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  About time for me to remind everyone that: a) there was a TV series version of The Net in 1998 and b) Tim goddamn Curry played the voice of a mysterious hacker called Sorcerer in it

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  I finally got a chance to see the Joybubbles documentary. I was honestly surprised by how emotional it made me, if you’ve been involved in phreaking or hacking I think you’ll see a little of yourself in Joe. It centers his story and his struggles and his successes, it isn’t a true crime exposé.

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  Detroit Free Press - Jun 20th, 1975 I'm fascinated by the idea of #ransomware before ransomware, data extortion that impacted availability or confidentiality of data before the advent of malicious software for encryption. Stumbled across this 70s news story about "tapenapping" of backup tapes.

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  In response to a #FOIA request from me the #FBI have released records relating to late 90s #hacker group milw0rm. Additional records not included in this Vault release were located by the FBI and I have requested these be processed for potential release as well. https://vault.fbi.gov/milw0rm/milw0rm-final/view

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  The next big push I have planned over at the #blog (realhackhistory.org) is to document some of the people and events I see as linked to the #history of #ransomware before what we think of as modern ransomware was a thing. So much of ransomware history online now is written as corporate marketing.

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  Does anyone know of a source for 60 Minutes broadcasts from the 70s, like an archive or something? Would love to see this segment "Dial E For Embezzlement" which aired back in 1976.

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  oh no who let Microsoft name weed strains oh dear

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  These Arch Linux people are getting out of control.

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  Things that I won’t use, even to mock or joke about it: * Generative AI * Incel slang * MAGA or nazi imagery I think this is a reasonable boundary.

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  Some crazy details here: “convincing the hacker that they actually were the FBI, in part by having the hacker join a video chat where they flashed their law enforcement credentials in front ⁠of a web ​camera” https://www.reuters.com/world/us/foreign-hacker-2023-compromised-epstein-files-held-by-fbi-source-documents-show-2026-03-11/

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  If you guessed “cybercrime law” put in place by an autocratic regime then you win. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/12/british-tourist-among-20-charged-in-dubai-over-videos-of-iranian-missile-strikes

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  Banksy might produce the equivalent of Hallmark greeting cards in terms of subversive art but people should still leave him the fuck alone and let people who want some anonymity in this world of horrible surveillance to have that anonymity, especially given that he isn’t hurting anyone.

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  I can FOIA, request police records but have zero experience with requesting court docs. Looking to find a specific set of court records from the United States District Court of Northern District of Ohio and then request those docs. Link on the website is broken: https://www.ohnd.uscourts.gov/court-records

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  Man, kid me would have gone absolutely nuts for this. https://youtu.be/17jJu1geea8

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  Big tech companies have hoarded all of our data for years now and are entrusting it all to people who need chatbots to tell them how to do their jobs. This situation is an absolute disaster. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/20/meta-ai-agents-instruction-causes-large-sensitive-data-leak-to-employees

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  “Data is the new oil” is about twenty years old now as a quote, but it feels like with generative AI we are getting to the real fossil fuel analogy. Not just that the data is valuable like oil, but that corporations will seize and refine it in ways that are damaging to the world and our health.

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  Is “Sneakers or Hackers” the “Elvis or the Beatles” of the #hacker world?

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  I wonder what it means for the future that automated moderation, the online panopticon & Silicon Valley puritanism has shaped a generation of kids who are now afraid to type “sex”, “killed”, “death” or “rape” online without substituting numbers for letters or resorting to language like “unalive”

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  Biometric locks for phones aren’t just convenient for you, they are convenient for the cops. “explicitly authorized law enforcement personnel to obtain Natanson’s phone and both hold the device in front of her face and to forcibly use her fingers to unlock it” https://theintercept.com/2026/01/30/washington-post-hannah-natanson-fbi-biometrics-unlock-phone/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=The%20Intercept%20Newsletter

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  You will be visited by three spirits.