PC World - What’s Hackable Today? Almost Everything!
Hacks make products better in unexpected ways. Blessed be the hackers who create them–and the companies that permit them.
Harry McCracken, PC World
Wednesday, August 22, 2007 1:00 AM PDT
“Hacker.” It’s a word that’s been with us since the dawn of personal computing, but one whose connotations keep changing. At first it was positively complimentary: A hacker was someone who was really good at coming up with inventive, unexpected solutions to computing problems. Then it turned ugly, suggesting that the person in question was engaging in practices that were dubious or downright illegal.
Lately, though, hacking has swung back to a meaning closer to its original sense–and I couldn’t be happier about it. Today it describes any clever trick that gives a product functions other than those specifically intended by its creator. Hackers, and the hacks they come up with, have gone mainstream; better yet, you don’t need to be a hard-core geek to join the fun.
Source: PC World, October 2007
Filed under: technology
