Similarly, I could go to the library, rip out page seven of every book I can, stuff the pages in my backpack, and run home chortling at the mischief I have wrought. Again, this would affect a lot of people in a negative way, I would have the temporary satisfaction of having a bunch of page sevens, but in the long run, I would not really get much out of it. In fact, if I needed a resource later on, it might be missing page seven, and I am sure I would not keep all of those around.
I only see hacking as a glorified I-can-piss-further-than-you kind of action. Bragging rights for how many people's work one can screw up.
One of my current, favorite sites appears to have been hacked. Woot is fun to check out for the wacky deals on items, the silly write ups, and the crazy competitions. I get great entertainment value from this site. This morning, the "I want one" button on the main page was chasing my cursor around, and I kept getting "server is too busy" pages. My guess-a hacker is sitting somewhere with his version of a bunch of page sevens and laughing like a possessed gibbon. It could also be Woot! just having some April Fool's day fun.
On another note, I just received my new camera, a Canon Powershot S80. I look forward to using it to take photos similar to the one on my Cafepress store. I will take it out with me today and see what I can capture. I already saw some forsythia blooming that I would like to image.
2 comments:
I'm pretty sure the Woot was an inhouse joke. There were many ways to get to the discussions, etc. (tab key, browser view style as user, etc.) If an outsider modified the server's HTML served, then WOOT staff could/should have fixed it later in the day but didn't.
Your blog isn't really describing HACKING. You are condemning vandalism (and rightly). Sometimes hacking skills are used for vandalism, other times hacking skills are used for cracking protection, other times to add useful capabilities beyond what was designed or originally thought possible. Hacking is a skill and just a tool to be used for good or bad - like "guns".
Very good point. I quickly realized that it was an April Fool's joke. What had confused me was the "server busy" response I was receiving at the time as well as the chasing graphic.
Also good point on hacking. Pushing a system to know its limits and to expand them can be very useful, but crossing the line into vadalism is a royal pain, be it digital or not. I have had to clean up other's ideas of fun that cost me time and somebody (sometimes me) money. That is the stuff that I to which I am referring.
Dan
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