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From: braun@drivax.UUCP (Karl Braun)
Newsgroups: net.cse
Subject: Re: Where have all the hackers gone?
Message-ID: <71@drivax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 28-Dec-84 10:58:12 EST
Article-I.D.: drivax.71
Posted: Fri Dec 28 10:58:12 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 29-Dec-84 23:12:40 EST
References: <3137@utah-cs.UUCP> <417@ihu1h.UUCP> <35@rti-sel.UUCP> <65@drivax.UUCP> <43@rti-sel.UUCP>
Organization: Digital Research, Monterey, CA
Lines: 51

> > 
> > Which doesn't necessarily make them desireable or the best engineers.  What
> > good is a good hacker that interferes with getting the *product* out the door
> > by refusing to cooperate?
> > 
> 
> 	Who said anything about being an engineer? who said anything about
> getting a product out the door? who said anything about refusing to cooperate?
> Where the H*LL do you get off trying to twist my one line statement around
> to suit your ideas (term used loosely). Most of the hackers I know will
> readily cooperate with anyone who asks them. They will usually take the time
> to answer any questions and thereby spread the knowledge that they have
> obtained in pursuit of hacking. They also have a desire to get the product out
> the door. But not just any product. They will apply their skills to make the
> product as good as it can be. It seems, however, that all you are interested
> in is getting a marginal product that does not take advantage of the 
> capabilities of the machine and does not try to be as useful and powerful
> as possible. In that case, why don't you go work for IBM on that
> totally awful OS called CMS. Sounds like your kind of project. A system
> that will occasionally do what is desired after a long session of fighting
> the OS.
> 
> 					Randy Buckland
> 					Research Triangle Institute
> 					...!mcnc!rti-sel!rcb


Ouch! talk about twisting one line statements!  My statement was far from a 
sweeping damnation of all hackers.  If I have offended, please accept my 
apologies.  It was a late night statement made after some wrestling with 
'hacked' code made by someone who wasn't thinking about what he was doing.

And before you fire another salvo, I don't mean to imply that anyone who 
considers himself a hacker doesn't think about what he is doing.  I beleive
the argument extends from the descrepencies in the definition of 'hacker'.
When I made the comment, I was thinking of someone who hacks up someone elses
code to do just what HE wants it to do, without regard to what happens to the
code after he's through with it. 

My I ask how you managed to infer that all I'm interested in is getting a
*maginal* product out the door?  I think that if you knew me you would have a
different opinion.


-- 
			kral
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