[originally, someone who makes furniture with an axe]
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.
One who programs enthusiastically (even obsessively) or who enjoys programming rather than just theorizing about programming.
A person capable of appreciating hack value.
A person who is good at programming quickly.
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.)
An expert or enthusiast of any kind. One might be an astronomy hacker, for example.
One who enjoys the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming or circumventing limitations.
[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.
As you can see, the common media definition of a hacker is incorrect. The correct term is cracker. I will strive to use this correct term and avoid the use of the term 'hacker' when refering to a malicious attacker. However, because I am as entrenched as most of you probably are in what the media has misinformed us, I may slip. Please know that if I ever do slip, I will really mean cracker.
I personally consider myself a hacker, and have been most of my life (since first writing a FORTRAN program on a PDP-10 at the age of 4).
