SFBG › This Week ›

Pwned - Page 2

08.29.06 - 9:11 pm | Annalee Newitz |
(0)
Share

But neither am I leaving myself wide open to identity theft and surveillance.
When somebody breaks into your computer and looks at your private data, geeks say that your computer has been "owned." And if your computer is utterly taken over, all its information plundered egregiously, you've been "pwned" — a bit of geek slang that comes from some dork who made a typo on IRC back in the day. I know that I'm pwned by the government, pwned by Google, pwned by my reliance on Windows OS. But they haven't pwned my brain, OK? I'm still going to write the truth about myself and the world; I'm still going to throw away bill stubs like a normal person.
Say it loud and clear: we will not be pwned! If that isn't a 21st-century protest cry, I don't know what is. SFBG
Annalee Newitz is a surly media nerd who was thrilled to discover that the Wikipedia entry for "pwn" includes a section on pronunciation.

Also from this author

  • SF Stories: Annalee Newitz

    The science of subversion

  • Nine years of everything

    Don't ever stop ruthlessly criticizing everything that exists. It's the only way we'll survive

  • The new privacy

    The National Security Agency may be about to gain access to the phone calls and Internet activities of millions

    • Also in this section

  • Nine years of everything

    Don't ever stop ruthlessly criticizing everything that exists. It's the only way we'll survive

  • The new privacy

    The National Security Agency may be about to gain access to the phone calls and Internet activities of millions

  • Three Internet myths that won't die

    Free, accessible, and dangerous? Hardly.