On Wed, 25 Aug 2004 04:55:00 -0700 (PDT), bryan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Then perhaps it's about time that it changed...

it would be nice if it changed.  but inertia and 
ignorance being what it is, it's probably not
going to.  that's Mike's point.  it's something to
write about, and talk to non-techies about, but
it's a waste of energy to get all hyper about it.

> Is humanity really that cruel? To practically
> generalize that all hackers are terrorists in 
> a sense.

it's not cruelty, it's just inertia.  there are maybe
10 million people in the world who make the
distinction.  there are several billion others who
don't make the distinction and wouldn't care even
if you paid them to listen to you discuss the 
distinction.

throw a rock at a mountain and see how much
the mountain bounces.

now, maybe, with a few generations worth of
explanation, the water of your argument will
wear down some of that mountain.  but i figure 
it'll be more than a few generations.

> GNU/Linux is what it is today because of the efforts
> of several hackers, does it therefore mean (based on
> the reasoning in question) that GNU/Linux is in fact
> an OS created by terrorists?
> 
> If it is so, then this whole war against terror, that
> is  currently going on in the world today, is all a
> big fat lie--- The U.N., USA, GB, Phil., S-Korea,
> Japan, China, India, etc. all support the drive
> against terrorism, but in fact all are
> supporting/patronizing  a terrorist's product(based on
> the reasoning in question), are they not???  What
> gives? .....

you take your analogy too far.  you're approaching
the extreme of that other guy's comparing the cracking
of that government server with rape.

<snip>

clearly though, you're very intense on this subject.  i
think it's a good thing to tell people the distinction.
but you're preaching to the choir on this list, and 
non-technical people will be turned off by excessive
zeal :).  make the distinction clear, sure, but not at the
price of making people uncomfortable.  let people 
freely decide  how they want to use words, how they 
want to think.

tiger

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