Quoted

Hacker...a positive thing???

'According to "The Cathedral and the Bazaar", by Eric S. Raymond, the term hacker was coined and adopted by those who love to write code, debug, and perfect software in the open-source movement. It's unfortunate that the media have misappropriated the term to label the vandals of cyberspace. Hacking and hackers made the internet a reality and continue to perfect software available at the cost of distribution.'
-ComputerWorld

[In the early 1960's] - 'At first, "hacker" is a positive term that describes a person with a mastery of computers who can push programs beyond what they were designed to do.'
- MSN

Hacker -A slang term for a computer enthusiast, i.e., a person who enjoys learning programming languages and computer systems and can often be considered an expert on the subject(s). Among professional programmers, depending on how it used, the term can be either complimentary or derogatory, although it is developing an increasingly derogatory connotation. The pejorative sense of hacker is becoming more prominent largely because the popular press has coopted the term to refer to individuals who gain unauthorized access to computer systems for the purpose of stealing and corrupting data. Hackers, themselves, maintain that the proper term for such individuals is cracker.
- Webopedia

Open your mind...and remember

While the word "hacker" today conjures up images...
of a mean spirited twelve year old slamming Jolt cola through the night attempting to break into banks or even middle aged (predominantly) men obsessively looking to overthrow the world byte by byte, we must continually remind ourselves that hackers used to be seen as good individuals, revered in the eyes of the general public. They were the ones that stayed late into the night to resolve the days problems while the rest of the world slept and got in to work before the sun rose to make sure all deadlines were met while others were still getting their morning showers; doing the job not for fame or glory, but because the sheer nature of it was enjoyable.

But as we have all forgotten, I ("old world hacker") take it upon myself to remind you all of what this art form once was...before society and the media desecrated it.

Hacker /n./
1. A person who enjoys exploring the details of programmable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who prefer to learn only the minimum necessary.
2. One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming.
3. A person capable of appreciating hack value.
4. A person who is good at programming quickly.
5. An expert at a particular program, or one who frequently does work using it or on it; as in `a Unix hacker'. (Definitions 1 through 5 are correlated, and people who fit them congregate.)
6. An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example.
7. One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations.
-Oxford Dictionary