34 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
34 lines
2.2 KiB
Plaintext
hacker
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n. [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] 1. A person who
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enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch
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their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the
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minimum necessary. RFC1392, the Internet Users' Glossary , usefully
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amplifies this as: A person who delights in having an intimate understanding
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of the internal workings of a system, computers and computer networks in
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particular. 2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who
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enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming. 3. A
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person capable of appreciating hack value. 4. A person who is good at
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programming quickly. 5. An expert at a particular program, or one who
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frequently does work using it or on it; as in a Unix hacker. (Definitions 1
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through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) 6. An expert
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or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example. 7.
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One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or
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circumventing limitations. 8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to
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discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence password hacker ,
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network hacker. The correct term for this sense is cracker. The term hacker
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also tends to connote membership in the global community defined by the net
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(see the network. For discussion of some of the basics of this culture, see
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the How To Become A Hacker FAQ. It also implies that the person described is
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seen to subscribe to some version of the hacker ethic (see hacker ethic ).
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It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe oneself
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that way. Hackers consider themselves something of an elite (a meritocracy
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based on ability), though one to which new members are gladly welcome. There
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is thus a certain ego satisfaction to be had in identifying yourself as a
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hacker (but if you claim to be one and are not, you'll quickly be labeled
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bogus ). See also geek , wannabee. This term seems to have been first
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adopted as a badge in the 1960s by the hacker culture surrounding TMRC and
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the MIT AI Lab. We have a report that it was used in a sense close to this
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entry's by teenage radio hams and electronics tinkerers in the mid-1950s.
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