The meaning of "Hack" has changed over the years. When I was a kid was something you or the cat coughed up, and was green and slimy. Today it can be positive or negative. Example last you want is a Hack doing work for you like a contractor building your home, or stealing your identity. Or that brilliant code writer who can make any app you want. Strange because people today wants to Hack everything, but the last thing they want is to be Hacked. One thing has not changed. It can still be slimy.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hack 6 c : a clever tip or technique for doing or improving something We asked entrepreneurs across industries to share their favorite productivity hacks, from useful organization apps to clever tricks for cutting down meeting times. The example illustrates the use of the word outside the computer programming context. I have been using "Hack" in this way my entire life, and I am 50. It's not a new use of the word, although its modern use did derive from the computer field - MIT in the 60's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_culture A solution or feat has "hack value" if it is done in a way that has finesse, cleverness or brilliance, which makes creativity an essential part of the meaning. For example, picking a difficult lock has hack value; smashing it does not. As another example, proving Fermat's last theorem by linking together most of modern mathematics has hack value; solving a combinatorial problem by exhaustively trying all possibilities does not. Hacking is not using process of elimination to find a solution; it's the process of finding a clever solution to a problem. But seriously, "Hints and Hacks" has you this riled up? Let look at "Kinks": https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/kink 1: a short tight twist or curl caused by a doubling or winding of something upon itself 2: a mental or physical peculiarity 3: a clever unusual way of doing something - BINGO! The only definition that fits. 4: a cramp in some part of the body 5: an imperfection likely to cause difficulties in the operation of something 6: unconventional sexual taste or behavior Not much that supports "kink" for what we're doing here...
Bruce Schneier has a good article on the subject: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2006/09/what_is_a_hacke.html A hacker is someone who thinks outside the box. It's someone who discards conventional wisdom, and does something else instead. It's someone who looks at the edge and wonders what's beyond. It's someone who sees a set of rules and wonders what happens if you don't follow them. A hacker is someone who experiments with the limitations of systems for intellectual curiosity. It even has a had radio reference: Remember the phone phreaks of yesteryear, the ones who could whistle into payphones and make free phone calls. Sure, they stole phone service. But it wasn't like they needed to make eight-hour calls to Manila or McMurdo. And their real work was secret knowledge: The phone network was a vast maze of information. They wanted to know the system better than the designers, and they wanted the ability to modify it to their will. Understanding how the phone system worked -- that was the true prize. Other early hackers were ham-radio hobbyists and model-train enthusiasts. Repurposing an old TV to be a ham radio is a hack of the first order, and many hams who experiment in this way - making things do things they were never intended to - are hackers by this definition. One I agree with, and have lived - proudly.
You ignore tradition. In what I wrote the ARRL, ...THIS... was my emphasis and the rationale for NOT going with some modern idea of a hacker. A "kink" being defined that way is also ignoring traditional meaning of the term by not realizing what it is to straighten out a kink in a wire and making it usable. Other similar concepts also apply and not applying the term to whatever can be conceived to spin the meaning. What I see here is a real struggle to make the word Hack a modern ham radio term. How many hams prefer this? Would the ARRL put to a popular vote which is preferred by the majority of hams? There are those who love to "invent" things and see themselves as novel and ingenious in some small way. 'therefore, taking a particular writer's personal definition of the words Hack and Hacker is reminiscent of someone who creates fiction just as we see those stories on the Internet that become viral but prove to be pure imagination and no more than a hoax. This kind of hoaxer is famous for twisting ideas and terms to suit their fancy in an effort to draw others into their little world. Keep in mind what was at the core of my letter to the ARRL: I questioned whether they were attempting to improve the column or were changing the name to attract others, people from the world of computer hackers. For me, I preferred to be associated with radio communication and hams instead of the hint that it was associated with hackers as in computer hackers, which is the much more popular concept associated with the term Hacker. Now I see an effort by some who apparently do not share my love for Amateur Radio Tradition to swing the term/s to whatever idea they can dream up and depend on some other person, not a majority, to supply them with the rationale. As for dictionary definitions, there is also the concept that preferred definitions are arranged first in the list and other, lesser-accepted definitions are listed far down the list. In other words, to whom was the ARRL attempting to address that column' s name change and to what purpose? Has tradition fallen into such low esteem? As for the meaning being used in areas other than computer technology, not everyone sees the definition in this way. As for my background in computers, etc., I was the assistant computer system maintenance administrator at the Sacramento Army Depot for several years and part of that time (five years) worked in Computer Assisted Design (CAD) while a telecommunications engineer. Where it comes to the concept of what Hacker means to most people, I was not born in the dark. My intention in writing the letter to the ARRL is being misinterpreted. I do not like change where change is not a dire necessity. Changing Kinks to Hacks was not necessary. They did not even reply to tell me why they thought it was so necessary. Ignoring my views on the subject is pure baloney. IF it was something of real value and was pushed by real need, it would have been easy to prove it to me and convince me. Because it was not done, I remain with the thought that it was not needed and/or necessary but was merely a change for the sake of change similar to putting a stop sign on a highway in the middle of a road crossing the desert where there is no other road and no intersection. I wonder if there are people in the highway department that look for places for such things like I also wonder if there is someone on the QST staff that sits up nights wondering what can be changed in the magazine — even where not necessary or needed.
That Blog is about security, not about ham radio. The reference to "Other early hackers were ham-radio hobbyists" was where Wayne Greene had editorials and some articles in 73 Magazine about little boxes that could "hack" telephone systems with tones and how the FCC had confiscated piles of those boxes. This cannot be used in association or applied to ham radio. And that was in a different era, somewhere in the mid-to-late '70's, about 50 years ago. Also, hacking into those phone systems is far from the stretch of using the term to improve some use of or concept in Ham Radio as is implied by Hints and Kinks/Hacks. What's next???
Me thinks you got that dead wrong. 1. Never seen an operator without kinked and coiled up cables. 2. Every ham operator I have met has a mental and/or physical ailments. Look around and see all the Walkers, Inhalers, O2 and Geritol bottles at a club therapy meetings. 3. Most are clever. 4. Every ham shack I have seen is cramped, messy, and short on space. 5. Of course all hams have imperfections and difficulty operating silly. 6. Hams have unconventional sexual taste and behavior. If they were not spending all that time playing radio would have more time for conventional sex.
A hack could be used to describe someone that has no clue what they are doing. Sort of a bull in a china shop scenario. You would not want a "hack" working for you. So hack as an adjective is not a compliment. Hack as a verb (maybe) not such a bad thing. Two different ways of looking at it. With all of the words available, hack would not have been my first choice. Good Day.
Very well said. Whether it as an adjective describing a hacking activity or using it as a verb, there are definitive, negative connotations. Where there is a questionable "hint" ascribed to a word, much better to just avoid the word or idea and go with the general, long-time accepted term. If anyone said that I had hacked something or that it was a hack job, I'd not feel it something to to be proud of. Reminds me of something my father said when I was young: "Never do anything that you can't brag about." Again, I cannot imagine anyone being offended by "Hints and Kinks" or that there should be anyone that sees that there is a change/improvement needed with the old term. Again, also, where a change does not provide an enhancement or betterment of a long-time traditional term, why change it? If it's merely a change for the sake of "changing something" — then will we see QST Magazine changed to something else? Like maybe QRZ Magazine or QRT Magazine? This is pure imagination, of course. Any fool could see that a name change does not necessarily lead to improvement even it it is to remove some imaginary negative attribute. Also reminds me of asking a kid if you call a cow's tail a leg, does it mean the cow now has five legs? When the kid says "Yes!" then tell him that merely calling the tail a leg does not make it a leg, it still has four legs. (This is good to teach children that just because someone says something is this or that way does not make it so...)
In the skilled trades the term 'hack' is definitely derogatory. You don't want to be called a hack, or be accused of doing hack work, or hacking up a job in any way shape or form. I have actually seen people be proud of work someone skilled in the trades would consider hack work. Like using all kinds of crazy things for electrical conduit.
When I first noticed the name change, it did give me pause. In the vernacular of the IT world, a "hack" is a cheap, quick, and dirty fix to keep something running until you can "do it the right way". A hack is a change done out of necessity and is not intended to be a permanent fix. That's just my definition, but the word "hack" has had a negative connotation in the IT community since well before hackers were a concern. Well done voicing your concerns to the ARRL instead of just complaining about it on the Zed, as so many of your critics do. Unfortunately, you did not get a response. I have had the same experience. It seems these days that the fellas in Newington don't really care how the membership feels on any given issue, and that's a shame. 3 years ago I emailed HQ about an experience I had with them at a hamfest, and received a phone call within a few hours. This year, I have written to all section managers and HQ about matters that directly affect the organization and it's future, and never got a response. So, after 25 years I'm letting my membership lapse. Don't take it personally, it SOP these days for them to ignore any hint of criticism.
I had QST and several other ham-related magazines in the '70's and let them lapse except for 73 Mazine because I liked 73's build-it articles. It was getting too expensive. QST was more into the organization and contests/club activities. It wasn't worth it to get one or two issues a year dedicated to antennas, etc. As for the equipment reviews, some are of passing interest but most are not. I also liked Ham Radio and CQ but 73 was better because of the number of experimenter articles. Had some articles published in 73, too. When it comes to renewing and getting QST, I will have to make a decision at the proper time. It boils down to what I actually get out of QST compared to the expense. At one time, a lifetime membership in the ARRL was on the order of a couple hundred dollars but it's much more than that now. I do not have money to throw up in the air.
I disagree. It can be, but I wouldn't say "definitely. Hack's at MIT, CalTech, UC Bizerkly, etc., can be the stuff of legends. This derogatory form of the noun "hack" derives from the everyday English sense "to cut or shape by or as if by crude or ruthless strokes" [Merriam-Webster] and is even used among users of the positive sense of "hacker" who produces "cool" or "neat" hacks. In other words, to "hack" at an original creation, as if with an axe, is to force-fit it into being usable for a task not intended by the original creator, and a "hacker" would be someone who does this habitually. (The original creator and the hacker may be the same person.) This usage is common in both programming, engineering and building. In programming, hacking in this sense appears to be tolerated and seen as a necessary compromise in many situations. Some argue that it should not be, due to this negative meaning; others argue that some kludges can, for all their ugliness and imperfection, still have "hack value". In a very universal sense, hacker also means someone who makes things work beyond perceived limits in a clever way in general, without necessarily referring to computers, especially at MIT.[24]That is, people who apply the creative attitude of software hackers in fields other than computing. This includes even activities that predate computer hacking, for example reality hackers or urban spelunkers (exploring undocumented or unauthorized areas in buildings). One specific example is clever pranks[25] traditionally perpetrated by MIT students, with the perpetrator being called hacker. For example, when MIT students surreptitiously put a fake police car atop the dome on MIT's Building 10,[26] that was a hack in this sense, and the students involved were therefore hackers. Another type of hacker is now called a reality hacker. More recent examples of usage for almost any type of playful cleverness are wetware hackers ("hack your brain"), media hackersand "hack your reputation". In a similar vein, a "hack" may refer to a math hack, that is, a clever solution to a mathematical problem. The GNU General Public License has been described as[by whom?] a copyright hack because it cleverly uses the copyright laws for a purpose the lawmakers did not foresee. All of these uses now also have spread beyond MIT as well. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker_culture. Ham radio is mentioned: "According to the Jargon File,[8] the word hacker was used in a similar sense among radio amateurs in the 1950s, predating the software hacking community." https://lifehacker.com/ - Full of little life "hacks". I guess it's all proof that words can been different things to different people. When I went to high school, being a "geek" was definitely a negative. Now it's cool.
Some definitions are no more than inventions from those who want to appear less then ignorant... Proper definitions are definitions accepted by dictionary consensus. There are those who invent definitions that are no more than fiction. Reminds me of a homeless guy who pushes one shopping care and pulls another. What is he? According to some who love to invent terms and scenarios, that homeless guy is a Social Climber.
