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A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

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Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#181

Post by pavlus »

breck wrote: post #146
nxthompson2 wrote: post #3

I'm the author of the piece. I think the best clues are that the mystery hiker told people he was from Louisiana, and that he worked in the tech industry in NY. I suspect someone here might recognize him. I'm reachable at nxthompson at protonmail.

$5,000 and 5 months? Why in the world is the DNA matching going so slow? My cousin mailed fifty bucks and some spit in an envelope on Monday and Wednesday I get an email from 23andMe saying "Hey! We think this is your cousin's spit!". And neither of us is missing!

23andMe don't do full sequencing, they just map small parts of DNA which are tied to features they test.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#182

Post by aaron695 »

kick wrote: post #7

It's amazing how rude Facebook, reddit, and in this case, greedy companies, can be. If he cared enough about anyone knowing who he was, he'd have told someone. This is just blatant disregard for a man's privacy.

His privacy is a really important issue. People have a right to disappear. No one has a right to take this away from someone else. You own your body.

People seems to excuse themselves trampling on others privacy just so they can be part of a podcast. It's lame. Your family doesn't own you, you don't own them.

> If he cared enough

This bit is wrong. He might have cared and he seems to have gone to great lengths to protect his privacy.

Points of thought

1) Some people think dead people have zero rights. You are in or out on this.

2) We don't know for sure he wanted to disappear after his death.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#183

Post by znpy »

sixstringtheory wrote: post #53
wolco2 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is much easier in third world countries to hide children / existance. This will make them attractive. In the future you describe you would have a hacked or stolen id.

Minority Report proposed a solution to the automated public retinal scans...

I haven't watched the movie, I'll give it an eye! Or two! /s

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#184

Post by znpy »

dheera wrote: post #74
roywiggins wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USPS sells change-of-address data. https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamtanner/2013/07/08/how-the-p...

Yeah, I hate those assholes for that, that's why I don't tell the USPS anymore when I move. Whenever I give my address to a business for shipping, DMV, voter registration, etc. I also tack on a code to my address so that if they leak it as-is, they'll have blood on their hands, and I can publicly shame them for it. But that hasn't yet seemed to successfully track down the source.

> Whenever I give my address to a business for shipping, DMV, voter registration, etc. I also tack on a code to my address

Could you elaborate on that?

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#185

Post by znpy »

kbos87 wrote: post #169

Not even a passing mention of the privacy questions at stake here. I don’t fault the police for seeking answers, but every self-nominated amateur sleuth isn’t due an answer about the identity of someone who in all likelihood wanted to live privately and never committed a crime.

Uh, we don't know for sure he didn't ever commit a crime, your logic is flawed.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#186

Post by jpsalm »

jennyyang wrote: post #63

Here is a link to his notebook that they found on him: https://www.colliersheriff.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=94010

Kind of a stretch but the crossover between jaded dev/tech people and EVE Online players is high:

Mostly Harmless is an old, now defunct, EVE corp. Might be someone who ran in that that might recognize him.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/cd7ku3/disbanded_allia...

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#187

Post by dheera »

znpy wrote: post #184
dheera wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I hate those assholes for that, that's why I don't tell the USPS anymore when I move. Whenever I give my address to a business for shipping, DMV, voter registration, etc. I also tack on a code to my address so that if they leak it as-is, they'll have blood on their hands, and I can publicly shame them for it. But that hasn't yet seemed to successfully track down the source.

> Whenever I give my address to a business for shipping, DMV, voter registration, etc. I also tack on a code to my address Could you elaborate on that?

Let's say your address was

256 Main St. Apt 10, Some City, CA, USA

I usually provide my address as

256 Main St. Unit 10-BCRK, Some City, CA, USA

I generate a unique code for each entity that I am required to provide my address to.

I usually change "Apt" to "Unit" to stump the automatic address-correcting APIs that will convert "Apt 10-BCRK" to "Apt 10". I found that changing "Apt" to "Unit" usually stumps them.

The idea is that if I see another business use "BCRK" to send me junk mail, or list my address on those idiot people search sites, I will write a blog and publicly shame the first business for giving it out.

Package delivery drivers happily ignore the "BCRK" part and my packages still arrive as usual.

When giving out billing address for credit card authorization, I find usually I can skip the apartment number field and the card still authorizes just fine, so I also don't need to tell online retailers the same 4-letter code that my bank has listed for my address.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#188

Post by almog »

dmckeon wrote: post #180
almog wrote: post #116

I love how sometimes worlds collide and thruhiking related stories make it to HN. It is however sad for it to be in this context. If anyone reading this consider getting into long distance hiking, I'd encourage you to do so. While it is always best to avoid getting into dangerous situations rather than finding your way out of there, getting yourself either: 1. A subscription based satellite messenger (Garmin Mini is…

If you travel to places where you might want people searching for you from the air to notice you amid many square miles of search area, a signal mirror is remarkably effective. https://adventure.howstuffworks.com/survival/gear/use-signal...

The key thing about a signalling mirror is that it can be useful _if someone is searching for you_ (and provided that you have clear sky above you).

PLB or satellite messengers will not only let the first responders know where you are (both by transmitting your location via satellite distress signal as well as using 121.5 MHz 'homing signal' in the case of PLBs to help first responders find your exact location), but also trigger the SAR operation rather than waiting for someone to notice you've been gone for too long.

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#189

Post by sgroppino »

lunch wrote: post #128
jennyyang wrote: post #63

Here is a link to his notebook that they found on him: https://www.colliersheriff.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=94010

Many of these pages look to me like he was designing a game. - p2p, client-server notes - Class definitions and implementation notes - Source code doing position calculations

Could it be the same person? https://steamcommunity.com/id/n0s0ck He has a comment on https://steamcommunity.com/app/464350/discussions/0/35165980...

Re: A nameless hiker and the case the internet can’t crack

#190

Post by gabereiser »

jpsalm wrote: post #186
jennyyang wrote: post #63

Here is a link to his notebook that they found on him: https://www.colliersheriff.org/Home/ShowDocument?id=94010

Kind of a stretch but the crossover between jaded dev/tech people and EVE Online players is high: Mostly Harmless is an old, now defunct, EVE corp. Might be someone who ran in that that might recognize him. https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/cd7ku3/disbanded_allia...

Mostly Harmless is also a difficulty level... I wouldn't dig too deeply into the name so much as the choice.
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