I love the post. I smiled quite a lot, not only because of the stories themselves, but because of my own childhood tomfoolery, oftentimes including my childhood best friend.
I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
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Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#92Earlier quoted context omitted.
The "if there is any truth to it" remark was unnecessary. The author was very well known on the net when it was a much smaller place (the old Usenet days), and implying that he made it up is, to say the least, impolite. His Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Earnest
You may know him but I did not, so I erred on the safe side and added the "if there is any truth to it" as it's a much safer default to assume that everything I read on the Internet is possibly made up.
> I erred on the safe side
The safe side is giving them the benefit of the doubt. Possibly made up, sure, but your "if there’s any truth to it" gave a most probably made up vibe. Not only is that uncalled for, it’s pretty inaccurate.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#93Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I learned my lesson to not talk about such things I like how you shared how you learned lesson to not share mischievous activities with people in the same post you then go and share more things you haven't been caught for. This is going on your permanent school record! /s That's great. I know even as of recent of 2021 I've seen some places that had 0 security on things.
> I like how you shared how you learned lesson to not share mischievous activities with people in the same post you then go and share more things you haven't been caught for American public schools are quite adept at teaching distrust in authority, particularly in bureaucrats. That doesn't mean distrust in everybody.
The American public school system likes to teach that they are an authority that should be trusted.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#94Earlier quoted context omitted.
> I learned my lesson to not talk about such things I like how you shared how you learned lesson to not share mischievous activities with people in the same post you then go and share more things you haven't been caught for. This is going on your permanent school record! /s That's great. I know even as of recent of 2021 I've seen some places that had 0 security on things.
> I like how you shared how you learned lesson to not share mischievous activities with people in the same post you then go and share more things you haven't been caught for American public schools are quite adept at teaching distrust in authority, particularly in bureaucrats. That doesn't mean distrust in everybody.
No post body was provided.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#95It makes me wonder -- does everyone end up investigated for their interest in HTTPS and trying to think up encryption methods? It seems even having a passive interest in computer science or cryptocurrency would inevitably lead to one taking a class or buying a book on these topics. The business person in me always brainstorms the various potential business applications of any technology -- and that inevitably leads t…
Not any more, but back in the 1970s and before cryptography was considered the province of the military and spies, not for civilians to mess with, in the US and the UK. State-of-the-art crypto was treated much like tech for nuclear weapons. The pioneers of public key cryptography had to fight for their right to publish.
I cannot imagine an entry level class in Web Development (or even a coding bootcamp) not dedicating some time to crypto and SSL / SSH.
Anyone doing a deepdive on these topics would seemingly be put on a list. It is absurd.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#96Earlier quoted context omitted.
Growing up in a Third-World country, I was tinkering with electronics at age 10 and built my first crystal radio at age 11 from junk parts. Dumpster-diving isn't hard as long as you don't mind the occasional dead dog.
Apart from the dead dogs my experience in a first world country was quite similar. But for some reason I'm more impressed with you, probably because here in NL electronics were relatively easy to come by because people were throwing away older generating electronics with great regularity to buy something newer. Whereas I would expect that in the 3rd world by the time you got your fingers on it it must have been techn…
Thank you. I found the same to be true, though. Most people don't know how to repair radios, or don't know anyone who can do it, so if it's anything more complex than a broken wire, it ended up in the trash. At least the cheap, handheld transistor radios did. Happily, everything was through-hole in the 70's so parts were easy to remove :-)
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#97Earlier quoted context omitted.
Growing up in a Third-World country, I was tinkering with electronics at age 10 and built my first crystal radio at age 11 from junk parts. Dumpster-diving isn't hard as long as you don't mind the occasional dead dog.
I've found entire, functional computers thrown out. My first web server was a 386 built from dumpster-dived parts, quickly upgraded to a 486 as I found new stuff. I still have those computers, too. It's amazing how wasteful people are with tech. People, please don't throw out working computers if you can avoid it. Take them to a thrift shop or a specialized place that will fix them up and sell them, like Free Geek. P…
A year and a half ago, I found an entire HP Elite 8300 standing by the dumpster in the rain. It was only missing a hard disk (likely removed to be shredded).
I brought it in, checked it for rust or damage, let it dry for several days, and ordered a hard drive for it. It runs fine, and I use it as a repo/build server.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#98Please sir
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Edit: sorry completely messed up my css
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#99Did anyone else look into his Stanford biography page? Pretty insane stuff.
https://web.stanford.edu/~learnest/
http://web.stanford.edu/~learnest/bucket/
In a section headed by an anime girl, he claims to have, "figured out when and how a bunch of other fantasies got into our DNA and will shortly post an article on this web site that will explain how that happened, why it is causing modern humans to make billions of bad decisions each day, and how we and our descendants are likely to be wiped out soon unless we begin dealing with this problem in a rational way."
Then there's a weird picture of his face, which is how he thinks he'll look in 2043, when "he plans to croak at age 112".
On his bucket list page,
"My choice as a troublemaker will be to get shot in the back while running away from an jealous husband in May 2043".
Very weird stuff.
Re: I got an FBI record at age 11 from dabbling in cryptography (2015)
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
Growing up in a Third-World country, I was tinkering with electronics at age 10 and built my first crystal radio at age 11 from junk parts. Dumpster-diving isn't hard as long as you don't mind the occasional dead dog.
Apart from the dead dogs my experience in a first world country was quite similar. But for some reason I'm more impressed with you, probably because here in NL electronics were relatively easy to come by because people were throwing away older generating electronics with great regularity to buy something newer. Whereas I would expect that in the 3rd world by the time you got your fingers on it it must have been techn…
A lot of functional electronics end up in third world countries as "e-waste." Never underestimate the wastefulness of American consumers.