You probably don't know the name Marcus Hutchins (or Hutchis). But you know what he did. Or more specifically, you know what he stopped. He's the reason the WannaCry malware is no longer a thing. In a matter of hours, he sinkholed it. He also did a lot of other really cool, really important stuff. But not before he did a ton of really bad, really criminal stuff. WIRED has an amazing story on it. I wouldn't say he followed a traditional redemption arc, because I'm not sure he's completely redeemed for his past actions. Nor, do I believe, is he sure. He even publicly dismissed the notion that he was only able to do good because he learned from doing bad. The morality of his story is complicated, and that's what makes it fascinating. Kevin Mitnick is another name you probably don't know. But you probably know the term "social engineering," which he helped popularize by way of his insanely interesting books (you seriously need to read them all, now). He started life phone phreaking, dumpster diving and convincing people to give him their passwords. Now he runs a very successful Internet security company and consults on damn near everything. This stuff really interests me, because before the Internet got too complicated for me, back when a free AOL CD was included with damn near everything -- that's how I had Internet for a bit actually, then I'd use the old ones as drink coasters -- I used to be part of an early Internet forum chat room thing. I was really into paintballing at the time, and it was hosted on one of their websites. A bunch of people decided we wanted to try to get into the mod forum because there must be some super secrets in there. So we got together in our mIRC room and figured out how to get in. Turns out they were just talking about how they were gay and shit. Then we shared how we did it, and this big corporate website had to close down their forums because a couple of kids couldn't stop being kids. Focus: Who was bad that turned their life around? Which stories fascinate you? Why should we know about these people? Alt. Focus: What were early computers/early Internet like for you? Remember trading a physical phone line between rooms? Still waiting for ICQ to come back in style?
To be fair, maybe not a household name, but I’d say Kevin Mitnick is pretty well-known. To your focus, Danny Trejo comes to mind. This guy: Spoiler Dude was in and out of prison for most of his early life and is now an extremely successful character actor. For the alt. focus, my earliest memories are on random Saturdays, going to work with my dad, who was a network engineer at IBM at the time, and playing around on an old 286 with Windows 3.1.
Trejo’s first job is sponsoring drug addicts. He cut his role short on Con Air to go be with a kid who relapsed. It’s why he likes small roles over starting ones, he says it’s his life’s true dedication. He was also an undefeated boxing champion for a decade while in San Quentin, the worst prison in America. An inspirational guy? To say the least. And probably has a cool story or two to listen to.
Hell, I remember telling friends that “this computer stuff is just a fad.” In my defense, no one I knew had a computer until maybe the early to mid 80s when I was halfway through high school, and they used it to play Strip Poker and The Oregon Trail. I’m old - it was a big event when we bought a basic calculator in the mid 1970s. I took a Basic programming class in high school, then didn’t use a computer again until most of the way through undergrad for writing papers. I didn’t own my first computer until 1998 when I was 30+ years old. Of course, I’m much more computer literate now out of necessity, but I probably wouldn’t understand any kind of discussion past something user oriented. Focus - I’m not sure they turned their lives around exactly, but the fact that America’s rocket/space program relied heavily on Nazis has always interested me. https://www.businessinsider.com/nazi-scientists-space-program-2014-2
Alt Focus: I was born in 83. As long as i can remember we always had a computer in the house, in the beginning it wasn't always the newest or greatest, but we always had a functioning computer that ran and we could do what we wanted. I remember using the 5.25 floppy disks for games, using dial up internet. I had like a 6/7 digit ICQ number. I never got into the bulletin boards or mud games but i knew people that did.
Along those lines is Edward Bunker, served time in California and made it into acting and writing, his book Education of a Felon is a good read. Most people know him as Mr. Blue in Reservoir Dogs.
Marky Mark Wahlberg apparently is a reformed racist thug piece of shit and now one of the hardest working and fun actors in Hollywood. The blogosphere tries to metoo him for it every couple of years but it hasn’t stuck. Apparently also a reformed music artist as well. I’ve never actually heard a single moment of his pre acting music career. Reading his wiki and only knowing his acting body of work it reads like a comedy movie as bad as his music act sounds.
Yeah, like you’ve never heard “Good Vibrations”. In defence against Wahlberg, what Wahlberg did in the past was ACTUALLY fucking horrible, he was truly a piece of worthless shit who should have been euthanized and the guy he blinded by smashing his head with rocks certainly doesn’t have to forgive him for it. The fucking idiot should have went to prison. Not now, but back then yes.
I guess I could amend that and say I’ve never knowingly listened to him. If he had some huge radio hit that got a lot of spins I never realized hearing it and connecting it to the actor.
I don't know about "huge" but it was a radio hit. And, used in The Mighty Ducks movie, Blades of Glory and some TV shows. Focus: Michael Vick What he did with the dog fighting was terrible. Awful. But, that was part of his culture growing up, and I think he had no perspective of how wrong it was. And, now he has rejected it, apologized for it, served his time, and from everything I've seen, genuinely turned his life around. He is appreciative of what he has now, and what he threw away. He has a foundation and works with the Boys & Girls Clubs. When he discusses his past, he is contrite and seems sincere in his humility.
Yeah have heard that song a thousand times I always just assumed it was a CNC music factory song. Guess I never paid attention to the video if it was on. Such an innocent time still coding sexual references into song lyrics and heavily implying he hooked up with the girl in the video. Now it’s takashi 69 singing about whores sucking on his dick tip while pouring neon glow in the dark paint on black girls asses.
Alt focus: I remember being the first in our family to have a PC. I paid $2,000 for a Compaq system in 1995 or 1996. Getting on AOL and the internet for the first time was a life altering event. Holy shit I was on that thing all the time, sometimes til 3 and 4 in the morning chatting with people. One of them I found on Facebook years ago and we still stay in touch though we’ve never actually met. I miss the pre-Facebook/ social media days when the forums such as this one were plentiful and active.I still live in hope for the day forums become popular again. The quality and availability of porn has improved though, so at least there’s that’s
First computer at home was a TRS-80, followed by an Apple ][e. First computer at school was a Vax 11/750 mainframe that you accessed via VT-100 terminals. If you were lucky you got to use the colour VT-220. Learned basic, fortran, cobol, and pascal programming on it. First internet usage was with DARPANET when I was at a military college in the late 80's. First interner account was using a 56k dial up modem. ASCI porn was the shit... nothing like waiting 8 minutes watching a green screen image load to see if you got nipple or not.
Yep, the loud and obnoxious dial up after hours when I’d be chatting with “chicks” brings back me memories.
I remember my ICQ number by heart. Can’t ever forget that shit for some reason. I found out a few years back that it (and my first hotmail account) are on some list on a Russian website. I’m sure somebody is getting spammed by a totally legit mail order Russian bride from that fossil email.