Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site mit-eddie.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!mit-eddie!jfw From: jfw@mit-eddie.UUCP (John Woods) Newsgroups: net.followup Subject: Re: hackers Message-ID: <3283@mit-eddie.UUCP> Date: Sun, 9-Dec-84 23:40:30 EST Article-I.D.: mit-eddi.3283 Posted: Sun Dec 9 23:40:30 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 11-Dec-84 03:17:51 EST References: <361@wxlvax.UUCP> Organization: MIT, Cambridge, MA Lines: 36 > The country's media hacker fever seems on the rise again. I > would like to contribute to the clarity of the debate by telling > you about a "real" hacker I know. > My neighbour's son is a 15 years old hi-school kid. He is in the > football and baseball teams, and he is your typical > "all-american-good-boy" who makes a few bucks delivering the > Sunday papers, cutting the neighbours'grass or shoveling their > snow. Last Xmas, he got two gifts: a PC and an automobile tool > kit. He started then programming his PC, connecting himself to > various electronic boards and nets,...and became a hacker. At > the same time he also started messing around his mom's car, > and learned quiet a bit about engines, transmissions, and so on. > I trust his mechanical skills enough now, to hire him to change > my oil and tune up my engine, saving myself quiet a few dollars. As a Real Hacker (before it became popular), I'd like to analyze this. Did he become a "hacker" by learning to program and writing some complex computer systems that do interesting and/or amusing things? Or did he become a ``hacker'' by copying down a rote procedure for breaking into a computer system from a BBS? If someone repairs my car correctly and cheaply, especially when it looks hopeless, then I will accord them my highest honor and respect. If I find someone trying to break into my car, to damage it or to steal it, I will come after them with a tire iron and blood in my eyes. See the difference? If this Boy Wonder Next Door is trying to write the Great American Editor using his hand-assembled Ada(TM) compiler, more power to him, and I'd like to meet him. If he's trying to find out what my credit card numbers might be, I'd like to meet him -- me and my tire iron. -- John Woods, Charles River Data Systems decvax!frog!john, mit-eddie!jfw, JFW%mit-ccc@MIT-XX When your puppy goes off in another room, is it because of the explosive charge?