Originally posted here by Egaladeist
x acidreign x,

For one thing...the term ' hacker ' is now a generalized term...to the general public...those who consider themselves the ' hacker ' elite ( the good guys ) may want to disregard this fact but it's a fact nonetheless...you can call it ' unforgivable ignorance ' but that's the ' hackers ' fault for letting their term fall to the wayside and allowing it to be used in the same sentence with criminal crackers...
I read the article...and I posted it because it was an editor from Security Focus and not some joe-whomever who has a problem with hackers...and I don't consider myself a retard...and I'm certainly not impotent...( I realize you probably meant that last remark to Kelly Martin ).

Eg
none of the insulting language in my post was for you, Eg, it was all for her, I was responding to the article, not your post about it.

The fact that the term "hacker" has entered the public discourse as being synonymous with computer criminal is not an excuse for her misuse of it. She is a professional who should know better than to further a misconception like that. Why is it an unforgivable politically incorrect foible to use the term "preist" to describe all child molestors even though the only preists who make the news ARE child molestors. It's considered a "cheap shot" to say that all preists are child molestors, even as a joke. but it's perfectly alright to do the EXACT same thing to hackers. To single hackers out as being criminals simply because so many computer criminals are given a title they don't deserve and touted as hackers in the media is no different. Hackers are simply extremely skilled computer users. Some of the more elitist of us use the term specifically for the security feild, but generally, the accepted definition is "computer expert". How does this have anything to do with crime? This is no different than referring to armed robbers as olympic marksmen. I'm not going to say that no olympic marksman has ever committed an armed robbery, and it's certain that all armed robbers are not olympic marksmen. But to sully the name of an admirable and difficult to attain title like that by equating it with petty crime is sick. Not all hackers are computer criminals and not all computer criminals are hackers.

Imagine a news story that went like this:

"CHAPEL HILL — When Sheila Bryan learned a preist had moved in next door, she painted a red-letter message on a white towel and tacked it to her garage: “Keep Coker Hills Rapist Free.”

In response, James Michael Walters has circulated through the neighborhood association a written explanation on how he came to be a preist.

Walters, 35, was convicted of second-degree rape of a girl in 1993 in Robeson County.

He originally was charged with first-degree statutory rape of a child under the age of 13. In the statement Walters released last week, he said he never raped the girl but merely fondled her with her consent when she was 13."
This is an actual news story from a newspaper website with the words "registered sex offender" replaced with "preist", now imagine how quick they would FIRE the mother****er who wrote it.