BebuLamar

And now a Hack means how to do something cleverly.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Things change..... Sometimes good, sometimes not so good.

I do have to agree with Brian in a manner though.
People's heads contain less <general> information nowadays, as well as less common sense and analytical abilities.
Communication abilities have gone downhill as well.

For about 10 years before I retired I had the opportunity to speak often with the lady that was the Chief of Staff for Barbara Bush. She actually told me one day that she enjoyed speaking with me and loved my elocution and articulation, and enjoyed conversing with me. She even joked about putting me on a private retainer after I retired. That was a pleasant surprise!
So in saying that, even she has noticed a drop in people's communicating abilities........

mindzye Loc: WV

Is this a case of seeing the evolution of devolving, in real time? I mean, What the Hack??
or simply the time to mention Whiskey Charlie Foxtrot??
sorry BeBu

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Not Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yes, I dislike it, too, although I did use it. As you said, it's now used for virtually any kind of modification or alternate use. At least people get the idea.

Calling someone a hack is an insult - he's not good at what he does.

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

Oops, that'll get it on the list of no-no words.......

mindzye Loc: WV

ooops! Yepiree, it is. Thx
perfect example of evolution of devolving between brain and keyboard..........

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

My keyboard puts up the worng characters sometime too!

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

When I was a kid, 'to hack' meant to do random things without purpose. Just hacking around. What we did after school.
Later, it meant to modify something.

Somebody gave me an old refrigerator for the farm stand. It was a vertical divide, freezer on the left side and cooler on the right side. The farm stand had no use for a freezer so I hacked it. The refrigerator had a cooling coil (in the freezer side) and a circulating fan. There was an opening in the wall between the sides that had a temperature-operated flap. When the cooler side needed to be cooler the flap opened, letting air from the freezer side in. When it was cold enough it would close, so all the cold air stayed in the freezer. So I just ripped out the flap and added an additional fan to force air to circulate between the sides continually. The freezer would have made the whole thing too cold so I cut the wire to the compressor and added another thermostat so I could set the temperature to something reasonable for storing veggies for the farm stand. I hacked the refrigerator.

Similarly we needed a large space for storing lots of vegetables so I made a room in the barn that was insulated. I then found an air conditioner on sale and installed it in the room. It cooled the room but the air conditioner electronics limited the room temperature to a minimum of 65F, not cool enough for vegetable storage. The air conditioner had a temperature sensor right behind the air filter on the air inlet. So I got a resistor, mounted it so it was right next to the temperature sensor, and ran it to 110vac through a thermostat. When the room needed cooling, the thermostat would send power to the resistor, which would heat the temperature sensor, which would turn on the compressor. That got the room down to 50F, adequate for veggie storage. So I hacked the air conditioner.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Funny, but I never heard it used that way.

47greyfox Loc: on the edge of the Colorado front range

“Hack” is a distant second (if that) to “basically….”

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

I also.

marine73 Loc: Modesto California

Hack was also used to set watches for a specified time to begin a patrol, etc. This was done my the senior man an all others would set their watches to his. Example; it is now 2059 and thirty seconds, at 2100 he would say hack and everyone would ensure that their watch said 2100, etc. The time could be any time that was compatable to their mission.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

I came from a unique town.

(From the Latin Unus Equus).

srg

What I dislike even more is "15 reasons why you can't...."
6 ways to improve your love life
9 things women want
etc etc. I wonder how this can be incorpo
rated into the language.