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That is such a sad event for you to have to perform forensics on. Did you find anything of note about the demo programs? I really want to ask for more details

That is such a sad event for you to have to perform forensics on. Did you find anything of note about the demo programs? I really want to ask for more details about the suicide but I feel that would be crude.

ggm 9y ago
I don't think the owner had written any/many. They seemed to be shared amongst the digerati for c00lz. Mostly very trippy colormap warping, some of them had sprites doing things over the underlying image, a lot of XOR constructive/destructive interference fringe ideas. They had two dimensions: 1) be as trippy-cool as possible 2) be written as tersely as humanly possible The suicide: I can't say. He left no note. I was led to believe he'd found a way to consume a huge amount of time-charged online credit, realized he had accrued a multi-thousand dollar debt, was failing university and was severely depressed. This was back in the 1990s. Computer Crime was new, and the consequences for him was probably jail time. A lot of other stuff on the amiga was about conspiracy theory, hacking, the usual ascii copy of 'the anarchists cookbook' which almost anyone can stumble upon and hoarde. For somebody in formative years, maybe this was more exciting than in hindsight it reads. (I mean both for me, finding it, and for him, finding/owning it in the raw. I wouldn't have been significantly older than him really, perhaps 10 years at most) I don't think I helped the family come to any sense of closure, or informed things to help the police or coroner. I did learn that this is a very emotionally stressful job to perform and I am not well suited to either the detail side of logging "what was found" or delivery of the right kind of empathetic response to people in emotional stress. The uni was pretty good about this. They gave me counselling afterward as I recall. I wouldn't be surprised to be told anyone doing this kind of digital forensics nowadays has a pretty solid support structure. Between this, and kiddyporn I think you'd need it. I think you can learn both skills, but it takes time

ggm 9y ago

I don't think the owner had written any/many. They seemed to be shared amongst the digerati for c00lz. Mostly very trippy colormap warping, some of them had sprites doing things over the underlying image, a lot of XOR constructive/destructive interference fringe ideas. They had two dimensions: 1) be as trippy-cool as possible 2) be written as tersely as humanly possible The suicide: I can't say. He left no note. I was led to believe he'd found a way to consume a huge amount of time-charged online credit, realized he had accrued a multi-thousand dollar debt, was failing university and was severely depressed. This was back in the 1990s. Computer Crime was new, and the consequences for him was probably jail time. A lot of other stuff on the amiga was about conspiracy theory, hacking, the usual ascii copy of 'the anarchists cookbook' which almost anyone can stumble upon and hoarde. For somebody in formative years, maybe this was more exciting than in hindsight it reads. (I mean both for me, finding it, and for him, finding/owning it in the raw. I wouldn't have been significantly older than him really, perhaps 10 years at most) I don't think I helped the family come to any sense of closure, or informed things to help the police or coroner. I did learn that this is a very emotionally stressful job to perform and I am not well suited to either the detail side of logging "what was found" or delivery of the right kind of empathetic response to people in emotional stress. The uni was pretty good about this. They gave me counselling afterward as I recall. I wouldn't be surprised to be told anyone doing this kind of digital forensics nowadays has a pretty solid support structure. Between this, and kiddyporn I think you'd need it. I think you can learn both skills, but it takes time