Who IS this guy who calls himself Hacker One ?

hacker

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.

8. [deprecated] A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information by poking around. Hence `password hacker', `network hacker'. The correct term for this sense is cracker.

The term `hacker' also tends to connote membership in the global community defined by the net. It also implies that the person described is seen to subscribe to some version of the hacker ethic.

It is better to be described as a hacker by others than to describe oneself that way. Hackers consider themselves something of an elite (a meritocracy based on ability), though one to which new members are gladly welcome. There is thus a certain ego satisfaction to be had in identifying yourself as a hacker (but if you claim to be one and are not, you'll quickly be labeled bogus). See also wannabee.

one

1. being a single unit or thing.

2a. being one in particular.

2b. being preeminently what is indicated.

3. being the same in kind or quality.

4. any individual of a vaguely indicated group.

5. the first in a set or series.

Having defined the terms I feel safe saying that I am a hacker but I am not a cracker. Also I am by no means the number one hacker in the world but I hold my own :-) The name dates back to my time on Bulletin Board Systems growing up in NYC. Often when you tried to register at a new BBS you would find that your desired username was taken by someone who registered before you. One way around this was to add a suffix. Surprisingly I found that no one used the name hacker-one so I took to using it exclusively. After a while, if you spend enough time on the BBS, people start calling you by your username (even when speaking face to face). When I came to MIT I adopted hacker-one for my username. Unfortunately I couldn't use the '-' and hackerone is 9 characters long. The system happily truncated my username to hackeron (without telling me) so I was stuck with hackeron@mit.edu. Oh well...

I finished my Bachelor's degree in computer science at MIT Dec, 1993. I had been working fulltime for the Information Mechanics Group at the Laboratory for Computer Science. As of Aug, 1995 I have been working for Radex Inc doing contract work for the Air Force at the Air Force Research Lab (Hanscom AFB in Bedford MA). I'm also affiliated with STEP Computers, Inc. which sells the CAM8 computer and provides continuing software support.