metanohi/site/writings/hacking.org

#+title: Hacking
#+summary: A simple description of what hacking is really about
#+license: wtfpl

* Hacking

He's a *hacker*! Oh no, the pirate's going to *hack* our computer! And our mobile
phones! And our TV! Run for your lives! He'll use our credit cards to *hack*
even more! He might even *hack* our fridge!

That's not a hacker. That's an evil person. Hackers are not evil. Hackers are
curious people. The evil person described above can be called a /cracker/
instead. Such a person can be said to /crack/ computers and mobile phones, not
hack them. Hacking is very different.

*Hacking* is the act of creating new ways to use objects with well-defined
uses. It's about experimenting, being clever, and playing. Hacking does not
have to result in something useful, though it sometimes does in the long
run. It's about the present.

When you've hacked something, you've created a *hack*. It can happen
spontaneously, or it can happen because you want it to happen.

Once, I was eating a pizza in a restaurant with a group of friends when one of
my friends couldn't eat anymore of his hummus. I had one slice of pizza back,
and he had a little hummus back. I realized then that I could /combine/ the
pizza and the hummus, and tada: I ate a hummus pizza slice (which was good, by
the way); i created a hack.

Much more clever hacks have been created, but the hummus pizza example should
serve as a simple example of what a real-life hack /could/ be --- a hack can be
so many things.

Hacking is often associated with software development, because that's often
about finding clever solutions and being open for new ways to do things.

** "Just stop it already. You've lost."

One could argue that the hacking community should just accept that the media
and the non-hacker part of the public have long ago changed the meaning of
hacker to "person who breaks digital security", and that hackers should just
find another word to describe themselves. But if we did that, all the history
associated with hacking would fade as new generations came along.

** External links

+ [[http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/H/hacker.html][The Jargon File: hacker]]
+ [[http://stallman.org/articles/on-hacking.html][stallman.org: On Hacking]]