Stallman on Hacking
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Clearly some tech communities were using it earlier amongst themselves, but language evolves, expecting the world to use another term is just arrogant.
Under the definition for "hacker", it lists multiple possibilities, including #7:
A malicious or inquisitive meddler who tries to discover information by poking around. For example, a "password hacker" is one who tries, possibly by deceptive or illegal means, to discover other people's computer passwords. A "network hacker" is one who tries to learn about the computer network (possibly because he wants to improve it or possibly because he wants to interfere -- one can tell the difference only by context and tone of voice).
I don't see anything indicating that this was considered a wrong or invalid definition at the time, just not a primary one.
The current incarnation of The Hacker's Dictionary, perhaps now better known as the Jargon File, seems fairly direct about the distinction between hacking and security breaching.
My impression is that people expect hacking to require the use of technology, but that doesn't necessarily mean what we would expect it to. A chopstick is after all a technological tool.
We might restrict it to electricity, but then that might preclude mechanical devices, so perhaps we allow machinery in general, but then a pair of chopsticks might be a sort of simple machine...
The definition is getting a bit shallow isn't it?
rms' definition of hacking doesn't necessarily involve technology. That was the whole point of the chopsticks story.
Her outfits draw heavily on the prior art of performers like Grace Jones, David Bowie and Madonna. There's a very extensive history of music performers wearing crazy outfits. Some further examples are Elton John, Jayne County, Kiss, Gwar, Divine.
There is a sense that RMS has dropped that one in to seem more 'down with the kids' than he really is, which doesn't speak of pride as a hacker...
Apologies - allowing my prejudices to affect my judgement.
I've seen videos of her constructing songs from audio loops of her own voice in real time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25VGdNU3nrU
I don't know to what extent some of the stuff is preprogrammed (presumably the loop lengths are), but it really seems like all the sounds were made during this one recording.
But it's possible to appreciate the hacker aspect and skill. It is easy to dismiss her music as silly, unoriginal or poor because we don't like it, but that can be unfair :)
If her goal is to get famous and have hit songs though, I suppose we do have to grant that she accomplishes this expertly. It might be nice if she had loftier goals, like creating something with actual integrity, but I have to admit she's at least effective.
Although I realise such a point of view is probably the by-product of having a brother who's finishing up a music degree and so I get bored to death with lectures about this stuff :)
Compared to them Gaga is a script kiddie.
Take Gaga's attitude and bluster away and you have Dale Bozzio. Interesting -- her stuff was more listenable and she looked cuter in those ridiculous outfits.
Btw to describe a person in German, who is breaking computer based security systems, you call him a "Hacker".
Historically, the hackers at MIT chose the term "hacker" to simply describe themselves and other people with a similar attitude. Later, the mass media misused this term to describe solely criminal actors, which then became the mainstream understanding of the term.
So the mass media, not the hackers, were using the term with another meaning than everybody else (at that time).
> Seriously, is that just too hard or asks for too much playfulness?
I'd put it the other way around: Is is just too hard for the mass media or asks for too much playfulness to respect a (minority) group's self-chosen name?
> Btw to describe a person in German, who is breaking computer based security systems, you call him a "Hacker".
Small correction: This is true for the greater part of the German population. However, within groups like the CCC or FSFE, the term "Hacker" has a much broader meaning, quite similar to what RMS describes.
In other words: Even in Germany, the people who are usually called "Hacker" use themselves the term in a broader sense. I think this is simply an international phenomena.
My point is this: Hackers are still great hackers, if they call themself differently. And then they would spend considerably more time solving "hard" problems "playful" instead of discussing about words who actually don't matter at all.
Mass media calls people whatever makes the most money for them. They are happy with that. And they have won the masses in this case. So hey, let's go on to the next fight.
"Around 1980, when the news media took notice of hackers, they fixated on one narrow aspect of real hacking: the security breaking which some hackers occasionally did. They ignored all the rest of hacking, and took the term to mean breaking security, no more and no less. The media have since spread that definition, disregarding our attempts to correct them. As a result, most people have a mistaken idea of what we hackers actually do and what we think."
Well, in golf, being a hacker is an insult. From http://golf.about.com/cs/golfterms/g/bldef_hacker.htm
Hacker:
A very bad player. Somewhat synonymous with "duffer" in that they both apply to poor players. But "duffer" is sometimes used to denote weaker players in general, while "hacker" is often applied to a single golfer as an insult. Hacker is a little bit stronger than duffer, in other words.
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The distinction, in my mind, is "intent to hack" vs "intent to do/achieve/circumvent".
It was such a miniscule part of what he said, but that part sincerely rubbed me the wrong way :/
And yes, I know this is Richard Stallman we're talking about. There is no question of his hacker-ness.