"hackers"

[Mark Eggers]

On Tue, 23 Apr 2013 22:54:07 -0400, Digimer wrote:

> On 04/23/2013 10:42 PM, Richard Vickery wrote:
>> Does anyone care to help me change the negative connotation that the
>> outside world has of this term, one step at a time? The CBC just used
>> the term with a negative frame on the Tuesday, 23 April 2013 30-minute
>> radio news at about the half-way point. Everyone ought to go to this
>> link and suggest that they should quit abusing the term.
>>
>> http://www.cbc.ca/w6/contact/
>>
>> to listen to her abuse of the term, go to the link with "contact"
>> removed / deleted - before Wednesday, 25 April at UTC 01:00 (PDT 18:00,
>> in case I did the math wrong).
>>
>> Of course, the media are infamous for abusing scientific terms, such as
>> calling the Higgs boson the god particle - a term scientists loathe -
>> so I out not lose too much sleep over it.
>>
>> regards,
>> Richard
> 
> I've been interviewed a couple of times by CBC and other media. Each
> time I explain what "hackers" means, and it doesn't really go anywhere.
> The way I see it, we just need more positive "hacker" and maker stories
> than there are bad ones. In the mean time, don't let it get to you. Just
> go do good stuff.

I've given up on this a long time ago - after being interviewed concerning 
RTM's worm. In spite of repeated, detailed explanations, the reporters 
refused to alter their use of the term.

It's annoying, since I've just spent the day hacking (figuring out why 
something didn't follow the documentation, filing a bug, and creating the 
patched documentation). I don't have the source, otherwise I'd attempt a 
patch.

Sadly, technologists are rarely good writers, good writers are rarely 
technologists, and reporters seem to be good at neither.

. . . . just my two cents.
/mde/