4 ms·
The TMRC might want to have a word with you. The usage by them dates back to the 50s at least.
by burgerbrain 15y ago
The TMRC might want to have a word with you. The usage by them dates back to the 50s at least.
- gruseom 15y agoPeople say that, but does anyone have an earlier confirmed source? Let's not just believe what we want to.
- shrikant 15y agoChapter 1 of "Hackers, Heroes of the Computer Revolution" by Steven Levy: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/729 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/729
- gruseom 15y agoWhat? We all know that book was published in 1984. 20 years later doesn't count as an "earlier confirmed source". What's proven is that by 1963, people were writing "hacker" to mean "security breaker". To insist this is a perversion is rather silly when the "perversion" occurs so early and is in fact the earliest citation. It seems likely the two usages are coeval. The benign one is how hackers saw themselves and the malicious one is how they were perceived by authorities.
- mikeleeorg 15y agoIs this what you mean? http://tmrc.mit.edu/hackers-ref.html http://tmrc.mit.edu/hackers-ref.html Wow, I had no idea it went this far back. I've always been curious about etymology. After seeing this whole thread, I dug up these references: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/hacker.html http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~bh/hacker.html http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/hackers-and-crackers-a-lesson-in-etymology-and-clear-communication/4237 http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/security/hackers-and-cracke...