aes256

Interestingly, with each search I'd click through to the user account, search for another of the tweets made by the same account, and find yet more unique fake accounts. I started compiling a list, but gave up when it reached a few hundred.

Comment · 14 years ago

As much as my personal beliefs align with Aaron's and I am saddened by his passing, I think people are being more than a little disingenuous in their references to the charges he was facing.

I'd understand the indignation if we were talking about an actual sentence, but these were just charges. The maximum possible sentence for those charges might be dizzying, but realistically, Aaeron was never going to be handed the maximum.

Comment · 14 years ago

Not to mention bankrupting himself and his family if he had mounted a legal defense against the charges...

Comment · 14 years ago

> At some level you do have to blame him. No, not for downloading files but rather for making the decision to end his life. Nobody but him made that decision.

At the risk of being branded insensitive, I do have to agree with this sentiment. My view on Aaron's suicide is much the same as that of the nurse Jacintha Saldanha last month [1].

In both cases, these people were subjected to incredible stress and anguish by external forces, but crucially, the reasonable person could not have predicted their response to these pressures would have been to take their own lives.

Aaron wasn't on suicide watch. Nobody foresaw this.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacintha_Saldanha

Comment · 14 years ago

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

Comment · 14 years ago

I wouldn't be so sure on the LED/CCFL issue.

LED backlighting is still a consistency nightmare, with bleed and clouding being the norm.

Comment · 14 years ago

At the same time, I assume a standard like that only applies to people designing drainage systems for sale within the EU.

Presumably if you are a corporation looking to design and sell drainage systems, £720 to gain access to the relevant standards is a relatively small cost in the grand scheme of things.

Comment · 14 years ago

> Everyone will probably have a different experience with their videos, he says, but he says self-reflection is never a bad thing.

People's infinite capacity to forget things is both a blessing and a curse.

Be prepared, when reminiscing about the good times, to be reminded of some equally bad times.

Comment · 14 years ago

> [...] the contestant will send me a decompressor and a compressed file, which will together total in size less than the original data file, and which will be able to restore the compressed file to the original state.

Comment · 14 years ago

Because it is ubiquitous, there is constant demand for it, a consistently high retail price, and there are plenty of retailers willing to fence it in large quantities.

Comment · 14 years ago

Risk compensation is observed all over, and is often subconscious.

You carry pepper spray, you figure you've got things covered if you happen to be attacked, so you're prepared to accept a slightly increased risk of being attacked as a trade-off for other benefits (e.g. saving money on a taxi home, or time by taking a shortcut down an alleyway)