Slashdot Mirror
Wired Writer Disappears, Find Him and Make $5k
carp3_noct3m writes "A freelance Wired magazine journalist has decided to see what it is like to disappear from normal life, all while staying on the grid. The catch, is that he is challenging anyone and everyone to find him, take a picture, and speak a special codeword to him. If you can do that, you can make 5000 dollars, which happens to come out of his paycheck for the article he'll be writing. Oh, and to top it all off, whoever finds him gets pictures and interviews in Wired. He has been posting to his Twitter, using TOR for internet, and the Wired website will be posting his credit card transactions."
The catch, is that he is challenging anyone and everyone to find him, take a picture, and speak a special codeword to him.
But, but... that would require leaving my basement.
#DeleteChrome
It'll be funny when a Mac user wins the $5K and has to admit finding him on the other side of a glory hole.
.
Trolling is a art,
This is too easy, Just get a judge to tell you where he is.
This has already been done by a journalist and his security-industry buddy.
They wrote a book about it and presented at a recent hacker conference (it might have been the last HOPE, or maybe last year's defcon)
Good job being original, guy
You will be excluded from winning if you commit a crime in your efforts to find me, contact my family, or physically harm me.
Man, talk about taking all the fun of a game.
There is very little future in being right when your boss is wrong.
Yes Slashdot does post links to contests.
Come to my house and let me win the contest. I'll give you $3000. I'd be happy to tell wired the advanced methods I used to win.
1. Post his picture in the general vicinity wherever his credit card transactions are, with the note "Have you seen this child molester?" underneath.
2. Take pictures of him/give him the codeword in jail* a few days later.
3. Profit!
* Though I'm not sure how the whole secret word thing will work if a mob beats him to death.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
I knew a friend once that did skip-tracing. He tracked a guy down who changed his name, flew to the middle-east under an assumed identity and fake passport, dyed his hair, and more. His big downfall? He used a credit card once he landed -- which was under his old name. And this was using just information available to the credit bureaus to find him. Also... witness protection program? Yup... he found a few of them too. I bet I could have this guy nailed in about four hours if I called the police up and said I was a famous celebrity and he was defaming me on Twitter. Game over.
All he's proving is that Joe Average doesn't have much power. Big deal. Your neighbor isn't the one you should be worried about finding you anyway -- they lack the technical resources, skills, and moral flexibility to do so. Now, if he wants to do a REAL test of his privacy -- photoshop some photos of a male politician in a pink tutu and make disparaging comments about his sexual orientation. I bet you get a knock on your door within a day. -_-
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
The problem, as any Wired writer should know -- is that information wants to be free.
As the writer himself has observed: Contacting his family or breaking the law are easy ways to retrieve the information.
Those activities may disqualify the offending "player", but they do not disqualify the underlying data -- which wants to be free -- and can easily be passed on to any party in order to claim the prize.
So like most "hacks", social-engineering will trump using the "grid".
And the take-away here is this: There are no rules. There is only data, and it will be free.
The poor writer is going to find much of his personal life violated, I'm afraid. But the blame falls to him. He should have known better.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
How can you be commenting on the article when you didn't read the summary?
The spice must flow.
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
But not for fun and it was a lot longer than 30 days. A psychotic roommate accused me of attempted murder so I got the heck out of Dodge. While I didn't quit my job and move to a new country, I moved to a new place that couldn't be linked to me in any way. All utilities were in a new roommate's name. I received no mail at the new address. Everything (credit cards, DMV, voter registration, HR records, cell phone bill, bank statements, insurance, etc.) went to a mail drop. When I went out with friends, I'd meet them at our destination. For nearly 3 months, nobody knew where I lived but my new roommates and they knew the situation. For the next 5 or 6 months, only 4 other people knew where I lived. Good thing because my old roommate tried to track me down a couple of times but none of our mutual friends knew where I was. And they were glad that they didn't have to decide whether to give up the info.
I know I didn't drop entirely off the grid but that wasn't my intent. My intent was to make my new home a sanctuary. I didn't want to have to worry about cops busting down my door in the middle of the night. I didn't want the old roommate showing up to try and work things out or "settle the score". Sure, I could be found at the office any time but at least I could go home at night and know that the only kind of disruption I could face was a phone call.
Funny thing is my "safe house" was nicer than any place I'd ever lived before. My bedroom with private bath was on the top floor of a brand new 3-story condo. 8 miles from the office on the only stretch of the freeway that doesn't slow to a crawl during rush hour. Private park, BBQs, gym, pool, and hot tubs across the street.