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Television Media

Interview: The Punk Hacker Kid Who Starred on MTV 324

Posted by Roblimo from the hacking-your-way-to-fame-and-fortune dept.
When the producers of the MTV show Road Rules asked 18-year-old Abe Ingersoll to describe his job, he wrote, "Im a full time systems analyst (a.k.a. "punk hacker kid") for an Internet connectivity company thats run by a bunch of old Berkley hippies." Last month Salon did a feature story about how Abe's hacking (and cracking) skills helped him get on the show and later helped him get close to one of the female cast members. Want to be a TV star? Ask Abe how he did it. Or ask him anything else. Post your questions below. Slashdot Moderators (you know who you are) will choose the most interesting ones. Abe's answers will appear Friday.
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Interview: The Punk Hacker Kid Who Starred on MTV More

Interview: The Punk Hacker Kid Who Starred on MTV

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  • HaCkINg QuEsTiOnZ (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    hey dere abe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how r u 2day dood i got 4 u 2day a hacking question 4 u 2 answer 2day ok? wh4t iz the format 4 mnemonics/numeric subaddressing on yugopac? what r some arbitrary lcns 4 various sprintnet pads and what do they do? how do u use a pm4 as an outdial dOoOd? SINCE U R A HACKER PLZ ANSWER MY HACKING Q'Z PROMPTLY PLEAZE. THANKS DOOD. - MR. REALHACKER - / PAKISTANI HACKERZ CLUB ----self appointed unofficial MeMbR oF da PAKISTAN HACKERZ CLUB---- [PHC] [PHC] [PHC] [PHC] [PHC] plz reply with some nuis or padz sita is owned ps. u clueless slashdotterz plz dont answer them i want abe 2. yhes i know u think u r all very smart but u r not a hacker like abe. thx.

  • IDIOT slashdot postings.. (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward
    To all that have posted comments above: These are the professional comments I would expect from /. users... So this is the group of professionals that make linux a great OS. It was to my understanding that the linux community was a giving community that spends countless hours leading linux in the right direction. I see a group of people that truly have NO CLUE. You are idiots, while corporate america goes right along working on other OSes, you on the other hand spend your time flaming. So you know code, you consider yourself a hacker.. Then use your knowledge.. I may not have a question for Abe, but I respect that he admits that he is not a hacker but a cracker. Just a script kiddie. The truth is, we were all once script kiddies until we learned enough to hack. Abe has gone back to school, why cant you give him credit for wanting to learn more. Instead, you act like you are in preschool.. Hey.. Linux Community.. It's time to grow up.. Time to focus on Linux.. GOTO this link.. Interesting article about the linux community.. http://www.zdnet.com/enterprise/linux/news/0,6423, 2315016,00.html Wait... I do have a question for Abe.. What are your plans for College?? What is your major ?? btw.. Congrats on going back to school..
  • What can you possibly have against Surge, the nectar of the gods?
  • Just "Reading" the questions here lets the interviewee choose which questions he or she answers. No big deal with someone like Mandrake, Illiad or Abe, all of whom read Slashdot, but what about when we start interviewing politicians and corporate types? That crowd will duck hard questions every time if you let them. It's better for us to send them a list of qustions, and if they decline to answer some of them, that'll tell us something about them, too.

    There are three other reasons not to let interview subjects simply come in and post: 1) For those unfamiliar with Slashdot, wading through all the "first post" and "this is gay" garbage to find the Real Questions takes too long. It saves time to do it by e-mail. 2) We don't pick the questions for at least 24 hours, because we have readers (and moderators) all over the world and want them all to have a chance to participate -- and we don't want a rushed interview subject to only see the first 20 or 30 posts, which might all be from North America. So we wait, THEN we choose. 3) Slashdot stories have (let's face it) a short shelf life. By making each interview a two-post thing, we avoid having the answers buried behind 100 stories that went up between the time we post the "call for questions" and the actual Q&A post.

    The *easiest* way for us to handle interviews would be simply call people up and ask them questions in traditional newspaper style, but that woould not allow any community participation. Wouldn't you rather have the chance to ask (fill in here) your *own* questions instead of letting me or Rob or Jeff or Justin come up with all of them?

    If nothing else, we're getting some interesting (even bizarre) questions from readers that would NEVER get asked anywhere else. ;-)

    - Robin
  • Can't speak for the moderators, but I can assure you that all questions sent to Abe are ones that were moderated up to 2+ or higher. The only real question screening beyond that is weeding out posts that got moderated high, but aren't questions.

    - Robin

  • No need for questions (Score:5)

    by Pfhool ( 744 ) on Monday August 23, 1999 @08:13AM (#1729963)
    There are several reasons why I don't care to hear this guy's answers to questions:

    1. I have no respect for him. Someone does not gain my appreciation or attention by being on television. In fact, I am likely to respect them less.

    2. If I want to know how he feels about things, I'll watch tho show or read the interview. The formula for Real World / Road Rules is well-known. He has been sucked into it and has lost perspective on reality. He's simply a pawn. "The Real World" is really quite an ironic title.

    3. He will say nothing interesting. I read slashdot for information that is interesting to technical folk (it doesn't have to be technical itself, mind you, just interesting to nerds). This guy has no unique insight. How to use CDC software doesn't count.

    4. Slashdot is closely tied with the Open Source community. OSS is involved in subverting the dominant, commercially driven, poorly done products. MTV fits these all perfectly. Why support it?

    It's not an issue of hacking/cracking skills. A beginner with good insight is worth listening to . It's a matter of respect and ideals. I respect many of the non glory seeking oss people much more. I'd care to hear their opinions instead -- they have a truly unique perspective.
  • Thats a simple question to answer- They suck because they went from a good idea 'hey, lets play music on TV' to getting people in charge that decided that playing music on TV is bad for advertising $$$ I mean, if you are showing random music during an hour, what is to prevent someone from switching between videos? ("Oh cool, the newest xyz video is on, this kicks butt.. oh damnit, more rap, I'm changing") Shows lock you in until the end, and give four rounds of advertising guaranteed to be exposed to you. Music videos were the ideal and unfortunately MTV was too chickenshit to stick with it. They went to shows which fit into the Neilsons and allowed them to demographic the market, to get advertisers drooling. All in all, it is a complete piece of shit. I am waiting for someone to pick up on the idea for internet, once bandwidth gets cheap enough. www.video-online.com
  • oooh! ooh! Its a trick Question, right? =P
  • This way he gets to read everything, consider his responses carefully, and post another article for yet another 15 minutes of slashdot fame. Moreover, he doesn't have to waste his life reloading this page every 10 minutes.
  • "OSS is involved in subverting the dominant, commercially driven, poorly done products. MTV fits these all perfectly"

    I thought that's what he did. He subverted MTV by cracking into their computer system. Isn't that the OSS mentality? Isn't it?
  • Christ you're incoherent. What does MTV have to do with Ted Turner? It's owned by Viacom, which is run by Sumner Redstone.
  • Yeah Eros, I was just wondering, are you capable of hitting the submit button only once?



    Hey, and I'm wondering why you bothered to quadruple space your moronic question.



    One joke deserves another.
  • Yeah, MTV is the reason kids are shooting other kids. Talk about crappy blame-shifting. MTV is fluff, but it's harmless. Next you're going to blame those Gap commercials for the downturn in American intellectualism.
  • I thought hacking was an attitude, not being able to do your chosen list of approved things? You've never met this man, yet you're denouncing him as being a loser and a wannabe and clearly inferior to you. Yours is the kind of attitude that makes me sick about this community. I hope you are young enough that you have a chance to grow up a little before you die.
  • Yeah, a broken home makes you a loser. And anyone who doesn't hack the kernel regularly can't possible know anything about computers or have any talent with them. And having one article written about you in Salon (Salon!) means that you're the Poster Boy for the press. Grow up... while you still have a chance.
  • I think because of all those angry youth. Most of the responses here are not worthwhile questions. They're angry personal attacks by sub-teens. To actually get a decent interview the chaff has to be separated from the wheat.

    And yes, the moderation system is in shambles. I think the number of available points out there is far too low. I mean, there's only two posts on this thread with a score above 1!

  • Questions (Score:3)

    by Python ( 1141 ) on Monday August 23, 1999 @11:46AM (#1729975)
    Why do you call yourself a hacker, when its obvious that you're a cracker?

    Would you consider yourself a script kiddie? (why or why not?)

    You claim to have been running ProComm Plus on an 8086 toshiba laptop when you were younger. What model laptop was this?

    Are you concerned that your cracking shenanigans and illegal actions as a youth were glorified by MTV and will result in other youth emulating your criminal actions?

    Do you ever expect to have a normal life now after MTV?

    What line of work do you plan to persue after your 15 minutes of fame with MTV?

    Would you recommend that others use your tactics of cracking boxes and breaking into future employers boxes and so on to get a job with them?

    How did you use Back Orifice to crack the boxes at Bunim/Murray? The Salon article does not make any sense about how you owned the boxes at Bunim/Murray. In fact, the Salon Article sounds like complete BS on this point (BO is not a tool to get in, its a trojan). So how did you really own their boxes?

    It sounds like, in the Salon Article, that you were very cynical about the show and realized it was all BS once you broke into their boxes, so why did you join the show after you figured that out?

    You also sound somewhat bitter about the way the show treated you and the way MTV over focuses on violence and conflict in the show. Would you recommend that other people join the show, knowing what you know now about it?

    What does Susie think about you now?
    --
    Python

  • Re:MTV (Score:1)

    by jafac ( 1449 )
    excellent distillation of why MTV isn't cool like it was back in 1985.

    Now what I don't get is, MTV was raking in TONS of cash back then, so why was this model deemed something they had to shitcan, and why hasn't any other broadcaster created a station that does what MTV used to do - play videos?

    "The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
    -jafac's law

  • Re:VH1 (Score:1)

    by jafac ( 1449 )
    you know, this argument actually reminds me of the same exact shit we used to complain about top-40 radio stations back in the early 80's.

    "The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
    -jafac's law
  • God DAMN it!

    Stop with the criticizing /. content already!
    If you don't like it, don't hit the link!
    Moron.

    If Fucking Martha Stewart does a show about interior decorating server rooms, is this worthy content for /.? hell yes! But I'm not going to click that link, I'll click the one below it about the umpteen billionth iteration of CDA to pass through congress, I'm sure as hell not going to go into the Martha Stewart story and complain that it doesn't belong in /., and that there's too much commenting going on wasting bandwidth.

    "The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
    -jafac's law
  • creativity != the "staggering drunk" camera work.

    Just MY humble opinon.

    "The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
    -jafac's law
  • I've yet to find a chick with a workable buffer overflow exploit.

    (blah, blah, blah, this guy just talks TOO MUCH)

    "The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
    -jafac's law
  • How 'bout: "Womyn with dicks"

    "The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
    -jafac's law
  • GWAR

    "The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
    -jafac's law
  • at least he's not fucking fucking fucking fuck fucking fuck ducks all fucking day (in the Netherlands, I think it was. . .)

    ah, slashdot

    "The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
    -jafac's law
  • intel suck-up!

    "The number of suckers born each minute doubles every 18 months."
    -jafac's law
  • Here we go again - it's just another loser from a broken home, with no morals and no real talent when it comes to computers, and for some reason the press paints him as a Poster Boy for the geek elite. This is no different from those two other losers Jon Katz reported a few months ago.

    Someone wake me up when the "real world" gets a clue.

  • since MTV has become about the channel for anything but music.. how about abe listing some of his favorite bands. Wonder when the next 7 day real world marathon starts on MTV.. *sigh*
  • a-fucking-men. you 12 year old linux kids need to grow up. stop babbling incoherently on this posting board, and start going outside and getting some fucking exercise.

    ---
  • all i know is that im jealous of anyone who is cool enough to replace the word "someone" with the far-more-elite metaword "some1"

    ---
  • that page serves two (2) purposes. 1: amuse me. 2: piss off people who think they're cool. it would appear it's done its job today.

    ---

  • Ouch. I don't think I've ever seen grep used before to bludgeon someone -- very nice work.

    In other words, "hehe".

  • hey, you did that java book, didn't you?

    Yup, that's me. Java and Internet books made-to-order. If you're a Rogers Cadenhead completist, visit my home page to, uh, complete your collection.

    Ah, laura lemay. there's a wacky one.

    Yikes! After reading that, I feel much better about my decision not to create a FAQ on things I've learned while auto-erotically asphyxiating myself.

  • Questions for Abe (Score:3)

    by rcade ( 4482 ) on Monday August 23, 1999 @12:06PM (#1729992) Homepage

    I'm one of the people who suggested Abe Ingersoll as an interview subject on Slashdot. The guy snuck into the unsecured network of the Road Rules producers and used the information he gained to (a) improve his odds of getting on the show, (b) play head games with people on the show, and (c) improve his odds of getting laid while on the show. Millions of TV viewers know the guy as a "computer hacker" or "computer cracker."

    Add all of this up, and I think it's worthwhile to see what's rattling around in the guy's head. Besides, he's not much more of an MTV fan than people making comments here, comparing Road Rules to "looking up someone's asshole" in the Salon article.

    Some questions:

    • If you are on probation for the credit card scam, snooping through Bunim-Murray's network could have sent you to jail. Did Bunim-Murray or anyone else make noise about pursuing legal action against you?
    • What bug reports were you reading when you got the idea to employ Back Orifice on the Bunim-Murray network?
    • By all appearances, you haven't suffered much in the way of negative consequences for cracking and other misdeeds. Now that you're on the MTV-celebrity lecture tour, are you doing anything to teach the teeming millions that cracking is a bad idea?

  • ... The nerd working for Adam Curry.. ;)

    (and who is no longer doing so, unfortunately.. I wish I had the balls and lack of car to follow him to Amsterdam...)
  • I read the Salon article and followed a link to his web site, where he pokes at Salon for running with "hacker" instead of "cracker". He described himself as a hacker when applying to MTV, but I guess he has learned the difference in the past year.

    Other items picked up from the article: He did work as a systems analyst at an ISP, and he has been on the Internet well before most people heard about it, and was a BBS junkie before that.

    In my opinion he has enough cred to call himself both hacker (in philosophy) and cracker (in deed, to an extent). I'm impressed that he has decided to return for school for a Computer Science degree. Too many immature children get riled up over the definition of 'hacker' and neglect to gain a deeper understanding of computer science.

    Although I find his website to be a bit over-the-top in vanity (and that's saying much coming from me ), it's not surprising given his age and his recent publicity.

    Note: I haven't watched MTV in years, so I've never seen his "performance" but I think it would be naive of someone to think that these "Real World/Road Rules" tv shows are anything but a warped and manipulated reflection of reality.

    Personal attacks on the man, coming from people who make assumptions without reading the article, come off sounding like jealousy and reflect much more negatively on the attacker than the attacked.

  • I don't know much about the show, however I did catch the episode where during a heated argument Abe made some childish statements about how he could infect this girls computer with virii and such.

    Question 1: What are your supposed "mad skillz"? or are you just riding this wave of MTV popularity.

    Question 2: Did you answer the above qustion honestly?

    From what I witnessed on the show, Abe couldn't hack his way out of a brown paper bag. I only wish others could've have witnessed the aforementioned episode.

    doomicon


  • He got his ass kicked by a girl on International Cable television....

    Oh yea, Im sooo jealous, I want to be him sooo bad...

    "Hey little sister, get the camcorder and boxing gloves.. and make me famous"
  • My god, this is the funniest rip I've seen in ages.

    You can't get much better than using someone's own words against them - esp. when they are fuel for elitism. :>


    - Darchmare
    - Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
  • Oh look, it's yet another "grrl".

    Don't you have, like, an online journal to edit or something?


    - Darchmare
    - Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
  • Insert buffer overflow joke here.

    --
  • LOL!

    Is there a 12 step program for Geeks? The fact that I find that hilarious says volumes about my social life! Help!

  • thats what matters.

    how about an interview with alan cox or some dude that works on FPGAs aka. "$1000 supercomputers". Or at least some good looking whore from MTV (with pics).

    If we have to go with this guy, could a guy/girl with the highest score kick his ass for free. live on slashdot?

    Also, Rob, we need a system where people could rate the articles (kinda like they rate the replies), cause I think this one sucks.
  • Back around the start of 1998 (or was it earlier) New Zealand had a 12-hour delayed broadcast (free-to-air) of MTV UK (which TVNZ killed off about 6 months later).

    Now there were 3 "top 20" shows: the UK one, the european one, and the US one. Guess which one was utter crap? The US one, of course.
  • Anyone remember the time MTV "hacked themselves"?

    Hmm. Methinks that they're still clueless.
  • Yeah Abe I was just wondering if you have been a huge asshole all your life naturally or if you had to work at it?

    And how long can you live with yourself knowing that every night you look in the mirror, that you are nothing more than a fake who couldn't "hack" his way out of a paperbag? Let alone "crack" any system for that matter.

    Infact I wass also wondering if you have ever written a lick of productive code in your life? I mean I got chills up and down my spin when I was watching you masterfully work that promo Macintosh they gave the cast.

    Do you have all the posters from the movie "hackers" or are you still missing the one with low-tech?

    Hey, and I'm wondering how your factory Linux box that was mentioned is doing? I'm sure that you are the master of GNOME operating or KDE clicking.

    One joke deserves another.
  • woah! someone else one slashdot listens to skinny puppy!

    yeah, let's show them the spasmolytic video.

    MAKING TIME IN A LOW RENT HIGH RISE
    NO PLACE TO GO
    DOWNTOWN, HA HA HA!

    cob2k25
  • yup, i miss skinny puppy too. by far my favorite band.

    but don't expect any reunion soon, there's still a lot of shit going between ogre and cevin.
    there should be another download, tear garden, plateau soon.. and ogre's working with mark walk. yeah, it's not skinny puppy, and it will never be the same (dwayne). but it's better than nothing.

    btw, here's an interesting link for any puppy fans:

    http://userpages.aug.com/sgraham/news.html

    brap on.

    oh, expect another subconscious compilation soon, maybe back and forth 5&6 too.
  • Dammit... That third item should be:

    3. Wrote [slashdot.org]

    Dunno where the rest of it went; it showed up fine when I previewed.

    --
    A host is a host from coast to coast...

  • So this is the group of professionals that make linux a great OS.

    Um, no. This is Slashdot. There are some slashdot readers who are also in the linux community. A lot of these slashdot posters aren't even professionals, however.

    Some poll data, FWIW:

    1. 94% Male [slashdot.org]
    2. 37% aged 18-23; 31% aged 24-30 [slashdot.org]
    3. Wrote [slashdot.org]
    4. Have read /. for 3 months [slashdot.org]
    5. 29% are students [slashdot.org]
    There is also the poll which has 36% of /. readers using Linux versus 30% Win* [slashdot.org] for their primary OS... But I seem to recall reading something a while ago on /. wherein a majority of the browser agent strings in the logs were from win32 variants. I couldn't find the item or the exact numbers, unfortunately.

    This is NOT the Linux community, by far. Ever read the kernel mailing lists [deja.com]? Heh.

    (For those curious individuals: I use a Dell Precision 410 with RH 6.0 for my desktop, every day.)

    --
    A host is a host from coast to coast...

  • Ah! But!

    Surely the ultimate point of any X-based GUI is to allow you to have multiple xterms open? Which you can then slide between with the mouse (using focus-follows-mouse of course).

    KDE wins here because of its Alt-F2 command, which lets you run a command line. Hence my working environment consists of "Alt-F2 netscape" and a couple of "Alt-F2 xterm"s. I've never really got into all that menus stuff...
  • Interviewing Cast members of Road Rules? Please!

    Real World and Road Rules are two shows about a gang of misfits who are forced to live together, and learn how to hate each other. One of them will inevitably get violent and get kicked off the show. At they end of the season, they cry and hug each other and go home. In between it will pretend to deal with real issues, and focus on each cast member's insecurities. I know this because my wife likes to watch it, and I am often subjected to it when I spend quality time with her.

    Anyway, If I remember this Abe guy correctly, he was a real jerk who worked especially hard to make life miserable for the other people on the show. I think he was the one who provoked the black girl into hitting him, causing her to get thrown off the show.
  • "120 minutes" has always been on Sunday at midnight (or thereabouts) the real wonder is that it's still on, and hasn't been replaced by that wrestling clay-figure show.

    the rest of your post is pretty accurate though ;-)

  • The funniest trend on MTV is that they've started doing these shows, documenting the making of music videos that they'll never show, because they stopped showing music videos in like 1992 or something. Except for the countdown show where they show about 30 seconds of a music video.
  • Abe --

    Who told you that hacking ever involved
    using Cult of the Dead Cow software? Are
    you really a hacker?
  • hmm, is this the same guy who has a show on the sci-fi channel called 'cool tech'?
  • What do you think the chances that Road Rules purposely left their systems unsecure HOPING you would break into them, for the purpose of being able to mess with the other people? I mean the idea ALONE sounds like great TV ...
    Hackers 2: Wrath of Abe
  • You don't even need good hardware

    Ah, but with good hardware, I've found that a
    DOS attack leaves the system especially
    susceptible.

    (I'm so dead when the girlf reads this)

    K.
    -
    How come there's an "open source" entry in the
  • I know this will get downgraded, but it must be said.

    If you're a real cracker who knows so much about insecurities... why are you using Linux? It's not the most secure system for the hardware you use.

    -CK
  • I believe the problem lies not in the fact the he got laid. I think the problem lies in the fact that he puts on 'aires' to get laid.

    When I was in College for the first two weeks I had THREE room mates. One of them was born in Ireland. He had been in the US since he was about 10 or so, he had lost his accent, BUT he used to use a fake accent when women were around to strike get their attention.

    After a while I got so sick of it, I told one of the girls "You know that's a fake accent right?". I then looked squarely at him and said "You can quit the act now, talk like you do when no women are around." (That's right Alex, if you're reading this I just outed you again)


    >Nice guys have a hard time getting laid because of their easy attachment towards women, and women take advantage of that, women also can sense that you must not have much confidence if you can so easily become attached to them.

    I definately agree on this point, nice guys never get the booty. When I was in high school I was one of the nice guys, I talked to my female friends on the phone for hours at a time, they'd call me to tell me about their man problems and ask me for advice. Well after watching these women give up the pussy to everyone except me I got kind of jaded. I started out not calling when I said I would and I ended up starting to get plain out rude. I told one girl with no room for other interpretation that I didn't care about her man problems, and didn't care to hear anymore. It was her fault for choosing that jerk and if she wanted to the situation to change, she'd have to change it.

    Low and behold by my senior year of HS I began to get romantic attention from the ladies. Some beautiful, some not so beautiful but it was a rebirth for me. My best friend finally made the change earlier this year, after some whore walked all over him he stopped wanting to be nice. He's still honest with women (sometimes brutally honest) and he's all the happier for it.

    Free advice for all of the no sex getting nice guys out there. Once per day try to replace the word "woman" or "lady" with the word "bitch". This is not about disrespecting women, it IS about changing the way you think about them. You must lose the notion that God had endowed women with some magical position of power in the universe as the sexual selector. Be honest, be self confident, and above all else be true to yourself.

    LK
  • ya know, we should take it easy on the kid.
    i mean, maybe he's *not* a real punk. or a real hacker.

    but he plays one on MTV...

    maybe they just hired him and gave him a few vids and told him what they thought a "punk hacker kid" should look/act/talk like (and what is that, actually?) and off he went? like those shows aren't completely staged!

    *shrug*
    well, hey...whatever. everybody's gotta do somethin...
  • Abe-
    Why would we want to ask you questions? You're media hoopla. Not to mention probably the most irritating person to be on that ever annoying show. Were you born an asshole, or was that what you were working at just before dropping out of school?

  • Thanks (Score:1)

    by Zico ( 14255 )

    From the article "story," I mistakenly thought that questions would be chosen just on the basis of a post's score. After reading your post and going back to read the article submission, I see my misunderstanding -- thanks.

    I'm not one to normally clog bandwidth with thanks, but (1) I think you're doing a good job, Roblimo, and (2) I think this topic needed a few more non-flames. I get the feeling that there's a lot of jealousy of success and fame rearing its head here, based on some of the completely uncalled-for flames that I've seen heaped upon this guy.

    I despise MTV and mainly don't watch it except for the superb Tom Green Show, and have never gotten into Road Rules, but lighten up on the kid. He had a free opportunity to get out in the world with some babes and get some TV time. A lot of people would jump at the chance. I'm sure that he'd get flamed by some people no matter what he did on the show. Criticizing is one thing, but some of the cruel and personal attacks on him that I've read here have been pretty disgusting. Consider how you'd feel if it was one of your family members getting trashed merely because they decided to do something harmless and fun and get a tiny bit of fame in the process.

    Keep up the good work, Roblimo.

    Cheers,
    ZicoKnows@hotmail.com

  • Why doesn't he just read the questions here, instead of using Slashdot moderators as a intermediary. Not to mention that the Slashdot moderation system is in shambles, but that's a topic for another day.

    'Til then, I'll just kick back and wait for some angry youth to ask, "Hey man, how can he call himself a hacker if he doesn't read /. himself?"

    Cheers,
    ZicoKnows@hotmail.com

  • So was it fair? (Score:3)

    by Bucko ( 15043 ) on Monday August 23, 1999 @07:03AM (#1730024)
    I read the Salon article, and it wasn't exactly kind to you. Do you think it was fair or a hatchet job?

    J
  • Referring to women as chicks is perfectly acceptable among the teenage and 20 something groups.
  • Yeah, both of them suck. or as Homer may say "Thats the suckiest, suck, that ever sucked a suck" (this is Homer Simpson, not the poet Homer). Everyone has to learn somewhere, and KDE and Gnome are just building blocks, until your balls develope and you use console (hey, I'm saying I did use a WM at one time, still do for netscape). Power/security just dont come from X. Besides, why the hell would you use KDE and Gnome. I hate tool bars. About the only thing that I can stand is GNUstep's WMdock in WindowMaker. But, to each, his own. Not my choice, not my X, not my comp.
  • I think the quote you are looking for is:
    "He who is without sin cast the first stone."

    Doesn't matter, really. You got the point across.
  • This is so unbelievably dull and useless. I don't read /. everyday, so I may have missed out on how the interview candidates are chosen. Do /.ers vote on these people?

    There are plenty of assholes from whom I can learn what not to do, who not to be, and how not to live my life -- I think most of us know assholes from whom they can personally take away these lessons.

    If the reason for interviewing this guy is because he got on MTV, or because he used technology to get a girl, or because he had a mildly interesting childhood, I'm just so disappointed. Why not interview me? I had a weird childhood (who didn't?)! I have slackware (but I don't KNOW slackware)! I could break into a computer (after reading the directions, of course)! But I'm not stupid enough to call myself a hacker -- I'm not even a script kiddie.

    So maybe instead of holy war polls, there could be polls listing possibilities for the next interviewee. I am absolutely sure that there are tons of great hackers, project leaders, and other cool people from whom we could actually learn something. I don't know who these people are, but I bet the /. community knows enough names and backgrounds to have a much more interesting field of candidates for the next interview.

    Personally, I would like to see some interviews with more hackers who've gone corporate -- or those who've made the choice not to.

    So how 'bout it folks? Names and backgrounds of interview candidates?

  • ur l33tn3$$ imp3$$3$ m3.
    But, seriously folks, here's a few REAL questions:
    1. How can you be called a punk and be on MTV?
    #he's not
    2. What languages do you know?
    #none
    3. Why did you act like an ass on Road Rules?
    #he IS an ass
    4. R U l33t?!?
    #He THINKS he is :P
    #gee, I hope these show up as perl comments and
    #not in the post :)
  • If there were a 'what he said' click thru available for /. comments I would have used it for this one. Speaking of which, that is one aspect of the moderation scheme that I would hope someone considers: the inability of the non-moderators to increase the point value of a particular comment independantly, like the poll...just a thought
  • not Gap commercials....it is Nike that caused the downturn
  • and show your work
  • In the article on Salon they claim you said

    ""
    "I'm not a typical hacker!" he insists -- but he
    does read "bug reports," in which hackers list the
    flaws they've discovered in software programs and
    operating systems.
    ""

    IMHO this is what makes you and all the rest of
    us, who don't publicize and get political, part of
    the Old School. Hackers use what they have at
    hand, if it doesn't work, play with it til it
    does.

    A script kiddie wouldn't have been able to
    even pull off the basic stuff it sounds like you
    did. The facts are, you cracked the site and
    didn't really hurt anyone or steal credit card
    numbers. You did however use the info to get on
    the show. (Way to go)

    Here's the question...

    Was getting hit by a girl worth it? I would
    think so, but I don't want to make any
    assumptions.


    Late Man,
    Cordova
    "Can't lurk all the time."



    BTW - don't mind the AC's on here their just trying to incite a riot.



  • Sure sounds like *you'd* be fun to hang out with! "short tempered woman, ready to take out frustrations on any perceived slight. Grain of salt required. Must be willing to deal with ignorants with ignorance and name calling."
  • i dunno. i guess i just didn't want to be moderated down for trolling or something.

    oh, how i do live for those occasional hours of moderation glory!

    hey, look, there's roger cadenhead. he did the new version of that laura lemay book. awesome. i loved the original.

  • glad you liked it.

    hey, you did that java book, didn't you? see below [slashdot.org].

    ah, laura lemay. there's a wacky [jwz.org] one.

  • oh, how the mighty have fallen.

    that's a pretty strange about-face. one moment i rule, the next i suck? hmph. even i'm confused.

    firstly, i'm not bragging about causing trouble on slashdot. it's a good site, but people here can be stupid. if i can bring a few smiles to a few faces by taking advantage of that, then who really loses?

    secondly, i'm not really that anti-army. i was being inflammatory, and of course it worked. i do, however, think that lots of people are lured into joining for the wrong reasons (have you heard the "join the army and get twelve thousand dollars!" commercials?), and i do grow increasingly weary of people who insist upon tacking "when i was in the army..." onto every tedious anecdote. the reason you and 'other people' deeply resent my attitude is that you apparently feel that any random person deserves awe and respect just for having served in the military. in reality there are many other more worthwhile things people can do to help each other, so i'm sorry for not dropping to my knees. i'm terrible with orders!

    i'm disappointed that you're disappointed in me. i strive only to make the world a more interesting place. i do try my best. i'm sorry if you don't get it.

  • I see nothing wrong with this kid. He's an 18 year old guy, who has a bit more common sense than those around him. He may be a script kiddie, but who's to say that one day he may not be something more?

    Look, he did one of the better hacks there is. It didn't involve any "mad skillz" or anything, but mainly a bit of social engineering. He got onto MTV, didn't he? And yes, while MTV may be lame, everyone deserves their 15 minutes of fame. I applaud the guy for doing something he considers interesting. He got to get out of the rut that so many people in this world are in, and see the world a bit. Good for him!

    Hell, if I was given the opportunity to do something like that, I'd be there in a second. Even though I do consider both "Real World" and "Road Rules" to be the two stupidest things on TV these days.

    ---
  • Hitting people is stupid and primitive. No matter how much of an asshole someone chooses to be, breaking out your drunken monkey style on their asses isn't going to change the way they are.

    Reminds me of an anecdote (supposedly true, but who knows). In the US, during WWI, a Quaker was harassed while walking down the street by a group of young men who derided his pacifist beliefs. The Quaker took off his shirt and offered to wrestle the largest among them. The two faced off. The Quaker picked up his opponent and threw him across the street, where he landed heavily. As he put his shirt back on, the Quaker asked the young man, "Do you agree now that violence cannot change the beliefs of another man?"
    "No!" he grunted as he got up.
    "I've proved my point, then," replied the Quaker, and he walked off.

    Besides, their dragon style just might beat your tiger style.
    What was that movie?
  • Abe,

    Why did you feel the need to be "reconnected" with your generation, as the Salon article mentions? Not to be insulting (no, really!), but I've been doing this since 1988 (I'm 21 now, you do the math) and have found that the people around me who are my age, for the most part, are not very mature or far along in their thinking of the world. It would seem to me that staying grouped with people who share your interests would result in fewer problems like you experienced.

    Don't get me wrong, I do not encourage being an introvert (I'm very outgoing), but actively trying to fit into a group or genre of people who are very much unlike you would appear to be rather silly. Sure, associate with them, even be friends with them, but being "connected" with them implies that you want to "be" them (or at least like them), and that I don't think is very smart.

    (Loved the bit about being the 1st customer of a local ISP.. Ah, yes, I still remember the heady days of sneaking in valuable time with my Uncle's ARPA login..)

  • sexy fool!
  • I see so damn many flames here, and everybody is actually DEFENDING the pile of worthless dung that is MTV and their pathetic attempts at making a "real show" with "real people" all while manipulating the viewer with trite, contrived, probably scripted situations even less compelling than the worst sitcom.

    As a human-as-moron study, the "Real World" does provide insight into the level of stupidity of the average human.. not just those starring on the "Real World", but also the people who find it "insightful" and "helpful" to those in need of guidance into adulthood.

    My question to Abe:
    Are you, too, such a construct, carefully tailored as the token "geek" who has been traditionally underrepresented (or if present, outright MIS represented by films like Hacker) simply to appeal to a part of the 18-25 market feeling the most disenfranchised by the system?

    If the answer is truely yes, I don't expect you to say so, but at least if you say no, give us direct evidence that this whole thing is NOT an MTV setup.

    If you genuinely did take advantage of MTV, I bow to you, and I frankly don't care if you are a "real" hax0r or not. Social engineering is far more challenging then skript cracking some obscure site and replacing their web page with porn banners.
  • umm...maybe I'm really out of the loop-but what does k-rad mean? someone recently called me that and i wasn't sure whether or not it was a compliment....

    -lisa
  • Abe-

    Based on what you have said and what seems apparent about the show and how the producers manipulate the environment, I'm wondering if you have considered that perhaps the girl you were involved with for one night was encouraged to be seduced by you from the producers?

    So...maybe the whole line about hacking into their system and finding out information about her had nothing to do with what went on later.

    -Lisa
  • Real World." Right. Like 7 semi-employed 20somethings living in an aparment in Waikiki that probably costs around 8000/month is real.

    Actually I think the place was in Kahala and I believe that the pricetag was 4 million. Waikiki apartments are generally below 1000 a month. A lot of retired people live there. However, all in all Manoa, Kaneohe, or Kailua have the best location on Oahu.
  • "Real World." Right. Like 7 semi-employed 20somethings living in an aparment in Waikiki that probably costs around 8000/month is real.

    And if he's a hacker, the last statement makes no sense. He doesn't hack anymore? More like, he was a script kiddie, who looked at what _other_ people had done to exploit security holes with a program that _other_ people had written, to do basically what that chick said he would do: read her diary.

    And you're right: I'm an actor, I'd love to do a TV show, but I wouldn't be caught dead on MTV.

  • Stuff that matters? (Score:4)

    by double_h ( 21284 ) on Monday August 23, 1999 @08:03AM (#1730047) Homepage

    Dear so-called punk so-called hacker kid,

    Do you feel that having a Slashdot interview about an 18 year old who got to be on MTV is sad evidence of Slashdot's decline into media-whoring pablum? I mean, sure there are countless programmers, writers, artists, thinkers, or developers with something intelligent to say, but dude, have any of THEM been on MTV?

    Stuff that matters indeed.

  • Chicks are by far the most entertaining systems to hack. I highly recommend it. You don't even need good hardware, just good hacking skill, which is probably why most h4x0rs can't hack chicks. Scripts don't work on them.

  • I think you missed my humor.
  • Hmmm. I have a friend that puts on cologne, nice clothes, and uses the same old script and jokes time and again and it works for him. He has maybe a half dozen "if conditions". He gets da babe. We make bets on which script she'll fall for. Sad.

    Good God No! (tm) He's definately a black hat. Chicks should be hacked for the challenge, not just to exploit. Sad? Very. heheh

  • Explain the universe. Give three examples. :)
  • "The guy's an asshole." What an image. But remember that the image you saw of Abe was carefully crafted by a team of MTV drama specialists. Thousands of hours of footage was condensed into a small package that was packed full of things to draw an emotional response. I can't say that Abe's an asshole. I can't say that he's a really cool guy, either. If I were put into the same situation, I'd question how c00l I would end up looking after MTV carefully crafts a dramatic spin upon my personality.
  • Hell, most of the people who responded to this topic probably don't know what pablum means.

    pablum n 1: a form of cereal for infants [syn: Pablum] 2: a diet that does not
    require chewing; advised for those with intestinal disorders [syn: soft diet,
    pap, spoon food] 3: worthless or oversimplified ideas [syn: pap]


    Obviously, he was reffering to the cereal.. (duh)

  • More Questions... (Score:5)

    by brianvan ( 42539 ) on Monday August 23, 1999 @09:31AM (#1730078)
    Questions for Abe:

    If they're good for anything at all, I think that one of the better aspects of "The Real World" and "Road Rules" is that they are about watching and helping young people improve and mature into adults. It seemed that at the beginning you were immature, abrasive, and somewhat anti-social, and that's just about the nicest way for me to say it. Not to say that you were the Antichrist, but some people have a knack for rubbing people the wrong way and they suffer unfair social consequences because of it. It also seemed that one of your personal goals for the experience was to try to become mature and learn how to interact with people better, which I felt was very respectable of you. Did you feel that you achieved any maturity from your Road Rules trip? Do you feel that the Road Rules trip helped you move beyond some of your difficulties with your personal interactions, or was the whole thing such a terrible mess that you went home without any positive social improvement whatsoever? Do you feel today that you still need to work on improving your social interactions with others?

    Also, you're a person who had a rough childhood who happens to be good at computers. What are your thoughts on making computers and the Internet accessible to the "financially challenged?" What can people do to make sure that no one misses out on the computer age, including those who are poor and/or homeless?

    Finally, do you think that Bunim-Murray purposely casts volatile, disruptive, and downright dangerous people in its shows? Or do you think that they're totally oblivious to any clues that someone might be violent, dirty, offensive, an alcoholic/drug addict, sick, anti-social, destructive, irresponsible, dishonest, highly immature, mentally ill, etc. Seems to me that making normal people live with the worst-of-the-worst is no more like the REAL world than living in an absurdly beautiful and expensive house for free.


    Oh and to all you /. people who can't stand this topic - grow up. So what it has nothing to do with REAL computers, it's interesting nonetheless. If you don't like him, or you don't like this interview, then don't write about it. Jesus said it best when he said "You who have done no wrong cast the first stone." (who cares if I mangled the quote, it's cause I don't go to church anymore) Also, don't be as stupid as MTV would want you to be and realize the fact that any of the stuff on that show should be taken with a grain of salt. I hope the moderators come back with a vengeance and deduct points from all these "MTV sux" posts.

  • Questions for Abe (Score:4)

    by antizeus ( 47491 ) on Monday August 23, 1999 @08:11AM (#1730085)
    Do you see fragmentation in the Linux distribution market to be a good, bad, or neutral thing? Do you think that the "media frenzy" over Linux tends to harm other worthy OS projects like the BSDs and BeOS? Do you think that big business's entry into the Linux market will change the gift-culture aspects of Linux, or will the businesses in question adapt to Linux? Or both? What do you think is in store for humanity in terms of relations between governments, businesses, and individuals? Do you think that we should actively pursue colonization of other planets in our star system at this time, and if not, then when?

    I look forward to reading your responses.

  • Re:Human hacking (Score:3)

    by Hard_Code ( 49548 ) on Monday August 23, 1999 @11:39AM (#1730087)
    Chicks are an immense headache to hack, at least if you define "good hacking skills" as persistence, determination, intelligence, persistence and determination. Those skills will get you nowhere. The target system is usually behind a large firewall on a very distant subnet. Usually all communications are encrypted and undecipherable. You can only hope for a middle-man attack. Brute force attacks usually end up in services being reassigned to random ports or shut down for an indeterminate amount of time. Output is terribly inconsistent.

    Where the heck is SATAN for chicks?

    I'll go back to hacking chargens.
  • Have you ever written any code ? Done aything computer related beside using compiled code written by other people ? Do you even know what a compiler is ? Do you plan on learning anything else beside running scripts ? What do you plan on doing 5 years from now when every high school student can run scripts ? Are you embarassed at all about your performance on MTV ?

  • MTV (Score:4)

    by GuySmiley ( 71599 ) on Monday August 23, 1999 @07:35AM (#1730117) Homepage
    Why does MTV suck so hard?


    "It used to be about the music, man", but now it is just ads, screaming, and blowhard documentaries.

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