QOTD: Have You Ever Hacked Anything?

The term hack or hacker has become so commonly tossed around that it can mean different things to different people. The image of a hacker can often bring images to those who are less computer literate as someone who steals bank information in Superman III-worthy schemes.

We’d like to think of hacking as something that you have to do to get something working better or differently (such as bypassing the intrusive copy protection of your legally obtained software), but perhaps not as originally intended by the designer (such as installing Mac OS X on a PC). Of course, hacking can also be just what the movies make it out to be (breaking into other computer systems).

Feel free to share with everyone your most interesting hacking exploits.

Have you ever hacked anything? If so, what have you hacked and why?

Marcus Yam
Marcus Yam served as Tom's Hardware News Director during 2008-2014. He entered tech media in the late 90s and fondly remembers the days when an overclocked Celeron 300A and Voodoo2 SLI comprised a gaming rig with the ultimate street cred.
  • mrhappy50
    I plead the fifth
    Reply
  • I have hacked little things like routers, OS X, DVDs, Blu Rays, but most of all porn websites!
    Reply
  • volks1470
    Does jailbreaking an Ipod count? Don't do much hacking, just pirating. lol
    Reply
  • HibyPrime
    You could use the word hack to refer to just about any unintended mod - hardware or software, by that definition, I couldn't count the number of hacks I've done lol

    I'm sure most everyone on this site has preformed a hack in some way, be it an overclock, illegal windows install, iphone/regular phone hacks..

    What I would want to know, is if anyone has gone out of their way to obtain Linux (or any other free software) illegally. The only way I can think of would be to break into their warehouse and steal a disc :P
    Reply
  • brookg
    I used to write little cracks/hacks that would open up all the channels for viewing on a popular sat tv provider network.

    does that count?
    Reply
  • curnel_D
    Mrhappy50I plead the fifth'zactly
    Reply
  • anamaniac
    Through all I'm concerned, a hack is something significant and symbolical. Like breaking into the pentagon for the plans to a jet or setting every account in a bank to $0.00 through exploitation. Or maybe just getting into your neighbors computer through his Wifi and putting homosexual pornographic content as the desktop (which is always fun). Those who make video game cracks are hackers, those who use them are only pirates.

    What I do is pirate and mod, not hack.
    Putting OS X on a PC is just a mod.
    Overclocking is just modding.
    Illegal windows installs are rather easy... and is only pirating (in most cases).
    Jailbreaking is just using a pre set instruciton lead you how. The originals who did it were hackers, but only them.
    Reply
  • kite212
    xboxs, psps, some software, local unsecure computers, we are samurai, keyboard cowboys HACK THE PLANET!
    Reply
  • djtronika
    no. and anyone that says they have isn't a real hacker.

    that's the point of a hacker.
    Reply
  • Hard Line
    i hacked my tom tom, mio c320, my lg 8300 and my linksys wrt54G ver 3 router and put ddwrt on it.. is that good? or am i thinking somethign different here?
    Reply