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After 10 years in tech isolation, I’m now outsider to things I once had mastered

forklog.media

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Re: After 10 years in tech isolation, I’m now outsider to things I once had mastered

#151
post #53
post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it's abhorrent to our sense of justice that one suffer no consequences after committing a crime This is interesting, philosophically speaking. Why do you say this is so? To what end is the suffering, purely for the sake of the suffering itself, valuable? If it's at odds with the rehabilitation, which should take precedence?

Or, from another perspective, what makes one think that forced confinement and ostracisation does not qualify as sufficient "consequences"? In a fundamental sense, this is the greatest punishment that can be given to a human being. We are incredibly social creatures.

I think most would say it does qualify. That was their point- that the goal of incarceration is not only protection, but it (rightfully) serves as punishment.

Re: After 10 years in tech isolation, I’m now outsider to things I once had mastered

#152
> certainly not the way I left it back when I was arrested in 2009 for installing botnets and commercial remote access programs on a handful of sensitive clinic systems, which included a critical SCADA system.That was how I became the first person in recent United States history to be convicted for corrupting industrial control systems.

> As I probe around the web and observe this new generation of hackers, I see individuals that have lost touch with the true spirit of hacking. A brood that is motivated by greed, revenge, and anger. Harmless curiosity has become a thing of the past.

Your Harmless Curiosity didn't stay so harmless in your case, did it?

Spare me your empty, hypocritical moralism - just like Kevin Mitnick.

Re: After 10 years in tech isolation, I’m now outsider to things I once had mastered

#153
post #65

This is a decent account of how much has changed, and he conveys the sense of alienation well. But what strikes me is that he talks about the whole thing like something that unaccountably happened to him. He didn't install botnets; he was arrested for installing botnets. Botnets that he somehow sees as part of the "true spirit of hacking", from the long-lost innocent age of 2009, when pure curiosity was the only moti…

That struck me too. A guy who installed botnets complaining about how "the true spirit of hacking" was lost. Botnets are a plague. Try cracking Windows 10 to make it play nicer, if you want to feel good about hacking.

Re: After 10 years in tech isolation, I’m now outsider to things I once had mastered

#154
post #75
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just wait until someone you love gets murdered or maimed.

Emotional responses shouldn't trump your sense of justice and fairness to human life. I have someone that was close to me murdered and I don't think that a harsher punishment only for my enjoyment is the answer to "what is justice?".

hypothetically, if you could see into the future and ascertain that the perpetrator feels regret and would never commit another crime, should they still serve time?

I would think that there should still be some period of incarceration as a putative measure.

Re: After 10 years in tech isolation, I’m now outsider to things I once had mastered

#155
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and that really should be the only point for prisons (protect the public) That's not true. Our prisons should protect the public, rehabilitate prisoners in so far as they can, and, to an appropriate extent, punish. Some people are skittish about the idea of punsihment. But it's abhorrent to our sense of justice that one suffer no consequences after committing a crime. Now in general I think our prisons and sentenci…

In my observations of the American public, people generally seem to be fine with the extreme sentences and punishment that the system doles out. We’re completely apathetic towards most criminals (usually unless they happen to be rich & white), without understanding the circumstances that created their situation. Take the Crystal Mason case. She’s a Texas woman of color who voted illegally in the 2016 election and got…

What's the idea behind convicted felons not being allowed to vote?

Re: After 10 years in tech isolation, I’m now outsider to things I once had mastered

#156

> "Caging me for a decade is not rehabilitating. I may be making excuses for myself, though there is a lesson that could have been learned with the same amount of value for justice if the sentence was 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, even 6 years." From the article at: https://forklog.media/ex-convicted-hacker-ghostexodus-severi... I don't consider myself a bleeding heart lib but I think that a decade in prison is excessiv…

> I don't consider myself a bleeding heart lib but I think that a decade in prison is excessive for most non-violent crimes. you miss the point. prisons are a massive industry with serious lobbying clout. Putting lots of people in prison for a long time isn't a punishment to the prisoner, it's a gift to the prison system. The "punishment" is just a side effect, and the longer it lasts, the richer the people in power…

> Classic example is getting more time in jail (and loosing your house) for having a marajuana joint than if you raped someone.

Do you have a source for this ever actually happening?

Re: After 10 years in tech isolation, I’m now outsider to things I once had mastered

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

North Korea is harsher

The US has more prisoners per capita than North Korea.

Honestly and without sarcasm: from what I understand, it seems like pretty much everybody in North Korea is a prisoner of North Korea. Not having control of your own life, being constantly monitored, and not being allowed to leave are all hallmarks of prison life. Add to that starvation and retributive acts against your family by the state itself.

Re: After 10 years in tech isolation, I’m now outsider to things I once had mastered

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 2 years in jail for selling gum What do they have against gum?

Ever wondered what those black spots on city sidewalks are? That's gum. All of it is gum that's been spat out then walked on until it acquires a top embedded coating of city grime.

At least for sidewalks it probably had a helpful benefit of keeping it waterproof.

Re: After 10 years in tech isolation, I’m now outsider to things I once had mastered

#160

> "Caging me for a decade is not rehabilitating. I may be making excuses for myself, though there is a lesson that could have been learned with the same amount of value for justice if the sentence was 2 years, 3 years, 5 years, even 6 years." From the article at: https://forklog.media/ex-convicted-hacker-ghostexodus-severi... I don't consider myself a bleeding heart lib but I think that a decade in prison is excessiv…

Isn't the punishment a way to stop people from trying to commit a crime? Because you seem to be focusing on the outcome/consequences of someone that committed a crime and got caught. It's not like the punishment is the result of "bad luck" or "unexpected circumstances", it was a deliberate conscious action, right? Also some of these actions aren't a burst of irrationality and poor thought process - they are planned a…

When I've looked into people who commits crimes and why, they rarely are considering the judicial system and the possible consequences of their actions.

Harsh punishments do not seem to actually function as a determent in real life. From my perspective, harsh punishments is more about revenge than anything else. They're a simple way to feel like you're doing the right thing, as long as you don't examine it too closely. And most people don't want to examine it too closely.

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