Hacking, Hacker > Cracker
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There is a community, a shared culture, of expert programmers and networking wizards that traces its history back through decades to the first time-sharing minicomputers and the earliest ARPAnet experiments. The members of this culture originated the term `hacker'. Hackers built the Internet. Hackers made the Unix operating system what it is today. Hackers run Usenet. Hackers make the World Wide Web work. If you are part of this culture, if you have contributed to it and other people in it know who you are and call you a hacker, you're a hacker.
The hacker mind-set is not confined to this software-hacker culture. There are people who apply the hacker attitude to other things, like electronics or music -- actually, you can find it at the highest levels of any science or art. Software hackers recognize these kindred spirits elsewhere and may call them "hackers" too -- and some claim that the hacker nature is really independent of the particular medium the hacker works in. But in the rest of this document we will focus on the skills and attitudes of software hackers, and the traditions of the shared culture that originated the term `hacker'.
There is another group of people who loudly call themselves hackers, but aren't. These are people (mainly adolescent males) who get a kick out of breaking into computers and phreaking the phone system. Real hackers call these people `crackers' and want nothing to do with them. Real hackers mostly think crackers are lazy, irresponsible, and not very bright, and object that being able to break security doesn't make you a hacker any more than being able to hotwire cars makes you an automotive engineer. Unfortunately, many journalists and writers have been fooled into using the word `hacker' to describe crackers; this irritates real hackers no end.
The basic difference is this: hackers build things, crackers break them.
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If you want to be a hacker, live learn and prosper along side some of the best security minded people I have ever had the pleasure to chat with.
If you want to be a cracker, go read the alt.2600 newsgroup and get ready to do five to ten in the slammer after finding out you aren't as smart as you think you are.
In short if you want to be maliciuos this site is not for you !!!.
The Post is from bbs text
I have copied it onto my website for you zombieman.
http://itdepartment.0catch.com
note: this is on some ropey free host who includes popups in the free price.
if you minimise the first popup you usually don't get to many more.
Cheers
Some people just don't get it eh
How do I crack registration codes indeed.
Start at the beggining of this forum and perhaps you will get the point.
Ascii Art was pretty Kewl
L33t Talk and Ascii Art were pretty Kewl,
Check out the HTML attatchment.
I am still sticking by the definition of hacker in the essay. I prefer it to all others and it does give a specific name to people with good Computer and English skills as well as a positive and enquisitive mental attitude.
In short, If hacker isn't the name for people like us then what is the word ?