On mySimon: Michael Kors Razor Clogs
BNET Business Network:
BNET
TechRepublic
ZDNet
TalkBack 14 of 38:
Next »
« Previous
Usage is the Final Arbiter
Unlike French and Spanish, English has no official Academy determining the meaning of words. Usage is the final arbiter.

Unfortunately, the press has had far too much influence over that usage. And in the _press_ usage, there is no such distinction between 'cracker' and 'hacker'. The press uses 'hacker' indiscriminately for both.

So although I sympathize with your desire to preserve the honor of 'hacker' for the honorable hacker, I am afraid you are fighting a losing battle. Better to be prepared for the damage the press has already done, and always say 'honest hacker' vs. 'malicious hacker' (or the like).
Posted by: mejohnsn   Posted on: 03/23/07 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use
Reply to Story Reply to Message

Alert moderator to an offensive message

Subscribe to this discussion via Email or RSS

Easy fix  nECrO_z | 03/20/07
Now were thinking .  Intellihence | 03/20/07
Not so easy...  ridingthewind | 03/21/07
So true, everything uses JavaScript these days. You would spend half of  DonnieBoy | 03/21/07
Maybe temporarily  John Sawyer | 03/23/07
Easier than you think...  doas777 | 03/21/07
Not completely true  TripleII | 03/21/07
Speak for yourself  JDThompson | 03/21/07
Speak 4 urself, but not TO urself!  mejohnsn | 03/23/07
Not true  CobraA1 | 03/22/07
That's probably been hiddenly addressed  Boot_Agnostic | 03/21/07
Hack the Hacker ?  JackSprat_1984@... | 03/21/07
Hacker vs cracker  John Sawyer | 03/23/07
Usage is the Final Arbiter  mejohnsn | 03/23/07
Firefox w/ noscript - not that difficult  not-a-zealot | 03/21/07
Maybe, but...  adsanders@... | 03/21/07
Not particularly amazing  lfugate@... | 03/21/07
not particularily true  cfortune | 03/21/07
Repeated  TripleII | 03/21/07
?  SmudgeTheFirst | 03/21/07
javascript  shryko | 03/21/07
use it yourself to sniff vulnerabilities in your own site  cfortune | 03/21/07
Guess it's time to restrict ECMAscript...  Resuna | 03/21/07
Old news....  PhilFrisbieJr | 03/21/07
So let me see if I've got this straight...  Heatlesssun1 | 03/21/07
Curiousity... Why write these codes in the first place  Fragash | 03/21/07
use linux; be secure  milkyway8754@... | 03/21/07
Javascript is cross-platform  JDThompson | 03/21/07
Wrong site...  cmjrees | 03/22/07
Hacker Conventions????  hrwaller | 03/22/07
Terrorists?  cmjrees | 03/22/07
Hackers? Burglars? Security?!!  dcellerd@... | 03/22/07
Depends  CobraA1 | 03/22/07
Hacker Cure?  crawdad2k | 03/22/07
This is why I use NoScript (nt)  CobraA1 | 03/22/07
BTW, NoScript just updated to help prevent this (nt)  CobraA1 | 03/27/07
Re: BTW, NoScript just updated to help prevent this  bill deville | 01/16/08
One unanswered question...  Night_Bengal@... | 03/25/07

What do you think?

SponsoredWhite Papers, Webcasts, and Downloads

advertisement
Click Here
advertisement

SmartPlanet

Click Here