17 ms·

The official Blog of John McAfee

148 points by retube 14y ago

jpxxx 14y ago
It's Timecube with nicer layout and a tragic, cautionary tale: mind your sanity. Anyone can lose it.
- rwallace 14y ago
  Which part comes across to you like the ravings of a madman? If it is such - and to be sure, I can't claim to know it isn't - then in my opinion he's doing a good job of appearing sane. Whether or not it is a cautionary tale about minding your sanity, I think it's also a cautionary tale about not believing everything you read in the press. Until fifteen minutes ago I held the belief that McAfee had committed the crime of which he is accused; thinking about now I realize I held that belief based on essentially no actual evidence. I'm not saying I now believe his side of the story instead. I have no real evidence for that either (and I don't have time to follow up all the links he presented right now). My current conclusion is that at this time I don't know enough of the facts to judge either way.
  - malandrew 14y ago
    I think part of it has to do with the conclusion many of us jump to when someone refuses to submit themselves to a trial in a court of law. In the US we like to believe our system is just, or at least mostly just, and therefore anyone who is accused of a crime and skips out must be admitting guilt through their actions. People then tend to project this bias to people who skip court in societies with less just courts like Belize. To be honest, even in this country any unattractive minority that is accused of a crime may want to consider running from the law and skipping the country because for them our courts are less than just and more likely to convict them of that crime and give them a sentence worse than the average.
    - tlrobinson 14y ago
      Furthermore, if you believe he is actually insane/paranoid then of course he's going to believe they're out to get him and will try to avoid capture, whether or not he's guilty.
    - chimeracoder 14y ago
      > therefore anyone who is accused of a crime He was not accused of a crime! The police wanted to question him as a "person of interest" - big difference! Almost every news story I saw report on this when it broke last week reported it incorrectly in the headlines as him being "wanted" - it's a shame that journalism can get away with being so sloppy sometimes.
      - dalore 14y ago
        What about his friends on the "trumped up charges"?
      - at-fates-hands 14y ago
        > He was not accused of a crime! The police wanted to question him as a "person of interest" - big difference! Agreed. However, running from the law and how he's been acting is not in accordance with someone who's innocent - no?
        darkarmani 14y ago
        > However, running from the law and how he's been acting is not in accordance with someone who's innocent - no? What law? You mean the corrupt "legal" system there? Wouldn't most innocent people who are afraid of corrupt police act in the same way? (i guess that implies his innocence then!)
      - philwelch 14y ago
        > He was not accused of a crime! The police wanted to question him as a "person of interest" - big difference! It's a procedural difference, but "person of interest" is really just a bureaucratic euphemism for "suspect we don't officially designate as a suspect yet".
kylelibra 14y ago
This is probably the most comprehensive article about the background to this situation and reasoning as to why McAfee seems to be losing his mind: http://gizmodo.com/5960138/the-crazy-secret-journal-of-john-mcafee-volume-1 http://gizmodo.com/5960138/the-crazy-secret-journal-of-john-...
- yllus 14y ago
  I came away from reading that link and the whoismcafee.com blog thinking that the man is an eccentric but certainly not insane. It is well within my imagination to believe that he may be being persecuted by senior government officials in Belize for not making "donations" or providing other favours when asked of them. I think that North Americans sometimes don't realize that one of the reasons that the rest of the world is susceptible to urban legends and conspiracy theories is because in those countries, similar stories have been known to hold true. Nothing like a moon landing of course, but presidents and prime ministers have in fact been involved in murders, drug charges and fraud. In that context you're more amenable to think, "Yeah, this could have happened."
  - tptacek 14y ago
    So you think the Belizean police are digging up the heads --- just the heads --- of McAfee's dogs while he watches them disguised with shoe polish on his face?
    - powertower 14y ago
      No, they dug up the entire bodies, but only kept the heads, which is normal concidering it's a standard way to test for poisons in dead animals (they test the brain matter, not the muscle tissue).
      - tptacek 14y ago
        Here it's worth noting that McAfee contests this explanation. There is some other, more sinister reason they've taken the heads of his dogs. I think we all know what it is.
evoxed 14y ago
I never would've guessed that the software industry would produce such engrossing real-time dramas. Take Kim Dotcom, John McAfee, throw in Elon Musk for good measure (maybe Branson too) and you're well into comic book territory.
- evan_ 14y ago
  Don't forget Hans Reiser! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser
  - mandlar 14y ago
    That's one killer file system.
- tsieling 14y ago
  When you consider that tech titans are making tools that reshape the way entire societies interact and even how people use information and think about things, we've been in comic book territory for years.
- citricsquid 14y ago
  what's the drama around Musk and Branson?
  - gvb 14y ago
    Musk's divorce from his first wife, Justine, was a major drama (his divorce from his second wife was quieter). He also teetered on the brink of insolvency (cash flow) at least in part due to the contentious first divorce. Ref: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-07-08/tech/30035685_1_divorce-personal-life-assets http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-07-08/tech/30035685... http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/sorkin-elon-musk-of-paypal-and-tesla-fame-is-broke/ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/sorkin-elon-musk-of-p...
- narrator 14y ago
  Don't forget Julian Assange, Gary Mckinnon, and Satoshi Nakamoto.
larrys 14y ago
We have, in fact, no way to know if this was actually done by John McAfee. The domain was registered on 11/16/2012 and contains anonomized whois info (not that if it gave an address that would be any different). It's more like "claiming to be the official blog of John McAfee".
- malandrew 14y ago
  What makes it more suspect is the blog post explaining many of the techniques he's using to disguise himself. Why would you share that information when you know people are looking for you?
  - citricsquid 14y ago
    I just read the entire thing and this is what stuck out most to me. The last line of the post you're talking about: P.S. No-one at the house, including the staff, know that I am nearby. If the police are reading this, do not randomly round up everyone for harboring a fugitive. Please. This does not read like a serious comment, maybe he turns to humour in times of desperation but this just seems... either it's fabricated or he's taunting the authorities. Also he mentions in one post he's short on time and internet access but then in the second latest post it states: If I am captured, this blog will continue. I have pre- written enough material to keep this blog alive for at least a year. What's the material about? The attempted capture? The murder? His dealings with the government? Surely he hasn't been expecting this for a long and is only now publishing? If that's the case I might be as crazy as to suggest maybe the murder is his attempt at bringing attention to the corruption. If the corruption is proven true and then the murder may be swept aside as part of it, even if he did it to get the attention he thinks the issue needs.
    - jlgreco 14y ago
      What about that last part doesn't seem serious to you? To me it reads like he is trying to prevent other people from getting wrapped up in the mess. Seems reasonable and decent enough to me.
tptacek 14y ago
... I darkened and browned my front teeth. I stuffed a shaved down tampon deep into my right nostril and died the tip dark brown – giving my nose an awkward, lopsided, disgusting appearance. I put on a pair of ragged brown pants with holes patched and darned. I wore an old, ragged long sleeve shirt. I donned an old Guatemalan style sarape and toted a bag containing a variety of Guatemalan woven goods. I adjusted my posture so that I appeared a good six inches shorter than my actual height and slowly walked up and down the beach with a pronounced limp, pushing an old single speed bicycle and peddling my wares to tourists and reporters using a broken English with a heavy Spanish accent. On my second day, while peddling small wooden carvings, I nearly sold a dolphin carving to an Associated Press reporter standing at the edge of my dock ... This HAS TO BE A JOKE. This is an elaborate prank.
- larrys 14y ago
  "This is an elaborate prank" Not only that but anyone worth their salt in pranking would certainly take the time to construct something that at least made it to the level of national media attention. To be able to, eh, how you say "punk" the media.
  - tptacek 14y ago
    P.S. No-one at the house, including the staff, know that I am nearby. If the police are reading this, do not randomly round up everyone for harboring a fugitive. Please. John McAfee is such a master of disguise that even though the most elite police unit in Belize has more or less set up camp at his house solely to find him, he's able to wander around close enough to the house to watch their every move simply by dressing up as a German tourist in a Speedo while hollering "Leck mich um ausch!" at passers-by. This has to be a hoax.
    - djcapelis 14y ago
      I mean, yes. But at the same time would an elite police unit expect someone on the run to do something quite that ridiculous either? I think another possible explanation is that it is his blog, but with the element of truth carefully dispensed and the element of hyperbole liberally dispensed. I'm not sure that's more likely than hoax, but it's a possibility I maybe wouldn't eliminate.
powertower 14y ago
Doesn't really sound like the meth-head that everyone is trying to make him out to be.
woodchuck64 14y ago
Hope I'm that crazy by 67.
DanielBMarkham 14y ago
McAfee is going to end up getting shot, and the rest of us are going to be arguing for 20 years over whether he was sane or whether he actually just became more and more unstable and ended up bringing this on himself. I complain about too much drama on HN, but this McAfee story is way over the top.
16s 14y ago
He wrote that his girlfriend, Sam, was 17 in April and later wrote she is 20 years old now. Did anyone else catch that?
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- Aco- 14y ago
  read it again: "I woke Amy, the 17 year old with whom I was living, and calmly told her to get dressed – that the GSU was invading the property. Amy is a tough young woman. She said nothing, got up, got dressed and sat calmly on the edge of the bed." Amy != Sam
  - 16s 14y ago
    Thank you for pointing that out. It seems he has multiple young women around him. I thought there was only one.
    - citricsquid 14y ago
      If you read a later posts he talks about doing something with 6 other people. It would seem sex plays a significant role in his life, I guess that and drugs fit together well.
dakrisht 14y ago
How can you NOT upvote this. This is incredible. Lol
stevewillows 14y ago
With money and such great disguises, you think he'd be able to get out of the country.
phaus 14y ago
Is it just me, or are all ex patriots living in Belize completely insane? Each one of them left a comment talking about how wonderful it is to live in Belize, with just the minor downside of a secret police force / gang of thugs running around murdering people, throwing people in prison, and demanding exorbitant bribes. Judging by the comments that they themselves left on his blog, it appears that saying Belize is a wonderful place to live is akin to saying that living in Nazi Germany was paradise on earth, except for having to live with the Nazis.
- sk5t 14y ago
  My impression from speaking to an American friend working in China is that a very significant portion of the ex-pat populations from the USA and Canada are folks who couldn't hack it in their native lands... personality disorders and an unreasonable inability to deal with authority seem to prevail, but as foreigners they get just enough leeway to skate by.
- toyg 14y ago
  For people who'd feel "constrained" by your average first-world laws, Belize must indeed feel like a paradise: where else could one maintain a completely legal harem (including minors !), or a militarized compound with 20+ segregated women subjected to god-know-what perversion? To people like this, the current PM (elected in 2008) and his gang are the cost of access to a "social paradise" they wouldn't get in a country under the Rule of Law.
drivingmenuts 14y ago
Why wouldn't he either bail over the border to Mexico, bail to the American embassy, or bail to some other embassy? Even if he gets arrested in an American embassy, that's got to be preferable to the inevitable "slipped and fell on a bullet" that the policia are liable to issue. He's living in a country where the sane, rational (relatively speaking) rules of urban America definitely do not apply, fighting a battle he absolutely cannot win.
Ramonaxvh 14y ago
If he were in the states I'd say he's just trying to build up a case for an insanity plea, but I'm pretty sure he knows how well that will go over in Belize. Hoax or batshit crazy, or a little of both.
kookla 14y ago
John you should dress like a homeless woman or a prostitute..that would be a great disguise
kookla 14y ago
John you should dress like a homeless woman or a prostitute..that would be a great disguise
DanoMano 14y ago
I am really interested in all of this, John McAfee gave me my first ultra-light ride at his "Sky Gypsy Ranch" near Rodeo, NM. a few years back. (no I dont know him) he had just opened the "Sky Gypsy Cafe", a good friend of mine lived in Portal,Az. I did get to tell him, how I hated that his anti-virus software, acted like a virus itself on my computer. My limited profile abilities, (seemed like a normal Joe, except very wealthy and Yoga master BTW) that he was some kind of genius. However, reading the papers about all of this, I am very glad I am ME. Thank you God!

148 points by retube 14y ago

jpxxx 14y ago

It's Timecube with nicer layout and a tragic, cautionary tale: mind your sanity. Anyone can lose it.

rwallace 14y ago
Which part comes across to you like the ravings of a madman? If it is such - and to be sure, I can't claim to know it isn't - then in my opinion he's doing a good job of appearing sane. Whether or not it is a cautionary tale about minding your sanity, I think it's also a cautionary tale about not believing everything you read in the press. Until fifteen minutes ago I held the belief that McAfee had committed the crime of which he is accused; thinking about now I realize I held that belief based on essentially no actual evidence. I'm not saying I now believe his side of the story instead. I have no real evidence for that either (and I don't have time to follow up all the links he presented right now). My current conclusion is that at this time I don't know enough of the facts to judge either way.
- malandrew 14y ago
  I think part of it has to do with the conclusion many of us jump to when someone refuses to submit themselves to a trial in a court of law. In the US we like to believe our system is just, or at least mostly just, and therefore anyone who is accused of a crime and skips out must be admitting guilt through their actions. People then tend to project this bias to people who skip court in societies with less just courts like Belize. To be honest, even in this country any unattractive minority that is accused of a crime may want to consider running from the law and skipping the country because for them our courts are less than just and more likely to convict them of that crime and give them a sentence worse than the average.
  - tlrobinson 14y ago
    Furthermore, if you believe he is actually insane/paranoid then of course he's going to believe they're out to get him and will try to avoid capture, whether or not he's guilty.
  - chimeracoder 14y ago
    > therefore anyone who is accused of a crime He was not accused of a crime! The police wanted to question him as a "person of interest" - big difference! Almost every news story I saw report on this when it broke last week reported it incorrectly in the headlines as him being "wanted" - it's a shame that journalism can get away with being so sloppy sometimes.
    - dalore 14y ago
      What about his friends on the "trumped up charges"?
    - at-fates-hands 14y ago
      > He was not accused of a crime! The police wanted to question him as a "person of interest" - big difference! Agreed. However, running from the law and how he's been acting is not in accordance with someone who's innocent - no?
      - darkarmani 14y ago
        > However, running from the law and how he's been acting is not in accordance with someone who's innocent - no? What law? You mean the corrupt "legal" system there? Wouldn't most innocent people who are afraid of corrupt police act in the same way? (i guess that implies his innocence then!)
    - philwelch 14y ago
      > He was not accused of a crime! The police wanted to question him as a "person of interest" - big difference! It's a procedural difference, but "person of interest" is really just a bureaucratic euphemism for "suspect we don't officially designate as a suspect yet".

kylelibra 14y ago

This is probably the most comprehensive article about the background to this situation and reasoning as to why McAfee seems to be losing his mind: http://gizmodo.com/5960138/the-crazy-secret-journal-of-john-mcafee-volume-1 http://gizmodo.com/5960138/the-crazy-secret-journal-of-john-...

yllus 14y ago
I came away from reading that link and the whoismcafee.com blog thinking that the man is an eccentric but certainly not insane. It is well within my imagination to believe that he may be being persecuted by senior government officials in Belize for not making "donations" or providing other favours when asked of them. I think that North Americans sometimes don't realize that one of the reasons that the rest of the world is susceptible to urban legends and conspiracy theories is because in those countries, similar stories have been known to hold true. Nothing like a moon landing of course, but presidents and prime ministers have in fact been involved in murders, drug charges and fraud. In that context you're more amenable to think, "Yeah, this could have happened."
- tptacek 14y ago
  So you think the Belizean police are digging up the heads --- just the heads --- of McAfee's dogs while he watches them disguised with shoe polish on his face?
  - powertower 14y ago
    No, they dug up the entire bodies, but only kept the heads, which is normal concidering it's a standard way to test for poisons in dead animals (they test the brain matter, not the muscle tissue).
    - tptacek 14y ago
      Here it's worth noting that McAfee contests this explanation. There is some other, more sinister reason they've taken the heads of his dogs. I think we all know what it is.

evoxed 14y ago

I never would've guessed that the software industry would produce such engrossing real-time dramas. Take Kim Dotcom, John McAfee, throw in Elon Musk for good measure (maybe Branson too) and you're well into comic book territory.

evan_ 14y ago
Don't forget Hans Reiser! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_Reiser
- mandlar 14y ago
  That's one killer file system.
tsieling 14y ago
When you consider that tech titans are making tools that reshape the way entire societies interact and even how people use information and think about things, we've been in comic book territory for years.
citricsquid 14y ago
what's the drama around Musk and Branson?
- gvb 14y ago
  Musk's divorce from his first wife, Justine, was a major drama (his divorce from his second wife was quieter). He also teetered on the brink of insolvency (cash flow) at least in part due to the contentious first divorce. Ref: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-07-08/tech/30035685_1_divorce-personal-life-assets http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-07-08/tech/30035685... http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/sorkin-elon-musk-of-paypal-and-tesla-fame-is-broke/ http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2010/06/22/sorkin-elon-musk-of-p...
narrator 14y ago
Don't forget Julian Assange, Gary Mckinnon, and Satoshi Nakamoto.

larrys 14y ago

We have, in fact, no way to know if this was actually done by John McAfee. The domain was registered on 11/16/2012 and contains anonomized whois info (not that if it gave an address that would be any different). It's more like "claiming to be the official blog of John McAfee".

malandrew 14y ago
What makes it more suspect is the blog post explaining many of the techniques he's using to disguise himself. Why would you share that information when you know people are looking for you?
- citricsquid 14y ago
  I just read the entire thing and this is what stuck out most to me. The last line of the post you're talking about: P.S. No-one at the house, including the staff, know that I am nearby. If the police are reading this, do not randomly round up everyone for harboring a fugitive. Please. This does not read like a serious comment, maybe he turns to humour in times of desperation but this just seems... either it's fabricated or he's taunting the authorities. Also he mentions in one post he's short on time and internet access but then in the second latest post it states: If I am captured, this blog will continue. I have pre- written enough material to keep this blog alive for at least a year. What's the material about? The attempted capture? The murder? His dealings with the government? Surely he hasn't been expecting this for a long and is only now publishing? If that's the case I might be as crazy as to suggest maybe the murder is his attempt at bringing attention to the corruption. If the corruption is proven true and then the murder may be swept aside as part of it, even if he did it to get the attention he thinks the issue needs.
  - jlgreco 14y ago
    What about that last part doesn't seem serious to you? To me it reads like he is trying to prevent other people from getting wrapped up in the mess. Seems reasonable and decent enough to me.

tptacek 14y ago

... I darkened and browned my front teeth. I stuffed a shaved down tampon deep into my right nostril and died the tip dark brown – giving my nose an awkward, lopsided, disgusting appearance. I put on a pair of ragged brown pants with holes patched and darned. I wore an old, ragged long sleeve shirt. I donned an old Guatemalan style sarape and toted a bag containing a variety of Guatemalan woven goods. I adjusted my posture so that I appeared a good six inches shorter than my actual height and slowly walked up and down the beach with a pronounced limp, pushing an old single speed bicycle and peddling my wares to tourists and reporters using a broken English with a heavy Spanish accent. On my second day, while peddling small wooden carvings, I nearly sold a dolphin carving to an Associated Press reporter standing at the edge of my dock ... This HAS TO BE A JOKE. This is an elaborate prank.

larrys 14y ago
"This is an elaborate prank" Not only that but anyone worth their salt in pranking would certainly take the time to construct something that at least made it to the level of national media attention. To be able to, eh, how you say "punk" the media.
- tptacek 14y ago
  P.S. No-one at the house, including the staff, know that I am nearby. If the police are reading this, do not randomly round up everyone for harboring a fugitive. Please. John McAfee is such a master of disguise that even though the most elite police unit in Belize has more or less set up camp at his house solely to find him, he's able to wander around close enough to the house to watch their every move simply by dressing up as a German tourist in a Speedo while hollering "Leck mich um ausch!" at passers-by. This has to be a hoax.
  - djcapelis 14y ago
    I mean, yes. But at the same time would an elite police unit expect someone on the run to do something quite that ridiculous either? I think another possible explanation is that it is his blog, but with the element of truth carefully dispensed and the element of hyperbole liberally dispensed. I'm not sure that's more likely than hoax, but it's a possibility I maybe wouldn't eliminate.

powertower 14y ago

Doesn't really sound like the meth-head that everyone is trying to make him out to be.

woodchuck64 14y ago

Hope I'm that crazy by 67.

DanielBMarkham 14y ago

McAfee is going to end up getting shot, and the rest of us are going to be arguing for 20 years over whether he was sane or whether he actually just became more and more unstable and ended up bringing this on himself. I complain about too much drama on HN, but this McAfee story is way over the top.

16s 14y ago

He wrote that his girlfriend, Sam, was 17 in April and later wrote she is 20 years old now. Did anyone else catch that?

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
Aco- 14y ago
read it again: "I woke Amy, the 17 year old with whom I was living, and calmly told her to get dressed – that the GSU was invading the property. Amy is a tough young woman. She said nothing, got up, got dressed and sat calmly on the edge of the bed." Amy != Sam
- 16s 14y ago
  Thank you for pointing that out. It seems he has multiple young women around him. I thought there was only one.
  - citricsquid 14y ago
    If you read a later posts he talks about doing something with 6 other people. It would seem sex plays a significant role in his life, I guess that and drugs fit together well.

dakrisht 14y ago

How can you NOT upvote this. This is incredible. Lol

stevewillows 14y ago

With money and such great disguises, you think he'd be able to get out of the country.

phaus 14y ago

Is it just me, or are all ex patriots living in Belize completely insane? Each one of them left a comment talking about how wonderful it is to live in Belize, with just the minor downside of a secret police force / gang of thugs running around murdering people, throwing people in prison, and demanding exorbitant bribes. Judging by the comments that they themselves left on his blog, it appears that saying Belize is a wonderful place to live is akin to saying that living in Nazi Germany was paradise on earth, except for having to live with the Nazis.

sk5t 14y ago
My impression from speaking to an American friend working in China is that a very significant portion of the ex-pat populations from the USA and Canada are folks who couldn't hack it in their native lands... personality disorders and an unreasonable inability to deal with authority seem to prevail, but as foreigners they get just enough leeway to skate by.
toyg 14y ago
For people who'd feel "constrained" by your average first-world laws, Belize must indeed feel like a paradise: where else could one maintain a completely legal harem (including minors !), or a militarized compound with 20+ segregated women subjected to god-know-what perversion? To people like this, the current PM (elected in 2008) and his gang are the cost of access to a "social paradise" they wouldn't get in a country under the Rule of Law.

drivingmenuts 14y ago

Why wouldn't he either bail over the border to Mexico, bail to the American embassy, or bail to some other embassy? Even if he gets arrested in an American embassy, that's got to be preferable to the inevitable "slipped and fell on a bullet" that the policia are liable to issue. He's living in a country where the sane, rational (relatively speaking) rules of urban America definitely do not apply, fighting a battle he absolutely cannot win.

Ramonaxvh 14y ago

If he were in the states I'd say he's just trying to build up a case for an insanity plea, but I'm pretty sure he knows how well that will go over in Belize. Hoax or batshit crazy, or a little of both.

kookla 14y ago

John you should dress like a homeless woman or a prostitute..that would be a great disguise

kookla 14y ago

John you should dress like a homeless woman or a prostitute..that would be a great disguise

DanoMano 14y ago

I am really interested in all of this, John McAfee gave me my first ultra-light ride at his "Sky Gypsy Ranch" near Rodeo, NM. a few years back. (no I dont know him) he had just opened the "Sky Gypsy Cafe", a good friend of mine lived in Portal,Az. I did get to tell him, how I hated that his anti-virus software, acted like a virus itself on my computer. My limited profile abilities, (seemed like a normal Joe, except very wealthy and Yoga master BTW) that he was some kind of genius. However, reading the papers about all of this, I am very glad I am ME. Thank you God!