Re: Hackers (was Is General Kind)

[prism!jm59@gatech.edu (MILLS,JOHN M.)]

In article <1993Apr7.174347.103@mksol.dseg.ti.com> mccall@mksol.dseg.ti.com (fr
ed j mccall 575-3539) writes:
>In <1993Apr5.131014.7376@mcc.com> breland@mcc.com (Mark A. Breland) writes:
>

[delete lots of optimistic prose, about the higher mission of hackers]

>You can disagree, but you are only perpetrating yet another of the
>modern 'misdefinitions' of 'hacker'.  No, he's not going to be

"You can call a dog's tail a leg, but that don't make it so." -- Abraham Lincol
n

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." -- William Shakespeare

"A marvelous animal is the flea, with scarcely a difference 'twixt He and She,
    but He can tell, and so can She."  -- unknown, oft quoted by my father

"What we have here is a failure to communicate"  -- Hud

'Hacker' means what the media mean it to mean. (could I say that fast??)
In popular usage it implies _lots_ more ability than responsibility 
though criminal intent may or may not be attributed.  I humbly [8*>)
suggest it's not a compliment, no matter how many software professionals (?)
wish that it were.

It's the editors of the world you need to convince, not the programmers.

'Sanitation engineers' drive garbage trucks in many PC (no, not 'Personal
Computer') contexts.  Keep trying, tho ..

Regards --jmm--

-- 
John M. Mills, SRE; Georgia Tech/GTRI/TSDL, Atlanta, GA 30332
uucp: ...!{decvax,hplabs,ncar,purdue,rutgers}!gatech!prism!jm59
Internet: john.m.mills@gtri.gatech.edu
EBENE Chocolat Noir 72% de Cacao - WEISS - 42000 St.Etienne - very fine