This weblog is running on WordPress version 1.0. It was chosen over other weblog and CMS script after testing quite a few, not that WordPress is the best or has the most features. I narrowed down to WordPress and two others because I found WordPress looks simple and straight to the point, has an easy and user friendly administration area. Some CMS or Blog software have an administration area that need a “software engineer” to understand and of course has tons of features that you will never use if what you need is just to create a weblog. The final choice of any software is the enduser (same as creating web pages it should be designed with your intended visitors in mind) so after narrowing down to my selected few I asked my intended user(and you know who) to select the one she felt most comfortable with. Her final choice was WordPress! based on WordPress’s simple and elegant look, easy and obstructives administration area so final decision was — WordPress.

After using WordPress for a very short time(one posting actually) came the first complaint - “no clickable smilies”. Smilies or emoticons don’t show up on the editing area so you can’t look at it and click on the one you want to use. Instead you need to remember what acronyms or assoicated key stroke to type before they will show up on your blog. This is no problem for an old hand or people who are already familiar with emotions but not someone who is not familiar with the vast range of emoticon or smilies available in that tiny yellow looking animated cartoon like character. A peep into WordPress’s php script and the image folder found that it actually has quite a rich set of smilies in the image folder! So I tried to break into the code to see how the actual emoticons were associated with the keystrokes. Before I did that I made a detour to WordPress.org website. I found they have a section called HACKS. Now what the hack is HACKS? I’ll return to this shortly. In this HACKS area I found my answer to the “clickable smilies”. … Actually this HACKS area is still under development and all messages are presently in a forum format. There I found a few guys also had the same problem and they had already come up with solutions on how to add clickable smilies to WordPress installation. There are tons of forum messages of people exchanging ideas on how to implement clickable smilies and what problems they faced and how it was solved. All these made my live so easy. Instead of creating my script it took me just 10 minutes to download a readymade patch and install it and here comes my clickable smilies on my WordPress installation. Thanks to all the Hackers in that HACKS area!

So what the hack is HACK and what is HACKS and who are Hackers? Today the media and many government agencies all over the world as well as the so called computer security experts try to paint a picture that hackers are thieves, spammers and undesirable elements of the IT trade. The truth is if there were no hackers there will be no IT trade. The whole IT industry is created by hackers. So it’s not fair to call every hacker as thief, spammer and undesirable element of the IT trade. As in the example above all those who participated in the WordPress.org HACKS area are rightfully hackers so are they all bad guys? They created new features and improved on a software that is free for all and made the software progress as you just witnessed above.

Here I quote from the sdf.lonestar.org FAQ about hack and hacker

“The word HACK (as techie JARGON) originated with the MIT Tech Model RailRoad Club (TMRC) in the 1950’s. Members of the club would call their clever modifications to electronic switching relays ‘hacks’. When the TX-0 and PDP-1 machines were introduced, the TMRC members began using their jargon to describe what they were doing with the computers. This went on for years as new machines such as the PDP-6 and later the PDP-10 were introduced.”

( BTW the PDP-1 to PDP-10 are “ancients” mini computer of the 60s and 70s, and the TX-0 is the first transistorised computer, the direct ancestor of the PDP-1!)

A hack is rightfully referring to a way of solving a problem with limited knowledge and arriving at a solution by improving and advancing our understanding of the problem.

Below is what the TMRC (Tech Model RailRoad Club) of MIT says about hacking:

“We at TMRC use the term “hacker” only in its original meaning, someone who applies ingenuity to create a clever result, called a hack. The essence of a hack is that it is done quickly, and is usually inelegant. It accomplishes the desired goal without changing the design of the system it is embedded in. Despite often being at odds with the design of the larger system, a hack is generally quite clever and effective. This original benevolent meaning stands in stark contrast to the later and more commonly used meaning of a “hacker”, typically as a person who breaks into computer networks in order to steal or vandalize. Here at TMRC, where the words “hack” and “hacker” originated and have been used proudly since the late 1950s, we resent the misapplication of the word to mean the committing of illegal acts. People who do those things are better described by expressions such as “thieves”, “password crackers”. or “computer vandals”. They are certainly not true hackers, as they do not understand the hacker ethic.”

Need I say more about what the word hack and hackers actually imply? I guess I can’t put it in any better way than what TMRC and sdf.lonestar.org has phrased it. Using an individual’s acquired skills to break into someone else’s computer system with malicious intention is not truly reflecting the meaning of the word hack as defined above. Those criminal actions by that individual is just like a highly skilled and experienced bank employee. He/she can use his/her skills and experiences gathered in his/her working life in the bank to improve and enhance the bank services for the bank’s customers or he/she can use those skills to cheat the bank or team up with criminals in organised crimes against the bank! We need to look at both sides of the coin. Hack was originally a learning process but how you use the skill you learned has nothing to do with the learning process.

Today it’s almost an unanimous belief that hackers are all bad guys. If you follow those people who first coined the word hack and in that sense real hackers are actually good guys. Just like the Chinese wushu or “kung fu” was originally invented for exercise, for health and self protection. It was never invented for the secret society or gangster in minds. Not just hacking, rather in any skills or learning process it’s how you use those skills you learned that makes the difference.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 11th, 2004 at 1:25 am and is filed under General.