What is a Hacker?
30 07 08 - 20:18From dictionary.com,
3. Computer Slang.
a. a computer enthusiast.
b. a microcomputer user who attempts to gain unauthorized access to proprietary computer systems.
Most people only use the second definition, believing hackers to be criminals who break into computers for profit. In reality, a hacker is anyone who isn’t constrained by the original design of systems, but looks at the underlying engineering and sees how the system can be used in new and unique ways.
In this sense, the word hacker includes criminals who break into systems to commit crimes. After all, finding the certain string of bytes that provides a root shell is nothing more than making existing code work in new and novel ways. But there’s so much more than that to hacking.
I view hackers as possessing a gift, the absence of the filter most people possess. When you buy a gadget, do you see the use shown in the advertisement, or do you see the underlying circuits and the potential for everything they could do? If something doesn’t work the way you want it to, do you gripe — or do you figure out how to improve it?
Hack-A-Day is one of the quintessential hacking sites. Once in a blue moon it touches on computer security, but generally it discusses ordinary objects. Most are electronics, but there’s no reason you can’t hack non-electronics, too, if you can modify them to perform differently then intended. Hackers are innovators and inventors.
Today’s Hack-A-Day has me excited – Esquire is putting epaper on the cover of its magazine, and encouraging hackers to hack it. W00t! Most people will only see a pretty cover, but there will be one percent that sees limitless opportunity.
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