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hacker
n. [originally, someone who makes furniture with an
axe] 1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable
systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most
users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary. 2. One who
programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming
rather than just theorizing about programming. 3. A person capable
of appreciating {hack value}. 4. A person who is good at programming
quickly. 5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does
work using it or on it; as in `a Unix hacker'. (Definitions 1 through
5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.) 6. An expert or
enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example.
7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming
or circumventing limitations. 8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who
tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence `password
hacker', `network hacker'. The correct term for this sense is {cracker}.
The term `hacker' also tends to connote membership in the global
community defined by the net (see {the network} and {Internet address}).
For discussion of some of the basics of this culture, see the How To
Become A Hacker (http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/faqs/hacker-howto.html)
FAQ. It also implies that the person described is seen to subscribe to
some version of the hacker ethic (see {hacker ethic}).
It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe
oneself that way. Hackers consider themselves something of an
elite (a meritocracy based on ability), though one to which new members
are gladly welcome. There is thus a certain ego satisfaction to be had
in identifying yourself as a hacker (but if you claim to be one and are
not, you'll quickly be labeled {bogus}). See also {wannabee}.
This term seems to have been first adopted as a badge in the 1960s
by the hacker culture surrounding TMRC and the MIT AI Lab. We have
a report that it was used in a sense close to this entry's by teenage
radio hams and electronics tinkerers in the mid-1950s.
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