From: jsq@tic.com
Subject: Re: computers and scanners (was Re: 'Hacking' the friendly skies) 
Originator: riddle@aahsa.tic.com
X-Submissions: eff-austin@tic.com
Organization: none
Submitted-By: jsq@tic.com
Date: Wed, 26 Aug 1992 13:04:35 GMT

>jsq>Another example of how words matter.  Now not only will anybody
>jsq>with a computer and a modem never know when the SS will come
>jsq>through the door, also anybody with a scanner now has the same
>jsq>problem.
> 
>As a host to a visit from the SS 25 years ago, I can only agree with
>you on the the flimsy reasons they can find to invite themselves
>over.

Sounds like there's a story behind that.  Do tell.

>As William S. Burroughs has so wonderfully stated:
> 
>    "Language is a virus."
> 
>Once introduced into the blood stream of discourse, it will replicate
>itself endlessly, no matter the truth or falsity.

If that were literally true, the jargon dictionary meaning of the
word hacker would have replicated itself unchanged.  Instead, a fragment
of it was broken off by reporters in the mediastream.  The media use
of the word to represent someone who breaks into things has always
been one meaning of the word.  They just took it to be the only meaning.

(I'm referring to the word as used in regards to computers.  It also
turns up in other fields, as in taxi driving and hack writing.)

>  I could give you
>many examples of artists that have injected there own fictional
>occurences into the daily news.  The times I have found myself the
>topic of news coverage has lead me to distrust the verity of any news
>article.

Did you see the article in Spy by a former reporter for Jack Anderson
who claims he made up stories about major national and international
events, and government policy in several cases reacted to them?

>... 
>We all have the power to add to the swarm of viral verbage, though
>it usually turns out that what is said first is what sticks.  In my
>opinion the best tactic is to just go ahead and overload the noun
>'hacker' with so many meanings that it becomes virtually meaning and
>useless.  Let us begin by terming all occurances of federal
>wiretapping as examples of government Freedom Hacking.

An interesting approach.

Also, for reference here is the Hacker's Dictionary definition:

hacker: [originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe] n.
   1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable
   systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most
   users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.  2. One who
   programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys
   programming rather than just theorizing about programming.  3. A
   person capable of appreciating {hack value}.  4. A person who is
   good at programming quickly.  5. An expert at a particular program,
   or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in `a UNIX
   hacker'.  (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who fit
   them congregate.)  6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind.  One
   might be an astronomy hacker, for example.  7. One who enjoys the
   intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing
   limitations.  8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to
   discover sensitive information by poking around.  Hence `password
   hacker', `network hacker'.  See {cracker}.

   It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe
   oneself that way.  Hackers consider themselves something of an
   elite (a meritocracy based on ability), though one to which new
   members are gladly welcome.  There is thus a certain ego
   satisfaction to be had in identifying yourself as a hacker (but if
   you claim to be one and are not, you'll quickly be labeled
   {bogus}).


Newsgroups: austin.eff