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What is a hacker? I know... this is an extremely over-asked question, which most of you probably don�t care about. If you don�t care about it, GREAT! Then you don�t need to read this. You already understand the point of this essay! But I for one think that the use of the word has become so obnoxious that I feel it�s worth discussing. First of all, there are far too many definitions for the word hacker. A hacker is someone who is proficient at using or programming a computer. A hacker is someone who uses his/her programming skills to gain illegal access to a file or files over a network. A hacker is someone who enthusiastically pursues a game or sport. And despite these first three definitions someone still had the audacity to define a hacker as being someone who plays golf poorly!* The search for the definition of the word hacker has become so religious for some people that you might be reminded of the word �Rosebud� from the movie classic, Citizen Kane. Well, what is a hacker? What IS a HACKER? Who gives a shit?! I DON�T care what a hacker is. The extent that people have gone to countlessly redefine what a hacker is has become absurd! Historically speaking, a hacker was someone who �hacked� out code in either a low-level language like assembly or in a higher-level language like FORTRAN. Perhaps you�ve heard of people hacking out code before? Well it basically just means that the code was generated using ad hoc techniques. In other words, no real thought went into the design of the code that was produced. The code was simply produced and it worked. No questions asked. Back in the day, when there were very few programmers, if someone hacked out something and got it to work, almost as if by magic, then they were called a hacker. Hackers were regarded as intelligent people or as people who simply had a way with computers. I mean don�t get me wrong. I certainly think that these people had intelligence. At least they had some background or understanding of what they were doing. And these were the kind of people who were probably willing to work overtime at a task that others would have regarded as very grueling or tiresome. And when people saw that these �hackers� could get the job done, it certainly must have been quite an impressive site. So, if you were called a hacker, it was definitely a compliment. It meant that you were willing to get the type of job done that others wouldn�t even dare go near. It meant that you had the capacity to do very mind-boggling chores. Quite frankly, I feel that these people deserved that kind of respect. Working on computers back then was a difficult task and there weren�t too many people working in that field. However, today these methods for writing code are not NEARLY as accepted. Many people in the area of computer science now spend a great deal of their college education learning the fine art of software engineering. Design and structure �this is the philosophy now more heavily accepted with programming. Just getting something to work isn�t that important anymore. Reusability, portability, and READABILITY �these are things that supervisors look for whenever you work for a big company. What�s the use of code if you can�t read it? What if the company wants to modify the software later on down the road but you�re not working for the company anymore? Are they going to get someone to rebuild it from scratch? Hell no! If they see that this is the kind of technique that you have adopted as a programmer, whether it is for job security or whatnot, you can easily be replaced. So even the old definition of what it means to be a hacker isn�t as highly regarded as it used to be. In addition to that, today hackers are now also thought of as people who break into other systems or change programs and do sometimes malicious acts. Uhmmm� I don�t know if this is what a hacker is, but in my opinion if you can do this sort of thing and you just sort of �hack� away at it to try to get the job done (even if it is breaking into systems), then you are a hacker! I mean why not? Why can�t a hacker be someone who breaks into other systems? Of course he can. The people at http://www.hackers.com are trying to say that this is NOT a hacker. This is what they would like to call a �cracker.� THIS IS LUDICROUS! Do you see what�s going on here? They�re redefining ANOTHER word to clear away any ambiguities in the definition of the word that they don�t like. In truth, they don�t know what the absolute definition of the word is. No one does! They just want to come up with a definition that they like and if you don�t agree with them, then you�re wrong! And they make it sound as if their definition is how it has always been defined. People never used the word �cracker� in the past to describe a particular individual�s intellectual pursuits. And they also make it sound as if it�s a terrible crime that the word cracker isn�t being used in place of hacker when describing someone who breaks into systems. Why? Who are they to decide which the appropriate use of the word is? These people are not responsible for the original definition of the word that has been circulating around for years now. And they have also blended in its various other definitions to form the basis for a new philosophy or way of life. The use of the word hacker for someone who enthusiastically pursues a game or sport has nothing to do with the origins of the word for describing COMPUTER hackers. They have totally gone out of whack with the definition of the word. Did you know that there is even a book on the ethics of a hacker? A BOOK! Check this site out: http://www.hackerethic.org/book.html. All I have to say is, GET A LIFE! In general, the word hacker has just become a terribly misused word. If there was any justice in this world, then the only definition for hacker today would be �One who, or that which, hacks. Specifically: A cutting instrument for making notches; esp., one used for notching pine trees in collecting turpentine; a hack.**� There are so many definitions for it and each definition is so vague you can now make it out to mean anything. So of course you can come up with a way to describe the word hacker as being a philosophy. To a certain extent maybe it is. No doubt the original computer hackers had a certain mentality or a way of life that helped them get the job done. But of course that kind of mentality was different per individual. So you can�t clearly define what that way of life is. The way I�m seeing it defined now practically everyone is a hacker. Well sure. Why the hell not? *The sources for the definitions of hacker supplied by The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright � 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company and WordNet � 1.6, � 1997 Princeton University **The source for the definition of hacker supplied by Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, � 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc. [Back] |