Re: TIB: Form


[Prev][Next][Index][Thread]

Re: TIB: Form




Grant Stockly wrote:
> 
> Naw...phreaking and cracking is still arround

Cracking has nothing to do with phreaking. Phreaking (aka
phone-phreaking) is the use of loop lines and fake numbers in the
telephone companies' systems. This was very popular once and carried
with it numerous cases of fraud. An excellent tool for hustling.
Do people really still do this? The boxes (black-box, blue-box etc.) are
no longer made, simply because the lines are more secure now (digital,
not analogue) so one would think they'd fixed the other problems as
well. I think the calling card biz is dying too, isn't it?

> ...btw, anyone who , by the
> 80s definition, programs is a hacker.
[...]

Not quite correct. The definition still goes. When you hack something
(usually a particular program) it is synonymous with the act of coming
up with a brilliant solution to a difficult problem. Improving the speed
of an algorithm by attacking it in a new and innovative way is surely a
hack. A good example is the invention of binary sorting. Binary sorting
has been mathematically proved to be the fastest way of sorting by
comparison of elements.
You can also hack a system by finding holes in the sourcecode and
exploiting them.
This has given rise to the "popular" definition of the word, which
merely implies that you break into a security system.
Personally, I swear to the original definition.

-- 
          Rene Kragh Pedersen
------------------------------------------------------------------
Apparently my clothes are defective.
 - Dilbert.


References: