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6 Homeless People Saved By the Internet
An anonymous reader writes "With Ted Williams's story (the homeless man with the golden voice, saved by the internet) blowing up online, and in the traditional media, we figured it was time to tell the stories of 5 other homeless people who've found success, be it financial or personal, through the wonderful use of this series of tubes we call The Internet."
On the bright side, over 2,000,000 homeless people were NOT saved!
lulz
In colder areas many homeless survive on the hot stream coming out of the tubes.
If it wasn't for rampant porno on the web, many homeless would have frozen.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WlBiLNN1NhQ
I only counted five homeless in the article. I guess the other one represents the hidden homeless around all of us.
[John]
Shit better not happen!
I only counted five homeless in the article. I guess the other one represents the hidden homeless around all of us.
That website is not laid out very well, there's a second page that talks about James Montgomery.
Personally, I'm not sure about Adrian Lamo. Text of #4:
Adrian Lamo, Homeless Hacker Genius
It's always the smart people who get caught. In this case, it's Adrian Lamo, who was arrested in September 2004 by the FBI for computer fraud.
He was charged with breaking into the private network of the New York Times Company and running a bill upwards $300,000 on the pay-per-use search tool Lexis-Nexis and a possible 15-year prison sentence.
This wouldn't be too surprising if Lamo was a Ivy-League graduate with a rebellious streak (we've all seen Social Network three times by now to get the picture), but Lamo, one of the best-known hackers in the country, was homeless.
Given the name "The Homeless Hacker" by some, Lamo traveled around with just his eight-year-old Toshiba, blanket, change of clothes and Taser stun gun which he used to shock vending machines to see if they'd drop any food or spare change. He did most of his virtual exploring from the internet connections of Kinko's copy shops, which if you wear the right stuff, is actually pretty smart if you're a hacker (assuming you're paying in cash.)
Aside from the blatent idiocy of "It's always the smart people who get caught." how was this man 'saved' by the internet. I know he got interviews and a job as a grey hat ... but not sure what he's up to now other than working as an informant.
My work here is dung.
adrian lamo? really?
what a little fucker.
Why do they have to have some exceptional talent in order to be worth saving from such a tragic fate?
Clearly the wealthy have the resources to save many people, but they only seem to care about those who can do something for them. So in many ways this is yet more tragic.
who covered creep http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXlzci1rKNM and ended up with a record deal http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/12/homeless-street-musician-goes-viral-on-youtube-gets-a-record-deal-turns-his-life-around.html
Would you say I have a 'plethora' of pinatas, Jeffe?
5 people with a great life are now homeless, because their jobs are taken (indirectly) by those 5 homeless.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Eh fuck that guy. He's the one that turned in Bradley Manning.
As a resident of Columbus, Ohio, I would greatly appreciate this fellow being forgotten. Every 10 minutes on all local television shows, radio shows, newspapers, this story is repeated. Good for him, but please /. don't be one of those guys...
Who would have thought a homeless man could do perform Creep better than Radiohead?
Prepare to be blown away
He has an album out now.
all those people that were made homeless by the internet?
Eg: /don't ask dont tell discharged etc.
internet gambling addicts
victims of Nigerian and other scams
people fired for internet use at work contrary to company policy
and of course those who revealed information on their Facebook/Myspace page and got canned / divorced / bullied
Adrian Lamo, Homeless Hacker Genius
Really? Shiftless snitch with no conscience, perhaps. But "genius hacker"?
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
For what it's worth, I'm in that situation as well. Some years back I wound up homeless after an accident threw my life into turmoil. I recovered physically, to some extent. But found that my entire life had been thrown into turmoil by the new status of "limping and scarred dude". It was social death in the superficial crowd I was in and employed by, and the job fled as quickly as the people eager to stab anyone in the back to advance. I found first my wife, then my money, and finally my job gone. However, I kept my laptop even as I lost a roof under which to use it. It took a while to get back on my feet, but it was entirely by taking small telecommuting jobs found over the net over a four month period or so. If that seems like a rather long time, keep in mind that I had other concerns as well such as "eat" and "don't get fuckin' cut by either your fellows or random crazies". I'd feel more positive about the experience if I wasn't on the verge of having to worry about that all over again. My rambling point is that one shouldn't feel like these stories have a finality to them. They might have a happily ever after, but they might wind up right back where they were. Because to get to the point of being homeless is to lack a social support structure. And once you've been homeless, it can be horribly difficult to get that back. Because the lack of such usually starts out with either an abusive family, or one you've seen die around you. And continues on to friends who wound up throwing you away when you most needed them. It's not easy to open yourself up socially again after something like that happens. It might not seem important, but that view only comes from within a life that hasn't ever really experienced it. People need people, it's just a fact of our species. And you get screwed up pretty quickly from the lack.
Everything will be taken away from you.
sure, but nobody wants to list the top 10 business men that turned homeless because of the internet.
1996 called, it wants its internet back.
Did it also ask for its "[year/era] called, it wants its [subject] back" cliche back? :-P
"Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
for a global network like Internet? Call that a win?
Even being a youtube phenom isn't enough to be permitted to fly.
When information is power, privacy is freedom.
How is this not a reality show? Homeless Idol would be hilarious.
I'm sure it's a hundred times more.
Maybe we should shut it down. Goof off the old-fashioned way!
I'm 95% sure that the homeless man with the golden voice is a sociopath.
That seems to be a success rate rivaling lives saved by not giving food to the homeless and thereby preventing choking.
I happened to catch an interview with Ted Williams this morning, and to say "golden voice" is stretching credulity.
That's really odd because I made a point to fly without ID (a few years ago) to make sure we still had the right to do it, and I didn't have any problems aside from being searched more thoroughly. Have the laws changed? I was under the impression that a denial of that sort violated federal law.
A few years ago they changed the rules to be even more Kafkaesque in that it was OK to forget your ID, but if you deliberately refuse to show it, then you can't fly. I know that doesn't explain what happened to that guy, I just wanted to share.
A homeless acquaintance of mine came to me with a thinkpad he acquired a few months ago, trying to get past the fingerprint login. I was psyched, picturing how much good a laptop could do for the kids life. The ability to look up information like benefits, locations, oddjobs on craigslist etc, as well as a constant way to get in contact with people really could help turn his life around. I spent about an hour reinstalling Windows 7 and helping him learn to use it, showing him how he could use skype instead of needing a cellphone, telling him about couchsurfing, and explaining how the internet could open so many doors to him. I really thought this could be a turning point in his life, and he seemed psyched about some of the possibilities. It's ridiculous how much at a disadvantage the homeless are, and this could have been his springboard to turn his life around. The ability to use the internet really can help level the playing field in so many ways. I saw him a couple days later and asked him how he was doing. He traded his $1200 Thinkpad for twenty bucks of heroin. I nearly cried...
Shoudn't it rathe rather be a reality show?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_income
Essentially, between welfare, social security, and schooling, the USA spends about US$800 per person per month. Why not just give that money equally to every citizen as a basic income? A family of four would earn enough to get by through homeschooling, or could send their kids to private school.
More ideas: http://knol.google.com/k/paul-d-fernhout/beyond-a-jobless-recovery#Four_long(2D)term_heterodox_alternatives
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Wow! World peace! End to hunger! No more war and taxes!
Sorry for my sarcasm. Mister X had a very nice dark voice indeed, but if until now 6 people have found a job this year, we're in SERIOUS trouble.
Not to mention people still steal each others land in name of god and the list goes on and on.
Privacy is terrorism.
http://books.google.com/books?id=hM_JDjq6V-kC
Dark Nights of the Soul: A Guide to Finding Your Way Through Life's Ordeals by Thomas Moore
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
Just means that there's nothing else going on. I'd rather see this story than just hear about "OMG here comes another 1/2 inch of snow!!!"
Let's face it, Columbus news is kinda boring anyways. And no matter where this story showed up, it will be played out like a one hit wonder.
Karnal
Just go do something newsworthy and then they'll have something else to talk about.
Maybe get yourself some Lite-Brites.
Wow. + Informative, but very saddening. Thanks.
why there are homeless people in a 'first world' country in the first place.
and no, dont give me any ayn rand shit. im fresh out of my bullshit listening contingency today.
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