[jacquesm]

You're on a website whose co-founder managed to disable an enormous network of computers with a piece of software, for which he served jail time and was fined.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Tappan_Morris

Here we venerate such people.

And as computer related pranks go, this one was pretty mild and required some pretty intimate knowledge of the device. If I had been in that booth I would have engaged the person to see what else they know about it and why.

[bawolff]

And what, is it your position that all the actions of hn founders are instrinsically above reproach?

At the very least i would hope we have better morality arguments than simple appeals to authority.

To be clear, i object to the notion that its wrong to criticize/debate the behaviour and ethics of others. I'm not really objecting to the original post about the trade show prank.

[jacquesm]

> And what, is it your position that all the actions of hn founders are instrinsically above reproach?

That's got to be the mother of all strawmen. No, obviously, I do not.

But in this particular case it is about something that is very much the sort of thing that your average hacker would do given the opportunity. Hacker used in the 'old school' sense of: technically inclined person who likes to tinker with stuff and use it in ways unforeseen by the original creators.

It's what we live for.

> To be clear, i object to the notion that its wrong to criticize/debate the behaviour and ethics of others.

I'm fine with debate. I'm not ok with off the cuff judgments. Essentially the OP simply knew more about the device than the trade show staff (which, unfortunately isn't all that rare), they used the exposed user interface to do the sort of thing that it was supposed to be able to do because that capability was purposefully built in to it.

That they put it to a novel use is what makes it interesting.

[bawolff]

> But in this particular case it is about something that is very much the sort of thing that your average hacker would do given the opportunity. Hacker used in the 'old school' sense of: technically inclined person who likes to tinker with stuff and use it in ways unforeseen by the original creators.

Sure. i don't disagree. I think that's rather orthogonal though.

I'm objecting to the notion that we should avoid lines of debate, not because they are wrong, but because they are "chilling". Uncomfortable truths usually are (without neccesarily claiming that this is one).

[pmichaud]

You really seem to not understand hacker culture, which I guess isn't your fault, maybe it's before your time or something. But there's something special and important about it. That special and important thing is why this place is called "hacker news."

I don't think I can do it justice in this comment, but I do encourage you to try to read about it and understand what this sort of mischief meant to people. You obviously understand something about its downsides, especially from the perspective of the broader culture / "the suits," but I do encourage you to try to understand something about its many virtues.

[ngcc_hk]

Buddha Nature has evil as part of its nature. So is hacker. It depends upon the use and the control.

Whilst appreciate the hacking, and the salesman could ask. Still I am not sure the original hp hacking is great.

But the removal of wait 6502 is appreciated. The creator or the author is not the only authority in the creator world.

It depends.

[watersb]

And now I feel like an idiot, for not knowing that the co-founder was the reason we couldn't turn in our CS60C assignments by the deadline that one time.

Was a great week. I still have a copy of the email that Cliff Stoll sent around, a couple of days later. When the email servers had stopped twitching...

[onionisafruit]

I had no idea either. It’s amazing how little I know about ycombinator after spending hundreds of hours on this site. I know they are somehow involved in venture capital and they employ dang.

[jacquesm]

I was on HN for seven years when I learned...

[nmstoker]

Thanks for the details / link

Just a minor point: Did he actually serve jail time? The Wikipedia article you link to says he got probation

[jacquesm]

"He was the first person to be indicted under this act. In December 1990, he was sentenced to three years of probation, 400 hours of community service, and a fine of $10,050 plus the costs of his supervision. "

It looks like you are correct, gaffe on my part, thanks for the correction.