Hacker
Hacker may refer to:
Technology
- Hacker (computer security), someone who seeks and exploits weaknesses in a computer system or computer network
- Hacker culture, a subculture focusing on intellectual and creative aspects of hacking
Entertainment
- Hackers: Wizards of the Electronic Age, 1985 video documentary inspired by the book
Hacker culture
The hacker culture is a subculture of individuals who enjoy the intellectual challenge of creatively overcoming and circumventing limitations of systems to achieve novel and clever outcomes. The act of engaging in activities (such as programming or other media) in a spirit of playfulness and exploration is termed "hacking". However, the defining characteristic of a hacker is not the activities performed themselves (e.g. programming), but the manner in which it is done: hacking entails some form of excellence, for example exploring the limits of what is possible, thereby doing something exciting and meaningful. Activities of playful cleverness can be said to have "hack value" and are termed "hacks" (examples include pranks at MIT intended to demonstrate technical aptitude and cleverness). The hacker culture originally emerged in academia in the 1960s around the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)'s Tech Model Railroad Club (TMRC) and MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Mod (video gaming)
A mod or modification is the alteration of content from a video game in order to make it operate in a manner different from its original version. Mods can be created for any genre of game but are especially popular in first-person shooters, role-playing games and real-time strategy games. Mods are made by the general public or a developer and can be entirely new games in themselves, but mods are not stand-alone software and require the user to have the original release in order to run. They can include new items, modded weapons, characters, enemies, models, textures, levels, story lines, music, money, armor, life and game modes. They can be single-player or multiplayer. Mods that add new content to the underlying game are often called partial conversions, while mods that create an entirely new game are called total conversions and mods that fix bugs only are called unofficial patches.
Games running on a personal computer are often designed with change in mind, allowing modern PC games to be modified by gamers without much difficulty. These mods can add extra replay value and interest. The Internet provides an inexpensive medium to promote and distribute mods, and they have become an increasingly important factor in the commercial success of some games. Developers such as id Software, Valve Software, Re-Logic, Bethesda Softworks, Firaxis, Crytek, The Creative Assembly and Epic Games provide extensive tools and documentation to assist mod makers, leveraging the potential success brought in by a popular mod like Counter-Strike.
Luxury
Luxury may refer to:
Music
Luxury (Fantastic Plastic Machine album)
Luxury is the second album by Fantastic Plastic Machine. It is the follow-up to his first album, The Fantastic Plastic Machine (1997). Luxury is a continuation of his previous work in Shibuya-kei, though in some tracks there are indications of a shift towards house music and 1970s Philadelphia soul, a path he explored more in his next album, beautiful.. "There Must Be an Angel (Playing With My Heart)", is a cover version of a Eurythmics song. Vocals on this version are performed by Lorraine Bowen. Her vocals also appear on the track "Bossa for Jackie".
Track listing
Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese version
US and European version
On the US and European release, the tracks and the track order are different:
Luxury (Georgia band)
Luxury is a rock band from Toccoa, Georgia that began playing together as The Shroud at Toccoa Falls College in the early 1990s. They changed their name just before signing with Tooth & Nail Records and releasing their debut album, Amazing And Thankyou, which was one of the few non-hardcore releases on the label at the time.
Luxury toured extensively in the months following Amazing And Thankyou's release, until late 1995, when a bad highway collision between touring engagements resulted in most members of the band being hospitalized. Consequently, they took a year-long hiatus, then went back on tour to support their second album, The Latest & The Greatest, though with fewer dates than initially anticipated. After growing more and more unhappy with the continually waning resources and promotion provided them by Tooth & Nail, they opted (in 1997) not to renew their contract with the label, and instead released their third album, self-titled Luxury, in 1999 on Bulletproof Records, a smaller and more artist-friendly label. Soon after, Luxury broke up, and the band members went their separate ways.
