To All: Oh Lord. Do you see what I mean? To this Anonymous Coward, that's the only definition of the word he knows.
To Anonymous Coward: Most of the people who post on SlashDot use the geek culture definition of the word. To them, a hacker isn't someone who breaks into computers. That's a cracker. I won't try to define hacker: it's done much better here
This is what we Americans call an ATM (Automatic Teller Machine) card. Originally, ATM cards were used solely at ATM's (the machines). They can now be used at many locations for purchases, just as you describe.
The advantage of a check card is that it IS a credit card. I was able to use my check card in Haifa Israel, Cannes France and Dubai UAE, without any problems. Anyplace, worldwide, which accepts a VISA card. (Foreign visits courtesy of the US Navy, for those who may be wondering.)
I say it's not accurate, because it doesn't say that the incorrect definition is a popular misconception
Accurate? Incorrect? Who determines the "true" definition of a word? Words HAVE no true meaning; definitions are mutable, existing in a constant state of flux. Most of the words you use have been altered from older meanings. (I almost said their "original" meaning, but that concept is pretty much meaningless for most words.)
I once saw a particularly obnoxious bit of writing which said "... words are arbitrary articulations for the purpose of distinction..." (Yeah, OK, but I was young at the time.) Cancer of the thesaurus aside, words really are arbitrary sounds. We create a sound and attach a meaning. That meaning is whatever we decide it is.
This isn't a corruption of hacker culture. Words have particularly broad shoulders; they're capable of carrying essentially as many definitions as we care to give them. It's generally straightforward to glean from the context which definition of the word is intended.
I'm not sure what the standard Canadian bank cards do. A "Check Card" is a credit card which extracts directly from your bank account. It's just like a credit card, even has the credit card logo on it, and is accepted anywhere a "normal" credit card is accepted. From the merchant's POV, it IS a credit card transaction. From the user's POV, it's like writing a check, only one which clears a bit faster.
If slashdot doesn't stop linking to articles that says hackers are computer criminals, I'll stop reading slashdot. *sigh* Why? Because I expect Slashdot to link to truthful stories.
A hacker IS a computer criminal. Why? Because that's what most people mean when they say it. Words mean whatever people understand them to mean. There is no Official Definitive Dictionary of the English Language somewhere which inscribes in stone the true definition of a word.
Language eveolves and changes. Just as the geek culture took words from "standard" English and changed their meaning, the non-geeks took one of our words and changed it's meaning. We don't own the langauge any more than they do; their definition of the word is no more incorrect than ours.
The first thing I thought of when I saw it was glowing mixed drinks. Seems like it'd be a real hit to order your date a glowing Sex On The Beach or similar. Don't know how it would affect the taste, though.
It's true that technology often changes only the details but it's equally true that the devil is in the details.
Is linking to an illegal copy the same as hosting an illegal copy?
What about if I link to the back-end of someone else's database? The database is freely available but by routing around their front-end, I've deprived them of the ad-share revenue they expected to gain.
If I'm in Virginia and view a site in California which violates Virginia laws, am I acting illegally? How about the person hosting the site in Ca?
These, and many many other examples, are things that had no counter-point when the laws were first written. It may be details but that makes them no less knotty a problem to figure out.
Slashdot Mirror
To Anonymous Coward: Most of the people who post on SlashDot use the geek culture definition of the word. To them, a hacker isn't someone who breaks into computers. That's a cracker. I won't try to define hacker: it's done much better here
The advantage of a check card is that it IS a credit card. I was able to use my check card in Haifa Israel, Cannes France and Dubai UAE, without any problems. Anyplace, worldwide, which accepts a VISA card. (Foreign visits courtesy of the US Navy, for those who may be wondering.)
Accurate? Incorrect? Who determines the "true" definition of a word? Words HAVE no true meaning; definitions are mutable, existing in a constant state of flux. Most of the words you use have been altered from older meanings. (I almost said their "original" meaning, but that concept is pretty much meaningless for most words.)
I once saw a particularly obnoxious bit of writing which said "... words are arbitrary articulations for the purpose of distinction ..." (Yeah, OK, but I was young at the time.) Cancer of the thesaurus aside, words really are arbitrary sounds. We create a sound and attach a meaning. That meaning is whatever we decide it is.
This isn't a corruption of hacker culture. Words have particularly broad shoulders; they're capable of carrying essentially as many definitions as we care to give them. It's generally straightforward to glean from the context which definition of the word is intended.
I'm not sure what the standard Canadian bank cards do. A "Check Card" is a credit card which extracts directly from your bank account. It's just like a credit card, even has the credit card logo on it, and is accepted anywhere a "normal" credit card is accepted. From the merchant's POV, it IS a credit card transaction. From the user's POV, it's like writing a check, only one which clears a bit faster.
Or store a 128bit key in a 1024bit location, mixing the actual key in with less random bits.
A hacker IS a computer criminal. Why? Because that's what most people mean when they say it. Words mean whatever people understand them to mean. There is no Official Definitive Dictionary of the English Language somewhere which inscribes in stone the true definition of a word.
Language eveolves and changes. Just as the geek culture took words from "standard" English and changed their meaning, the non-geeks took one of our words and changed it's meaning. We don't own the langauge any more than they do; their definition of the word is no more incorrect than ours.
Yeah, I know. Off-topic. -1
The first thing I thought of when I saw it was glowing mixed drinks. Seems like it'd be a real hit to order your date a glowing Sex On The Beach or similar. Don't know how it would affect the taste, though.
So this is an option, not a requirement? Do all RDS-enabled radios have the option of switching it off?
Is linking to an illegal copy the same as hosting an illegal copy?
What about if I link to the back-end of someone else's database? The database is freely available but by routing around their front-end, I've deprived them of the ad-share revenue they expected to gain.
If I'm in Virginia and view a site in California which violates Virginia laws, am I acting illegally? How about the person hosting the site in Ca?
These, and many many other examples, are things that had no counter-point when the laws were first written. It may be details but that makes them no less knotty a problem to figure out.