The first week after the Littleton killings, we were blasted with all the standard cut and paste tragedy news in the mainstream media.. All the "the community is coming together" crap that always happens after a tragedy such as shit. But this is different. This really struck a nerve in the geek population, because many of us relate to the killers. As sick as I am sure it makes us all feel, its true. There is a little bit of them in a damn large population of us. We are doing someting about it, as a community, we _have_ come together.
Week one was everyone putting the peices together. I was watching it on several dozen mailling lists I administrate. I was actually waiting for someting along the lines of what was going on there to happen here on Slashdot. It has, and the Slashdot effect in its own little way is taking effect, but not on someone's website today, but alot of people's minds. A place were we are all happy to see the load averages cranking up.:)
"Thinking about these things can't help but make you smarter." -- Jello B.
It applies, big time. Although, this goes even farther. Jon is right, we should be carful what we ask for. Actually, scratch that. We would be _aware_ of what we ask for, and be ready for it when it comes.
On the Internet (as Jon put it at some point), a story rides is its own merit. This one has some real issues behind it, people are intrested/scarred/concerned/effected.. The action here WILL have an effect. Even if it is just to show some of the people truly effected by this that they are not alone.
As I see it, no matter what happens here, we win. As a community. The role the Internet has teken in this... is good.
... . "The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and
Still, after all the years I have been geeking, I have just not gotten the "anti-social hacker" stereotype.
I think the root of the problem is this: The "hackers" who get the most attention in the media are the ones who crack into systems. Aka: "Crackers" (Once we get around to getting hacker and cracker defined in the AP Style Journal, hopefully that will change.. But thats another story). The average cracker is a waste of brain cells who sits home scanning addr blocks for common holes looking for sites to crack. Yes, these people have no lives. No creativity either. I can remember very few "cracked sites" where I though some creativity was put into the page they put up.. (Not that I condone cracking pages..)
The main reason I am offended by the hacker vs. cracker vocabulary problems in the media is because I find myself compared to anti-social script kiddie idiots.
The average white hat is actually a pretty social person. Ususaly someone who like to share what they know with others in public forums. (At least from my experence..)
Bah.. I'm babbling again..:)
... . "The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and
Slashdot Mirror
This is going to be a interesting week.
:)
The first week after the Littleton killings, we were blasted with all the standard cut and paste tragedy news in the mainstream media.. All the "the community is coming together" crap that always happens after a tragedy such as shit. But this is different. This really struck a nerve in the geek population, because many of us relate to the killers. As sick as I am sure it makes us all feel, its true. There is a little bit of them in a damn large population of us. We are doing someting about it, as a community, we _have_ come together.
Week one was everyone putting the peices together. I was watching it on several dozen mailling lists I administrate. I was actually waiting for someting along the lines of what was going on there to happen here on Slashdot. It has, and the Slashdot effect in its own little way is taking effect, but not on someone's website today, but alot of people's minds. A place were we are all happy to see the load averages cranking up.
"Thinking about these things can't help but make you smarter." -- Jello B.
It applies, big time. Although, this goes even farther. Jon is right, we should be carful what we ask for. Actually, scratch that. We would be _aware_ of what we ask for, and be ready for it when it comes.
On the Internet (as Jon put it at some point), a story rides is its own merit. This one has some real issues behind it, people are intrested/scarred/concerned/effected.. The action here WILL have an effect. Even if it is just to show some of the people truly effected by this that they are not alone.
As I see it, no matter what happens here, we win. As a community. The role the Internet has teken in this... is good.
...
. "The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and
Actually.. I am in Nashville myself, and the same street jargon applies.
:) Kind of fits actually.
Of course, Cracker is not a positive term in hacking culture either.. So be it..
...
. "The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and
Still, after all the years I have been geeking, I have just not gotten the "anti-social hacker" stereotype.
:)
I think the root of the problem is this: The "hackers" who get the most attention in the media are the ones who crack into systems. Aka: "Crackers" (Once we get around to getting hacker and cracker defined in the AP Style Journal, hopefully that will change.. But thats another story). The average cracker is a waste of brain cells who sits home scanning addr blocks for common holes looking for sites to crack. Yes, these people have no lives. No creativity either. I can remember very few "cracked sites" where I though some creativity was put into the page they put up.. (Not that I condone cracking pages..)
The main reason I am offended by the hacker vs. cracker vocabulary problems in the media is because I find myself compared to anti-social script kiddie idiots.
The average white hat is actually a pretty social person. Ususaly someone who like to share what they know with others in public forums. (At least from my experence..)
Bah.. I'm babbling again..
...
. "The future masters of technology will have to be lighthearted and