[HN Gopher] First recorded usage of "hacker" (2008)
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First recorded usage of "hacker" (2008)
Author : legrande
Score : 39 points
Date : 2022-02-05 18:05 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (manybutfinite.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (manybutfinite.com)
| dang wrote:
| Past related threads. I think there have been others, and it
| would be great if anybody found them so we could have a complete
| list.
|
| _First Recorded Usage of "Hacker" (2008)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19415484 - March 2019 (18
| comments)
|
| _First Recorded Usage of "Hacker" (2008)_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7795673 - May 2014 (8
| comments)
|
| _First Recorded Usage of word "Hacker"_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2170897 - Feb 2011 (1
| comment)
|
| _First recorded usage of "Hacker" from MIT paper in 1963_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=324032 - Oct 2008 (3
| comments)
|
| _First Recorded Usage of "Hacker"_ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=289215 - Aug 2008 (12
| comments)
|
| _The Orignal Hackers were Black Hats._ -
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=152565 - April 2008 (9
| comments)
| [deleted]
| dang wrote:
| As people in the subculture already know, the "the first known
| recorded usage of the word "hacker" in the tech sense" (to quote
| from the OP) was not this one, but the Tech Model Railroad Club
| dictionary of 1959, which not only used the word but defined it
| [1]: HACK: 1) something done without constructive
| end; 2) a project undertaken on bad self-advice; 3) an entropy
| booster; 4) to produce or attempt to produce, a hack.
|
| I emailed Shapiro a few years ago and he conceded not only that
| the TMRC reference was earlier, but more importantly, that he was
| "probably wrong about 'hacker' originally having malicious
| connotations" [2]. Since he was the originator of the malicious-
| origin theory, or at least its most authoritative proponent [3],
| that pretty much clears things up.
|
| [1] http://www.gricer.com/tmrc/dictionary1959.html
|
| [2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19416623
|
| [3] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=152627
| reaperducer wrote:
| Few people remember TMRC, or that model railroading it is
| pretty much the genesis of modern electronic computing. Today,
| model railroads are considered baby toys by many computer
| enthusiasts, even though doing a complicated layout correctly
| is more technically challenging than what 90% of HN people do
| for a day job.
|
| I'm old enough that I've seen the popular meaning of "hacker"
| flip from good to evil and back a number of times.
|
| When I was first introduced to it, it was mischievous, not
| evil. In the 70's I remember it being applied to people who
| would take other people's public domain programs, put their own
| names on them, and sell them at user group meetings and in the
| small ads in the back of computer magazines.
|
| By the 80's, it was applied to creative youngsters doing clever
| things with home computers.
|
| I'm not sure where it is today.
| shadowofneptune wrote:
| I feel that the word has fallen out of favor due to its usage
| in media. It means someone is either an operative for a
| foreign government, or Nedry from Jurassic Park. Neither is
| particularly flattering.
|
| I'm not sure what would term replaces the positive form of
| 'hacking' now. Hobbyist programming? Recreational
| programmimg? Do side projects mirroed on GitHub count as a
| hack?
| scoot wrote:
| I'm struggling to see the connection between this definition
| and the modern day non-black hat one. If anything, it's
| completely the opposite. "1)" above sounds more related to yak
| shaving.
|
| A hack on the other hand, far from being "without constructive
| end", based on "bad self-advice", or causing chaos ("entropy"),
| has a definite constructive end-goal, and is achieved through
| the clever application of knowledge, tools or technology to
| achieve an end result for which these where not originally
| intended.
|
| Sure, it could be considered a shortcut, or a temporary
| solution, but still one with a definite goal in mind.
|
| I note the commentary in [1] which seems to reframe the term to
| fit a more recent definition that that in the original TMRC
| definition.
| dang wrote:
| Good point. The original definition doesn't stand on its own;
| it's obviously humorous and understanding the wider meaning
| requires putting it in the context of the subculture it came
| out of. What's clear though is that it wasn't solely, or
| primarily, about breaking into insecure systems for malicious
| purposes.
|
| Steven Levy gave a lot of the context in _Hackers_ :
|
| _The core members hung out at the club for hours; constantly
| improving The System, arguing about what could be done next,
| developing a jargon of their own that seemed incomprehensible
| to outsiders who might chance on these teen-aged fanatics,
| with their checked short-sleeve shirts, pencils in their
| pockets, chino pants, and, always, a bottle of Coca-Cola by
| their side. (TMRC purchased its own Coke machine for the then
| forbidding sum of $165; at a tariff of five cents a bottle,
| the outlay was replaced in three months; to facilitate sales,
| Saunders built a change machine for Coke buyers that was
| still in use a decade later.) When a piece of equipment wasn
| 't working, it was "losing"; when a piece of equipment was
| ruined, it was "munged" (Mash Until No Good); the two desks
| in the comer of the room were not called the office, but the
| "orifice"; one who insisted on studying for courses was a
| "tool"; garbage was called "cruft"; and a project undertaken
| or a product built not solely to fulfill some constructive
| goal, but with some wild pleasure taken in mere involvement,
| was called a "hack."_
|
| _This latter term may have been suggested by ancient MIT
| lingo the word "hack" had long been used to describe the
| elaborate college pranks that MIT students would regularly
| devise, such as covering the dome that overlooked the campus
| with reflecting foil. But as the TMRC people used the word,
| there was serious respect implied. While someone might call a
| clever connection between relays a "mere hack," it would be
| understood that, to qualify as a hack, the feat must be
| imbued with innovation, style, and technical virtuosity. Even
| though one might self- deprecatingly say he was "hacking away
| at The System" (much as an axe-wielder hacks at logs), the
| artistry with which one hacked was recognized to be
| considerable._
|
| That wasn't an academic book though, so he didn't give
| citations for things like "the word 'hack' had long been used
| [etc.]"
| scoot wrote:
| Thank you. I was about to ask for pointers as to where I
| could learn more about the original context when you added
| this quote to your reply. It seems I have some reading to
| do - I probably should have read this years ago!
| tehchromic wrote:
| No link because people who like to read about hackers might be
| offended? Ok
| Maursault wrote:
| Here you go, generally regarded as the first hacker ever
| arrested[1], though the preferred term is phreak, I think
| phreaks are technically a subset of hackers.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Draper
| plapsley wrote:
| Draper was definitely not first hacker ever arrested, but
| perhaps "first hacker sentenced to prison." (Ralph Barclay,
| inventor of the blue box used for phone phreaking, was
| arrested in 1961 or so, almost a decade before Draper came on
| scene. When I interviewed him I said, "You were the first!"
| He laughed and responded, "Well, first to get caught,
| maybe.") http://explodingthephone.com/docs/dbx0575.pdf or
| more generally http://explodingthephone.com/search.php?q=barc
| lay&sort=relev...
| peter303 wrote:
| The oldest MIT hack I just looked up online is dates 1926. It
| means an elaborate practical joke. Often it is redecorating some
| part of MIT campus in a clever way. Occasionally it extends to
| rivals like Harvard and CalTech. I perpetrated a few in my day.
| whymauri wrote:
| Here's an image of one of my favorite pre-WW2 hacks (1936):
|
| https://mitadmissions.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/car_2.j...
|
| They later set the car on fire.
| ghaff wrote:
| There's a book called _Nightwork_ from MIT Press that sort of
| covers the history of hacks and related. (I think I have a
| couple photos in the original edition and I was involved in a
| fairly minor one.)
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