On 03/16/2012 02:16 PM, Stephen wrote:
> On 16/03/2012 5:04 PM, andrel wrote:
>> On 16-3-2012 15:57, Stephen wrote:
>>> On 16/03/2012 2:38 PM, Invisible wrote:
>>>> And then of course, in everyday culture "hacking" refers only to
>>>> technical activities which are in some way /illegal/. :-P
>>>
>>> I will go with that definition ;-)
>>>
>> Yes, it is a form of hijacking. Hacking was a used to mean doing
>> something skilled. As long as that was among the small in-crowd that was
>> not a problem. The outside world started noticing this term when there
>> was interaction with the non-computer world. I.e. when they started
>> hacking other devices like telephone equipment. When computers became
>> more important people also started to notice it in the context of
>> breaking in into computers. Mostly still as a way to show it could be
>> done, not to cause harm. It is around this time that companies and
>> institutions that preferred to attack the hackers in stead of fixing the
>> issues hijacked the term and made it into something that people
>> associate with illegal.
>>
>> Nowadays there is still a group of amateur hackers, but the largest
>> scale hacking is done by governments. If that is still illegal can be
>> disputed. The chinese are constantly trying to break into every western
>> company and institution. From e.g. a US POV that is illegal, but they
>> are doing it from china and there this activity is legal. The same for
>> US intelligence services trying to hack chinese government sites.
>>
> Yes, but not necessarily skilful, in the early days. Just guessing
> passwords or trying command codes to see what would happen would be
> described as hacking.
> One example that I can remember was when I worked offshore and telephone
> calls were regulated. It was possible to dial a speed code to a company

> PABX without any restrictions applying. So you could use an internal
> phone to get international calls. Just someone messing about.
>
> I think that the rest of what you say is true.
>

well ... it's true enough that /some/ good has come from hacking 
(soft/hardware) in the more benign sense, but lately, I would say the 
term has taken a beating, a more negative context. Seems like it just 
boils down to the fact that more folks are willing to push boundaries.

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