Probably not for hackers
essays.kuntz.co
essays.kuntz.co
Could be a start.
If you had to reduce [what's on topic] to a sentence,
the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's
intellectual curiosity.
Edit: Thanks!
Thanks!
Email in profile :)
Thanks
Much appreciated!
Cheers!
Thanks
ramcsingh-at-gmail-dot-com
Thanks!
* http://reddit.com/r/javascript (yeah it's on reddit, but it's a great resource)
* http://javascriptweekly.com/ ( https://twitter.com/JavaScriptDaily )
* http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/tag/javascript/
* http://javascriptshow.com/ (been a while since the last episode)
* http://javascriptjabber.com/ (I haven't listened to any episodes yet, but I plan on it soon)
While not everyone reading and posting on HN is a hacker, the website was founded by one of the world's greatest. So, I think that justifies the title.
Still, no matter what you publish, those outside your intended demographic will always read it. If you made a website called "Gangsta News", I'm sure white suburban kids from middle class families would read it.
I feel like 'hacker' is being turned into a market, and that very concept brings about a certain amount of sleaze(marketing).
I thought a hacker was someone that made the tools available work for them; not someone that used something tailored to them perfectly..not that a hacker would be against such a thing -- but rarely does the capability of a tool also meet the flexibility requirements of a hacker without further modification.
A blogging platform that heavily reinforces markdown is still a blogging platform.
The example given by the guy who replied to you was a good one. ThinkGeek. It's Sharper Image, but with a science spin. They often overcharge, but they do so because of who they market towards,and how they do so (with their form of propaganda)
I understand why these markets spring up, it's profitable. People WANT to self-identify as a hacker and thus gravitate to services that say they are spun for that 'kind' of person. I just happen to think that it's sleazy to take advantage of the trend lately to self identify as a hacker.
You're saying that it's sleazy to sell people (non-hackers who aspire to be hackers) things and services that they want and are willing to pay for?
Is that really what you mean?
To clarify, I think it's sleazy to sell people products and then make ambiguous claims that a person of lesser intelligence may follow as fact.
Example : "See guys!? Major League Gamer Fatal1ty uses such and such hardware. Buy now!"
See how they never said that Fatal1ty is a good gamer BECAUSE he uses x & y hardware? They simply stated he uses it.
It's up to the victim to infer a correlation between game skill and hardware, but the marketer sets them up in a biased manner so as to manipulate what they infer.
THAT is what I have a problem with, and "a tool for [insert sect of people here]" exploits that the same way. "Hey guys, want to be a 'hacker'? Did you know 'hackers' use x & y? Buy now!"
They don't know what services or products they want, they simply read labels. I do, in fact, think it's wrong to exploit the mechanisms behind 'a fool and their money are soon parted.'.
I mean, consider where you are: a forum that's owned by a tech incubator. I'm not suggesting a mass exodus or anything, but I'm just saying that tech-savvy people have been marketed to for a while now, and it's up to you to recognize when you're getting played.
I used to have those kinds of ideas about marketing, but I realized they are close-minded and not very productive. I've met some very good, and very smart marketers. Maybe the field attracts a wider range of bozos, because it's less 'concrete' than other things, but that doesn't mean it's all bunk.
Here's a great book about marketing and how to do it wrong:
It sounds like you don't know much about marketing.
Bullshit. Do you run a business? Do you aspire to? There are plenty of ways to let people know about what you are doing that are not sleazy.
Is patio11 sleazy? He's pretty good at marketing.
patio11 is great and I'm not sure why you brought him up.
Because he's really good at marketing, and I was curious if all the people equating marketing with sleaze would be as quick to call him sleazy as well.
The entire subculture stems from people who tinkered with things, specifically guys making model trains do cool things, like adjust based on what someone sends in from a telephone. I would expect that the minimum that everyone calling themselves a hacker has is an urge to tinker.
have you ever been to a D&D game? rules lawyering is central to nerd social interactions.
I'll keep it short: I'm all for ranting. I love ranting. But give the guy(s) a break. Just ignore it if it doesn't meet your definition of a tool crafted for hackers.
I realize that my first sentence may come across as harsh, but I mean it in a 'look, this is cool' way, and not an incredulous way.
If they'd said "perfectly addresses every hacker's every need" — that would have been over-reach.
As I understand it, HN is a news forum associated with ycombinator, which I understand is all about startups, VCs, and business building. "Hacking" has little to do with that at all, except the programmers who make the bones of these internet businesses may well consider themselves "Hackers". But what about the rest of the team? Sales, marketing, accounts, admin etc. None of them are considered hackers. But even then I don't quite get it. Such programmers "create" primarily. They are not hacking, unless they want to admit to using other's work and hacking it to re-purpose it (which I have no problem with). But they aren't really hacking as such at all. They are building and creating.
Having read the definition of a "hacker", Im even more confused. To me, hacking is not about intimate knowledge, depth, deep interest, or even computer systems. Hacking to me is about knowing enough about something to fix or re-tasking it, even create something new from it. In the case of a media or Hollywood hacker, such a person is not a deep in-depth knowledge person, they are some one who knows the part of the system well enough to attack. That does not mean they know the whole system. Tech wise, I think of something like installing Linux on a PSP, or non IT, the way people in the third world use everything and anything to keep cars going. You don't need in depth knowledge at all. You just need enough knowledge to get the part fixed, or shoe horned in. The modification and re-tasking of open source software is also hacking. Or even something like scrapheap challenge is hacking. Surely all this comes from writing, where a poor journalist or writer is known as a "hack". Not suggesting my definition is universal, its just how I personally see it.
Then, as per the article's 3 bullet points, I dont see how providing flexibility is servicing hackers. All that is doing providing more flexibility as a part of the service or website. So, using such functions is just using the site as designed and intended. Not hacking. Hacking would be getting round problems with such a site, or using the site for something it wasn't originally intended. Although, such tool provided would allow fixing or re-tasking. I accept a fine line there, but I hope one sees the point.
So, to me sites like hackaday and instructables are actual hacking sites, where as this site is a great niche news aggregation site, with a great user base for decent, intelligent discussion, about anything of interest to it's users. HN is certainly not my first point of call for "hacking" at all. Its my first port of call for interesting news and discussion.
Cant help thinking that half the problem here is that this YC news site is called "Hacker News". I think that confuses people.