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Interview: Ask John McAfee What You Will
John McAfee was best known as a software designer and founder of the computer anti-virus company McAfee Associates until his saga in Belize began. McAfee's works on producing natural antibiotics commercially in Belize was quickly overshadowed by police raids, murder allegations, and a month of evading Belizean authorities while maintaining his innocence. He was eventually captured and deported back to the United States in December 2012 without being charged with any crime. "Boston George" Jung (a man who has lived quite an unusual life himself) has been tapped to write McAfee's biography titled, No Domain. Now that things have mostly settled down, John has agreed to answer your questions. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one per post.
Why did you run if you had nothing to hide?
While you were moving around, Vice.com got to spend time with you. If memory serves me, it was later revealed that the image they uploaded with you had GPS data that you then claimed to be spoofed. Coincidentally the news styled documentary they were going to do with you never seemed to surface ... now that things have died down can you give more context to that whole situation?
My work here is dung.
Reading about your exploits, it is clear that you have giant, swinging balls.
How were you able to evade the police while dragging around those giant, bean-bag sized balls?
Doesn't it bother you that your name is being used to peddle one of the worst anti-virus products on the market? Often it comes pre-installed on computers as a 30 day trial (crapware), with dire warnings flashed up in the event that the user fails to pay (scareware). The performance hit it brings is huge. Would you advise anyone else to name their product/company after themselves in this way?
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
If you had to relive the whole debacle, what would you do differently the second time around.
How far along were the natural antibotics? were they still in animal testing or had they reached human testing?
Almost exactly one year ago your dog was killed (my sympathies), your passport was confiscated and your house searched by a Gang Suppression Unit (GSU) while you lived in Belize. Why not publicly name names and provide as much detailed evidence as possible to reveal this horrible corruption and abuse of something that is supposed to stop crime? Who was it that tried to extort political money from you? Is there anyway to verify?
My work here is dung.
If I understand correctly, this whole episode began because a local politician visited you in your home and he had the expectation (for whatever reason) that you would pay him USD $30,000 as some kind of protection money for his campaign and your expectation was that politicians are supposed to work for people and not the other way around. Is this a reasonable characterization? If so, how do you think such a large missmatch in expectations came about? Do you think you were overly naive? Or is the political environment in Belize changing? I can easily believe that this might be the normal expected way that people do business down there based on other things I've heard, but I really have no idea. Now that you've had time to reflect, what would you say was responsible for the conflict in the first place?
You've been quoted as partial to freebase MDPV:
Do you still stick to this opinion? Are you sure it's the finest drug ever conceived? If you're unwavering in that view, what would you rank as the second or third drugs in the chemical hall of fame?
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
What does it feel like to kill a man?
There are a lot of other ways to protect a system from malware than signature scanning. In fact, I would go as far as to say this technology is outmodded. With the considerable resources available to your company, why aren't you guys developing whitelists to validate executable code on a workstation and building a trusted computing platform so only executable code which has been verified can be executed?
Vendors such as Microsoft, Adobe, etc., do release many versions of their software, but these versions can all be verified, byte by byte, on the day of release. Malware, of course, has to be found first, and then a signature developed. As your target market is primarily corporate users, for which software doesn't get updated as often and is already audited and catalogued, why does your company continue to avoid embracing such technology?
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Did you?
Do you still believe in the wonders of the drugs known as "bath salts" which you wrote so many glowing reviews about?
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I am not interested the least in what John McAfee has to say about anything, nor reading what will ultimately be spun into a John McAfee publicity puff piece by the Dice Masters.
"Boston George" Jung (a man who has lived quite an unusual life himself) has been tapped to write McAfee's biography titled, No Domain.
I don't get it. Jung is a convicted drug smuggler. You have had no such charges ever filed against you (to my knowledge) by the United States so, if nothing more than a publicity stunt, why did you pick him to write your biography? If you feel you are wrongly accused, I can understand why you would pick someone wrongly accused to write your biography -- they can relate. But George Jung was certainly a key part of Pablo Escobar's deadly and pervasive criminal organization. You are (again, to my knowledge) far from that so why bait the readers with that author as a link? I have had very little associations with you and illegal drug activity but now I think you view yourself as a modern George Jung, am I wrong in making this assumption?
My work here is dung.
Did you learn your lesson, that playing Breaking Bad's "Heisenberg" in real life doesn't work out so well?
Or, are you going to continue making drugs and playing with drug lords?
Did you really evade the police by dressing up in a speedo and screaming at people in German, as you describe here: http://www.whoismcafee.com/watchfulness/
Asking him the latest slashtod poll, "How often do friends/family call you for tech support?"
What are your thoughts on using a HOSTS file to help minimize your exposure to computer malware and protect your system? This seems to be a topic of HUGE debate here at SlashDot. Here's hoping an expert can chime in for once!
Thanks, and, Bob Bless
What exactly were you smoking?
Have you ever told us the definition of insanity?
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
or one 36 years old? Any other combinations you would recommend? Screw software, tell us some fun stories.. :)
Sig Art Vandeley - Architect
Ars Technica ran an inditing article on your sanity in which you made statements on the virtues of MDPV (bath salts), having three informants in the Zeta Cartel and also informants in Nicaragua that had made contact with Hezbollah's camp. To put my question succinctly: what the hell, man? Where have your James "Psychonaut" Bond travels taken you to recently?
My work here is dung.
I'm very interested in hearing about the natural antibiotics. Can you please describe some general background about how you became interested in the project and what happened to the project?
"Time is a number
gone to HELL,
and all of nature
its flesh in ruins."
Uh, don't you mean draw a line? Crossing that line is a whole other ball game if you'll allow me to wantonly mix metaphors. Other than that, you have my blessing, and I'll keep you in my prayers.
Satan, oscillate my metallic sonatas.
Is it pronounced MAC-a-fee or Muh-CAF-ee?
I hate to be this direct to someone who was kind enough to answer the Slashdot questions, but this question is surely what everyone is thinking:
What are the chances the drugs and mushrooms have messed up your mind so much that now you can't distinguish reality from fantasy?
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Have you ever considered writing your own filesystem? If so what features would it have?
Macafee is such a powerful brand. Just marketing alone should worth millions if not billion. Do you visit the valley? Ray Liu King Star
Maybe says something about the american standards.
That's an easy one. Don't install Java.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
After shooting a neighbor with whom you had repeated documented disagreements, don't you think you should stand trial and be judged?
Why did you decide to camp out in Portland, Oregon for 18 months? What was it about Portland that brought you there?
Finding God in a Dog
Do you still write code, perhaps for fun?
Back in The Day the name McAfee was significant and even important: the first (maybe, haven't looked it up) and certainly the most effective anti-virus product (and free!) when those sorts of problems first began.
Since then, he's just another rich guy who now has managed to get into serious trouble. Not interested, got problems of my own. Which don't involve being suspected of shooting my neighbor or evading local police, thanka verra much.
Do you think people really buy your bullshit?
How widespread is it for companies to actually be the creators of the virusses just to create fear/demand for their antivirus products? ( By creating a virus, I mean everything from naming of non-existent virusses right through to actually developing real virusses).
Slashdot interviewing MacAfee? Somebody call the U.S. Strategic Paranoia Reserve, we're going to have to tap into it.
Do you know of any place I can have asylum in portland for 2-3 weeks? i have some money to pay, but the vacancies around here are low.
Is a pedofile a tool for scraping the callouses off one's feet?
I think I speak for all of us when I say WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK, SLASHDOT?
When you're choking a hooker who is high on bath salts, does she get scared?
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
That Eugene Kaspersky fellow, is he nuts?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I've been by your vacation home in Belize. It's still for sale, do the proceeds go to you if/when it sells, or does the gov't get it?
If the gov't gets it, can you lower the pricetag so I can afford it please?
So rise up, all ye lost ones, as one, we'll claw the clouds.
What is your current location (at least 5 decimal precision)? Thanks!
Better known as 318230.
How should one play Minecraft without Java? Or do you recommend giving up Minecraft as well?
Is having two simultaneous girlfriends as awesome as it sounds?
If anyone out there reading this is in possession of knowledge of any impending poison attacks and does nothing to alert people to stop it, they are in effect assisting the attacks, so you should share any knowledge of such dangers with the public. Lack of information-sharing is a key point of failure in the lead-up to every terrorist attack this century, it seems like. Let's use the Internet to stop the terrorist attacks.
If Minecraft is something you refuse to live without, then maybe people like you can lobby the vendor for a version that doesn't use Java. But, take it from a person who has never played Minecraft: you can live without it.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
why aren't you guys developing whitelists to validate executable code on a workstation
Because it wouldn't scale. How much should it cost for a hobbyist developer of applications that are useful and harmless to gain access to such a workstation?
Comcast pronounced it MAC-a-fee in commercials for high-speed Internet service.
There's a phrase around the office "His machine's being McAfee'd". This cpu-sucking bloatware is forced upon us from on high where the air is too thin to reason well.
Q) Will you please make it stop? :o)
Requiem for the American Dream
That isn't living, that's surviving.
I think the OP meant "do a line", given the content of the post.
That's some mighty fine stuff, whatever it is
Hans Reiser's relationship tips!
More than 5?
It's going to be hilarious to see which "highly moderated" questions the editors pick. I read maybe two or three that wouldn't send McAfee (further) off the deep end.
Hello Mr. McAfee,
Before you were forced to leave Belize, you were in the process of researching topical antibiotic creams. How far along was that research? Had you found any promising compounds, ready to go to trials, etc., or was still more towards the basic research end of things?
As a follow-up question, if you are able to return to Belize, will you continue this avenue of research?
I know this is kind of a two-part question, but I am hoping you'll still be able to answer.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
P.S. I do not know if you remember me, but I used to work for McAfee Associates back when you first started the company. I used to come to your house and sit at the kitchen table to do tech support over the phone. Later, I went to Colorado to work at your instant messaging company.
Dexter is a good dog.
What do we have to do to stop listening to stories about you? If we paid you a million would you leave the public alone? A billion? Please!
Fast Federal Court and I.T.C. updates
I'm sure you were fine when this started, but all this action sounds expensive. Can we expect you to be monetizing this great story, or can you afford to be picky about how it is treated?
John, have you speculated on why Psychopathy is so widespread today and why psychos are so controlling of creativity? Creative persons can spot a psycho a mile away so I would think psychos would not confront the creative types. -- Yadda
By accepting a signing key, you're signing up for their whitelist.
Which brings back the dancing bunnies problem. The user sees "Add our PPA to see dancing bunnies", the user gets the home PC's administrator to do so, and the system is compromised. Or the user is a software developer, but he's tired of having to retype his code signing key's passphrase every single time he rebuilds his project, so he takes the passphrase off the key. Now any malware can sign itself as the user.