When I started, around 1982-4, (in my world) the word meant, someone who knows arcane stuff about a computer hardly anyone knows, and with that can do what seem

When I started, around 1982-4, (in my world) the word meant, someone who knows arcane stuff about a computer hardly anyone knows, and with that can do what seems magic. Usually, someone whose knowledge of the hardware means they can do magic with programming. I think I didn't hear the grey/black hat sense (or the hardware-hacking sense or the "life hack" sense of "hack") until years later. p.s. And mostly, computers weren't connected to anything else. I don't mean magic on a network or anything, just on your own computer.