[alt.hackers] whatza hacker?

jef@ace.ee.lbl.gov (Jef Poskanzer) (01/12/90)

In the referenced message, burch@quik07.enet.dec.com (Ben Burch) wrote:
}I think here we have the beginnings of a war over the definition of the term
}hacker!
}
}I think that a "hacker" is one who programs computer systems for the
}love of the
}task, e.g., a computer artist.

This is your definition.  It is even the original definition.  It is *NOT*
the only definition.  Please do not chase off the telecom hackers.  You
clearly have a lot to learn from them.  For instance, perhaps you can
get Paula to tell you about TRW.

Obligatory hacking report: today I'm going to make a first cut at
generating real-time audio accompaniment for my real-time graphics
hack "squig".  Squig moves various shapes around the screen while
mutating and rotating the colormap.  I'm going to add a -l flag
that will make it log the current shape and colors, plus a timestamp,
every hundred milliseconds or so.  Then I'll pipe that to a separate
program which will do waveform interpolation and additive synthesis
based on the input, while keeping in sync with the timestamps.
---
Jef

  Jef Poskanzer  jef@well.sf.ca.us  {ucbvax, apple, hplabs}!well!jef
 "Thirty inches of thigh-slappin' blood-pumpin' nuclear brain damage."