On Sunday 21 June 2009, Siddhesh Poyarekar wrote:
On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 5:52 PM, Krishnakantkrmane@gmail.com wrote:
Hacking as breaking into other's systems was bad and is still bad.
Breaking into others systems is always bad but it is not hacking but "cracking". that is wy we all windows lovers will never buy a license and use a "crack". I never herd of a software hack. I read about serial numbers which are called cracks.
A software hack is basically a shortcut of sorts in a program. It generally involves making some assumptions about how the underlying compiler/OS will execute your code or how the underlying library call is implemented. The word is generally preceded by the words "elegant", "clever" or "ugly", "quick" to signify whether the author thinks the solution is exceptionally clever or exceptionally dirty.
The term was originally used and still is to describe a writer of poor prose or press reports, in the early days of mass printing. The term originated in London. It's probably derived from the word hackneyed meaning unoriginal or run of the mill. Software writers picked it up to self depreciatingly describe themselves. Ofcourse early software hacks were anything but hackneyed. And those hackers were the builders of the IT industry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hack_writer
The point here is that hacking was never bad and will be never bad. As I said it is a matter of last few years that hacking was *given* a bad name. Those who did it knew that hacking is a good thing and free
Read this:
Also, if someone comes around here asking about "hacking sites", it is not right to direct them to securityforums or something. I feel the right thing would be to explain what hacking means when we mention it and how it is different from the network security related stuff. We hackers are not afraid to use our real names while the black hats/phreakers hide behind secretive handles.
In India stupid security practices resulting in breaches are also classified as hacks and the idiots who walk into such machines are termed "hackers". They wouldn't qualify to wipe cds let alone "hack" a few lines of code.
As pointed out by others, things aren't going to change in a hurry. So just correct anyone wrongly using the term and forget about it.
There are any number of words that have a dict meaning exactly opposite of it's social meaning, and one does not get into a spat over it. eg. sophisticate - social meaning someone with style. Dict meaning someone indulging in deception / subterfuge.
No point endlessly arguing about third party idiocity. IMO anyone saying hack while implying crack is not worth even two words.