Top suspect in 2015 Ashley Madison hack committed suicide in 2014 • Hacker News Board

Re: Top suspect in 2015 Ashley Madison hack committed suicide in 2014

#101

Post by mcpackieh » Sat, Jul 08, 2023, 7:32 AM UTC

busterarm wrote: post #82

jonathankoren wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. It's specifically the "Mary Sue" part that he's annoyed by. That term is never used online to refer to male character. Of course, a dude that can not only be athletic, can read every inscription in every ancient language, is an expert in every ancient civilization, and use a bull whip as a grappling hook at will gets a pass.

No, then they're called a Gary Stu, Marty Stu, Marty Sam or Tom Sue and they exist too. They too are annoying and numerous, but less common. Harry Potter, Scott Pilgrim, James Bond, any character Vin Diesel plays, etc. Mary Sues are called out rightly because they're a shitty trope used by lazy writers. Nobody (with any intelligence or credibility) ever said that George Lucas was a particularly great writer. It's pop…

I can't agree with the second half of your post. Indiana Jones started reasonably strong with Raiders and has been on a steep descent ever since. The secondary characters in Temple of Doom were truly annoying and the franchise only got worse from there. I could be coaxed into watching the first again, but none of the sequels.

And the state of modern blockbusters shows that mass audiences haven't developed more sophisticated taste, they still gobble up slop like Marvel for a dozen+ sequels/spinoffs with thunderous enthusiasm until they eventually, finally, get bored of the premise and start looking for some new slop. MCU isn't failing because audiences got more sophisticated between five years ago and now; it's failing because they've been putting out the same movie with reskined costumes for 15 years now and that was never going to keep people interested forever. It still had one hell of a run though, proving that audiences today don't have more taste than audiences in the 80s.

Re: Top suspect in 2015 Ashley Madison hack committed suicide in 2014

#102

Post by jeffrallen » Sat, Jul 08, 2023, 7:34 AM UTC

pseudo0 wrote: post #36

asynchronous wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not to mention the “business” being run was about as shady as you can get.

It's remarkable that they still exist as a functioning company. I would have thought that the lawsuits over the hack, the alleged fake accounts, and the general loss of customer trust would have been enough to push them into insolvency.

Listen to the podcast "She wants more" to understand why it still exists. Most of the interviewees use it.

Re: Top suspect in 2015 Ashley Madison hack committed suicide in 2014

#103

Post by robertlagrant » Sat, Jul 08, 2023, 7:54 AM UTC

busterarm wrote: post #82

jonathankoren wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No. It's specifically the "Mary Sue" part that he's annoyed by. That term is never used online to refer to male character. Of course, a dude that can not only be athletic, can read every inscription in every ancient language, is an expert in every ancient civilization, and use a bull whip as a grappling hook at will gets a pass.

No, then they're called a Gary Stu, Marty Stu, Marty Sam or Tom Sue and they exist too. They too are annoying and numerous, but less common. Harry Potter, Scott Pilgrim, James Bond, any character Vin Diesel plays, etc. Mary Sues are called out rightly because they're a shitty trope used by lazy writers. Nobody (with any intelligence or credibility) ever said that George Lucas was a particularly great writer. It's pop…

Don't forget Wesley Crusher. I don't know why people pretend that the male version isn't also disliked, but I don't think it's a rational stance. People don't like either.

Re: Top suspect in 2015 Ashley Madison hack committed suicide in 2014

#104

Post by robertlagrant » Sat, Jul 08, 2023, 7:56 AM UTC

jvanderbot wrote: post #16

robertlagrant wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having watched them murder Star Wars, Willow, and now Indiana Jones, this seems relatively tame.

Andor is quite good. But still a bit too much Disney in some scenes.

I agree Andor was great - I genuinely found myself on the edge of my seat once or twice watching it. But one decent TV show out of several, and no new movies in years? Terrible performance.

Re: Top suspect in 2015 Ashley Madison hack committed suicide in 2014

#105

Post by mcpackieh » Sat, Jul 08, 2023, 8:00 AM UTC

jonathankoren wrote: post #100

busterarm wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, then they're called a Gary Stu, Marty Stu, Marty Sam or Tom Sue and they exist too. They too are annoying and numerous, but less common. Harry Potter, Scott Pilgrim, James Bond, any character Vin Diesel plays, etc. Mary Sues are called out rightly because they're a shitty trope used by lazy writers. Nobody (with any intelligence or credibility) ever said that George Lucas was a particularly great writer. It's pop…

Come back when any of those characters you listed are called Mary Sue. Let’s use Star Wars for an example. A teenager with little education, grows up on a backwater desert planet immediately uses the Force and flies an advanced space craft into battle, becoming the focus of attention of a galaxy spanning fascist military, and a hero in an under resourced underground partisan movement. You’re hard pressed to find anyo…

> You’re hard pressed to find anyone complaining about Luke Skywalker

That's just not true. The whole "chosen one" premise is extremely common in fantasy and scifi and widely criticized by people with sufficient taste and media literacy to become aware of the pattern and grow weary of it. Media that fits this pattern is considered adolescent; adults who are obsessed with Star Wars or Harry Potter are called manchildren. "Mary Sue" is gendered language that isn't used to describe male characters, but that doesn't mean this same exact sort of bad writing for male characters doesn't exist, or isn't recognized as such.

Off the top of my head: Harry Potter, Star Wars, the Matrix, virtually all shonen anime, The Wheel of Time, anything Branden Sanderson has written... all of these are considered adolescent (have I pissed off everybody yet?) It's extremely hard to think of any example of "chosen one" media that isn't considered adolescent... Dune maybe? This trope is so common, it taints the reputation of all fantasy and sci-fi by association.

Re: Top suspect in 2015 Ashley Madison hack committed suicide in 2014

#106

Post by TeMPOraL » Sat, Jul 08, 2023, 8:31 AM UTC

JimtheCoder wrote: post #75

JamesBarney wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it does change your status. If you go on a date a pick a girl up in a Hyundai and test her with an Android phone many will have a different opinion than if you text with apple and pick her up in a audi.

"James was totally cool, but when I found out he used an Android phone, I was so over him..." -some girl to her girlfriends, somewhere, probably...

That's secondary/high school level stuff, but sure, it happens. Many teens think like this, and they they grow out of it - that's part of the process. At least most do.

Re: Top suspect in 2015 Ashley Madison hack committed suicide in 2014

#107

Post by TeMPOraL » Sat, Jul 08, 2023, 8:35 AM UTC

itake wrote: post #65

mcpackieh wrote: post #5

Awful bastard hacker strikes a death blow against an evil corporation from beyond the grave. Very cyberpunk.

Death blow? I saw their ad last week in the App Store.

Like in that scene in The Terminator (1984), when the skin of the titular assassin melts/burns off/whatever, and it is revealed for what it truly is: a machine. Here, the "death blow" to a corporation reveals its true nature: an artificial intelligence. Implemented in bureaucracy and economics, executing on a runtime that's literally made of humans as processing units. C-suite, employees, customers, partners - all just execution substrate.

So yeah, you'd think that this corporate entity was dead already - but it was never alive in the first place. Unlike the humans opposing it, it doesn't need to be.

Re: Top suspect in 2015 Ashley Madison hack committed suicide in 2014

#108

Post by paulmd » Sat, Jul 08, 2023, 8:42 AM UTC

mrleinad wrote: post #33

andrepd wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder how releasing new films (good or bad) is supposed to "murder" an existing franchise.

The Indiana Jones franchise exists because of the Indiana Jones character. People that go to one of those movies want to see him. If you setup a Mary Sue that treats him like an useless geriatric waste of a man, and finish the movie by having this Mary Sue knock him out, you're basically pissing in your own franchise. And since Harrison Ford won't be able to do another one, this is how the franchise ended, with a sou…

> And since Harrison Ford won't be able to do another one

I don't know, maybe ask Holo-Reagan or Holo-Tupac what he thinks about that? Or we've got holo-leia or holo-tarkin even within the star wars universe already.

You just have to face it, death isn't the obstacle it used to be. There's lots of dead actors out there living kickass lives.

Re: Top suspect in 2015 Ashley Madison hack committed suicide in 2014

#109

Post by solardev » Sat, Jul 08, 2023, 8:46 AM UTC

JamesBarney wrote: post #73

hospitalJail wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Its one of the primal needs. Its why some companies are so effective at selling Veblen goods to status seekers. When I was growing up, I got abercrombie/american eagle because it was cool to girls. Today teens get Apple/Nike products. Not that any of these actually change your status, but the marketers were able to sell that idea/feeling. As an adult, you see people buying/leasing Tesla's or more expensive cars to do…

I think it does change your status. If you go on a date a pick a girl up in a Hyundai and test her with an Android phone many will have a different opinion than if you text with apple and pick her up in a audi.

That, my friend, is called a bullet dodged.

Re: Top suspect in 2015 Ashley Madison hack committed suicide in 2014

#110

Post by spacebanana7 » Sat, Jul 08, 2023, 9:05 AM UTC

hospitalJail wrote: post #66

busterarm wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Advertising to horny people is hilariously effective.

Its one of the primal needs. Its why some companies are so effective at selling Veblen goods to status seekers. When I was growing up, I got abercrombie/american eagle because it was cool to girls. Today teens get Apple/Nike products. Not that any of these actually change your status, but the marketers were able to sell that idea/feeling. As an adult, you see people buying/leasing Tesla's or more expensive cars to do…

I have a pet theory that all humans spend roughly 30% of their disposable income on status products. And that there's no way to escape this. No matter how hard you try.

If you escape spending at LVMH you'll spend it on cars, indie brands or ascetic holidays. Keep going and your money will go towards pseudo-educational leisure activities that make a social statement like submarine exploration or building web apps in Ocaml.