I finally got around to seeing the movie “Bowling for Columbine” last weekend and have been thinking about it all day, but as soon as I hit TR today it has really really struck a chord with me. I just responded to someone who was talking about taking different parts of a program and reassembling them, adding some of their own etc. and never used the word “hack” once. To be honest, I have wondered on several occasions how much I wanted to discuss or say online about the internal workings of somebig name software companies.
There have been numerous occasions here (and other online haunts) where I have bit my tongue about certain issues that although I absolutely know aren’t connected to US national security, I would rather not have connected to any handle that can be traced to me.
I like to be a pretty straightforward person and getting the job done, whatever I take on, is important to me, but it seems I and many others in IT live in a community of fear increasingly. Citizens afraid we read their mail because we can but chose not to, or even afraid we will expose their innermost secrets or thoughts to the entire world. People afraid that we will steal their cc numbers or mess with their identity some how. Businesses that are afraid we more than any other department can sabotage to the point of collapse. Now governments spread fear about us and say that we potentially can threaten a nations security…. it’s almost worse in some ways, the associated fear, than that of guns or bombs.