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preface
I believe everyone is familiar with the word “hacker”, especially for us computer people, it is quite familiar.
A hacker is a person who breaks into a computer. It’s also a synonym for computer crime. But that’s not what it meant.
The origin of
In the early 1960s, there was a student group at MIT called the Model Railroad Technical Club, and they called solutions to difficult problems hacks.
Hack has two meanings as a noun. It can refer either to an ingenious or convenient solution, or to a clumsy or less elegant solution. Both can be called hacks, but the former is a cool or neat hack, while the latter is a ugly or quick hack. To these students, solving a computer problem is like chopping down a big tree. The process of hacking is called hacking and the person who does it is simply hacking.
So in the 1960s, the word “hacker” was a symbol of competence, and the people who claimed to be hackers included a high degree of innovation, style, and craftsmanship, which meant that in the eyes of others, they were masters.
Richard Stallman, founder of the Free Software Foundation, believes that hackers must be playful, intelligent and adventurous at the same time. These are also the three values that hackers seek, not practicality or money.
Starting from this meaning, we can sometimes use this, for example, I at ordinary times in achieving a certain function, using the conventional methods cannot solve the (or when unexpected scientific solution), using the half not so scientific method (or don’t know why this way can solve this problem), We might say that we’ve solved the problem as a hack, and write a comment on the method to mark it as a hack, because other people might not know why.
The hacker spirit
In Steven Levy’s hacker book —-, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, hacker values are summarized in six “hacker ethics” :
- There should be no restrictions on the use of computers or any food that helps to understand the nature of the world. Try your hand at everything.
- All information should be free
- Distrust authority and advocate decentralization
- A hacker should be judged by his technical ability, not by other criteria such as his education, age or status
- You can use computers to create beauty and art
- Computers make life better
According to these six “hacker theories”, the core principles of hacker value can be summarized as: sharing, openness, democracy, free use of computers, and progress.
Some of the best programmers in history were hackers. They include Dennis Rich and Ken Thompson of Unix, Linus Torvalds of Linux, Eric Raymond of the open Source movement, Bill Gates of Microsoft, and many more. Formal hackers have pushed computers to greater heights.
Why “hacker” is misunderstood
According to the “hacker ethic”, hackers are disobedient and rebellious, as described by Steven Levy: “For hackers, a closed door is a provocation and a locked door is an insult. Hackers believe that people should be allowed to use tools and information freely only if they help improve the status quo and explore the unknown. When a hacker needs something to help him create, explore, or correct a device, he doesn’t go to the trouble of accepting ridiculous notions of exclusive property rights.”
They hack into computer systems not for their own gain, but for freedom, unlike computer criminals.
In the early 1980 s, however, a gang of teenage hacker invade some computer systems in the United States and Canada, by newsweek magazine cover is entitled “caution: hackers in action”, it is widely reported, in media reports put the hacker’s behavior in a very narrow aspects: invasion system. At the same time, those who invade the computer programmers also call themselves “hackers”, since then hackers in the public mind has become a harmful crowd.
conclusion
Real hackers work to change the world and make it work better.
A traditional hacker is a hacker. A cracker is a person who breaks into a computer system.
As programmers, we should all aim for the traditional hacker. Maybe you’re the next hacker, the next person to change the world.
Most of the whole article is from “Hackers and Painters”, which can be recommended for everyone to read this book and feel the true hacker spirit of that era. ** Finally, let us know in the comments who you think is the greatest hacker ever. **
Hello everyone, I am Tao Weng, I speak for myself!
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