UMMM! you guys had better check your definitions, a hacker is a good programmer, no more, a cracker is someone who does what you seem to think a hacker does (ie break into other systems or attack them), the references have been mangled over the years but I have been around enough to know one from the other.
see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hacker
although the brainless press misunderstood and hijacked the term, amongst the Linux community programmers are still referred to as hackers, it was just the script kiddies that tried to steal the name hacker and apply it to themselves to make them look intelligent, a hacker is a programmer with an above average skill and ability (often disorganised
), crackers break into or disrupt systems.
almost two decades ago I was a hacker and hackers where people who could make a computer do things other users couldn`t, I resent script kiddies trying to steal my monicker, or that they think they are on the same level as me, I am a hacker and proud of it, I learnt the hard way on my own with just reference manuals, no internet, no forums, no downloadable tutorials, script kiddies are dumbasses who erase the drives on a system at 127.0.0.1 because they don`t know any better.
this is just the same as people who consider themselves "leet", in the early days of the net you couldn`t just go around downloading what you wanted and giving back nothing, you had a ratio, people who made good contributions could download more than people who didn`t, some people where considered so special (like Linus Torvalds) that they had the rating of "leet" or "elite", sysops allowed them to have no limits since they contributed to the community so much that it was considered worthwhile to allow them all the access they wanted, (just for the record, Gates was never "leet"...neither was I come to that).
nowdays kiddies with bad english and a tendency to make illegible posts seem to think themselves "leet",
real modern "leet" users still get special treatment on servers and networks "in the know", in some cases this is even extended to them having seriously fast (and normaly commercial only high speed connections) at home free of charge, servers for their own use etc.
Mentor.
PC1:XP, P4 3ghz, 1gig mem, 3x160gig hd`s, Radeon 9800pro, 6 way sound.
PC2: Linux, AMD 2ghz, 512mb ram, Nvidia GeForce4mx, 16 bit SB.
PC3: XP, laptop, intel 2.6ghz celeron, ATI 9000igp, 256mb
