
An Open Letter To LulzSec - peterwwillis
http://pastebin.com/pbhBQLKy
======
Barnabas
I wonder if this is jedburg of reddit. I only say because he said "reigned" in
his goodbye post today, and this pastebin said "reigned" too, when they both
meant "reined". Also the writing is very similar. Similar number of sentences
(48 vs. 54) and words per sentence (15 vs. 12) too. Maybe I'm just being
paranoid, or it's a glitch in the matrix.

~~~
click170
I'd be looking for the same grammatical errors etc appearing in both documents
if your trying to see if it's the same person.

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benvanderbeek
Agreed. Its best if your looking for they're bad grammar.

~~~
Confusion
Funny, but downvoted.

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sambeau
An Open Letter to LulzSec

1\. Dear Boys and Girls,

2\. Do you remember what it was like when the bullies picked on you and your
friends during lunch in the canteen? Broke your spectacles, stuck their filthy
fingers in your food?

3\. Do you remember what it was like before you really discovered the
internets? The lonely empty darkness inside you that matched the lonely
darkness that surrounded you?

4\. Do you remember how you felt when the cool kids had fun stuff to do of an
evening and all you had was a night of MMOs and online chat?

5\. Do you remember thinking that you and your brain were capable of big
things. Great things. Terrible things and the world would be sorry for
underestimating you?

6\. Do you remember a life before Lulz?

7\. I'm guessing you do. I'm guessing it wasn't that long ago. I'm guessing
that you are still stinging.

8\. Then the lulz began.

9\. We have to admit that when you were picking on the internets's big kids we
had a moment of guilty lulz. When it looked like you were teaching them an
important lesson we lulled along. But you changed.

10\. Just because you have a pain inside doesn't mean that you you should
inflict pain. Just because the big kids shit on you doesn't mean you should
shit on the little kids.

11\. The power has infected your young head, Child. You've gone to the Dark
Side.

12\. But. Wait. Shhh! Baby. It's OK. I promise.

13\. The big, real world it full of lulz. Real lulz. The kind of amazing lulz
that you can touch. Lulz you can taste and smell. Warm lulz, soft lulz. Hard
lulz.

14\. You have a big brain in your young head. A brain capable of good things,
clever things, important things. Once you discover the power of real lulz you
will soon put this behind you.

15\. But do it fast before the bullies return and your life returns to being
nothing more than a high-school cafeteria on repeat loop for 2-4 years with
good behaviour.

16\. The lulz aren't worth it.

17\. Yours, Concerned.

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andypants
All that 'lulzspeak' in there sounds like an old guy trying to be 'hip' when
talking to younger people.

~~~
grantismo
Only if we operate under the assumption that lulzsec is a group of younger
people and not older guy(s) also trying to sound 'hip.'

~~~
dasil003
Just using the word hip dates you.

~~~
grantismo
Perfect example of how the web masks age: I'm 21.

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Shenglong
Am I mistaken, or is he making the "get a life" argument, classic of seventh
graders?

~~~
iamdave
Read it. Again. In it's entirety.

All will be revealed.

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BasDirks
Some of their recent hacks were _not_ kiddie stuff. I don't think they will be
very impressed by this letter.

Also: I wouldn't bet on them being autistic nolifers, which is what the author
of this letter seems to be suggesting, you'd probably be surprised.

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huckfinnaafb
Can you expand on what kind of methods they employ, or the barriers they had
to overcome with their targets?

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cube13
Getting the machines to DDOS everyone took a while.

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sorbus
Given that I frequently hear about renting botnets, that's not necessarily the
case - to acquire a botnet, one does not have to go out and compromise a bunch
of computers. Of course, your phrasing suggests that you are presenting
yourself as a primary source, as if you were a member of LulzSec speaking from
experience. If that's the case, disregard this comment.

~~~
cube13
That was pure sarcasm, in reference to the OP's statement that "their recent
hacks were _not_ kiddie stuff". Most of the crap they pulled last week were
merely DDOS attacks, where the only real coordination required is getting
everyone on an IRC channel at the same time to hit a button when someone says
"Go".

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Karhan
'It's not what you do it's who you are'?

I would like to politely disagree.

~~~
rufibarbatus
(I feel like I need to clarify something after upvoting this.)

You're right, the "it's who you are that matters" card spells out resigned
bullshit about most of the times someone plays it.

But it's not what they do that matters either: like the author of the article
said himself, what they're doing is mostly kiddie stuff. Using well-known
tools and techniques to goof around with well-documented security flaw
'patterns'.

And so they're not _crafting_ anything either, they're just wasting humanity's
bandwidth. In _that sense_ I agree with you.

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jarin
I agree with the sentiment of the letter. I used to participate in Internet
subculture type stuff for years (nothing really illegal though), and
eventually I got bored of it. I wouldn't really say that I regret anything,
but I wouldn't want it to come back and bite me (I probably shouldn't run for
President).

They're really just a kiddie version of Anonymous/Wikileaks. Hopefully they'll
move on to more meaningful hacking (either definition of the term) before they
get thrown in prison, but there will always be someone to take up the lulz
mantle.

And yeah, DDoSes aren't really brag-worthy anymore. Getting thrown in prison
for a worthy social cause, doing something mind-blowingly awesome, or hacking
capitalism and making yourself rich legitimately are way more impressive.

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mosjeff
"If you want a truly righteous hack..."

I was so hoping for a "you should score one of those Gibsons."

~~~
Caballera
LOL that's what I was expecting too.

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yuvadam
I was expecting a rickroll there at the end... Fresh prince - close enough.

~~~
int3rnaut
The least he could have done is get the song right though.

~~~
jarin
Maybe getting the song wrong was a metatroll?

~~~
emil0r
The only real amusement I get from trolling is when people discuss it
afterwards and start trying to dissect it you get to meta-trolling, then meta
on meta, trollers trolling each other, meta-trolling each other, etc. It's
turtles all the way down and at the bottom there's a huge ocean of words that
has lost all their meaning.

It amazes me that they can muster the energy to even bother.

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jscheel
I don't get it... why does a Fresh Prince reference make him a troll?

~~~
trotsky
It's a practice that I assume started on 4chan where you get roped in to a
serious sounding story only to have fresh prince lyrics busted out at the end.
The story is always made up in these cases. It's kind of the rick rolling of
wall of texts as in that if you'd never heard of it and saw a link like that
you might assume it was a mistake or just random but of course it isn't.

------
VaedaStrike
“But men at whiles are sober / And think by fits and starts, / And if they
think, they fasten / Their hands upon their hearts.” --A E Housman

~~~
dools
Who in the fuck downvoted this?!

~~~
VaedaStrike
Thanks, I was afraid that very few got the message. It's been one of the more
powerful quotes I've come upon in my life. So many of us, virtually all of us
at times, try to get ourselves so wrapped up in whatever it is that keeps us
distracted, but, as the quote communicates, the deeper issues at some point or
another enter into everyone's mind, even those who try the hardest to
proverbally 'stay drunk.'

At some point the seriousness of this life hits us all. I've had the best luck
when I've faced it head on. When I can be not merely self critical but act on
that criticism. When I confront my own ignorance and nothingness then I'm far
less likely to squander my time/life and for more likely to remember to
respect and revere others and their rights and claims to the chaos, confusion
and wonder that is this life.

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Bud
This guy lost me when he said, "I know it sounds pretty faggy".

Not really interested in someone who's supposedly lecturing LulzSec from a
position of vastly greater maturity and life experience, but still hasn't
outgrown 12-year-old homophobe-speak. At all.

~~~
aparadja
I think that was simply "/b/" talk, not homophobic as such.

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matmann2001
Spoken like a true troll...

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blhack
A masterclass. Be sure to read until the end.

Well played, anonymous poster.

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benihana
Read the last sentence. This was a pretty good troll - I know I found myself
agreeing with him, nodding my head a bit. Then I saw the last sentence and had
to laugh at myself for falling for it.

~~~
code_duck
I interpreted the last sentence as yet another meme mention, meant to indicate
that the author was part of the same subculture as lulzsec - the
4chan/Anonymous culture. I don't think it was intended to mean the message
isn't being offered sincerely.

~~~
sneak
I think it's both, and you're making excuses for getting Bel Air'd. :P

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dolvlo
Sorry, this is made of so much fail.

