| Re: "Hackers" vs. "Crackers" [message #183991 is a reply to message #183986] |
Sat, 30 November 2013 16:51   |
The Natural Philosoph
Messages: 993
Registered: September 2010
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On 30/11/13 14:58, Steve wrote:
> In article <l7cql2$ueg$1(at)dont-email(dot)me>, jstucklex(at)attglobal(dot)net (Jerry
> Stuckle) wrote:
>
>> *Subject:* Re: "Hackers" vs. "Crackers"
>> *From:* Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex(at)attglobal(dot)net>
>> *Date:* Sat, 30 Nov 2013 08:53:37 -0500
>>
>> On 11/30/2013 6:49 AM, Steve wrote:
>>> In article <l6o95r$te7$1(at)dont-email(dot)me>, jstucklex(at)attglobal(dot)net
>>> (Jerry
>>> Stuckle) wrote:
>>>
>>>> *Subject:* Re: "Hackers" vs. "Crackers"
>>>> *From:* Jerry Stuckle <jstucklex(at)attglobal(dot)net>
>>>> *Date:* Fri, 22 Nov 2013 13:52:38 -0500
>>>>
>>> Hardware hackers are the opposite of software hackers.
>>>
>>> http://hackaday.com
>>>
>>
>> Who's talking about hardware hackers?
>>
>> --
>> ==================
>> Remove the "x" from my email address
>> Jerry Stuckle
>> JDS Computer Training Corp.
>> jstucklex(at)attglobal(dot)net
>> ==================
>>
> Somebody further up the thread suggested that hackers build.
>
> I was just pointing out that hardware hackers do, software hackers don't.
>
and even then you were wrong.
hacking is or was simply 'building without a formal specification' that
is you knocked something up and 'hacked' at it until it resembled what
you were trying to achieve. A bit like sculpting.
Iterative design is the technical term :-)
Any decent software or hardware person has done it. It pays when the
overhead of dong the design exceeds the time taken to hack away and get
somewhere. Most successful designs are a mixture of both.
Keith Duckworth on the Cosworth V8 engine development "we just hacked
off metal from the crankcase to reduce weight till it broke, then we'd
put that bit back and try somewhere else"
Software hacking is no different. Think of a part of the problem, you
know how to solve. Write that. Then decide what else you need. What you
have already written defines the interface to that, and means your
problem is already bounded. Hack code until what you have fits with the
first hack, and solves another bit. Repeat till it all works, then give
it to test and see where it breaks, then add bits back till it doesn't.
Then sell and wait for the bug reports. Anywone who thinks Microsoft
Windows wasn't written that way has never disassembled it.
Exactly the same is true of a Porsche sports car. Take a lousy swing
axled cheap nightmare of a car - a volkswagen beetle - and tune it up
till it breaks and keep adding bits over a period of 30 years till it
really actually does go quite fast and not break that often. Yes, its
still a tricky evil tail happy bitch of a car to drive so give your
customers lessons in how to handle, hack in some traction control and a
lot of electronics and pretend its more advanced that a car that doesn't
need all that to be safe to drive...
--
Ineptocracy
(in-ep-toc’-ra-cy) – a system of government where the least capable to
lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the
members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are
rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a
diminishing number of producers.
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