Hacker News Reader

I always read it as "Hacker" in the traditional sense of the term, not the alarmist media "OMG!!H4qq0r" sense of the word. Hacking used to simply mean programming.

View on HN

"Hacking used to simply mean programming"

Did it though? I thought it referred to finding creative solutions to problems that often incorporated programming. Was anyone really considered to be hacking if they were writing tic tac toe in Basic?

Of course. If you were the first to write tic tac toe in basic on the VIC-20, in the early 80's (or on something else in the 50's,etc)

Hacking used to mean anyone using a keyboard.

The term "hacker" implies rule-bending to solve real problems in a productive way, whether you're bending the rules of a programming environment or a legal construct like an EULA. Adherence to contracts is not mandatory for something to qualify as a traditional hack.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com