February 16th, 2020 at 4:18 PM
Side note: Emmanuel Goldstein is who the government in '1984' is constantly trying to keep under because of his philosophies against authoritarianism and control by the government. As such, whoever took the pen name likely feels the same way, and channels those views into something more specific like hacking 'ie. strong desire to share this information.' Just a neat tidbit, the name stuck out to me for a second then I realized where it came from.
Agree with definition but disagree on views xd
Yeah, the term hacker is incredibly vilified. I mean, words do change meaning over time and culture, think about how the word 'quite' is used to indicate a small amount in britain, but seems to be more for large quantities in America ("that's quite nice.") Thus, I find it to no surprise that the word hacker changed meaning over time, and I honestly think that the whole movement to 'bring back the original definition' is a little bit silly as a result. Instead, come up with new terms. White-hat and black-hat don't count because they still refer to and describe the word 'hacker' but if you say 'penetration tester' or 'security expert' or even in this day and age if you just said 'maker,' those words all hold some synonymy with the term 'hacker' except with a more specialized view, and don't hold the same negative implications of what hacker means today.
I mean, after all, the term 'hack' used to be to repeatedly/wildly take swings at things in attempt to break them. Is that not what people in the 80s-90s did with technology, except trying to break things in very specific ways? Take a look at demoscene archives like pouet. Most textures and animations are created using division overflows in assembly. Same thing.
So I really don't mind the meaning change and think it's just always blown out of proportion. It's important to understand the history of the term and the history of the independent movement in technology, but words change, and as such we also have new words to describe the same thing without the negative connotations.
When I introduce myself as a hacker, I say it with the euphemism of 'computer security enthusiast.' Later on, as people think about what that means, they come to their own conclusion. In my region, most people are aware that security is an issue, and that there are security teams at every major tech company, so it's not necessarily a bad thing, but I like to leave them with the idea that I can break their facebook or something. I don't need to say it explicitly, and people can come to their own conclusions, and maybe subtly instill some kind of fear, or idea of greatness that comes with the term. I enjoy that feeling.
I mostly blame CEH for pushing the idea of terms. Describe yourself how you want to describe yourself, it's not that important. Since CEH was so available in the past and their intro chapters in every study guide are all about whitehat, blackhat, greenhat, suicidehat, etc. (when was the last time you heard the last two terms used seriously online...) that idea stuck with people a lot and created a bit of identity politics with people, which again I'm not a huge fan of and I'm a bit biased against.
Agree with definition but disagree on views xd
Yeah, the term hacker is incredibly vilified. I mean, words do change meaning over time and culture, think about how the word 'quite' is used to indicate a small amount in britain, but seems to be more for large quantities in America ("that's quite nice.") Thus, I find it to no surprise that the word hacker changed meaning over time, and I honestly think that the whole movement to 'bring back the original definition' is a little bit silly as a result. Instead, come up with new terms. White-hat and black-hat don't count because they still refer to and describe the word 'hacker' but if you say 'penetration tester' or 'security expert' or even in this day and age if you just said 'maker,' those words all hold some synonymy with the term 'hacker' except with a more specialized view, and don't hold the same negative implications of what hacker means today.
I mean, after all, the term 'hack' used to be to repeatedly/wildly take swings at things in attempt to break them. Is that not what people in the 80s-90s did with technology, except trying to break things in very specific ways? Take a look at demoscene archives like pouet. Most textures and animations are created using division overflows in assembly. Same thing.
So I really don't mind the meaning change and think it's just always blown out of proportion. It's important to understand the history of the term and the history of the independent movement in technology, but words change, and as such we also have new words to describe the same thing without the negative connotations.
When I introduce myself as a hacker, I say it with the euphemism of 'computer security enthusiast.' Later on, as people think about what that means, they come to their own conclusion. In my region, most people are aware that security is an issue, and that there are security teams at every major tech company, so it's not necessarily a bad thing, but I like to leave them with the idea that I can break their facebook or something. I don't need to say it explicitly, and people can come to their own conclusions, and maybe subtly instill some kind of fear, or idea of greatness that comes with the term. I enjoy that feeling.
I mostly blame CEH for pushing the idea of terms. Describe yourself how you want to describe yourself, it's not that important. Since CEH was so available in the past and their intro chapters in every study guide are all about whitehat, blackhat, greenhat, suicidehat, etc. (when was the last time you heard the last two terms used seriously online...) that idea stuck with people a lot and created a bit of identity politics with people, which again I'm not a huge fan of and I'm a bit biased against.
