Hacking 101?

[Typhoon]

I was thinking that hacking might be an exciting area to study computer programming. It sounds like an area where I can expand my skills, learn, have fun and be very interested at the same time. But then some things comes to my mind. What is hacking? What exactly do I want to look into as a beginner? Anyone know where is a good place on the web to study this? I guess they don't have books at Barnes and Noble on this subject, huh? I guess when I think hacking, I think -breaking into someone else's security-. Would hacking your own WinXP or Linux on VM(s) work? When I think hacking, I think ninjas, as in the concepts (of course not history though).

[Kowalski]

most people using computers know the word "hacking" , some find the term cool, some dont like the "hackers". on the other hand very few people know something about reverse engineering.
if you want to expand your horizon, if you want to learn deepest secrets about the system you are working on, if you want an exciting area to study computer programming, reverse engineering is the way to go. reverse engineers study the system to the deepest level, and find every secret that is built into the system. then maybe they build some tools to operate on these "secrets".

hackers come into the scene and use these tools, the tools that reverse engineers built and attack systems, and they get famious.

one last thing, dont confuse some people who write key generators or cracks or patches to eliminate shareware protection schemas. they are just school kids who want to become pirates of the computer world.

i am a big fan of Mark Russinovich! explore some of his work here http://www.sysinternals.com and check out his blog. you will have an idea about reverse engineering

[Typhoon]

Ohhh I see. Thanks. Yea, that sounds more exciting.

[Sven Johannsen]

I guess they don't have books at Barnes and Noble on this subject, huh?
Sure they do. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/results.asp?WRD=hacker%27s&userid=gl21ggqBSS
Learning to search is a good start.
Part of Kowalski's point is that a lock picker needs to understand locks as well as the guy who designs them.
I'm not sure exactly how you can decide that hacking would be fun and interesting to learn and then ask what it is. Possibly that is just confusion on the many varied definition/impressions of the term. It has changed over the years as well. Long time ago, people like Steve Wozniak was a hacker (look him up). These days the term doesn't normally have such benign connotations.
Might not be as exciting sounding, but Computer Security is a growing field (sadly). You better believe guys that are exceptional in that, keep tabs on 'hacker' technigues and capabilities. Some of them are even the white wizards countering the attacks of the black wizards.