> 'Hacker' has been used in popular culture to include malicious computer activity since the 1980s
I don't think his point is that the term shouldn't be used in a negative way, but that the negative way is more along the lines of someone who breaks in to computers, not just floods them with a bunch of packets. Is someone who pours water on a computer and fries the circuits a hacker now too? Petty vandalism just doesn't seem the same as actually gaining unauthorized access, which is how I've always understood to be the popular definition of the word.
I don't think his point is that the term shouldn't be used in a negative way, but that the negative way is more along the lines of someone who breaks in to computers, not just floods them with a bunch of packets. Is someone who pours water on a computer and fries the circuits a hacker now too? Petty vandalism just doesn't seem the same as actually gaining unauthorized access, which is how I've always understood to be the popular definition of the word.