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But E4M is not Truecrypt, see the post of jron citing Wikipedia here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11382303 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1138

by acqq 11y ago

But E4M is not Truecrypt, see the post of jron citing Wikipedia here. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11382303 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11382303 Paul Le Roux stole E4M source from SecurStar, and TrueCrypt programmers "forked" that source code. So Paul Le Roux surely didn't "write" TrueCrypt as such, isn't the current title here on HN inaccurate? Mods can we please have the real article title "He Always Had a Dark Side" here instead of the current one?

mark212 11y ago
read the article before flaming. The author lays out a very well supported case for concluding that PLR wrote the E4M code then was hired by SecurStar to turn it into a commercial product. Also claims PLR was one of the TrueCrypt programmers, so yes, the title is accurate as far as what the author is claiming in the article.
- acqq 11y ago
  Can you please quote the exact part where we can see that PLR was one of the TrueCrypt programmers? I somehow missed that what you claim while (admittedly) speed-reading, namely, I've got only this in the article: "Indeed, even today the question of who launched the software remains unanswered. “The origin of TrueCrypt has always been very mysterious,” says Matthew Green". And also as Mahn writes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11383392 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11383392 "The article is unclear as for whether he was still involved with TrueCrypt by the time they got him though. It sounds like he had quite a lot going on to even care for TrueCrypt at that point." I surely don't dispute that PLR wrote E4M and that TrueCrypt was kind of "fork" of that (see again my older post). But the following product is not the same thing as the original source, just as Marc Andreessen didn't "wrote the Internet Explorer" even if the later was once based on some Mosaic source. And HN is generally against editorializing the titles to make them more linkbaity. And this one is surely such at the moment.
  - pwnna 11y ago
    OP of this post here. Not sure why you're downvoted and tried to upvote it to rebalance. I also realized after reading the article for the second time that it did not say that PLR is TC's author directly, but rather that it is unclear if he is. I made a mistake while first posting as my reading made me believe he's the author of TC. I tried to point it out here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11382412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11382412 Additionally, Matthew Green's twitter also further reinforced that belief. However it is too late for me to change the title but I'm not sure what I would even change it to. After all, it seems his original work is the foundation of TC (which you can argue to be different, but the title question remains). Edit: @matthew_d_green's twitter has also published corrections at this point. However when I first learned about the post I only saw his initial tweet. It's a shame that I didn't realize that PLR is actually not the author/maintainer, tho.
    - acqq 11y ago
      Thanks to you and lvs. At least I see the title was just changed to the original article's from the linkbaity one to which I've complained. Now it's finally "He Always Had a Dark Side"
      - pwnna 11y ago
        I'm not sure if that accurately reflect why this is relevant either. I think it is fairly significant that PLR is very much connected to TC (and it is suspected that he is involved with TC financially). I do not have a better title suggestion at this point, however.
        acqq 11y ago
        Please see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6572466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6572466
      - misnome 11y ago
        But this means absolutely nothing.
kenandavis 11y ago
Ahoy, moderators! Could we add a subtitle so that there's some context for the headline? He Always Had a Dark Side: How a multi-millionaire international arms dealer wrote the code for TrueCrypt

by acqq 11y ago

mark212 11y ago

read the article before flaming. The author lays out a very well supported case for concluding that PLR wrote the E4M code then was hired by SecurStar to turn it into a commercial product. Also claims PLR was one of the TrueCrypt programmers, so yes, the title is accurate as far as what the author is claiming in the article.

acqq 11y ago
Can you please quote the exact part where we can see that PLR was one of the TrueCrypt programmers? I somehow missed that what you claim while (admittedly) speed-reading, namely, I've got only this in the article: "Indeed, even today the question of who launched the software remains unanswered. “The origin of TrueCrypt has always been very mysterious,” says Matthew Green". And also as Mahn writes: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11383392 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11383392 "The article is unclear as for whether he was still involved with TrueCrypt by the time they got him though. It sounds like he had quite a lot going on to even care for TrueCrypt at that point." I surely don't dispute that PLR wrote E4M and that TrueCrypt was kind of "fork" of that (see again my older post). But the following product is not the same thing as the original source, just as Marc Andreessen didn't "wrote the Internet Explorer" even if the later was once based on some Mosaic source. And HN is generally against editorializing the titles to make them more linkbaity. And this one is surely such at the moment.
- pwnna 11y ago
  OP of this post here. Not sure why you're downvoted and tried to upvote it to rebalance. I also realized after reading the article for the second time that it did not say that PLR is TC's author directly, but rather that it is unclear if he is. I made a mistake while first posting as my reading made me believe he's the author of TC. I tried to point it out here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11382412 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11382412 Additionally, Matthew Green's twitter also further reinforced that belief. However it is too late for me to change the title but I'm not sure what I would even change it to. After all, it seems his original work is the foundation of TC (which you can argue to be different, but the title question remains). Edit: @matthew_d_green's twitter has also published corrections at this point. However when I first learned about the post I only saw his initial tweet. It's a shame that I didn't realize that PLR is actually not the author/maintainer, tho.
  - acqq 11y ago
    Thanks to you and lvs. At least I see the title was just changed to the original article's from the linkbaity one to which I've complained. Now it's finally "He Always Had a Dark Side"
    - pwnna 11y ago
      I'm not sure if that accurately reflect why this is relevant either. I think it is fairly significant that PLR is very much connected to TC (and it is suspected that he is involved with TC financially). I do not have a better title suggestion at this point, however.
      - acqq 11y ago
        Please see: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6572466 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6572466
    - misnome 11y ago
      But this means absolutely nothing.

kenandavis 11y ago

Ahoy, moderators! Could we add a subtitle so that there's some context for the headline? He Always Had a Dark Side: How a multi-millionaire international arms dealer wrote the code for TrueCrypt