['hacker']
> It means both! Two separate concepts covered by one word. I personally
The problem is that one of the meanings has criminal, or at least very
undesirable, overtones. If I say 'Oh, I was hacking last night' then
people probably assume I was doing something illegal, rather than (say)
figuring out how to read HP calculator disks on a PC, or writing a device
driver for some homebrew hardware, or something else (a) legal and (b)
interesting.
> use the term to refer to both. I don't understand why people get so
> bent out of shape over this, it's not like it's the only English word
> that has multiple definitions depending on context.
YEs, but here it causes confusion, of a very undesirable sort!
> Sorry for those of you annoyed by this kind of banter, it just annoys the
> hell out of me when people get into/start this flamewar.
And I get _very_ annoyed by people who insist on misusing a term that I
would feel honoured to be called (in the original sense).
Perhaps you'd like to come up with some alternative term for 'hacker' in
the original sense (a single, easy-to-remmeber word) and get it accepted
everywhere. Then I _might_ be prepared to give up the original meaning of
'hacker'. Alternatively, just call criminals what they are!
-tony
Received on Wed May 26 2004 - 17:54:58 BST
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