On Sun, Jun 21, 2009 at 5:52 PM, Krishnakant<[email protected]> wrote: >> Hacking as breaking into other's systems was bad and is still bad. > Breaking into others systems is always bad but it is not hacking but > "cracking". that is wy we all windows lovers will never buy a license > and use a "crack". I never herd of a software hack. > I read about serial numbers which are called cracks.
A software hack is basically a shortcut of sorts in a program. It generally involves making some assumptions about how the underlying compiler/OS will execute your code or how the underlying library call is implemented. The word is generally preceded by the words "elegant", "clever" or "ugly", "quick" to signify whether the author thinks the solution is exceptionally clever or exceptionally dirty. > The point here is that hacking was never bad and will be never bad. As > I said it is a matter of last few years that hacking was *given* a bad > name. Those who did it knew that hacking is a good thing and free Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_(computing) to get a more balanced view about the word in computing terms. It has always been fuzzy since phreakers and black hats also call themselves hackers. People who are part of the Free software movement know and understand what you mean when you say "happy hacking". Someone new to this movement will not, and if he/she does not learn this from context/reading he/she should be told what we mean when we say "hack". Also, if someone comes around here asking about "hacking sites", it is not right to direct them to securityforums or something. I feel the right thing would be to explain what hacking means when we mention it and how it is different from the network security related stuff. We hackers are not afraid to use our real names while the black hats/phreakers hide behind secretive handles. > software community in particular respects its real meaning. So by > giving a wrong and dirty meaning to that term itself will make these > people look bad and unorganised. So who ever carries the tak is bad. > So why should we coin a new term for some thing which already exists. > Are you suggesting that we except some wrong propaganda just because it > is a popular misconception started by media and big businesses off late? It was not big businesses that claimed hacker == evil. It is just that phreakers and black hats have always called themselves hackers all along. The press simply tagged along. Business never cared until they saw that their data was in danger from some miscreants who called themselves "hackers". -- Siddhesh Poyarekar http://siddhesh.in -- http://mm.glug-bom.org/mailman/listinfo/linuxers
