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Comment by grannyg00se | Hacker News Reader

I thought this was going to be about bash, vi, SICP, cryptanalysis, emacs, asm, or maybe something about 3d printers, or fpgas, or soldering fine point smd ICs onto home stenciled PCBs.

This isn't about being a hacker at all. It's about doing some entry level penetration testing with a software suite designed for that purpose.

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That was also my initial takeaway. To me hacking is about understanding how it all works. Using a tool isn't a problem but the guy that wrote the tool is a hacker, and you're only a hacker if you understand what it is you're doing well enough that you can solve unfamiliar problems that the tool doesn't already cover. Otherwise you are going to get stumped, which translates into getting caught.

To look at it another way: installing wordpress with some plugins doesn't make you a web developer.

Edit: I took this article's bait but I realized afterwards that this was all to ride off the recent Target fiasco.

Hacking meaning is complex. For me it means something ingenious, a way of creating or using a tool in a round about way. It's not even necessarily about computers. But it involves most of the time creative uses of technology. I mean, an passionate girl or boy can be a hacker, you don't even need a computer: electronic, craft, artists, vintage device, bicycles, motorbikes, food, biology, DNA, politics, sextoys, any activity field can be hacked.

If you use the penetration kit out of the box like you are supposed to do, I don't see any hacking here (even if it allows you to penetrate in a prestigious "open system").

In the opposite, if you hack a bit and can prove that you can open a car door with a computer and a network penetration tool, it start to be interesting.

Hacking is a huge field. Restrain it to computer networks rides is not fair, even if historically, it has been much more used by networks and telecoms people.

I think hackers are also people who create inestimable wealth. People who create a compiler, that will make possible for others to create languages, that will allow others to create tools, etc. are very strange. Why do they do that? Not because their boss ask them for.

A programming language is useless as far as you hadn't create something with it. Creation and hacking are very similar things.

I agree, it shouldn't be limited to computers.

I thought the article was going to be about hacking into computers.

I also thought the top HN comment would be a moan about the correct meaning of the word hacker!

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