IMHO a hacker is some one who thrives for knowledge they have a lust for power and the control they can have over a large network. some are good some are bad it will always be that way. we the white hat penetrate systems and leave a nice little warning for the sys admin which usually ends up with a nasty email from the sys admin saying why were u probing our network why were you there what was your buisness there etc etc but the sploit is usaully patched which IMO is a good thing. good job ennis a debate should be interesting

EDIT: i found an interesting read on hackers read it here -> http://www.totse.com/en/hack/introdu...g/denning.html