
The world's most evil entrepreneur? - marklittlewood
http://thebln.com/2010/01/jim-mccormick-ade651-how-can-someone-profit-by-causing-death-misery/#comment-3170
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pmichaud
No, I'd think the guys into sex slavery and organ theft are probably more
"evil". This guy is more like an opportunistic sociopath. That seems more like
the norm with this war...

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growt
and probably the guys selling the bombs his device doesn't detect are more
evil, too. although it might be more difficult to blame it on one person in
that case.

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chrischen
A lot of those bombs are hacked together by the user himself.

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rdtsc
Sorry, to disappoint but this is standard within the military-industrial
complex. If you have dealt much with DoD and their contractors, you would
notice a lot of waste and a lot of scamming going on.

There was a story a while ago about some contractor in Afghanistan charging
the military $100 for a 15 pound load of laundry. That happens because the
guys at the Pentagon are the same guys running the defense contracting
companies.

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daleharvey
while it doesnt take anything away from how terrible selling these things was,
since this story came around I have been incredibly confused at how someone
spent £60million and wasnt absolutely certain they worked.

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patio11
Occam's razor says that this is essentially embezzling reconstruction funds.
You pay me a buck of Uncle Sam's money for your dowsing rod, I make sure 10
cents finds it way into your Swiss bank account, everyone is happy.

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b-man
I propose a test for this guy.

Let's plant some live mines in a large field, and simply ask him to cross it a
few times, using his little tech wonder detector.

I'll bet all my possessions that he will promptly refuse, on some 'atmospheric
impossibility' or some other shit.

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noonespecial
I was thinking more of a Schrodinger's cat like scenario. Lock him in a room
with 10 bombs. Give him his device and tell him that 9 are filled with c4 and
one with spaghetti noodles, well cooked. He will be released when he chooses
the fake and presses the detonate button. (In reality, all will be filled with
tasty pasta.)

How long will it take him to emerge?

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Quarrelsome
How can we have a problem with this guy but are happy for "psychics" to play
havoc with people's emotions in exchange for cash? It's the same thing.

The response has interesting echos to the US government's response to being
hacked. It's the hackers fault! Not the fault of our security!

The fact remains as a purchaser you should be cautious about what you choose
to buy. To blow millions on this guys stuff is utterly hilarious to buy it
without expert approval is just dumb.

Makes me wonder if the military ever blew millions of dollars on x-ray specs
or Charles Atlas's book but kept hush about it.

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Psyonic
Who here is happy about "psychics" taking people's money? Certainly not me.

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RiderOfGiraffes
Much discussion here: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1070732>

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touseefliaqat
"The government has just banned the export of these devices to some countries
on the grounds that they could put the lives of UK forces at risk, but they
are still able to export to other countries."

Because "lives of UK forces" are at risk and only they needed to be protected
by evil entrepreneur of UK. Evil what???

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glymor
National security usurps the companies right to otherwise sell stuff that
doesn't provably work. If only we could get UK forces to use homeopathy.

In other news the director of the company has been arrested for fraud so they
are doing something.

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ericd
How is this "Hacker News"? News of fraudsters doesn't help techies or founders
do anything. Flagged.

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rbranson
"Stop government intervention in our lives! Let the invisible hand take care
of this one!"

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noonespecial
I suspect if there was no government intervention, "invisible hands" would
take care of this guy soon enough.

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b-man
Man, how on earth would you explain this[1] to your boss?

[1]<http://www.ubergizmo.com/tags/ade-651>

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sofal
I don't think it would be too hard to explain that a pathetic little blog post
somewhere on the Web falsely claims that you purchased 1,500 of these things.

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alizaki
that is is tremendous opportunity to solve this particular problem. Whoever
does will make a lot of money, just that this goofball shouldn't hsve.

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izak30
This just says that the guy who made those useless bomb sniffing toilet rod
things made lots of cash.

