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The Hacker Emblem was first proposed in October 2003 by Eric S. Raymond, claiming a need for a uniting and recognizable symbol for his perception of hacker culture. This does not refer to the mainstream media meaning of the word hacker: "being someone who breaks or otherwise circumvents computer security", but the positive meaning the word is used within the hacking community: beign a person that makes great thing with computers, because hackers think the word to name a criminal who uses computers is cracker (CRiminal hACKER). Raymond points out that one does not claim to be a hacker by displaying this emblem, but suggests that "by using this emblem, you express sympathy with hackers' goals, hackers' values, and the hacker way of living".

The image itself is a representation of a glider formation in Conway's Game of Life.

Other representations

Other means to display the image have evolved, mostly relying on ASCII art. Examples include:

.o.    |_|0|_|            0 1 0    
..o    |_|_|0|            0 0 1    
ooo    |0|0|0|            1 1 1

External links

• The Glider: Proposal for a Hacker Emblem. Contains more information on the Hacker Emblem proposal, including SVG and TeX sources and FAQs.
• "How To Become a Hacker." A document explaining the hacker culture.

= See also

Hacker_ethic

• Computer hacking