US Government Announces National Day of Civic Hacking 102
An anonymous reader writes "Yesterday in a post at the White House website, the U.S. government announced that June 1-2 would be the National Day of Civic Hacking. 'Civic Hacking Day is an opportunity for software developers, technologists, and entrepreneurs to unleash their can-do American spirit by collaboratively harnessing publicly-released data and code to create innovative solutions for problems that affect Americans.' It will be a joint project with Random Hacks of Kindness, Code for America. Activities are being planned in many cities across the country, and you can also sign up to host your own event. It's nice to see the government use the word 'hacking' in a positive way, since most uses of the term these days involve malicious activity."
Not the car?? (Score:5, Funny)
And here I thought it was about hacking Honda Civics.. enough people do that you'd think there'd be a holiday for it already.
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And here I thought it was about hacking Honda Civics.. enough people do that you'd think there'd be a holiday for it already.
As true (and funny) as that is, it's unfortunate that not many of those hacks have any sort of positive impact.
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I once used a soda can to repair the exhaust system... does that count?
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If it involved a hacking cough caused by the exhaust fumes, then yes, I'd say so.
The feds promoting 'hacking'? (Score:5, Insightful)
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I know it's all perspective, and this is just mine, but I see more appropriate uses all the time now. Business rags like to talk about large tech companies having their hackathons and unknown devs "hacking" on their personal projects. The whole "maker" thing, which is (dare I say) trendy now, uses the word all the time. And we're well out of the 90's, when computers were transitioning from mystery AOL terminals to tools that almost everyone grew up using. I do feel like we're swinging back from the hollywoo
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More like "stained by idiots who call themselves hackers jacking up other people's systems." The media didn't do it. It's every who gets busted doing stupid s**t with a script they downloaded because they think they're going to get into Jolie's pants.
Could we try "jacker"? (Score:1)
"Cracker" was used for a while to mean "malicious hacker", but has its own ambiguity since it's used as a sort-of black person's "N-word" for a white person. (whatever happened to "Ofay", by the way?)
I'd suggest "jacker", from "jack in to a network in order to hi-jack it".
And by analogy to Tim Leary's "Turn on, tune in, drop out" - "Jack in, jack out, jack off"
Liberate Data (Score:5, Funny)
"Liberate data that can inform better problem solving in every community."
I propose we make a script that downloads all the research journals that we can, then makes massive online library of them that anyone can access. Oh wait. That doesn't end well.
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That ends fine as long as you don't get access to the network that holds that data by breaking into a restricted access wiring closet, connecting your laptop and leaving it there, and then circumventing the attempts made to stop you. Then when you're caught and facing trial, don't kill yourself before you actually get through trial.
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Apparently one Aaron Swartz was not enough. (Score:4, Interesting)
Be careful out there. [slashdot.org] This isn't a true call to hacking, it is a call for free labor.
Re:Apparently one Aaron Swartz was not enough. (Score:5, Insightful)
This isn't a true call to hacking, it is a call for free labor.
I don't mind donating my labor for free sometimes if it makes the world a better place.
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Re:Apparently one Aaron Swartz was not enough. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Apparently one Aaron Swartz was not enough. (Score:4, Informative)
Roads are predominantly state projects. And though you might claim the feds help fund them, it's only because the feds confiscate via the income tax then give it back for compliance with federal initiatives.
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What happens in a democracy, not just the US, but in ANY democracy (or republic) is that the masses will inevitably push for higher taxes and more welfare and raid the treasury for their own personal gain. Since democracy at its essence is a popularity contest, the politicians will push for higher and higher taxes and more welfare. When productivity is punished, productive people will go elsewhere (see France) when productive people go elsewhere, the country goes into a decline
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What happens in a democracy, not just the US, but in ANY democracy (or republic) is that the masses will inevitably push for higher taxes and more welfare and raid the treasury for their own personal gain. Since democracy at its essence is a popularity contest, the politicians will push for higher and higher taxes and more welfare.
People have been saying this for a long time, it's why democracy was often limited to land owners, historically. In the US, basically the franchise has extended to all males since its inception, and the U.S. is hardly the most commie country in the world. But of course, it's hard to refute a proposition that simply states something is inevitable, since, after all, only a finite period has passed without it having any obvious evidence to support it.
When productivity is punished, productive people will go elsewhere (see France) when productive people go elsewhere, the country goes into a decline (such as the Roman Empire/USSR) and eventually collapses.
It's a free country, if people want to go, they can go. I
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"Republic" just means they don't have a "king". It doesn't mean the people are represented. It's just a coinsodence of language that the two words seem similar.
You know how we usually get in a huff about a topic and everyone galvanizes along two sides and it's a big sort of debate thing? Yeah, back in the day, one of those issues was whether or not we should have a king or we should have a republic.
But anyway, no, your argument
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I would have thought, the even more paranoid, be careful out there, it's a trap would be even more relevant. FBI we need a list of all hackers, so we can decide which ones are the anarchistic criminals.
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Memories (Score:5, Funny)
Why am I reminded of this [dilbert.com] Dilbert?
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I'm sure it was just Admiral Akbar whispering in your ear.
Self-professed hackers hacking for America will be put onto a watch list and hauled in for questioning any time anything untoward happens in the United Internet of America. Especially in the parts claimed by the corporate citizens of that great state.
Now that is a coincidence (Score:2)
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Probably less than 0.1% of the cost of developing a new fighter jet that people like you aren't complaining about.
Excellent (Score:2)
Then I will have to make sure that my hatchet has been sharpened, before this day of hacking.
Start with the JSTOR archive (Score:2)
Since much of this academic work is subsidized with public funding, let's put some servers somewhere at MIT so we can download and mirror it.
I was hoping it meant "penetration testing" (Score:1)
answered (Score:2)
It's the drunken approach congress, the executive and the judiciary take to unconstitutional legislation.
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Evidently judging from comments here, something that used to happen in America's past.
I'm working on an anti-gerrymander app that will help voters move into swing districts so make the practice obsolete.
Better check with Honda first (Score:2)
if they're OK by this.
I am apalled (Score:1)
Please hack our data (Score:1)
Lots of gems in this one. (Score:2)
stealing ideas (Score:1)
I figure they are gonna steal the good ideas. You know, the ones they can get money for. I bet you wouldn't get a civil response if you showed them what their real problem is. Their inability to secure their low level infrastructure.