Why The "Hacker Logo" is Perfect
Charles has seven reasons why ESR‘s Proposed Hacker Logo is stupid.
But I think it’s just perfect for hackers :
1. Only a hacker would be so engrossed in his computer as to think that black dots in white squares constitutes “Life”.
2. The logo serves to boost the ego of your typical, arrogant hacker. If you have explored Conway’s Game of Life, then the pattern is immediately recognisable. A hacker will nonchalantly display this logo, waiting for a normal person to ask about it. When somebody does ask, the hacker will give a technically correct but rudely obtuse answer, and later secretly congratulate himself on being smarter than his victim.
On the flip side. If you didn’t recoginise the pattern in the logo, then you are obviously too stupid to own a computer. For your own safety, and the common good, please hand your computer over to your nearest authorised hacker.
3. The glider moves down and to the right. Just the way ESR thinks1 and would like all hackers to think.
More seriously: if the logo speaks positively to you, go ahead and use it. But I won’t be labelling myself with it.
1 ESR has lots of good things to say, particularly about the art and science of making computers go. His politics, however, are another matter.