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I want to satisfy 2 points, firstly no, I don't particularly care for 4chan either - but I think to discount all of it's members based on what seems to be a few

by froo 18y ago

I want to satisfy 2 points, firstly no, I don't particularly care for 4chan either - but I think to discount all of it's members based on what seems to be a few bad eggs is stereotyping at its worst. Secondly, the Penicillin example, it was a run on example from this. don't forget that some of the biggest innovative breakthroughs that we use to this day came from hackers being bored and doing things they shouldn't. Such as? I dunno about you, but I would call penicillin a pretty significant hack. As you might know, Fleming noted a contaminant in one of his cultures. Instead of throwing it out as a failed experiment, he played with it or essentially 'hacked' it. It resulted in one of the most significant medical discoveries of last century. If he instead was doing what he was meant to be doing (studying Staphylococci) instead of 'playing' around (or 'hacking'); millions of lives may not have been saved. So in truth, it was a fair comment.

silentbicycle 18y ago
I never said it was an unfair comment, just that I wanted clarification. I figured that was probably what you meant, but it was ambiguous how closely it related to the latter comments. (Perhaps there was something major about penicillin's discovery I hadn't heard of.) I was saying that "gremlin" seems like a good new term for people who do destructive mischief for fun (particularly of a cracking nature), but never actually related it to 4chan in any way; it just came out of that quote. Where you're reading it as being about 4chan users, it was intended to be about script kiddies (i.e. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Script_kiddies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Script_kiddies). Hence, "I don't care about 4chan", not "I don't care for 4chan".
yters 18y ago
This is like harrassing innocent people? IMO, it's cleverer if clever hacks are in good taste, since that's an added constraint. It's pretty easy in general to just break things and violate people's trust.

by froo 18y ago

silentbicycle 18y ago

I never said it was an unfair comment, just that I wanted clarification. I figured that was probably what you meant, but it was ambiguous how closely it related to the latter comments. (Perhaps there was something major about penicillin's discovery I hadn't heard of.) I was saying that "gremlin" seems like a good new term for people who do destructive mischief for fun (particularly of a cracking nature), but never actually related it to 4chan in any way; it just came out of that quote. Where you're reading it as being about 4chan users, it was intended to be about script kiddies (i.e. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Script_kiddies http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Script_kiddies). Hence, "I don't care about 4chan", not "I don't care for 4chan".

yters 18y ago

This is like harrassing innocent people? IMO, it's cleverer if clever hacks are in good taste, since that's an added constraint. It's pretty easy in general to just break things and violate people's trust.