Reply From: edison <edisonat_private> I'd have to disagree with Mr. Gomes' description. I would agree that a hacker is someone that has inate technical curiosity, but that isn't the definition of the name. One has to realize that how the name is used largely defines what it means. Ham radio experts, who tinker with their rigs daily don't call themselves hackers, nor does anyone else that I know of. Gear-heads that spend more time under the hood of their car than with their family don't call themselves hackers either. While these types of folks may "hack" their radios or cars, they aren't hackers. Back in the early '80's, a hacker was someone who focused his inate technical curiosity into circumventing security measures (if any) on computers. During the same era, "crackers" were those who focused their attention on circumventing the copy protection on software programs. Most of these were on the Apple ][, Commodore 64 and maybe an Atari here or there. There are guys today who still do the same thing, and they call themselves crackers, too. Concurrent, and previous to this time, the guys that hacked the phone system were called "phone phreaks." Not hackers. Nowadays, the hackers and crackers are still around, but there's a movement to portray those who do bad things with their hacking skills crackers. They don't crack copy protection, they're just bad hackers. Most of the guys in the model railroad club at MIT would be called crackers today, but they were the ones who practically invented the name. Go read Steven Levy's book. I am a phone phreak, a hacker and a cracker. My technical curiosity is what drove me to become these, but does not define the names. -edison On Wed, 28 Apr 1999, cult hero wrote: > http://abcnews.go.com/sections/tech/Geek/geek41.html > > The Bad Guys Are Crackers > In Defense of Hackers -o- Subscribe: mail majordomoat_private with "subscribe isn". Today's ISN Sponsor: Hacker News Network [www.hackernews.com]
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