Some people obviously feel that Michael Jackson was a musical hacker.

The business aspects of Jackson's career are, perhaps, interesting and useful to this audience. For example, he acquired the publishing rights to much of the Beatles catalog at a bargain price in the 80's.

http://www.snopes.com/music/artists/jackson.asp

This was, obviously in hindsight (and probably at the time, as well), a very astute move, and the value of that catalog of music has only increased over time. Most of us would be very happy to have made business deals that put tens of million in our pocket, while still holding a share worth more than originally paid.

That's not to say a TMZ link is the best choice.

Unfortunately, he had to sell them later in his life, as he was going bankrupt.

Sold half. It's also rumored that his will gives his remaining half to Lennon/McCartney.

. . . and Jon and Kate are fertility hackers, and Paris Hilton is a PR hacker, and the Jonas Brothers are teen girl psychology hackers . . .

I don't know who Jon and Kate are, but Paris Hilton definitely is a PR hacker. Or if she is not, she is something even weirder, a self-feeding PR loop.

Maybe you should read his biography.

Maybe I'll go with Berry Gordy's first.

It doesn't matter who's wrong or right...

this is a really long reply chain

Seriously? You've put Michael Jackson in the same category as the Jonas Brothers.

And if they died, they'd prolly get a post on the front page here for an hour or so.

An article which explores Jackson's legacy from a 'hacker' perspective would be topical.

A news flash as might appear in a thousand other general-interest forums -- and from bottom-feeders TMZ no less -- I'd rather not see here.

It's an interesting point, I'll bite. What did Michael Jackson do that was in the hacker spirit, as opposed to just being an immensely talented musician?

he hacked his skin color.

also hacked into child processes.

wait, wrong hacker.

I was hacking my Apple IIe with "Thriller" playing in the background. I would like to think that counts for something. Perhaps that doesn't warrant the top link on HN at all - after all his death has no impact on the computer world. At the same time, his cultural contribution to my generation is just as much important to me as was the contribution of Bill Gates, Paul Allen, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak.

Add the Farrah poster that was probably on your wall at the time and today is an "interesting" day for those of us who are of a certain age...

Funny you should mention that; I remember playing with single-bit audio on the Apple II's speaker, and the title track from Thriller was about the only thing you could digitize and still recognize. Of course, only about 20-30 seconds would fit into memory...

It's not. If you can, flag it.