Late-R wrote:
---------
> I should probably rephrase and expound on my thoughts from the previous email:
> The definitions of "Hacker" and "Cracker" have taken a turn in the past 15
> years or so with the onslaught of the true computer age. Now with the influx
> of Pirated software and every kid on the block having a computer on their
> desk, more and more people are gaining knowledge that was only privy to those
> few who were lucky and geeky enough to be around back when you were a star for
> serializing Quark and passing it around.
you are correct, sadly languages tend to degenerate, particularly technical language
when adopted by the press and law enforcement. however, that's no excuse for not
trying to know better. aint may be in the dictionary, but it aint a word i chose to
use. i like to seperate, somewhat, legit hacking and illegit cracking, as i am proud
to have done the former, and hope to do more of the former, but have little or no
interest in using admittedly largely the same knowledge for illicit activities. i
have no interest in breaking into banks, via computer or otherwise. i do have allot
of interest in modifying hardware and software, as well as non-computer systems in
ways which are personally interesting and hopefully make them more useful to myself
and others. i am a hacker, i dislike being branded an outlaw by in ignorant press,
and hence society, which doesn't bother to learn the vocabulary before trying to use
it. then again, i'm delighted to know the origins of "foobar", and hence the popular
variables of "foo" and "bar". foobar tried to do the same thing programing as the
press does when they talk about technology, and was appropriately punished for it, by
a hacker! (the story goes that foobar would constantly get "illegal instruction"
errors, because he just made up nmenonics he thought the computer should understand,
and didn't bother to try and learn. apparently some clever hacker rigged the computer
room to flash all the room lights and display "foobar you goofed" on the monitor the
next time it happened, which of course it did. all this apparently at mit, on a truly
stoneage machine, though it was solid state so it wasn't that old.
>
> Especially now, when OSX software is based on basically an old language, and
> DOS has been unchanged since the beginning of time, developers are finding
> more and more ways to catch the illegal pirated stuff (thanks to direct
> connections to the internet and information packets sent to the host), and
> more and more people have nothing better to do than to sit and figure out a
> way around it.
osx isn't a language, it's an operating system. now it is loosely based on english,
which is an old language, and it is based on unix, which is a very old but likely the
first well thought out operating system, which is why it's been reinvented constantly
for over 20 years (and of course it encompasses a set of commands which are a
language, but that's the osx command set (or os x command language if you prefer)).
that's the type of track record that is truly encouraging. in fact, probably the only
still popular software that old, is software that runs under *nix! things like the
classic "vi", or video editor, back when a screen oriented editor was still a novelty
and many were using truly painful command line editors (which i've done, it's
terrible!).
i would say some vendors are trying to catch software pirates in new ways, and as
usual, are mostly aggravating the legitimate user, as has always been the case with
copy protection, going back at least to the apple II where copy protected software
didn't like to install off of other makers drives. doubtless, they've caught a few
home users of pirated stuff, well, in classic terms, BFD, the real software piracy is
done by international conglomerates, no one ever gets caught, the pirates make obscene
amounts of money, the software vendors loose out, and international treaties are
changed very little to stop it. it's well known that china is the major source for
counterfeit microsoft stuff, stuff sold to stores and consumers as legit (and even the
stores often don't know!). it works just like legit, unless you actually try to
register it, then you are out the software, the store may be harassed, but probably
didn't know, and even if they did it's probably not provable, and the pirate laughs
all the way to the bank! just like the secret service can't stop counterfeit money,
no one can stop counterfeit software, but they keep harassing the small time thief
since they can't stop what counts. frankly, it's more than a little perverse, our
"great" leaders certainly could greatly reduce intentional trade in counterfeit
software if they squeezed china and the like, but those countries are far too valuable
to other businesses to mess with, so we let them get away with a little theft, and
they let us benefit from slave labor, and everyone is happy (except the slaves of
course, but that never seems to matter historically). all this as we try to send the
high schooler to jail for using a pirated copy of word to write a term paper, it makes
allot of sense, to some.
> Basically, I think you would upset more than a few of the elite if you
> referred to them as a Cracker instead of a Hacker. And you would probably
> make the day of a few of the Crackers if you called them a Hacker.
>
> Again, just my 2�. =]
well of course, just like enron execs don't want to be called thieves, they'd at least
like to be called embezzlers and "guilty of fraud", few want to be called a criminal
when they are, of course there are always those who know exactly what they are and
revel in it, good or bad, they at least have some honesty!
-----------
--
The right of citizens to bear arms is just one guarantee against arbitrary government,
one more safeguard against tyranny which now appears remote in America, but which
historically has proved to be always possible." --Senator Hubert H. Humphrey. Here it
comes again
<http://www.progressive.org/webex/wxmc042702.html><http://www.counterpunch.org/oden1.html>
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