Wednesday, May 15, 2002

Hacker \'ha-ker\ n (14c) 1: one that hacks 2: a person who is inexperienced or unskilled at a particular actiity (a tennis ~) 3: an expert at programming and solving problems with a computer 4: a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system

That is straight out of the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary, tenth ed.

If that means nothing to you, it probably should. I have had countless people walk up to me and claim to be hackers. I am intrigued, so I make furthur inquiries, and usually ask them something like "and why is that?" Most often I get a response like "I just downloaded Maya on KaZaA", or something like that.
That to me is hilarious.
I mean it, I fund it really funny. Tell me, anyone, what is the skill in clicking on the search button and double clicking on the result? Even my grandma could open up that .nfo file that constitutes as "hacking" and find the crack for any program. So now, when you claim to be a hacker, think twice.
One more thing. Seeing as how there are many real hackers out there, I would like to clarify one more thing. The definition with the word "illegal" in the definition is, not by chance, the last one listed. Why is this? I mean, the media always claims hackers have malicious intent, when there are many hackers out there who just like programming computers. So now that I have vented, you may continue your day, but just remember, be careful when you use the word hacker.