The Word "Hacker"

[EvilAndrew]

I just read a really funny article about how Linux is Evil because it was made by â€Ã...“self proclaimed hackers.â€Ã,  Now I admit that the author of this blog is rather ignorant as to the inner-workings of computers [color=CC6633][1][/color] but I think the more interesting problem with this article is the misunderstanding over the word â€Ã...“hacker.â€Ã,  Clearly this blogger does not know that some people use the word hacker to mean â€Ã...“computer enthusiast.â€Ã,  I would like to hear what the CAOSters think about the usage of the word â€Ã...“Hacker.â€Ã,  

Here are a few ideas to get you started.
1. I think English is a living language and so if most people start to use the word hacker to mean â€Ã...“computer criminalâ€Ã, then it just confusing to try and fight that trend by using it to mean something else.

2. My mother (who is much more qualified than me when it comes to language [color=CC6633][2][/color]) once told me that she â€Ã...“works hard to preserve the meanings of wordsâ€Ã, so that her students can understand written works from different places and different times.

3. I am sure that both my mother and I would agree that you must consider your audience when selecting your vocabulary.  Unfortunately, it is hard to consider your audience when writing for the Internet because the audience is so big and contains people with so many different backgrounds [color=CC6633][3][/color].

4. A while back (10 years ago) CAOS was called CHAOS [color=CC6633][4][/color].  I believe that the name was changed to avoid giving the wrong impression to outsiders (such as prospective employers reading resumes and school administrators approving funding.)  What do you think about that?

[color=CC6633]
(1) The author seems to think that OS Shells and OS Kernels are the same thing & that source code is an obsolete construct designed to make programs hard to install and thus is no longer used by Windows programmers.

(2) She holds a PhD in English.

(3) For example, who would have guessed that a guy who voted for Nader (for all the good it did) would read a blog whose tag line is â€Ã...“We are counteracting the liberal war of lies!â€Ã, ;-)

(4) The H (of course) stood for Hacker.
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[blacklee]

EvilAndrew wrote:
 A while back (10 years ago) CAOS was called CHAOS [4]...
(4) The H (of course) stood for Hacker.

Seriously?  :-o

Speaking of English being a dynamic language, the article mentions the word "samizdat." I didn't know this word is utilized in English language. I used to read real samizdat.