There were hackers before there were computers, as nellardo pointed out.
There is no one trait that defines a
hacker, just as there is no one trait that defines a
schizophrenic. It is false to assume that
generalists can not be hackers - in fact, very few hackers care for nothing but code. Look at the best hackers:
Larry Wall - he's into
religion,
chemistry, and
linguistics. Or
Eric Raymond:
Libertarian politics,
paganism,
science fiction, and more!
Jamie Zawinski is starting a nightclub.
Richard Stallman likes
obscure music, and cares about
human rights and
homelessness. Or look at the noder
whizkid sometime.
That said, I don't feel comfortable about sticking the label "Hacker" on anyone who really doesn't want it. But I also don't feel comfortable being put in a box as small as some of the above folks want to make the word into.
The
assembly language comment is especially bizzare. I wish I knew I could trade my knowledge of assembly for almost any other modern language. I wouldn't trade my knowledge of
Perl for anything short of
world peace, even if it weren't my
meal ticket.
But, while we're on the subject of ridiculous definitions of hacker,
I am not a hacker, because my company wouldn't let me put "hacker" as a job title on my business card. It's not fair - my dad's wife's company lets her put "
Designer To The Stars" on her card...