[NTLUG:Discuss] The Meaning of 'Hacker' (Was: The "virus")

[Stephen J Baker]

(You may gather that this is a sore point for me - feel free
to say "Shuddup about this Steve"...and I will)

> For years if you said "he/she's a hacker" it was thought of as a
> negative.  And not just as related to network breakins, even though I
> used that example.  The term hacker has also been used to label people
> in our industry as people that cannot design even though they can do
> code.  It has also been used to describe someone that can't get "hello
> world" to run without core dumping.  People that don't document their
> code in any way shape or form.  Among other things.

I havn't felt that to be the case.

> You get labeled a hacker and in a lot of companies you'll never be
> anything but a coder pounding out other peoples designs.

Nah - I've never had that problem.

>  You have to be
> careful about labels and their meaning in the general knowledge base we
> deal with.  I do not want to be called a hacker because I don't want any
> questions left in the minds of others what I can and will do.  If
> someone calls me a hacker and they're under the age of 40 I have to ask
> if I should be offended or not.

When (occasionally) I encounter someone who thinks ill of hackers
whilst none-the-less understanding that we are not 'crackers', I
point them at one of two documents:

For managers and other 'suits':

  http://www.plethora.net/~seebs/faqs/hacker.html

   ...I give a paper copy of this to each new manager
   who gets landed with me to work with.  Several of
   the more enlightened ones said that it greatly
   helped them to understand me better.

For people who are new to the business - and who
have the potential to become hackers, I point
them to Appendices A and B of the Jargon file:

    www.tuxedo.org/~esr/jargon/html   --this didn't work this morning

  ...mirrored here (for example)...

    http://www.comedia.com/Hot/jargon_3.0/JARGON.HTML

...the entire jargon file is pretty amusing...but it'll
take you weeks to read it all the way though.  The
"Portrait of J. Random Hacker" in Appendix B is
*frighteningly* accurate.

>  However, if someone that actually knows
> how to load a card reader calls me a hacker I say thank you and feel a
> sense of honor cause that's someone who's been in the trenches:)

IBM or ICL?

I know how 'program' cards work in 029's too!

Steve Baker                      (817)619-2657 (Vox/Vox-Mail)
L3Com/Link Simulation & Training (817)619-2466 (Fax)
Work: sjbaker at hti.com            http://www.hti.com
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