Hur, indie programmer humor. People who think that are idiots. We live in a time when you can buy a computer the size of your hand that can do real time image analysis on a couple of AA batteries for $40. A couple decades ago that would be a classified munition with the assumption that one would build a better guided missile from it. Just because that computer in your pocket is polished doesn't mean it's a toy. A toy is a remote terminal incapable of executing machine code outside of drawing letters on the screen. Or a computer that only can remember 16,000 numbers at a time (that's not enough enough space for a crappy, unanimated GIF). Remember War Games, when he cracked open the handset of a payphone and made a free call by touching a soda can tab between the microphone and a ground wire? That was the level of technology not so long ago. Try writing your RoR craigslist knockoff using that.
Kids these days.
^this++
One of the arguments I make against black hat hacking when I answer emails to (mostly) kids is that there is soooo much available you can do to fulfill your wildest geeky dreams. I'm around 90% sure that, were I growing up now, I would have eschewed cracking and instead be hip deep in some nerdvana corner of the maker universe, wiring cats up for spaceflight or something similar.
So much of cultural is contextual, and on closer inspection the hero and villan are rarely who you thought they were. I saw your manifesto a long time ago, in a small town far, far away, and it played some part in making a bankers son want to be a hacker. Thanks for that.
Re:The Conscience of a Hacker
by chimeracoder on Monday January 14, 2013 @07:37PM
(#5057694)
> Hur, indie programmer humor.
> People who think that are idiots.
> Kids these days.
I try my best to keep the level of Hacker News discourse high, but your response is incredibly rude.
Well, the author (loydb) says otherwise. I appreciate that you ignored everything else I said, tho. To each their own.
Re:The Conscience of a Hacker
by chimeracoder on Monday January 14, 2013 @11:28PM
(#5058624)
No, I've just been on the Internet long enough to know that I have better ways of spending my time than trying to hold a debate with a person who calls me an idiot.
I'd argue that's what we're moving towards.