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Interview: John McAfee Answers Your Questions
by sosume
Do you still write code, perhaps for fun?
McAfee: I haven't written code in 20 years. In truth I was a terrible programmer. At all the companies I worked at I did everything within my power to avoid coding tasks. I was just good enough though to be able to spot the truly outstanding programmers. At McAfee I hired the best and then stayed out of their hair. If I had been responsible for even a tiny amount of code I fear we would never have gotten off the ground.
McAfee Antivirus
by AmiMoJo
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?
McAfee: I haven't been involved with McAfee Ant-virus for 21 years. When I ran the company the software was the best and least intrusive on the market, and in 1991 we had 87% of the world market. What happened after I left was none of my doing. As to name association, I am a master at sullying my own name and, all things considered, being associated with the worst software on the planet ranks way down the pole. It's barely a blip in the ocean of associations - madman, paranoid, child molester, murderer, drug addict, unstable, liar, to name but a few.Thank god I'm 67 and will probably be too hard of hearing soon enough to have to listen to them rattling around wherever I go. Amy, thankfully, did half the job already by bursting my left eardrum when she tried to shoot me in the head while I slept back in 2011.
What was the problem?
by lazylion
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?
McAfee: Had it been $30,000 I would have paid it in an instant, ushered him out and then returned to my task of molesting the underage girls (as some would characterize them) populating my property.However it was not. It was $2 million.I am not naive and I expect politicians and public servants, in all countries, to do one thing only - everything in their power to annoy, delay and inconvenience me. At least that has been my experience with public servants. Perhaps yours is different. In any case, two million was not even in a negotiating arena and, not being someone prone to wasting time, I told him to fuck off and not to come back.
German tourist disguise
by coldsalmon
Did you really evade the police by dressing up in a speedo and screaming at people in German, as you describe here?
McAfee: I favor disguises that change character rather than looks when running from the police. The German Tourist disguise was terrific. I looked exactly like me but no-one searching for me paid me any mind. Here is another common disguise I used that would work for any well known CEO.
What Happened with Vice.com?
by eldavojohn
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?
McAfee: Yes....... well...... The exif data attached to the photo was supposed to have been removed prior to putting it on-line. Rocco Castoro, the senior editor at Vice, and Robert King, the intrepid war photographer who has been shot twice in the ass and proudly shows the scars, accompanied me for 11 days of my escape. Good comrades and brave companions - not quite the balls that Samantha, who also accompanied me, swings, but brave lads nevertheless. We became fast friends. After our escape from Belize and our illegal entry into Guatemala, we were all four breathing sighs of relief and were in good cheer. I went back to Samantha's and my room for a few minutes to search Sam's luggage for weapons. There were too many good looking women at the hotel for my comfort. Samantha is extremely jealous and twice tried to stab me when she thought I was looking at another woman.In any case, I happily found no weapons and was about to return to the group when I heard a knock at the door. It was a very agitated Rocco. "Bad news" he said.
Chills ran up my spine as I imagined Samantha sweet talking the hotel security guard into lending her his gun after seeing me glance at the undulating derrière of a striking Peruvian woman an hour or so earlier.
He then told me about the location data accidentally included in the photo and that there were already posts on the Net showing google earth images of the hotel we were staying at.It didn't sound so bad to me really - not in comparison to an angry Samantha.It meant that Guatemalan soldiers had probably already been dispatched to arrest us and that we were on the run again - this time from a different authority, but we had at least a half an hour before the authorities arrived and taxis, which did in fact effect our escape, were plentiful. I didn't see a problem.
Robert was beside himself with agitation about the exif data because, as he correctly reasoned, people were going to think that he and Rocco did it on purpose so that they could get a better story by documenting my colorful arrest In Guatemala. To calm things down and to get everyone focused on our need to hastily scram, I told Rocco and Robert that I would take the fall and claim that I manipulated the exif data myself and they would be in the clear. Satisfied, they got packed, we left 10 minutes before the soldiers arrived, and i did what I said I would do.It was a stupid plan but it did clear the minds of the two journalists long enough to allowthem to function properly in the shaky circumstances.
When we got to Guatemala City that night and we were safely ensconced in a new hotel, Sam hit me in the head with an ashtray.She she had not missed the overlong glance at the Peruvian woman.I still have the scar.
What would you do differently?
by oic0
If you had to relive the whole debacle, what would you do differently the second time around.
McAfee: Absolutely nothing. Everything that has happened has brought me to this present moment - and not a bad moment at all. You may view my life as chaotic, tragic, comical, whatever. From where I sit it's a great adventure and an unending mystery. I have no complaints.
Why Portland?
by MAXOMENOS
Why did you decide to camp out in Portland for 18 months? What was it about Portland that brought you there?
McAfee: Why not Portland? Everyone here has bumper stickers reading "Keep Portland Weird!", there are 17 Asian restaurants within a three block radius of where I live, coffee here is a high art form and the police smile and are actually helpful - providing that no risks are involved.
A couple of subordinate reasons are that the gentleman producing the comic novel of my life (Chad Essley) and the screenwriter for the feature movie of the Belize incident both live here.
As a microbiologist...
by acidfast7
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?
McAfee: I became interested in quorum sensing (the means of communication favored by bacteria) the instant I heard about the concept. I hired a young Phd who had written the definitive paper on the subject - a young woman named Allison Adonicio - and set up a lab in the jungle to research anti-quorum sensing properties of tropical plants. You can read all about it at quorumex.com. Against all odds, the woman turned out to be crazier than myself. After a year and a half, the fractured elements of her psyche reassembled themselves into an exact likeness of a snarling ferret and she self destructed. She destroyed all of our research results, destroyed our bacteria samples, erased the hard drives of our computers, destroyed our carefully collect plant samples and went home to Boston. I cogitated the situation for a brief period, said "Fuck it!" And went into the coffee business. Thus was formed the New River Coffee Company.
Why George Jung?
by eldavojohn
"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?
McAfee: It's odd that people focus on the possibility that I might now be doing drugs (I'm not) and totally ignore the fact that from 1971 to 1982, 99% of my income came from smuggling and selling drugs. It's a well documented feature of my past life. I was also taking more drugs weekly than most of you will do in a lifetime, and I was a totally indiscriminate user. Whatever came across my desk went up my nose, down my throat, in my veins or up the nether region. I never reached the notoriety of George and my writing, in comparison to him, did not merit writing books about my exploits, but we were not so totally different, he and I. I had my right testicle shattered by a hammer in 1974 when I ran afoul of some local drug barons in Oaxaca. Its the size of a grape now and shaped like a small frisbee. I have been in Mexican jails on three separate occasions and, frankly, I cannot recommend them. I was arrested in Bristol Tennessee in 1971 and charged with felony possession of a dangerous narcotic. A good lawyer got me of. (I always, oddly had tons of money that helped integrate me slightly back into humanity and smooth my transgressions).
All this madness stopped in 1982 when my life disintegrated. I joined AA in 1982 and stopped drinking and drugging. If have not used any drugs, except for caffeine, nicotine and adrenaline, since.
In any case, George seemed perfect.
Thanks for making the interview. Highly interesting to read. Didn't actually know that he's not involved with the antivirus vusiness anymore.
Nobody asked if he killed the guy? Or did he just not answer that question?
This reminds me of Hunter S. Thompson. One of my favorite interviews I've read on slashdot.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
For a disguise, use an old scratched up hardhat.
Have gnu, will travel.
This guy has led one fucked up life... it's a wonder he's still alive today.
I think he was pretty clear about the fact that he's not involved with the antivirus business anymore, and that anything that has happened to it for the past 21 years is not something he's responsible for.
where even he, founder of the company (although not affiliated with it for 2 decades), refers to mcafee antivirus as the 'worst software on the planet'
hint to intel: if the guy whose name is on the box says your software sucks --- IT SUCKS.
Is it just me or this guy totally batshit crazy? Among other things, how many times do you have to be assaulted before you get rid of your crazy girlfriend(s)?
There's quite a few typos in this interview. Did the editors READ it, or did they just cut-n-paste into the "post" form? Can anyone advise what differentiates Slashdot from an amateur's blog?
If telephones are outlawed, then only outlaws will have telephones.
My brain read some of those answers in Hunter S. Thompson's voice.
"Watch your cornhole, bud."
Wait what...?
Is it just me or does McAfee have a very similar writing style and voice to Robert Heinlein? I swear his answers to the Belize questions sounded exactly like Lazarus Long.
I went back to Samantha's and my room for a few minutes to search Sam's luggage for weapons. There were too many good looking women at the hotel for my comfort. Samantha is extremely jealous and twice tried to stab me when she thought I was looking at another woman...
Chills ran up my spine as I imagined Samantha sweet talking the hotel security guard into lending her his gun after seeing me glance at the undulating derrière of a striking Peruvian woman an hour or so earlier.
Yeah, that's someone you want to have around on the regular.
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
Does he know any women who are not trying to kill him?
I missed the question thread, but:
How much time did it take to go through the laptop intercepts every day?
Is your house in Belize for sale?
Have you tried the Fish & Chips at the Frying Scotsman?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2012/12/ff_mcafee3_large.jpg
I hope this helps to answer your question
Guess you never had sex with a crazy girl or you'd know...
It's to become a crazy old man and John McAfee is my template.
It is incredibly pathetic that people fawn over him.
No regrets, yet I wouldn't want to be him. Still, he's got balls of steel, I'll give him that. But, no. I'll do without the drug dealing, the murder, the running, the acting like a lunitic, even if it is a fascinating life. He kind of makes it sound like he happened into the AV business. Right place, right time, no business plan? It happens. *mind blown*
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Reading his replies left this going through my head: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uh7l8dx-h8M
The Christian Right is Neither (Christian nor right). See: Matthew 23, Matthew 25, Ezekiel 16:48-50
If she's 18 in 2012 then 16 in 2010 sounds reasonable. No problem there.
The pedophile scare is really getting out of hand if buying companies from underaged people is considered wrong.
is john mcafee a living jubal harshaw? this was fun to read.
Oh no, what a monster! Having sex with a 14-15 year old is truly the mark of the condemned! Kinda funny how many countries not considered part of the third world put 14 as the age of consent. Even many states in the US are set at 16. We don't even know her age at the time of incident, just that it was between 14 or 15.
The dude's rationale in that exhaustive rant is even more funny. What would they even talk about with such an age gap?! It's a big turnoff having a big age difference for him, so naturally it's gross for anyone to be in such a position with someone much younger than them.
It seems as though, since no one asked the question "how crazy are you?", he's simply steered all of his responses into answering it anyway. It also seems like half of what he does is only valuable to him if he can tell other people about it. Why does he care? It reminds me of a 12 year old bragging about the time he stole a car or slept with a teacher. They probably didn't happen, and even if they did, it's childish to broadcast it. And this guy's 67? Agh.
...Mr. McAfee provided some extraordinarily entertaining and frank answers...
Entertaining? Yes, in a watching a train wreck type of manner.
.
Frank? Unknown. It is difficult to ascertain the truthiness of his answers.
But my original question still stands, why is everyone wasting so much time on this person?
I'm a big fan of smooth talking chutzpah. The man is my idol, I love his spoken style... someone said Hunter S. Thompson.
McAfee seems to have lived out Thompson's fictional works by comparison. I hope to shake his hand one day.
uuhhh...what? in 2010 she was 16, and in 2012 she was 18?
I may be crazy but that sounds perfectly in line with how we measure progression of time...
Your antivirus software sucks. Sadly my company uses it now but will soon be switching to Sophos (Hurray!). Its not just your software that sucks. Your corporate support sucks too. I'm a software developer and I can barely do anything on my laptop, thanks to McAfee On-Access virus scanning and shield, which hogs 99% of my CPU whenever I attempt file transfers or use anything Java related (Eclipse, Tomcat, SoapUI, etc)
The only questions are, was McAfee involved in the murder of Gregory Faull and why are you giving space on slashdot to this nutjob?
an-MDPV-Question
Stuffmonger Postings
--
`Once a guy stood all day shaking bugs from his hair'
AccountKiller
This reads like an ad from Dos Equis.
Love him or hate him, this is a guy who has truly lived. Not many people can make the claim, not even your run of the mill billionaire playboys.
P.S. Posting AC because I have modded.
for his movie. How cool would THAT be?
"So I wonder what went wrong at McAfee afterwards."
reference
"McAfee is the worst kind of scumbag -- arrogant, self-important and someone who believes his above-average IQ will allow him to dupe the masses for a lifetime. I've met people like him countless times, and their biggest mistake is they take for granted the idea that no one is smart enough to compete in their psychological chess game."
"For the most part, con men like him are proven right, as they tend to have a gut-wrenching success rate, even though anyone with a half a brain can tell his shtick is as transparent as Scotch tape."
"As if his doucheified approach to life weren't enough, he's also a murderer. But of course, how does this turn out for our villain? Most likely, with him washing the blood off his hands and cashing in by selling his fairytale to Hollywood."
AccountKiller
They copied their slogan from Austin Texas.
" I joined AA in 1982 and stopped drinking and drugging. If have not used any drugs, except for caffeine, nicotine and adrenaline, since. "
Wow... so MDPV is not a "drug"?
"Didn't actually know that he's not involved with the antivirus vusiness anymore."
But still not sure if we have less reasons to dislike the guy now or not.
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
http://xkcd.com/1209/
1) They were all female.
2) Their relationship to you was always romantic.
Some, slightly less adventurous, people might also have this in common with their crazy significant others:
3) They were all from the same social class.
4) They all spoke the same language.
5) They were all from the same country (or possibly even smaller region).
6) They were all of the same religion.
So, let's dispense with this "the common denominator is you" nonsense.
I don't know much about him, but his comments on the this scientist Allison Adonicio made me suspicious. So she was just a completely insanely crazy girl? It sounds too close to a classic argument of a macho. So I found here [http://gizmodo.com/5958877/secrets-schemes-and-lots-of-guns-inside-john-mcafees-heart-of-darkness] a plausible different version. I have no really a well informed point of view, but my gut feeling on this man is that he's probably as inteligent and funny as cinical and dangerous.
slashdot proves once again - softball horse shit gets views.
Well, I don't know who is behind this website but it has some good histories about Mr. McAfee. Matter of fact is, While in Belize McAfee began producing MDVP, a psychoactive stimulant that is indeed found in bath salts and it has the effect similar to amphetamines and cocaine. He started as an amateur, cooking in a rented basement and attracted Dr. Adonizio (he mispelled her name) with the promise of fair gainings on a low profile drug production. But soon he was attracting too much attention of local drug lords, and already having a record of being paranoid, McAfee decided that he would become a drug lord himself, hiring the most dreaded thugs he could find around. As the months went by, McAfee became more violent and unpredictable, so Dr. Adonizio became increasingly afraid of ending up being killed or having to serve some time in jail. The last straw was when she broke up with her boyfriend and McAfee implied that he could take care of him for her. According to a interview she gave to the journalist Jeff Wise: “As soon as I started questioning his motives, he turned on me and became a horrible, horrible person, controlling, manipulative and dangerous. I’m thankful that I got out with my life”.
I got this guy pegged. Bear with me, because this is a long winded post, but I think you'll find it interesting. I'm sure some of you have also known people of his personality type, and for those who haven't, let me explain it. It may help you to understand this type and hopefully steer well clear of them. Because while they can be funny, extremely entertaining, and can often accomplish seemingly unbelievable things, it is always at the expense of others. Be it financial, emotional, reputational or otherwise.
First off, let me begin by saying I have nothing against this McAfee character (and he *is* quite a character it seems). Not knowing a thing about him other than his connection to the AV company, I read his response with great delight and enjoyment, like a lot of you. Being the entertaining fellow that he is, I started to read some stories written about him on the web and one at boing-boing, which led me to an interesting piece at FastCompany. After reading that story and all the contradictions between what John described to the writer, and the follow up the writer did with other people who were involved with John in one way or another, the stories didn't match up. They were similar, but John's descriptions were always way more grandiose or downright misleading. But always with a kernel of truth. Remember that piece, because it's an important part of the game. Or hey, perhaps he was telling the truth and the others were misleading. I'll let you decide.
After reading up a bit, it dawned on me that I knew a guy almost exactly like John. I'll call him Tim (not his real name). I met Tim through his younger brother, Mike (not his real name either) in high school in the mid-eighties and we became friends immediately: we liked the same music, we both played guitar, we were both partiers, and we were also somewhat social misfits. Fast forward through the years. Tim was always doing different things for a living, dealing illicit substances of one kind or another which in hindsight probably funded his several companies he had over the years. Mike hated his brother Tim, because Tim was always the focal point wherever he went. He told great stories, and everything was always a larger than life adventure. Not knowing at the time that Tim was a compulsive liar and a manipulator of people, I couldn't understand Mike's attitude towards his seemingly successful and charismatic brother. I never spent enough time around Tim to figure it out right away.
I figured it out first hand for myself when I moved halfway across the country to work at Tim's business, a small ISP. He offered me a 20% stake in the company, and I fell for it hook, line, and sinker. Mike warned me not to, but I wrote it off as sibling rivalry and jealousy. You see, I did my research before I moved (not well enough as it turned out) and was amazed at the connections Tim had. One thing worried me though: he was not too bright. Tim wasn't an idiot by any stretch, but it was obvious to me that he could talk the talk, but not walk the walk. What the hell, I told myself. He may not have the technical chops, but he has connections, a growing business, and could strike up a conversation with anyone: the perfect salesman! I'll take care of the tech, he can sell in our untapped market, and we'll make a mint! I'm not ashamed to admit that I let myself be manipulated by my greed, because I learned an important lesson, and hopefully can educate others as well.
I left my job of some 15 years and moved far away from home, friends and family. After about a year, it became obvious to me that it was a sham; Tim really didn't want to work or sell, he just wanted to talk, bullshit, and make others believe he was some genius, all the while manipulating suckers (me being one of them) into doing the actual work. He was really slimy, manipulative, and had no interest in technology at all I discovered. Tim was a paranoid, compulsive liar and I'm guessing had been one for most or all of his life. And not only did most people believe his lies, he did, t
Keep your conservative views to yourself. If theres grass on the muff, she's old enough. Simple biology.
pro tip: when everyone around you is nuts or batshit or whatever, its not them, its you.
Or you are just REALLY into truly wild sex.
Colorful read, but... damn it Slashdot... Whoever designed the mobile/iPad version of this site ought to get shot. Lack of contrast makes things hard to read, and -- FFS! -- don't reduce my screen real estate even further!
Regarding the official asking him for $2 million, that didn't exactly come out of the blue as ridiculously as John implies.
Apparently, he had previously given $1 million to help protect his local ferry boat business. ( http://www.fastcompany.com/1615167/plagued-lawsuits-mcafee-founder-hunts-cures-belize ) I guess word got around, eh?
Allison Adonicio wrote the definitive paper / thesis on quorum sensing?
Some journalists a bunch of years ago (post-Belize, pre-murder-case) said they interviewed quorum sensing experts who didn't even know who she was: http://www.fastcompany.com/1615167/plagued-lawsuits-mcafee-founder-hunts-cures-belize
According to that article, he really just ran into a bio researcher (Allison) waitressing and playing music at some resort in Belize and hired her.
Before I read that, I thought "oh, John is really interested in science topics, just like us nerds on Slashdot, keeping abreast of a hot topic and spotting talent". After reading that, I suspect he's playing us, or just acting self-important. No crime there, but something to keep in mind...
are you fucking with me, i dont like it when guys try to fuck with me? well, are you ?
excluding the additional html tags, jonny boy , dafuq you playing at, all i did was sit in a car and they chased me and put me away you got something i need or you need some attention ?
Free speech was meant to be free for all... how can anyone grow up in a nanny state ?