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He Always Had a Dark Side

mastermind.atavist.com

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Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#261

Post by CiPHPerCoder »

cakeface wrote: post #193
dfc wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is Stallman a new William Safire or Brian Garner? I never knew this was one of his areas of expertise. Oxford lists "doxx" as an alternate but accepted version. I don't have an OED license so I dont have access to the full etymology they use. http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/dox

The OED does not have listings for "dox", "doxing" or "doxxing". Well, one entry for "dox" that relates to orthodoxy but that does not apply here.

It's simple: Dox is short for "docs". Shortening a 4-letter word to a 3-letter word is sensible (albeit lazy). Shortening a 4-letter word to a 4-letter word ("doxx") is stupid.

I don't know why people spell it with two. Maybe they think it looks cooler? But really it's hacker slang for "I accessed and published sensitive information about an individual" and is in most cases horrible.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#262

Post by toyg »

buserror wrote: post #228
casca wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There was a small community in South Africa that used to connect to the Internet around that time by dialing into X.25-connected modems. These seemed to be owned by banks or insurance companies, and would allow break-outs to US modems that allowed local calling to ISPs. The information about the numbers and credentials were shared on local BBSs. Source: was personally involved

I agree. I used to do the same from France. Got me a a HELL of a lot of trouble in fact, as I've racked up a huge X25 bill with one company, and accidentally registered under my real name to a texan BBS that was later involved in the Hacker's Crackdown. Also, on the note of 'porn online in the late 80's' is probably impossible, as there were no digital cameras, no scanners to speak of, and the only 'porn' you'd have…

He could have been selling actual magazines and tapes, rather than digital files. As I'm sure you remember, snail mail orders were part and parcel of the BBS world for all sorts of things.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#263

Post by beeboop »

celticninja wrote: post #143
Laaw wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the off chance your account is real, what percentage of truth would you assign to the article?

the account is only 2 hours old so I doubt it is real.

Also considering he's probably in jail, I doubt he has internet access.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#264

Post by dmix »

zzleeper wrote: post #210

On a slightly related question, what are you guys using instead of Truecrypt for virtual encripted disks? I use a bit of confidential data for research, and keep the identifiers on a TC container, but since it is no longer maintained I wonder when will it stop working and if VeraCrypt/CipherShed are good or not. I don't access the data that often, so speed is not that big of a deal, but the ability to cover my back i…

grugq made a nice list of alternatives to Truecrypt [1].

I also personally use Tomb [2] containers and dmcrypt/luks [3] for full-disk encryption on both Linux and Android.

[1] http://grugq.tumblr.com/post/60464139008/alternative-truecry...

[2] https://www.dyne.org/software/tomb/

[3] Setting up Archlinux with dmcrypt/luks only takes a few extra minutes during install: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dm-crypt/Encrypting_an_... and Android uses dmcrypt when encryption is enabled.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#265

Post by toyg »

SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #53
RoboErectus wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As a teenager in the US, it was one of my main activities, so I can believe the age. I'm not sure about how it would go in SA.

> I'm not sure about how it would go in SA. In Krugersdorp in the late 1980s? And the police were on the case - both in terms of being tech-savy enough, and not having more pressing concerns? (1) Let's say that it's an extra-ordinary claim and we'd like a little more weight behind it. 1) http://www.saha.org.za/ecc25/ecc_under_a_state_of_emergency....

The police likely intercepted material delivered via regular post, and worked their way up from there. No need to know how something was ordered, as long as selling it is illegal.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#267

Post by mirimir »

toyg wrote: post #259
mirimir wrote: post #248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The concept of "criminal kingpin" is entirely based on "a group I identify with". In this case, some nation or government or whatever. So, as I see it, there's arguably no fundamental distinction between your two examples. It's arguably all about power.

Dude, please. Laws are abstractions and relative and whatnot, but Really Bad People do exist and the public has a right to know. Otherwise, why have journalists or even laws at all?

Honestly, I don't have a clue. Who gets to decide? Some murderers are presidents, and others are on trial. There's really no point in arguing about it.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#268

Post by jacquesm »

stordoff wrote: post #218
kbenson wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are assuming the violence would be carried out using senatorial powers. Senators are generally very wealthy people, and it doesn't take that much money to hire someone to kill another person[1]. 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_killing#Statistics [2] 2: I have to say I was fairly hesitant to search for that data. It's not the kind of thing you want showing up in your search history...

> The study [by the Australian Institute of Criminology] also found that the average payment for a "hit" was $15,000 That's a surprisingly low amount. I'd've guessed $100k+ or more.

Lower still in places like Amsterdam. Really.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#269

Post by currysausage »

dang wrote: post #246

The submitted title was "Truecrypt was written by a international arms dealer named Paul LeRoux". That broke the HN guidelines by cherry-picking a single detail from the article, and it's also misleading enough that we're getting emails complaining about it. Rather than litigate what the article does or doesn't show, we've simply reverted the title. It seems particularly bad to make the title say something that the a…

The old title was wrong, the new one is devoid of any meaning. I guess the TrueCrypt connection is what got most of us interested in the piece, so something along the lines of "Truecrypt predecessor was started by international drug dealer Paul LeRoux" might have been helpful.

Re: He Always Had a Dark Side

#270

Post by nxzero »

spacehome wrote: post #230
nxzero wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Given he's called a "criminal kingpin" and compared to Viktor Bout, the merchant of death, pretty safe to assume he wasn't selling weapons legally.

I quoted you talking about the U.S.!

Then, I don't understand what you're comment means. Happy to respond again if you'd clarify want you intended.
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