[sentientmachine]

I guess we should give up on trying to keep the definition of the word "Hacker" as "brilliant programmer and technical expert".

We can't continue going around calling ourselves "Criminals", and that when we do a brilliant piece of work on an intractable software problem that we really "Hacked" it together, meaning we broke the law to steal it and kept all the money for ourselves.

The word "Hacker" has got to go, it is the same as the word "Criminal", "Burglar" or "Felon" now.

[pacificmint]

> The word "Hacker" has got to go, it is the same as the word "Criminal", "Burglar" or "Felon" now.

Now? To the majority of the population, it has had that meaning since the 80s.

It's only in tech circles that people have insistent it has another meaning, but that is useless if the majority doesn't share that meaning.

[__david__]

That hardly makes it useless, it just mean you have to be cognizant of both meanings and who your audience is.

[rbanffy]

No. It was our word before they took it. I will continue to use hacker as it should be used and enlighten the clueless when needed.