Please dont take this as a flame but I despise Jackass and it's ilk. Again _PLEASE_ dont think I'm flaming you, I'm not. The fact that you pointed out the article is great, I have never seen it before and it was quite interesting. It also broadened the argument and your point that hacking is not just about "cracking root" is a good one.
All quotes taken from the linked to document (RMS.)
quote:
playful
Jackass is not playful - it is deliberately harmful and attention seeking. Playfulness is incompatible with harmfullness. If I throw a water baloon at you via an elaborate system of ropes and pulleys I am being playful. If I throw a brick I am being a dickhead.
quote:
cleverness
Jackass is not clever. Not by a long shot.
quote:
exploration
Jackass was not exploring new ground. The puerile stupidity of that show is a mere rip off of years upon years of other practical joke/home video shows.
quote:
Hackers typically had little respect for the silly rules that administrators like to impose
Lets face it as often as the Jackass stooges must get arrested they don't have the intelligence to question the laws that govern them and their purpose. Nor are they capable of circumventing them in subtle ways should they choose to.
quote:
finding a way to do a certain computation with only 5 instructions when the shortest known program required 6, writing a program to print numbers in roman numerals, or writing a program to understand questions in English.
As I have seen said by countless other members of the "elite" (eg ESR) hackers create, they do not destroy. Jackass destroys.
and the most important point-
quote:
Hurting people is bad, amusing the community is good.
