers.

Using a new term is out because technically we're right and in the hacker mindset logos trumps all other forms of rhetoric, and two, try organizing hackers.

Mithrandir• 16 years ago

I get so sick and tired of people assuming that hacker == cracker or script kiddie.

But I don't see much of a solution, except saying "good hacker" and "bad hacker". Non-hackers just don't get it.

follower• 16 years ago

This article seems to be more concerned about "hacker" vs "script kiddie" than "hacker" vs "cracker" which most comments here seem to be focused on.

But on that topic I'm actually less pessimistic about the use of "Hacker" than I used to be. Self-described hackers are I think more prominent and with movements like hackerspaces which attract crafty & creative types there's leakage into the non-technical social groups as well.

Even a company like Facebook uses the term http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1990014 even if it leads to misunderstanding.

Figs• 16 years ago

Calling a script-kiddie who pushes the start button on a DDoS program a "hacker" is like calling someone who turns on a toaster a "chef".

ra• 16 years ago

And so journalists need to learn the term, "script kiddie"

CallMeV2• 16 years ago

Wish I could upvote this twice.

babeKnuth2• 16 years ago

ironically, there are also plenty of people on HN that also need to learn what a "hacker" is

updog• 16 years ago

This. I think most people "get it" by now, but I roll my eyes every time someone tries to say that those who exploit software or break into computers are "crackers". No, they aren't.

babeKnuth2• 16 years ago

yes. seems like everyone is co-opting the definition based on what they WANT it to mean, and thus being intolerant of the fact that everyone has their own pre/mis-conceived notion of "hacker". hence, knots in the panties from the "that's not a knife; this is a knife" crowd.

(apologies for my poor aussie accent)

Yaggo• 16 years ago

I wonder if any journalist has ever wandered to HN when googling for the "hacker" term and got confused about the startup-related discussion.

CallMeV2• 16 years ago

In the "I can't say what it is, but I can point to one" sense, hackers to me are the ones who show you lines of code they've written for some app, as if to say "This is the magic bit. Look what I've got this language to do!"

They're the bright-eyed people who show you how they managed to make a program do something that nobody else with access to the same program can do. They come from the same school as people who build Antikythera Mechanism emulators and Babbage Difference Engines out of Lego.

That's a hacker, to me: someone who can make something do cool things. If it makes them money as well, that's just the icing on a very big cake.

junklight• 16 years ago

The word hacker does mean "people who break into computers" because that is what the vast majority of the people who use the word mean when they say it.

It has two archaic uses - the older one is well known to this community and the second one, also falling by the way side, is someone who has a good understanding of computer security and uses it to break into computers.

This boat has sailed. And what is more it sailed a long time ago.

Journalists need to learn what a 'hacker' really is

Related Stories