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It was a security breach. Hack is a wrong term for it. See http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/meaning-of-hack.html


"Hacker" is like "GNU/Linux". 99% of the world has decided that it was just Linux and a hacker was a bad guy doing bad things with a computer.

At one point if you don't want to be the "GNU Nazi" or the "hacker Nazi" you have to go with the flow.


No, thanks. Hackers themselves should better know the right meaning of the word. Going with the flow? What was that about, this site has Hacker in the name if you didn't notice ;)


But is it still the "right" meaning of a word, if nearly everybody doesn't it use that way?

Language doesn't work by giving some people the authority to define what a word means, against the super-majority of users. Language changes through usage.

Yes, I'm all for using "hacker" the old-school way, but really doesn't help if the people whom I talk to misunderstand me.


> Language doesn't work by giving some people the authority to define what a word means

That's the point, so I'm using it the way I like ;)




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