1099
iFixit Tears Down McDonald's McFlurry Machine, Petitions Government for Right to Hack Them
(www.404media.co)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
To hack means to chop something to pieces violently. It doesn't matter what it used to be in the past - people now are using it differently. Language evolves over time and the most used interpretations survive.
To "hack it" also means to be able to handle something. That there were multiple meanings for the word was never in question and I really do agree with you that language evolve over time and you simply need to learn to live with that.
But also, if you go back and look at my response to op I also wrote that I found it unsuitable to use it in this case exactly due to the risk of being misunderstood.
The positive connotation of "hack" is still seen today - for example in "lifehack".
Wrong