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In the old days "hacking" was used for just about any coding, or "computer programming" as it was called back then. There was even a programming magazine called "Hacker", which had nothing to do with the "malevolous programming" that the word "hacker" has become to mean.

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  • 2
    I always took hacking to mean (besides offensive security) solving a computing problem in a way that works without any care for expandability, modularity, scalability etc.
  • 1
    @Pseudonymous That's exactly how I'd roughly define it, too.
    I remember the malevolent people being called "cracker" rather than "hacker" and this was an important distinction back then - but could also be that I grew up in a rather strange corner of the net.
  • 1
    @Pseudonymous Fascinating.
    The hat thing - where does this even come from? Got to look it up. - was something I didn't even encounter before I getting to know other hackers. (Less common here in Germany I'd say.) I thought it more neutral, like a scale between hacking and cracking.
  • 1
    @nin0x03 Same here. "Cracker" for evil hackers ;) Then again, I'm also from a strange and remote corner, although I didn't yet have any "net" at that time, for many years to come.
  • 0
    @Pseudonymous Never heard about this hat thing. The only coloured hat I know of is Red Hat Linux, is it in any way related?
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