
I am sick of the media saying "Hacker" when they mean "Black Hat" - 3villabs
http://shiporgetoffthepot.com/yes-i-am-a-hacker-but-what-does-that-mean/
======
onion2k
I'm sick of people having prescriptive definitions of how language ought to be
used. The term 'hacker' in a media piece about someone 'remotely abusing a
computer system' is entirely understandable and consequently perfectly alright
to use. Language is a beautiful, dynamic, living organism that evolves
depending on how it's used by _everyone_ every day. There is no 'wrong way'
when it comes to language. There are ways that work and ways that don't work;
which way you go for depends on how well you want to be understood.

Try to delight in the way people use language. Defining a word strictly and
pedantically is showing off by demonstrating that you know more about a word's
etymology and usage than someone else. Don't do that.

~~~
hamburglar
I'm pretty well convinced that the motivation for getting upset over the
"wrong" use of this word is usually just a desire to claim special knowledge
and feel superior about being part of the elite group that knows the _true_
meaning. It's disingenuous moaning about "confusion" while ignoring the fact
that the rest of the world seems to get along just fine with the occasional
word that has (gasp) more than one meaning.

------
czbond
You do understand that usage has been around longer for that context than the
recently popular way of describing anyone that can touch a keyboard?

~~~
pabb
Precisely. I've read the counter sentiment multiple times from black hats who
are exasperated seeing "hacker" tied to any notion of someone who programs or
likes to "tinker with shit". I'd much rather keep the word definition at its
root. (disclosure: I'm not a hacker)

~~~
clef
>"tinker with shit". That's gold!

------
stonogo
When people say "cowboy," they don't mean the hundreds of thousands of
working-class guys driving cattle for a living. They either mean Wild Bill or
they mean some guy at a rodeo. When people say "trucker" they don't mean the
hundreds of thousands of guys driving food deliveries to grocery stores; they
mean Jerry Reed from Smokey and the Bandit. When people say "princess" they
don't mean Lady Di, they mean any number of Disney characters.

In a similar vein, when people say "hacker" they don't particularly give a
shit what side the guy's on, and "black hat" as a term is only acceptable in
IT communities -- everyone else smirks at the nerd shit and continues using
the terminology accepted by the vast majority of human society.

You're going to have to get used to it.

------
Jtsummers
It's been this way for (EDIT: at least) 30 years. And the discussion has been
going on just as long. Though it used to be, especially on /. back in the day,
rants about "hacker" versus "cracker". I once tried to point this out to my
parents, never again. It just doesn't matter. We've elected to continue
applying a label to ourselves that the media uses in a totally different way.
Language changes, often in ways counter to what we want, accept this and move
on.

~~~
3villabs
I am not trying to change the world but when a potential business partner
hears I am a hacker I don't want them thinking I am going to steal their
credit card info.

~~~
coldtea
So why don't you introduce yourself as a "programmer" or a "computer wizard"
or a "tinkerer" or a "developer" or any other term and opt to use a term
that's been synonymous with breaking into computing systems for 3-4 decades?

~~~
freehunter
Any why would you want to introduce yourself to a business partner as a hacker
anyway? If they understand what you mean, you're telling them that you're
going to give them a product that works, but only because of magic and duct
tape, not because it's a professional product. If they don't understand what
you mean, they'll think you're a criminal.

Either way, in the business world, hacker has only negative connotations. Only
within hacker circles does the term become a positive.

------
peterwwillis
I'm sick of the media saying "skinhead" when they mean "neo-nazi/white
supremacist", but I don't go around whining about it. The use of words is
controlled by popular opinion, not only one subclass of people that refer to
themselves using the word.

Some words just need to be retired.

~~~
pekk
But you did just whine about it. And many skinheads ARE white supremacists or
nativists.

~~~
johnward
Many black hats are hackers

~~~
qbrass
Many hackers are black hats. All black hats are hackers, they're a subset of
the larger group.

And that's what the problem is. Calling a cracker a hacker is technically
correct, but lead to the assumption that all hackers are black hats.

------
Cuuugi
Forgive my ignorance, but wasn't the word made to describe "black hat"
activities?

Everything else is a new definition (white hat etc.)

Language evolves, especially with created words.

Will your opinion win? Possibly, i dont know ( or care). I just get sick of
people thinking their way of thinking is accepted fact.

~~~
georgemcfly
The modern, non "black hat" use of the word originates with the MIT Tech Model
Railroad Club
([http://www.gricer.com/tmrc/dictionary1959.html](http://www.gricer.com/tmrc/dictionary1959.html))
who define "hack" as '1) an article or project without constructive end; 2)
work undertaken on bad self-advice; 3) an entropy booster; 4) to produce, or
attempt to produce, a hack (3)."

Quite a few words in the "computer geek" lexicon were borrowed from the TMRC.

~~~
3villabs
Great answer!

------
blakesterz
As much as I agree with this we have lost this battle. For most people the
definition of hacker is black hat, all the blog posts and comments in the
world won't change that. People who get their news from newspapers and TV now
know hackers break into things and steal stuff. They know that hackers are the
bad guys.

~~~
3villabs
I understand, but as I plan to use the word a lot and take ownership of it
this post is designed to inform those whom might read my stuff that I am not
intending to steal their credit cards... yet... (jk)

------
badman_ting
Language is fluid, and sadly we don't control it. Sorry.

~~~
3villabs
Oh nothing to be sorry about. Just merely making note of it.

------
clef
>4) a person who illegally gains access to and sometimes tampers with
information in a computer system

>This is the last one because it is the least accurate and has been created
only in recent times by the media.

By recent times, you mean since the mid/late 80's when hacking sort of got
known in the mainstream after phreaking?

>"Anyone that takes a look at a goal and a given set of resources then figures
out an unconventional way to achieve that goal"

I want to be rich! therefore I choose to rob a bank (my unconventional way of
achieving that goal), does that make me a hacker too? (Like a bank hacker)

Awesome article nonetheless!

~~~
icantthinkofone
You are confused as many people grow up and enter this field. The original
term for the bad guys was "crackers" and all crackers are hackers but not all
hackers are crackers.

The media doesn't understand that and now all the young people growing up have
the term 'hacker' all confused and messed up and ruined for the rest of us.

~~~
roel_v
Pray tell, when was this mythical era when a sizable group of people actually
made this distinction and used them as two separate concepts? Warning: this is
a trick question, I'm almost old, so I have actual first-hand recollection of
these days of yore you seem to be lamenting.

~~~
icantthinkofone
I'm probably older than you but, based on your question, far more experienced
in the field.

------
bitsteak
Ask any random person what they think of when you say "hacker." PROTIP: it's
not your typical employee of some random consumer web startup, working 12 hour
days and pounding redbull. It's someone who bypasses technical security
controls through mastery of the underlying technology.

~~~
StudyAnimal
Does anyone think the former should be considered a good description of a
hacker? To me it is someone using their intelligence, to do something clever
(or at least in a clever way) to disrupt or destroy something, make someone
uncomfortable or piss someone off, or challenge something, for some result
that satisfies them or someone else in some way. And the essence really lies
in that first bit. A random programmer isn't a hacker unless that first bit is
there, the unorthodox, challenging or subversive bit.

~~~
Jtsummers
So in your mind this site is about news concerning disrupting, destroying and
irritating things and people? "Hacker" is entirely combative and offensive in
your view. That seems weird to me.

~~~
StudyAnimal
Yes, I think it should be. I think most things on the site qualify, but not
all. However your second statement is a mischaracterization. It is not
"entirely" combative or offensive. I just think that is the essential
ingredient before the word hacker is appropriate. If you are modifying a
device meant for one purpose to use it in another purpose that is hacking
because you are subversively defying the intentions of the devices creators.
If you are merely using an Arduino or a 3d printer to make something, that is
not hacking. If you are founding a startup to disrupt an existing business
model, and put a dinosaur out of business you are hacking. If you are just
churning out another iPhone game, that is probably not hacking.

~~~
Jtsummers
Using an (as an example) LCD projector to make a 3D printer is hacking. But
it's not necessarily _subversive_. It's not what it was designed for, and not
what it was intended for, but it's not necessarily _in opposition to_ the will
of the original creators/designers. And that opposition is the key ingredient
to subversiveness.

> To me it is someone using their intelligence, to do something clever (or at
> least in a clever way) to disrupt or destroy something, make someone
> uncomfortable or piss someone off, or challenge something, for some result
> that satisfies them or someone else in some way.

All of those (destroy, disrupt, make uncomfortable, piss off, now subvert)
except for "challenge" are combative things, especially if, as you keep doing,
you relate it as being opposed to other people or entities. Hackers don't have
to have the intention of undermining anything to be hackers. Making an HTTP
server entirely in forth written entirely in assembly is a hacker thing to do,
but it's not undermining anyone's authority, the closest it gets to your
categorization (but not your apparent meaning) is as a challenge.

EDIT: forgot a word

------
StudyAnimal
I used to think there were two separate uses of the word, and one was less
correct than the other. I used to insist people distinguish between a good
"hacker" and an evil "cracker". Now I understand the essence of the term,
there is no distinction between the two. Its all the same. Central to the
essence is this notion that good and bad are subjective, and anything
characterised as hacking should probably be both good (for someone or
something) and evil (for someone or something) combined. Destruction and
creation are both equally implied. I think if something is purely 100% good
for everyone, I don't think the word hacker applies.

------
rainsford
Language is ultimately defined by popular usage, and the majority of the usage
of "hacker" means "black hat" type activities. You can argue for a different
usage until you're blue in the face, but the black hat usage is pretty clearly
the dominant one and has been for quite a while. Insisting on a different
usage and using the word that way yourself just leads to confusion and makes
you sound pedantic, no matter how correct you feel your definition is.

------
stronglikedan
Context is important. Most laypersons reading an article don't know the terms
"Black Hat", "White Hat", and so on. A good article should differentiate the
intentions of the "hacker", so that the reader can imply the morality of those
intentions by the context.

------
Kurtz79
Dozen of years of movies and video-games have cemented fairly well the use of
the word.

"Look at you, hacker: a pathetic creature of meat and bone, panting and
sweating as you run through my corridors. How can you challenge a perfect,
immortal machine?"

------
coldtea
Well, you don't control language. Language is language as it's used.

Furthermore, the whole "hacker is the good kind, no the black hat kind"
screams "no true scotchman" to me. Lots of black hat's self identify as
hackers.

~~~
burtonlang
My understanding of the No True Scotsman fallacy involves changing a
definition during an argument in order to hold on to some assertion.

This is not the same thing as a person feeling that a particular word should
have a particular meaning.

~~~
coldtea
The problem is the person seen as "changing a definition" could very well have
had the second definition in his mind all along.

------
CmonDev
To me it's someone who creates a messy working solution quickly. This is
opposite to developers, who have to care about maintainability.

------
olssy
Whatever kind of hacker you are there's a great convention for us all this
summer in NYC, Hackers On Planet Earth: hope.net

~~~
3villabs
Thanks! I'll check it out

------
skrowl
Obligatory HACK THE PLANET!

~~~
3villabs
Love the reference!

------
chippy1337
Actually, they mean "Cracker".

~~~
icantthinkofone
You are totally correct!

~~~
3villabs
Agreed but that could be confused with other definitions used in the
derogatory.

