Since we already have "Random failure" post I thought I add an "Epic 
failure" one ... turns out it may be an "Epic Success" (for some) 
depending on how you look at it of course. One thing's for sure is that 
there's at the very least 26,000 very stupid people in this world.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17381214

Holy Crap ... makes my head hurt!

Post a reply to this message

> Since we already have "Random failure" post I thought I add an "Epic
> failure" one ... turns out it may be an "Epic Success" (for some)
> depending on how you look at it of course. One thing's for sure is that
> there's at the very least 26,000 very stupid people in this world.
>
> http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17381214
>
> Holy Crap ... makes my head hurt!

Yup, a bunch of 14 year olds in their mom's basements who want to be 
hackers without knowing the first thing about it.

-- 
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/*    flabreque    */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/*        @        */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }

Post a reply to this message

On 16/03/2012 12:54 PM, Francois Labreque wrote:

> Yup, a bunch of 14 year olds in their mom's basements who want to be
> hackers without knowing the first thing about it.

Required CAD quote: http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20030606

(You have no idea how long I've waited to use that...)

Post a reply to this message

Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> On 16/03/2012 12:54 PM, Francois Labreque wrote:

> > Yup, a bunch of 14 year olds in their mom's basements who want to be
> > hackers without knowing the first thing about it.

> Required CAD quote: http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20030606

  OTOH, how do you define "hacking"?

  Is, for example, reverse-engineering a proprietary file format and writing
a reader library for it "hacking"?

  Is disassembling an executable and making a modification to it "hacking"?

  Is running a port scanner and finding a security vulnerability in a
remote system (but without actually knowing how the scanner is doing it)
"hacking"?

  Is deciphering the data transfer format of a poorly programmed browser
game in order to send bogus high scores "hacking"?

  Is configuring a unix system to support an obscure device "hacking"?

  Is fixing someone's PC by running scandisk "hacking"?

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

>>> Yup, a bunch of 14 year olds in their mom's basements who want to be
>>> hackers without knowing the first thing about it.
>
>> Required CAD quote: http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20030606
>
>    OTOH, how do you define "hacking"?

I think the necessary criterion is that it's any activity requiring 
technical knowledge and skill.

Once time I fed a program into my GPU which made it render volumetric 
fog, with realtime computed gas motion. That's very technical and 
impressive. However, since I didn't actually /write/ that code, nor have 
any comprehension for how it even works, that doesn't count as hacking. 
All I did was download a file and run it. That requires little to no 
technical skill on my part.

I suppose it's a bit like saying what counts as "writing a book"? Does 
the book actually have to be /published/? Does it still count if the 
book doesn't get published? How big does the document have to be to 
count as a "book"? Because, hey, I've written lengthy discussions on 
stuff. But does that count as "writing a book"?

>    Is fixing someone's PC by running scandisk "hacking"?

And then of course, in everyday culture "hacking" refers only to 
technical activities which are in some way /illegal/. :-P

Post a reply to this message

Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> >>> Yup, a bunch of 14 year olds in their mom's basements who want to be
> >>> hackers without knowing the first thing about it.
> >
> >> Required CAD quote: http://www.cad-comic.com/cad/20030606
> >
> >    OTOH, how do you define "hacking"?

> I think the necessary criterion is that it's any activity requiring 
> technical knowledge and skill.

  It may be necessary, but not sufficient. I can write a program that
calculates the mandelbrot set, but that's not usually considered hacking.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

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 ;-)

-- 
Regards
     Stephen

Post a reply to this message

>>>     OTOH, how do you define "hacking"?
>
>> I think the necessary criterion is that it's any activity requiring
>> technical knowledge and skill.
>
>    It may be necessary, but not sufficient. I can write a program that
> calculates the mandelbrot set, but that's not usually considered hacking.

Well, I would consider that hacking. But I guess the fundamental point 
is that the word lacks a coherent definition...

Post a reply to this message

Invisible <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> >>>     OTOH, how do you define "hacking"?
> >
> >> I think the necessary criterion is that it's any activity requiring
> >> technical knowledge and skill.
> >
> >    It may be necessary, but not sufficient. I can write a program that
> > calculates the mandelbrot set, but that's not usually considered hacking.

> Well, I would consider that hacking. But I guess the fundamental point 
> is that the word lacks a coherent definition...

  One rather usual characteristic is figuring out how something works
(usually something related to computers, and usually more specifically
something related to software) and using it or modifying it in an unusual
and unintended way.

  "Hacking into" a system usually means figuring out how to get past
security measurements by studying how it works and what its weaknesses
are. However, that's only one of the many things that are considered
hacking.

  Writing a program that does something mundane isn't usually considered
"hacking".

-- 
                                                          - Warp

Post a reply to this message

On 16/03/2012 03:42 PM, Warp wrote:

>    Writing a program that does something mundane isn't usually considered
> "hacking".

I don't know. People seem to use the phrase "I was hacking on XYZ" to 
mean the same thing is "I was working on the source code for XYZ", 
without any particular requirement that the code or the coding activity 
is anything remarkable.

Post a reply to this message