"Arch Villain or Arch Agent?"
http://journal-neo.org/2015/06/12/paul-calder-le-roux-arch-v...
He Always Had a Dark Side
81–90 of 380 posts
Re: He Always Had a Dark Side
#82> Lulu told me that when Le Roux was 15 or 16, in the late 1980s, the local police raided the family home and arrested Paul for selling pornography online. This seems a bit odd to me, having lived in South Africa at that time. There's almost no way a guy at home would have had that kind of access in Apartheid South Africa to the internet back then. There was access, but it was through big companies or academia and on…
I also thought it was interesting to learn that South Africa did not introduce television until 1976 (assuming this article is correct). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_in_South_Africa
I can confirm. My gran still has (she's not using it) her original TV bought around the time. From the stories my parents tell the SABC (think BBC) initialy broadcast a test signal and the early adopters would crowd around their TVs just to watch that.
Re: He Always Had a Dark Side
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
If one were actually interested, maybe one could just look at all Senator's wives' daughters who traveled internationally in that timeframe?
This is starting to sound dangerously close to doxing (esp. if anything found is shared), even if it's out of pure curiosity.
There's a pretty big difference between speculating about what information to look for and actually tracking it down and publicizing it.
Re: He Always Had a Dark Side
#84Original author of the story here... Just to add that 1. yes, the reporting on Le Roux's childhood is more tentative based on a family source (well backed up by docs and images sent to me). But the fact that the same Le Roux created E4M which formed the basis of TrueCrypt is something I think I've established definitively, company and site registration trails show it very firmly (and PLR himself admits it in court, b…
When do you think Le Roux first knew that you where working on this story?
Re: He Always Had a Dark Side
#85[deleted]
Re: He Always Had a Dark Side
#86Original author of the story here... Just to add that 1. yes, the reporting on Le Roux's childhood is more tentative based on a family source (well backed up by docs and images sent to me). But the fact that the same Le Roux created E4M which formed the basis of TrueCrypt is something I think I've established definitively, company and site registration trails show it very firmly (and PLR himself admits it in court, b…
Fascinating story!
The funny thing is, if someone wrote a novel with this plot, I would probably dismiss it as too far-fetched. Sometimes truth is indeed stranger than fiction.
Re: He Always Had a Dark Side
#87So he dropped TrueCrypt and told everybody it was insecure when he was picked up by the feds, fearing that they would try and force him to open a security hole? Wow.
Or that someone else involved with TrueCrypt feared he would.
Re: He Always Had a Dark Side
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
Setup a Patreon. I'll throw in $20 per article for long-form journalism like this. Youtubers who make long-ish videos (i.e., EE's who tear down industrial gear narrating analysis[1]) have recently taken to this model and it's absolutely fantastic. My money goes to support the continued generation of new content, cutting out the middleman. "Pay because it's good" is the best content monetization model yet. [1] Ben fro…
Are you me? I subscribe to Applied Science, AvE, Signal Path, and W2AEW. I'll have to check out Mikeselectricstuff and Mr Carlson's Lab. EEVblog is missing from the list, but arguably that one goes without saying :-)
Are you I? :)
Re: He Always Had a Dark Side
#89Thank you. It's amazing how some authors use thousands of words to deliver such little information.
> It's amazing how some authors use thousands of words to deliver such little information. Well how else are you going to make it look like you really worked hard on something if you just give people exactly what they want right up front? /s Seriously this article is bloated as HELL. Edit: did anyone who downvoted me to hell even read the article? It's about 5% information, 95% useless bloat to fill the page. I mean…
Fucking hell Welles, just tell us that was the sled's name!
Re: He Always Had a Dark Side
#90Thank you. It's amazing how some authors use thousands of words to deliver such little information.
> It's amazing how some authors use thousands of words to deliver such little information. Well how else are you going to make it look like you really worked hard on something if you just give people exactly what they want right up front? /s Seriously this article is bloated as HELL. Edit: did anyone who downvoted me to hell even read the article? It's about 5% information, 95% useless bloat to fill the page. I mean…
I haven't downvoted you, but there's always someone bitching about long-form journalism. It's a non-fiction STORY. Stories aren't technical documents or status reports - they set up atmosphere, build a character, and engage the reader.
Notice also that the title of the linked article is not "Paul LeRoux made Truecrypt" - it's not centered around that. It simply has that info in it, and as such is an interest to HN.