Hackers Assault Epilepsy Patients via Computer
wired.com
wired.com
Note that I am making a purely linguistic point here. The popular culture has pretty well defined the word already .... think about explaining to your non-technical friend that you were reading about the epilepsy episode in Hacker News!
This reminds me of another word, "liberal", which in America means someone who advocates what would be classically considered illiberal economics (government intervention in the economy, protectionism and so on). The Economist still refuses to accept the American hijacking of a fine word, but somehow I don't believe a Ron Paul would ever want to be called a "liberal", which he actually is in the classical sense.
As a counter-example, J.K. Rowling seems to have bestowed a different meaning to the word "witch", equating it with "wizard". And then I realize PG was originally a Brit, so may be the Brits can "take English back" :-)
Also, the positive image of good hackers is no doubt appealing to the more nefarious computer users and so only increases there desire to use the label. Combine these pressures with the fact that the negative version has already captured the popular mind and it would seem you might be right that the battle is lost.
Small now, yes, but give them an RPG and a mask and I assure you it will scale.
Cracking and griefing regrettably fall under that umbrella as well, as do physical assaults perpetrated with technology.
>1. having the quality or power of creating. >2. resulting from originality of thought, expression, etc.; imaginative: creative writing. >3. originative; productive (usually fol. by of).
Adding blinking gifs to a homepage does not create anything, it does not result from any originality of thought nor is is productive so I would argue that it is not hacking.
The word "hacking" has, in the media, taken on a meaning which is different from the meaning that it had originally - and the meaning that you'll most often find around here. Sadly, though, the use is so common that arguing against it is pretty much hopeless. It seems that outside of the hacker community (proper sense of the word), you probably shouldn't call yourself a hacker, since the first thing that will come to people's minds is this.
This isn't hacking. This is 'cracking' - and a more disgusting form of it than usual, a form meant to physically harm people.