10 Signs that your son is a hacker.

[Tim Baird]

Thank you, Greg!

I was starting to think that I was the only one who noticed that it was labeled as "internet idiocy".

[Matt Krass]

2001? I remember when this first went up.

Wow. I feel old. (How much flack am I going to get for saying that Mr. Tyler? )

Anyways, I think it actually was serious at the time, but it's since been realized to be little more use than humor as it's fairly...well...wrong

[KarenH]

Well, I be a hacker according to this article (already spent many hours online this morning -- er, afternoon). 'Cept I'm a daughter, so I can't be.

Clues, folks, check out the clues....

I dunno wut AMD is, I don't remember names of any real hackers, but I wuz goin nuts readin an article littered with links like land mines.

So I went to work clicking those links. Most of the ones that are still good go to "relevant" book titles on Amazon (chuckle). One went straight to a porno picture (yuck!).

Even if a parent didn't know much of the "geek-speak" in the article, or what the current fashions are, the links alone reveal the satiric intent of the writer. No father with real fears about this subject would take the time to pepper his article with 2 or 3 links per sentence, let alone porn.

No way is this guy serious!

But the poll, of course, is right on -- they smell terrible!

[Kristian Calhoun]

Originally Posted by KarenH

I dunno wut AMD is, I don't remember names of any real hackers, but I wuz goin nuts readin an article littered with links like land mines.

So I went to work clicking those links. Most of the ones that are still good go to "relevant" book titles on Amazon (chuckle). One went straight to a porno picture (yuck!).

Even if a parent didn't know much of the "geek-speak" in the article, or what the current fashions are, the links alone reveal the satiric intent of the writer. No father with real fears about this subject would take the time to pepper his article with 2 or 3 links per sentence, let alone porn.

No way is this guy serious!

But the poll, of course, is right on -- they smell terrible!

I think it's quite obvious by now that the entire article was a satire. But to answer your question, AMD is a company that makes computer processors, (like intel). And for some future advice, always try to hover a link before you click on it to see where it might lead you to.

And if a poll with 11015 votes says that hackers smell bad, then it must be pretty darn accurate.

[jkoci]

Originally Posted by Tim Baird

I was starting to think that I was the only one who noticed that it was labeled as "internet idiocy".

according to the comments on the site, not many people caught it. at first i thought it was serious, then i saw the Internet idiocy.

[Morgan Gillespie]

Originally Posted by calhounian

And for some future advice, always try to hover a link before you click on it to see where it might lead you to.

Chris knows this now.

[lukevanoort]

Weirdly enough, the satirist (is that a word?) is semi-right about AMD, although they were never third world, for a while they did just about copy intel processors (interfaces at least), stopped doing that, then pretty much dominated them with the K6.

[Matt Royek]

Argh, I read this article (with cody c, Kyle A and Brian) and laughed and yelled at it's utter lack of comprehension, compilation and common sense.

My spot list:
I use more than 30 min online almost daily.

I use Linux.

Lunix=Linux. Linux was made by Linus Torvalds, a native of Helsinki, Finland and Linux was made in 1991, which was modeled after Minix, which was modeled after Unix, which was made by AT&T.

AMD is an American company. And Intel is just as Un-american as them, because they both have their processors made in Indonesia.

I ask for new parts all the time, and parts from the manufacturer are just if not more so suspect than parts you can buy off of TigerDirect or Newegg. Which, might I add, are both are certified secure by the Better Business Bureau.

Quake? Quake is a Video.Game. Not a portal for your little Jimmy to be corrupted by the hacker elite. And quake happens to have been made in the late 90's, and is by today's terms obsolete. Fun, nonetheless .

Bright colored clothes and baggy pants. Oh snap, I'm a hacker! I wear baggy cargo pants and my shirts all have illusions to popular internet culture! Oh snap, call the FBI!!! Not. It's how people dress that makes them different, not related to a certain archetype. Such identifying people by how they dress and in turn denying them things is called prejudice.

Gets beligerrant and argumentative. Isn't that a part of the wonderful process called growing up? That the hormones in the body may make people a little more surly? Oh nope, that's called hacker syndrome.

AOL? AOL? Please, AOL has to be, hands down, the worst ISP in the business, and not cause of privacy filter. Most, if not all services have the same capabilities, and I use Verizon online DSL, which is much better (albeit not perfect).

That's about all I saw, and that's my basic rant.

[Timothy D. Ginn]

For those who haven't caught on yet (some people still seem to be posting rants about it) the article is a satire. My personal favourite example of satire is A Modest Proposal (via Project Gutenberg) by Johnathan Swift.

The mission statement for Adequacy.org is pretty cool (read the whole thing).

Originally Posted by http://www.adequacy.org/special/mission.html

There are a number of people who have opinions that don't quite fit the norm. Because of this, they aren't welcome in many places. This is where they exercise their right to speak, where the dreams of tomorrow take flight today.

This site is aimed at middle class white male professionals - the sort of people who have been sadly sidelined by today's victim culture, and the domination of homosexuals, geeks, amputees, racial minorities and Canadians, who have all risen up with their discrimination laws and 'equality' to sadly control the media agenda.

These people are not welcome here. This is where we make a stand. This is where we fight back.

This site is also squarely aimed at the marginalised of society -- homosexuals, geeks, amputees, racial minorities and Canadians, who remain in a state of oppression, kept down by the dominant white male patriarchy and by insufficiently rigorous 'discrimination' laws and the corporate media.

These people are welcome here. This is where we make a stand. This is where we fight back.

[Gabe]

There is a serious danger that has not been mentioned, and that is SOMEONE WILL TAKE THIS ARTICLE SERIOUSLY.
If you read this entire thread you realize that it took a lot of thinking before someone pointed out that this was a JOKE. If took this many intelligent individuals at ChiefDelphi, then what will happen if a parent goes around the Internet and comes across this article? Imagine what the thoughts going through his or her mind:

"Oh, no! What have I done to Jimmy's young mind?! I must burn his laptop or else its the electric chair!!! What kind of parent am I, to do this to my own son?!!"

Ma'am, you're just insane.

The problem with satire is that sometimes its humor is a little too subtle.

[Beth Sweet]

Ok, according to this, I am a hacker (BTW, I am not a "son")

Now will someone please come fix my computer???

[Edit: I really am serious about the fix my computer, the cd drive decided to disapear and uninstall itself]

[Matt Royek]

Really......hmm.....


Well, I'm mostly speechless. I did not really notice this was satire until it was pointed out, and I agree, in this particular case, the line was microbe thin. Now that I know that it's satire, I can probably attribute those mistakes to an attempt at a flame war.

One thing I know: I will never visit Adequacy.org site for anything again. I'll stick to my /. and Digg.

[KarenH]

Originally Posted by Gabe

There is a serious danger that has not been mentioned, and that is SOMEONE WILL TAKE THIS ARTICLE SERIOUSLY.
If you read this entire thread you realize that it took a lot of thinking before someone pointed out that this was a JOKE. If took this many intelligent individuals at ChiefDelphi...

The problem with satire is that sometimes its humor is a little too subtle.

I'll probably get some people mad for posting this, so I'll try to say it nicely. Intelligence isn't everything.

Lately I've been having conversations with different people who are striving to see students trained in critical thinking (one chat in particular was about why a would-be engineer should be able to critique literature).

A lot of media attention has been given to "functional literacy." But there are different kinds of literacy. Many kids enjoy reading story books and novels, and can quickly read piles of books straight through (think Hardy Boys). Good for them!

But to be ready for high school and beyond, these same kids have to learn that a different approach is required for reading textbooks. This may seem silly to naturally talented scholars, but I once encountered a case where a student tried to read her textbook like a novel. She missed important information because she ignored the bold type--the chapter subheadings--and the information was not presented in the body of the text. As a result, she couldn't understand her lessons.

Moving ahead to the "critical thinking" level--this is where a lot of people think their English classes are a waste of time. But, as was alleged in one of the above-mentioned conversations, millions of students are spending a lot of time on the Internet. They instantly download pages, then zip right through them like the pages are pulp fiction. They don't read critically. They don't read between the lines. They don't ask hard questions, such as: "What is this author REALLY trying to say?" "What are the author's credentials?" "Is it reasonable to regard this as a trustworthy site?" "Are there serious logical or factual errors?"

Those who fail to pay attention as they read will be sitting ducks for anyone who wants to take advantage of them. Inattentive readers can be easily misled or manipulated by advertisers, news media, forwarded e-mails-- even by people who may get involved with FIRST to achieve their own private agendas rather than to benefit the community. Sloppy readers can easily misunderstand someone, and make fools of themselves with their off-target responses.

Satirists generally expect their audience to be intelligent--AND they expect them to be paying attention. Most people who enjoy satire would feel insulted if the author made the humor blatantly obvious to even the dullest near-literate stumbling around the Internet. Part of the fun of satire is that it starts out appearing serious, but the deeper in you get, the more you get a strange feeling about what's being said...then you begin to chuckle, and maybe end up roaring with laughter. (Unless you disagree--then you might be hopping mad.)

I think the piece of satire that is the subject of this thread is just about right-- neither too subtle nor too obvious. I remember a prank played on CD some years ago where the author DID make it too subtle. A lot of people believed it, and quickly became very upset. A reader had to be fairly Internet-savvy to catch on to the single clue that clearly betrayed the stunt. On the other hand, the "hacker" article is packed with clues everywhere in the page.

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by Gabe

There is a serious danger that has not been mentioned, and that is SOMEONE WILL TAKE THIS ARTICLE SERIOUSLY.
If you read this entire thread you realize that it took a lot of thinking before someone pointed out that this was a JOKE. If took this many intelligent individuals at ChiefDelphi, then what will happen if a parent goes around the Internet and comes across this article?

Several years back, the BBC did an elaborate April Fool's joke story about the plight of the Italian spaghetti farmers - and people believed it. Years before that, "War of the Worlds" was on the radio - and people believed it.

People will believe lots of things they see and hear. Guess what? That's their problem. They have to develop critical thinking skills. They have to know they can't rely on a single source. They have to know anyone can post anything they want on the Internet, but that doesn't make it true.

Satire can be subtle - indeed, subtlety is what makes satire work. Figuring it out, despite it being tricky, is what makes it funny. And really good satire will have an underlying point to make, usually something totally opposite the apparent obvious message.

[Branden Ghena]

Tawnos luvs LUNIX!!!! It's 1337!