McAfee May Have Been Captured 148
netbuzz writes with a quick update about John McAfee on the run. From the article: "A blog being maintained for the past three weeks by antivirus pioneer John McAfee and others is claiming to have received "an unconfirmed report" that McAfee has been captured near the border of Belize and Mexico. However, authorities in Belize say that report is not true and that the whereabouts of McAfee, wanted for questioning as a 'person of interest' after the Nov. 11 murder of his neighbor, remain unknown."
They thought they had him! (Score:5, Funny)
They thought they had him, but turns out it was a false positive.
Re:They thought they had him! (Score:5, Funny)
They thought they had him, but turns out it was a false positive.
"This user has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down." -- PoliceOS (Belize Edition)
Re:They thought they had him! (Score:5, Funny)
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Sadly, I've had this same conversation with people more than once. "What did I do that was illegal!?"
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I still want to know why General Failure is reading my hard disk.
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Re:Why is McAfee's affair on Slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why is McAfee's affair on Slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful)
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So if Bill Gates were being hunted in Belize... (Score:2)
The man hasn't been 'pretty important' or even relevant to technology in over a decade
That may be the case be he is still widely known and "affected" many lives through his resource-hogging software.
Bill Gates fits almost the same profile, if it were him you would argue that story did not belong here?
I would argue if nothing else the story sort of belongs because he;s basically a geek and geeks like hearing about other geeks living at the edges of existence.
Personally despite being deeply angered by his so
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Re:Why is McAfee's affair on Slashdot? (Score:4, Informative)
I think it is really because his "I'm running off to another country because of taxes!" shit appeals to many of the Rand-types that hang around on Slashdot.
What happened? (Score:1)
Did mommy drop a copy of Atlas Shrugged on your head?
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Maybe he just read Philosophy: Who Needs It and is just as disgusted with wanna-be Rand robots as Ayn Rand was.
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US citizens living abroad still must pay US income tax. So I don't think it's that.
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Further: If you're a rich American and left (and renounced US citizenship) to avoid paying taxes, you'd leave for Switzerland or somewhere like that, not corrupt and poor Belize. Any money he makes now is almost assuredly capital gains, which is taxed at one tenth or one twentieth of the US rate in Switzerland (depending on long-term vs short-term, tax bracket, etc.).
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I bet McAfee Inc. think his exploits are pretty important. That's what you get for naming your software after an individual.
It is probably too much to hope that McAfee Internet Security will die, but I fully expect a name change in the near future.
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This whole thing is bizarre. The cops say he's not a suspect but want to question him as a possible witness, McAffee says he already talked to them, as well as a lot of other weird statements that can only be attributed to drug-induced psychosis.
What do McAffee and Rush Limbaugh have in common? Drugs (although opposite ones) and they're both batshit insane.
Re:Why is McAfee's affair on Slashdot? (Score:4, Insightful)
Hello,
I suppose it is simpler to believe in some kind of wild conspiracy theory than it is to believe that Microsoft listened to its customers and fixed things.
And if your claim were true and Microsoft was so successful doing this, why hasn't Windows 8 taken off?
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
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Well actually I noticed the shilling and stopped visiting for a while because it was depressing me that apparently nobody else was noticing it. I see a lot of other people complaining about it now though, and the number of shill posts has gone down somewhat. You can usually tell from the words that people use whether they're marketing drones.
I didn't realise it was related to Windows 7. Windows 7 is better than Vista from my experience supporting both of them in the workplace. I have no clue about Windows 8
Re:Why is McAfee's affair on Slashdot? (Score:4, Interesting)
Well actually I noticed the shilling and stopped visiting for a while because it was depressing me that apparently nobody else was noticing it.
All of the regular "old guard" noticed it. You're not the only one. We even got to watch them evolve from creating accounts for the purpose and making shillposts immediately to creating accounts ahead of time and leaving one or two "metoo" comments paraphrasing someone else's comment as a reply to actually leaving one or two suck comments in other stories before abandoning the account.
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They would probably argue that their success in fighting off the illuminati is the reason the illuminati aren't in control anymore.
Why hasn't Windows 8 taken off? I'm not sure what "taken off means" in this context. It's selling faster than Windows 7 which sold faster than Vista which sold faster than XP etc... So maybe the illuminati are still pulling the strings. ;)
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One of the results of that was that the reputation mangers ran hundreds of sock-puppets in blogs and news aggregators, like Slashdot and Reddit.
That's pretty much total bullishit. There may have been one or two at some point, but at NO point were there "hundreds" of sock-puppets posting pro anything about Microsoft years ago on Slashdot. I was one of the voices yammering against Microsoft at that point, I would have remembered more than a handful of challenges.
Currently Slashdot does not warrant paying a
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It's KDE, by the way. But he's wrong, they both suck.
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Why would I want to sort my xterm-Icon?
Oh, so your window manager blows up on a regular basis too, huh? You can always tell a Linux user with a faulty DE by the xterm icon. I suggest xkill too, it's handy when you have issues with focus when your DE dies.
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Man, I must be using my MacBook wrong, too. About a third of my active desktop real estate is perpetually occupied by a terminal window, and I've even got an icon for it in two places. It's almost like some people use Unix-based operating systems for, well, things that Unix-based operating systems are historically used for. Crazy.
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Man, I must be using my MacBook wrong, too. About a third of my active desktop real estate is perpetually occupied by a terminal window
Apparently you cannot tell the difference between the words icon and window. Please go away until you can do so.
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To quote my original post:
and I've even got an icon for it in two places
Apparently you cannot read more than 25 words in sequence before losing track of what you're doing. Please go away until your focus improves.
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To quote my original post:
and I've even got an icon for it in two places
Congratulations, you missed the point twice. Who cares if you have a terminal window perpetually open? That is completely orthogonal to whether you have a terminal icon on your desktop. I hope you understand that you don't need the icon on your desktop for the window to appear above your desktop, but that would be typical of a mac user.
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HipsterDE (today) is XFCE. Super, super retro. Works a lot like windows 95 but without all the "modern" stuff like being able to sort icons. At least until the corporations just ruin it by adding basic features.
I think a basic, bug-free and fast desktop is exactly what Linux needs. A "best thing since sliced ham" kind of thing.
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I think a basic, bug-free and fast desktop is exactly what Linux needs. A "best thing since sliced ham" kind of thing.
Open source ham.
You raise the pig yourself and your kids give it a name. You get very disturbed by the screams it makes when you kill it, and come back covered in blood. Afterwards you decide to become a vegetarian. Occasionally you buy a ham sandwich that doesn't scream or cover you in blood from the supermarket but don't enjoy it as much as you used to.
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You raise the pig yourself and your kids give it a name. You get very disturbed by the screams it makes when you kill it, and come back covered in blood. Afterwards you decide to become a vegetarian.
The species of pigs one eats do NOT make good pets, and you're not going to name them or treat them as pets. I had a friend who was raising a few hogs before it got too expensive, and he said the best pork he ever ate was from the one that bit him.
Pigs are nasty, dangerous creatures that are good for one thing
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Slashdot editor thinks it's somehow related to technology so posts it here.
This is technology news in the same way that it's entertainment news when a celebrity is in the hospital.
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It makes more sense to post about something major like this than whether Linus Torvalds likes GNOME or KDE.
eh, yes. But it's always News to learn what words Linus Torvalds uses to describe the project he doesn't like.
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New website for that? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:New website for that? (Score:4, Funny)
Dotcolon? It could have the logo
={O}=
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So like Groklaw, but with nothing interesting on it?
Re:Why is McAfee's affair on Slashdot? (Score:5, Informative)
I guess it depends when you were reading it. In 2006 the Hans Reiser murder case started, which also got a lot of attention.
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Why is Slashdot carrying a piece about an alleged murder case?
Because the alleged murderer has held a system most of the people here have either owned or had to service hostage, and if there's one thing a geek dislikes more than broken hardware, it's stupidly-designed software. *grabs popcorn* I'm gonna enjoy watching this guy roast.
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*grabs popcorn* I'm gonna enjoy watching this guy roast.
My popcorn is ready.
I too enjoy watching this guy roast. But still, this "news" has nothing to do with technology nor anything that interests the true geek community - which Slashdot serves.
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I too enjoy watching this guy roast. But still, this "news" has nothing to do with technology nor anything that interests the true geek community - which Slashdot serves.
Since Malda sold out and /. now relentlessly pursues revenue and has been rotating increasingly lame editorial staff in, I don't think the geek community is what it serves anymore. I'm thinking more The Krakken or some other lovecraftian horror beast, dwelling away beneath its servers, occasionally eating a true geek to absorb its power before vomiting up another monetization scheme.
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Slashdot is largely powered by articles submitted by readers.
That's just the input. What happens between the input and the output is a whole 'nother matter...
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What happens between the input and the output is a whole 'nother matter...
There's the firehose.
Have you even seen a slashdot before? (Score:2)
Admin posts a story, someone whines that it's not really "news for nerds". Same as it ever was.
I hope you didn't pay much for the 4-digit account.
Re:Why is McAfee's affair on Slashdot? (Score:5, Funny)
It's an excuse to take a very serious situation and to make security/software/virus puns about it.
The Slashdot I used to visit was always like this.
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Stop being so cranky. Asimov has been dead for quite some time now - but I still read everything that I find published about him. Tolkein has been dead even longer, but I still follow what is happening with his works. We have presidents who have been dead for a couple of centuries, and the government still observes their birthdays. What about Columbus? That old relic has been dead for how long? We STILL have a Columbus Day!
I think you're just jealous, because there is no Taco Cowboy day.
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"Why is Slashdot carrying a piece about an alleged murder case?"
We hope well never have to deselect his crap when we are installing something it's bundled with.
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It's newsworthy because slashdot groupthink paranoia means that if anyone even remotely related to technology is charged with any crime they must be innocent and part of some vast conspiracy(see any of the slashdot articles about Hans Reiser). This feeds into a combination of the libertarian paranoia that government is only doing evil things and the "bullied in high school" persecution complex of nerds.
In addition to that we have the fact that he's been commercially successful selling a questionable product
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For the same reason as Slashdot following the story of Hans Reiser.
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Actually, /. has always [slashdot.org] been [slashdot.org] like [slashdot.org] this. I've been a reader here since 2000, and suspect you're suffering from Gool Ol' Days Syndrome.
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Why is Slashdot carrying a piece about an alleged murder case?
It has nothing to do with technology and the murder weapon ain't high tech either.
Can't Slashdot make up its mind what it wants to be?
Just because it's McAfee it must be "newsworthy" for Slashdot?
I dunno.
The Slashdot I used to visit wasn't like this.
"Lo' how the mighty can fall!" McAffee is/was an important tech person, and he seems to be going batshit. That's popcorn-worthy.
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Reiser was very relevant to Linux at the time. ReiserFS was one of most popular Linux filesystems and was nearing a major much-anticipated released when all that crap went down.
McAffe is not relevant other than having been involved in creating second-rate AV software a couple decades ago. That would be equivalent to us caring about Reiser 15 years from now - long after he ceased being relevant.
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*** WARNING: Your Border May Be Infected! ***
All the Federales say they could have had him any day. They only let him slip away out of kindness I suppose.
FTFY (Score:5, Insightful)
I found the problem: They haven't updated their viru--er, law enforcement definition files. That's why the average user should always have auto-update enabled. In other news... McAfee is clearly suffering from some kind of mental disorder beyond simply having homocidal issues, and it's probably due to drugs, maybe even bath salts. He's showing clear evidence of paranoid delusions and his blog posts seem increasingly detached from reality. The only reason he's been able to hold out this long is because he has a lot of money -- way more than the government trying to catch him. Money covers up a lot of intellectual deficits, but he can't stay ahead of them forever because he's a wounded animal; He doesn't have a full deck of cards anymore.
Re:FTFY (Score:5, Funny)
He doesn't have a full deck of cards anymore.
That's true, but if he can hit that bullseye the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!
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He doesn't have a full deck of cards anymore.
That's true, but if he can hit that bullseye the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!
Man, talk about flogging the cart before the horse....
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Re:FTFY (Score:5, Interesting)
I have actually been reading Dr. McAfee's blog, The Hinterland [whoismcafee.com], since it started, as well as his replies to comments and listened to his interviews. I also worked for him for about eleven years across different companies and have known him for about twice as long.
While at times Dr. McAfee does sound like he is under stress and duressâ"he's snapped at a number of commentators at times for not reading earlier blog postsâ"he has remained cogent and lucid throughout these events, and a determination to see justice done: Dr. McAfee has offered an award of $25,000BZ (about $12,500USD) for information leading to the capture and arrest of the murderer of his neighbor, which is more than anyone else has done, including the government down there. He has also shown occasional glimpses of a wry sense of humor about how things are going, which seems to indicate a full understanding of the situation and use of his faculties.
While there are a lot of things about this case which do not make sense, there are a quite a few which do, such as Dr. McAfee's increasing difficulties with Belizean politicians when he refused to pay them bribes. This has been documented in the Belizean press.
Your comments about Dr. McAfee sound mean spirited and based more on wishful thinking than anything else.
Regards,
Aryeh Goretsky
Bribes (Score:4, Insightful)
So he left the US because he didn't want to pay taxes, and now finds that instead he has to bribe politicians. Life is so hard for the rich.
Re:FTFY (Score:4, Insightful)
That line reminded me an awful lot like:
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That's pretty stupid. Most females hide their gender, because they get tired of alternating responses, "Shut up, Bitch!" and "Want to fuck?" Things have gotten better in recent years, but not a whole lot better. So, no they don't get automagical max mods just for posting.
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Most females hide their gender, because they get tired of alternating responses, "Shut up, Bitch!" and "Want to fuck?"
Unfortunately its not an option for your mom. Rumours are she will kick yoyu out of the basement if you don't stop it
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
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So you see, your posts don't get modded up because you aren't a girl. Now girlintraining, she recognises balance and won't let her intellect stop her from being (or at least trying at this stage :) ) a girl and developing into a woman.
He actually made it out already (Score:2, Informative)
He is still in hiding though because he is afraid (rightly so) of being extradited or killed.
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I hope he has a speedy... (Score:5, Funny)
Quarantined (Score:5, Funny)
He hasn't been captured, he's been quarantined.
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(Sorry. I think the conspiracy theory thread on that Korean unicorn story may have affected me in some way.)
Re:Quarantined (Score:5, Funny)
Do you want to fix or erase him?
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Dupe (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't mean the article, I mean all the "jokes" in the replies.
Why he was caught (Score:2)
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He has McAfee, he always runs slow, or not at all
Even if... (Score:2)
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They have no reason to hold him other than being suspected for a crime in the US. If they captured him, they'd let the world know how helpful they were being.
Re:Even if... (Score:5, Informative)
They have no reason to hold him other than being suspected for a crime in the US. If they captured him, they'd let the world know how helpful they were being.
Didn't the crime in question [wired.com] occur in Belize?
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He's one of those expats that took his millions and left the USA for tax reasons. He's gonna find out that police in other countries don't have nearly as many "hurdles" once his money runs out... That's why taxes can stay so low!!!
They should have used... (Score:5, Funny)
They should have used 64 bits. Then McAfee wouldn't run.
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Needs a +5 epic. I lol'd
not "antivirus pioneer" (Score:4, Interesting)
Labeling what McAfee did as "antivirus pioneer" does a disservice to both terms and makes anyone who reads it stupiderer...
As far as I can tell (I wasn't a crypto-analyst or infosec tech in the 80s) McAfee was good at getting government contracts and paying people to write software for him.
That is **not** pioneering anything...that's **above average** level **business management**....really nothing he did professionally was extraordinary or ideologically noteworthy whatsoever. He was a standard bubble-era businessman.
We do ourselves a serious harm by not making distinctions between who does the work and who manages the company.
Re:not "antivirus pioneer" (Score:5, Informative)
Bubble-era businessman? McAfee resigned from McAfee Associates in 1994. You might as well reference the Dutch tulip bubble, that's just as relevant.
When McAfee Associates started in 1987, it was only shortly after the very first IBM PC viruses (The Brain boot sector/Pakistani flu) appeared. And when the first PC virus mania hit, the 1992 Michelangelo scare, many of us used the shareware McAfee anti-virus program to check if our computers were infected. That era, his 1987 to 1992 work, was where the pioneer label comes from.
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Mcafee virus scan. Yes i remember, it used to tell how many viruses could detect. The earliest antivirus programs would work only for a single virus (eg: pong, or stoner) and this one could take care of many at a time. My msdos days are long gone, and even windows looks in the ancient malware past.
I remember running this program in the school lab, on 8088 Epson machines; prior to running maniac mansion in glory green monochrome graphics. Late 80ies indeed...
When the earliest windows version came along, it f
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In order to catch him ... (Score:2)
I remember some issues prior to this (Score:1)
Prior to this, McAfee was getting harassed by the local police for not paying bribe money and got his house raided a few times.
I wouldnt put it past the local police to have killed his neighbor.
So they caught him (Score:1)
And the Belize police are denying it cause they want to disappear him just like he said?
Verification required (Score:1)
Maybe he wasn't paranoid? (Score:2)
All jokes aside, if McAfee is right and Belize authorities want him dead, this is exactly how they'd make him disappear. Capture him, kill him, dump his body, and then claim he was never in custody.
McAfee Timeline (Score:2)
Here's a handy McAfee Timeline [wecheck.org] I made.
Re:The twist... (Score:5, Funny)
... he was using a Linux laptop with ReiserFS the time of the murder.
Can we stop with the ReiserFS jokes already? The meme has been beaten to death.
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Can we stop with the ReiserFS jokes already? The meme has been beaten to death.
Then slashdot removed the car seats.