Bobgoblin - [Safe]--- There's been something happening, a lot, recently, that's been bugging the living fuck out of me, and that is the Mis-Use of the term "Hackers". Now, i know what some of you are going to say, cause you've already said it to me, and i don't care-- i've realised it too; nothing i say on the subject is going to change the use of the word, in public light, or have that much of an effect of the public idiot consciousness. But my friends will, i hope, hear, and take heart. And perhaps, from there, we can make slow circles of progress.
True Sounds Of Liberty - [Flowers By The Door]--- Now, the term "hackers" comes from the phrase and underlying idea of "To Hack." What this means is that you navigate, understand, and negotiate a field, or variety of information. Think of it like this: When someone, in, say, a War couldn't deal with what was going on around him, and he had a break down, his buddies would shake their heads and say "He couldn't Hack it." He couldn't navigate the systems, well enough to survive. (TDOTHT - [Big Robot Dinosaur]). This goes for school, work, accounting, music, Social situations, Anything where you have to understand and manipulate a certain kind of data, to get through, unscathed. Now that that's understood, let us move on to what the media actually means, when they use the term Hacker.
The idea that flows into the minds of the popular culture, when they hear the term Hacker (and it's even begun to affect those of us that know better) is of someone, somewhere creating viruses, and breaking into to government systems, with the intent of destroying information, and wreaking a general Havoc. (Moxy Fruvous - [Heatseeker Boy]). This is not a Hacker. A hacker treasures information, for it is their trade, and their life's blood. The flow and swirl of the world's information is that which drives them. They may violate some privacy issues, and read some "Secret" government files, but this is because they believe that the information is something which Everyone has a right to know. No, hackers don't destroy, and malevolently disrupt. That description lies closer to what is more correctly termed a "Cracker".
Darkest of the Hillside Thickets - [Battered]--- A Cracker is someone who does exactly that: Cracks systems. Where a hacker is concerned with the gaining and understanding of Information, a Cracker (As i understand it) is more concerned with breaking into systems, for their sake. (Moxy Fruvous - [The Lazy Boy]). The above parenthetical qualification is there because i Don't know that much about Crackers. I know more about Hackers, because i Know more Hackers. It's that simple. That Hacking and Cracking are different, is the message i'm trying to get across, today. But there's still a problem.
Eminem - [My Dads Gone Crazy]--- The problem is, Hacking, even as i've defined it, is still illegal, in this country. Those who want nothing more than the free distribution of the information that they see as owed to us, by right, by our government, are persecuted and reviled as "Informational terrorists." And if you think i'm making that shit up, do a search of those terms, in a standard Search Engine, and see what happens. It's fucked up that, in this country, we're so worried about our secrets, that we're jailing, or limiting, the people with the greatest potential to help us, as a species, learn a new way to communicate, and a new paradigm of relation and privacy. I think that i've gone off, a bit, here.
Jump, Little Children - Come out Clean--- Just remember: If i suddenly and permanently disappear, all i was trying to do, was set a deffinitional record Straight.
On a related note: For those of you who have read "Cryptonomicon," last night i dreamed that i was in a swimming race with the Dentist. I beat him, because when i turned around, under water, i was propelled feet-forward, squid-like, by water dynamics, and rushes of oxygen. It was extremely odd....
Other than that, i'm off, yet again, to try to find the girl with whom i was supposed to be leaving the house, and, also, to find a way to the Chamber, for Farscape....Wish me Luck.
Tschusz
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