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Adrian Lamo has died

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Re: Adrian Lamo has died

#101

Post by whichwalrus »

Sorry, this story isn't very interesting, but it really stuck with me nonetheless, and I wanted to share.

Adrian had a passing romance with a friend of mine, and thus ended up traveling through the city I grew up in. This was long before Chelsea Manning, etc.

I was a super shy, rather awkward teenage girl. I suppose the teenage part has changed.. but I digress. I loved the idea of mischief, but at the same time, I was a habitual rule-follower. I get nervous walking through the retail store detectors placed at entrances.. even though I've never stolen anything in my life. I remember listening to social engineering phone pranks -- the sort where people would talk their way into being put on the store-wide intercom at Walmart. At the time, I think I really wanted to be so confident that I could do such a thing, versus the reality, which was mild anxiety over something so simple as placing a legit pizza order over the phone.

I knew who Adrian was in a peripheral sense. I was a community leader and eventual employee on AOL in years prior, and I had an interest in how to break things as an inverse of being curious how they're built.

I had a car, while my friend did not, and Adrian had traveled via transit, so I spent the day with them hopping around town. At one point, we were downtown grabbing food in one of the larger complexes -- Adrian breaks off for a second and asks a retail store employee a bunch of questions about working there, saying he was just hired at the cafe. We then ended up going into what was clearly an employee-only area -- GUYS WE AREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE HERE WHAT IF WE GET IN TROUBLE OH GOD -- we duck into a fire escape, hike up to the upper level where he picks the lock to the door with roof access, and there we are, highest point in the city. After a few minutes of me suggesting that MAYBE we go back down since this was cool BUT REALLY WE SHOULD GO, Adrian told me I'd miss the sunset if I kept worrying.

It was dumb. I'm sure I could've been arrested. But watching the sunset with the two of them from the top of that building remains one of my favorite memories. It was the first time I'd taken a step out of my shell, I suppose. Adrian was a troubled guy, and I don't forgive what he did to Manning, but I appreciated him for that moment in time.

Re: Adrian Lamo has died

#102

Post by pbhjpbhj »

CydeWeys wrote: post #76
pbhjpbhj wrote: post #55

As an aside: didn't Lamo report Bradley Manning, it's surely rewriting history to report otherwise? I didn't recognise the name at first because of this change.

A name is a label (think C pointer) to a specific person. So yes, Lamo did report the person now known as Chelsea Manning. It was the person that was reported, not a name. Names in themselves are almost entirely inconsequential.

So, do you remember when the President of USA had that Apprentice show on TV?

To me that's wrong, the President didn't, but Donald Trump did.

There's no reason to hide that Trump hasn't always been president, and it's informative to know that he wasn't president at the time he was a TV character in a "game" (?) show.

If the name is inconsequential why does anyone care if you refer to the correct historical fact that "Bradley Manning (now called Chelsea) was reported ...".

They matter, just in different ways to different people. What's that quote - naming things and off-by-one errors??

Re: Adrian Lamo has died

#105

Post by pbhjpbhj »

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #91
throwaway9063 wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Hi, I know this is a thread about someone's passing, and I'm gonna let you finish, but unless you adopt my preferred method of reasoning on this tangential, hot-button topic that I haven't even given you a chance to properly discuss, you're an abusive person. The polite thing to do is to think and talk the way I'm telling you to and move on with your life, because otherwise, you're a monster."

> unless you adopt my preferred method of reasoning on this tangential, hot-button topic that I haven't even given you a chance to properly discuss, you're an abusive person. You're literally putting words in my mouth there. I said that was a tactic favored among abusive people. That's not an accusation, that's an observable fact about how abusive people behave. I choose my words carefully, y'know.

Oh come come, we all know you intended the implication.

Re: Adrian Lamo has died

#106

Post by daxorid »

adamnemecek wrote: post #6
kragen wrote: post #5

I'm conflicted about this news. On one hand, he was one of us, and he shared his knowledge. On the other hand, he was a traitor, and he betrayed the trust of a true hero in order to put more unaccountable government power in the hands of people like Donald Trump. Who would have expected that Adrian Lamo would outlive Chelsea Manning? Did he commit suicide — as she nearly did?

Was it ever found out why he did it? I don't know the guy but it just seems like idk, what is there to gain out of this?

I'm guessing the same reason Sabu turned rat fink snitch.

Re: Adrian Lamo has died

#107

Post by dang »

mmjaa wrote: post #70
jakear wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People really were put in danger. The Taliban targeted Afgan nationals revealed in the documents to be associating with the US. From a Taliban spokesperson: "We will investigate through our own secret service whether the people mentioned are really spies working for the U.S. If they are U.S. spies, then we know how to punish them." [1] I like freedom of information, but what Manning did was simply irresponsible. Ther…

Hundreds of thousands of innocent people are put in danger, really in harms way, because of the American publics' reticence for reigning in their military masters. You might think that American lives are worth more, but I happen to think that childrens' lives are worth more - of any nation - than any American. Or have you forgotten the innocent children that were murdered in cold blood by Americans', as revealed in t…

This comment crosses into ideological flamewar and personal attacks, which are destructive on HN regardless of how correct your underlying views may be. Please don't do those things here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: Adrian Lamo has died

#108

Post by dredmorbius »

rimunroe wrote: post #33
kragen wrote: post #5

I'm conflicted about this news. On one hand, he was one of us, and he shared his knowledge. On the other hand, he was a traitor, and he betrayed the trust of a true hero in order to put more unaccountable government power in the hands of people like Donald Trump. Who would have expected that Adrian Lamo would outlive Chelsea Manning? Did he commit suicide — as she nearly did?

On a personal note, a year or two before that happened Adrian helped my family recover our AOL/AIM accounts after they were compromised. Someone got control of the master account for all my family's AOL accounts, which we created back in ~1995. Because we hadn't been paying customers for over a decade, AOL was unresponsive to support requests. One of my acquaintances knew Adrian though, and got him in touch with me a…

FWIW the response for paying AOL customers (former) was little better.

Re: Adrian Lamo has died

#109

Post by CiPHPerCoder »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #105
CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> unless you adopt my preferred method of reasoning on this tangential, hot-button topic that I haven't even given you a chance to properly discuss, you're an abusive person. You're literally putting words in my mouth there. I said that was a tactic favored among abusive people. That's not an accusation, that's an observable fact about how abusive people behave. I choose my words carefully, y'know.

Oh come come, we all know you intended the implication.

"This is something that bad people do" isn't an accusation of being bad, regardless of how much it offends you.

People replicate the behaviors of terrible people either by accident or by mimicry all the time. My aim is to inform, not to condemn.

Re: Adrian Lamo has died

#110

Post by thaumaturgy »

CydeWeys wrote: post #93
_wmd wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I appreciate that you're being candid, but it's clear you also know that posting what you posted in this context is somehow wrong - otherwise why else justify it (childishly) on having a bad day? Now my complaint: you could have posted this tomorrow and I wouldn't have so much trouble with it, but hijacking the announcement of someone's death to air privileged /and/ gossipy bits of their private life, their sexuality…

The comments here are honest, at least. Complicated people yield complicated discussions when they die.

There's nothing complicated about the comments here. So far they're merely awful: someone's death being used as an opportunity for people to air their grievances about that person.

Imagine one of Adrian's family members sitting in a room with every person from this thread, and these comments being directed to them, in person.

Fucksake HN. You're being more classless than usual today.

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