Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!uwmcsd1!marque!gryphon!desint!geoff
From: geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning)
Newsgroups: news.sysadmin
Subject: Re: Hey Robert Morris and others -- please do something about 'HACKER'
Message-ID: <1809@desint.UUCP>
Date: 10 Nov 88 05:20:15 GMT
References: <2276@looking.UUCP>
Reply-To: geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning)
Followup-To: misc.misc
Organization: Interrupt Technology Corp., Manhattan Beach, CA
Lines: 26

In article <2276@looking.UUCP> brad@looking.UUCP (Brad Templeton) writes:

> Tell them it ["hacker"] means wizard
> 
> Tell them "hacker" is like "ace journalist"...

Many people subscribe to this definition.  And I agree that "cracker" is
a better term for a system-breaker.  But please remember that many of us
consider "hacker" to be the ultimate insult.  In my book, a "hacker" is
a sloppy, ill-educated, unprofessional person who produces third-rate
results ("hacks"), while thinking that he or she in fact is an expert
simply because he or she knows a lot of intimate details about the system.

A "hacker" is not like an "ace journalist".  A "hacker" is like a "hack"
(F&W's n. def. 4:  "A person who hires himself out to do routine or
tedious work, especially literary work;  drudge."  adj. def. 2:  "For
hire as a hack or drudge:  a *hack* writer."  adj. def. 3:  "Of a routine
or mercenary nature:  *hack* writing.")  *That's* the definition I
subscribe to.

P.S.  If we're going to get into a big flamefest about the definition of
"hacker", as happened some years ago, we should move the discussion.
Lacking a better group (I don't get soc.* or talk.*, which probably has
more appropriate places) I've redirected this to misc.misc.
-- 
	Geoff Kuenning   geoff@ITcorp.com   uunet!desint!geoff