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Legal
Hacking?
By: Margerry Yuhico
Since when was
hacking ever legal, and why is it that anyone can learn simple hacks
through books and by surfing the web?
Originally,
hacking meant legitimately experimenting with tech products
to add features and to expand the capabilities of digital hardware,
search engines, games, other software and websites. It included finding
and creating features not known to product creators and not included
in official manuals or help files.
So when did hacking
get a bad rep?
The term hacking
acquired its negative connotation when people began cracking private
Web pages or copyrighted material to steal information and cause harm.
Experts call these culprits crackers or "black hat" hackers
and the good guys are similarly termed, "white hats."
Some simple tricks
and hacks for the popular search engine, Google.com
include shuffling word order and repeating search words to
skew results.
Another helpful hint
to know is that Google only searches 10 words. Anything over 10 words
and Google will only search for the first 10. To get around this minor
problem, simply put quotes around exact phrases so it counts as one
term and submit some words in the phrases with asterisks.
An example that Peggy
Rogers of The Miami Herald suggests to try out is the Martin
Luther King Jr. "I Have a Dream" speech. By applying the
tricks above, she types in "* have * dream" and "Martin
* King" and "Aug. * 1963" and "Washington
*."
Tricks such as these
come from a series of books published by O'Reilly (hacks.orielly.com),
the California-based prominent producer of computer books. The book
series, which costs $25, includes volumes for operating systems like
Mac and Windows, websites such as Google, Amazon and eBay, and the
digital video TV recorder TiVo.
Other books to consider
are Windows XP Hacks by Preston Gralla and TiVo Hacks
by Raffi Krikorian. Gralla's book explains how to make Windows automatically
track and cut the time it takes to boot up and even how to select
the number of services and programs that automatically start up. Krikorian's
book shows readers how to hack the TiVo box by adding a larger hard
drive and expanding functions of its scheduling software to let it
display on the screen. Hacks in Amazon.com involve easy methods for
searching show times of movies playing within few miles from your
location. In eBay, some tricks can enhance the probability of the
sale of items and the winning of bids.
According to Rael
Dornfest, O'Reilly's Series Editor, there is always a chance of discovering
a new secret with the increasing number of computer users and products
popping up.
Today, many product
manufactures are allowing more people to play around by making products
easier to tinker and fiddle with. This playing around is actually
considered hacking; and yes, it is legal.
Some
hacking websites to visit:
http://www.sptimes.com/Hackers/history.hacking.html
(History of Hacking)
http://www.hackingexposed.com/
http://www.tivofaq.com/hack/
http://home.comcast.net/~macecil/howto/hackxp/
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