"A tennis hack" as mentioned above has the word "hack" modifing the programmer. In the phrase "a programmer hack" does not modify the programmer, the "hack" is a noun and "programmer" modifies "hack".

I believe this usage predates the MIT-computer use, such as in literature ("Kevin J. Anderson is a hack").

And if you don't like Abigail's tone, get used to it. She's actually far less of an elitist jerk than many programmers I've run into online :)