[Noisebridge-discuss] What is a hack? What is hacking? Who are hackers?

[Jason Dusek]

  One concern I have with the term "hack" is that it carries
  with it a notion of shoddiness or incompetence. In acting, a
  "hack" is an incompetent actor; in software, we often call
  things "hacks" when we they are done badly.

  However, I think in the warezing trades we generally mean
  something more specific by "hack".

  It is most common for a solution -- software or hardware -- to
  be labelled a "hack" when it is "skillfully out of spec". I
  think that this "deft misuse" is essential to programmers'
  understanding of the terms "hacker" and "hack". This has
  natural application outside programming.

  For example, Zedd's handling of uneven door frames and floors
  through imaginative use of cardboard will always stand out to
  me as evil and yet strangely correct.

--
Jason Dusek