Yup! We were there. Had a great time........
Otis Wright
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Let me assure you that there were hackers at MIT in the early '60s, long before there
were personal computers or viruses. Hacking was a form of recreation that often
encompassed acomplishing things that were technically involved, challenging, and
slightly illegal. Think about hacking the phone system or putting a replica of a
Police Car with flashing lights and donuts on top of the Great Dome.
Regards, Bob S.
John Francis writes:
D. Glenn Arthur Jr. wrote:
Shawn K. wrote:
*cough* Don't argue semantics with me!! You know, HACK is a derogatory term
and so is hacker in its origin.
Too late, I am arguing (though in the interest of neither boring nor
annoying the rest of the list, I'll try to drop the parts that will
soon become repetetive because each of us refuses to change our usage,
and after your next public reply, we can argue more loudly _offlist_
if we both decide we're interested enough in continuing the argument
(but my guess is that simply making clear exactly where each of us
stands will suffice for now)).
The problem is that the noun in question is the name of a subculture
(and it _is_ a subculture) that I identify with and hang out with.
So I've got a stake in this.
In support of this position, the M.I.T. A.I. lab routinely used the
term hacker in the positive sense. In fact the introduction to AIM 239
(better known as HAKMEM) says, in part:
"Here is some little known data which may be of interest to computer
hackers. The items and examples are so sketchy that to decipher them
may require more sincerity and curiosity than a non-hacker can muster."
I'm sure HAKMEM is available on the web by now, but I'm looking at
an original copy I was given (by Mike Beeler) when I
visited the lab in the 1970s while I was working for DEC.
