Word: hacker
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While at Harvard, Jackson will play a "hacker's game of tennis, and think about running in the Boston Marathon." He also plans to commute to his home in New York each weekend to visit his wife, Michelle Holmes '77, also a 1982 graduate of the Medical School...
...Hackers at C.M.U. like to test their tenacity by exploring ways of scaling the electronic barriers that protect computer systems or by engaging in protracted computer combat. In their wars, they try to block each other's access to programs or destroy those of their rivals. Recently a hacker created a program known informally as Lose Big; it looks like a game but actually is a trap that destroys the files of whoever runs the program. "Nerds," which is what hackers call computer dilettantes, are the chief victims of Lose Big. "You see a guy at the terminal," says...
...into Columbia University's computer system via an electronic link between the two schools. He could have damaged Columbia's main computer by exploiting a "bug," or error, in the operating system, but instead he quickly notified authorities of the problem. Two months ago a more diabolical hacker broke into C.M.U.'s DEC-20 system and misused an authorization code to destroy student, faculty and researcher files. It took university programmers 23 hours to restore the lost files from storage discs...
...Flaming" is another favorite hacker activity. To flame means to speak rapidly or obsessively on a variety of subjects both significant and trivial. Hackers flame by typing opinions, gossip and mad rantings into a computer file reserved as a community bulletin board. Those wanting to know what is on the mind of computerniks all over campus can call up the board on their terminals and read the latest flame. One recent public notice contained a rosy farewell message from the head of C.M.U.'s Computer Science Department, who explained that he was leaving the university...
...hacker culture generates its own rewards; success, such as rapid career advancement, is not that important. At 26, Jim McQuade is growing into hacker middle age. He has attended C.M.U. intermittently since 1974, with time off to do freelance computing for two firms. At one point he even considered becoming a drama major. Now a first-semester senior, McQuade uses his terminal for completing papers and assignments, for doing work as a Robotics Institute researcher, and for hacking programs on the side. Says he: "I'm not in any hurry to graduate...