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hpr1596 :: About the Word "Hack"

Klaatu muses about the word "hack"

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Hosted by Klaatu on Monday, 2014-09-15 is flagged as Clean and is released under a CC-BY-SA license.
hack, hacker. 3.
The show is available on the Internet Archive at: https://archive.org/details/hpr1596

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Duration: 00:13:31

general.

Klaatu muses about the word "hack" and what it means, what it should mean, and how we can keep it meaningful.


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Comment #1 posted on 2014-09-16 05:54:04 by Ken Fallon

Let everyone be a hacker

First let me say that this was a brilliant episode.

I do however want to question your assumption that real life Hacking is a bad thing. For years we have fought the use of Hacker as the evil stereotypes as portrayed by media. Surely it's a good thing that the word is now been extended so that anyone can feel that they are a hacker.

Comment #2 posted on 2014-09-17 13:19:14 by Michael

You nailed it!

Wow. I'm in general not oposing the wider scope use of the term. I think everybody does it to a certain extend, if they call it hacking or not, and that it lies in the nature of mankind. Therefore I personally do no want to limit it to coding and computer technology, nor do I feel the need "to claim it back".
However, Klaatu has a point and his explanation absolutely resonated with me. It,s honest and thorough and the best one I have encountered so far!

Thank you for that.

Regards,
Michael

Comment #3 posted on 2014-10-18 04:20:46 by Gabriel Evenfire

While I can see where you are coming from Klaatu, I still have to disagree with your prespective. Let us consider the timeless Jargon File which I largely agree with:

"Hacking might be characterized as "an appropriate application of ingenuity". Whether the result is a quick-and-dirty patchwork job or a carefully crafted work of art, you have to admire the cleverness that went into it."
https://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html

So, hacking doesn't necessarily have to involve lengthy effort or careful craft. Unfortunately, what is ingenious to one person is banal to another. While pop-culture may may apply the term "hack" trivially, perhaps in the eyes of many in this world, everyday tips and tricks do seem ingenious. In that sense, pop culture is using the term correctly. Of course, among true "hackers" (see Appendix B) this wouldn't be considered to be the case. But to each their own. It's better than perverting the term to only mean "break into computers."

Cheers,
- Gabriel Evenfire

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