"The hackers brought joy, freedom, exploration..." (Score 1)

"The hackers brought joy, freedom, exploration and enterprise back to work..." Uh, no...and I think this attitude is telling. This is the second time this idea has been posited in this series, and it just isn't true. The tradition of technical and creative excellence applied to a craft has existed since the beginning of time. While there's an arguement to be made that the actual appreciation of such didn't start until the last few centuries, it's clear that modern "hackers" sure as hell didn't invent the idea as much as they embraced it..and then only as "Johnny come latelys". The difference between a 14th century Venetian glassblower and someone hacking code is one of available tools and technology, not outlook. The idea that hackers brought this ethos back into vogue just demonstrates what a narrow worldview the author, and by inference hackers, has. The only thing that makes the assertion even remotely possible is the perception that a particular technology (computers) has come into widespread usage without an equal increase in the general population's understanding of it. But that assertion ignores historical examples of the so-called "hacker ethos" having existed forever. A better example demonstrating the uniting power of a powerful, mass produced technology, but one that would invalidate the writer's overwrought article, would be to say that "Hot rodders brought joy, freedom, and exploration back to work." When the car became a widely available technology it created a sub-culture of technically and creatively skilled users united only by thier love of the machine. An overall wearing hillbilly cranking up his car to run 'shine and a dissolute piece of Euro-trash tuning up his Papa's race carraige for the next run against Jeanne Luc had the exact same love for the machine. And either could attain just as much economic gain from thier skills as modern day hackers. To this day you could plop down a Detroit engine designer with an African mechanic, forced to keep his car running with the most absurdly primitive tools and materials, and they could spend hours talking about the common technology that unites them. *That's* the ethos that brought joy, freedom, and exploration back to work- a love and appreciation for the possibilities of technology bordering on art. And "hacking" is at best it's latest incarnation, at worst a self-concious attempt at validation through the intentional ignorance of history.