

Dot-dash-diss: The gentleman hacker's 1903 lulz - p4bl0
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228440.700-dotdashdiss-the-gentleman-hackers-1903-lulz.html

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redthrowaway
A mischievous hacker who justifies his hacking by claiming the exposed
security holes would have endangered the public, and who was originally mad
that he could not market his own innovations due to his victim's overly-broad
patents?

The more things change...

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keithpeter
"Someone, Blok reasoned, was beaming powerful wireless pulses into the theatre
and they were strong enough to interfere with the projector's electric arc
discharge lamp."

Serious power! Remember this was _before_ tuned circuits became common (google
'syntony oliver lodge'). Even allowing for the sensitivity of a balanced
carbon spark gap, you need to move a carbon rod or have a magnetic field
strong enough to change the position of the discharge. He must have been in
the same building...

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RyanMcGreal
Single page:

[http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228440.700-dotdashdi...](http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228440.700-dotdashdiss-
the-gentleman-hackers-1903-lulz.html?full=true)

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akdetrick
I recall reading about this event in Erik Larsons "Thunderstruck". The book
includes a pretty interesting account of the fits and starts of wireless
technology, if not overly embellished.

The tuning issue is one of many snags that Marconi ran into, and with a
government contract on the line, he made no small effort to keep the
technological troubles under wraps until solutions could be found.

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mml
109 years ago. Mind boggling.

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andrewflnr
This article paints Marconi in a really bad light. It seems like he was either
not that bright or a liar to claim that people couldn't listen in to his
specially tuned signals.

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wisty
Security is hard, and has a long history of clever schemes that just don't
work.

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ropman76
and this is why I love reading history.

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orenmazor
I really want the word 'lulz' to go away.

~~~
WalterGR
It's also interesting that they chose the spelling "diss", which is incorrect.
It's "dis", from "disrespect".

~~~
mambodog
'Diss' is widely used in common vernacular.

<http://www.thefreedictionary.com/diss>

<http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=diss>

See also:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diss_track>

~~~
WalterGR
<http://onlineslangdictionary.com/meaning-of/diss>

