Formally, the term "hack" usually implies that one person, or perhaps several people, is responsible for intruding upon a closed system in order to take data or control. However, taking control of a system should not only be associated with malicious intent. For instance, devices such as smartphones can be hacked, though usually when this happens it is not for malevolent purposes. Rather, the goal is to unlock the system for more extensibility. Unfortunately, this tends to be a lesser-known benefit of hacking.
What do I mean by this? Well, imagine the iPhone. If you hack the system you can install special plug-ins that allow you to do certain things that wouldn't normally be possible. One such example called biteSMS replaces the default application responsible for text messaging. What features does it add? One in particular allows you to respond to any incoming text message from wherever you are in the operating system. This means when you turn on your phone's screen, it might show a new text message that you've received recently. You can then choose to reply from this screen rather than going through options, unlocking the OS itself, finding the messaging app and then typing your reply there. It sounds very simple and even unnecessary, but once you've used it a few times you'll realize quite how useful it really is. There are plenty of other systems that can be hacked for similar applications. The best way to describe this is "freeing" your device/system from restrictions.
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| via iDownload Blog |
*http://courses.cs.vt.edu/cs3604/lib/Hacking/MacMillan.Hacking.html
At first when you stated that smartphones can be hacked for non-malevolent purposes I must admit I immediately disagreed, however you made an interesting point about freeing your system from restrictions and how it is also a form of hacking. In the end I have to agree with your take about how hacking can be a positive concept if used correctly and for the right purposes. We must keep in mind though that lines can sometimes get blurred when trying to make the distinction between the right and wrong purposes.
ReplyDeleteHey Joshua, great blog. The colors are very vibrant and really draw my attention. Your post about hacking was interesting. However I wish you explained some of your points in more detail. The iphone example was great, but it would have been nice to have some other examples as well. Also, it is true that hacking is a great form of educational practice, however the average reader might not understand why that is so it would be nice if you elaborated on that as well. Overall, it was a good explanation on hacking in terms of phones. I’ll be back to read other posts.
ReplyDeleteDifferent take on hacking that I really liked seeing. Most people hear hacking and immediately think that the person labeled as a hacker is doing something bad, perhaps it is illegal what they are doing but they aren't exactly harming anyone in the process since it is just for their own benefit. It would be great to have some classes offered that taught us how to "hack" things. Of course, like I said I don't know how legal that could be, but there can't be many things wrong with teaching students how to access information from a remote location, I think. Cool blog, looks great and keep writing from an interesting point of view.
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