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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!jona
From: jona@clyde.UUCP (Jon Allingham)
Newsgroups: net.college
Subject: Re: Where have all the hackers gone?
Message-ID: <676@clyde.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 10-Dec-84 09:28:19 EST
Article-I.D.: clyde.676
Posted: Mon Dec 10 09:28:19 1984
Date-Received: Tue, 11-Dec-84 02:47:06 EST
References: <3138@utah-cs.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories Whippany NJ
Lines: 53

> ...
>  Where have the hackers gone?  They must have gone somewhere.  Does 
>anyone know of a computer science department somewhere that has decent
>facilities but still allows undergraduates the oppertunity to work on
>their own projects.  Is there anyplace out there that gives
>undergraduates access to uucp.
>   I know that that is a lot to ask of a department, but the must
>be someplace, deep in the backwaters of computer sciencedom, laid back
>enough to give undergraduates the opportunity to really learn how to
>program.
> ...

I don't really think this 'article' is serious, but I'm responding
anyway.

I agree that too many schools are limiting computer access and enrollment
and that many budding computer scientists do just their work and not
anything creative, however I do not agree that hackers make the best
programmers.

1) many hacker-types I met in school were more interested in working on
their own projects and didn't always do the work they were supposed
to. This is not a person I would want to work for me.

2) their programs were often extremely clever, making use of lots
of unkown/unused features/bugs of various machines - often unportable
between different sites with the same series machine.

3) they tend to spend most of their time in the computer center and
often neglect other classwork they find dull and uninteresting. 
I still feel that an engineer should know more than just his/her
specialty in order to be more flexible.

4) how much future is there in hacking/programming? If all you want
to do is spend >8 hrs/day programming for the rest of your life fine,
I would get bored after a few years of that.

I do want to point out that I am not anti-hacker. I spent most of
my college career in the computer center. Since I worked in the 
Comp Center, I was one of the few people who had unlimited computer
resources and access and I took full advantage of that.
( not only that, but as cliche as it may sound: some of my best
friends are hackers. )

				Jon A.

PS.
For those of us with true understanding, hacking is the only pure
art form.
-- 
Jon M. Allingham	(201)386-3466	AT&T Bell Laboratories-WH

"Beam me up Scotty, no intelligent life down here!"