"
Regardless of the width or narrowness of the
definition, most modern hackers trace the word back to
MIT, where the term bubbled up as popular item of
student jargon in the early 1950s. In 1990 the MIT
Museum put together a journal documenting the hacking
phenomenon. According to the journal, students who
attended the institute during the fifties used the word
"hack" the way a modern student might use the word
"goof." Hanging a jalopy out a dormitory window was a
"hack," but anything harsh or malicious-e.g., egging a
rival dorm's windows or defacing a campus statue-fell
outside the bounds. Implicit within the definition of
"hack" was a spirit of harmless, creative fun.
This spirit would inspire the word's gerund form:
"hacking." A 1950s student who spent the better part of
the afternoon talking on the phone or dismantling a
radio might describe the activity as "hacking." Again,
a modern speaker would substitute the verb form of
"goof"-"goofing" or "goofing off"-to describe the same activity.
Pages:
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405