32 lines
4.5 KiB
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32 lines
4.5 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" standalone="no"?>
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<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><title>hacker</title><link rel="stylesheet" href="../../jargon.css" type="text/css"/><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.61.0"/><link rel="home" href="../index.html" title="The Jargon File"/><link rel="up" href="../H.html" title="H"/><link rel="previous" href="hacked-up.html" title="hacked up"/><link rel="next" href="hacker-ethic.html" title="hacker ethic"/></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">hacker</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="hacked-up.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">H</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="hacker-ethic.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr/></div><dt><a id="hacker"/><dt xmlns="" id="hacker"><b>hacker</b>: <span xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" class="grammar">n.</span></dt></dt><dd><p> [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] </p></dd><dd><p> 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems
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and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer
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to learn only the minimum necessary. RFC1392, the <i class="citetitle">Internet
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Users' Glossary</i>, usefully amplifies this as: A person who
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delights in having an intimate understanding of the internal workings of a
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system, computers and computer networks in particular.</p></dd><dd><p> 2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who
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enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming. </p></dd><dd><p> 3. A person capable of appreciating
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<a href="hack-value.html"><i class="glossterm">hack value</i></a>. </p></dd><dd><p> 4. A person who is good at programming quickly. </p></dd><dd><p> 5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does
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work using it or on it; as in ‘a Unix hacker’. (Definitions 1
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through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) </p></dd><dd><p> 6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy
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hacker, for example. </p></dd><dd><p> 7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively
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overcoming or circumventing limitations. </p></dd><dd><p> 8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive
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information by poking around. Hence <span class="firstterm">password
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hacker</span>, <span class="firstterm">network hacker</span>.
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The correct term for this sense is <a href="../C/cracker.html"><i class="glossterm">cracker</i></a>.</p></dd><dd><p>The term ‘hacker’ also tends to connote membership in the
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global community defined by the net (see
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<a href="../T/the-network.html"><i class="glossterm">the network</i></a>. For discussion of some of the basics of this culture,
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see the <a href="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html" target="_top"> How
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To Become A Hacker</a> FAQ. It also implies that the person described
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is seen to subscribe to some version of the hacker ethic (see
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<a href="hacker-ethic.html"><i class="glossterm">hacker ethic</i></a>).</p><p>It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe
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oneself that way. Hackers consider themselves something of an elite (a
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meritocracy based on ability), though one to which new members are gladly
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welcome. There is thus a certain ego satisfaction to be had in identifying
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yourself as a hacker (but if you claim to be one and are not, you'll
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quickly be labeled <a href="../B/bogus.html"><i class="glossterm">bogus</i></a>). See also
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<a href="../G/geek.html"><i class="glossterm">geek</i></a>, <a href="../W/wannabee.html"><i class="glossterm">wannabee</i></a>.</p><p>This term seems to have been first adopted as a badge in the 1960s by
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the hacker culture surrounding TMRC and the MIT AI Lab. We have a report
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that it was used in a sense close to this entry's by teenage radio hams and
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electronics tinkerers in the mid-1950s.</p></dd><div class="navfooter"><hr/><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="hacked-up.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="../H.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="hacker-ethic.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">hacked up </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="../index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> hacker ethic</td></tr></table></div></body></html>
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