On Thu, 11 Jul 2002 Vinay Pai wrote :
"I'll not call crackers hackers again"
all puristic abt the whole hacker/cracker thing. Words in spoken languages mean whatever a majority (in fact any sufficiently large group) of ppl say... and like it or not, to a majority of people a hacker is the same as what the purists insist muct be called a "cracker". Haven't Hindi words like jungle, guru, mantra etc. have been accepted as legitimate english words bcos so many english-speaking folks use them?
Shouldn't the age-old "adapt or die" maxim apply here too?
I agree.
The media will continue to refer to 'crackers' as 'hackers'. That's the language their readers understand. Then more people will start (mis)calling crackers as hackers. It's a cumulative effect.
<flame-proof> I understand a hacker's sentiments about this, but wouldn't it be easier for hackers to call themselves something else? </flame-proof>
Warm Regards, Nikhil. _________________________________________________________ There is always a better job for you at Monsterindia.com. Go now http://monsterindia.rediff.com/jobs
On 11 Jul 2002, Nikhil Karkera wrote:
I understand a hacker's sentiments about this, but wouldn't it be easier for hackers to call themselves something else?
well, there is no word that quite encompasses everything that the word hacker means. also note, that a hacker needn't be restricted to the computing field. one could be an astronomy hacker, a chemistry hacker, even a music hacker.
-
Nikhil Karkera -
Philip S Tellis