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19-Year-Old Squatted At AOL For 2 Months
New submitter mrnick writes "Eric Simons, 19 years old, was working at incubator Imagine K2 in Silicon Valley, which was hosted at AOL's Palo Alto campus. His grant money eventually ran out, but his access badge kept working, so he moved into AOL's office. He slept on a couch, took showers and washed clothes in the office gym, and ate for free in the cafeteria, all the while working on his new start-up. He was able to get away with this for two months before being discovered by security guard."
Maybe AOL can stay relevant by being a start-up hotel?
I was sure it had died the death of 10000 cuts... not to mention all those CDs people kept microwaving!
... wait, what?
Isn't that the ultimate goal of the incubators: to get young kids to spend their whole life working on their startup...
i guess his 1,460.9688 free hours of aol finally ran out!
Perhaps he just wasn't smoking what you bunch were smoking.
Steven Spielberg claimed to have done something similar. He claimed to have occupied an unused office on the Universal Studios lot by simply dressing in a suit, carrying a brief case, and bluffing his way past the security guards. But his story kept growing and growing. A clear sign of fabrication. So it was finally debunked by snopes. But even his tallest tale didn't claim to have lived on the lot full time. And now this kid has gone one better than the tall tale, actually living inside the corporate complex of a major tech company.
well, did he at least get to keep the eggs??
(cue woody allen joke about brother who thinks he's a chicken; but the family lets him continue on; they need the eggs.)
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
"Welcome.... You've got mail!"
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
Especially when you consider this:
http://www.techspot.com/news/42121-60-of-aols-profits-come-from-misinformed-customers.html
We are talking about people who are so helplessly uninformed that they are paying for dialup service despite already paying for broadband. Working for AOL is basically working for a scam that is tricking older, less technically literate people out of their money.
Palm trees and 8
What surprised me more was them having a washer or dryer in the gym. But hey, this guy was more entreprenaureal than Stallman, and cleaner.
I did not know that EA had a programming office in Inglewood, CA. and you got to sleep near rattlesnakes? Were you a lead on a project? The rest of us had to sleep WITH the rattlesnakes.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Two lions escape from the zoo. One kills and eats a human on the street, and is subsequently hounded down and killed.
The other hides in the headquarters of a high tech company, and lives a long and peaceful life.
It eats middle level managers, and nobody even notices or cares.
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
Security audit? what is that? Is that like those mythical Pay raises I hear that used to happen?
I have not worked at Comcast for 5 years. I handed a friend my keyfob access card that still works there because he lost his and wanted a replacement. He was going to have security reprogram the system to use it for his access.
Mine Still WORKED! Which is scary as it had All access clearance at multiple locations, 5 Freaking years and they never removed me nor did a security audit to remove users.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
cleaning up my Mom's estate in the late 90s, i discovered she had been paying rental on a wall-mounted rotary phone for nearly 15 years - the phone company said to keep the phone when service was disconnected
Depends on where you work. Where i work, we take security seriously. You cant even walk in the door with another person. Your photo is verified against your face as you enter. We also have metal detectors on the doors, and the guards have real guns to stop you with, not just a radio to call for help.
Every month a complete audit of badges takes place. Similar things happen for network accounts every 30 days.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
See http://www.pacifict.com/Story/ for a corporate culture that managed, at one time, to embrace and extend that kind of enthusiasm. That's what you get when engineers are ultimately being understood as running the show rather than beancounters.
... in my mom's basement
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
I am sure that is how he got caught in the first place, due to a security audit. They found the card was active and still being used.
Having read the article (gasp!) - it appears you are exactly right. The guy who found him came in extra early and was specifically looking for him.
By the way, you can indeed tell this story came from a new submitter - it was all on one page. Silly guy hasn't yet learned you're only supposed to link to stories spread over nine pages in order to maximize ad revenue...
#DeleteChrome
Ditto. You get terminated for cause/quit on the spot, and your cardkey badge (physical) and all electronic access is disabled during your HR exit interview. such that you have to be escorted out. You retire/finish on good terms? It's pre-programmed to stop working at the end of business on your last day.
The submission mentioned that he took his showers and washed his clothes in the gym - I doubt that they'd have had bathtubs there, unless they happened to have an indoor spa that could be used in this manner. Washing his clothes in the shower and then hanging it to dry would have been even more brazen than him using an expired badge and sleeping @ the site. In fact, a lot of residential apartments and homeowners associations don't allow people to hang clothes out to dry due to appearances. Doing it in an office seems even more far fetched.
The only thing I can imagine is that the facility included washers and dryers, which he used. Hopefully, the only clothes he wore were ones that didn't need ironing.
Depends on where you work. Where i work, we take security seriously. You cant even walk in the door with another person. Your photo is verified against your face as you enter. We also have metal detectors on the doors, and the guards have real guns to stop you with, not just a radio to call for help.
Sometimes depends on the location, too... Same company, my last office was on the 6th floor at a building that houses a shopping facility on the ground floor. After-hours access required a swipe in an elevator and a swipe with a security guard at the front door, but during normal business hours the elevators weren't locked (even though they only went up to the "secure" office facilities upstairs), and people routinely held the door open for others without checking their passes. At the office I'm at now, there's a guard at the front door 24/7 who checks your pass every time, there's nothing but a lunch room on the ground floor and the guard has to unlock the elevators so you can get to your office, and you have to swipe through a security checkpoint on your actual floor, too. (annoying actually, because the bathrooms are on the other side of the checkpoint). Security also makes regular walkarounds on every floor (in fact, the guy just walked past my desk as I'm typing this).
What you say about network accounts surprises me, though... they do a routine audit here, too, and disable accounts, but they're pretty gung-ho about yanking peoples' network accesses... usually your network login and tool accesses will be disabled before they tell you that you've been let go (I know a few people who found out they'd been fired because security was waiting at their desk with a box when they got in), and except in some exceedingly rare circumstances, you will be escorted out the door by security within minutes of giving notice, when you leave for another job.
It's strange what happens reading the article
"[Plus] they had their own laundromat there, so I'd wash my clothes there."
not to defend AOL, but it is really NOT their responsibility to determine whether their service is needed by their customers.. but rather to provide the services the customer subscribes to -- which is what AOL does. similarly, if you subscribe to cable tv but then install a satellite dish, it is YOUR job to cancel the cable if you no longer need or want it - the cable company can't read your mind, YOU have to return their equipment and cancel the service (or pay the bill, or suffer the consequences of doing neither)
___
if you do happen to know someone paying for AOL dialup but they have high speed internet.. do them a favor by suggesting they cancel the AOL dialup if they don't need it (laptop use when traveling to remote locations without wifi or other high speed options, etc)
for those who actually like the AOL client software or want to keep their @aol email account -- they can do both. you can use AOL's client software on your own internet connection (called "BYOA" - bring your own access); and if you don't use AOL client software, existing @aol email can be read at mail.aol.com - the email address(es) remain even when you cancel your paid AOL service (basically it just converts to a 'free' BYOA account).
don't forget to mention that if they cancel their paid AOL service and have a bundled AOL-provided antivirus, they'll need to replace it with something else.
to cancel paid AOL service, see http://help.aol.com/help/microsites/microsite.do?cmd=displayKC&docType=kc&externalId=219764
In the data centre I worked at they had firewalls every five feet of cable (six if it was cat6 cable). You had to enter your username and passwird at each one.
They knew where your packets were within 5-6 feet at all times.
- Brantley is Whitfield?
For the first time ever, AOL actually proved to be good for something. Naturally they put a stop to that as soon as they found out.
You are not looking out for those you look down up on in secret, the grand-parent was talking about AOL practice to keep people paying for dialup access when they already moved to broadband connections. So it is NOT for people who still use ONLY dialup, it is a scam operated by AOL to convince people that without their dialup service, broadband would not work or people would loose all their email, so people end up paying a high price for just their email account.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
It's not worth it personally to people to hassle other people who want to get in, so unless there is a HUGE, HUGE deal about that being at the level of burning children and eating them...
Who the HELL wastes children that way?! That's just sick.
Children are meant to be basted lightly over low heat, not flash-burned like a marshmallow. Wise up, people!
When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro. ~~ Hunter S. Thompson
i'm sorry, maybe i'm just being negative, but by the end it sounded like an advertisement:
Ad one:
"Simons said he was able to score $50,000 in seed funding from Ulu Ventures and Silicon Valley VC Paul Sherer."
Now Ulu Ventures and Paul Sherer is someone thanks to this CNET article.
Ad two:
"Now, Simons said, he's looking to raise an additional $500,000."
Yep there it is. "I slept on a couch in AOL, can i get $500,000?"
And just in case you missed it, his startup name, ClassConnect, is mentioned 6 times in the article. 6. When really, it didn't need to be mentioned at all, the story is about the kid hiding in AOL, not about his startup. It's even in the topic tags at the bottom.
Someone's profiting from this, besides the kid. Writer obviously, probably several others.
my karma will be here long after I'm gone
... And they STILL let you post on slashdot??? even in your spare time?
ipv6 is my vpn
This is probably the conversation the manager had once he got caught squatting at AOL...
Security: "Sir, we've caught a guy who has overstayed his work visa and has been illegally squatting in our corporate campus for three months."
Manager: "Damn! What damage has he caused?"
Security: "None sir, he's been working on some start up project to link teacher's educational materials together."
Manager: "Really? How much are we paying him?"
Security: "Ummm... nothing. He's doing it a part of our K12 Imagine incubator that we are running. However he's been eating our cereal, drinking our soda, and sleeping on our couches."
Manager: "What has he been doing all day? Surfing the internet?"
Security: "As far as we can tell he's been programming 12 to 16 hours a day."
Manager: "..."
Security: "Should we call the police sir?"
Manager: "Hell No! Ask if needs pillows. One more thing, get me ten more of these 'squatters'"
Now contrast this with the United States Border Patrol...
Border Security: "Sir, we've caught a guy who has overstayed his work visa and has been illegally squatting in the United States work force for three years."
INS: "Damn! What damage has he caused?"
Border Security: "None sir, he's been working in an orchid picking oranges for a farmer that can't get anyone else to do it. In fact the person is extremely peaceful as they want to ensure that no one calls the police about them and causes them to be noticed."
INS: "Really? How much is he being paid?"
Border Security: "Ummm... minimum wage, and he's paying taxes. He's doing it a part of our American Dream incubator that we are running. However he's been shopping at our stores, going to our movies, and using our services."
INS: "What has he been doing all day? Watching television?"
Border Security: "As far as we can tell he's been working two jobs to support his family and save money."
INS: "..."
Border Security: "Should we deport him sir?"
INS: "Hell Yes! Make sure you deport him hundred of miles away to make it harder for him. One more thing, build me a bigger, better fence."
but AOL kept giving him free hours...
Mod me down, I shall become more off-topic than you could possibly imagine.
In the US the term "shorts" typically means "short pants." Only rarely is the term used to denote an article of underwear.
AOL also enabled a very entertaining prank I played on a friend... I found a brief event-sound .wav I'd found of the Macarena ("hey, Macarena - ai") and looped the "ai" over-and-over thirty or so times, amplified the "ai" to "AI!" then compressed it into a self-extracting .exe that would overwrite the AOL gotmail.wav with it.
I sent it off to my target, either he opened it or AOL did so for him...and the next time he annoyed me while we were chatting (he could be rather obnoxious) I sent him a one-word email. I intended for it to just startle him, but instead it crashed his copy of AOL; he vanished, then reappeared and was promptly booted again since he couldn't get to the unread email before the Macarena struck. A few mutual friends and I had a good twenty minutes of fun watching him appear and disappear before he figured out how to fix it...
Apathy Sucks, Nobody for President!