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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

#281
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.

What if he has a will and trust that need to be executed?

If that was important to him, he surely would have carried an ID.

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

#282
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not able, or not interested?

I don't understand how the average person cannot comprehend this. The point isn't to "hike far, fast"; it's "walk around, hang out in nature, maybe wind up somewhere new." Maybe he wanted to head out, push as far as he was able and willing, and then die. Maybe he was sick and tired of living and working in our shitty society. What's so hard to understand about that? Particularly with the cash he had on hand, which is…

I hope you stick around, mainly because I hope someone will say that to me one day. I mean it too.

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

#283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That doesn’t fit. You don’t discover you’re terminally ill and then brainstorm a game while you're out trying to find yourself. If you think you're terminally ill then your notebook is likely to be full of meditations on the day's endeavors and thoughts about your legacy, and your mortality, maybe even your family. You write about a game when you're nowhere near a computer, it's because you're imagining eventually be…

"That doesn’t fit. You don’t discover you’re terminally ill and then brainstorm a game while you're out trying to find yourself. If you think you're terminally ill then your notebook is likely to be full of meditations on the day's endeavors and thoughts about your legacy, and your mortality, maybe even your family." That might work for some people, but everyone is different. It's possible he doesn't have a family, w…

I don't think he's sick tbh. He looks like a lot of guys that I know within CS -- interested in video games and smaller, more technical subjects, very skinny because he forgets to eat, the beard/long hair because he doesn't care to shave, and these big solitary adventures. I know like 10 young men who all fit this profile.

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

#284
post #65
post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm slightly less concerned about being anonymous from the government and far more concerned about being anonymous from businesses . How is it that every time I move, they still figure out where I live and continue to send me junk mail? I'm extremely concerned about the ease of arbitrary businesses finding out where some person lives. I want this to be unethical to the point that whoever leaked my address without my…

You're getting downvoted and I'm not sure why, but I'd like a moment to share my story and why I believe in what you believe: My mom called me the other week and told me that a recruiter was looking for me. She gave me their name and number, but I was stumped. How the hell did: 1. They know that was my mother 2. How did they know her number 3. How did they know she would be able to reach me? I've subsequently determi…

Voter registration is another place they could possibly find this data.

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

#285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

I found this out when I moved recently and I find it incredibly stupid. I'm now simultaneously annoyed that my new address seems to still receive mail for the last 3 tenants, but I also didn't do a change of address so whoever ends up renting my old apartment is going to be annoyed with me.

The last house I lived in was torn down and rebuilt. The address changed from 311 to 313 in the process. I've always wondered if it was because they were tired of receiving my junkmail.

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

#286
post #274
post #93

The notebook is fascinating. The guy's hand-writing code in a small notebook.

I used to do that a lot when I was younger. I didn't have my own computer until I was out of college. I would write out 6502 assembler programs by hand on graph paper and then hand-assemble the code in the columns to the left of the assembly instructions. Then I'd enter the hex code in with the Apple ][ monitor.

I used to use graph paper too. Had to transcribe everything to a teletype that only had 72 columns.

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

#287

I looked at this a year ago but unfortunately lost the note I kept. There was a fellow named Ben Bellamy, who was a software developer, on LinkedIn at one time with a photo that closely matched this guy. I believe he was, in fact, in the New York area but I cannot remember for sure, I did some poking around tonight but couldn't pull up his LI profile again.

jml7c5 posted in this thread about this from his notebook pages:

> 16: "BLL", a programming/scripting language, probably short for "B... L... Language".

Could "BLL" be related to Ben Bellamy?

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

#289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand how the average person cannot comprehend this. The point isn't to "hike far, fast"; it's "walk around, hang out in nature, maybe wind up somewhere new." Maybe he wanted to head out, push as far as he was able and willing, and then die. Maybe he was sick and tired of living and working in our shitty society. What's so hard to understand about that? Particularly with the cash he had on hand, which is…

I hope you stick around, mainly because I hope someone will say that to me one day. I mean it too.

Codezero I hope you stick around as well. From what I see in your profile the world is a better place with you in it!

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

#290
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.

In any context I can think of privacy only exists while someone is alive. Once you are dead your life history sort of exists in the public domain.

What about respect for the dead? I for one would like to live in a society that tries to honor my last wishes.
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