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Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

reuters.com

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Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#371

Post by smoyer »

js2 wrote: post #353
eli wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We are in a world where the exact same video of Beto skateboarding was posted by both opponents and supporters and each saw what they wanted in it. I would challenge the idea that being a “hacker” polls well for a presidential candidate. Recall that “hacking” was a bit of a problem in 2016.

Fox News: "Young Beto O'Rourke wrote 'murder fantasy' about running over children, was part of famed hacking group: report" CNET: "Beto O'Rourke has serious hacker credentials. The presidential candidate was a member of hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow" WaPo: "'Psychedelic Warlord': Beto O'Rourke's past life as a teenage hacker" and "Beto O’Rourke’s hacking universe, explained." Sources: https://www.foxnews.com/poli…

You forgot buzzfeed ... you won't believe the ten things Beto O'Rourke did to win the White House.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#372

Post by flycaliguy »

busterarm wrote: post #317
dpe82 wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The meaning of the word has changed somewhat; it was mostly about curiosity and exploration in the 80s/90s. Less of the economy was reliant on computers so there wasn't much crime to commit beyond mere unauthorized access. Heck, "2600: The Hacker Quarterly" could be found on the magazine rack at Barnes & Noble back then.

And minor celebrities within 2600's culture, namely Emmanuel and Cpt. Crunch used that celebrity to creep on teenaged dudes.

I listened to Off The Hook for years. Is that true about Emmanuel? Dude used to own an old Bell van, super creepy if he was a phreak creep.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#373

Post by s_y_n_t_a_x »

moate wrote: post #78
s_y_n_t_a_x wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And also drives drunk.

*Drove. We don't know factually what he's currently doing, but we can say he did in the past.

It's still a really irresponsible thing to do. One of the most dangerous crimes you can do.

If pussygate was a big deal to people, driving drunk would be even worse, but it's not like it'll get the same coverage.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#374

Post by s_y_n_t_a_x »

krapp wrote: post #298
malvosenior wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree the piece isn't very informative and is very scattered. That being said, this is definitely the most questionable thing: > "When he was younger, he was arrested on drunk-driving charges" That will follow him into the campaign far more than his CDC membership.

>> "When he was younger, he was arrested on drunk-driving charges" >That will follow him into the campaign far more than his CDC membership. Will it? It didn't hurt George W. Bush. Admitting to smoking pot didn't hurt Obama. And Donald Trump... Jesus wept, Donald Trump.

Smoking pot is not the same as endangering lives. Also Donald Trump doesn't drink, let-alone drink and drive.

There's few crimes that are more dangerous than drinking and driving.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#375

Post by JeremyNT »

wybiral wrote: post #152
gaze wrote: post #73

Why are all the articles about Beto about how cool and antiestablishment he is? Just absolutely nothing about what he really intends to do, how he intends to do it, and most importantly, how do we reconcile his conservative voting record with this contrary image he presents?

> how do we reconcile his conservative voting record with this contrary image he presents? Because a good representative represents their people. And as a Texan, I can assure you that his left-leaning constituents weren't always the majority he had to represent. Any politician who blindly ignores a large segment of their constituents (even the ones that didn't vote for them) isn't someone you want in office. I don't…

He represented an urban district which was overwhelming blue. Are you sure his constituents were holding him back in this regard?

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#376

Post by toyg »

pizlonator wrote: post #271
js2 wrote: post #46

He named his BBS "TacoLand". He should definitely play up this angle...maybe campaign on a taco cart on every corner. I know people who will vote for him for that alone. This piece is a disaster. It's an excerpt from a soon to be released book, it's light on facts about O'Rourke and is at least equally about Cult of the Dead Cow, it's trying to make things sound more nefarious than they were, and it's playing the gui…

The fact that this is coming out so early in the presidential cycle is a good thing for him though. Lots of time for it to become old news. Lots of time for him to spin it. He seems to be good at spin. Anyway this makes me respect him more. Anyone know his handle btw?

This was intentionally pushed by his campaign precisely for that reason - to get all the dirt out while they can control the spin. Better to burn the story now that he’s “just” a primary candidate.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#377

Post by gamechangr »

mruts wrote: post #182
malvosenior wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree the piece isn't very informative and is very scattered. That being said, this is definitely the most questionable thing: > "When he was younger, he was arrested on drunk-driving charges" That will follow him into the campaign far more than his CDC membership.

Is being arrested for drunken driving materially different than having not been arrested while drunken driving? And hasn’t pretty much almost anyone driven drunk at least once?

>And hasn’t pretty much almost anyone driven drunk at least once?

Not once ever. That's super irresponsible.

To be honest, I do think a little less of Beto for it. Is it enough to move a vote, probably not - but it's not helpful.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#378

Post by pvg »

philwelch wrote: post #309
Brakenshire wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That seems to be about incitement, do that apply to technical documentation? As described above, instructions to build a nuclear bomb, to take an extreme example, are restricted, but surely not on that basis.

I should probably disclaim at this point that I'm not a lawyer, let alone a constitutional law scholar. I'm also not a physicist. Here's some instructions to build a nuclear bomb, right off the top of my head: 1. Take a mass of U-235 about half the critical mass of U-235 and shape it into a rod. 2. Take another equal mass of U-235 and form it into a hollow cylinder, into which the rod will fit. DO NOT PUT THE MASSES…

just dropped it on Hiroshima completely untested because getting U-235 is a pain in the ass.

Somewhat more related to your argument, it was also because the device was simple enough not to require explody testing.

I'm pretty sure the physics and engineering faculty of the average American university could build working nuclear bombs

Not quite building but the design part of this was, in fact, done.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nth_Country_Experiment

Spawned a relevant court case as well.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#379

Post by rdtsc »

save_ferris wrote: post #113
txcwpalpha wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's trying to make things sound more nefarious than they were, and it's playing the guilt by association card Are we reading the same article? If anything this article seems like a submarine PR puff piece to me, made to increase the image of Beto by making him seem "cool" and "hip" by associating him with the typically-seen-as-sexy "hacker" scene. This article is very similar to the pro-Beto stuff that was all over…

From the article: Still, it’s unclear whether the United States is ready for a presidential contender who, as a teenager, stole long-distance phone service for his dial-up modem, wrote a murder fantasy in which the narrator drives over children on the street, and mused about a society without money. This doesn't read as very pro-Beto to me.

It depends on how it's it's spun. They could be trying to sell his cool "bad boy" image. Some polling research must have shown them this is appealing to enough voters and others are not paying too much attention. He already has the DUI thing and apparently wrote a fantasy novel about running over children with his car. So maybe they don't have much to lose and might as well go for the cool troublemaker / hacker thing.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#380

Post by philwelch »

pvg wrote: post #378
philwelch wrote: post #309

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should probably disclaim at this point that I'm not a lawyer, let alone a constitutional law scholar. I'm also not a physicist. Here's some instructions to build a nuclear bomb, right off the top of my head: 1. Take a mass of U-235 about half the critical mass of U-235 and shape it into a rod. 2. Take another equal mass of U-235 and form it into a hollow cylinder, into which the rod will fit. DO NOT PUT THE MASSES…

just dropped it on Hiroshima completely untested because getting U-235 is a pain in the ass. Somewhat more related to your argument, it was also because the device was simple enough not to require explody testing. I'm pretty sure the physics and engineering faculty of the average American university could build working nuclear bombs Not quite building but the design part of this was, in fact, done. https://en.wikiped…

> Somewhat more related to your argument, it was also because the device was simple enough not to require explody testing.

That's not only less funny, but it's also a little hard to believe. I mean, I know how simple the design is, but for something as innovative and novel as the first atomic bomb, you'd think you'd still want to test it. Although I guess if it didn't work, that would have been fine since they had another tested design by then anyway.

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