Computer Hackers:: What really are they?

Brand Killer Robots reveal::

So just what is a computer hacker? Is it male or female? 15 years old or 50?

Are they swarve and sophisticated or fat, spotty and tatty?

Are they icecold and calculating or are they cudly and stumble around problems?

Are they political activists or challenged by the notion of following the merest cause?

Do they desire wealth and power or are they happy to just 'be' on the Internet?

So just what is a computer hacker?

Forget the reference to 'computer' and you end up with the word 'hacker' - meaning someone who 'hacks'

To 'hack' means to solve problems through trial and error. In other words 'heuristically". In the early days of computing, engineers were expected to solve problems without any training or access to reference materials. The only way to fix computing problems was to approach the problem in as many creative ways, as would come to mind. The more problems you managed to solve, the greater the knowledge base of algorithms the engineer had to draw upon and the quicker and more capable you would be at solving future problems.

So the term hacker really relates to people who have courage, creative and intellectual skills to take on problems, many for the first time. People who are expected to perform some complex task with almost no prior knowledge base to draw upon. Hackers can come from all manner of backgrounds including engineering, marketing or journalism or a hundred other places. The one thing that is common to all hackers is their ability to solve problems, largely through trial 'n' error.

So whether a hacker is smart, hairy, bald or catholic matters not. All that matters is whether they are using their capabilities to solve problems for good or for bad.

If its for bad - better make sure you don't become a target!