On Thu, 11 Jul 2002 Vinay Pai wrote :
"I'll not call crackers hackers again"
all puristic abt the whole hacker/cracker thing. Words in spoken languages mean whatever a majority (in fact any sufficiently large group) of ppl say... and like it or not, to a majority of people a hacker is the same as what the purists insist muct be called a "cracker". Haven't Hindi words like jungle, guru, mantra etc. have been accepted as legitimate english words bcos so many english-speaking folks use them?
Shouldn't the age-old "adapt or die" maxim apply here too?
I agree.
The media will continue to refer to 'crackers' as 'hackers'. That's the language their readers understand. Then more people will start (mis)calling crackers as hackers. It's a cumulative effect.
<flame-proof> I understand a hacker's sentiments about this, but wouldn't it be easier for hackers to call themselves something else? </flame-proof>
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