If you want to get to know more about attrition.org and PacketStorm why don't you talk to Ken and Brian themselves. They are very accessible people via both email and IRC. I wouldn't base my opinions about two of JP's most prolific opposition/enemies by listening to what JP has to say about them and the issues surrounding why they don't like each other.
Attrition.org is very in depth and easy to read, they lay out the facts as they see them and their agenda is clear. I would look in the Hack News Network as another source about attrition,org and AntiOnline/JP, they are a remarkably well done Hacker News site which I have seen to be very truthful and open in their news stories.
I would also take a look at Adam Penebergs article on Forbes.com. Adam is a highly regarded technology reporter who was the only Reporter with the guts to come forward after Se7en was proven to be a fraud (www.attrition.org reports on this heavily as well).
You can find the story here: http://www.forbes.com/columnists/penenberg/1999/ 0927.htm
As mentioned at the bottom of this interview.
Do some more research on the subject before you take JP's word for it.
This is really what I expected. There is no way that JP would ever answer the questions that people on/. really want to ask. In my opinion he knew this and just used/. and it's readers to create further controversy. He also seems to thrive on people hating or opposing him, which the members of/. did zealously.
Even the answers to the questions he asked himself were pathetic. Brian Martin (www.attrition.org) may be zealous, but he is nothing if not thorough, and though Ken Williams may have used bad judgement when posting information about JP's younger sister I can't believe that JP had the audacity to try and look down his nose at Ken for "reportedly" selling PacketStorm. Ken worked incredibly hard to make and maintain PacketStorm and I see absolutely nothing wrong with him selling it.
With JP, it seems, he isn't happy unless he is the focus of everyone in the IT communities attention. Have you noticed that not much has been said about him lately? At least the circles I travel in nothing has been said about good ol JP and AntiOnline recently. Perhaps that's why he agreed to a SlashDot interview. Perhaps he wanted to attract more attention.
If in fact his servers are the brunt of a lot of Hack Attempts, I am interested to know who he employs to secure them? It is certainly apparent that it isn't JP, at least I have never seen him post anything of ay technical detail, or even minor technical detail. I don't doubt he is the brunt of a lot of hack attempts, so I would really like to know the nitty gritty of how their network is secured. Although I am sure he would hide behind the mask of not wanting malicious hackers to know what he's got cooked up. Security through Obscurity and all that.
Now that JP has been interviewed I would be interested in giving Brian Martin and the attrition.org staff an interview spot, let them air out their side of the stories JP loves to refute/profess. That I think would be a very interesting interview.
These things work because sometimes the company may be _worth_ more, but be less profitable.
The company I work for (www.empireco.ca) recently bought a rival Grocery Retailer that was more than double our size. They were double our size, but we had more profit every year. So why did we buy this aging and bloated company? If we can get their costs down to near what our costs our, we will double or triple their profits in the first year alone.
Sometimes smaller companies have more capital and a better business position to take over larger companies.
I dispute the claim that contractors have more experience/knowledge. Most of the consultants that I know are young and relatively inexperienced people who are working as consultants to travel and make some good money for a few years. They are also in it to _get_ experience.
This isn't to say that they are not smart individuals who can and will do the job, but in my experience with the pile of consultants we've had come through here during our most recent (and still going) project a minority of the consultants are acctually more experienced than the employees we have here.
During a project like our's it's hard to not hire contractors to fill in the spots, or do grunt work, but nothing replaces an experienced and long term employee. I certainly don't want to stay here forever, but an employee who will be here for 3 or 4 years, knows the company and how all the systems work together is a much better resource to work on a project, even if he has to learn something new to do it. Sure a consultant may already know the procedure, or product, but he doesn't know your systems and structure and generally isn't interested in learning about them.
In a big project consultants definitely have a place, doing the grunt work and helping the long term employee learn the product so he can do the job right.
IBM employees are like that with a lot of products. I've been on the phone with IBM techs while they try to log into servers in their office using Tivoli, you should hear them cursing.
I haven't talked to an IBM employee yet who likes Tivoli.
Slashdot Mirror
If you want to get to know more about attrition.org and PacketStorm why don't you talk to Ken and Brian themselves. They are very accessible people via both email and IRC. I wouldn't base my opinions about two of JP's most prolific opposition/enemies by listening to what JP has to say about them and the issues surrounding why they don't like each other.
/ 0927.htm
Attrition.org is very in depth and easy to read, they lay out the facts as they see them and their agenda is clear. I would look in the Hack News Network as another source about attrition,org and AntiOnline/JP, they are a remarkably well done Hacker News site which I have seen to be very truthful and open in their news stories.
I would also take a look at Adam Penebergs article on Forbes.com. Adam is a highly regarded technology reporter who was the only Reporter with the guts to come forward after Se7en was proven to be a fraud (www.attrition.org reports on this heavily as well).
You can find the story here:
http://www.forbes.com/columnists/penenberg/1999
As mentioned at the bottom of this interview.
Do some more research on the subject before you take JP's word for it.
forgey
This is really what I expected. There is no way that JP would ever answer the questions that people on /. really want to ask. In my opinion he knew this and just used /. and it's readers to create further controversy. He also seems to thrive on people hating or opposing him, which the members of /. did zealously.
Even the answers to the questions he asked himself were pathetic. Brian Martin (www.attrition.org) may be zealous, but he is nothing if not thorough, and though Ken Williams may have used bad judgement when posting information about JP's younger sister I can't believe that JP had the audacity to try and look down his nose at Ken for "reportedly" selling PacketStorm. Ken worked incredibly hard to make and maintain PacketStorm and I see absolutely nothing wrong with him selling it.
With JP, it seems, he isn't happy unless he is the focus of everyone in the IT communities attention. Have you noticed that not much has been said about him lately? At least the circles I travel in nothing has been said about good ol JP and AntiOnline recently. Perhaps that's why he agreed to a SlashDot interview. Perhaps he wanted to attract more attention.
If in fact his servers are the brunt of a lot of Hack Attempts, I am interested to know who he employs to secure them? It is certainly apparent that it isn't JP, at least I have never seen him post anything of ay technical detail, or even minor technical detail. I don't doubt he is the brunt of a lot of hack attempts, so I would really like to know the nitty gritty of how their network is secured. Although I am sure he would hide behind the mask of not wanting malicious hackers to know what he's got cooked up. Security through Obscurity and all that.
Now that JP has been interviewed I would be interested in giving Brian Martin and the attrition.org staff an interview spot, let them air out their side of the stories JP loves to refute/profess. That I think would be a very interesting interview.
forgey
These things work because sometimes the company may be _worth_ more, but be less profitable.
The company I work for (www.empireco.ca) recently bought a rival Grocery Retailer that was more than double our size. They were double our size, but we had more profit every year. So why did we buy this aging and bloated company? If we can get their costs down to near what our costs our, we will double or triple their profits in the first year alone.
Sometimes smaller companies have more capital and a better business position to take over larger companies.
forgey
I dispute the claim that contractors have more experience/knowledge. Most of the consultants that I know are young and relatively inexperienced people who are working as consultants to travel and make some good money for a few years. They are also in it to _get_ experience.
This isn't to say that they are not smart individuals who can and will do the job, but in my experience with the pile of consultants we've had come through here during our most recent (and still going) project a minority of the consultants are acctually more experienced than the employees we have here.
During a project like our's it's hard to not hire contractors to fill in the spots, or do grunt work, but nothing replaces an experienced and long term employee. I certainly don't want to stay here forever, but an employee who will be here for 3 or 4 years, knows the company and how all the systems work together is a much better resource to work on a project, even if he has to learn something new to do it. Sure a consultant may already know the procedure, or product, but he doesn't know your systems and structure and generally isn't interested in learning about them.
In a big project consultants definitely have a place, doing the grunt work and helping the long term employee learn the product so he can do the job right.
IBM employees are like that with a lot of products. I've been on the phone with IBM techs while they try to log into servers in their office using Tivoli, you should hear them cursing.
I haven't talked to an IBM employee yet who likes Tivoli.