3 ms·

The term "hacking" long ago shifted to mean "illegal activity" unless otherwise specified or obvious from the context. In the context of this title it's clear w

The term "hacking" long ago shifted to mean "illegal activity" unless otherwise specified or obvious from the context. In the context of this title it's clear what was meant. I'm an ancient, pedantic nerd, and even I don't cling to the archaic 1970s meaning of "hacking".

caymanjim 6y ago
I'm aware of the irony of claiming this on "Hacker News".
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
mNovak 6y ago
It's not that archaic; PG, among others, talks about the meaning of "hacking" [1]. Not surprising that a HN crowd might default to this interpretation. Note, I'm talking about the title alone--from the actual article it's obvious they're concerned with legality. [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/gba.html http://www.paulgraham.com/gba.html
ianhorn 6y ago
Was "hacking" as a lay person term ever the same as "hacking" as used by makers? If it was a shift, then yeah you're right. If it was a demonization as the public learned the term at all, then I'd say there's more reason to continue pushing to protect the term as a part of our community.
- caymanjim 6y ago
  Until about the early 1980s, it exclusively referred to benign or prankish tinkering. It started to drift increasingly toward the prankish end, and then to the nefarious. Most early computer hacking—in the illegal sense—was also fairly benign (I wardialed my area and broke into the local supermarket computers to teach myself Unix and C). From the 90s on, its primary use (especially in the mainstream) has referred to illegal activity, whether gray- or black-hat. There was a concerted effort in the 80s and early 90s to use "cracking" for the illegal activities, but it never caught on.
Sebb767 6y ago
I think he meant he understood the title as "if you just scrape a website, you're not [meeting the threshold to be a] hacker", which would fit with 'no true scotsman'[0]. At least that's the way I understood it at first. Whether you consider a hacker to be a criminal or a nerd doesn't really affect _this_ particular misunderstanding ;) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman

caymanjim 6y ago

I'm aware of the irony of claiming this on "Hacker News".

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

mNovak 6y ago

It's not that archaic; PG, among others, talks about the meaning of "hacking" [1]. Not surprising that a HN crowd might default to this interpretation. Note, I'm talking about the title alone--from the actual article it's obvious they're concerned with legality. [1] http://www.paulgraham.com/gba.html http://www.paulgraham.com/gba.html

ianhorn 6y ago

Was "hacking" as a lay person term ever the same as "hacking" as used by makers? If it was a shift, then yeah you're right. If it was a demonization as the public learned the term at all, then I'd say there's more reason to continue pushing to protect the term as a part of our community.

caymanjim 6y ago
Until about the early 1980s, it exclusively referred to benign or prankish tinkering. It started to drift increasingly toward the prankish end, and then to the nefarious. Most early computer hacking—in the illegal sense—was also fairly benign (I wardialed my area and broke into the local supermarket computers to teach myself Unix and C). From the 90s on, its primary use (especially in the mainstream) has referred to illegal activity, whether gray- or black-hat. There was a concerted effort in the 80s and early 90s to use "cracking" for the illegal activities, but it never caught on.

Sebb767 6y ago

I think he meant he understood the title as "if you just scrape a website, you're not [meeting the threshold to be a] hacker", which would fit with 'no true scotsman'[0]. At least that's the way I understood it at first. Whether you consider a hacker to be a criminal or a nerd doesn't really affect _this_ particular misunderstanding ;) [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_true_Scotsman