October 4, 2000

10:30 AM

Private school ejects Sailor Moon fan for inadvertently accessing an "adult" Sailor Moon site. The kid didn't know what the site was ahead of time, the site slipped through the school's content filters, and the boy "immediately logged off after less than a minute on the Web site". I don't know if this qualifies as a zero tolerance issue, but it's definitely an overraction, not to mention an ugly failure of blocking software. [via Ribbit]
posted by harmful (16 comments total)

It took him a "minute"? The first image on that site is an animated SM with expanding breasts...

And would someone please go tell the reporter that "hacking" is not a synonym for "breaking into"? I don't have the patience to do it politely; I'd rip her face off just now...
posted by baylink at 11:01 AM on October 4, 2000

The hacker cracker distinction is not going to be cleared up to your satisfaction. Ever. There's a good article on the CBC that explains why reporters are perfectly correct in their continuing usage of it.
posted by captaincursor at 11:12 AM on October 4, 2000

"Less than a minute" could be anywhere from zero through 59 seconds. I'm sure he didn't have a stopwatch handy to record the exact time.

-Mars
posted by Mars Saxman at 11:56 AM on October 4, 2000

I'll bet though, remembering back to the time when I was a little boy, that it was at least two or three cycles of the expanding breast animation.
posted by captaincursor at 12:02 PM on October 4, 2000

I can't imagine any healthy boy who's beginning to consider the possibility that girls aren't entirely icky not staring in wonder for a few moments.

"Uh... We shouldn't be looking at this, should we?"
*pause*
"Probably not."
*pause*
"Let's close this before we get in trouble."
*click*
posted by harmful at 12:18 PM on October 4, 2000

Um, cursor? "Hacking" is a tool; a skillset.

Just like lockpicking.

That skill set can, yes, be used to break into computers.

That *still* doesn't justify painting the *people who built the Internet* with that broad and black a brush.

We don't call locksmiths "burglars", do we?
posted by baylink at 12:36 PM on October 4, 2000

Oh, and I've read the Shewchuk piece before.

I really don't care.

If everyone who considers themselves a hacker (or who is considered that by others) quit working tomorrow, you wouldn't live a month.
posted by baylink at 12:38 PM on October 4, 2000

The media doesn't care. "Hacker" gets your attention. That's all that matters.
posted by tomorama at 1:53 PM on October 4, 2000

No death threat. A large part of the infrastructure that keeps this country moving... you know, food, lights, gas, etc? That happens, directly or indirectly, because hackers do their jobs.

If we all went on strike over this, you'd notice. :-)
posted by baylink at 2:41 PM on October 4, 2000

And that would remove the hacker/cracker confusion how? :-P
posted by captaincursor at 2:43 PM on October 4, 2000

yeah, they really set a great precident
"people with adhd need more supervision than those without the disorder"
posted by starduck at 3:46 PM on October 4, 2000

Metafilter has become my portal to the web. Blocking software could block weblogs, and as Metafilter has absolutely nothing to do with my job it would be understandable for a net nazi to do so. That is a scary thought. Filtering software is the work of the devil.
posted by Zool at 5:15 PM on October 4, 2000

There will never be a migration to the word, "Cracker" from "Hacker" ever. Geeks have been bitching for years and the media has been ignoring them for years. I'd fully support you in your useless crusade if they said cracker with a thick southern accent.
posted by skallas at 9:08 PM on October 4, 2000

No, not all media ignore the argument if it's made pleasantly and informatively enough. This has been proven.
posted by baylink at 6:08 PM on October 5, 2000

Like the kid didn't know what Sailor Moon is really about. Jeez...
posted by Ptrin at 3:04 PM on October 10, 2000