[punk0x29a]

The term "hacker" has lost its meaning from being overused by those who don't really understand.

Ocicat is quite right there. There seems to be an agreement in the media/entertainment to call this way ANYONE who messes around with computers, preferably in an unlawful manner... And I don't mean no conspiracy theory here ;P That's just how the entertainment industry works, I think

So is there confusion on the part of many? Yes, but the world still continues to rotate.

Yep, that's also true. I don't really believe that anything can be changed; with respect to this case, of course. Too much damage has been done ;-)

So, I don't think about this night and day, bouncing my head off the wall and stuff

But, what concerns me is that... Dunno how to call that.. Doublespeak, yeah. That's the good word.

Not only in nothern America. Everywere, it seems.

While loitering through this forum, I've found link to this awesome site:

http://www.over-yonder.net/~fullermd/rants/winstupid/1

I've been thinking... If using "MZFT ArchMacroVirus" [ (C)daemonfowl ;-) ] makes people lazy, what about overusing words that should mean something significant?

For example: word ,,Friend''

I'm not really sure if people belonging to (my_age_group.val() - 5*years) know true meaning of this word anymore - at all.

Regular behavior: Guys ,,talking" @ cigarette break with headphones plugged into their ears, listening to some pure-commercial radio stuff (I wont call it music, no way!), dazzling on telephone screens at the same time!
What a quality attention division! What a multitasking skill! ;-)
"Hey guys, wait" - says one of them, interrupting so-called "conversation", which is actually based on a mutual speech-jamming. - "Got to say hi to my girlfriend, or she'll be pissed off"
He opens up a F***book window on his phone, writes down "hi", presses down "send" button and - boom! Girl just 5 meters away (sic!) receives the message, replies "hi" and goes somewhere...
When I've asked him why he just didn't say "hi" he replied, quote:
It's easier this way...
unquote.

Well then... Something went wrong...

But, returning to main conversation:

So, to be clear, I'm not trying to insult anyone here and I don't want anybody to feel resentful because of me.

Intelligent persons wont call themselves "intelligent" , right?
Charismatic person wont say "I'm charismatic" ( unless this person is a celebrity ;-)

Calling yourself a hacker doesn't make you one.

Why then it's so ubiquitous?

. Hacker- an individual who is able to manipulate hardware or software to improve a situation.

Hmm... This definition would be adequate, and it clarifies situation a bit too. If that's how this term is now understood, then I'm okay with it.

As Richard Dawkins once said:
"There is nothing wrong in redefining words, as long as they're used in a clear and unambigous way"


Only the last part is something, in fact, hard to achieve...
While it's easy to catch term meaning on a forum like this, where one can find mostly adult people with no intention of

associate themselves with a mystique or inflate their own prowess.

, watching the guy who works in cybersecurity, talks about cybersecurity and calls himself hacker is, well... Dissipative ;-)

Yeah, I know, I know... It's all just a show and stuff, must be interesting... But... Still...

O!... Or watching this kind'a "art"
http://wwwcip.informatik.uni-erlange...sd-defaced.jpg


Update:

Now, after Edward Snowden's action, I wanted to find all these documents. After typing "nsa leaked documents" in google I've got:

50+ news/blog sites with titles like: "ANONYMOUS HACKER GROUP LEAKS SECRET NSA DOCUMENTS"

Ant then, somewhere deep, there is a site with: "Anonymous leaks not-so-secret NSA documents"

And, as it turns out, those "leaked" data were available publicly for a long, long time ;-)

And I still cant find nothing but those few ugly PPT slides...