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What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

quora.com

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Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#131

Post by deftnerd »

clamprecht wrote: post #98
deftnerd wrote: post #57

I am a developer/hacker who spent 6 months in prison about a decade ago. They had a room of old broken computers that were donated and I offered to fix them up in exchange for increased library privileges. Normally inmates could only visit the library once a week and check out two books, but I read about 4 books a day during my time there. I fixed up the computers and supported them once they got a teacher, read my b…

> You pretty much have to resign yourself to the fact that you'll work at 50% of the salary as your peers or have to make your own future by starting your own companies and projects. Fuck that. If you're going to resign yourself to something, resign yourself to the fact that you will have to work 150% as hard as your peers to make as much money. I know this is saying almost the same thing, but it's saying it in a mor…

I appreciate your insight, but I have a family now and it wouldn't be fair of them for me to put 150% effort into my work life just to try to earn just as much as someone else who works 100%.

I would rather work for less money as long as I spend time with the people I love.

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#132

Post by jcc80 »

mjolk wrote: post #123
johnjay wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree 100% with you. The best response is always to call the authorities. I really don't see the benefit of going toe to toe with a criminal. Also, I'm shocked by the responses you are getting telling you that you are wrong. Do people really want to confront a criminal. I grew up in a ghetto in Brooklyn, NY, I'm Hispanic, and my family always calls the police. Getting into an argument directly with someone has too…

Yeah, I don't understand most of the responses. I hope that the responses are either from people that: a) Don't think that he's saying "here's advice for life" (and if they do, don't realize that this is advice for how to respond to crimes against you) b) Are scoping his advice to "while in prison, and because you're stuck there with violent morons anyway, don't make yourself a target" c) Are out of their depth and/o…

"...don't realize that this is advice for how to respond to crimes against you"

I missed that in the answer by Anonymous on Quora. Can you point it out? Anyways, seems like you've attached a meaning to this that most people haven't and now you're making all sorts of assumptions about those that didn't attach that same meaning.

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#133

Post by seandhi »

onetimeonly wrote: post #103

I'm a hacker who served 4.5 months of a 9 month sentence 5 years ago. I was in two jails in that time, spending the majority of the time in the second, lower security place. The experience totally changed me, but in a positive way. First of all, I actually had a lot of fun in jail. My education made certain aspects of the prison system very easy for me to navigate, such as legal documentation and debating with guards…

> I no longer have to legally disclose it

I could be wrong, but my understanding is that this is not a "luxury" that we enjoy in the U.S. Once you have a conviction, it is there forever. So much for doing your time and paying your debt to society. I really hope I am wrong about this, but I fear that I am not.

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#134

Post by fragsworth »

deftnerd wrote: post #101
sillysaurus2 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You pretty much have to resign yourself to the fact that you'll work at 50% of the salary as your peers Have you considered working for an early-stage startup? It seems like your expected value may be higher, because even though your salary will still be low, you'll be vesting stock.

I have, but I'm the kind of developer who thinks up the big ideas and can build to 95% but I'm not great at grinding away at that last 5% of bugs. We're valuable, but by no means a rare breed. The rarer breeds are the work-horses that you can throw the results of a QA check to and they work on everything to completion. In startups, it's the founders that typically have the rights to do the planning and core developme…

So you want to do all the fun work, and pass off the grindy boring shit to someone else, most of which probably results from your "core" coding? I think I would hate working with you and you're bringing this on yourself.

You might have an inflated idea of how good you are at this shit. If you are really good, you won't have much grindy boring work to do.

If you're not taking a major part in the final tasks of a project, how can you be so certain you are good at preparing it for the future?

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#135

Post by aclevernickname »

seandhi wrote: post #133
onetimeonly wrote: post #103

I'm a hacker who served 4.5 months of a 9 month sentence 5 years ago. I was in two jails in that time, spending the majority of the time in the second, lower security place. The experience totally changed me, but in a positive way. First of all, I actually had a lot of fun in jail. My education made certain aspects of the prison system very easy for me to navigate, such as legal documentation and debating with guards…

> I no longer have to legally disclose it I could be wrong, but my understanding is that this is not a "luxury" that we enjoy in the U.S. Once you have a conviction, it is there forever. So much for doing your time and paying your debt to society. I really hope I am wrong about this, but I fear that I am not.

If you settle and close your matter civilly (even if it is a criminal matter), you do not have to disclose. Vince Neil of Motley Crue does not have an obligation to disclose his vehicular manslaughter conviction for this reason. There are other examples, but Vince's is the easiest to google.

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#136

Post by [deleted] »

seandhi wrote: post #133
onetimeonly wrote: post #103

I'm a hacker who served 4.5 months of a 9 month sentence 5 years ago. I was in two jails in that time, spending the majority of the time in the second, lower security place. The experience totally changed me, but in a positive way. First of all, I actually had a lot of fun in jail. My education made certain aspects of the prison system very easy for me to navigate, such as legal documentation and debating with guards…

> I no longer have to legally disclose it I could be wrong, but my understanding is that this is not a "luxury" that we enjoy in the U.S. Once you have a conviction, it is there forever. So much for doing your time and paying your debt to society. I really hope I am wrong about this, but I fear that I am not.

[deleted]

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#137

Post by atmosx »

onetimeonly wrote: post #103

I'm a hacker who served 4.5 months of a 9 month sentence 5 years ago. I was in two jails in that time, spending the majority of the time in the second, lower security place. The experience totally changed me, but in a positive way. First of all, I actually had a lot of fun in jail. My education made certain aspects of the prison system very easy for me to navigate, such as legal documentation and debating with guards…

Best read I've head online in a while. You are very lucky that this whole thing turned for you. Your skills were highly appreciated in that environment and you learned the lesson. Everybody does mistakes, what matters is to learn from them. You learned the hard way, but the result as you describe it here, is fantastic.

Good luck with everything :-)

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#138

Post by auctiontheory »

seandhi wrote: post #133
onetimeonly wrote: post #103

I'm a hacker who served 4.5 months of a 9 month sentence 5 years ago. I was in two jails in that time, spending the majority of the time in the second, lower security place. The experience totally changed me, but in a positive way. First of all, I actually had a lot of fun in jail. My education made certain aspects of the prison system very easy for me to navigate, such as legal documentation and debating with guards…

> I no longer have to legally disclose it I could be wrong, but my understanding is that this is not a "luxury" that we enjoy in the U.S. Once you have a conviction, it is there forever. So much for doing your time and paying your debt to society. I really hope I am wrong about this, but I fear that I am not.

Even in the US, convictions can be expunged or sealed. The requirements vary by jurisdiction. (I think it's especially common for young offenders.)

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#139

Post by robflynn »

ItendToDisagree wrote: post #80
eplanit wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah. "Feel bad for me because I'm in prison. Never mind how I got here. I can write the DDL for a simple database. I'm a hero! NO DISUSSION ALLOWED". Simple world you live in, it is.

No one has ever gone to prison for BS reasons, or been falsely accused. How can you ever trust anyone who ever did anything wrong in their life? If you've done something wrong you're obviously a bad person forever. Edit: As an aside, it is very likely you have committed a crime punishable by jail time and not been caught/prosecuted, at least once in your life (with or without you knowing it).

Exactly. I know someone who received a ticket for a broken tail light. He forgot to pay it and ended up going to jail for 8 months! 8 months! For a broken tail light!

I would have expected an additional penalty or at most a week in jail, which even then I would consider that extreme.

Re: What is it like to be a geek in a prison?

#140

Post by auctiontheory »

mjolk wrote: post #42
pmichaud wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's helpful in most contexts outside of white/middle class privilege. But I don't really understand your question?

In your opinion, why do you believe that reporting crimes is a "white/middle class privilege" decision?

Because if you're poor, or black, or poor and black, you probably already know that the police are likely to mistreat you for no reason at all.
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