Comment on 4chan hacked and taken offline. Hacker reopens /qa/ and leaks all admins emails.
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 5 days agoI guess it’s like “hacking.” In the good old days, a “hacker” was a particularly clever software developer, now it’s someone who breaks into computers.
Can we please stop ruining the good words?
mutual_ayed@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Hacking is using something in a manner in which it was unintended by hacking parts of it, as with an axe.
Good discussion of it here with etymological references.
…stackexchange.com/…/what-does-the-word-hacking-o…
sugar_in_your_tea@sh.itjust.works 4 days ago
Exactly!
Hacking into a system is like hacking your way through a door to steal stuff. Hacking around hardware or software limitations to get what you want is creative and more similar to creating furniture with an axe, you’re doing things the tool was never meant to do, and doing it incrementally until you get the desired result.