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NY Times On Spam Zombies

Posted by Zonk on from the creddiiiiit-caaaaaardssss dept.

A discreetly valorous slashdotter writes "The NY Times is featuring a story about the growing armies of spam zombies. It focuses on New Jersey teen spammer Jasmine Singh. Choice quote: 'Hacking in its purest form is not about compensation or about wrecking a Web site. Hacking in its pure form is to show what you can do.'"

1 of 166 comments (clear)

  1. Re:That's exactly right... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It's not right in any meaningful sense.

    There are a crapload of people who for over 20 years have been using the term "hacker" in conjunction with words like "phreaker," which were the terms used by everyone in the 80s BBS scene. When people like you tell them "the word you've been using for two decades doesn't actually mean that," they will pat you on your cute little head and say "ok, whatever, run along now." Because ya know what? You don't own the word or its meaning. If I start calling my car a puppy and act condescending when people correct me then I'm an asshole, but if I've been using 'hacker' along with a huge community of others to self-identify for over 20 years then that's another story.

    The long and short of it is you don't control the word and it escaped your definition a long time ago. The word spawned another meaning a LONG time ago and although you might not like it you're powerless to make it go away. That's how language works.

    I'm sorry it annoys you, but thems the brakes, kiddo.