He Always Had a Dark Side • Hacker News Board

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#311

Post by Spearchucker » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 12:22 AM UTC

RyanZAG wrote: post #35

spullara wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To run a BBS you need nothing more than a C64, a 300 bps modem and a phone line. Also, I'm not sure if you know anything about phone phreaking but in the 80s it was pretty much the preferred method of connecting to BBSs internationally.

Yes but from a teenager in Krugersdorp? And South Africa did not have such easy access to the international telephone market. The country was in the middle of economic sanctions at the time - international calls had to be placed through a switchboard with the government run telecom monopoly provider - Telkom. They also cost a literal arm and a leg for a couple minutes and were heavily monitored by the Apartheid regim…

I used to attend computer science classes in Vereeniging on Mondays after normal school. It was at another school, and I had to travel about 70km to get there. I did them from standard 8 to matric, 1986 to 1988, and in 1987 we dialled into something and connected to someone in New York, I think it was. I wasn't all that into it so probably missed a lot of the detail, but it was a big deal for the school. And clearly it was possible.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#312

Post by andrepd » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 12:29 AM UTC

atmosx wrote: post #279

mirimir wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I don't have a clue. Who gets to decide? Some murderers are presidents, and others are on trial. There's really no point in arguing about it.

Start here: https://www.congress.gov/constitution-annotated/

I'm not a citizen of the United States nor do I have particular sympathy for their constitution.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#313

Post by ilitirit » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 12:30 AM UTC

RyanZAG wrote: post #13

> 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'd have to agree. Most ZA BBSs only popped up after 1990.

http://bbs.hmvh.net/lists/the_list.htm

There were a few that were around during the late 80s, so it's plausible that there may have been BBS catering to porn. But to sell it via BBS during the late 80s? From Krugersdorp? No ways.

The people who were really in the know about stuff like this were guys like tKC from The Phrozen Crew, and in his own words, he only started catching onto BBS in 1991.

http://defacto2.net/wayback/the-life-and-legend-of-tkc-2000-...

Phrozen Crew were a very well-known cracking group during the 90s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_warez_groups#Phrozen_C...

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#314

Post by camperman » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 12:37 AM UTC

estefan wrote: post #69

RyanZAG wrote: post #13

> 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…

Any story featuring a character called "Randy Bush" should be taken with a pinch of salt...

Randy Bush is an awesome man who was key to getting South Africa connected to the Internet.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#315

Post by joshAg » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 12:46 AM UTC

mirimir wrote: post #290

atmosx wrote: post #279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Start here: https://www.congress.gov/constitution-annotated/

What about those of us who aren't US citizens? SOOL?

Use the similar document for $COUNTRYOFCHOICE

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#316

Post by casca » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 1:01 AM UTC

ilitirit wrote: post #313

RyanZAG wrote: post #13

> 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'd have to agree. Most ZA BBSs only popped up after 1990. http://bbs.hmvh.net/lists/the_list.htm There were a few that were around during the late 80s, so it's plausible that there may have been BBS catering to porn. But to sell it via BBS during the late 80s? From Krugersdorp? No ways. The people who were really in the know about stuff like this were guys like tKC from The Phrozen Crew, and in his own words, he onl…

I question the accuracy of the BBS list. There are some on there that are dated 1992 that I'm quite sure I was connecting to at 300 baud earlier than the dates given.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#317

Post by dang » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 1:10 AM UTC

johnloeber wrote: post #77

Not to be pedantic, but you wrote "cutting out the middleman." Doesn't patreon take a small cut? Aren't they a middleman? (Though undoubtedly one taking a much smaller share than previous ones.)

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11382629 and marked it off-topic.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#318

Post by na85 » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 1:26 AM UTC

atmosx wrote: post #279

mirimir wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I don't have a clue. Who gets to decide? Some murderers are presidents, and others are on trial. There's really no point in arguing about it.

Start here: https://www.congress.gov/constitution-annotated/

Ugh, American Exceptionalism rears its ugly head yet again.

Your constitution is not the epitome of justice or democratic ideals, and is in fact deeply flawed on a fundamental level.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#319

Post by na85 » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 1:29 AM UTC

dfc wrote: post #135

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should they be nervous about doing their job? Also, one X, not two: https://stallman.org/doxing.html

Is Stallman a new William Safire or Brian Garner? I never knew this was one of his areas of expertise. Oxford lists "doxx" as an alternate but accepted version. I don't have an OED license so I dont have access to the full etymology they use. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/dox

Stallman has been irrelevant for years so I couldn't care less what he has to say on the subject, but tt very clearly comes from "documents -> docs -> dox" and should therefore have just 1 x.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#320

Post by jakub_h » Wed, Mar 30, 2016, 1:40 AM UTC

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #192

spacehome wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. As much as it pains social justice warriors today, in English, the words 'he', 'his', and 'him' have a gender neutral usage. And in any case, saying that a computer science security researcher is male is way less than a bit of entropy.

> As much as it pains social justice warriors today, in English, the words 'he', 'his', and 'him' have a gender neutral usage. 'He' is sometimes used in this fashion, but it is an uncommon use, and it's arguable that in some contexts the author actually means a man and has not considered the possibility of a woman. Certainly in this case, why would you assume that it is used in a gender-neutral sense? > And in any ca…

> 'He' is sometimes used in this fashion, but it is an uncommon use

Says someone unfamiliar with Indo-European languages in general?