Monday, November 11, 2013

Hacking: destructive or creative?

Hacking is the altering of a program that changes its functionality to something different than what the developer intended it to be. As one could imagine this could both be used as a tool that is beneficial and harmful, both creative and destructive. Most of today's media portray its in a negative light and for good reason. People's private information are on the line and crucial information of their lives are subject to exposure to those who have agendas that are less than admirable. Information such as names, addresses, phone numbers, emails, and credit card numbers. Such information in the hand of the right,(or in this case wrong) hands can cause outstanding financial harm or damage someones reputation. However, that is not the only use of hacking. Hacking can be used to alter programs in a creative way to enhance the user experience. For instance, in the video game market there is a very popular type of hacking called a mod. Just like hacking a mod can used for maleficent purposes such as cheating or it could be used as a way to show the program in a new sort of light or allow users to have more fun than they would without the mod. Regardless hacking is a controversial topic that deserves to be a crucial consideration in this age of digital information.




Gary's mod

3 comments:

  1. Johnathan,
    Your blog is informative, but very vague and general. The language is very casual and moderate. You have a lot of ideas but they lack proper citation, supporting examples and your opinion on them. Try linking websites to support your ideas, Another advise is to include your opinion/hints/takes to make the post more about YOU.
    Your picture is not in sync with the blog posy either.

    - Tushar

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  2. Hi Johnathan!

    I think yours is the first blog I've seen that mentioned modding games as a type of hacking. I'd never thought of mods as hacks, but I can definitely see the case for that. That's what the picture you used is from, right? Is that GMod? You should probably add captions, since at first glance that was really weird...

    Make sure you're citing sources as you go -- even a link to Wikipedia is better than nothing. I think that's part of the grading scale and doing a bit of research is an easy way to make sure you aren't losing points.

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  3. Johnathan,

    This post changed my view on gaming mods. I never thought of modders as hackers, but you’re right, by definition they really are. My favorite game (CouterStrike) wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for “hackers,” as it started as a mod for Half-Life. What the gaming community usually calls a hacker is someone using hacks to cheat. This post made me realize that we shouldn’t even call these people hackers. They’re not even doing any hacking, they’re just using other people’s modifications. We’re glorifying them by calling them “hackers,” we should just call them “cheaters."

    You should include some links, as it’s part of the grading criteria. Nice post!

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