does tweak mean hack

[fmhuff@yah]

just read the title thanx

[Muzer]

Pretty much yes. Tweaking in Worms 4 can go so far as to be called a mod now that people (_Kilburn) have discovered more and more about it, but the name was originally tweaking because only small mods were possible and now it's stuck.

[tal05]

hack usually means corruption or misuse of a program but i suppose there similar

[robowurmz]

hack usually means corruption or misuse of a program but i suppose there similar

You couldn't be more wrong if your name was W.Wrongy Wrongenstein. The colloquial term "hack" means to use computers expertly, and do interesting and incredible things with them. These are real hackers. People who give hacking a bad name and go around pirating, cracking, and phreaking phone lines are referred to in the hacker community as "crackers".

[_Kilburn]

Or "script kiddies". Too bad the word "hack" is usually misused by most people.

[Alien King]

You couldn't be more wrong if your name was W.Wrongy Wrongenstein. The colloquial term "hack" means to use computers expertly, and do interesting and incredible things with them.

Erm... I was under the belief that a hack was simply a quick (often crude) solution to a computing problem.

[tal05]

You couldn't be more wrong if your name was W.Wrongy Wrongenstein. The colloquial term "hack" means to use computers expertly, and do interesting and incredible things with them. These are real hackers. People who give hacking a bad name and go around pirating, cracking, and phreaking phone lines are referred to in the hacker community as "crackers".

i dont think you understood when i said "hack usually", i mean in modern terms not in the terms of a person that couldn't be more right even if you name was *clever asshole!*

[AndrewTaylor]

You couldn't be more wrong if your name was W.Wrongy Wrongenstein. The colloquial term "hack" means to use computers expertly, and do interesting and incredible things with them. These are real hackers. People who give hacking a bad name and go around pirating, cracking, and phreaking phone lines are referred to in the hacker community as "crackers".

No, it doesn't.

Hacking is gaining access to a computer system you're not supposed to.

Erm... I was under the belief that a hack was simply a quick (often crude) solution to a computing problem.

It can mean that too. Or, a lazy journalist, or to attack something with a knife.

[tal05]

No, it doesn't.

Hacking is gaining access to a computer system you're not supposed to.


who wins rw?

[robowurmz]

A "hack" now means a clever or quick fix to a computer program problem, as in "That hack you made last night to the editor is working well". A hacker came into the lexicon as meaning one who hacks, using this definition. The surface implication (which might be a modest mocking and play on the literary definition) was a casual attempt to fix the problem, but the deeper meaning was something more clever and thus impressive.

It was used especially among US university computing center staff, such as those at Stanford in the period beginning approximately in the mid-1960s. The context determined whether the complimentary or derogatory meanings were implied. Phrases such as "ugly hack" or "quick hack" generally referred to the latter meaning; phrases such as "cool hack" or
"neat hack" referred to the former.

In modern computer programming, a "hack" can refer to a solution or method which functions correctly but which is "ugly" in its concept, which works outside the accepted structures and norms of the environment, or which is not easily extendable or maintainable (see kludge).

In a similar vein, a "hack" may refer to works outside of computer programming. For example, a math hack means a clever solution to a mathematical problem. The GNU General Public License has been described as a copyright hack because it cleverly uses the copyright laws for a purpose the lawmakers did not foresee. All of these uses now also seem to be spreading beyond MIT as well.

The term has since acquired an additional and now more common meaning, since approximately the 1980s; this more modern definition was initially associated with crackers. This growing use of the term "hack" is to refer to a program that (sometimes illegally) modifies another program, often a computer game, giving the user access to features otherwise inaccessible to them. As an example of this use, for Palm OS users (until the 4th iteration of this operating system), a "hack" refers to an extension of the operating system which provides additional functionality. The general media also uses this term to describe the act of illegally breaking into a computer, but this meaning is disputed.

From our lovely Wikipedia. Well, it seems that all arguments are encompassed in this entry, so I guess either nobody is right or everyone is.

Also, they have a bit on the types of hacker;

Black Hat A Black Hat hacker concentrates on finding, and exploiting, the weaknesses in systems in order to perform malicious acts or to cause some kind of injury. All activities of the Black Hat hackers are considered crimes and so, where possible, prosecutions have, and continue to be, brought against this kind of hacker. They aren't respected in the hacker community.

Computer Security A Computer Security Hacker is someone who specializes in work with the security mechanisms for computer and network systems. Particularly within the US, the subculture around such hackers is termed "network hacker subculture", "hacker scene" or "computer underground".

Cracker A Cracker is a person who concentrates on finding weakesses in the security-related parts of software and hardware in order to disable the security and allow unauthorised use. Most activities of the cracker are illegal, however, they often go unprosecuted as the people whose software has been compromised have neither the resources nor the time to persue them.

Phreaker A Phreaker concentrates on finding, and exploiting, the weaknesses in telephone systems.

Open Source An Open Source Hacker is a person who enjoys designing software and building programs with a sense for aesthetics and playful cleverness. These hackers have been responsible for creating the Open Source movement, a collection of computer programmers who collectively write software that is free to use and distribute.

White Hat A White Hat hacker concentrates on finding the weaknesses in systems in order that the systems themselves may be fixed. These hackers are sometimes hired by corporations to find weaknesses in the corporation's own products and so are not prosecuted for their work.


And also;


The terms hacker and hack are marked by contrasting positive and negative connotations. Computer programmers often use the words hacking and hacker to express admiration for the work of a skilled software developer (but may also use them in a negative sense to describe the production of inelegant kludges). Some frown upon using hacking as a synonym for security cracking -- in distinct contrast to the larger world, in which the word hacker is typically used to describe someone who "hacks into" a system by evading or disabling security measures.